BMX track at World Cycling Centre highly sought after
British Cycling returned to Aigle, Swizerland, this week to train on the BMX track at the World Cycling Centre (WCC) in preparation for the European BMX Championships.
British Cycling was the first National Federation to send its athletes to train on the track after its reconstruction a year ago. The track was completely modified to resemble the track that riders will encounter at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Since the British team’s 4-day training camp in May 2007, 12 National Federations have trained on the WCC track, most of them on more than one occasion.
Three British BMX athletes, Shanaze Reade, Joanne Gough and Liam Phillips, were back in Aigle from April 12th – 17th to train under the guidance of new coach Grant White, formerly of Bike New Zealand. They then traveled to Echichens, Switzerland, for rounds 9 and 10 of the European BMX Championships which take place this weekend.
New Zealand’s top two BMX athletes will train at the WCC from April 27th – May 7th. Marc Willers and Sarah Walker currently lead the UCI BMX rankings, and will use their stay in Switzerland to prepare the third leg of the UCI BMX Supercross in Copenhagen, Denmark, on May 9th and 10th.
Five Australian BMX athletes will also train on the WCC track in preparation for the Copenhagen Supercross leg. Nicole Callisto, Tanya Bailey, Kama Kazi, Luke Madill and Jared Graves will be in Aigle from May 4th -7th before traveling to Denmark.
Meanwhile the French training structure Optimal Training will also return to the WCC from May 14th -15th with BMX athletes Anne-Caroline Chausson, leader of the UCI European BMX rankings, and Romain Saladini.