Edgehill Bike Club

Cycling uses the bicycle for recreation, sport as well as transport. Both professional and amateur cycling events are held primarily on the continent of Europe, the United States, and Asia. The leisure use of bicycles is common across Europe as well as the United States. The use of bicycles for transportation is particularly prevalent in non-Western countries and less developed countries. A few of which, such as the Netherlands have a wide network of bike paths.

The Cycling Sport’s Early History

On May 31st 1868, the first official cycling race held between fountains in Saint-Cloud Park near Paris. It won by James Moore, an 18-year-old expatriate Englishman who was from Paris. On the 7th November 1869, the first city-tocity race took place from Paris and Rouen. The race again won by James Moore. The winner travelled 135 kilometers 84 miles in 10 hours and 25 minutes, riding up hills for most of that time.

In the United States, the first race held on the 24th of May 1878 in Boston in 1878. The professional game of baseball began two years later and basketball 13 years later. The majority of early American races held on tracks, and in long races. Sometimes, pacers who rode in front of the competitors at a rapid speed, only to disappear. In the early 1890s, there were approximately 100 cement, dirt or wooden tracks across the country, mostly in large cities. Over 600 pros competed across the national circuit which ran between Boston up to San Francisco.

Competitions held in cities such as St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Denver as well as Los Angeles. The sport given a huge media boost when it announced on the 30th of June, 1899 when one of these athletes, Charles M. Murphy rode along the wooden track of the Long Island Rail Road train, and completed a mile in 57.8 seconds. He earned the nickname Mile-a-Minute Murphy.

A particularly strenuous type of racing was popular throughout the United States in the 1890s. In the 1890s the 6-day event lasted for 142 hours since the races typically began at midnight and finished six days later. Around 10 pm of continuous competition that offered prizes of up to 10,000 and an all-world field of participants.

Modern Cycling Racing In Modern Times

In the early 1890s, race racing in Europe became popular due to the improvement of roads and the introduction of classic races for instance, the race Paris-Roubaix. Following France as well as Belgium racing introduced across Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. In 1903, the 21-day Tour de France was first introduced and has been running every year after, except for World Wars I and II. Just behind this prestigious race are the three-week grand tours that take place in Italy the Giro d’Italia and Spain the Vuelta a Espana. Typically the Giro is held between May and June, follow by the Tour de France in July and the Vuelta in September, and then the World Championships in October. The prizes in these races are significant, with a total of $2.5 million for the Tour de France alone.

European road racing took place primarily sponsored by bicycle manufacturers up until the late 1920s before regional and national teams established. Commercial sponsors returned following World War II. However, with the decline of bicycle manufacturers, teams started shifting to other sponsors which included insurance companies, automobile manufacturers and banks. The season of professional road racing starts in January, racing in Australia and Malaysia. It runs from February until the month of October across Europe as well as the United States. It closes the season in Asia in the months of November and Dec. For the majority of riders this season is about 120 hours of racing over eight months.

Track and road races for males took place during the very first contemporary Olympic Games that took place in the year 1896. Women also competed in Olympic race competitions during road events, in 1984, and tracks races later in 1988. Mountain biking is a cross-country event through rough terrain.

Cycling Competition

The sport is manage through the Union Cyclist International UCI which is located in Switzerland and is govern by the national federation of cycling. Amateur events are held for both women and men in regional, local, and national competitions based on age groups. These groups range upwards in age, from those who compete aged 12 to 13 years. At the World Championships, amateurs are not separated from professional athletes among males and women.

However the sport is split into those who are younger than 23 and refer to as Espoir hopefuls as well as those who are over 23. Time trials, which may be a team or individual event, as well as one-day or classic races, in which distances can range between 200 and 280 kilometers 124 to one hundred miles for professional athletes, and between 140 and 200 kilometers 87 to 87 miles for amateurs, and multi-day races. Which are classic race series that are run over a period of time.

The winner of the stage race is the person who has the lowest overall time across each stage. Another popular sport, particularly for Britain and those in the United States, are criterium events. These are held over a small distance of between 4 and 5 kilometers 2.5 to three miles for a series of laps that can reach 100 kilometers 62 miles.

