Derby Velodrome And Arena

The legs aren't happy about it but I take the bike to work today.

As I’m struggling with the stairs as much as Doggo at the moment, I think now is the time to order the stair treds. L's only requirement is that they are in any sort of mud colour.

Today I have a tour around Derby’s impressive new Velodrome, the presence of which they prefer to hide behind the name Derby Arena. Initial impressions weren’t good as the electric front door swung outwards and I had to jump backwards to avoid being hit in the face. Hopefully they’ll sort that out or more likely just wedge it open.

Two lads showed us round and they were fine when they were working from their rehearsed script but floundered completely when anybody asked them a difficult question and in the end they had to fetch help.

The track looks great and it’s raised so it’s level with you if you stand at the side, rather than looking down on it. Which means you could pull someone off their bike if you wanted to... Could be a problem if they have races there.

I tried to find out about track sessions but they didn’t really know very much. This was shame as out of the ten people on my tour - two were interested in the gym, one in exercise classes and the other seven were interested in the track. Almost everyone was asking if there was a membership scheme for the track or that included the track or included a discount off the track. There wasn’t... Hopefully they'll address this.

The gym is very much like the Tennis Centre one I very occasionally visit but with a few different devices. The main bonus is the presence of a couple of Watt bikes and of a dedicated Watt bike studio. Which they told me was for a serious bike workout with definitely no music or flashing lights and it will be open all the time. In fact everything is planned to be open 6am to 10pm.

I will keep checking on their website for when they open up the track, which will be around mid-April they say.

(Tuesday 10^th March)