View source for Madison (cycling)

==History==
The Madison began as a way of circumventing laws passed in New York in the US, aimed at restricting the exhaustion of cyclists taking part in [[six-day racing|six-day races]].

According to a contemporary newspaper clipping retained by [[Major Taylor]]:

<blockquote>The riders are becoming peevish and fretful.  The wear and tear upon their nerves and their muscles, and the loss of sleep make them so. If their desires are not met with on the moment, they break forth with a stream of abuse. Nothing pleases them. These outbreaks do not trouble the trainers with experience, for they understand the condition the men are in.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ritchie |first1=Andrew |title=Major Taylor: The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer |date=1996 |publisher=Johns Hopkins Paperbacks |location=San Francisco |isbn=0-8018-5303-6 |page=66 |edition=5}}</ref></blockquote>

The condition included delusions and hallucinations. Riders wobbled and frequently fell. But the riders were often well paid, especially since more people came to watch them as their condition worsened. Promoters in New York paid [[Teddy Hale]] $5,000 when he won in 1896 and he won "like a ghost, his face as white as a corpse, his eyes no longer visible because they'd retreated into his skull," as one report had it.

The ''New York Times'' said in 1897:

<blockquote>An athletic contest in which participants "go queer" in their heads, and strain their powers until their faces become hideous with the tortures that rack them, is not sport. It is brutality. Days and weeks of recuperation will be needed to put the Garden racers in condition, and it is likely that some of them will never recover from the strain.<ref name="NYT 1897 Dec 11">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1897/12/11/archives/a-brutal-exhibition.html|title=A BRUTAL EXHIBITION.|work=The New York Times |date=December 11, 1897|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref></blockquote>

Alarmed, New York and Illinois ruled in 1898 that no competitor could race for more than 12 hours a day. The promoter of the event at Madison Square Garden, reluctant to close his stadium for half the day, realized that giving each rider a partner with whom he could share the racing meant the race could still go on 24 hours a day but that no one rider would exceed the 12-hour limit. Speeds rose, distances grew, crowds increased, money poured in. Where Charlie Miller rode {{convert|2,088|mi}} alone, the Australian [[Alf Goullet]] and a decent partner could ride {{convert|2,790|mi}}.

The fastest known average speed of a Madison men's race is {{convert|59.921|km/h|sp=us}}, achieved by the Australian duo of [[Sam Welsford]] and [[Leigh Howard]], at the [[2019–20 UCI Track Cycling World Cup|world cup race]] in [[Glasgow|Glasgow, United Kingdom]], 9 November 2019.<ref name="Men's Madison final results">{{Cite web|url=https://www.tissottiming.com/File/0003110104010701FFFFFFFFFFFFFF02|title=Tissot timing, November 9, 2019.|accessdate=10 September 2023}}</ref>

===Origins of the name Madison Racing===
[[Image:Madison Cottage.jpg|thumb|150px|right|"Madison Cottage" on the site of the Fifth Avenue Hotel at [[Madison Square]], [[New York City|NYC]], 1852]]
The term ''Madison Racing'' derives essentially from a sequence of local [[New York City]] names honoring [[James Madison|President James Madison]]. A lodge had been built at what was then the prominent and northernmost waypoint into and out of New York City. In honor of the recently deceased president, the cottage was named [[Madison Square|Madison Cottage]]. After the demise of Madison cottage, the site gave rise to a park, in turn named [[Madison Square]],<ref name="Citycyclopedia">Jackson, Kenneth T. (ed.), ''The Encyclopedia of New York City'' (1995) ISBN 0-300-05536-6</ref> which remains today.
 
A series of four sports venues subsequently took their names from Madison Square &mdash; each named, one after the other,  ''Madison Square Gardens. '' The first two were located directly adjacent to (and took their name from) Madison Square. The second ''Madison Square Gardens'' (1890–1925) became a prominent cycling venue,<ref name="name">{{cite web
 |title        = America's Short, Violent Love Affair With Indoor Track Cycling
 |publisher    = Atlas Obscura
 |author       = Nathalie Lagerfeld 
 |date         = September 27, 2016
 |url          = https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/americas-short-violent-love-affair-with-indoor-track-cycling}}</ref> and gave rise to the track cycle racing that ultimately carried the name ''Madison Racing.''