mad track cycling
Mad Track Cycling is a historic sport that reinvents your Great, Great Grandfather’s Extreme Sport of track racing. The main game played in this sport is called the Madison, which was invented in Madison Square Garden in 1899. It is a relay race played by 6-8 two rider teams on bikes without brakes, on a 1/10th mile wood oval. Other games played in Mad Track Cycling include the Chase, the Elimination, and the Keirin. In each race, teams earn points, and the team with the most points wins.
Mad Track Cycling races take place at the Lexus Velodrome, located in midtown Detroit. The velodrome is an Olympic-style cycling track inside a 64,000 sq ft arena. It features a 1/10th mile track with 50-degree banking in the turns, similar in size to the tracks inside Madison Square Garden in the past. Mad Track Cycling has divisions for Professionals, SemiPros, and Youth. The Pro division includes riders from the US and around the world, while SemiPro riders range in age from 13 to 70+. The Youth division starts at 8 years old. Many of the Mad Track races are live-streamed on our YouTube channel and other streaming services, making them exciting to watch and participate in.
What sets Mad Track Cycling apart is its unique structure and corporate social responsibility programs. It brings together non-profit, for-profit, and public partners to achieve its goals. Mad Track Cycling and the Lexus Velodrome are owned by the Detroit Fitness Foundation, a 501c3 NonProfit. The City of Detroit is their public partner, and the Detroit Fitness Foundation has an agreement to build and operate the Lexus Velodrome in Tolan Playfield, a city park. In return, the foundation provides low-cost recreational programming for residents and free programming for seniors and kids. The facility was built and operated without using taxpayer money. Lexus USA is their private sector partner, securing the naming rights to the facility, making it the only one of its kind in the US. Mad Track Cycling also has plans to expand to five more cities in the US.
Do you have a question about our cycling program? We’ll do our best to answer any questions you may have about Mad Track Cycling or the Lexus Velodrome.