Cycle ball, also known as "radball" (from German), is a sport similar to football played on bicycles. The two people on each team ride a fixed gear bicycle with no brakes or freewheel. The ball is controlled by the bike and the head, except when defending the goal.
The sport was introduced in 1893 by a German-American, Nicholas Edward Kaufmann. Its first world championships were in 1929. Cycle ball is popular in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland. The most successful players were the Pospíšil brothers of Czechoslovakia, world champions 20 times between 1965 and 1988.
Closely related is artistic cycling in which the athletes perform a kind of gymnastics on bikes.
Famous quotes containing the words cycle and/or ball:
“The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower.”
—Robert M. Pirsig (b. 1928)
“The world was a huge ball then, the universe a might harmony of ellipses, everything moved mysteriously, incalculable distances through the ether.
We used to feel the awe of the distant stars upon us. All that led to was the eighty-eight naval guns, ersatz, and the night air-raids over cities. A magnificent spectacle.
After the collapse of the socialist dream, I came to America.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)