Courtesy of www.britishcycling.org.uk;

British Cycling and Manchester City Council, in partnership with New East Manchester, are putting final touches to an ambitious plan to build a £24 million National Indoor BMX Centre in Manchester’s Sportcity in a bid to secure a world class BMX training facility for the GB Cycling Team and boost Manchester’s position as the home of British Cycling.

If new plans for the National Cycling Centre go through and funding is approved, the 11,000 square foot building will be the world’s first purpose built indoor BMX track. It will sit alongside the Manchester Velodrome with a brand new purpose built office for British Cycling located in the link building between the two venues.

The National Indoor BMX Centre will be used by athletes preparing for London 2012 who will benefit from the integration with the rest of the GB Cycling Team and greater consistency of training thanks to the venue’s weatherproof nature. Capable of seating 2,000 spectators, it will help bring major national and international events to the city. The venue will also be open to schools, clubs and the local community.

Ian Drake, CEO at British Cycling, comments:

“The National Indoor BMX Centre will be a fantastic venue for the GB Cycling Team and will aid our preparations for London 2012. As a community facility, it will also offer local youngsters a rare opportunity to train alongside British BMX stars, inspiring future generations of riders and growing the discipline at the grass roots.

“Equally exciting is the fact that we will finally have a purpose built office in the middle of the two facilities with plenty of space to accommodate our growing team. When we moved to the Velodrome in 1994 our team numbered 15, today we have over a 200 strong team which is growing fast, so a new home for British Cycling is long overdue.”

Councilor Mike Amesbury, Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Culture and Leisure, said:

“Manchester Velodrome has already proved itself to be a gold medal factory and we expect that this world-class centre for BMX next door will bring more medals to the city.

“Combined with our world-class outdoor BMX track in Platt Fields Park and the planned outdoor cycling facilities close to Sportcity in Philips Park and the Medlock Valley, it all adds up to a great package for BMX riders, from the grassroots to potential Manchester cycling stars of the future.”

Eddie Smith, Chief Executive of New East Manchester said:

“Bringing this £24 million national indoor BMX centre to Sportcity will not only enhance the existing facilities and cement east Manchester’s reputation as a world-class centre for cycling, but it will create 64 full time jobs and safeguard a further 100.”

New, improved public spaces will also be developed around the National Cycling Centre, including outdoor freestyle cycling areas, to form one of the UK’s first veloparks.

Subject to funding and planning approval, work on the scheme will start in January 2010 with completion expected by March 2011.

We are delighted to announce that Carhartt, one of the leading brands in high quality streetwear, are sponsoring the Manchester rounds of the National BMX Series on August 8th and 9th.

Carhartt have an established presence within street and park BMX, so are a natural fit when it comes to the race scene.  Their range of BMX accessories will be available for purchase at the Nationals and they are kindly providing some of their much sought after clothing as raffle prizes!  Visit the Carhartt stand on the day for more goodies, including freebies!

The race action will also be promoted by Carhartt in their store on Oldham Street in Manchester City Centre.

Please visit www.carhartt-streetwear.com for more information on their range of products.

Above picture is from Spring/Summer 2009 ads featuring illustrations by Mark Chiarello.

Round 7 of the BMX National Series on Saturday 8^th August will receive welcome support from Girlracer, the online resource for female competitors and fans of extreme sports. Girlracer will be at the Platt Fields track providing information about their site, which features athlete profiles, news, reviews and articles about all manner of sports, including BMX. A range of stylish Girlracer merchandise will also be available.

Manchester rider Valerie Zebrokova, already a rising star in her first full year of racing, will feature on the Girlracer site, along with Chloe Mai Napier of the Brixton BMX Club, one of the top riders in the highly competitive Junior Women class. Both will be gaining valuable exposure by appearing on Girlracer with Gold Extreme Athlete Profiles, which allows riders to include a full biography, media links, sponsor links and some exclusive member offers.

Check out www.girlracer.co.uk for news, profiles, reports and merchandise!

Round 3 of the Manchester BMX Summer Series saw the whole range of dramatic weather turn up with spectators glad of the British Cycling easy up shelter to keep them out of the worst of the elements, whilst us racers got on with it.

Elena Stafford was on fine form in Pocket Rockets, with Harvey Howard putting in another good night’s racing too. These guys will be stars in the future.

Speaking of stars, two of Manchester’s rising young ones went head to head, with Valerie “The Manchester Mosquito” Zebrokova taking on “Superfast” Sabien Brown. It’s easy to forget the fact that Valerie hasn’t been in the sport long, as she looks like she’s been doing it for years. Sabien is rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with, with a snap that many older riders would be proud of! Honours went to Sabien on the night.

With Cruiser leader Neil Harbour and 25+ leader Ross Gill both MFA (missing from action, kinda like MIA but without them showing up in the first place) precious points were up for grabs. Ross has come to 20″ racing from riding park and has very quickly discovered that firstly, he’s got the potential to do well at it and secondly, that he’s insanely competitive…His absence was due to being on a family holiday in Denmark, which didn’t stop him wanting to know the results so he could see if he still had the lead.

The racing welcomed Pete Hosker on 20″, only back on his bike for a week after recovering from a ruptured achilles (OUCH) he looked as though his skills and speed were intact as he challenged for the win.  Kev Blackman was fast as usual, and will now be challenging Ross for the overall lead. On the big wheels, Mark Ferguson continues to show improvement but the real star was matthewglynn.co.uk, who waited til three mississippi in the first moto before overtaking myself and Mark by practically jumping over us….Andy Dreli was performing pen marshall duties and apparently can’t do any power training cos Neil has nicked part of his weight bench…Hmmmm…rivalry is strong between clubmates!

Kyle Evans, fresh from earning the E5 plate in Denmark was on hand, along with Jordan Hayes, Adam Smith, Michael “Hurricane” Hawker, Greg Holloway and Jack “The Guv” Rasburn in 16+ to show the rest of us a thing or two… The guys tore round the track lickety split, apart from their 3rd moto when they decided on an impromtu pump race, which was blatantly showing off their skill. Kyle took the win with his usual display of speed, skill and sheer confidence on a BMX.

One of the highlights of the evening was seeing several novices from the Youth Club stay on and race, these guys have been coming along for a while and are definately improving every week.

Great news from British Cycling; the cost of a Full Racing Licence is now £16 for the remainder of 2009. This is much cheaper than the cost of a licence for a whole year, so any riders who haven’t already got one but want to race the Manchester National rounds should find it more affordable.

Importantly, you do need at least a Silver membership of British Cycling to then buy a licence, but these are discounted if it’s your first membership and also run for a full 12 months (unlike Racing Licences, which run from Jan - Dec)

More info on the British Cycling website