Cycling track

Track cycling

A track cycling race at the third round of 2014–15 UCI Track Cycling World Cup in the Velódromo Alcides Nieto Patiño in Cali, Colombia
Highest governing body	UCI
Characteristics
Contact	No, although bodies do touch
Team members	Individuals and teams
Mixed gender	Yes, separate competitions
Type	Cycle sport
Equipment	Track bicycle
Venue	Velodrome
Presence
Country or region	Worldwide
Olympic	Yes, men's since the 1896 Olympics and women's since the 1984 Olympics
Paralympic	Yes, men's and women's since the 1996 Paralympics

Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes (but many events are held at older velodromes where the track banking is relatively shallow) using track bicycles.

Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When cycling was in its infancy, wooden indoor tracks were laid which resemble those of modern velodromes, consisting of two straights and slightly banked turns.

One appeal of indoor track racing was that spectators could be easily controlled, and hence an entrance fee could be charged, making track racing a lucrative sport. Early track races attracted crowds of up to 2000 people. Indoor tracks also enabled year-round cycling for the first time. The main early centers for track racing in Britain were Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester and London.

The most noticeable changes in over a century of track cycling have concerned the bikes themselves, engineered to be lighter and more aerodynamic to enable ever-faster times.

With the exception of the 1912 Olympics, track cycling has been featured in every modern Olympic Games. Women's track cycling was first included in the modern Olympics in 1988.

Track cycling is particularly popular in Europe, notably Belgium, France, Germany and the United Kingdom where it is often used as off-season training by road racers (professional six-day 'Madison' events were often entered by two-man teams comprising a leading road racer and a track specialist). The sport also has significant followings in Japan and Australia.

In the United States, track racing reached a peak of popularity in the 1930s when six-day races were held in Madison Square Garden in New York. The word "Madison" is still used as the name for this type of race in six-day racing. A group of US velodromes formed the American Track Racing Association (ATRA) and its membership now includes more than half of all velodromes in the US.