Visiting the stunning Lee Valley VeloPark you cannot help but feel like you are stepping back into summer 2012. The London 2012 summer Olympics was one to remember, and the legacy still remains five years on.
After the 2012 Olympics, the Velodrome was rebuilt to accommodate all types of cycling for Londoners, from BMX to mountain biking and now is a 6,000-seated arena.
Nominations, awards and upcoming events
The VeloPark was nominated for the 2011 RIBA Stirling Prize and won the 2011 Structural Awards Supreme Award for Structural Engineering, and in the same year picked up a second award the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award at British construction Industry Awards.
Although there are no more cycling events for 2017, there are other sporting events taking place just before Christmas, one including the British Indoor Rowing Championships 2017, taking place on the 9th December 9:00-17:00.
Did you know…
- More than 350,000 humble nails hold the velodrome together.
- The nails if laid end to end would lap the track 140 times
- Lee Valley track was designed and then constructed by Australian track designer Ron Webb who has designed some of the best tracks in the world, Sydney and Athens just to name a few.
- The famous landmark, holds the nickname ‘pringle’ due to its curved shape like the potato snack.
- The top of the velodrome follows the shape of the track. The pringle shape was just a coincidence.
What makes this Velodrome so unique?
The Velodrome is the first venue in the world in which you can take part in four different types of racing. Not just that the track is recorded as the fastest in the world, the venue caters for all needs from beginners to professional world champions. Attracting well over the 88,000 people a year that was predicted, the venue is always in constant use.
With the current setup the plan for the Velodrome was not just to have a long-lasting link to the Olympics, but to also have a world-class facility in which all cyclists from different formats of the sport can identify in London by integrating different types of cycling in one place. It spreads the knowledge about different types of bike riding and a new-found respect for the sport. East London is leading the way as a place for cyclist to improve their riding.
