John Legend producing new film about black cycling champion Marshall Walter 'Major' Taylor

Singer John Legend is producing a new biopic about iconic Black cycling champion Marshall Walter 'Major' Taylor.

Legend's production firm, Get Lifted Film Co., is teaming up with Mandalay Pictures on The Black Cyclone, a new drama documenting Taylor's meteoric rise to the top of the sport.

Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor, born in Indianapolis, in 1878, dominated the American track cycling scene in the late 1800's and early 1900's. 

He won the first amateur race he entered, aged just 14.

He turned professional four years later and continued winning races, most of them sprints around oval tracks at Madison Square Garden and other arenas in the eastern US.

Taylor went on to make history by winning the sprint event at the 1899 world track championships in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Taylor faced bitter racism throughout his career, often from his rivals. One competitor, after losing to Taylor in Boston, actually attacked him and choked him unconscious.

“In most of my races I not only struggled for victory but also for my very life and limb,” Taylor wrote in his autobiography.

Despite his incredible success, Taylor spent his final years in destitute and in poverty and sadly died of a heart attack aged just 53 in 1932.

 Screenwriter Alan Fox will pen the script for the new movie, but a director and cast are yet to be announced.

Speaking to Deadline film magazine, Get Lifted co-founder Mike Jackson and Mandalay Pictures President Jason Michael Berman said: "We are thrilled to bring The Black Cyclone to a global audience.

"This is exactly the kind of story we look for when developing projects. Alan wrote a beautiful script, and we are looking forward to going out with it to talent."

Cycling has long been silent on the lack of black riders within the World Tour, and the sport in general.

Just one black cyclist, Kevin Reza, started the 2020 Tour de France out of 22 teams and 176 riders. 

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It wasn't until 2011 that Frenchman Yohann Gene became the first cyclist of Afro-Caribbean heritage to compete in the Tour de France.

Before 2011, there had been 97 editions of the Tour.

That's nearly a century without a single black athlete competing in the world's biggest cycling race.