CYCLING
SUMMARY
Cycling, often known as bicycling or biking, is the act of riding a bicycle for the purposes of transportation, recreation, exercise, or sport. Cyclists, bicyclists, and bikers are all terms used to describe people who cycle. In addition to two-wheeled bicycles, “cycling” include the use of unicycles, tricycles, quadricycles, recumbent bicycles, and other human-powered vehicles (HPVs).
Bicycles were first introduced in the 19th century and are today used by over one billion people globally.
In many regions of the world, especially in heavily populated European cities, they constitute the primary mode of transportation.
Cycling is typically recognized as a cost-effective and efficient means of transportation for short to medium distances.
Bicycles have a number of advantages over automobiles, including the continuous physical activity provided by cycling, easier parking, increased maneuverability, and access to roads, bike lanes, and country trails. Cycling also means less fossil fuel consumption, less air or noise pollution, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and less traffic congestion. These have a reduced financial cost for both users and society as a whole (negligible damage to roads, less road area required). Transit organizations can dramatically expand the locations they can service by installing bicycle racks on the front of buses.
In addition, riding has a number of health advantages. Cycling, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), can reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, all of which are common in sedentary lives. Cycling on stationary cycles has also been used to help people recover from injuries to their lower limbs, notably after hip surgery. Cycling consistently has also been linked to improved mental health, such as less stress and increased vitality.
History Of CYCLING
Cycling as a sport began on May 31, 1868, with a 1,200-meter (1,312-yard) race between the fountains and Saint-Cloud Park’s entrance (near Paris). James Moore, an 18-year-old expatriate Englishman from Paris, was the winner. The first city-to-city race was held on November 7, 1869, between Paris and Rouen; Moore won again, covering the 135 km (84 miles) in 10 hours 25 minutes, including time spent walking his bicycle up the harsher hills. While road racing grew popular in continental Europe within a few years, the worsening state of the roads in England made them unsuitable, therefore the sport shifted to the track or time trials.
The first recorded race in the United States took place on May 24, 1878, in Boston, two years after professional baseball began and 13 years before basketball was founded. Almost all early American racing took place on tracks, with long races involving pacers who rode ahead of competitors at a high speed before dropping away. By the 1890s, the country had roughly 100 dirt, cement, or wooden tracks, mostly in major cities. This nationwide tour, which went from Boston to San Francisco and included competitions in St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Denver, and Los Angeles, attracted over 600 pros. When one of these riders, Charles M. Murphy, rode behind a Long Island Rail Road train on a wooden track and finished a mile in 57.8 seconds, gaining the nickname Mile-a-Minute Murphy, the sport gained a huge boost in popularity.
In the 1890s, a particularly arduous kind of racing thrived in the United States: the six-day race, a nonstop competition lasting 142 hours (because the races normally began at midnight and ended six days later at 10 PM) with awards up to $10,000 and an international field of riders. With the switch from one-man to two-man teams in 1899, this style of racing was altered, and six-day races remained popular well into the 1930s. Despite the fact that these races are no longer held in the United States, they continue to draw enormous crowds in Belgium, Italy, France, and Germany.