My wife & I were in Montreal the summer of 1978, I think. We took the subway out to see the Olympic park & the Velodrome. The place was completely deserted but we walked right in. This was my first visit to a velodrome & we were both just flabbergasted! It combined two of my main interests in life, cycling & Architecture. It was just so beautiful. The banking looked really steep to my eyes & we both wondered how nuts it must be to ride on that thing. Now, almost 30 years later I hope to give track riding a try at the new Mike Walden Velodrome, in Rochester Hills, Michigan, just a little more than an hours drive from my home here in Toledo, Ohio. Am I nuts? Yes! Richard Rose (Toledo, Ohio)
> My first taste of track riding came on the Montreal Velodrome. When I was
> finished my Industrial Design degree at Carleton University here in Ottawa
> in '87 I would go down to the velodrome with a few van loads of other OBC
> riders to ride the 'drome for about 3 hours each Wed night over the
winters.
> I had my '66 Atala Pista
(http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291843765)
> and I can still recall the first time I followed one of the coach/racers
> (Bob Simpson) as we circled the track, gaining speed until eventually
worked
> our way up onto the banking. My heart was pounding!! I kept thinking "This
> is impossible, I'm on a vertical surface!" I kept my eyes glued to Bob's
> wheel and just followed him until I began to get comfortable with the
> sensations of track riding. What a rush.
>
> It was a pretty steep track (46 or 48 degrees if I recall) but super
smooth.
> I can remember the feeling of flying around the track in a paceline, and
at
> one point because we were the fastest line (of ~8 guys) and there were 3
> other slower lines on at the time, we had to pass at the very top of the
> banking and really motor to stay up there. What an awesome feeling that
was.
> I also recall the air in there was super dry. In a matter of a half hour
my
> throat would be sore from the air, and I was constantly sucking on Halls
> lozenges. Lots of guys wore a kerchief over their mouths to moisten the
air.
>
> I moved to Montreal a year later. I lived there for almost 5 years and
rode
> there most winters once a week when I could get the time. I recall taking
my
> Atala across town on the bus and subway to get there. Eventually I got a
> locker and my bike was locked up with lots of others in a cage, with a
nasty
> chain that chipped it's fair share of paint of the poor thing.
>
> I was so mad when the decided to tear the track out to make the Biodome
> (http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/biodome/ebdm2.htm) I just about cried.
And
> all that wood just went to scrap. I even missed an oppourtunity to get a
> small piece of track just before the bulldozers went to work because I was
> away from Montreal. I moved away from Montreal, back to Ottawa a few
months
> later. I don't know if I could visit the Biodome now. I'd just feel too
sad.
> It was an amazing track, what a waste.
>
> I've since ridden on the Fonthill outdoor short track (taken down I think)
> and at the '96 Canadian short track championships held in Copp's Coliseum
in
> Hamilton. I've yet to make it to Bromont though. But the Montreal
Velodrome
> was a great track and an awesome place just for the architecture and
design.
> They had great stadium seats.
>
> Memories.
>
> 3 track bikes ('66 Atala, '71 Masi, and '74 Torpado) and I haven't ridden
a
> track in 8 years. Sigh.
>
> David Bilenkey
> Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org
> > [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org]On Behalf Of Joe
> > Bender-Zanoni
> > Sent: March 15, 2003 2:32 PM
> > To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> > Subject: Re: [CR] Now Montreal 76 'drome
> >
> >
> > The Montreal track was torn down with glee by the public at
> > large. It became
> > a symbol of Olympic waste and public project tax burdens. The
> > club that ran
> > the Velodrome was elitist and completely out of touch with the PR
> > aspects of
> > running the drome so as not to alienate the public. Public sessions were
a
> > total of 8 hours a week and ended at midnight on weekdays. Driving home
to
> > Vermont starting at midnight with the start of work at 7AM was not a
> > pleasurable prospect. No weekend public sessions. They shooed me
> > off bigtime
> > when I tried to join the club to take advantage of the other 60
> > hours or so
> > the club had scheduled. There were over a hundred track bikes stored in
> > lockers at the drome. But heating a building that seated thousands
(maybe
> > 5,000 as a guess) for the use of a couple hundred people just couldn't
be
> > justified in a time when Quebec taxes were staggering.
> >
> > Joe Bender-Zanoni
> > Great Notch, NJ
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "John Pergolizzi" <jtperry@worldnet.att.net>
> > To: "Grant McLean" <Grant.McLean@SportingLife.ca>; "'William McGehee'"
> > <wmcgehee1@juno.com>; <jimallen@nctimes.net>
> > Cc: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> > Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2003 1:39 PM
> > Subject: Re: [CR]Vigorelli spruce-up? Now Montreal 76 'drome
> >
> >
> > > The Montreal Velodrome space is now an "EcoCenter", showing various
> > > aspects of the environment. The roof is hung from cables off
> > of one main
> > > arm. Beautiful building, shame about the rest.
> > > ciao,
> > > John T.Pergolizzi
> > > LaJolla Ca. for two more weeks