This story is taken from Sacbee / Outbound / Cycling



Cycling group seeks velodrome site, schedules 'Savage' fundraiser
smcmanis@sacbee.com
Published Thursday, Feb. 03, 2011


Never mind that long, soap- operatic quest to build a new arena for the Sacramento Kings.

What say we build a velodrome?

Anyone?

A motivated group of Sacramento cyclists, tired of having to travel clear to San Jose to ride their bikes in circles, is working to form a public-private partnership to construct and run a 250-meter cycling track at an existing regional park.

The Sacramento Valley Velodrome Association, headed by bike mechanic and racer Dean Alleger, has met with Sacramento City Councilman Kevin McCarty and city Parks and Recreation director Jim Combs to broach the idea of not only building a track but also developing youth programs. Velodromes are used for track cycling, in which riders race against each other and the clock around a banked oval.

"I think it's an idea we'd support," Combs said. "But it's got a lot of issues to work out. There's got to be an appropriate site, and there are financing issues to take care of. But it would be a unique draw. It's the kind of thing we like to see in our regional parks."

Alleger said the group's efforts are in the embryonic stage. He has spent the fall and winter working on organizing the nonprofit and forging alliances with area cycling groups.

But fundraising has begun. Alleger has received $5,000 in seed money from Dr. Larry Wolff, a Sacramento heart surgeon and Masters track cycling champion, and is hosting the Savage Sprints Roller Racing Series at Hot Italian restaurant in midtown. It's a one-on-one indoor competition in which cyclists pedal 250 meters all-out on bikes placed on stationary rollers. Their speed in miles per hour runs through a circuit board and is projected onto a screen.

The restaurant races, Alleger said, may not make much headway in the fundraising. But he hopes they will bring the cycling community together and promote the velodrome proposal.

"It all goes back to scraping the surface and starting with our little group, so we can show (public officials) we have the support. I don't want to go to the city or go to grant writing or go to any corporations (to solicit donations) without the backing of all our people."

The approach is different from 2001, the last time the idea of building a velodrome in the city was floated. Those plans died after a city feasibility study showed that constructing and maintaining the park would prove too costly.

Alleger said the previous velodrome proponents lacked commitment.

"That was just a board of directors, some guys with community pull, and they didn't really put the effort in to see it through," he said. "We're trying for a grass-roots thing where people will do the work."

The group aims to build an outdoor track with a concrete or marine-grade plyboard surface for the racing, which is to road cycling what the 100-meter dash is to marathon running.

So far, Alleger is short on specifics about the cost of building a track. The group has met with Combs and McCarty to discuss possible sites on existing park land, such as at Granite Regional Park or North Natomas Regional Park.

McCarty said nearly half of Granite's park space is undeveloped, and the city would be open to donating land to "a viable entity that raises the funds and develops corporate sponsorship."

He added: "We already have done that in my district when a nonprofit came to us and said they wanted to build an all-weather soccer field, and we had the land available (at Granite). So the template for this kind of partnership is already in place."

Alleger leans toward a 17-acre parcel at Sutter's Landing Park as his ideal site, but Combs said the site, a former landfill, likely won't be available for up to 20 years, maybe more.

Alleger acknowledged that the velodrome has many hurdles to clear. But he said the slow-moving fundraising and logistical efforts will give his group time to cultivate interest in track cycling in Sacramento, which already has a large contingent of road cyclists.

To that end, he plans to introduce track cycling to youngsters even before drawing up velodrome blueprints.

"I'm trying to get a dozen kids track bikes and start a program for 10- to 12-year-olds on the bikes on playgrounds – just expose them to that kind of riding and take trips down to (San Jose's velodrome)," he said.


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