Proposed velodrome also health-care facility

BOULDER ? A group of health-care professionals and cycling enthusiasts has formed a team to build a world-class fitness center and bicycle-racing velodrome in Boulder.

Life Performance Center Corp. was founded last year to develop a plan and raise the estimated $35 million needed to build the center, which would be a research and service center promoting health through nutrition and physical activity.

At the heart of the center would be the ?fastest velodrome in the world,? said center co-founder Allen Lim, who recently received a doctorate in integrated physiology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Lim, a former professional cyclist, has done extensive work with endurance athletes and continues to coach professionals including Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton and Lance Armstrong.

The velodrome ? a banked, oval cycling track ? could be the fastest because ?Boulder is situated at an ideal altitude for cyclists,? said center co-founder Jim Sherman. ?The air density is less than sea level so there?s less resistance, but there?s enough oxygen so an athlete can operate at maximum efficiency.?

According to Lim, six-time Tour de France winner Armstrong said he would like to beat the world cycling hour record and has promised to race in Boulder if the velodrome is built. The record is currently 30.721 miles, set by Christopher Boardman at the Manchester, England velodrome in 2000.

The health-care facility at the center would offer cancer and chronic disease rehabilitation and treatment, medical and fitness management, an orthopedics clinic and physical therapy.
Research would focus on physical activity, nutrition and preventive medicine, areas that Lim studied and continues to research.

Training would include programs for ordinary cyclists and world-class athletes.

Sherman and co-founder Tom Irvine, both cyclists and serial entrepreneurs, have provided an undisclosed amount of seed money. Sherman said the center is currently working to raise $1 million for drawings and to obtain permits.

The for-profit center is not affiliated with Boulder Community Velodrome, a defunct nonprofit organization that at one time hoped to partner with the city of Boulder to build a velodrome at Valmont City Park.

Boulder-based architect Martin Newton provided preliminary renderings of the center.
Organizers of the center are looking for corporate sponsors including drug and nutrition companies, sports and athletic gear manufacturers, health-care clinics, corporate and university research centers, sports-related broadcasters like Outdoor Life Network and others, Sherman said.

Potential revenue streams include health-care services, velodrome and other sports programs, grants and philanthropic sources, athletic events, retail sales and product development, he continued.

Life Performance Center co-founder Trudy Turvey is owner of HealthLinks Clinic LLC, a rehabilitation and exercise center that she hopes to relocate to the center.

The clinic?s primary goal is to provide nutrition and exercise programs for cancer patients. ?Our services address the long-term survivorship of individuals with a cancer diagnosis,? Turvey said.
Turvey?s goal in moving her clinic to the center is so cancer patients and athletes can learn from each other. ?Marrying the services for athletes has a direct relationship to individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer and other diseases as well,? Turvey said. ?What we learn from cancer and exercise has applications to athletes, and what we learn from athletes has applications to cancer patients.?

Although now her clinic is located on the University of Colorado campus and is affiliated with the university?s Center for Physical Activity, Disease Prevention and Aging, CU does not fund it, Turvey said. It?s there to serve the research needs of students of integrated physiology; as a graduate student Lim conducted his research there.

Lim is interested in how exercise can optimize both elite athletes and the general public. He?s also interested in the economic impact of ill health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2003 Americans spent $1.4 trillion in 2003 on health care. Seventy-five percent of these dollars ($1.05 trillion) were spent to treat chronic diseases including heart disease and stroke that are ?preventable by physical activity and nutrition,? Lim said.

Additionally, Lim is interested in the relationship between exercise and cancer treatment. The HealthLinks Clinic, for example, has found that cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy who exercise improve their aerobic capacity, feel less fatigued, and suffer less nausea and depression.

There?s also the social aspect of HealthLinks, Lim said. ?They can work out and talk to other patients and really be encouraged to work on their health.?

No site has been chosen yet for the center, which Sherman thinks will require about three acres.
He has considered donating some of his own property to the venture. Sherman owns the Bridge School campus on South Boulder Road. He said there?s plenty of space there to build.
He?s talked ?casually? with the county commissioners about the Boulder County location, but he?s not sure it?s a viable site.

Sherman believes a better location would be near the proposed Boulder Transit Village on the northeast corner of Pearl and 30th streets. The city of Boulder purchased the 11-acre property from Pollard Friendly Motors in October 2004 for $9.5 million.

?It would be a good place,? Sherman said, near the new Twenty Ninth Street retail project, bike paths and, in the future, commuter rail and bus rapid transit.

The center has been approached by another city in Boulder County that?s interested in this project, he said, but he would not discuss details.

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