Grind

In the final hours of the 55th International Six-Day Bicycle Race in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden last week it was necessary to watch only two of the ten teams whirling around the pine-board saucer. They were the red-jerseyed team of Peden & Letourner, and the red-white-&blue clad Hill & Debaets.

Tied for first place, each team had gained the same number of laps over the rest of the pack. William John ("Torchy'') Peden, 27, a rangy Canadian with a flaming mop above his scarlet jersey, was the tallest, heaviest (216 lb.) rider in the race. Since starting in 1928 he had entered 37 six-day races, won 17. Alfred Letourner, teamed with Peden this autumn for the first time, is an excitable little Frenchman who wolfs six thick mutton chops at a swoop. His oldtime partner was now his opponent: Belgian Gerard Debaets, a clown who enlivens dull hours of the grind by sailing around the track with a parasol, a bustle or false whiskers.

Letourner and Debaets had squabbled over a girl. The race press-agents diligently nurtured their feud, even persuaded them to pose for newspictures, shaking fists at each other. Once during last week's race Letourner took a punch at Debaets for cutting in front of him. Debaets pulled the Frenchman off his wheel and both men went sprawling. Letourner was fined $25. Debaets' partner, Norman Hill, a handsome youngster from San Jose, Calif., is all-around bicycle champion of the U. S.

Grinding around, around, around with the eight other teams, the four leaders eyed each other like fighting cocks. Suddenly at the end of one sprint "Torchy" Feden shot ahead of the pack and was 50 yd. in the lead before the chase began. Crafty little Letourner was ready for him as Peden came scooting around to shove him to a flying start. Crouched low over the handlebars, their fundaments raised high, Debaets & Hill pedaled madly. Eleven times they zipped around the bowl, the red-shirted team pulling farther and farther ahead until finally Peden caught up with Hill from behind, and the lap was gained. A dozen times thereafter Hill or Debaets gamely started out to recoup their loss, but Peden & Letourner stuck to them like lice. The closing gun, at midnight, found Peden & Letourner winners by that single lap and 1.354 points for sprints, to the runner-up's 714 points. Peden & Letourner collected $5,000 of the $30,000 purse. Peden sped on to Cleveland to begin another grind three days later. For the whole meet, 1,064 laps were stolen, a new U. S. record. The victory of Peden & Letourner was less surprising than the complete collapse of the aging "iron man," Reginald James McNamara. Nobody expected McNamara, at 46, to win, but likewise no one expected him to do so miserably. Rusty, battered, wearing 47 scars, McNamara and his blond partner, Charles Winter, had tied for the lead briefly in the early stages. At the end they barely kept their wheels turning, finished last, 18 laps behind the winners.

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