Question

Read the excerpt from Chapter 4 of Wheels of Change.

Bicycle racing on an indoor track could be a thrilling sport for spectators, who sat outside the oval, so close to the cyclists that they could see their sweat. More than 7,000 people watched the night Frankie Nelson set her 18-hour record in Minneapolis, and a good number of those in the stands were female. "Men go to see what their brothers can do in the way of athletics," the St. Paul Daily Globe pointed out during that race. "Why shouldn't women be interested in their sisters?"

Which central idea is developed by the quotation in the last sentence?

More women than men gathered to watch cyclists compete on indoor racing tracks.
Women were a large part of the popular bicycling movement that occurred in the 1880s and 1890s.
Men did not believe that women should race bicycles or gather to watch bicycle races.
Bicycle races that occurred on indoor tracks were a thrilling sight for the crowds that gathered.

Answer 1

Women were a large part of the popular bicycling movement that occurred in the 1880s and 1890s.

The quotation emphasizes that women, like men, attended and were interested in cycling events, supporting the idea that women played a significant role in the bicycling craze. The other choices either misstate facts (more women than men) or focus on disapproval or just the thrill of races, not women's participation.