The expected closure of North America’s only indoor velodrome threatens to flatten the Olympic dreams of one of the Canada’s top international amateur cyclists.
“Without the track, I’m not sure where I’ll train for the 2004 Olympics,”
said Langley’s Mandy Poitras, an eight-time national cycling champion and
silver medallist at last summer’s Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia.
On Monday (April 8), Burnaby city council will vote to approve a staff
recommendation to extend the B.C. Volleyball Association’s lease of the
Harry Jerome Sports Centre (which is the large air-supported dome visible
from the Barnet Highway). The volleyball association has indicated that it
plans to replace the cycling track with indoor beach volleyball courts.
“I owe a lot of my international success to the availability of a local
track,” said Poitras, who carefully juggles her time between training and
work.
A teacher at Surrey’s Len Shepherd Secondary School, Poitras hopes to
represent Canada at this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Manchester,
England. She has previously ridden for Canada at the World Championships
and the Pan-Am Games.
In the absence of the Burnaby track, the only indoor velodrome in the
Americas, local cyclists will have to train in either Victoria or Seattle.
“Besides the extra time and expense of travel, we’re at the mercy of the
weather on the outdoor tracks,” added Poitras. “It’s impossible to train
safely on a wet surface.”
The City of Burnaby’s anticipated decision to award the lease to the
volleyball association follows six months of lobbying by the Burnaby
Velodrome Club and Cycling B.C. to save the track.
“We have a viable business plan for a multi-use facility that would allow
volleyball and cycling to coexist and turn a profit,” said David Schneider,
a vice-president of Cycling B.C. “I think if council takes a close look at
it, they’d see that our proposal is a great win-win solution.”
“We hope that Burnaby council will consider the local, regional and
national implications of closing this unique Olympic training facility,”
said Schneider. He added that the national team uses the velodrome for its
winter training, and that the Canadian Cycling Association fully supports
the Burnaby Velodrome Club/Cycling B.C. proposal.
“The CCA is eager to establish a National Development Centre at Harry
Jerome,” said national team coach Eric Van den Eynde. “If the City of
Burnaby were to give its approval, we could open the development centre,
along with its revenue-generating programs, very quickly.”
The Harry Jerome Sports Centre velodrome, which is located at 7564 Barnet
Highway, Burnaby, opened in 1997. Seed financing was provided by Cycling
B.C., and Burnaby Velodrome Club members built the 200m wooden cycling
track. The track hosts more than 25 local, national and international races
each year. Elite cyclists who have trained and raced at the Burnaby
facility include Olympic silver medallist and Pan-Am Games gold medallist
Brian Walton, former World Champion and Olympian Tanya Dubnicoff and
Olympian Lori-Ann Muenzer.
Track cycling got rolling in Vancouver following the 1954 British Empire
(Commonwealth) Games, for which the China Creek Velodrome was built. Racing
continued there until the East Broadway loop was razed in 1980 to make way
for Vancouver Community College.
For more information, or to arrange an interview with Mandy Poitras,
please contact:
Ted Ritter
President
Burnaby Velodrome Club
604-732-7569
For more information regarding the proposed National Development Centre,
please contact:
Eric Van den Eynde
National Team Coach
Canadian Cycling Association
Bromont, Quebec
450-534-1560
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CYCLING IN B.C. (Encyclopedia of B.C.) / by Silas White
CYCLING was introduced to BC when the first shipment of velocipedes, the
earliest bicycles, arrived in VICTORIA from Paris in Feb 1869. Velocipedes
were initially unpopular because they required more physical work to ride
than did horses. In one year the price of a unit dropped >from $150 to $10
and Victoria’s British Colonist newspaper published an obituary for the new
machine.
By 1888 only two bicycles had arrived in VANCOUVER, one owned by Prince
Edward Island champion cyclist Sam Mason, who promoted cycling by beating a
horse in a race down Water St. Victoria’s Island Wanderers Club became BC’s
first cycling organization in 1889 and Vancouver cyclists formed the
Terminal City Cycling Club in 1892 to compete on the new cinder cycling
track at BROCKTON POINT in STANLEY PARK.
By 1894 Vancouver women had taken up cycling despite the protests of some
men that such behaviour was “undignified.” Bicycle competition thrived in
Vancouver and Victoria during the 1890s and other BC communities such as
NANAIMO and KAMLOOPS started cycling clubs. The Burrard Bicycle Club, later
the Vancouver Bicycle Club, formed as part of the Canadian Wheelmen’s Assoc
in 1896 and soon became the largest club in the province.
