British cyclist Paul Manning, Gold medallist in the Team Pursuit at the Beijing 2008 Games, visited the site of the new velodrome in East London this week. He seems enthusiastic and the legacy facilities for cycling make me pretty excited too. The veldrome stadium is a 600o seater (see it coming up at this webcam Velodrome WebCam from ODA) and there will be a BMX track next to it.
This is essentially a public venture with the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) at the head and providing funding together with Sport England, Transport for London (TfL), and the London Marathon Charitable Trust (LMCT). The ODA says that after games time, “a road cycle circuit and mountain bike course will be added to the Velodrome and BMX circuit to create a legacy VeloPark that will combine cycling facilities across all disciplines in one cycling ‘hub’”.
This is a real boost for a sport which we are OK at, but the expectation is that it will also be a classic venue anyway! The London Cycling Campaign reckons this should have been built with or without the Olympics and London Cycle Sport cites the success of the Manchester Velodrome.
