Velodrome proponent: Champion racers will call Erie home

ERIE — Expect to see national and international champions racing at the renovated Boulder Valley Velodrome when it returns to active use, perhaps as soon as June.

Todd Stevenson, the head of the Team Colorado Cycling nonprofit that will run the track and also one of seven members of the BVV Holdings LLC company that will own it, told BizWest in an interview Thursday that pent-up demand from avid cyclists will help the track see new life. 

That new life will come with a lot of elbow grease, he said. Every board, every surface “will need to be evaluated, scraped, sanded, caulked and repainted twice. And that’s just the track.”

Other work will also need to be done to return the wood velodrome to performance readiness, work that Stevenson expects to cost about $75,000. That’s the goal of a gofundme campaign that raised nearly $10,000 in the five hours after Team Colorado’s Thursday announcement that the track would reopen.

The group on Thursday said that the new BVV Holdings company has a contract to buy the track and a nonprofit will manage it. The track meets international and Olympic standards, Stevenson said.

Even though the deal hasn’t closed yet, the sellers have agreed to let Team Colorado begin work. It has 15,000 square feet of track to resurrect from years of weathering during the time the track was closed. “It’s a true resurrection,” Stevenson said.

“There’s a ton of support from the past users,” he said, noting that a $20,000 pledge for repairs will help his organization reach the fundraising goal. 

“Teams will call this their home track,” he said. It has an appeal to cyclists because “it’s the only track of its kind at altitude,” which means serious competitors will want to train there. 

The track will have “plenty of open track time” — and it has a fleet of rental bikes — but the community can expect to see organized races on Tuesday and Thursday nights, plus Saturday sprints and time trials, he said. He expects programming will be put in place for training of riders. 

Stevenson said “about a dozen” national champions live in the area. “You’ll see national and world champions on a regular basis,” he said.

He noted that the town of Erie has been supportive of the track’s renovation.  “Anything I’ve asked, they’ve been responsive,” he said.

The nonprofit wants to repay that support by opening the track property for community events, such as bike-to-a-movie nights, concerts and similar events. 

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