Doping

The use of performance-enhancing drugs is considered to be widespread in cycling. The scandal that shook the Tour de France in 1998 and resulted in the expulsion of one of the leading teams the Festiva team. In order to overcome the restrictions on drugs enforced by the UCI and other professional teams. Many teams and individuals use doctors to administer medications which are difficult to spot for example, EPO, also know as erythropoietin EPO which is a hormone that is believe to increase the amount of red blood cells, and therefore circulation of oxygen into muscles.

The UCI regularly checks riders’ blood levels for red blood cells in their blood, which has an upper limit of fifty percent to 55 percent in riders coming from high altitude areas and anything higher than that is consider evidence of usage of EPO and is subject to the possibility of a two-year suspension. Stimulants and antifatigue drugs such as amphetamines are detectable and therefore outmoded performance-enhancing drugs.

Recreation

Cycling as a form of recreation standardized just a few years after racing introduced. At first cycling brought both genders together in a non-chaperoned manner especially after the 1880s in which cycling had become more readily accessible thanks to the development of the Rover Safety bicycle. The development of clothing worn by women on bikes led to public concern over social disorder. This clothing became increasingly less restrictive and enveloping.

In the present cycling for recreation has become an essential element in fitness initiatives particularly within the United States. Over 65 million people cycle regularly, including over 6 million commuters on bicycles. Touring and cycling clubs are plentiful throughout Europe particularly within France, Belgium, Italy and England. The practice of touring by bicycle cyclotornids is growing in popularity across the globe. The bicycle paths have been constructed in the streets of numerous cities as well as in national and municipal parks. In the United States more than 10,000 miles 16,000 kilometers of abandoned rail lines have been converted into cycling trails.

Cycling Transportation

Since its creation it has been a cheap and democratic method for transport. The introduction of automobiles slowed the growth of cycling as a mode of transport in certain Western societies. However, the bicycle has been a popular mode of transportation in China as well as Southeast Asia. The bicycle is still a well-known mode of transport. In Africa as well as a number of central European nations , many commuters cycle. In the late 1990s, urban planners and people began to question automobiles’ importance. Automobile-based planning and design have been blamed for urban sprawl in nations such as the United States. International organizations like Critical Mass formed to encourage traffic laws and make city designs to be more favorable towards cycling.

Fantasy game known as the rotisserie game. Broken is a game that allows players to participate in either an online game or a virtual season. In the world of fantasy sports the players act as the general manager and field manager for their team. They create an entire roster via drafts or trades, as well as forming teams to achieve the highest statistical output. Fantasy baseball and gridiron football are two of the most popular sports.

Fantasy Baseball

The first game to be use for fantasy included baseball. Scorecards and extensive statistical records make baseball perfect for learning the fundamentals of the game. Fantasy sports’ predecessor, APBA American Professional Baseball Association, introduced in 1951 by businessman Dick Seitz. APBA was preceded by All-Star Baseball, which was first introduced in 1941. Experts consider it too simplistic to be a legitimate predecessor to contemporary fantasy games. A game like APBA known as Strat-o-matic was first introduced in the late 1960s.

Players ordered statistical cards about ball players each year after purchasing APBA or Strat-o-matic board games. The combination of the information provided on the cards determined the result of the participant’s at-bat or turn. During the 1990s, computerized versions of these games recorded statistics from any league around the world. The famous image that APBA and Strat-o-matic gained transferred to rotisserie baseball.

What is now referred to as fantasy baseball originated from the traditional rotisserie game. A distributed group of players can share information using the Internet’s power. Fantasy baseball on the internet provides statistical management of small Rotisserie leagues as well as large-scale leagues where several teams could have one player.

The growing popularity that baseball enjoyed led to a market for statistical services and publications that examined players from a fantasy angle. These publications also offer strategies for team management. Furthermore, in the latter half of the 20th century. The advent of advanced statistics known in the field of baseball as Sabermetrics, but used across all sports led to better-informed fantasy players and a more comprehensive collection of fantasy statistics.

