THE HISTORY OF CYCLING

Cycling 1: Development of the Bicycle The history of cycling, a.k.a. bicycle racing, naturally begins with the history of the bicycle. The development of the modern bike, which seems to us like a fairly simple mechanism, took much longer from conception to full realization than the development of the automobile. It began in 1690, when the Comte de Sivrac of France came up with a twowheeled vehicle propelled by the rider, pushing it along with one foot while the other foot rested securely on the backbone connecting the two wheels. He called it a celerifere, or fast-goer. We would probably call it a scooter. Several types of scooters were developed during the 18th century, including one called the velocipede, which was shaped like a small wooden horse. But the first real advance in design wasn't made until 1816, when Baron Karl Drais von Sauerbronn of Mannheim added a padded seat and a steerable front wheel. A young Scottish blacksmith, Kirkpatrick Macmillan, in 1839 invented the first pedal-driven bicycle. He made several improvements on his original design during the next few years, but he was generally regarded as a crackpot despite the efficiency of his bicycle, and he eventually abandoned his invention without ever receiving any serious attention. Macmillan was on the right track, but he had little real impact on the future of the bicycle. The next step forward in the bicycle's evolution was actually a step back from Macmillan's design. It was pedal-driven, but the pedals were attached directly to the front wheel. The problem with that design is that one revolution of the pedals produces just one revolution of the wheel. To get more distance with each thrust of the pedals, the front wheel was made larger and larger, finally resulting in the penny-farthing bicycle, on which the front wheel had a diameter of 5 feet or more and the rear wheel was only about 1 foot in diameter. (The name refers to the fact that the relative sizes of the wheels were about the same as the relative sizes of a penny and a farthing .)

Two machinists at the Coventry Sewing Machine Company in England created the modern bicycle in two separate steps. In 1870, James Starling developed the Ariel, which had a gear that allowed the wheel to turn twice as fast as the crank. Four years later, H. J. Lawson invented the chain drive. Lawson's creation, known as the safety bike soon became very popular because it was more efficient and more stable than any previous bicycles. Its big drawback was its hard rubber tires, which won it the nickname boneshaker. The invention of the pneumatic tire by J. B. Dunlop in 1888 remedied that problem and made the safety bike much more comfortable to ride, further increasing its popularity. A Boston carriage manufacturer, Colonel Albert Pope, visited the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and saw the first bicycle exhibited in the United States. Shortly afterward, he went to England to visit bicycle manufacturers and began importing bikes for resale. In 1877, he took the next step by setting up his own bicycle factory in Hartford, Connecticut. Pope's Columbia model, which incorporated all the English improvements and some of Pope's own, was the best-selling bike in the world by 1893. It cost $313, about the same as a good horse, so the bicycle was very much a vehicle for well-to-do people. Bikes weren't made and marketed for children until after World War I, when the average price had gone down considerably and the postwar economic boom had driven wages and salaries up. Despite the cost, about 1 million bicycles were in use in the United States in 1896, and there were more than 250 companies manufacturing them, with Pope easily leading the way. In 1895, Pope began purchasing other companies; eventually he amalgamated more than 75 manufacturing firms into his American Bicycle Company. Of course, there have been many improvements in the bicycle since those early days, the coaster brake (invented in 1898) and the ten-speed shifting mechanism chief among them. But even the very sophisticated modern crosscountry mountain bike, with its full suspension and front and rear drum brakes, is built on the same design that had been well established by 1890.

Cycling 2: Cycling's Golden Era The first recorded bicycle race was a 1,200-meter event held on May 31, 1868, in St.-Cloud Park, near Paris. It was won by an Englishman, James Moore. Coincidentally, the first English race was staged in Hendon the following day. In 1869, Moore won the first point-to-point race, from Rouen to Paris, a distance of about 83 miles. During the 1870s, many bicycle clubs were established in the United States. They started as social clubs that organized mass rides but most of them soon began conducting races. The first recorded race was held on May 24, 1878, in Boston, and others followed very quickly.

In 1880, a group of clubs formed the League of American Wheelmen (LAW) at a meeting in Newport, Rhode Island. By 1898, the organization had 102,600 members. The main purpose of the LAW was to promote recreational cycling by lobbying for better roads and favorable laws, but the organization also served as the governing body for amateur racing. The International Cyclist Association was founded in 1892 by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. It was replaced in 1900 by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), which is still the international governing body for racing. Cycling's two main racing disciplines, road and track, developed early. In continental Europe, which generally boasted good road systems, road racing predominated. However, England's roads were not nearly as good, so track racing was much more common. In the U. S., the two disciplines were pretty much equal, but most professional races were conducted on tracks. To promote their various models, bicycle companies began hiring racers, known as scorchers. The LAW, committed to amateur racing, began trying to identify professionals and ban them from races. More important, the LAW had a rule against Sunday racing, which is when the professionals could attract the biggest crowds, so the National Cycling Association was organized in 1898 to supervise and sanction pro racing. Within a short time, virtually all professional racing was done on enclosed tracks, where admission could be charged, while most amateur racing was done on the road, though there were some amateur track races.

