Race around the Mountain

Abstract

Early accounts place the origins of bicycle racing among the Coloured population of Cape Town at the turn of the twentieth century. By 1930, an active sporting landscape had emerged that included numerous organized clubs, regular road and track events, a regional organizing board, and an established set of local racing stars. Yet as the period moved forward, competitive cycling became subject to a set of larger forces that would affect uses of urban public space, access to municipal facilities, and community support for clubs. While some aspects of this history parallel the growth of bicycle racing in the Johannesburg area, the Cape scene differed significantly. To reconstruct this history, the article attempts to not only establish a baseline for the rich set of characters and events through these years but also place them into a broader context to assess the relationship between sport and resilience under a divided system.