An Olympic cycling event - newish and quite unusual.

Go to Wikipedia/madison and be as confused as I am.

The 6-day Madison (Square Garden) team endurance race, truly oldish not newish dude.

The New York Times said in 1897,

" An athletic contest in which participants 'go queer' in their heads, and strain their powers until their faces become hideous with the tortures that rack them, is not sport. It is brutality. Days and weeks of recuperation will be needed to put the Garden racers in condition, and it is likely that some of them will never recover from the strain."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_(cycling)

Only an Olympic sport since 2000, and not a 6 day race.

(wrong link, dude)

Wrong ref. within right-link Gill.

The Madison is a feature within non-Olympic 6-day races, but CAN also be a separate race as in the Olympics where it has been part of the Summer Games since 2000. An Olympic-style Madison typically lasts between 30 & 60 minutes, but can take up to 90 minutes. A Madison rider due for a rest propels his incoming partner like a slingshot during the race.

First held in New York's Madison Square Garden, and known in France as the "American Race/course à l'américaine", or as 'Americana' in Italian or Spanish-(back to the EURO-Final?). The Madison began as a way of circumventing laws passed in New York, aimed at restricting the exhaustion of cyclists taking part in 6-day races.

Recalls hardtimes dance-movie,"They Shoot Horses Don't They?"