Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Back to news
news
Racing
York Velodrome launched todayFloodlit outdoor track racing is coming to York (CC BY-NC 2.0 licenced by Bo Jayatilaka:Flickr)

York Velodrome launched today

£1.1 million venue built by partnership of University of York and British Cycling
by John Stevenson
Thu, Jun 26, 2014 12:57
4

Just in time for the Tour de France, York’s new outdoor velodrome will be officially launched today ahead of being open to the public in July.

Built at a cost of £1.1 million, the 250-metre track is part of the University of York’s Sport Village and is planned to be a training and racing venue as well as a resource for community groups and schools in the region.

The venue will host regular taster and skills/improver sessions, structured training and a weekly race league. There will also be opportunities for local schools and community groups to take part in cycling sessions, as well as weekly coaching sessions for under-16s run by Clifton Cycling Club.

At a special preview ceremony today, the track will be unveiled by British Cycling president Bob Howden, Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, and Keith Morris and Prof Koen Lamberts from the University of York.

Bob Howden, said: “Following the success of British riders at the Tour de France and Olympics, there are more people than ever riding bikes in this country. With increased participation, however, comes the need for new facilities.

“British Cycling has been delighted to get behind this fantastic project and hopefully we might see the next Joanna Rowsell or Jason Kenny develop at the York Velodrome.

“On a personal note, I and many other fellow Yorkshire volunteers will take particular delight in seeing a long haul for a home track facility finally come to fruition.”

The tarmac-surfaced track has been funded by a partnership between the University of York and British Cycling. It has 30-degree bankings and is therefore rather shallower than the 40-degree curves of wooden indoor tracks at the velodromes in Manchester, Glasgow and London.

The floodlit facility was built by contractor Lumsden and Carroll, with a track surface laid by Lafarge Tarmac using a special surfacing product for velodromes called UltiTrack, a 6mm dense tarmac formulated to be grippy for bike tyres and relatively friendly if you crash on it. 

York
University of York
Gary Verity
Bob Howden
York Velodrome
Velodrome
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

Latest Comments