How Harlem became a hotbed for cycling
It starts and endures healthily with jazz, the visual arts and food. For well over a century, the traffic of influence travels both ways, equally. And for a group of dedicated Harlem cycling enthusiasts, today’s opening stage of the Tour de France will be watched keenly. As will the subsequent stages right through until, three weekends from now, what’s left of the Peloton cruises from Paris’ financial hub of La Défense into the climactic eight laps of the Champs-Élysées.
But it’s not simply because of the Tour or French culture or the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong that this pocket of the United States will be activated early during most of the key stages.
The deep affinity between Harlem and the sport of cycling goes way back and a major factor of that relationship celebrated a 50th anniversary just two weeks ago on Father’s Day.
The Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic is an iconic New York City event which boasts a uniquely uptown twist. Started by David Walker, a New York City Police Community Affairs Officer in Harlem’s 28th Precinct, in 1973, it began as his effort to provide an outlet to the young men and women of a beleaguered and forgotten district.
Every June for five decades, hundreds of professional and amateur riders race around the one mile course which is shaped by the iconic Marcus Garvey Park. Anyone who saw my favourite movie of 2021, Summer of Soul, will know that what was then known as Mount Morris Park hosted the Harlem Cultural Festival over several weekends in 1969. I won’t dwell too much on the sad reality that the optimism and joy which defined that incredible event was usurped pretty swiftly by abandonment and decay. Hence the need four years later for something innovative.
Content retrieved from: https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/arid-40907867.html.