Monday, December 21

london velodrome

A velodrome is being built for the London 2012 Olympic Games (along with other stadia) and am following this one project with interest, mainly due to the outdooor elements that have been promised. BMX will be officially recognized as an Olympic sport at the 2012 Summer Games then that track will be augmented after the Games with a mountainbike trail and an outdoor speed track; a hub to "cycling routes across London"(1) has been promised as well. Proof will be in the pudding... will these connectors be a 2bit bike lane on existing roads? or a bike trail itself? we'll see. Concept art of the velo' above, then a pressy from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) below (not much to see yet admittedly). I have not followed the local politics of the site builds etc but hope for some legacy gains in this industial area (east end of London, sort of north/east)... Lived for a time near that area (Bow), in a conversion of the former Bryant&May matchstick factory -long time ago... Ronnie Kray's funeral procession passed right by the front gates, major characters in attendance (just looked it up, must have been 1995). The single-speed crowd in the UK must have more info on this... will dig around. ODA info here.