In the early 1900’s before baseball became America’s national sport, this country experienced the Golden Age of professional cycling. Cyclists were America’s best paid athletes until Babe Ruth joined the Yankees in 1920. Children collected cards of their favorite racers and Newark was considered the nation’s bike racing capital. Bike racers from all over the country and around the globe came to the northeast to race in the Newark Velodrome.
A velodrome is an outdoor track made specifically for bicycle racing. The oval track is made up of two long straight sections and two shorter curved ends with steeply sloped banks. Riders raced around at speeds up to 35 miles per hour. Spectators paid $.25 for general admission to watch professional racers vie for the winner’s cup.
The Newark Velodrome held races two days a week and regularly sold out to capacity. It was one of about 100 velodromes in the country in the mid 1890’s. Nutley and Coney Island were among the homes of these velodromes. Even Madison Square Garden became a velodrome for six days each year when it hosted a six-day stage race held.
The following are among the most famous cyclists that came through the Eastern Seaboard.
Arthur Zimmerman of Freehold was one of the world’s first bicycle racing champions and one of the most popular in the 1880’s.
Marshall “Major” Taylor, the great African American cyclist who won seven world cycling records and the world one-mile championship in 1899, persuaded Frank Kramer to turn professional in 1990.
Frank Kramer, from Asbury Park, began bike racing when he was 15 in 1895. He held the national championship for 16 years from 1901 to 1916 and won the world championship in 1912, which was held at the Newark Velodrome.
Alf Gooulet heard of the Newark Velodrome while growing up in Sydney, Australia. At the age of 19 in 1910, he came to America and headed right to Newark. He was one of the world’s greatest racers and won over 400 races on three continents.
Greg LeMond became the first America to win the Tour de France in 1986. He won two additional years in 1889 and 1990 becoming one in only eight cyclists to win the tour in three or more years.
When the Great Depression started in 1930, along with it came the collapse of the Eastern Seaboard’s bike racing circuit. The Newark Velodrome closed it doors in 1930 when its lease expired. That same year the Coney Island Velodrome burned down. In 1937 the Nutley Velodrome closed down due to dwindling attendance.
The Golden Age of American Cycling ended in the 1930’s but bicycle racing has remained strong. Road races, multi-day stage races, criteriums, cyclo-cross races and mountain bike races continue to be popular among cycling enthusiasts of all ages.
