Is our sport in real trouble?

Fixey

We used to have 2 clubs where I live. I remeber starting with 15 in the A grade and we had 3 grades...the other club had similiar numbers! thats around 90 all up. that was in 1990..... now we are combined and 10 is a good nite. I am told track is dieing all over the world except mabey Austrailia. is that true? Here you can race road 12 months a year if you want, and most do...that has led to poor speed and tacticaly inept riders riding back marks. I hold grave fears for track cycling.....whats your thoughts

Sprinter_989

Over here in Australia track racing is great. Got around 200 riders for one open.

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rayner

Where do u live? At the christmas carnivals we only get 100 odd and about a third are mainland or internationals. For club racing we hardly ever get 10 and at the silverdome there'd be 30 absolute tops on a good Thursday night. It'll never die out but the numbers are damn low.

Sprinter_989

At Gold Coast, in 5 Days of Summer Cycling

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shokhead12

Maybe because clubs suck?

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When men were men and sheep were scared

gboff

Track at Sydney is kickin on. Evaryone is figuring out how **** road is. Haha you can tell Im a trackie.

Jacos

At the Bellville velodrome we have 30-40 cyclists from age under 12 till junior attending track development sessions. The Lotto has provided 30 bikes and we have another +- 15 that are supplied free to all of the development riders. The issue is that if you walk in on any other night you will only see a handful of trackies. It will take a couple of years for the development riders to reach elite status and till then the sport will still struggle in the Western Cape, SA.

Ciao,
Jaco

luke1972

Everyone is racing crits/road. When the Aussie pro's come home for the Australian summer they do not do track (despite most of em having a track background).

I think track will remain for eliter riders (ie coaches will make talented riders do track to learn some skills), but will remain a fringe sport for most roadies.

Same with attendance, why pay to watch a track carnival when you can see quality riders for free at Bay Series, National road champs, TDU etc?

Melbourne will have a second indoor track in a few months, despite the majority of licenced riders not being track riders. Without careful administration I think that the new velodrome will be a white elephant if it is not used.

If track changed to being a winter sport in Australia I think this might help boost its appeal. The summer carnivals could still be held, but by racing in winter roadies would get to see track racing all year round as they do road. Roadies could train through winter to develop skills then race track in the following summer at the big carnivals.

drewjc

Luke i think that is a brilliant idea! I know it isnt a new one but surely with the indoor facilities popping up everywhere of late, with Queensland the only eastern state without an indoor track it would be quite easy (and logical one would think) to hold some minor and/or major track racing during the winter (thats what they do in Europe and it gets a hell of a lot colder over there in winter than it does here). This would not only increase rider skills/speed for road racing aswell as improve the domestic scene with more track riders for the next summer season, but also increase the depth of talent in this area (although that isnt really necessary at the moment in Aus.) when the pro's come home. With some support from the riders this idea would take off i think. i know that there is winter track racing in Sydney (well there was last yr anyway), and with the numbers they were getting at these races i would assume that there is going to be some more this yr. I would certainly be interested in getting down there at some stage to test my legs in the middle of the road season regardless of the 2 hours drive there and back. Track racing all year is the way to go! keep coming up with those good thoughts Luke u might go somewhere.

Lasalles

The winter series is running again at Dunc Gray this year.

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Fixey

What do you think of getting the top riders and whipping them around the country for Kierin type meets with betting? In NZ very few can make a $$ cycling, mabey if track ofered a career.....I know it is probably not the same in Aus, but still gotta be better than the Horse's. Just a thought

drewjc

would be great.......not sure if it would work though. I would like to think it would. the only trouble being that we need some grass roots stuff aswell as just parading around the "big guys". Obviously this would help get some ppl involved with a career being a possibility at some stage down the track, but there also needs to be some junior involvement.

VeloFlash

Actually, Queensland will be getting an indoor track. So all the mainland state capital cities will have an indoor Olympic 250 m board track.

They are building a new indoor track at Northcote (?) in Melbourne and when complete they will dismantle the Vodafone Arena track (location of 2004 Worlds) and transplant it in Brisbane.

The Vodafone Arena in Melbourne was rarely used for track racing as other sports provided a higher and steady income stream, like carpet bowls. Dunc Gray hosts a lot of other sports but still maintains regular track racing and training. I understand the fixed costs of running Dunc Gray (that is those costs that will exist irrespective of whether it is being used or not) run to about $3,000 per day.

At Northcote they are considering to run a winter track series along the lines of Sydney. I have not competed in the FNWTR Sydney series but now as road racing in NSW is becoming limited through political ineptitude I may mosey along.

Here is their new website -

http://www.fnwtr.tk/

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VF

"Remember, even if you win the rat race, you are still a rat"

tafi

I agree whole heartedly. Why we keep our season in time with Europe is beyond me. It makes no sense and I think cycling is the only sport in the country that does. From my perspective it's a real pain in the arse to train for road races in winter time because you happily work hard over the summer with the extra daylight only to realise that form is falling away again by the time you get to mid season (and the most important races) because available training time falls away and most people get burned out.

Track racing with it's shorter more explosive style is made for a weekend (afternoon outdoors evening indoors) in winter just like Rugby or Football is. Shorter times available for training also suit track racing as well. It's also more conducive to spectators as well. Who want's to be sitting on their arse at the Dunc when they could be out in the sun doing outdoorsy things during summer. I think this is something that Cycling Australia needs to look at.