The South London venue has become a major talent-development hub \u2013 but it hasn’t been an easy journey <\/p>

I have just come off the track for the final time on my first night of Track League racing at South London\u2019s Herne Hill Velodrome and have tuned in to the renowned commentary stylings of Phil Wright, over the tinny pitch-side PA.<\/p>

I have not lit up the track, but nor have I struggled too hard to hold the wheels.<\/p>

I wasn\u2019t ever among the top positions, but I managed to come away with one of the jerseys awarded as a prize for sneaking a prime [awarded for intermediate sprints] in the final points race.<\/p>

More meaningfully, I\u2019ve been welcomed, by Joe, Rob, Swanny, Pete and the rest, into the band of ragtag riders known as ‘the Cs’, one of the myriad groups that help form the wider HHV community.<\/p>

Wright\u2019s rascally, wry, irreverent remark to the neighbours reflects not only a love for this place that everyone here wears on their Lycra sleeves, but a confidence in its continuity.<\/p>

Seventeen years ago, the 132-year-old venue was in serious trouble.<\/p>

The track itself was in a state of disrepair, and the leisure partners charged with its management didn\u2019t see its potential and were failing to invest in its upkeep.<\/p>

When the lease came up, the land owners, the Dulwich Estate, refused to renew it.<\/p>

As the velodrome\u2019s current head coach, John Scripps, describes it, the freeholders decided it was \u201ceither going to be run properly or not at all\u201d.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

