The spatial development of competitive cycling in Helsinki 1860s - 1900s

Kenth Sjöblom

Sports Archives of Finland

During my research on the sporting life in Helsinki around the turn of the century I have come across several interesting details regarding the spatial development of sport in an urban environment. For this occasion I have chosen to give a brief survey of how cycling in Helsinki managed to meet with the requirements of a competitive and rationalized sport. Why cycling, you may ask? Primarily because cycling as an extremely technical form of sport placed high spatial claims on rational conditions for racing. Such conditions were not always available in Helsinki in the late 19th century, so the cycling enthusiasts had to adjust to prevailing circumstances. As the bicycle craze reached its first heydays in the 1890s, among other things increasing the number of cyclists (not competing ones) in Helsinki to around 3,000 and introducing a specialized journal for cycling, the demands for proper racing conditions increased. Ideas about how competitive cycling should be carried out were brought to Finland mainly by Finns travelling to England and continental Europe. These Finnish pioneers of cycling were utterly enthusiastic, but not always realistic in their demands.

This study of the spatial development of cycling, especially the competitive form, uses a model presented by John Bale for the development of football stadiums, describing a process from the multifunctional towards the enclosed and highly specialized arena. For Helsinki this meant the development from a municipal park, via a trotting track, to the specialized velodrome. Not all the elements presented in Bale's model can be found in the case of Helsinki, but the main line of progress towards a rationalized and specialized arena is present. On the other hand, some points in the development involved a mixture of two stages, so the model is primarily one that is applicable.

The bicycle made its first appearance in Helsinki, and the rest of Finland, in 1869, just two years after it had experienced its major breakthrough at the Paris Exhibition. Ideas on how to construct a bicycle must have reached Finland in the years after the Exhibition, because in 1869 the newspapers inform us of several domestic machines, built mainly by blacksmiths, which caused a minor sensation around the country. In 1869 it was also announced, that two- and three-wheeled bicycles were to be expected by the first thaw. According to the Helsingfors Dagblad, this should satisfy those, who feared that Helsinki should long remain in the shadow of the "`velocipedants' of the fashionable world".

For more than a decade cycling remained a hobby of the primarily more well-to-do gentlemen and among the broader public was regarded as a form of conspicuous consumption. The bicycle was also often referred to as the crazy horse, and many a gentleman seemed to ride this horse better than the living one. The general public in Helsinki found some amusement in watching gentlemen riding through the parks and esplanades on high-wheeled so-called "ordinaries". But naturally there were also those who did not approve of this new and dynamic sport and found it dangerous for pedestrians. The municipal authorities quite often shared this concern for those on foot. This became clear in the 1890s, as the number of cyclists increased rapidly, due to technical improvements of the bicycle, which made it cheaper and therefore available to broader sections of society. In 1895 the police authorities in Helsinki issued regulations prescribing where and when it was allowed to ride a bicycle which had a decisive impact not only on social and recreational cycling, but also on the competitive sport, as training was possible only during a limited number of hours early in the morning. According to the regulations, cycling in the parks was allowed only before 9 a.m.

Even before these restrictions, the more enthusiastic racing cyclists had already started to look for more functional arenas. We will now examine how the spatial premises for competitive cycling changed in Helsinki during a period of two decades.

The multifunctional park arena

The first stage in Bale's model, which comprises the multifunctional sports space, with no clear spatial limits, uneven (or natural) terrain and spatial interaction between "competitors" and "spectators", is represented in Helsinki by the municipal park of Kaisaniemi, which at the turn of the century lay close to the city centre. It was originally a park used by the local bourgeoisie for promenades and recreations, but as early as the 1870s the voluntary fire brigade had arranged popular festivals, including various kinds of competitions, in the park. It was also used for the more spontaneous sporting and playing activities of local schoolchildren.

It was not until 1883 that the first organization for cyclists was unofficially established in Helsinki although it was a rather loose clique of gentlemen without formalized rules. However, they did introduce competitive cycling and the first ever official race was arranged in Kaisaniemi on 19th October 1884. The track ran along the parkways and measured 1/4 of an English mile + 108 feet, in order to have the starting and finishing lines at the same spot. There were two different races, a one-lap race and a seven-lap race, and altogether only six competitors. The track included a major obstacle, a hillock, where the parkway was in quite bad shape. The rough terrain, together with the fact that the competitors were inexperienced and untrained, had a decisive impact on the results. The report of the competition in the first Finnish sports journal, expressed the hope for a more even track in the future to encourage the popularity of this beautiful, healthy and practical sport although it was clearly still rather expensive.

Maybe because of the lack of a suitable track, or the small numbers, it was difficult to maintain interest. Although some social rides in the parks and the Esplanades were arranged during the next years, no further competitive cycling took place.

