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Cycling at Herne Hill Velodrome
The Herne Hill Velodrome is a velodrome or track cycling venue in Herne Hill, in south London. It is one of the oldest cycling tracks in the world, having been built in 1891. It hosted the track cycling events in the 1948 Summer Olympics and was briefly the home of Crystal Palace Football Club during World War I. Between 1987, when the track at Paddington Recreation Ground was demolished, and 2011, when the London Velopark for the 2012 Summer Olympics opened, Herne Hill was the only track in London. Nowadays it is home to some of the most prestigious races and competitons. With banking less steep than the 2012 Olympic Velodrome in London, but longer straights; the Herne Hill Velodrome is about 1.4 times longer than the ones used in the Olympics and major competition venues today. This means that Herne Hill is the ideal place to train for stamina based races outside the velodrome, such as the Tour De France - one of the longest cycle races in the world, which races over the
course of a few weeks and sometime thousands of miles. Herne Hill Velodrome is proud to announce that it is the home of one of the greatest modern cyclists of the current age. Bradley Wiggins started his first session at the Velodrome when he was just 8 years old. My coach, an old man who goes by the name of Tony, described him as ‘a small ginger boy that was scared by the track bike and the fact that it had no brakes’. Herne Hill Velodrome coaches are also among the best in the UK, with some of them racing daily in the Velodrome’s more professional competitions. The Velodrome also provides a huge variety of classes for absolute beginners to 19 year old superstars that can go around the 450m track in less than 25 seconds on full sprint.
The Herne Hill Velodrome also runs a newspaper that in March 2014 celebrated its 125 th anniversary. It is called the Herne Hill Daily and has been
published monthly for 125 years and 8 months straight. It was even published during World War I and World War II. It keeps you up to date with all of the latest news like upcoming championships at the Velodrome, class times for a variety of ages, news on the results of previous local, sectional and regional competitions and how people who train at the Velodrome have placed in the contests. It even shows ads for people who are willing to sell bikes, helmets, pieces of cycling kit, handlebar tape, etc. To add on to that, there is a club in the Junior School that allow Year 5’s and Year 6’s to go down to the Velodrome every Thursday after school to train and to make friends and rivals. So for those of you a bit younger reading this, it is a good club to go to and it is the reason why I developed my love for track cycling. I strongly urge you to go to the Herne Hill Velodrome website to check out more info about the club or you can go to one of the starter session holiday clubs held there. Herne Hill Velodrome is located off Burbage Road near Herne Hill. Have fun! Jake Connellan, 7L Table Tennis Club Table tennis club runs on a Tuesday and a Wednesday at 1:30pm. It is really fun and you get to play against each other in matches. Recently Stephen, Jacob and I went there and played King of the Court. In this game there is a King and people have to challenge him. If you lose the first point the next person comes on and challenges the King. If you win the first point you continue and play to three points. If the challenger wins the game then they become the King and the other King becomes a challenger. Another game is called Around The World. Basically you serve and run around the table. The other person then hits it back to your side and you have to make it back in time to return it and vice versa. There are lots of other fun games you can play. Lots of people go, you should too. Eashan Mitra, Jacob Stott and Stephen Liu. 7C
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