At first, bicycle races were staged at existing harness or horse tracks, but as the sport's popularity increased, special tracks, called velodromes, were built. The typical velodrome had a wooden track, 200 to 500 yards around, with sharply banked turns. The most common distance was 333.3 yards, so three laps constituted a 1,000-yard race. By 1895, there were about 100 velodromes staging regular races across the country and a Grand Circuit had been established for top cyclists. The circuit began in May in the Northeast and traveled across the country, finishing with November races in California. The six-day race phenomenon started in England in 1878, with just one race that didn't draw much interest. But when Madison Square Garden began staging its six-day races in 1891, the event became one of the most popular in American sports. Originally, individual riders competed, cycling as far as they could over a six-day period, taking breaks when and as they felt necessary. Single-cyclist races were banned in 1898, so Madison Square Garden began staging six-day races as two-person relays. In the meantime, six-day racing had spread well beyond New York, to velodromes in Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, and many other major cities. Before the 20th century began, cycling had produced several American heroes and the first internationally famous black athlete. The first hero was George Hendee, who set a world record for the half-mile in 1886 and won five straight national championships before retiring at 29. He later became a motorcycle manufacturer. Charles Mile-a-Minute Murphy had set seven world records by 1899, when he won his nickname by doing a mile in 57 4/5 seconds, pedaling behind a Long Island Railroad locomotive. The historic ride also proved Murphy's contention that speed could be increased by drafting behind another vehicle. August Zimmie Zimmerman began riding as an amateur for the New York Athletic Club and was then invited to race in England in 1892. He won all four English championships, at distances of one, five, twenty-five, and fifty miles, went on to win both world championships in 1893, and then became a professional. Zimmerman attracted crowds of as many as 30,000 spectators to velodromes in Europe and the United States. The international black star was Marshall Major Taylor of Indianapolis, which had one of the finest velodromes in the country, the Newby Oval, with seating for 20,000. The 15-year-old Taylor set a track record for the mile there in 1894, then was banned from the track. A local bicycle manufacturer, Louis Munger, moved his business to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1895 and took Taylor with him. Taylor won a number of local and regional amateur races and turned professional in December of 1896. Within a short time, he was making up to $850 a day racing in the Northeast. He went on to win the world professional 1-mile championship at Montreal in 1899. In 1901, Taylor went on a European racing tour that culminated in his victory over the reigning world champion, Edmund Jacquelin, and a $7,500 purse. He won a total of $35,000 in Europe and America in 1902, then went on a successful tour of Australia. Taylor never received the acclaim he deserved in the United States, because of his color, but he was celebrated on two other continents.

Cycling 3: Decline, Rise & Fall Cycling began to lose some of its allure in 1903. The Ford Motor Company was founded that year, signaling the start of the automotive age. The market for bicycles was pretty well saturated, and many of those who might otherwise have bought a bike were looking at cars instead. A number of bicycle manufacturers switched to automobiles as sales went down. Interest in racing also declined, several tracks went out of business, and prize money dropped at most of those that kept operating. Many American cyclists headed for Europe, where interest was higher and prize money was better. In 1908, John M. Chapman came to the rescue. With backing from the owner of the Newark Velodrome, he set up a franchised racing circuit in the Northeast and offered substantial prize money to persuade some top European and Australian racers to join it. That was something new, and fans flocked back.

Chapman teamed up with Tex Rickard in 1920 to revive six-day racing at Madison Square Garden, where it had died out, and the following year he took over the New York Velodrome, adding it to his circuit. He also set up a circuit of six-day races featuring riders from Europe and Australia in major cities throughout the Northeast and Midwest. Because of Chapman, bicycle racers were the highest-paid athletes in the country. When the great American cyclist, Frank Kramer, retired in 1922, he had earned $500,000 in 22 years of racing, at a time when most top major league players made only about $10,000 a year.

Amateur racing was virtually crowded out by the popularity of the professionals and the increase of automobile traffic. The LAW dropped racing from its program entirely in 1920 and was replaced by the Amateur Bicycle League of America (ABLA), which held its first national championship road race in 1921 and added a women's championship in 1937. However, ABLA races were held on little-used roads in out-of-the-way areas, often in the early morning to avoid auto traffic, so they were invisible to the public and the press. The Great Depression wiped out all the gains professional cycling had made under Chapman's leadership, and then some. Six-day racing lingered on at Madison Square Garden through 1939, when it was dropped because of severely declining attendance.

Cycling 4: Post-War Revival After World War II, the bicycle was used almost exclusively by youngsters. The few Americans who were seriously interested in racing had to go to Europe to find top-level competition.

In 1950, Ted Smith became the first American to compete for the world professional road championship. Jack Heid also competed in the world track championship that year. Nancy Neiman Baranet went to Europe to race in 1955. The following year, she became the first American of either sex to take part in a European stage race, finishing 14th in the Women's Criterium from Lyonnaise to Auvergne, France.

