Fundraising ride for the Forest City Velodrome in London, Ontario planned for this August

Back in 2004, London, Ontario’s Rob Good and Albert Coulier floated the idea of an indoor cycling track for the city, to be built in the its south end. Within four months, by April 2005, the facility was finished and its racing surfaces were humming with the rubber of track bike wheels. It was named the Forest City Velodrome, and it’s one of only a few indoor velodromes in North America.

Coulier’s company, Apollo Velodrome Systems, was instrumental in the construction of the facility — as well as dozens of other tracks, including ones in Montreal, Winnipeg, and elsewhere throughout North America. Situated in the former Ice House hockey arena, the track hosts races, clinics and other activities. It’s a community-focused operation, and since it’s organized as a not-for-profit organization, its continuing fiscal ability to offer its range of programs to the community — learn-to-race programs, indoors training and others — depends on the generosity of contributing donors.

This August, to support such programming for the Forest City Velodrome’s 2015-16 season, a fundraising ride is scheduled at the Delaware Speedway on the 30th. Two fundraising rides, in fact.

Registration for the rides has been open since June 10th, with 100% of proceeds — the registration fee is a $100 donation — going directly to the Forest City Velodrome. Beginning at 8 am, a 50 kilometre route and a 100 kilometre ride starts from the Delaware Speedway, with the former getting underway at 10:00 am and the latter at 9:30 am. The ride is planned as a tour of Middlesex County in southwestern Ontario, in and around the London area.

In addition to its various community programs, the Forest City Velodrome also serves as a winter training base for the Kallisto-FCB p/b Toyo Tires Development cycling team.