Cyclopedia (48 page)

The key to track racing's survival after its death in the United States was the presence of stars of road racing such as Fausto Coppi alongside established track racers such as the sprinters Antonio Maspes, Arie Van Vliet, and Reg Harris. The Vel d'Hiv drew crowds that might have included the millionaire Henri de Rothschild and the writer Ernest
Hemingway, who wrote of the “smoky light of the afternoon, the high banked wooden track, the whirring sound the tires made on the wood as the riders passed, the effort and tactics as the riders climbed and plunged, each one a part of his machine.”

Road racing was a gritty, grimy occupation, but evening track meetings were the glamour side of cycling. Road champions would ride into town on the overnight train, then stage a dramatic entrance to the velodrome in sunglasses—to hide the bags under their eyes—wearing tailored suits, with Brylcreemed hair. Afterward, they might dine on oysters, steak, and champagne.

In one winter, Coppi rode 21 such meets, either invitation pursuit matches or international omniums. What mattered was performance and pleasing the crowd: TOM SIMPSON, for example, would ride, wall-of-death style, up the vertical advertising boards at the top of the track, or take one hand off the bars in a finish sprint and “pretend” to take a tow by grabbing a rival's saddle.

In Europe track racing gradually declined with the advent of television: the road stars lost their mystique, so there was no reason for the crowds to come and watch them on the track. Sponsors realized they would get more exposure from having their men race on the road. Most of the great velodromes, like the Vel d'Hiv, are gone or they are dying, like the Vigorelli. The sixes cling on, mainly as late-evening entertainment for German drinkers, but are threatened by the removal of the Madison from the Olympic program.

If there is a flicker of hope, it has come from Britain's creation of a new style of track racing: the Revolution meetings, which have taken advantage of GREAT BRITAIN's success at successive OLYMPIC GAMES, and have also been run in Australia. America may well be next. The format is accessible and lively, entry prices are low, and it boasts celebrities as well as Olympic
champions to draw in the crowds; a championship format of the Revolution meetings was adopted in 2009, with big names leading teams that included youth riders to create a narrative over the winter.

The Olympic track disciplines are as follows:

The same disciplines are included in the world championship program, plus the following:

Other track events include:
Devil Take the Hindmost
, a crowd-pleasing event in which
the last rider over the line each time is eliminated until three are left to contest the final sprint;
Win and Out
, the opposite, held over five laps in which the winner is the first rider over the line on lap one; he or she has to pull out, then the second is the first over the line on lap two and so on;
Danish pursuit
, which is a points race followed by a Devil with rankings decided over the two events;
Course des Primes
, a race with prizes awarded every lap;
Motor-paced
, in which the riders race in the slipstream of motorbikes, usually low-powered machines known as DERNYS, although on outdoor tracks full-size bikes may be used.

TRICYCLE
The pioneering days of bicycle design between 1870 and 1900 gave rise to a huge variety of multi-wheeled machines—primarily tricycles and quadricycles—with different seating configurations and wheel arrangements. By 1884, over 120 different models were being made in 20 factories in just one English manufacturing center, Coventry.

JAMES STARLEY's Coventry Lever Tricycle of 1876, with a large central wheel, and smaller ones at either end, was the first lightweight tricycle to enter mass production. Starley also designed the Salvo quad, which was sold to Queen Victoria and renamed the Royal Salvo.

There were rear-drive tricycles with dual steering wheels at the front, quads in which the drivers sat side by side, and the Hen and Chickens, a HIGH-WHEEL bike in the middle of four small wheels, the idea being to make the machine as stable as possible for cargo carrying.

The classic upright tricycle as we know it today, with one steering wheel at the front and two driving wheels at the back, began to appear in the mid-1880s, at the same time as the SAFETY BICYCLE. Early examples
were the Humber Cripper—named after a professional racer, Robert Cripps—and the curiously named Psycho from Starley.

The stability of the tricycle makes it suitable for carrying heavy loads over short distances: the design is used for rickshaws in Asia and in some cities in the UK, Europe, and the US. Delta tricycles have a recumbent design, while Tadpole trikes are RECUMBENTS with two steered wheels at the front and one driving wheel at the rear.

The largest British tricycle maker today is Pashley, founded in 1926 and based in Stratford-Upon-Avon. In the UK, the Tricycle Association was founded in 1929 to cater for trike enthusiasts, and the Road Records Association recognizes tricycle place-to-place records. There are a small number of tricycle criteriums, and a tricycle world championship, on a time-trial format.

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World championships

UCI ProTour

UCI Continental Tours

Women's world road cup

CYCLO-CROSS world cup

MOUNTAIN-BIKING world cup

BMX world cup

INDOOR CYCLING championships, for artistic cycling and cycle ball

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Biggest race:
Tour of California

 

Legendary racing hill:
Manayunk Wall

 

Biggest star:
Lance Armstrong

 

First Tour stage win:
Greg LeMond, Lac de Vassivière, 1985

 

Tour overall wins to 2010:
10

 

America has given cycling:
the Giro helmet, the mountain bike, triathlon handlebars, the Livestrong bracelet, Oakley sunglasses

Coors Classic organizer Michael Aisner also masterminded Brigitte Bardot's campaign against the slaughter of fur seals in the Arctic.

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Frank Kramer:
Along with Major Taylor and A. A. Zimmerman, a hero of the halcyon era of US track racing. Kramer was persuaded to turn pro in 1900 by Taylor, and his career outlasted that of the Major: he won the US sprint title 18 times, with his last title coming in 1921, when he was 41 years old. He raced mainly in the United States, but had two successful seasons in Europe, 1905 and 1906, and also took the world sprint title in the only year he entered, 1912, when it was held in Newark. He retired in 1922.

 

Andy Hampsten:
Bucktoothed, slender climbing specialist from Ohio who turned pro for 7-Eleven in 1985, won a stage in the Giro d'Italia, and was signed by Bernard Hinault's La Vie Claire team for 1986, when he won the first of two back-to-back wins in the Tour of Switzerland. In 1988, back with 7-Eleven, Hampsten won the Giro d'Italia, a victory forged in a snowstorm on the Gavia Pass. His final major win was the l'Alpe d'Huez stage in the 1992 Tour de France, the year he finished fourth overall in the Tour, a repeat of his placing of 1986.

 

Sheila Young:
One of a bunch of US cyclists who doubled up successfully with speed skating, Young achieved a rare double in 1973 when she took the world sprint title on the velodrome and the rink. She went on to win the sprint title twice more, and won gold, silver, and bronze medals in skating at the winter Olympics in Innsbruck in 1976, becoming the first US athlete to win three medals at a winter Games. In that year she married JIM OCHOWICZ, who would go on to manage the 7-Eleven and Motorola pro road teams. She retired, then returned to competition in 1981 to take another track sprint world title. Young's big rival was another speed skater turned sprinter, Sue Novara, who won a total of seven world championship medals. Other speed skaters who were also successful cyclists are Beth Heiden, winner of the world road title in 1980, and her brother Eric, regarded as the greatest speedskater ever but also capable of finishing the Giro d'Italia for 7-Eleven in 1985.