The 'Sir Chris': The First Look

Our latest club sponsor for 2012, Careth Ltd (a lanscaping, grounds maintenance, fencing & contract cleaning business based near Balfron) invited our chairman & secretary to a visit to the new velodrome being built in Glasgow's east end for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The facility is looking incredible already, even though there's no track in there yet, but based on Manchester, Glasgow's Chris Hoy Velodrome looks like it's going to easily surpass the facility which was built for the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002. We didn't really know what to expect, what state it would be in or how much we would see, but what we did see was incredible. The project has been huge, it fantastic to have it in Glasgow and the engineering & construction looks like it's very high spec, it looks like a world class sports venue.

When you arrive in the car park, there's a road circuit which skirts the outside, it's only 1km long and has a hairpin at each end, possibly not ideal for elite riders, but certainly will be well used by youth riders and the lower categories. Should teach vital skills and provide a permanent off road training & roacing facility, hopefully clubs and coaches will see it's value.

Approching the venue, the shear scale of the project hits you, this isn't some normal sports or liesure centre, this a major venue for Commonwealth Games, it carries it well.

 We were shown the arena, which will have a 250m banked running track, which can be lowered on hydraulics to provide a flat surface for a variety of different event, makes that a very large & very adaptable space, exactly the legacy it should be.

Moving onto the thing we were here to see, it's going to be very very good. It almost looks finished, you feel yourself imagining the track sitting in there, you can see exactly where it goes. The seating is there, wrapped in plastic, the judges box, windows looking out onto the track from a future gym, the biggest in Glasgow apparently, so you'll be able to spin-bike and get a taste for moving off something static onto the real thing. Round the walls are accoustic blocks, to ensure David Hoy's voice can be heard properly at the track league without any echo's, all still safe in plastic for now. The scale is incredible, a huge window looks out towards Celtic Park, it feels like a very light space.

May is when it's due to be handed over and the SCHÜRMANN brothers get the boards in, these guys have a fair bit of experience, click HERE to see which velodromes they've built already.

What a venue, what a future our riders are going to have, we can't wait until October, this IS the best venue we're ever going to get as cyclists.

2014 Commonwealth Games
Velodrome Info
Glasgow, London, Manchester velodrome deal.

Huge thanks to Keith at Careth for inviting us along.

The year of 'The Sir Chris'

We were formed with this date in mind, 2012 was always going to be when things started to get very exciting, but things have already been on-the-up since back in early 2010 when all this Vortex chat kicked off.

The opening date for the Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow's East End is 1st October 2012,  there's a lot of work to do in between now & that date. Looks like we'll have 2 track coaches fully trained up, an event planned at the track, plus loads of riders will be accredited and ready to ride.

Meadowbank in Edinburgh is still currently Scotland's number one track, a 250m outdoor wooden track seems a mad thing to build, but just look at the champions it's produced with it's incliment weather limitations. It's also vital we keep a venue in Edinburgh, plus another vital venue is Caird Park in Dundee, it's getting resurfaced after some very hard work from some active volunteers, which is what keeps our sport (and all sports at grass roots level) going, the work behind the scenes is often a thankless but vital task. These tracks will complement 'The Sir Chris' as I head it mentioned recently, maybe that'll stick, let's make it stick. Track cycling is about to kick off big time in Scotland. The rumours of a possible indoor track in Inverness are also something to look forward to, that would be incredible if it came off.

Vortex RT has been undergoing some transformations too, we're building and expanding with a very welcome burgeoning sportive section, all of whom will obviously be provided with the opportunity to get some track craft and time on the boards of our old friend Meadowbank, before the comfy indoor velodrome opens.
There will be more on this later, along with some sponsor announcements, then it's hard work until the season opens for our racers & riders, the bid is in for the Scottish Men's & Women's Road Championships with a bigger & better plan than 2011, so we hope to run that again, we'll let you know if it's successful. Roll on 'The Sir Chris'.

Vortex RT