Tucson Velodrome

New, Olympics-Certified Track Enhances Region’s Elite Cycling

By Steve Rivera

Nicola Cranmer thinks so highly of the brand-new Tucson Velodrome that she has already brought in eight athletes to use the facility to prepare for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. They’ve been training with USA cycling athletes, as well.

There’s a reason the newly opened Velodrome is popular – it’s spectacular in size and presentation. It’s a shiny jewel in the desert – the first aluminum 250-meter, 42-degree banked velodrome designed by Peter Junek. His company, Junek Velodromes, has built 38 tracks all over the world. 

“It’s amazing,” said Cranmer, the general manager/founder of Virginia Blueridge TWENTY28, host of several elite-level cyclists. They’ve trained in Tucson for years, given its reputation for cycling.

“It’s a game changer for the cycling community. It’s a superb track,” Cranmer said.

According to Junek, aluminum was chosen as the velodrome surface to suit Tucson’s climate. It allows the velodrome to withstand the hot temperatures in summer and allows year-round use. According to officials, it could be 115 degrees outside, yet the track is 40% cooler than asphalt and 20% cooler than concrete. The facility also has lighting to accommodate early-morning and late-night rides.

“I’ve been thinking and dreaming about it since about 1998,” Junek said of building this type of venue. “I hope it will make outdoor weatherproof velodromes more affordable to more countries and cities.”

He would know. Junek’s velodromes are in every continent except Australia. This one is located at the Musselman Honda Circuit, adjacent to the Pima County Fairgrounds.

Southern Arizona’s came at a cost of $5 million, all coming from a private donor.  The track weighs 182,000 pounds and took six months to build. 

“Others will be faster to build,” he said. “This was a prototype.”

Cranmer was so impressed she sent a cycling friend photos of the Velodrome and the friend asked if she knew a realtor in Tucson.

That’s not surprising to Woody Cox, general manager of the facility that opened in November.

“I was uniquely positioned to kind of help out and get this up and going,” said Cox, a multi-time World Masters champion on the velodrome who established five UCI world records. “For us only being up since November, it’s going remarkably well because it’s a unique cycling feature.”

Just recently, the venue had its first practice ride with about 38 riders from Boulder, Colo., and from San Diego, and “everyone was excited about the number of people there were compared to their tracks – tracks that have been established for years compared to ours, which is just two months in, and we had more people than they had.”

Riders must be certified to use the track, a process that has started.

“We won’t pass them until we are absolutely certain they will be safe for themselves and safe for everybody else on that track,” Cox said. 

Already, teams have been formed. About 107 members have joined from all over, including San Diego and Boulder, among others. Many are cycling tourists, Cox said. 

The Velodrome offers rental bikes, as well. Day memberships are available for $25 and $75 for the month.

“We’ve offered special certifications for the teams,” he said. “There are advantages of the track; there aren’t cars, there aren’t streetlights, there aren’t dogs, there aren’t potholes – you can ride your bike and just focus on riding your bike.

“Cyclists have heard about tracks their whole career and now they can give it a try. It’s a world-class facility in Tucson. Yes, it’s a novelty but just not a novelty because they want to come back and do it again.”

The United States women’s cycling team has already been here to train in part because there are only two tracks that are Olympics-certified – Tucson and Los Angeles, the one they will use for the 2028 Olympics.

“Right before the Olympics (in 2028), they will have to close that track for eight months to redo the whole surface, so we should have eight months where Olympians from Europe and other places will be coming here to train,” Cox said. 

It’s all a win-win for Tucson, already a top cycling city.

“Tucson, in my opinion, was already the nation’s premier cycling community,” said TJ Juskiewicz, El Tour de Tucson’s executive director. “Adding a world-class, state-of-the-art Velodrome to the mix is just a feather in the cap of our outstanding cycling community.”

General contractor Lloyd Construction Company.

Photo courtesy Tucson Velodrome