Cycling in Canada: Track level at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre, from Steve Bauer’s saddle

The Mattamy National Cycling Centre has certainly turned some heads so far. And some wheels.

When we reported previously on the impressive, looming Milton, Ont. facility, a presence towering over acres of nearby farmland like a monument to Canadian cycling itself, the velodrome’s doors had barely opened for the first time. Then, discussions fixed on what the velodrome could become, its presence still fresh on both the national — and for Milton itself, local stage. Numbers were published indicating the kind of attendance that Mattamy had seen, but we weren’t yet discussing what, exactly, it is.

There were the facts of its usefulness to the cycling community, of course, which are impressive enough on their own. Canadian riders, finally, wouldn’t need to wing their way south, out of the country, to train on a UCI-rated track. With such a facility in their own back yard, it represented an opportunity long denied to many Canadian cyclists. That, alone, was meaningful enough.

Beyond that, there’s the character of the facility itself, and the palpable, spirited feeling that it doesn’t just vaguely resemble a monument to Canadian cycling from afar. Behind its doors, the acoustics perfectly resonating the rumble a of a rider’s wheels as they make the track’s circuit, it truly does feel like it.

In this Canadian track championship-themed edition of our trip by video to Canada’s cycling locales, get a glimpse of what that experience is like from Steve Bauer’s saddle, in this video published to YouTube by the Town of Milton.