Today, as you are reading this, the 95th Tour de France is in Stage 17. This year's race began on July 5. After 23 days, 21 stages and 2,211 miles, it will conclude this Sunday in Paris.

By the time a cyclist finishes the Tour de France, he will have burned a total of 118,000 calories or the equivalent of 26 Mars bars per day, according to the BBC.

The humble beginnings of this bicycle race were as a newspaper publicity event, brainstormed by Henri Desgrange in 1902, to promote the sports newspaper l'Auto.

Although the eyes of the cycling world are on the Tour de France every July, did you know there were numerous celebrated bicycle races in central Maryland years before the first Tour de France in 1903?

Today, as it was in the late 1890s, bicycling is quite popular in Carroll County.

According to an article in the April 1896 edition of the now-defunct Democratic Advocate, "The bicycle is a foreign invention. Those sky-scrapers, with one large wheel and a little one behind, with the riders up in the clouds, were of English invention, and were first imported in this country about twenty years ago. ... (They are) dangerous, and yet their use was spreading."

One local bicycle club, the "Cycling Ramblers," had 15 uniformed members in 1887 and, according to historian Jay Graybeal, "was organized like a militia company of its day. Westminster jeweler A. H. Wentz was the Captain and John H. Cunningham was his Lieutenant; I. S. Weaver was the organization's bugler."

According to the April 1896 article, other members of the club included I. A. Miller, Joseph H. Krichton, Charles E. Fink and William L. Seabrook, captain.

According to an American Sentinel newspaper article published Oct. 20, 1895, "The most remarkable cycling event was a century run, undertaken by over three hundred riders, from Baltimore ... Sunday last.

"Mishaps reduced the number, by the time the cavalcade started, to two hundred and ninety-nine, among whom were several ladies. The run was to Frederick and return.

"Two hundred and forty-six of the starters continued in the run to the finish and made the 100 miles. Messrs. George M. Parke and John H. Cunningham, of the Cycling Ramblers of Westminster, were in the run and completed the century."

Research for the Historical Society of Carroll County by Mary Ann Ashcraft notes that 100 years ago "bicycle riders and racers, were filled with excitement over an event to take place at the Pleasure Park, a newly-built horse racing track with grandstand one mile north of Westminster on the road to Littlestown (what we now know as Carroll County Regional Airport)."

On June 25, 1898, the American Sentinel wrote that "The 30th day of June will be the greatest day among cyclists in Carroll County that has ever occurred. The great Bicycle Race Meet under the supervision of the Cycling Ramblers of Westminster, the third oldest club of its character in the State (will be held). ... Carroll County has between four and five thousand riders in the race."

Downtown Westminster jeweler, Toni Pomeroy of Pomeroy Jewelers, will be amused to know that in the 1898 race, the first prize for the winner of the 25-mile race was a diamond ring valued at a whopping $35.

Bicycling ahead to 2008, this past April 26 marked the occasion of the fourth annual Tour de Carroll.

According to the Web site, it was successful in raising $15,000 for the benefit of the Family and Children's Services' Adult Day Services, which provides the county's only nonprofit organization offering medical day services to low-income seniors.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster. E-mail him at kdayhoff@carr.org.

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