The sport and culture of track cycling
Best "unknown" velodrome? US, Europe, ...?
My sense of the sport is that it's sadly quite fragmented. I think that's part of the problem behind it's status in the US. Many hard core riders don't know that there's a velodrome in or close to their own town. Many sports, and even bike, fans who don't necessarily ride themselves but might if they knew there was a velodrome, or spectators who might go see events if they knew there was a velodrome with organized events close by, don't know there's a velodrome in town. What's your vote for the best unkown velodrome in your area? I heard talk that so many people didn't know there was a great velodrome at Vodaphone Arena in Melbourne, Aus; my info may be dated, I was reading an interview from a while back with the track event organizer, so my venue name may be wrong by this point, but what's peoples feelings about velodromes they know about that others may not?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bob Williams on -
As one who is involved with programing a velodrome I can speak to this topic with some insight. We have a very good track here in MN and many people don't know about it. How do you tell people about it? How do you get the word out about track cycling in general? With so little revenue generated by track cycling, the budgets for publicty are often verys small to nonexistent. Over the years we have had a number of major newpaper articles, a few network TV spots, we distribute posters and schedules to all the relevent places and still people who consider themselves serious cyclists either don't know about the track or have no interest in participating or spectating. Things were different in the '70s when anyone who considered themselves a serious cyclist owned and occassionally used their track bike. In the '80s with Lemond winning the Tour and awakening the next generation of cyclists, the only part of the sport that was covered was the road. That continues even today. If you look at the major cycling press, the track has, until very recently, been ignored. Finally in the past couple of years it seems that the track has been given some legitimacy in the cycling press. I think that having riders like Bettini, Zable, Bartko, Wiggins, and even Chippolini riding the tracks in the winter has caused a bit more coverage of the sport in the cycling press and that coupled with the advancement of the British in track cyclling at the world championship level has created more interest. Still the problem of getting the word out is difficult in a sports environment dominated by huge, well organized and well financed professional sports. It is easily lost in all the hype of the big guys. Newspapers don't want to hear about it and they figure that nowbody else does either. It just continues to perpetuate the problem. I think it will take a while to put track cycling back in the public's eye. It will take a consistent, well funded marketing program to raise the profile of the sport especially here in the US.
I, like so many others, do see the sport gaining in popularity in the past few seasons. I firmly believe there is a huge market in the US for this sport. Someone will come along and capitalize on it and make a decent profit from it. In the end somone has to make money at it or it will not survive.
Just my two cents worth!
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Permalink Reply by Matt Kraczon on -
I'll have to give you a better report when I return but I am going to ride a small, indoor track that is not very well known outside of Ontario Canada tomorrow. It's the Forest City Velodrome and is a 138m board track built inside an old hockey team practice rink in London, Ontario. I have a client in London and saw the sign for the track the last time I was there. I sent and e-mail about my upsomoing trip to see if I could get on for an hour or so and the contact (Rob Good-thanks Rob!) very accomidating.
Martin invited me onto this sight from a Velonews discussion- thanks Martin!
I'll be out in Anaheim later this year and while there I hope to get a chance to try out either ADT or Encino- sure beats working out at the hotel!
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Permalink Reply by Matt Kraczon on
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I got to ride Forest City yeasturday and it was great. It took me a few laps to get back into the rythmn but after some excellent help I was ticking off some good laps.
I found the track to be very smooth I think I only heard boards at the exit of turn 4. The ramp from the in field to the track was very smooth which is a big plus as this track has 50 degree banking. I drifted up to the blue line once and really enjoyed the plunge down to the black line at the bottom. There is a active and enthusiastic club and a good number of serious racers that use the track. I rode for maybe an hour but all together and then gave way to the racers who have a training session after the "rec" time is over.
It was pretty cold and snowing pretty hard outside so even with the heat on the ride was brisk but hey it just keeps you from getting over heated right?
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