Madison is the cycling race format in which two riders alternate laps for their team.
In a Madison, one teammate races while the other circles slowly around the track or rests in a relief area. The racing rider then makes a hand sling or similar exchange, transferring the effort to the teammate. Teams score points through intermediate sprints and by gaining laps on rivals.
The event takes its name from Madison Square Garden in New York, where six-day track races helped popularize the format in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is also known as a two-rider team race.
Madison is not the same as the omnium, which is a multi-event individual competition, or the team pursuit, in which four riders race together against the clock. The Madison demands endurance, sprinting, communication and precise exchanges.