Fast Diggers: Lizzie Baymer

On a hot Sunday afternoon in 1880, at the Agricultural Park in Sacramento, a novelty bicycle race was advertised in the Sacramento Daily Union, as "Great Bicycle Race, Woman vs. Horse." With neither entrant being named, we might be led to believe that the promoters of the race were not going to play favorites. Then again the strategy may simply have been to keep it all a surprise, hoping that curiosity would trump the fifty cent admission charge.

The woman, as it would turn out, was eighteen year old Lizzie Baymer (maybe nineteen by the race date) and the horse, whether by accident or intentional deception, was non-existent. Instead of a race, spectators witnessed Lizzie, astride a 52-inch wheel, circle the track in a solo exhibition. As you may have guessed, the track at Sacramento's Agricultural Park was no bicycle racing track, it was a horse racing track and soft because of it. Even so, "she took no falls and made no headers." Over the course of the exhibition she rode for five miles at a time, resting fifteen minutes between each; given the "blazing sun" and temperatures in the nineties, the reporter commiserated, admitting that Lizzie's lack of speed was to be expected. Even so, he also admitted that she showed no "signs of much fatigue," and clearly was possessed of "much power of endurance." While the reporter was an apparent admirer of young Miss Baymer, calling her "graceful enough and decidedly handsome and muscular," he was not so sure that her bicycle riding was "of a character to warrant anyone in paying a half dollar to see her wheel about a race track." 

He (the reporter) then went on to voice a familiar lament, one whose echo we still hear one-hundred and forty years later: "Why is not bicycling popular here, with our fine roadways, good walks and level surfaces."

The Sacramento exhibition was not the first time Lizzie Baymer circled a race track in front of paying spectators.

On 29 November 1879 LIzzie Baymer was entered in a single day two-hour race at San Francisco's Mechanics Pavilion (the mens' race was scheduled for 3-days). In the preview Lizzie is described as eighteen years old, five foot, six inches tall, weighing 143 pounds, and would be riding a 50-inch English-made wheel. Her competitors in the race were to be Addie Lee, twenty-one years old, standing at five foot, four inches tall, weighing 125 pounds, and riding a 50-inch Coventry wheel, and a Mrs. Martin, who was listed as twenty-three years old, five feet tall, and 104 pounds, riding a 42-inch English wheel.

Keep in mind that this was likely the earliest commercial bicycle race to take place in the golden state, and certainly the first held on an indoor track built specifically for a bicycle race: The Pavilion was arranged somewhat similarly to what it was during the recent walking matches [level, without banking]. Around the main floor was a wooden railing, marking off the track, which measured six laps to the mile - 15 feet in width on the straights and 25 feet at the curves. In the center of the floor was the band-stand..."

The race got off to a late start, with the "handsomely costumed" ladies being called to the stand by the referee at 8:30. Lizzie was dressed in flesh-colored tights with black velvet embroidered trunks and tunic, a bold belt and a cavalier cap with ostrich feather.  Addie Lee wore a rich green satin court suit, trimmed in gold, with a "jaunty white cap." Mrs. Martin was dressed in a "neat jockey suit of black and red."

The previous day during practice Lizzie had taken a curve too sharply, collided with a railing and was thrown about eight feet. Any effects she may have suffered in the fall were shaken off and the race, once underway, evolved into a contest between her and Addie Lee. None of the three women had even mounted a bike before three weeks previous, in fact after riding for three miles Mrs Martin was compelled to dismount for a "few minutes' needed rest." Other than stopping occasionally "to have their bicycles oiled," Baymer and Lee rode continuously for the two hours, Baymer riding "like an expert," and Lee "stuck close to her heels, or rather to her wheels."

The next morning's newspaper story of the race notes that Baymer rode the first five miles in 32 minutes, 34 1/2 seconds, with Lee covering the distance in 34 minutes, 53 1/2 seconds, and Martin tallying 48 minutes,  32 1/2 seconds. Baymers' ten mile time was 1-hour,  4-minutes, 54-seconds, with Lee now twelve minutes back, and Martin twenty-seven minutes behind. At the end of two hours (1:57.9 timed) Lizzie rode for eighteen miles and three laps. At the end of the evening, the race management noting the overwhelming interest and many requests, announced that the women's races would be added to the next two nights as well.

