19 Facts About Jimmy Michael

Jimmy Michael was a Welsh world cycling champion and one of the top riders in the sport for several years.

Jimmy Michael's parents had a butcher's shop in the town and he started cycling when he was 12.

Jimmy Michael went on to win larger meetings in Cardiff, Newport and Merthyr.

Jimmy Michael won Welsh championships at five and 50 miles.

Jimmy Michael's performance brought him two contracts to ride in Paris.

Jimmy Michael turned professional in 1895 for the Gladiator bicycle company, where he joined Arthur Linton, another rider from his town.

Jimmy Michael was pitched against Charley Barden in the five-mile race.

Jimmy Michael is said to have accused Warbuton of poisoning him, and a suit for libel was instituted by the trainer, who later consented to an amicable settlement, although during the past season frequent rumors have come from London that Jimmy Michael was to be returned to England to appear in the case.

The French historian Pierre Chany says Warburton drugged Jimmy Michael to make him lose.

Jimmy Michael had drawn the attention of an American agent called Bliss who had offered him exhibition races in the USA.

Jimmy Michael missed the world championship in 1896 because that's where he was riding.

Jimmy Michael's earnings rose steadily, winning the "fabulous fortune" of 200,000 francs a year, according to Chany.

Jimmy Michael told a reporter he intended to make $30,000 from bicycle racing in July, August and September 1898.

Jimmy Michael lost almost all of it by 1899 in gambling and by becoming a horse-race owner and jockey, having been persuaded by the French champion, Fernand Charron, with whom he was friendly.

Walter Rutt, the world sprint champion in 1913, said Jimmy Michael began drinking because of an "everlasting headache" which followed his fall at Berlin.

Jimmy Michael died of delirium tremens in his cabin on the liner Savoie as it took him there.

Jimmy Michael was drawn by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the French Art Nouveau artist, for a poster to advertise the Simpson Chain Company.

Jimmy Michael travelled to London in 1896 to make first sketches of the Welshman before completing them in Paris.

Jimmy Michael was inducted into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.