In the spring of 1887 newspaper criticism was levelled towards the slumbering club of cyclists and a new club, or a reorganization of the old one, was carried through. The new club tried to revive the interest in competitive cycling by arranging a race in early October of that year if the weather allowed. The parkways of Kaisaniemi seemed to have found favour in the eyes of the new club, although they remained uneven and filled with holes, and thus hardly comparable to tracks abroad. Indeed according to one commentor, any race held there might turn into a "steeplechase". But held it was, this time with seven competitors, but as it was run in the early hours of a Sunday morning, it did not attract many spectators. Not surprisingly this event did not prove to be a decisive moment in the development of the bicycle sport in Helsinki. The number of club members did not exceed about 40 or 50 during the next few years.

We have very sparse documentation about the relatively few races which took place in Kaisaniemi during the 1880s, but cycling was definitely not a spectator sport yet, as advertising was limited and the time of the races remained unfavourable to potential watchers. The results were not impressive, due partly to the natural conditions in the park, partly to the lack of training among the competitors, all of which shows that cycling was still more of an elite hobby rather than a serious sport.

Towards enclosure

In 1893 the circumstances of competitive cycling began to undergo remarkable changes. The reorganized cycling club had from the start stressed the need for a proper racing track, but in 1893 the case for a track took a decisive step forward, as they obtained access to a meadow lot in the park area called Djurgården, which was later to become a true sports park.

Meanwhile bicycle races had to be arranged elsewhere and in the autumn of 1893 the last two major races were held in Kaisaniemi. With these races cycling took a step towards enclosure. The limits of the racing area were not more defined than before, as the track still ran along the parkways, but there were attempts at the segregation of competitors from the spectators, even though it was not totally effective. According to the local newspapers the races attracted some 5-700 spectators despite rain. No entry fees were charged and printed programmes were distributed free. The first race was arranged by the cycling club and the latter by the Finnish agent of the Premier Cycle Company. This was a race over 100 km, where all the competitors had to ride a Premier machine. As the track was only some 900 meters long, this meant cycling just over 111 laps. The track as such was said to be in a fairly good condition, but because of its many curves and bumps it was less suitable for sprint races.

Soldiers had been engaged to keep the crowd off the track, but apparently they did not manage all that well, and the report of the race mentions on several occasions how some of the riders were thrown off their bikes after colliding with unwary spectators.

In 1894 the cycling club introduced two new spatial aspects of bicycle races. It arranged its first ever race on the main roads, on the eastwards route out of the city and for track races it turned to the trotting track in Åggelby, about 8 kilometres north of Helsinki. This latter arena meant a new step in the spatial development, according to Bale's model. We need to take a closer look at the trotting track as a sports arena and return to the road races later.

The trotting track in Åggelby had been built for the Finnish Trotting Club in 1884, to enable summer races to be run. Prior to this trotting in Finland had been solely a winter sport. The track was of course built according to the requirements of trotting and was about one kilometre in circumference. Although it must have undergone some improvements in the decade before competitive cycling was introduced there, it was by no means an ideal substitute for a velodrome. Still the cycling club preferred this to the parkways of Kaisaniemi. One reason might also have been the possibility of attracting more spectators, which could not be done within the city park.

The trotting track in Åggelby represents a mixture of the second and third stages in Bale's model. The track was enclosed by a wooden fence, which enabled the organizers of racing to keep out those who were not prepared to pay for the entertainment. Grandstands were also provided for the spectators, and thus the area of competition, or the "achievement space" to cite Henning Eichberg, was segregated from the area of the spectators. The audience was also segregated by social class by providing differently priced tickets.

It is interesting here to note the similar combination of trotting and cycling in Bergen in Norway, although the cycling track built there in 1888 later became a trotting track. The location of the track, its accessibility by the railway and the efforts to create a true spectator sport show many similarities to the development in Helsinki.

The cycling club in Helsinki arranged its first race at the trotting track in 1894 although few details are known. In 1896 the club put more effort in arranging enjoyable competitions at the track, while visitors from Viipuri were expected. There were to be races of 1, 5 and 10 kilometre distances. The admission charge was fixed at 1 mark, 50 pennies or 25 pennies, musical entertainment and refreshments were provided, and the track was decorated. Due to heavy rain in the morning only about 500 spectators attended the event. Further races were held by the cycling club and other sports clubs during the following years, even though a modern velodrome was built closer to the city centre. It is to some discussion of this venture that we now turn.

The search for a proper velodrome

As noted earlier, the cycling club had obtained a building site for a velodrome in 1893, within the park area of Djurgården, a bit north of Kaisaniemi. The club itself did not have sufficient money to build such a velodrome in 1893 and therefore the most enthusiastic cyclists tried to find temporary solutions, such as a winter velodrome, where the cyclists could train for the outdoor summer season. Several possible lots were presented around town and a joint stock company was established, but the municipal authorities found it difficult to fix a site for such a building. One local newspaper suggested that a temporary wooden building sheltered from the winds, and without a floor and heating, would be built in Kaisaniemi and then taken down again in the spring. The chief editor of the cycling journal, well acquainted with the innovations of the sport, turned down this suggestion as mere nonsense.

