It was the Jazz Age Sport.  After midnight, bands from nearby nightclubs would perform at trackside.  Comics, jugglers, singers and dancers would entertain late night spectators as the riders continued their racing.  Movie stars, politicians, and gangsters mixed with everyday sports fans to create an atmosphere not found in any other sport.  It was not uncommon for the larger arenas to have 17,000 fans in one night and top 70,000 for the week.   Many people are surprised to learn that Cleveland has had dozens of indoor velodromes over the years, built in the Armory or the Auditorium.

    100 years ago, Track Cycling was THE sport of the day, with the 6 Day Race being the most popular event.  Madison Square Gardens was built as a Track Cycling Arena.  Top professional cyclists earned 2-3 times as much as other sports; the highest paid athlete of any sport was an African American cyclist named Major Taylor.  6 Day races were popular all the way through to the WW2 era. 

From HickokSports.com:  "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."

    Every major city in North America had its own race each winter, when the college football season was over (pro football was strictly small time) and the baseball season had yet to start.  The track would be built before each event- in the 30’s the full cost was around $2500- and dismantled afterwards.  Sometimes it was stored for the next event or shipped to the next city, but more often it would be burned as firewood.