Tag: London 2012

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Olympic Velodrome to Open to Public

Olympic Velodrome

Olympic VelodromeIt has been announced that the Olympic Velodrome and BMX track on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, home of the 2012 Games, will reopen to the public on March 4 of next year. Renamed the Lee Valley VeloPark the Olympic velodrome, redesigned BMX course, plus a brand new MTB trail and floodlit road circuit, will offer the chance to ride at the iconic site from as little as £2.

 

The new facility has already been selected as the British bid for the 2016 Track Cycling World Championships – the most significant track cycling event ahead the Rio Games – and the public will have the opportunity to meet many of the Olympic stars at the grand finale of the Revolution Track Cycling Series on March 14-15, 2014.

 

Fees for the facility are advertised at £6 for adults (£4 children/concessions) for BMX, MTB and road and £12 for adults (£9 children/concessions) for one-hour drop-in sessions at the velodrome – club cyclists receive further discounts at £3.30 for BMX/MTB, £4 velodrome and just £2 for the road facilities.

 

Full details at visitleevalley.org.uk

 

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Ride London – What, all of it?

Never shy of rubbing shoulders with success Boris Johnson roped in double gold medal winner Laura Trott to announce plans for London to host a two-day world class festival of cycling next year. The weekend festival will be known as RideLondon and will feature a series of events for amateur, club and world elite cyclists.

 

RideLondon will take place over the weekend beginning 3 August 2013 and will be managed by the London & Surrey Cycling Partnership, a joint venture between the organisers of the London Marathon and The Tour of Britain. They hope that the festival will attract over 200,000 visitors from outside the capital, lead to a major boost in cycling numbers and generate tens of millions of pounds in economic benefit. We may have heard that one before.

 

RideLondon ‘…aims to be the largest charity fund-raising cycle ride in the world and organisers will be able to draw on the vast experience of the London Marathon team within the partnership. Since its foundation participants in the London Marathon have raised over half a billion pounds for good causes and in 2011 they raised a staggering £51.8 million.’

 

According to the Mayor of London, ‘Our challenge is to ensure that 2012 is just the start….We also need to capitalise on the incredible achievements of Team GB’s Olympic cyclists whose superhuman efforts will inspire thousands more Londoners to take to two wheels. I urge every Londoner and cycle fanatics from all over the country, if not the world, to mark the weekend of 3 August 2013 in their diaries for what I believe will become one of the world’s number one cycling events.’ An announcement about tackling the increase in cycling deaths in the capital would also have been welcome.

 

And a penultimate word from Trott – ‘It’s great to think (Olympic success) may have inspired people to get on their bikes and RideLondon is a great opportunity for the public to get out and join us on the roads.’ To find out more head to www.RideLondon.co.uk

 

And a last word from our office wag – Boris [notorious philanderer] Johnson wants you to ride London?…..I thought he already had.

 

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Featured News

Gold Run for Wiggo

With the Men’s Time Trial Bradley Wiggins has won the first of what we hope is a string of cycling golds. In the process he doubled Britain’s gold medal tally, just hours after the host nation won its first event at the London Olympics yesterday.

 

With his seventh Olympic medal, four of them gold, Wiggins is now the most decorated British Olympian, while the morning’s medal ensured Heather Stanning and Helen Glover became the first British female rowers to win an Olympic title. Wiggins had been the favorite for gold after winning both time trial stages en route to becoming Britain’s first Tour de France winner last month, and his dominance was clear to see as he finished 42 seconds ahead of the Germany’s 2011 world TT champion Tony Martin.

 

Chris Froome won the bronze, as former Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara finished a disappointing seventh. The Swiss rider injured his shoulder in Saturday’s Road Race and was clearly in pain when he crossed finish line. American Taylor Phinney finished fourth, nine seconds off a podium place.

 

Wiggins later turned up live on BBC, still looking a little shell-shocked, and even interrupted an international football broadcast with an unscheduled stop at the BBC3 studio. Cycling trumping football? The world’s gone mad (as Wiggo would say).