No winter velodrome was ever built, but in 1896 things started to happen around the building of an up to date summer velodrome. Two different initiatives were presented to the cycling club, but one came to nothing before it even got underway. The one which was to end up in the establishment of the velodrome, had once again to fight its way through municipal bureaucracy. While the cycling club did not have the money for building a velodrome, and the local authorities on principle never engaged themselves in such ventures during the last century, the building project had to be carried out as a private enterprise. Two persons closely linked to the club, an asphalter and a clerk, both also engaged in the cycle trade in town, therefore set out to carry the project through as a joint stock company. As these "animators" of the velodrome project applied for lease of a building lot in Djurgården, close to the one leased by the club, the city council refused to sanction it and asked the city treasury to present plans for a general sports ground. At this point the club decided to extend its own lease and transfer it to the animators of the velodrome project. By the spring of 1897 the transfer was confirmed by the authorities and the construction of the velodrome could begin.

The plans for the velodrome were ordered from a famous Danish track constructor, Lieutenant Faber, who had designed several Danish and Swedish velodromes. This time the size of the track followed the requirements of the bicycle sport and thus the track measured 333.33 metres and the curves had a precise angle of inclination.

Inside the track there was a small stand for the referees, reporters and invited guests, whereas the rest of the spectators were provided with a grandstand of 400 seats outside the track. The complex also included a restaurant and a service building for the competitors, and dressing-rooms equipped with showers. A small hospital room was also provided. The track was situated in Djurgården, on the western side of the railway, on a meadow surrounded by trees on three sides, so it was well sheltered from the wind.

According to Bale's model, the cycling arena had now reached the third "partitioning" stage. Some aspects of this stage had been present already on the trotting track, and these were made further explicit, but in the case of the velodrome we can also speak of a more specialized land use, as the trotting track was not only used for other sports, but also other purposes than sport, for example popular festivals and lotteries. The velodrome was solely used for bicycle races.

The cycling club had signed a contract with the proprietors of the velodrome, according to which the track would be available for the club for three holidays every season and club members would also have the right to free training during specified hours of each day. The proprietors, the same two persons who had started the enterprise, were also guaranteed 1/3 of the net income from the club's three competitions each year. Despite these favourable conditions, the velodrome was not maintained very well in the following years. The owners had expected larger audiences, but when these did not materialise showed decreasing interest in the maintenance of the track which in 1898 lead to protests and a strike among the cyclists. Sadly the velodrome fell into disrepair within a few years and was collectively bought by some sports clubs in the town in 1902 in order to build a modern sports arena on the site.

Concluding remarks

In the early 1900s competitive cycling returned to the trotting track in Åggelby and the road races continued for some years. Ivar Wilskman, one of Finland's most influential sports leaders at the turn of the century, noted in his memoirs, that the decline of bicycle sport in Helsinki (and the rest of Finland) was caused by the emergence of new and more interesting sports like track and field athletics, which attracted young urban males. This competition did to cycling what it had threatened to do some other sports in the 1890s, for instance competitive rowing. The revival of cycling racing did not come until the 1920s.

As noted earlier, competitive cycling turned to the main roads as an arena, while the cyclists were waiting for a proper track to compete on and even while cycle racing was put on at the trotting track and later the velodrome, the road races remained on the cycling club's annual fixture list up to the early 1900s. The routes of these races were directed both westwards and eastwards of Helsinki, the distances usually varying between 30 and 100 kilometres.

It has been suggested in this paper that Bale's model for the development of sports arenas can be applied to competitive cycling in Helsinki at the turn of the century, although the process does not follow the stages of the model exactly, but includes combinations of two of the stages. The tendency towards specialization and rationalisation, following the so- called process of sportification was nevertheless evident.

References:

Bale, John, Sport, Space and the City (London, Routledge 1993).

Goksøyr, Matti, Idrettsliv i borgerskapets by (Oslo, Norges idrettshøgskole 1991).

Kalender för finsk trafsport [Calendar for Finnish Trotting Sport].

Moen, Olof, Idrottsanläggningar och idrottens rumsliga utveckling i svenskt stadsbyggande under 1900-talet (Göteborg, 1991).

Wilskman, Atle, Pyöräily, in: Wilskman, Ivar (ed.), Suomen urheilut XX:n vuosisadan alkuvuosina (Helsinki, Yrjö Weilin, 1907).

Wilskman, Ivar, Muistelmani voimistelu- ja voimailuelämämme alkuajoilta (Helsinki, 1929).

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