Re: [CR]Fastest mile on a track

(Example: Framebuilders:Alex Singer)

Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 12:10:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: "David Ross" <dlr94306@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [CR]Fastest mile on a track
To: biankita@comcast.net
cc: CR discussion list <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>

Garth Libre asked:

Does Major Taylor's mile on a track from a standing start of 141.4 still hold up as a record? I haven't read the new bio, but are you certain that time was for a standing start? The hot competition in those days (I think) was for a "flying mile." On Oct 27, 1894 Harry Tyler set a new world record for the flying start mile at the Waltham, Mass. track in 1:48 3/5 (NY Times, Wednesday, October 28, 1894). I don't have any trouble believing that MT lowered that record to 1:41 2/5.

MT had supposedly recorded unoffical world records for both paced and un-paced flying miles in Indianapolis in 1896 - a feat that got him banned from the track.

According to one on-line bio (http://www.grouptrails.com/Major_Taylor_Main.htm), "MT bettered his own one-mile world record of 1:41.4 by a whopping 22 seconds" in October of 1899, making the new record 1:19 or so. Given that last week's World's 1K TT winning time was about 1:01, it's hard for me to imagine an unpaced, standing start mile being run at 1:19. Using a (too simple) arithmetic comparison, that time would imply a 49-second 1K time. Hmmmm. Even a 1:41 mile works out to around 1:08 for the kilo.

Willy Falk Hansen (DEN) won the 1928 Olympics kilo event in 1:14.4. In the 1900 Olympics the men's ITT track event was run at a distance of 603m. It was won by William Johnson of GB in 51.2 seconds, which (if he could have kept up the pace) works out to a 2:16 standing start mile.

MT was perhaps the strongest rider of his day, but almost a minute faster over one mile than the contemporary Olympic (amateur, of course) champion? I have enormous respect for MT, but have found many of the claims about his feats (including some of those in his autobiography) questionable or perhaps poorly described.

Dave Ross
Portola Valley, California USA