In 1901 the Vancouver Good Roads Assoc began to construct cycling paths in
Vancouver and the next year the city hosted the Dominion Bicycle Meet,
attracting 7,000 spectators. The automobile was introduced to BC in 1906
but it was extremely expensive and the bicycle “craze” continued. In 1920
the Vancouver Daily PROVINCE Bicycle Road Races were first held and 3 years
later the TIMES-COLONIST sponsored a similar event in Victoria. Top racers
included Dave Mercredy, Don Sutherland, Charlie Staples, William “Torchy”
PEDEN, his brother Doug PEDEN and Jim Davies, winner of the first Canadian
cycling championship in 1927.
Davies and Torchy Peden represented Canada at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics
though they brought home no medals. But Peden swept the Canadian indoor
championships, turned professional the next year and established a world
speed record that stood for 12 years. Aside from touring the world
competing in popular 6-day races, Peden coached 5 top amateurs from BC at
the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics: Lew Rush, Glen Robbins, Frank Elliot, Stan
Jackson and Leo Marchiori. Peden, Davies, Staples, Rush, Elliot and Jackson
all appeared in the international 6-Day Bicycle Races that Vancouver hosted
in the early 1930s.
Morris Robinson of Vancouver emerged in the late 1930s to break most of the
racing records in BC and to race for Canada at the 1938 British Empire
Games. Lorne “Ace” Atkinson was the next top cyclist to emerge in BC,
winning provincial and national events at distances up to 50 miles (80
km)and competing in the 1948 London Olympics and the 1950 and 1954 British
Empire Games (see BRITISH EMPIRE AND COMMONWEALTH GAMES). He then embarked
on a long coaching career, developing the 1967 Pan American Games team and
training and advising more BC riders than anyone else over the next 40
years.
Vancouver’s China Creek Velodrome, a world-class cycling oval built with
yellow CEDAR, was constructed for the 1954 British Empire Games. It fell
into neglect several years after the Games but was restored in 1973 and
used until it was demolished in 1980 to make room for Vancouver Community
College (see COMMUNITY COLLEGES). Forty years after the construction of the
first velodrome, Victoria had the concrete-surfaced Juan de Fuca Velodrome
built for the 1994 Commonwealth Games.
After a difficult transition period for cycling in the 1950s and 1960s,
bike sales boomed in 1970 and a new criterium road race in Vancouver, the
Gastown Grand Prix (197392), attracted top riders from around the world
including 1991 winner Lance Armstrong, who won the 1999 Tour de France.
John Hathaway of Vancouver attracted unprecedented interest in
RANDONNEURING distance cycling by riding 80,000 km around the world in 100
weeks between 1974 and 1976.
In Victoria, the Wheelers Cycling Club was established by Don Fawthorpe and
Tom Morris, a Canadian champion and 2-time Olympic cyclist. Led by
Vancouver’s Ron Hayman, a new generation of competitive cyclists bloomed.
Hayman rode in the Olympics in 1972 and 1976 and as a founding member and
leader of the professional 7-11 team, he was an important figure in the
re-emerging N American pro ranks. He later became the national team’s
coach, attending another Olympics in 1988.
Hayman paved the way for 1984 Olympian Martin Willock, brother Bernie
Willock, a 1979 Pan Am Games bronze medallist, and Alex STIEDA, the first N
American ever to lead the Tour de France. BC’s first world-level women’s
cyclist was Sara Neil, a national champ who competed from 1985 to 1990 and
appeared in the 1988 Olympics. In the mid-1980s mountain bike racing spread
out of California and quickly became popular in BC.
The province has led Canada in recreational and competitive mountain biking
with successful riders such as Leslie Tomlison, Roland Green and Alison
SYDOR, a silver medallist at the 1992 Olympics and 3-time world champion
(199496). In track racing, Brian WALTON of >DELTA was a 1996 Olympic silver
medallist in the points race and 2-time Pan Am gold medallist (1995, 1999).
Recreational cycling grew rapidly in the late 1990s as bicycle tours of
areas such as the ROCKY MTS and GULF ISLANDS became increasingly popular.
Bicycle commuting also continued to increase. Cycling BC, formed in 1974 as
a provincial umbrella organization, promoted and administered the sport.