Elsa Von Blumen & Detroit’s first indoor bicycle track
Friday, January 26th, 2018Some might think the new Lexus Velodrome is Detroit’s first — or even the first one indoors. It’s not. The Dorais Velodrome isn’t either.
In fact it’s challenging to know how many bicycle tracks Detroit has had since many were built just for a specific event.
One of those — and perhaps the first — was built inside the former Music Hall for an endurance event in 1882. Ms. Elsa Von Blumen (a pseudonym for Caroline Kiner) had come to Detroit in an attempt to ride 1,000 miles in six days, something she’d accomplished in Pittsburgh during the prior December.
Von Blumen was born in Pensacola, Florida (or Kansas?), and not unlike Susan B. Anthony, moved with her family to Rochester, NY .