London to Bid for 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Championships

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has confirmed the London 2012 Olympic Games velodrome will be put forward as a venue for the 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.

The already iconic ‘pringle’ velodrome will be a central part of the London 2012 legacy velopark, and a hosting of the Track Worlds in 2016 would confirm its status as one of the world’s premier cycling venues.

“I want our great capital city to play its own part in the cycling revolution that is taking place by hosting the track cycling World Championships in 2016,” said Johnson in a statement issued just after Bradley Wiggins clinched victory in the 2012 Tour de France.

“This is the best sports city in the world and the wonderful velodrome we have built in east London would be packed to the rafters for such an event.”

The London velodrome hosted a sell-out round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in February, which also served as the official Olympic test event prior to the Games.

Britain hosted the Track Cycling World Championships in the National Cycling Centre in Manchester in 2008, the year that Britain’s track cycling team won 12 medals at the Beijing Olympic Games.

The Track World Champs isn’t the only top-level cycling event that is being invited to come to Britain in 2016. In March it was revealed that Yorkshire had put in a formal bid to host the Grand Depart of the 2016 Tour de France.