I did a little research about the six day bike races and came across a fabulous website by three men who have written a book and made a documentary called Six Day Bicycle Race: The Jazz Age Sport. I have reprinted their information below.

Be sure to go to the special features section of their website and watch the video clip, “It was a helluva show”. There is also a wonderful photo gallery , which includes photos like this one labeled ” The great Bobby Walthour Sr., the “Dixie Flyer” during the 1903 Madison Square Garden Six Day”

The riders were some of the best paid and most respected athletes during the golden era of sports…the Jazz Age. It was a seen and be seen event every year in all the major metropolitan areas of the United States and Canada. Movie stars, politicians, and gangsters mixed with everyday sports fans to create an atmosphere not found in any other sport. Jazz bands and song pluggers performed in the infield as the bookies plied their trade. The finest sports writers of the day, such as Grantland Rice and Damon Runyon, spun tales of heroes and villains. The riders raced for big money and big endorsements. Every major city in North America had its own “Race to Nowhere” each winter, when the college football season was over (pro football was strictly small time) and the baseball season had yet to start. This film traces the history of this completely forgotten sport from its early days in the 1880’s through its sad demise in the 1950’s. Over 40 hours of interviews with riders, supporters, family members and historians bring life to the rich tapestry which was the Six-Day Bicycle Race. Narrated by award winning author and television sports journalist Frank Deford, this film brings to life the color and excitement of an era when a bike rider could make in six days what his father might earn in six years. More than 10 years in the making, the Six-Day Bicycle Race is a film that brings together the largest known collection of photographs, archival footage and personal recollections by and of people long since passed away. The producers of this film hope you will come to love the characters and the institution of the Six-Day Bicycle Race as much as we have.

Mark Tyson

Jeff Groman

Peter Joffre Nye