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news
Ed Clancy, Stephen Burke, Peter Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas, London 2012 (copyright Britishcycling.org.uk)Closed road circuit in Lancs to be named after Olympic hero Stephen Burke
British Cycling has announced that work will start next month on a new closed road circuit in Lancashire that will bear the name of local sports hero, two-time Olympic gold medallist, Steven Burke.
The £300,000 project in Pendle – the borough that hosted the 2010 road national championships – is being carried out in partnership with Sport England, Pendle Council and Cycle Sport Pendle.
Stage 1 of construction of the Steven Burke Closed Road Circuit will be completed by March and a second phase of work, which will see the addition of a car park, pavilion and lights that will enable the facility to be used over the winter, is scheduled to be finished in August.
“British Cycling is very pleased to partner with Pendle Council and other funders to build this fantastic new cycling facility,” said the governing body’s chief executive, Ian Drake.
“The new circuit will allow many more young people in the North West to participate in cycling and help develop the sport in the region even further.
“Last year we made significant progress in delivering new facilities with closed road circuits opening in Bath and York and a Mountain Bike trail in Manchester.
“But in order to continue to build participation we need to create a new network of traffic-free cycle sport facilities with appropriate facilities such as this.
“We are very excited with the development and look forward to the opening in 2014,” he added.
The circuit will be located at Swinden Playing Fields, putting it within easy reach of Nelson, Colne and Barrowford, and will be used by everyone from schoolchildren and newcomers to road racing through to experienced cyclists, as well as people requiring adapted bikes via the Wheels For All project.
Burke, who comes from Colne, said: “The Hub will be fantastic for Pendle and for getting boys and girls into cycling. It’s a great sport that will stay with them for life.”
One of the prime movers behind the scheme is Peter Boast of Cycle Sport Pendle, who has spent five years trying to turn what was a dream into reality.
He said: “It’s been a great team effort and it’s fantastic that our vision of a wonderful hub for cycling, including coaching, racing and cycling for leisure, will become a reality.
“Pendle Council, Colne and Nelson Area Committees and the Lancashire Environment Fund have already provided £150,000 for this new facility.
“The additional funding from British Cycling means we can start work!”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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17 comments
Hmm, not so useful for the public then. I am actually willing to pay to use it. And using it doesn't have to be interesting just so long as I get the ideal conditions. Well back up to the Alderley edge bypass.
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Awesomeness for Colne, even if it's a longish trek for me. Need more sites like this. Wondering if the site might be open to hiring to clubs for one-off crits maybe?
Great news of Colne. I am surprised and pleased to hear there is a track like this in Tameside quite near me. I would love to set a personal best 100k on a flat smooth uninterrupted track like this. I did a little google but the website only shows sessions for kids. I don't fancy swapping HGVs and red lights for squashing little children.
More investigation is needed.
Bikeboy: Tameside runs coaching sessions for youth and novice riders all the time and it hosts a race league on Tuesday nights through the summer. Outside of that though, it's not open access for security reasons - you'd just have dog walkers all over it or kids on mini-motos trashing the place.
And trust me, 100km round there on your own would be soul-destroyingly dull, that's about 120 laps!
Great facility though and really good news about Colne too. Fantastic for getting kids and novices into the sport in a safe and welcoming environment.
Greg asks what urban councils are doing? A fair bit is the answer - at least in the NW. In the last 5 years:
Thameside in Manchester - race circuit
Litherland in Liverpool - race circuit
Knowsley - outside velodrome
With Pendle being accessible from Cumbria and West Yorkshire it's not a bad place to build a track.
As for the south outside London Bournemouth have a brand new velodrome and Kent a circuit. Circuits are less expensive of course and if Tesco's ever thought to combine their out of town barns with a track every town in the UK could have one.
Great news, but why are so many circuits in the sticks, it doesn't help attract the young people, who haven't got supportive parents, to the sport because they won't be able to get to these places.
Surely a better location would be brownfield sites in cities, although obviously i recognize that this site is being funded by that council. One wonders what other more urban councils are doing?
If you look at the posts around Surrey and Ride London it will give you a good idea. There is so much 'nimbyism' when you get anywhere near a town centre that only the big cities can get the measures through. It would be great to have another velodrome in the south-east but the chances of one in Surrey are bugger all.
I'm not suggesting that the more rural areas are push-overs; but perhaps they put a greater value on these sorts of infrastructure projects.
The mentioned circuit in Bath is on the edge of the city close to social housing and accessible from across the city and wider area. It's on the Bristol side too.
Congrats Pendle. Our circuit has already proved a huge success. Especially as it's enabled the three local clubs to come together to form an alliance to deliver youth coaching - the Sulis Scorpions.
All the kudos, respect and general thanks for this project has to go to Peter Boast, Neil Welsh & Cycle Sport Pendle - Massive Job, Massively well done! It got the Go Ahead in August.
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/539917/new-cycling-circuit-fo...
Errr.... corrected that too... sorry
Thanks Shay Cycles, corrected that.
You might want to correct his name Shay's name too!
Thanks Chris!
"Pendle – the town that hosted the 2010 road national championships "
Just for clarity Pendle isn't a town, it is a Borough who's main Council offices are in the town of Nelson.
Good to see another new circuit being developed though!
Sounds good. Any other details? How long is a lap and what is the elevation etc?
Shame it won't be local to me. Mind you, it wouldn't take much imagination to turn Richmond Park into a really good cycle-sport facility...
This is great news for Pendle & the surrounding area.. A big well done to Peter Boast & his colleagues for getting this great facility for cyclists. Also very pleased, wheels for all, will be using this facility, as I have a son who is Autistic & also work in care.. Hopefully they'll get lots of new adapted bikes & be well used by the community.