The second nights' race was an hour in length with much of the resulting story revolving around the appearance of the three women, to wit: "Mrs. Martin is short-limbed, and rides a pretty little machine that looks much like a toy and calls forth admiring remarks of its beauty all around the track. She rides as prettily as the others, but has not enough more power than her opponents to overcome the disadvantages of her shapely but not sufficiently prolonged propellers. Miss Lee sits in her seat as erect as a Judge on the bench and looks straight ahead of her, seldom turning aside while on the track. She is gracefully formed, has a pretty face, a blond wig, and a host of admirers. Miss. Baymer rides the largest machine used by the women, is larger and of better proportions and appearance on the track... the ladies were frequently applauded, Miss Martin for her pluck, Miss Lee for her good riding and better looks, and Miss Baymer for good looks, admirable riding and, finally, for winning the race." At the end of the nights' one-hour race, Lizzie rode for 9-miles and 4-laps, Addie rode for 7-miles and 3-laps, and Mrs. Martin for 7-miles.

The third night of racing followed on course the previous two, with LIzzie taking the win though, as noted, was "becoming more proficient nightly," and was also able to increase the distance covered. Lizzie's race was described as such: "Last night she spun around the track, resembling a transit of Venus - obscuring sons of the earth and jealously watched by daughters." After one hour Lizzie rode for eleven miles, one and a half laps. Though her time is not recorded Lee finished closer behind Lizzie, and "is inclined to think she will ride away with the colors to-night." For her part, Lizzie "chuckled to think of the race she will lead if Lee shows her promised improvement."

Though not originally announced, the women rode another hour race on 2 December though, this time only Lizzie and Addie competed, Mrs. Martins wheel, having "got out of order," prevented her from participating. Once again, appearances mattered, with the reporter noting that Lee was wearing the "same suit of scarlet and green that graced her attractive form during the series of races," while Lizzie had changed to a "rakish costume of blue silk, loose waist and trousers, and a jaunty three-cornered hat." Somehow, during the race Lizzie collided with Eggers, who was leading the mens' race; the spill did not prevent Lizzie from winning again, riding eleven miles then, refusing to exit the track while professing her love for the sport, rode another mile in 4:52.

The race management clearly knew a good thing when they saw it and extended the racing for yet another evening, this one on December 3rd. This time, the women - Baymer and Lee -  would race for five miles at the end of which Baymer had made a clean sweep of the competition, winning the finale in a time of 25:40.

Though Lizzie and her two companion wheelers were novices when it came to racing bicycles this was not her first fling with competition. Just a month (early October) before the Mechanics Pavilion bicycle races, she participated in a fifty-mile distance walking race at the same venue.  Suffering terribly and hopelessly behind the leaders, Lizzie's friends had her withdrawn from the race near the end of the fourth day of the Six Day event. Lizzie was, apparently, a novice in this competition as well and, as one reporter put it "sadly needs the advice of a trainer." Perhaps this experience encouraged her to take up bicycle racing as an alternative. Whatever the case, Lizzie (and yes her given name was Elizabeth) would go on to tour in races and exhibitions throughout northern California, the Sierra Nevada towns, and into Nevada. The Nevada Historical. Society has within its collection a scrapbook including photographs and clippings of Lizzie, including the one shown below. Kind of makes me want to go to Reno right now to check it out. Lizzie's years as a competitive bicyclist were rather short lived and, according to the Journal of Sport History, she had "faded from the sport" by 1883. She married, moved to Montana, Michigan and, eventually, wintered Florida where she passed away in 1927.

The races at Mechanics Pavilion in 1879 are notable historic firsts - the earliest recorded "official" race in the state, the first indoor track race in the state (and a full twenty years before Los Angeles would have its first indoor races). Right along with those firsts were the first women racers, competing each night of the multi-day competition.