Arthur Augustus Zimmerman

Arthur Augustus Zimmerman (June 11, 1869 – October 22, 1936) was one of the world's greatest cycling sprint riders and winner of the first world championship in 1893. His prizes as an amateur were a consideration in the establishment of the International Cycling Association (ICA).

Zimmerman won more than 1,000 races thanks to exceptional acceleration and the ability to pedal unusually fast. He was American national champion in 1890, 1891 and 1892. In 1892 he won the British one-mile and five-mile championships. In 1893 he won the ICA world sprint and 10 km championships in Chicago, Illinois. In that same year, he won 101 of the 110 races he disputed.

He turned professional in 1894 and won the sprint championship of France. His performances include a 100m flying start in 5.4 seconds, an average of 66.6 km/h. Claims that he could ride the last 200m of a sprint match in 12 seconds are less established. Bill Mills, who investigated the claims for the British weekly, The Bicycle, wrote:

Zimmerman, known as "Zimmy" or "Zim", was a lean, athletic-looking man who stood 5 ft 11 in. He was born in Camden, New Jersey, the son of a real estate broker known as T.A., and grew up in Freehold. There he excelled at county level in high jump, long jump and triple jump, competing for the military school he attended.

"I liked it so well that I jumped in the game with all the spirit that was in me," he said.

He began cycle-racing at 17 on a penny-farthing, a traditional bicycle on which he sat above a 55-inch wheel, a smaller wheel following. He abandoned that in 1891 for a Star bicycle, which had the larger wheel at the back and was propelled by pedals to be pushed up and down. A further novelty was that both pedals could be brought to the top of the pedaling stroke at the same time, which the makers claimed gave better acceleration. He won the League of American Wheelmen national half-mile championship, setting a world record of 29.5 seconds for the last 440 yards.

His speed and pedaling speed earned him the nickname The Jersey Skeeter. On a bike weighing 12 kg, on soft tires 38mm across, without toe-straps and on a gear of 17 x 7 (in today's half-inch pitch, the gear would be 34 x 14) he rode the last 200m of a race in Paris in 12 seconds. The cycling mathematician, Dave Lefèvre, says that according to whether that was exactly 12 seconds or closer to 13, and depending on the precise size of the wheel (which could have been larger then), Zimmerman may have pedaled at 170 to 185 revolutions a minute. The cycling journalist Pierre Chany says that at the least he would have ridden at 160rpm.

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