There is an incredible purity to track cycling. It's not unlike great
design. When you pare everything down, forget the bells, whistles,
frills and anything that isn't absolutely necessary, you are left with a
track bike and a perfectly smooth, unobstructed course on which to ride
it.
This is what a velodrome represents. Cycing, stripped down to the
bare essentials. And it is beautiful. The bikes are works of art, fit to
be stared at for lengthy periods, even while at rest.
The Forest City Velodrome (
forestcityvelodrome.ca)
in London, Canada, is a rare beast. There aren't many indoor velodromes
in the world, and this is one of the more unusual of them all. In 2005,
a few track cycling enthusiasts found an old unused hockey arena that
had been set for demolition, and figured it was just barely big enough
to cram a velodrome into.
You Spin Me Round from
The Department of Style on
Vimeo.
The Department of Style is a field guide to the timeless, the
adventurous, and the enthusiastic. We celebrate craft. We explore
tradition. We find the creative imaginations that take classic forms and
make them their own.
It is about understanding that in life, doing something right takes
time, and skill, and effort. But therein lies the joy. Finding people
who still do those things that way and telling their stories is the
original Departmental mandate.
Semper Intrepidus
