Jenny Copnall at Beastway where she starts a men's race packed with London tax payers who have been ignored

Jenny Copnall's sorrow
National MTB champion and top London MTB club call for mountain biking to be restored at the post-Olympic Velopark

Amid mounting concern over the value of London's Legacy from the Games, The Olympic Development Agency announced plans on 5th Feb for the post-Olympic Velopark (2013+). These now show, to the dismay of London's mountain bikers, that there will be no replacement for the popular full-size mountain bike circuit that until last year stood on the OIympic site in the Lee Valley.

Mountainbike Cross Country is an Olympic Sport, but it will derive no legacy from the Games. Its only London venue has already closed to make way for the Olympic Park. Riders are still awaiting any temporary replacement as delays hit the agreed strategy for relocation.

Previous legacy plans, including those shown to the IOC at the time of its final imspection always indicated that mountainbiking would return to the site. Planning conditions also apply to the permissions given for the Games, which are intended to ensure a return of mountainbike to the site in legacy.

Known as the Eastway Cycle Circuit, the venue was demolished in November after 14 years of mountain biking (30 years of cycling) to make way for the Games' development. Eastway was the only offroad venue serving inner London and a place where thousands of cyclists, youth, veteran and international, have ridden and raced mountain bikes. The largest mountainbike series in the country took place at Eastway, making full use of over 6km of trails.

As part of the public consultation, the Eastway User Group (EUG) is publishing two statements that support the call for the restoration of the full-size circuit on the site. One is from the current British MTB champion Jenny Copnall, a Londoner who learned her sport at Eastway, and the other from Brixton Cycles, the London bike shop club which sponsored and raced in the Eastway MTB series for over 10 years.

Women are an important part of Beastway MTB (Also London tax payers)

From Jenny Copnall, reigning British MTB champion:
"It is with sorrow and concern that I heard from the Eastway Users' Group of the ODA's decision not to provide mountain bike racers with an adequate facility in the Legacy Park after the Olympics have taken place.

"I fully expect the spectacle of the mountain bike cross country event at the 2012 Olympics to bring more young riders into our fantastic sport, many likely to be from the London area. It is essential that these potential future Olympians have access to grassroots competition in a safe yet challenging environment.

"Eastway has, until now, provided this, and played a pivotal role in my introduction and development as a young racer. It means a great deal to me that future generations of riders in the London area are able to enjoy the same opportunities that I did. The Eastway mountain bike events not only whet the appetites of new racers, they also provide newcomers with a social hub of knowledge and experience, which is crucial for development.

"The London area is not blessed with offroad riding places. In view of this I feel that it is very important that the finest example be reinstated, albeit with the break period during the Games, so that for those who wish to become mountain bike racers can do so, without their urban roots hindering their progress."

From Brixton Cycles, 11 years the Eastway mountain bike series sponsor:
"From 1995 to 2006 Brixton Cycles was series sponsor of the summertime mountain bike series at the Eastway Cycle Circuit. On Wednesday evenings after the shop closed, a group of us would ride the 7.5 miles (45 mins) from the shop in Brixton through the traffic to the circuit. We'd race, have a good tough time, go to the pub and ride home.

Oh, look, more tax payers who are being sidelined!

"The series involved 1000s of riders and 30 clubs and ran for over a decade. It was the hub, the centre, the focus of the capital's mountain biking and culture.

"Now it is gone, sacrificed to the Olympic Games, and looks likely never to return. The planned offroad area of the post-Olympic Velopark has shrunk to the size of a playground big enough only for obstacles and a children's/beginner circuit. Eastway's testing full-size circuit of banks, berms, mounds and copses, on which grassroots and Olympians raced is no more.

"We cannot get to Hog Hill, the interim site in the Borough of Redbridge, as it is too far away. It lies a further 7.5miles from Brixton Cycles, a 15 mile, 1.5 hour ride each way on heavily-trafficked roads. It is beyond the reach of the central and southern London riders. Those who raced at Eastway and live in Lambeth, Southwark, Westminster, Camden, Paddington, Kentish Town, Deptford, Greenwich, Lewisham and Enfield have lost their venue and their sport.

"Brixton Cycles, along with the other inner and central clubs, has been deprived of its London mountain bike ground and looks likely never to race offroad again in the city. We call on the ODA to reinstate a full-size mountain bike course at the post-Olympic Velopark, without which the park is missing a vital component. The Olympics cannot finish off a London sport like this."

Road circuit and some off road squeezed in (Nice velodrome though, shame we can't have both)

The Eastway story
The Eastway Cycle Circuit was inner London's only legal offroad competition venue and a place where thousands of people, of all ages and backgrounds, have enjoyed all types of riding and racing for over 30 years. It offered a mile of challenging road circuit and extensive off-road trails. For the last 14 years Eastway was the venue for the country's largest weekly mountain bike race series. 'Beastway' became a proven training ground for many of our national champions in the Olympic discipline of Mountain Bike Cross-Country. Six regular Eastway riders in the youth and junior categories are British 1 ranked riders or national champions this year.

Eastway closed for Olympic demolition in November 2006. There is still no replacement and it seems riders will have to wait until May 2007 for anything at all. The main interim provision at Hog Hill out in Hainault is too far for inner Londoners to travel to, and its guaranteed funding ends with the Games. The people who pursue this Olympic sport in east London have moved to make way for the Games, but now are set to lose any guaranteed venue because of the Games.

Riders object to new plans for 2013 which now show a legacy with no mountain bike cross-country provision at all. The 'Velopark' that was announced to the IOC before London won the Games showed world-class provision for road and off-road riding.

This was needed to replace what was lost from the site since the Olympic sports of mountain bike and road race were so successful on the site before it was demolished. No fewer than six Eastway youth and junior riders are current national champions. Eastway was a proven training ground for developing our best hopes for 2012 and beyond.

An announcement was made in February 2005, just two days before the IOC inspection visit to approve London's bid. The release can be read in full at http://www.london2012.org/en/news/archive/2005/february/2005-02-15-17-15.htm and more can be read about its place in London's bid at http://www.lda.gov.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.870 . These clearly indicate the velopark's extent, facilities and its place in ensuring that London's Games would be 'legacy led' - Eastway Users Group is a recognised stakeholder in the Olympic planning process and it is now asking about those legacy promises which did so much to win London's bid.

Eastway Users Group argue, "To be of value, London's Olympic Legacy must at least help the sport that was formerly pursued on the site where the Games will take place.

Lord Coe has been made aware of the concerns of riders by letter. A copy of the letter is available upon request to EUG by email eastway7506@btinternet.com

Our Group calls upon the national and regional government in control of building the Games and makes an appeal to the IOC to take a long hard look at the way in which the ODA is developing the Olympic Park into something other than the vehicle for London‚s Lasting Legacy to Sport. The people who actually did cycle sport so successfully on the site of the Games deserve a legacy. After all, they have had to give up so much for the Games and the bid was won on the promise of a legacy for cycle sport."

Michael Humphreys
Chair, Eastway Users Group