Velodrome Can Hide, But it Can’t Run Without Support

Balboa Park’s Morley Field is not all lush landscaping and well-manicured ball yards. There is one part of this recreational area that remains dusty and seemingly neglected.

Well behind the tennis courts and swimming pool, on the other side of the Eucalyptus trees, tucked below a ridge above which the baseball diamonds lay and at the edge of Florida Canyon sits the San Diego Velodrome.

It is an almost perfect setting for a sport which, relatively speaking, remains out of view in this country.

San Diego’s is one of only 18 velodromes in the country and many park goers still don’t know the structure exists.

Maybe there’s good reason for that.

Besides being off in its own little corner, there are no paved parking lots nearby, just a long, bumpy dirt road leading from Pershing Drive that actually remains unseen from that busy roadway.

To find the velodrome, one either must be armed with good directions or stumble upon it.

Jamie Rowe, 9, found it earlier this week. He didn’t have directions, in fact he wasn’t even looking for it.

“I was here the other day playing baseball with my Dad,” Rowe said. “I was just looking around.”

Rowe not only happened upon the velodrome, but he found Martin Graf, who is on the coaching staff of the San Diego Velodrome Assn., which operates the facility on lease from the city. Graf was giving lessons to other youths at the time.

“I asked him how much it cost to sign up,” Rowe said.

The answer explains how desperate the sport is for participants--lessons are free to kids through the age of 17. As it turned out, Rowe signed up for a four-week class. His first lesson was a one-on-one session with a former world-record holder in the 4,000-meter pursuit: Graf.

A native of Switzerland, Graf qualified for the 1980 Swiss Olympic team with a world record time of 4:40.01 in the pursuit. The next day he broke his wrist, keeping him out of the Moscow Games.

He now spends his afternoons giving free lessons to kids at the velodrome. It isn’t that he works for free, but because the program is funded by the Amateur Athletics Foundation of Los Angeles through profits from the 1984 Olympics.

The idea is to develop future Olympians. And both Graf and Doreen Smith, who heads the velodrome association, maintain that just might be happening.

“The program has only been here for three years,” Graf said, “and already it has been very successful.”

At the U.S. Cycling Federation Junior Nationals, which were held here last week, two San Diego youngsters who started out in the AAF program took home gold medals. Crystal Waters won the four-event omnion for girls 13-14 and Zac Copeland won the 200-meter match sprint for boys 17-18. There were other local children--Dirk Copeland (not related to Zac), Denise Mueller and Vincent Ones--who also got their start through the AAF program and who also won medals during the championships.

Waters’ story is the most striking. Her family moved here from Oregon a couple years ago with the intention of finding good training for Crystal’s brother, Rocky, but when they learned there was no cost involved, Crystal also began cycling. Waters’ mother, Ginny, credits the AAF with her daughters’ progress.

“It was great,” Ginny said. “I was never in a situation where I could plunk down $60 for a 12-year-old to start cycling.”

Waters is now considered one of the best young cyclists in the country, but most of the youngsters who take lessons or ride at the velodrome simply do so for recreation.

“If someone could just acknowledge and understand the types of things we’ve accomplished here,” Smith said. “We’re talking about underprivileged kids and we’re providing them with an opportunity to enjoy a new sport. I think the city needs more programs of this type.”

But it’s not just children who are getting started at the velodrome, and neither are its activities limited to cycling.

Adults can sign up for beginners’ lessons, which go twice a week for four weeks at a cost of $70.

While most adults who take the classes do so for fun or cardiovascular fitness, several have taken the sport rather seriously and have begun racing on the masters circuit.

“I started in March,” said Greg Laney, who as a member of Cyclo-Vets uses the velodrome every Wednesday night. “I wanted to improve my bike-handling skills and everybody recommends that you go ride on a track to do that. I found out that the San Diego Velodrome Assn. has a developmental program that acquaints you with the sport and teaches you about the various races. I got involved in that so I could ride in masters.”

Laney competed in the Masters National championships, held here last month. Though he finished eighth out of eight racers in the 3,000-meter pursuit for 50-54 year-olds, he nevertheless dropped his personal best by seven seconds to 4:32.

But one need not take formal lessons or be a member of a cycling club to use the velodrome. It is open to the public when classes and races are not being held.

Many users don’t even own a track bike, which is quite different than a road bike. Track bikes have no breaks and only one large gear to which the pedals are directly connected. Once it is going at a good clip, the bike won’t stop pedaling.

Besides cyclists with road bikes, mountain bikers, skateboarders and rollerbladers have all found the structure, with its banks and turns, a more than suitable alternative to roads and sidewalks.

And this is an easy velodrome to use. At 28 degrees, it has the shallowest banking of any in the country. Some velodromes are so steep that cyclists fall down if they are not going 20 m.p.h. At this one, users can come to a complete stop and maintain balance.

Although signs say “bicycles only,” the velodrome association doesn’t really mind alternative uses, as long as those people don’t interfere with cyclists.

“We don’t tolerate anyone else on the track when we’re having races or classes,” Graf said. “But we’re pretty tolerant of any other sports. The basic idea is to promote sport and get people involved in a healthy lifestyle no matter what sport they choose.”

But alternative sports may some day become the mainstays at the velodrome. The AAF grant runs out in another year and Smith has so far been unsuccessful in securing a corporate sponsor to keep the association intact.

“You know, everybody wants to turn on the TV and watch the gold medals flow,” Smith said, “but no one wants to do what it takes to develop the athletes.”

Without the AAF, which puts in $40,000 per year to keep the association, track, bikes and equipment operational, Smith estimates she would have to charge $50 per youngster just to break even and keep everything running.