52nd Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic

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With renewed community support and a prize fund exceeding $15,000, the Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic (HSCC) tradition proudly celebrates its 52nd Anniversary. The event’s race director and Executive Director of Team Unity Incorporated is Richard Cox. As a Harlem native and former HSCC competitor, Cox is thrilled to uphold the race’s community-centered origins each year.
Established in 1973 by David Walker, a former New York Police Community Affairs Detective in Harlem’s 25th Precinct, the Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic was conceived as a community-focused event centered on bicycle racing and youth safety programs. Within three years, the race became one of the premier attractions of the United States Cycling Federation, now known as USA Cycling. Each year, the event draws over 400 licensed cyclists from the greater NYC area, as well as participants and spectators from across the nation and worldwide, to Marcus Garvey Park—the race’s historic venue since inception. The Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic is the 2nd longest-running event on the USA Cycling calendar and the longest-running event organized by the BIPOC community.
Since its inception, the Skyscraper Classic has attracted national and international champions, including Olympic medalists like Nelson Beasley Vails. Vails, a Harlem native and professional cyclist from 1988 to 1995, won a silver medal in the 1000-meter Match Sprint at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles—making history as the first African-American cyclist to achieve this feat. Vails was inducted into the US Bicycle Hall of Fame in 2009 and will serve as an official spokesperson for this exciting event.
“Before 1973, there were limited opportunities for the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) community to participate in USA Cycling at this level of competition. Our event remains committed to reaching out to the underserved.”
2024 Sponsors include Foxworth Realty and Harlem CDC. Eugenia Foxworth said, “I am thrilled to be a sponsor of this very important community event in Harlem.”