The first-known U.S. cycling championship race took place in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1883. Within a decade, bicycle races were drawing bigger crowds than major league baseball games.
However, after 1900, cycling began to lose fans as football, basketball, and hockey became more popular. The long decline of cycling sports in the U.S. gradually ended after World War II. During the 1960s and 1970s, fun-loving kids who grew up on bikes invented new sports. These included mountain biking and BMX (bicycle motocross patterned after cross-country motorcycle racing). The rebirth of U.S. cycling had begun.
