Tired of London, Tired of Life - A website about things to do in London

***

***

For more regular updates, visit Tom's Britain, a new website about things to do in Britain.


***

31 July 2012

Cycle in the Olympic Velodrome

As avid consumers of Olympic build-up hype will almost certainly be aware, one South London venue from the 1948 Olympic Games remains in active use. The Herne Hill Velodrome was originally built in the early 1890s, and chosen for improvements with the addition of a bitumen track the last time the event was held in London.


Tonight, as with every Tuesday from April until September, from 6pm until 8pm there is an open session of road bike training, offering an unstructured chance to ride where once Olympic athletes competed for medals on a medium banked track. The track reaches 30 degrees at its steepest point, providing an opportunity for road riders to practice in a traffic free environment, and we are told it's especially popular with triathletes and sportive riders.

For more, see http://www.hernehillvelodrome.com

^Picture © Paul Wilkinson used under a Creative Commons license^

2 comments:

  1. Wow this looks like a lovely spot. I've never been and I'm not really much of a cyclist not having owned a bike since I was a child. I hope the Olympics will be a springboard for the cycle lanes in London to be improved a LOT though. I really do!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I went here a few months ago and be warned that if you're planning to borrow a track bike, it's actually fairly terrifying if you're not used to it. No brakes and heavy gearing in a rainstorm made for a bit of a tricky afternoon!

    ReplyDelete