Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

Wales to play host to London Olympic hopefuls.

Several countries competing in the 2012 Olympics have chosen Wales as their base camp location.

With the focus for the 2012 Olympics being firmly centred on London, it's good to hear of places within the UK profiting from the Games that don't lie within the magic home counties catchment area. 

It is now highly likely that the Team GB track cycling team will be using Wales for their pre-Games training camps, utilising the facilities at Newport's Velodrome instead of Manchester. The same is true of the Paralympic track cycling team. 

According to the BBC, neither Welsh organisers nor British Cycling were prepared to confirm or deny this move, but no fewer than five other countries competing in the 2012 Games have expressed a firm intention to base themselves in Wales. 

Cardiff will be home to the Trinidad and Tobago camp, with president of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committe Michael Romany expressing "After considering many options for our training location in the UK, we are very pleased with our choice of Cardiff."

Meanwhile, the Irish Triathlon team will be preparing themselves in Swansea, while the Chinese weightlifting team will be based in Bangor. 

For the Paralympics, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa will be using Cradiff, Swansea and Newport as well. 

Head of pre-Games training in Wales, David Evans said "We have near enough 1000 athletes, coaches and support staff coming to Wales. We are very pleased with where we are at this moment in time, with a year to go before the games."

He is hopeful that at least some of the majority of countries who have yet to decide where to base themselves will choose one of Wales' 32 different available venues. 

Lara has been riding bikes for longer than she'd care to admit, and writing about them nearly as long. Since 2009 she has been working as part of the road.cc review team whilst championing women's cycling on the side, most notably via two years as editor of the, sadly now defunct, UK's first and only women's cycling mag, erm, Women's Cycling. 

Believing fervently that cycling will save the world, she wishes that more people would just ride a bike and be pleasant to each other. 

She will ride anything with two wheels, occasionally likes to go fast, definitely likes to go far and is always up for a bit of exploring somewhere new and exciting. 

Latest Comments