 

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Armistead Wins Team GB’s First Medal

What a difference a day makes, not only in terms of weather as the Women’s Road Race was fought in appalling conditions, but also for British fortunes as Team GB’s Lizzie Armitstead took Silver, the first medal of the Games for Team GB. The Netherlands’ Marianne Vos took Gold and Russia’s Olga Zabelinskaya Bronze.

 

From the off the weather and wet and greasy road conditions worked against the field of 66 riders and the 140km event was, not unlike yesterday’s Men’s Road Race, defined by multiple spills that frequently decimated the pack. Vos, Armistead and Zabelinskaya rode a hard break from the peloton for more than an hour towards the finish line as the weather continued to deteriorate and by the time the three riders hit a sprint finish to determine the medal colours the roads were treacherous.

 

23-year-old Armistead (who didn’t even own a bike until she was 16) was obviously jubilant and more than a little overcome with emotion, telling reporters, ‘I’m a bit shocked, I’m glad I committed to that break’.

 

Team GB’s Nicole Cooke (who won the event at Beijing) came in 31st and Emma Pooley who suffered what looked to be a puncture with less than 6km left to go, limped home 40th.

 

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No Gold for Cav

Not perhaps the kick-off to Olympic Cycling that many of us had hoped for with Mark Cavendish’s ‘Dream Team’ failing to take a podium, but still an undeniably spectacular start to the 2012 Games and a thrilling race that ultimately saw Kazakhstan’s Alexandr Vinokurov take Gold, Rigoberto Uran Uran (Columbia) with Silver and Alexander Kristoff (Norway) with Gold.

 

With near perfect conditions and crowd support that at times rivalled the Tour de France’s best days the Men’s Road Race unfolded on a grand scale; 140+ riders from 63 countries tackling the longest Olympic course (also the largest ‘free to vie event’) that was incident packed almost from the off.  A dog chose its moment to dart in front of the peloton whilst still well within London and by an hour and 45 minutes in the biggest crash of the day took down a dozen riders – the most unexpected event though was Fabian Cencellara’s locked rear wheel that had him plough into hoardings, leaving him bloodied and without hope for what little was left of the day. The extent of his injuries have not yet been disclosed but are more than likely to inhibit his performance ay Wednesday’s Time Trials – boosting Bradley Wiggins’ chances of Gold.

 

Despite the lack of Team GB medals, the Men’s Road Race looked like Great Britain has truly embraced the sport and even more encouraging – in this ‘build ‘em up and knock ‘em down’ media-led age – no one post-event was looking to lay blame, knock tactics or tut loudly ‘I told you so.’

 

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Hoy to Fly Flag

The prestige of British cycling seems to be going from strength to strength. Hot on the pedals of Bradley Wiggins’ historic win at the Tour de France comes the announcement that Sir Chris Hoy has been chosen to carry the Union Flag at the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday, after the conclusion of voting by the 542-strong British team. The four-time Olympic Gold Medallist had previously had the honour of carrying the flag at the closing ceremony at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, today saying, ‘I’m absolutely delighted and honoured to have been voted as the flag bearer for Team GB… To lead out your team at a home Olympics is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and one that that I can’t wait to experience in just a few days time.’

 

Hoy will be in action on the track during the second week of the Games when his participation in both the Team Sprint and Keirin events could see him equal, or even surpass, Sir Steve Redgrave’s British record of five Golds.

 

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Featured Features

London 2012 Track Events

Just a week to go until Danny Boyle unleashes his opening ceremony (Cyclo is still hoping for some zombie action) and the London 2012 games get under way. Time then, we thought, to bring you a quick update on the how, when and why of the cycling track events. We have also recapped on a little details as to what each event entails, particularly as the rather mysterious Keirin and complex Omnium continue to cause confusion. Details of the Road, Mountain Bike and BMX events to follow next week. Stay tuned…

 

Men’s Sprint

Venue: Olympic Park Velodrome

Date: August 4,5,6

Team GB: Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny

 

Women’s sprint

Venue: Olympic Park Velodrome

Date: August 5,6,7

Team GB: Victoria Pendleton, Jessica Varnish

 

About: The Sprint is perhaps the most ‘pure’ of the track disciplines where speed is (almost) everything in the series of three-lap races that see riders whittled down through qualifiers and heats – first over the line wins. Simple. Current Olympic Champion: Chris Hoy (GB), Victoria Pendleton (GB).