Gridiron Football

Fantasy gridiron football first came to prominence in 1962, when Bill Winkenbach. Then part owner of the Oakland Raiders football team, met with a group of acquaintances in a New York City hotel. They came up with the very first football fantasy league known as the GOPPPL Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League. The initial concept was straightforward. Players in the league drafted players from the NFL and AFL. A rival professional football league that merged with the NFL in 1970, into their fantasy squads. Based on their performances during games, they would earn points and then compete against each other.

The actual games begin in week one of the NFL season. Accordingly, offensive players score six points for receiving and rushing touchdowns and four points for passing touchdowns, as well as one point per 25 yards of passing or receiving, one point per 10 yards of running or receiving and two points for every two-point conversion and three points for a field goal, plus one point for an extra point. The points earned by special teams or defenses of the team are typically different between leagues.

As the game increased in popularity, numerous variations were discovered in scoring methods most specifically leagues that give one point for every reception made as well as rules for leagues such as auction leagues which allow players to bid instead of taking the snake draft and keeper leagues that allow players to keep certain players on their rosters throughout the year as well as the length of the season. Also, fantasy football is based on college football and the CFL.

Other Fantasy Sports

With the advent of the Internet, the rise of other sports, they gained in popularity all over the world. Alongside the more common leagues that feature teams, such as basketball and hockey on ice. In addition, fantasy leagues that focused on individual sports, such as golf and auto racing created during the second half of the 20th century. Originally developed in the United States, fantasy sports gained popularity across other countries, especially Canada and the UK. With fantasy hockey being most popular in the former and fantasy football being the most well-known game in the latter, mainly among players in England’s Premier League. Some other virtual sports that spotted all over the world included tennis, cricket as well as Australian rules football.

Fantasy sports have turned into a major business, creating annual revenue over $1 billion in the early decade of the 2010s. Most of the major sports media outlets like ESPN, Yahoo Sports and Fox Sports, as well as several websites that are specialize host different fantasy games which include leagues that are free and those that require a payment to the website and generally promise payouts in the future in the event that the participant succeeds. Fantasy sports are also popular places to gamble within the league. This is because numerous leagues require fees for each player which are give it to the champion of the league or the top players at the conclusion of a season.

Hockey, game played between two teams, typically having six players who play with skates on an an ice skating rink. The aim is to push the vulcanized rubber disc through the goal line, and then into the net which is guarded by a goalie or goalie. Because of its speed and regular physical contact, hockey has become one of the most popular international sports. The game is one of the Olympic sports and around the world there are more than one million players registered to play frequently in teams. It’s perhaps Canada’s the most well-known game.

Origins

In the late 1980s, commonly believed that ice hockey originated in part from English field hockey and Indian lacrosse and introduced to Canada in the mid-1980s by British soldiers during the early 1800s. It later discovered that there mention of a similar game that was that played in the early 1890s in Nova Scotia. This game played by the Mi’kmaq Micmac Indians.

This game believed to have been heavily inspired by an Irish game that involved throwing. It also used the hurley stick and the use of a wooden square instead of the traditional ball. It was most likely the game that spread across Canada through Scottish and Irish immigrants as well as those who came from the British army.

Shiny incorporated elements from field hockey such as bully and face-off, and shining, which is to hit one’s opponent on the shins with the stick or to use only your stick on one shin or side, later becoming known as Shinny and Shinty. A hockey stick is attribute to the French word hoquet, which means shepherd’s stick.

It is believed that the word rink refers to the area that is designated for play. This area used for the game of curling in the 18th century in Scotland. The earliest hockey games permitted as many as 30 players on the ice. The goal posts made of two stones, each one frozen to one side of the ice. The first instance of using an actual puck rather than a ball documented in Kingston Harbour, Ontario, Canada in the year 1859.

