Turkey's First Bicycle Races

Although various records offer differing dates for the advent of athletics and cycling in the territories of the Ottoman Empire, Bornova was a city of firsts in both sports.
Prof. Dr Günver Güneş, in her book The Introduction of Modern Sports to İzmir, records that the first athletics competition in Turkey was organised in Buca in 1892. Yet an athletics club already existed in Bornova as early as 1890 — two years before that date.
Prof. Dr Güneş likewise notes that the first bicycle races in Turkey were held in Bornova on 23 April 1893.
İzmir historian Yaşar Ürük, in his article entitled "From the Velocipede to the Bicycle in İzmir," writes: "Towards the end of the 19th century — a period in which İzmir demonstrated its propensity for 'firsts' in many fields with particular intensity — the first athletics competition took place in Bornova on 15 May 1892. That same year, in June, Bornova also hosted the first bicycle race."
The broad expanse known at the time as "Tristram's Meadow" — stretching from what is today 86th Street to the Ankara–Istanbul Highway — also served as the venue for multi-discipline sporting events such as the Panionian Games between 1895 and 1901.