thumb|alt=A lineup of men on bicycles|[[Parc des Princes#Velodrome|Parc des Princes Velodrome,<br />

site of Breton's 1902 death<br />

( postcard)]]

thumb|alt=A cyclist/pacemaker team circa 1903|The cyclist [[Paul Dangla and his pacemaker teammate Marius Thé in the Vélodrome d'Hiver ()]]

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The first documented deaths of competitive cyclists during competition or training date to the 1890s and early 1900s when the recently invented safety bicycle made cycling more popular, both as a sport and as a mode of transport. The athletes listed here were either professional cyclists, professional pacemakers or well-known competitive amateurs who had a cycling-related death, mostly during a race or during training. Pacemakers are motorcyclists utilized in motor-paced racing, riding motorcycles in front of their cycling teammates to provide additional speed to those cyclists via the resulting slipstream.

Safety has been a concern since cycling's early days. By 1929, at least 47 people had died while racing at velodromes – 33 cyclists and 14 pacemakers. where his skull was fractured. It is thought that Michael probably had some kind of brain damage from the fall, as afterwards he suffered from severe headaches, Some sources state he died from alcoholic delirium tremens or a brain hemorrhage.