June 12, 2005 – Saturday night was the last tune up before the Ontario Provincial Track Championships at the Velodrome next weekend. In preparation for the championships, the London Track League was split into 3 divisions to contest a separate sprint event.

Rocky Hosen, visiting the London Velodrome for the first from Trinidad, was very quick in the qualification round to set-up the sprint rounds. Rocky only arrived at the velodrome early on Saturday afternoon and was a force, contesting all 6 rounds of the sprint competition.

Other riders new to the track on the evening were, Ian Robertson from Lincoln Nebraska who was in town to prepare for Championships in 7 days. Robertson a pursuit specialist rode a strong Madison for the Red Team to capture the victory on points. Robertson who had only raced on 333m tracks took to the tight 138m Forest City Velodrome like a real professional.

Many of the other riders were putting the finishing touches on their fitness.

The Provincial Track Cycling Championships are being held in London for the first time. Starting on Friday, June 17th at 7pm with the toughest race in cycling the Kilo (1000m) Time Trial. In addition to the T.T. on Friday is the 100 lap Scratch Race for Elite Men, and 60 Lap Scratch Races for Elite Women, Juniors & Masters.

The Velodrome will open early on Saturday Morning June 18th. The sprinters take to the track for warm-up at 8am with racing at 9:30am, following the first 2 sprint rounds will be the Pursuit Time Trial. A dinner break will continue until the evening session at 7pm which will feature the finals of the sprint competition and points race for all categories. The last race of the night will be the Ontario Madison Championship. Up to 7 teams of 2 riders will contest the competition.

We are expecting racers from Trinidad, Lincoln Nebraska, Detroit Mi, Rochester NY, Montreal, Calgary Alberta, and from all over Ontario.

There is no pre-registration, $20.00 entry covers all the events you want to ride.

General admission is $10.00 for the entire weekend.

Check www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca for updated information.

May 12, 2005 – Pauls Bicycle Repairs from St. Thomas is the Corparate Sponsor for this Saturday nights bicycle races at the new Velodrome at the London Gardens.

Racers from Vancouver, Montreal, Detroit plus Chris Helwig, Simon Dearing, Amy Maher all from London, will be competing for the over $500 in merchandise supplied by the owner of the store Paul Fagan. “Indoor Bicycle racing is new to the area, so anything we can do to bring competitive racers to London is a bonus for our store in St. Thomas” said Fagan.

The Forest City Velodrome Association is promoting the racing. 87 year old Albert Coulier who built the facility indicated that, “we expect a solid field of riders that will light up the Boards”. “We have 3 – 4 sprinters coming to try and break the track record for the Flying lap which will kick off the evenings racing” said Coulier.

General Admission Tickets are available at the Velodrome for $10.00 for adults, Seniors are $5.00, with children under 8 years old are free.

For more information
www.ForestCityVelodrome.ca