More adults began riding bikes for recreation in the late 1950s, mainly because cycling, along with jogging, was being promoted as healthful exercise. Some of them naturally became involved in racing. Increased interest in the Olympics also helped spur competitive cycling in the United States. The ABLA began adding more races to its national championship program during the late 1960s. Membership grew dramatically, from about 3,000 in 1968 to more than 8,000 five years later. The number of local and regional races, leading up to the national championships, grew right along with membership. The increase in competition was especially beneficial to women cyclists. Audrey McElmury became the first American woman to win a world championship in 1968, when she took the road racing title. Sheila Young won the world match sprint championship in 1973 and Sue Novara won it in 1975. The following year, Young finished first and Novara was second in the event. With the reorganization of the U. S. Olympic Committee in 1976, the U. S. Cycling Federation (USCF) was founded, with the ABLA as a subsidiary to oversee racing. More development money began to come in from corporations, increasing the USCF budget more than 600 percent, from $38,500 to $235,000. Eddie Borysewicz was hired as the federation's first full-time coach, working at the Olympic Training Center. Among his top pupils was Greg LeMond, who went on to become the first American to win the world's most prestigious race, the Tour de France, in 1986, 1989, and 1990. The development program also paid off at the Olympics. In 1984, four U. S. cyclists won gold: Connie Carpenter-Phinney in the women's road race, Alexia Grewal in the men's road race, Steve Hegg in the individual pursuit, and Mark Gorski in the sprint. Success bred success, as it often does. In 1988, there were more than 1,600 sanctioned races in the U. S., and USCF membership had grown to more than 1,000 clubs and 30,000 licensed riders. More and more corporate got involved with cycling, on the local, regional, and national levels. Two new kinds of cycling, BMX racing and mountain biking, accounted for further growth during the 1990s. The National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA), the original governing body for mountain biking, became a member of the USCF in 1989. The federation took over the National Bicycle League (NBL), which governs BMX racing, in 1997, giving it control of all three major forms of competition.

Cycling 5: Varieties of Racing It seems as if bicycle racing ought to be simple and straightforward, but it's not. At least, track racing isn't. There are essentially three types of road racing: The mass start or in-line road race, the time trial, and the stage race. Only the first two are Olympic events. In the Olympics, the mass start road race for men is made up of repeated circuits of a 12- to 18-kilometer course, for a total distance of 210 to 240 kilometers. The women's event has ranged from 79.2 to 126 kilometers. Outside

of the Olympics, many mass start races are from point to point, often from one major city to another. In the time trial, riders start at intervals of 1- minutes and the best time wins. The men's Olympic race ranges from 45 to 55 kilometers, the women's from 25 to 35 kilometers.

The most famous bicycle race of all, the Tour de France, is a stage race. A stage race is like a series of point-to-point road races, conducted over a period of days. Track racing includes individual and team pursuits, points races, time trials, sprints, the Madison, and the keirin. In the pursuit events, competing racers or four-person teams start on opposite sides of the track. The theoretical goal is to overtake the opponent, though that doesn't happen often. The winner is usually the racer or team that covers the distance in the shortest time. In the team pursuit, the time is recorded for the team's third finisher. (The reason for the unusual start is to make the race a true test of speed by preventing a cyclist from drafting on the opponent to save energy for the finish.) The Olympic distances are 4,000 meters for men, 3,000 for women. The points race is the most difficult for a spectator to follow, since the rider who crosses the finish line first isn't necessarily the winner. The men's Olympic event is run over 40 kilometers, the women's over 25 kilometers. Points are awarded for sprints that take place every two kilometers, with the winner getting 5 points, the second-place finisher 3, the third-place finisher 2, and the fourthplace finisher 1 point. A rider who has been lapped can't take part in sprints, and a rider who has been lapped twice has to leave the race. In the time trial, competitors race against the clock from a standing start over a distance of 1,000 meters for men, 500 meters for women.

The match sprint, also known as a scratch race, is raced over 1,000 meters, but only the last 200 meters counts. For the first 800 meters, the two competitors move slowly around the track, each trying to avoid taking the lead. Then they sprint to the finish, the one trailing usually having a slight advantage because of the other rider's draft. The Olympic sprint is a relatively new event, which was added to the Olympic program in 2000. It's a three-team, three-lap event in which each team member takes the lead for a lap, allowing teammates to draft behind him. The teams start on opposite sides of the track, as in the pursuit race. A team's time is the time of the third rider to cross the finish line. The Madison is named for Madison Square Garden because the basic idea came from the two-cyclist, six-day races formerly held there. It's a 60-kilometer race with a sprint for points every 5 kilometers. The sprints are scored as in the points race. There are two cyclists on a team, but only one is on the track at a time. When it's time to switch, the riders clasp hands and the cyclist who's leaving the track slings his teammate into the race. The keirin originated after World War II in Japan, where it is a very popular sport, with parimutuel betting. This is a 2,000-meter event in which the cyclists ride behind a motorbike for 1,400 meters, getting up to speeds of about 45 kilometers per hour. The motorbike then pulls off the track and the cyclists sprint to the finish.