99 problems but the lease ain\u2019t one<\/h2>
Spinning around: a busy race calendar includes women\u2019s, vets’, road crit and sprinters’ leagues. – Honor Elliott<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Not at all was, for a while, where things were headed. For a year until August 2005, the gates were shut. That existential threat stirred the locals, inspiring the birth of the Save the Velodrome campaign which, ultimately, achieved just that.<\/p>
Thanks to British Cycling, and a generous bequest, funding was secured for the necessary resurfacing of the track, in-fill of track centre, floodlights and other physical infrastructure.<\/p>
That was sufficient assurance for the freeholders to grant the velodrome a 99-year lease on the land.<\/p>
Velo Club Londres, the racing-focused team most closely associated with the velodrome, temporarily took over its management before handing over responsibility to the newly established Herne Hill Velodrome Trust in 2017.<\/p>
Then, a little over three years ago, the velodrome was again wobbling; by most assessments failing to live up to its potential. The pandemic didn\u2019t help matters, but it did at least offer the opportunity for a reset.<\/p>
Today, tails are most assuredly up. Across the board, attendance is through the roof.<\/p>
Managing director Iain Cook, three years into his tenure, and many more into his lifelong relationship with cycling, points to a figure of 28,000 paid entrants for 2022 and says that because this only counts for publicly bookable sessions, the true total will be almost twice that.<\/p>
Turnover is also nearly double pre-Covid levels.<\/p>
$\"Herne$
Turnover at the Velodrome is nearly twice pre-Covid levels. – Honor Elliott<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Rather than a venerable institution, Herne Hill Velodrome now feels like a dynamic start-up.<\/p>
Last October, in an article featuring several of the local riders who have recently reached the top tier of cycling, The Times <\/em>called Herne Hill Velodrome \u201cthe engine of British cycling\u201d.<\/p>
And on the not-infrequent occasions any of young pros Fred Wright, Flora Perkins, Ethan and Leo Hayter, or Thomas Gloag return to the SE24 track, they can expect to be mobbed by young autograph hunters.<\/p>
But the wider Herne Hill community takes at least as much pride in what the velodrome is doing away from the glare of Grand Tours and World Championships.<\/p>
The same might even be said of Wright himself, as happy as he is to identify as the dad of Fred, a men\u2019s WorldTour rider with Bahrain-Victorious. Cook refers to Wright as Herne Hill\u2019s \u201ckeeper of the community culture”.<\/p>
$\"Herne$
Pros such as Fred Wright and Flora Perkins started out here. – Honor Elliott<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Wright prefers to call himself \u201ca velodrome junkie\u201d and says: \u201cI love commentating, I love making coffee, I love coaching a little bit. I love riding the derny [cycle-pacing vehicle] and I love tandem piloting.\u201d<\/p>
He does this for local disabled cycling charity, Wheels for Wellbeing, who run three sessions a week on the track. <\/p>
More than an outdoor gym, Wright says, \u201cIt\u2019s a place for people to come and be social. While pretending to be riding a bike, you\u2019re actually hanging out with people.<\/p>
“It reminds me of being in the sixth form at school, where you\u2019d walk into the common room and know everybody.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/div>
All or nothing<\/h2>
$\"Herne$
The pavilion, built in 2017, provides a great place to spectate from. – Honor Elliott<\/figcaption><\/figure>
While VCL\u2019s red, white and blue kits remain the most visible at many events, they\u2019ve been joined by the colours of numerous other local squads, including Velociposse, a club for \u201call women, all trans and all non-binary people in London\u201d.<\/p>
Feodora Rayner, Velociposse member and regular racer, says: \u201cHerne Hill Velodrome is invaluable for us as a place where it\u2019s safe to ride a bike, and safe to ride a bike fast.\u201d<\/p>
British Cycling\u2019s announcement in May that transgender women would not be permitted to compete in the \u2018female\u2019 category, regardless of testosterone levels or other medical indicators, was viewed by many as going against that ethos.<\/p>
\u201cThere were quite a few of us, across the whole velodrome, who were really quite appalled by that policy decision,\u201d says Rayner.<\/p>
At the next velodrome event, she positioned a trans flag behind the judges\u2019 desk. In a sport as dominated by the white, monied and male as cycling tends to be \u2013 and often with the entitled attitudes to match \u2013 Herne Hill aspires to more.<\/p>
It \u201ctries to make cycling into something fun rather than something necessarily competitive, or it makes competition fun,\u201d says Rayner.<\/p>
Flora Perkins, who came through the VCL performance pathway and now competes for Belgian Continental outfit Fenix-Deceuninck, agrees: \u201cFrom a young age you\u2019re encouraged to find enjoyment in winning, but it\u2019s not the be-all and end-all,\u201d she says.<\/p>
$\"Herne$
Track cycling sessions for kids start at age eight. – Honor Elliott<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\u201cWhen you first start out, especially as a girl, winning not being everything is great. I got into it because I made friends and I wanted to see my friends again, not particularly because I liked riding a bike.\u201d<\/p>
In 2022, female riders made up 29.5 per cent of all participants in sessions \u2013 roughly double the share who are members of British Cycling.<\/p>
