Corporate sessions hogging track time at London's Olympic velodrome, say local cycling groups

Clubs get priority for obvious reasons: disclipline, block bookings, repeat visits after compulsory accreditation, etc. Just join one. And we can all feel hard done by: east London clubs get priority over west London clubs. The real problem is changing your cleats to Look Keos, which the hire bikes use - who uses those!?

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Yes - why *exactly* was it closed for 18 months?
As far as i know it didnt need any major Aquatics Centre like conversion to 'legacy mode'.

Because the entire Olympic Park was being remodelled. All the temporary buildings taken out, a road circuit being built, access roads and parking for the velodrome, the BMX track being totally rebuilt not to mention the work inside the velodrome to remove all the Olympics branding and some of the extraneous infrastructure.

Then they need to get the staff, the hire bikes etc all in place, sort out the contracts, the programme of events, open sessions, club sessions, corporate sessions and put in place an accreditation system for new riders to build a pool of people so that you can actually hold some club racing there.

It's really not a case of having the closing ceremony then throwing the doors open a week later saying "come on in and ride the track!"

Same happened at Manchester, then Glasgow, OK London is a slightly larger village, but it's got by with a Herne Hill up until now, where are all these new users coming from!?

Glasgow has calmed down a bit now, with more spaces available than the initial mad rush, but as with all the big velodromes, they regularly close for competitions.

Unlike London, Glasgow opened 18months before the Games and hopefully won't be shut for 18 months after like London!

A story originating from the Daily Star!
Rearrange these words into a popular phrase or saying; bottom, the, barrel, the, of, scraping...

key conclusion: we need more velodromes, preferably indoor.

Am i right in thinking that at Newport you dont even have to book?
You can just tip up and ride the track until your head falls off?

Probably quicker and easier for all you London Cock-er- nee sparras to drive to Newport for the day and ride your hipster trackbikes until your hearts content and leave the velodrome you all help to pay for to the bankers and hedge fund managers.

Read that, it reads like every other kind of track in this country, motor racing tracks, motor cycle tracks, karting tracks.

They are all booked by corporates because that is where the best money comes from. It is simple maths. It is not just this one velodrome that is effected.

Look at what happened with the Silverstone 24hr cycling event. I cannot go into detail, but it was down to costs wanted by the track.

It will be the same here, they are trying to recoup money quickly, which will limit locals and grassroots from using the venue.

Here in Manchester we have it worse. We cant get on the bloody track because there are some mysterious corporate lot called 'Team GB' (sounds made up to me) hogging the track most days.
I have even been thrown off *my* track because apparently they have to 'train' or something.
Ive never even heard of this Team GB - is it a bank or something?

It's a similar situation as Manchester, if you want to do the taster sessions you have to book a session ages in advance and I don't think there is currently a weekend session available for several months.

This is down to the sheer popularity of them, so could possibly this be the case here? And because local people aren't able to get on they blame it all on "The Corporates"?

its claim and counterclaim at the moment.

If we assume the third corp organiser averages the same as the other two, that's a total of 9 days a month - i.e. about 30%. So that is a lot more than the 5% allocated for corp events, but still leaves 70%... sounds like quite a bit of time must still be available to everyone else?

And unless I misunderstand, its not even fully open until the end of the month, so i should think it might be difficult to get access at the moment.

Event Management/Velo Events, were selected to run track days at the park. Velo Events estimates it will be able to use the velodrome exclusively for four full days a month, while the Cavendish Group has obtained two full days a month.

Unless I'm missing something, that's 20%, not 5%.

Saying that, in my communications with them, they've been helpful and replied promptly. I know they're only granting clubs one go each at the moment but hopefully that will change.

Bespoked should have stayed in Bristol. It's stupid to think that a bike show will stop the use of the track by cyclists. Double fail