In honor of Black History Month

Marshall "Major" Taylor

Before Jesse Owens, before Jackie Robinson, there was Marshall "Major" Taylor.

Who, you might ask?

Only perhaps the first athlete to challenge racial boundaries and participate in the mainstream of an American sport. The sport was track cycling, which was big at the turn if the twentieth century.

Major Taylor's story is a compelling one, as he fought through prejudice, injustice, and actual physical assault to compete, and win on a rather regular basis, in the sport of track cycling. According to his autobiography, he apparently had some very conflicted feelings about writes, harboring disdain (understandably) for those competitors who games up on him to try to keep him from winning only because he was black while at the same time crediting other whites for making his career possible. Sadly he passed away, largely forgotten at the young age of 53 during the Great Depression.

I recommend everyone look through his bio and a little about him on Wikipedia. There's also a Major Taylor Association with lots of resources and info, including information about the statue of him in his home base for racing, Worcester, MA.

As we take time this month to remember specifically the contributions of African Americans to our society, it's worth remembering Major Taylor.

World Championships Coming to Richmond, VA!

Exciting news, everyone! As you may have already known, Richmond, VA had made a bid to host the 2015 UCI World Road Cycling Championships. Its only remaing competition was Muscat, Oman.

Well, Muscat has apparently withdrawn its bid, which means:

Richmond, remains the only host city with a bid on the table, meaning that the United States will be all but guaranteed to play host to the worlds for the second time in history. The UCI is expected to approve the bid Wednesday and an official decision could be publicly released by 17h00 Danish time.

(That's 11 AM EDT for those of you trying to do the math.)

So, it looks like I might have to try to make it to Richmond, VA in about three years! ;-)

 

When Cycling Gets Political...

...and I don't mean battles on Capitol Hill over transportation budgets or motorist rants about cyclists running red lights or any of the myriad other types of trite political arguments that revolve around the nexus of cycling. I don't even mean professional riders and teams protesting a stage of a race over a ban on the use of team radios or the safety of the race route.

I am talking about geopolitics and political protest. A new professional race in Italy called the Giro di Padania had its opening stage Tuesday. The controversy is over and the affiliation of the race with the Lega Nord political party and over the name of the race. Padania is apaprently not a recognized geograhical term, rather it's a name given to the area around the Po River by the Lega Nord, which wants autonomy for the region.

A protest was organized to block the race route. I assume the protest was intended to be civil and peaceful. However, among other things, several protesters tried to slap riders and in the fracas a police officer "was struck by a race car and taken to hospital." Race car in this instance, of course, means a team support vehicle and not a Formula One Ferrari.

Some news coverage of the story:

http://www.theworld.org/2011/09/controversy-for-italys-po-valley-cycling-race/

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/protesters-attempt-to-block-giro-di-padania-route