Although Herne Hill won\u2019t be content until gender parity has been achieved, youth development officer, Tianne Bell, is pleased to report that \u201cthe weekly under-18 girls session is the most popular, and regularly sold out, or at the limit\u201d.<\/p>
Women also make up half of those on the payroll, all of whom know there\u2019s more to diversity and inclusivity: race, age, culture, class and disability come into it too.<\/p>
Reducing barriers to participation was one of the main areas cycling development manager Thea Smith was brought in to work on in 2019.<\/p>
She sees her goal as to \u201cjust make as many people aware of this place as possible\u201d. It\u2019s about \u201cmaking it better known that it\u2019s affordable, that there are bikes to borrow, that you don\u2019t need any pre-existing knowledge. You don\u2019t even need to be able to ride a bicycle to come here\u201d.<\/p>
$\"Herne$
The place is full of people who are passionate about cycling. – Honor Elliott<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Indeed not. \u201cRacing is a small proportion of what we do here,\u201d says Smith.<\/p>
Bell agrees: \u201cIt\u2019s all about people coming to whichever kind of cycling they want to come to, at whatever level they want to come to, at whatever age they want to come to it.\u201d<\/p>
Or as Scripps sums it up: \u201cThe primary objective is about getting more people on bikes.”<\/p>
\u201cEven if you can\u2019t afford it, talk to us and we\u2019ll see if we can work something out,\u201d Bell adds.<\/p>
As well as leading coaching sessions, her role involves reaching out to local schools \u201cfrom all different backgrounds\u201d and community groups, such as Together We Ride, whose own mission is to increase the participation and presence of people of colour within cycling.<\/p>
\u201cWe\u2019re getting there, but it\u2019s going to take time,\u201d Bell says.<\/p><\/div><\/div>
All hands on deck<\/h2>
$\"Herne$
Director Iain Cook is pleased with the way things are going. – Honor Elliott<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Scripps and Bell agree that the way the velodrome is formally organised is a major contributor to its current success.<\/p>
\u201cThere\u2019s no hierarchy,\u201d says Bell. \u201cEverybody coaches, does the menial tasks and answers emails.\u201d<\/p>
Scripps says it\u2019s because they all understand the mission. That ‘all’ includes the charitable body that sits on top of the day-to-day operation. Cook strongly believes that the atypical way the velodrome is run helps: \u201cIt\u2019s small and not reporting to anything other than a board of trustees,\u201d he says.<\/p>
\u201cEveryone\u2019s primary drive is wanting it to succeed. You can be agile and flexible, because you\u2019re not fitting into processes defined by, say, a local council.\u201d<\/p>
Although there is the impression this may not always have been the case, ‘the management’, as Wright affectionately calls them, now maintain a wholly constructive relationship with the HHVT board.<\/p>
\u201cThe point of the charity,\u201d says Tim McInnes, chair of the trustees, \u201cis to build the facility into a position whereby it achieves the charitable objective and generates a sufficient surplus.\u201d<\/p>
Among many other things, that surplus needs to be able to fund the track being relaid, and \u00a3800,000 is the current estimate for the cost of replacing the all-weather surface.<\/p>
Although that war chest is topped up by proceeds from paying users, donations and grants, Rapha, the cycling apparel and lifestyle giant, has been a particularly benevolent benefactor in recent years.<\/p>
$\"Herne$
Coaches, such as Joseph Alberti, will tell you how it\u2019s done. – Honor Elliott<\/figcaption><\/figure>
As well as wholly funding the creation of Bell\u2019s role three years ago, the company\u2019s foundation paid to spruce up the entrance, re-tarmac the drive and paint a mural, in the velodrome\u2019s trademark navy, turquoise, red, black and white.<\/p>
McInnes goes as far to say that the velodrome \u201cis in the healthiest place it\u2019s been for many decades\u201d and they don\u2019t have to rely on unpaid labour \u2013 at least for the big things \u2013 now.<\/p>
\u201cThe legacy of community and volunteering is one of its strengths,\u201d he says, \u201cbut being run completely by volunteers meant that lots of it was done fairly amateurly.\u201d<\/p>
$\"Herne$
You can even try off-track activities such as cyclocross and mountain biking. – Honor Elliott<\/figcaption><\/figure>
So the present is bright, but what about the future? Tim has grand visions of Herne Hill becoming the cycling equivalent of Battersea Dogs Home, which \u201cmanaged to take what is essentially an animal shelter and turn it into a multi-site, internationally renowned facility for promoting animal welfare\u201d.<\/p>
Cook would like to put on bigger and better events, such as this summer\u2019s South London Grand Prix. Held to mark the 75th anniversary of the 1948 Olympics, it was the first elite race meet to take place in Herne Hill for a decade.<\/p>
Bell and Scripps mainly talk about it being busier, attracting people from more diverse backgrounds.<\/p>
\u201cIf more WorldTour pros come out of the top, then fine,\u201d Scripps says. \u201cIf none come out of the top, then fine.\u201d<\/p>
None of these aims are incompatible. All add up to the velodrome looking like it does now, doing what it already does so well, only more. \u201cIt\u2019s quite hard to believe in a lot of stuff these days, but believing in this place is quite easy,\u201d says Wright. \u201cIt is so obviously a good thing.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n
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