London Velopark

The London Velopark will be constructed in Leyton in East London in England as one of the ‘Big Five’ permanent Olympic venues.

The funding for the Velopark was confirmed in February 2005 and the project was scheduled to go ahead whether or not London’s bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics was successful.

However as London’s bid for the Games was successful the velodrome will be built with a spectator capacity of 6,000 rather than 1,500 seats that it would otherwise have had. The other facility at the site which will be used for the Olympics is the outdoor BMX racing track, which will also have a spectator capacity of 6,000.

The Velopark will be situated at the northern end of London’s Olympic Park. After the Games it will be extended further northwards, with the legacy road cycling circuit straddling the A12 and extending into the old Eton Manor site, where a mountain biking area will be located.

In addition to the two Olympic venues the London Velopark will feature a 1.6km road racing circuit, a cross-country mountain bike course and an outdoor cycle speedway circuit. However the road racing at the Olympics will take place in Regent’s Park and Hampstead Heath and the surrounding streets, and the mountain biking (originally planned for the Weald Country Park in Essex but scrapped for being insufficiently challenging) will be held outside of London. Cycle speedway is not an Olympic discipline.

The Velopark is scheduled to be completed in 2011 at an estimated cost of £37 million. The velodrome will also be used for the 2012 Paralympics.

On 12 July 2007 the Olympic Delivery Authority announced the selection of the design team for the Velopark, comprising Hopkins Architects, Expedition Engineering, BDSP, and Grant Associates.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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London 2012 website
wikipedia entry
The Olympic Movement

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