Madison (cycling)

Tied positions are split by points awarded for placings at a series of sprints at intervals during the race.

To take over, the replacement rider has to be touched, pushed, often on the shorts, or hurled by the departing team member by a hand-sling.

Modern six-day races last less than 12 hours a day and the Madison is now only a featured part, so staying on the track throughout is more feasible.

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 races.

The New York Times said in 1897: 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.

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.

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.

The official rules of the Madison, which are traditionally regarded as being hard to follow, are stated as follows by British Cycling, the British Governing Body of Cycling:[6] The Madison was an Olympic event for men in 2000, 2004 and 2008, but was dropped ahead of the 2012 London Olympics, in part for reasons of gender equality as there was no equivalent race for women at that time.

The inaugural women's event was won by Katie Archibald and Laura Kenny for Team GB.