Description
Tom Linton
Tom Linton, born June 13, 1876, in Aberaman, Wales, and who died November 13, 1914, at the English Hospital in Levallois Perret, was a British professional cyclist. Alongside his brothers Arthur, Sam, and Jimmy Michael, he came from the small mining town of Aberaman, a remarkable cluster of riders from one place. Over his career, Linton set the hour record ten times.
Inspired by the exploits of his older brother Arthur, Linton took up cycling and, after modest early results, won the Welsh championship in 1894. He then moved to Paris, where he focused on motor-paced and paced track racing, first with human pacers and later with mechanical pacing. His breakthrough came in 1896. On May 19, he set an hour record of 48.455 km at the Vélodrome de la Seine in Paris. On July 9, he improved it with 49.893 km at Catford in England, and on October 21, he raised it again to 50.425 km at Crystal Palace in London.
In 1897, he raced a series of international matches against Jack William Stocks, losing narrowly in May over 50 km in Brussels, then taking revenge in June at Crystal Palace and again on July 18 at the Vélodrome de la Seine in Levallois. He continued with high-profile match racing, defeating Michaël in New York on July 17, 1898, and beating Arthur Adalbert Chase at Wood Green in March 1899. In 1901, he toured the United States and faced riders including Stinson and Mac Farland.
The peak of his record-setting came in 1902. At the Parc des Princes, he piled up wins and records. On May 4, in an 80 km event, he set an hour record of 68.410 km while paced by a motorcycle ridden by the Frenchman Marius Thé, described at the time as an exceptional pacer. The motorcycle itself was a novelty, since motorized tandems had previously been used for pacing. On May 11, he pushed the record further to 71.660 km, defeating a field that included Harry Elkes, Thaddäus Robl, and Édouard Taylor. He continued beating Robl in head-to-head competition on May 20 and placed first again on June 2 ahead of Arthur Adalbert Chase, César Simar, and Eugenio Bruni. On July 20, he set another record in Buffalo, covering 73.350 km in an hour. In August 1902, he suffered a serious crash at the Leipzig velodrome while riding with Thé, breaking his hip, and he remained hospitalized until November. His return to top competition proved difficult.
Linton later settled in Levallois as a hotel owner, living on Rue Chaptal and running the Hôtel des Sports, a short distance from the Buffalo velodrome. He stopped racing in 1905, saying the risks had become too great in the way racing was then practiced. He died of typhus, as his brother Arthur had before him. Accounts from the era also linked the Linton circle to the manager Choppy Warburton, whose doping mixtures were notorious, and noted contemporary beliefs about arsenic use among miners and some riders. Tom Linton was buried in the Levallois cemetery.
******************************
Edouard Taylor
Édouard Henry Taylor, born June 18, 1880, in Paris’s 10th arrondissement and who died September 24, 1903, in Le Perreux-sur-Marne, was a French track cyclist. He was born to English parents and grew up in Paris.
Taylor began racing at age 15 under the management of Cuthbert Waddy. His first notable win came in August 1896 in the Paris Cabourg race. That same year, he turned professional and began riding at the first Vélodrome d’Hiver, where he quickly became a respected motor-paced specialist. Fans nicknamed him “Le Gosse Rouge,” a nod to the color of his jersey.
In 1897 and 1898, he spent several months racing in the United States. His best season was 1899, when he won major stayer prizes, became French champion, and set a landmark paced time for the kilometer, the first time the distance was covered in one minute behind a pacer. He went on to race virtually every major name in his discipline, including Jimmy Michael, Harry Elkes, Albert Champion, Émile Bouhours, Constant Huret, Tom Linton, Thaddäus Robl, and Arthur Adalbert Chase. In that stretch, one of his few noted defeats came in a match against Harry Elkes on May 13, 1900, at the Parc des Princes.
Taylor also set paced hour records, posting 54.45 km in 1898, then improving in 1900 to 59.486 km, and later to 62.313 km, the latter set behind a motorcycle. In 1900, he took part in events held during the Paris Olympics, in professional races that were not recognized as official Olympic competitions, and he won the 100-mile race. In 1901, he again raced in the United States for six months.
After placing third in the professional stayer event at the 1902 UCI Track World Championships, Taylor left the race due to illness and later became manager of the Swiss rider Jean Gougoltz. In 1903, he died of tuberculosis at his grandmother’s home in Le Perreux. He was buried in Nogent-sur-Marne.
*******************************
Paul Dangla
Dangla was the son of Marie Pelegrin and Ferdinand Dangla. A few years after his birth, his father left the gendarmerie and returned to his home region, Le Passage d’Agen, where he worked as a rural constable. The family lived at 7 Impasse de la Garonne, and Paul grew up there.
Ambitious and eager to race, Dangla left his job as an accountant and moved to Paris in 1899. He quickly made a name for himself at the Parc des Princes, first as a track sprinter, then as a devoted demi-fond rider. From the start, he proved himself one of the best in the specialty. He also became famous, and notorious, for riding without a helmet, earning the nickname “the musketeer Dangla.”
In 1900, he took part in events held during the Paris Olympics, competing in professional races that were not recognized as official Olympic competitions.
His record-breaking ride on August 16, 1903, was not just an hour record; it was a cascade of intermediate marks. He passed 30 km in 22 minutes 14.2 seconds, 40 km in 29 minutes 23.8 seconds, 50 km in 36 minutes 40.8 seconds, 60 km in 43 minutes 56.8 seconds, 70 km in 51 minutes 17.2 seconds, and 80 km in 58 minutes 42.6 seconds, finishing the hour at 81.108 km. With that performance, he took the record from the German rider Thaddäus Robl. Not long afterward, the English rider Tommy Hall briefly reclaimed the paced hour record with 84.140 km. Dangla then regained and raised it on October 18, 1903, bringing the paced hour record to 84.577 km at the Parc des Princes.
His career ended tragically early. In April 1904, he was injured in a training crash and could not race for a month. On June 12, 1904, he crashed at close to 80 km/h during the Roue d’Or de Magdebourg. He died two weeks later from severe head and leg injuries at only 26 years old.
************************
Paul Guignard
Paul Guignard, whose full name was Jean Baptiste Pierre Charles Paul Guignard, was a French motor-paced track specialist, born May 10, 1876, in Ainay-le-Château in the Allier region, and who died February 15, 1965, in Paris. He rode professionally for the Clément Dunlop team and built his reputation in demi fond racing, the demanding discipline contested behind pacers, often motorcycles.
A dominant figure in his era, Guignard won the demi fond world championship once, became European champion four times, and was French champion four times. He is also noted for two major-paced hour records on the track. On April 8, 1905, at the Parc des Princes, he set a world hour record of 89.904 kilometers behind a pacer named Bertin. In 1909, he raised the bar again in Munich, Milbertshofen, becoming the first rider to exceed 100 kilometers in an hour, covering 101.623 kilometers on September 15, 1909, behind a pacer named Hoffmann.
Long after his prime, Guignard was still active enough to take part in veteran match racing. In 1935, at nearly 60 years old, he met the former German stayer Arthur Stellbrink in two veterans’ matches in Cologne, one in speed and one in demi fond.
All biographies are from fr.wikipedia.org, translated from the original French.
*******************************
This item is one of a kind; please look carefully at the photos to determine the condition.
Recent Comments