"I've ridden over four times around the world in six-day bike races," declared Reggie McNamara, the "grand old man" of the sport who entered his ninety-fifth grind last night at the Garden, in an interview yesterday afternoon, "and it's gotten so that I feel better in a race than out.

"The first two days of a race, I find, are the hardest; after that I get accustomed to it. But we have to eat a tremendons amount to keep us going. My average diet per day is about four steaks, eight or ten lamb chops, and lots of milk, custard, salad, and vegetables. We only get from two and a half to three hours of sleep.

"During the jams and sprints, where we keep up a speed of from 45 to 50 miles an hour, shifts are only two or two and a half laps long. In a hard night's riding we alteruate every two to ten minutes. Of course when the pressure slows up, as it usually does in the morning or early afternoon, we take longer shifts, 30 minutes apiece, maybe.

"Cycling is the hardest game in the world. Compared to it hockey is child's play. Once, when I was riding in New York, I broke three ribs on the fourth day, continued, and won. Another time I won with a broken collar bone that I smashed on the first night. But I took my prettiest spill right here in Boston. I was trying out the Arena track before a grind when I fractured my skull, broke my nose, cracked my collar bone, cut my face badly, and busted my jaw in three places. I didn't enter that race.

"I've had plenty of pleasant experiences on the boards, though. During my first race in Berlin, for example, in 1914. I won a 'preme' and was presented with two gold cigarette cases by the Crown Prince who congratulated me in perfect English, and refused to let me bow to him. "That's all right. Mac' he said, 'save your energy for the race.'"

In an average six-day race riders travel between 24,000 and 27,000 miles.