 

Men’s Keirin

Venue: Olympic Park Velodrome

Date: August 7

Team GB: Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny

 

Women’s Keirin

Venue: Olympic Park Velodrome

Date: August 3

Team GB: Victoria Pendleton, Jessica Varnish

 

About: Big, as they say, in Japan (where it originated in 1948), this is the event that most resembles a combination of Mad Max and Rollerball, with a motorbike – known as a “Derny” – initially pacing riders around the track and bringing them up to considerable speed before leaving athletes to sprint for victory. Keirin made it’s Olympic debut at the 2000 Sydney Games and, like the Team Sprint, will be settled in a single day of action at London 2012 (technically two days: one for the men’s event, one for the women’s). Current Men’s Olympic Champions: Chris Hoy (GB), Women’s Olympic Champion: NA.

 

Men’s Omnium

Venue: Olympic Park Velodrome

Date: August 4,5

Team GB: Edward Clancy

 

Women’s Omnium

Venue: Olympic Park Velodrome

Date: August 6,7

Team GB: NA

 

About: Only introduced in 2010 at the World Championships, the Omnium makes its Olympic début at London 2012. This is the cycling equivalent of a pentathlon consisting of a 250m Flying Lap, 30km Points Race, 4km Pursuit, a scratch race of 15km and 1km Time Trial. Distances for the women’s discipline are slightly shorter: 20km Points, 3km Pursuit, a scratch of 10km and 500m TT. Current Olympic Champions: NA.

 

Cyclo Fact – The London Velodrome featuring one of the largest cable-net roofs in the UK. The track uses 56km of Siberian pine held into place with 350,000 nails.

 

Men’s Team Sprint

Venue: Olympic Park Velodrome

Date: August 2

Team GB: Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny, Philip Hindes

 

Women’s Team Sprint

Venue: Olympic Park Velodrome

Date: August 2

Team GB: Victoria Pendleton, Jessica Varnish

 

About: Not dissimilar to the Sprint discipline as the name might suggest. Once known as Olympic Sprint, this event sees teams of three compete over three laps with each rider effectively taking a lead per lap for pace. Women’s Team Sprint is new for 2012 and both men’s and women’s events will be contested (from qualifiers to medals) in a single day. Current Men’s Olympic Champions: Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny, Jamie Staff (GB), Women’s Olympic Champions: NA

 

Men’s Team Pursuit

Venue: Olympic Park Velodrome

Date: August 2,3

Team GB: Edward Clancy, Steven Burke, Andrew Tennant

 

Women’s Team Pursuit

Venue: Olympic Park Velodrome

Date: August 3,4

Team GB: Wendy Houvenaghel, Joanna Rowsell

 

About: With Individual Pursuit off the schedule for 2012, this event sees teams compete over 16 laps for men and 12 for women with the time recorded as last rider across the line. As a women’s event this made its first appearance at this year’s World Championships in Manchester and should prove to be a hotly contested Olympic opener. Current Men’s Olympic Champions: Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas, Bradley Wiggins (GB), Women’s Olympic Champion: NA.

 

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GB Men’s Road Race Squad Announced

Ian Stannard, Mark Cavendish, Chris Froome, David Millar, and Bradley Wiggins have been named as the five-man squad that will take on the Road Race at the London 2012 Olympics. Millar’s inclusion is of course controversial as he served a two-year ban for the use of performance-enhancer EPO in the run-up to the Athens Olympics and was initially given a life-time Olympic ban, a decision overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Since his initial ban a penitent Millar has worked closely with anti-doping organisations and also wrote a warts-and-all book ‘Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar’ (Cyclo review here). The Men’s Road Race takes place on the first day of Olympic competition, July 28.