Gaining Speed

In between the rains on its lonely sweep of hillside in Carson, the long-neglected Olympic Velodrome caught a glimpse of its glory days over the weekend by hosting its first national bicycling competition in nine years.

For those who have watched the world-class track decline since it hosted Olympic events in 1984, the weekend’s EDS Track Cup and, more important, a pending deal to change the velodrome’s management, have brightened what seemed a bleak future.

Racers say the 330-meter outdoor track at Cal State Dominguez Hills is still one of the top tracks in the country--its steep banked curves helping cyclists propel themselves to 45 mph with no brakes and on wheels so wafer-thin they occasionally fold like tacos under a rider’s weight.

But in recent years the velodrome has been more likely to host a reggae festival or a rock concert than a national bike competition. The Cal State Dominguez Hills Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises funds for the university and manages the stadium, knew little about bike racing and could not draw major events, said its director, Sam Maynard.

“Since it was built, the foundation has subsidized the velodrome to the tune of a million dollars,” Maynard said. “One of the options looked at was to close it. But when word got out to the cycling community, there was an uproar.”

In stepped Steve Meiche, a Los Angeles firefighter who took over the San Diego Velodrome and restored it from a little-used track of weeds and cracked asphalt to a thriving example of where the sport of track racing hopes to go.

When Meiche heard that the legendary Olympic Velodrome, one of six in the country that can host world-class events, was going to be shut down, he and two sports marketing veterans--a former Olympian and an Olympic organizer--put forth a bid to lease and manage the facility.

Although negotiations have not been settled, Maynard said that all parties are enthusiastic about the deal and confident it will go through. “We’re going to hand it over to the professionals now,” he said.

Meiche hopes to bring major national races to the velodrome, create youth and adult cycling programs and do a better job of promoting events at the facility.

Meanwhile, Meiche created the Southern California Velodrome Assn., hoping to acquire the region’s third velodrome, in Encino, and revitalize a sport often overshadowed by road racing and mountain biking.

“We’re looking at bringing back international racing,” he said. “We’re looking at bringing back international crowds.”

When ground for the $3-million Dominguez Hills velodrome was broken in 1981, track racing was billed as the next great spectator sport. It had speed, competition and dramatic crashes, and onlookers could watch the entire race from their seats.

The velodrome, one of the few facilities built specifically for the Olympics, hosted various national events, including the national championships, and drew crowds of thousands over the years.

“With the ’84 Olympics track racing was extremely popular,” said Anne O’Brien, editor of Bicycle Racing Monthly, which covers events in Southern California and Nevada. “Then, for a variety of reasons, it went down the toilet.”

She said permits for track racing were difficult to obtain, races were often bumped for concerts or other more high-profile events and that cycling clubs often stressed road racing. She added that track racing is widely popular in Australia, which has several times more velodromes than the U.S., and in Japan, where highly competitive Keirin racing is the rage.

Today, the Olympic Velodrome offers local riders an ideal venue to train, but most racers find it disturbing that the facility has not hosted a major national event since 1989.

“It breaks my heart,” said Mark Whitehead, 37, a coach and former Olympic rider, who qualified for Sunday’s finals. “I raced the Olympics here. I won the National Championships here in 1983. I went to the foundation and said, ‘This is a historic facility, and you’re treating it like the baseball field behind it.’ ”

Martha Dunne, a Navy helicopter pilot from San Diego who races on the side, said she found the lack of use disheartening, but added that she has seen far more decrepit and neglected velodromes. She recalled a track she raced at in Queens with a burned-out car in the infield and broken glass scattered about the asphalt.

“This track is beautiful,” she said. “I almost started training up here because it’s such a nice track.”

On Saturday, Dunne joined the crowd of thick-legged racers who came from around the U.S., Canada, England and Trinidad-Tobago. Although the rain relegated them to munching Power Bars under tent awnings, they raced Friday and Sunday and Saturday night after a long rain delay.

The riders, who range in expertise from Olympian to amateur, said they enjoy the intense competition, the speed and the heavy “G-force” of heading full-bore into one of the curves.

“It’s like Nascar,” said Whitehead. “I’m a speed freak. I like that action. Road racing is boring to me. I don’t have the patience to sit on a bike for six hours.”

The racers will get points for their performance at the weekend competition. They will carry the points through the five-cup series that will culminate with finals at the new EDS Superdrome in Frisco, Texas, which is under construction and is expected to be the fastest velodrome in the United States.

Each cup competition will feature nine events, including sprints, pack racing and Keirin racing, in which riders are allowed to shoulder and head-butt each other while jockeying for position.

Most of those competing do so for the sport of it since winners only take home about $300, although a few top racers have sponsors.

Frank Stanley, spokesman for the U.S. Cycling Federation, which is co-sponsoring the series, said the fledgling Southern California Velodrome Assn. should give a major boost to the velodrome and, he hopes, to the sport as a whole.

“I think taking the university out of the equation is a good thing,” he said, adding that the track could be a candidate to host Olympic training and the national championships.

Many said the track already holds a certain invaluable prestige because of the 1984 Olympics, at which U.S. riders earned five medals.

“This is one of the only Olympic legacies,” said Gabore Komyathy, who is a co-founder of Meiche’s velodrome association. “It would be a terrible thing to see this go down the drain.”