Cycle Sport London

 

Although the outdoor track leagues are drawing to a close at this time of year, Herne Hill’s Saturday Track Inductions have never been more popular. The Saturday sessions consist of an induction, followed by faster training for the more confident riders and are held every week until 25th October, and have been getting as many as 170 riders.

 

So, early one Saturday morning, pausing only at Dulwich’s Italian café for some strong coffee, I made my way to Burbage Road. Going down the narrow driveway between the large houses for the first time and seeing the track at the end is like finding a hidden treasure. Herne Hill velodrome dates from Victorian times, and hosted the track events at the 1948 Olympics, and is only venue from these Olympics still in active use. The present day track was built in the 1980s and replaced the earlier bitumen surfaced track.

 

The Saturday sessions are run by cheerful volunteers from the Velo Club De Londres

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, who give up their free time every Saturday during the summer to run a safe and effective induction.

 

 

free immortal beloved movie download Considering that many riders have never been on a track or ridden fixed wheel and are on unfamiliar hire bikes, it is a credit to VCL that by the end of the session, these novice riders will be confident enough to ride safely around in a group. Crashes are very rare – unusually, there was one this morning, with one rider coming off – and are typically caused when someone forgets to keep pedaling.

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Although I’m an experienced cycle racer and had previously ridden a fixed wheel on the road, it was an induction at Herne Hill that got me into riding track. I progressed from the induction to the Saturday training sessions and from there, with some helpful encouragement from VCL’s John Brooks, to racing at the weekday Track League, and next week, with some trepidation, I’ll be riding the Senior Track Championships at Manchester.

 

 

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The inductions attract a wide range of people, from experienced lycra clad cyclists through urban warriors to occasional riders, and I talked to some of them to find out why they were here.

 

The Edwards family from Beckenham were all doing the session, their first time on a track, and had heard about ‘this little gem of a place’ from a friend. Kevin and Simon, two friends from Bexley, both cycle to work regularly and had been inspired by the success of Britain’s Olympic riders to try some track riding for themselves. Chris and his son Sam, age 11, from Muswell Hill had just returned from a 700 mile ride from Vilniers to Berlin, and had heard about Herne Hill at the Cycle Jam event at the Tour of Britain’s London stage.

 

Wandering outside the track area, I found Mike’s stall, selling vintage cycle parts. Mike used to run a cycle shop, and when it closed, sold the residual stock off at cycle jumbles, and found that he enjoyed it so much that he started doing it regularly. He comes down here on the second Saturday of the month, and told me about the big cycle jumble that will be here on 4th October. I spent some time looking at the beautifully crafted old components before returning to the track area to watch the post-induction session.

 

This started with faster training, and the more confident riders from today’s induction were joined by others who have previously completed the induction. Everyone rides two abreast in a large group, and riders are sent off, four at a time, from the front of the group to chase around the track and on to the tail end. This is all supervised by the VCL volunteers, riding alongside the group. After this was finished, I talked to some of the riders.

 

Jim from Camberwell, who posts on the London Fixed Gear and Singlespeed forum as Hillbilly, was riding a tricked out Charge Plug. He had done the induction 4 months ago, and come down for more, calling it ‘real good fun’. LFGSS, a group of fixed wheel enthusiasts, are having their own track day at Herne Hill, on the 21st September. Nick, down from the Peak District, rides track at Manchester, and had come here to enjoy the open air track experience. There were several Team Economic Energy riders resplendent in their smart yellow kit, and one of them, Leon from East London, an experienced road rider, was enjoying the ‘good fun and good coaching’, although he was being careful not to go too hard since he had a 50 mile time trial to ride the next day.

 

Finally, after a break, the final part of the session started. This consisted of 12 lap training races, and riders can choose whether to ride in the fast or slow groups. The fast group can be as fast as the B category group in the midweek Whitten Timber Track League, so, if you’ve been to a few Saturday sessions and can hold the pace in the fast group, you’re ready to progress to real track racing!!

 

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Whilst watching the racing, I talked to VCL’s Colin; Colin is a Herne Hill regular who not only takes the Saturday sessions and rides a Derny motorbike at Thursday evening’s motor paced sessions, but also spent 8 weeks during the summer coaching children’s track sessions. Colin explained that although the entry fee for the induction helps to fund track maintenance and running costs, there is a need for more money to be spent on the velodrome, as a quick look around at the derelict stands and clubhouse confirms.

 

The land that the track is built on is owned by Dulwich Estates, who lease it annually to British Cycling. The short term nature of the lease is the problem: as Colin explained, although there is around 9 million pounds of funding available, a minimum 25 year lease is required before this can be released. The danger is that although cycling’s popularity is currently riding high on the back of our Olympic success, if we don’t act now to take advantage of and secure Herne Hill’s future, the funding could disappear. Although London will be getting a state of the art velodrome for the Olympics, this won’t be available to the public until after 2012, and in any case, although a fast, steeply banked indoor velodrome will be better for elite athletes, it can’t fulfill Herne Hill’s role as a true grassroots track cycling facility for everyone.

 

Besides, when I’m sitting on the grass in the track centre between sessions and chatting to the other riders on a sunny day at Herne Hill, I know that there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.

 

Thanks to Andy Waterman for the photos