Early Stages Of Organization

The first public indoor hockey game which had rules that largely copied from field hockey, played in the Montreal’s Victoria Skating Rink in 1875 between two teams made up of McGill University students. However, the image of violence the game would soon be know for was a result of the first game. In that game, the Daily British Whig of Kingston, Ontario stated, Shins and heads battered, benches smashed and the lady spectators fled in confusion. The first team to be organized, the McGill University Hockey Club, established in the year 1877. It codified the game’s rules, and restricted to the amount of athletes in an individual side to nine.

League Rivalries

The National Hockey Association NHA was the precursor to the National Hockey League NHL. Established in 1910, and grew into the largest hockey organization across North America. The growing enthusiasm for the game led to difficulties, however, since there were no artificial-ice skating rinks. In 1911, the Pacific Coast Hockey Association PCHA established in 1911 by Joseph Patrick and his sons who constructed two artificial-ice arenas enclosed in a ring and began an explosion in the creation of artificial-ice skating rinks.

 The PCHA got involve in a financial and player war with NHA. While the NHA ended up being the more powerful league. However, it was actually the PCHA that introduced many of the innovations that improved the game. The most significant rule change made in the NHA was to decrease the amount of athletes in the side down to six. This change done in order to save money. The Western League continued to play seven-man hockey but allowed goalies to jump or dive to keep the puck from moving. In the past, the goalie required to stand still in order to make the save.

The Western league also altered rules regarding offside. In the old rules, the player considered offside if there a gap in front of the puck’s carrier in the event of receiving an assist. It the PCHA divided the surface into three zones by drawing white lines of blue across its surface. This permitted forward passes within the central zone that was between those blue lines. This allowed for more freedom in the game and added excitement. Another innovative idea in the Western League was the idea of an assist. Prior to that it only the goal scorer who credited with one point.

The National Hockey League

As with its predecessors like the NHA had its share of dissidents. In an attempt to expel one of its members, the NHA forced to dissolve and create an entirely new league. The result was the establishment on the 17th of November 1917. The National Hockey League NHL that has since become the world’s most respected professional sports league. In 1924, the initial U.S. team, the Boston Bruins, admitted to the NHL. In 1925, the New York Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates admitted to the NHL.

They followed in 1926 by The New York Rangers and they joined by the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Detroit Cougars later named The Red Wings. In order to stock the teams with players, the NHL purchased the Patricks team in 1926, for $250,000 https://slotapik.net/provider/pg-soft.

One of the players who moved into Boston was Eddie Shore, who was know as the rushing defenseman, whose style changed the game. As many experts claim, he was among the most skilled players and a precursor to future NHL players like Gordie Howe, who played for the Detroit Red Wings. It was the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Americans that ended up being drop from the NHL and, up to the expansion in 1967 the NHL comprised of just six teams including the Rangers and the Bruins and the Blackhawks and the Red Wings, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Montreal Canadiens.

International Hockey Tournaments

Through the majority of the twenty-first century, the amateur athlete controlled the international stage. League competition between amateurs from England was first introduced in 1903. In 1903, the International Ice Hockey Federation IIHF founded by Europe from 1908. Its founding members comprised of Great Britain, Bohemia, Switzerland, France along with Belgium.

The first European competition held in Avants, Switzerland, in 1910 and which saw Great Britain the winner. Since then, the Federation grew its membership and accepted applicants from all over across the globe.

Canada took home initial Olympic Games title in 1920. It also won, simultaneously with it, in the same year, won its first IIHF World Championship. In addition, Canada won the inaugural Winter Olympics in 1924. The dominant team in international competition until the Soviets arrived in the 1960s. In the 1960s, the Soviets maintained their position as the top and strongest team internationally until the 1990s, and the demise of the Soviet Union.

Hockey For Women’s

While it’s regard as a masculine sport it is playing for women more than 100 years. The first female-only game played in Barrie, Ontario, Canada in 1892. The first world championships held in the year 1990. Recognizing the rising popularity of hockey and the growing popularity of women’s hockey. The International Olympic Committee added women’s hockey on ice hockey to their 1998 program at Nagano. This is in which the sport made its debut Winter Games appearance.