I first imagined an aluminium velodrome about 25 years ago.
The idea came from riding. I have been riding and racing on velodromes, on both track and road bikes, since 1958. Over those years, I have experienced tracks of very different quality. Some were fast and smooth. Some were difficult, uncomfortable or unsafe. Since 1990, I have also been building velodromes, and I have kept asking the same question: how can we make tracks better, safer and more economical?
For me, the need has always been clear. There is a market for durable outdoor velodromes. Many communities cannot afford a full indoor arena, and in many climates they do not need one. What they need is a safe, controlled place to ride and race, without the cost and complexity that often comes with traditional construction.
Wood is a wonderful material indoors, but it does not last well outdoors. Concrete can be durable, but it is expensive to build correctly. Today, the official Olympic UCI velodrome length is 250 metres. That shorter length makes the banking steeper and the geometry more demanding. On a steep 250 metre track, it is very difficult to build a concrete surface without bumps.
That was the problem I wanted to solve. Aluminium became the answer.
Why aluminium made sense
When people compare velodrome materials, they often start with the riding surface. Wood, concrete or aluminium. But as a velodrome designer, I look at the complete system.
A velodrome must consider surface, structure, assembly method, maintenance, repair, durability and end-of-life value. When I compared aluminium with other possible materials, including plastics and synthetic wood products, extruded aluminium had the best cost, strength and durability ratio.
It also has another important advantage. Aluminium is recyclable. Many alternative materials are not, or at least not in a practical and valuable way.
For the Tucson Velodrome, we used 6061-T6 aluminium alloy. It was available, and it did the job in the conditions we had in Arizona. At the same time, I still see opportunities to improve future tracks through alloy choice, fabrication methods and final assembly. Tucson is the first generation of this idea. It proves the principle, but it also gives us knowledge for the next version.
The aluminium profiles used on the track are 7.3 metres long, or 24 feet, and 50 millimetres wide. They are extruded tongue-and-groove strips. That geometry is very important. The strips are flexible enough to bend to the required radius of the velodrome, but strong enough to support 400 kilograms each on a 750 millimetre span.
Wood or most plastics with the same dimensions cannot do that.
That combination of flexibility and strength is what made the geometry possible. The material could follow the shape of the track, while still creating a strong and smooth riding surface.
If I could build it in Arizona, I could build it anywhere
I tried to sell the aluminium velodrome idea for a long time before the right opportunity came. The idea needed someone who understood the novelty of aluminium, but also the logic of it.
That happened in Tucson, with a private investor who understood the concept. In many ways, south-west Arizona was the best possible testing ground. The desert brings extreme heat, strong sun and demanding outdoor conditions. If an aluminium velodrome could work there, it would show the material’s potential very clearly.
I do not think of Tucson as a mild test. I think of it as a serious one.
At 46 degrees Celsius under direct Arizona sun, the aluminium track surface measured 36 degrees Celsius. That surprised many people, but it makes sense when you understand the system. Aluminium has excellent heat conductivity, and the profiles include heat-dissipating fins in the shade under the surface. Instead of trapping heat in the riding surface, the system can move and dissipate it.
There is also no water retention in the way you might see with other surfaces. There is no glare from the finished surface. The result is an outdoor track that responds well to conditions that would be difficult for wood and challenging for concrete.
How the surface creates grip
Before people ride an aluminium velodrome, they often imagine a shiny, slippery metal surface. That is not what we built.
Originally, I considered using a non-slip powder coating on the riding surface. In the end, sandblasting gave us a less costly solution with excellent friction results. The sandblasted aluminium has a matte texture, and the profiles also have tiny parallel surface lines. Together, these create a very secure feeling under the tyre.
With rubber-soled shoes, it is possible to walk up the 42 degree slope of the turns. That is not possible in the same way on wood or concrete track surfaces.
For cycling, this matters because safety depends on confidence. A rider should not wonder whether the surface will hold. On some wooden tracks, the surface can be slippery when new. On the Tucson aluminium track, riders described the surface as grippy and smooth. That was very important to me.
The balance is always to create enough friction for safety without creating unnecessary resistance. In Tucson, the sandblasted texture achieved that balance better than I expected.
Precision through the whole system
The aluminium riding surface is attached with stainless steel self-tapping screws to supporting aluminium beams. The surface strips follow the geometry of the structure, which was built to a tolerance of 3 millimetres. Because the strips are joined with a tongue-and-groove system, they create a smooth surface without the bumps or gaps that can appear in other construction methods.
That tongue-and-groove detail is simple, but it is one of the reasons the system works. It makes the surface stronger, and it also makes assembly easier than building a comparable surface in wood or concrete.
In my view, aluminium gave us more precision and easier assembly in almost every respect. The system does not allow for large mistakes. Once the supporting structure is right, the profiles guide the surface into place. It also means the construction does not require the same highly specialised surface-building skills needed for wooden or concrete velodromes.
That matters if we want more communities to have access to track cycling. The easier a safe and precise velodrome is to build, the more realistic it becomes.
What I learned from the first rides
When the first riders tested the track, I was interested in everything. Sound, vibration, tyre contact, rider line, speed and confidence all matter.
Aluminium does sound and feel different from wood. It also transmits vibration differently. But different does not mean worse. In Tucson, those differences were not a deterrent. The track worked, both in construction and in function.
As a rider, I know how quickly a cyclist senses a problem. You feel a bump, a gap, a surface change or a lack of grip immediately. That is why my own experience on the bike has always influenced my design work. Drawings are necessary, but the rider’s body is also a measuring instrument.
The Tucson prototype has not shown any serious problems. That is a strong result for the first full aluminium velodrome.
A safer surface in a crash
No designer wants to talk about crashes as if they are acceptable, but in cycling they must be considered. A track should be designed to reduce risk, and when crashes happen, the surface should not make the consequences worse.
A few crashes have already happened on the Tucson track, and the results were better than expected. Skin damage was light compared with what I would expect on concrete or wood. The aluminium surface is clean, which may reduce infection risk, and one of the biggest advantages is that there are no splinters.
Anyone who has seen serious splinter injuries from wooden tracks understands how important that is. Wooden velodromes can sometimes produce very long and dangerous splinters during crashes. Aluminium removes that risk completely.
Surface damage from crashes has also been minimal and hard to see. If deeper gouges appear, they can be repaired with epoxy filler, similar to repairs used on car bodies. That makes the surface not only safe to ride, but practical to maintain.
Designing for maintenance and circularity
From the beginning, I tried to design the aluminium velodrome as something portable and recyclable.
That does not mean it is temporary in the weak sense. It means the material and system should have a future beyond one fixed location. I believe the lifespan of the aluminium structure may be longer than the feasibility of the facility in one place. If circumstances change, the track could be relocated, sold and rebuilt, or recycled.
Even if parts of the track were eventually used for something completely different, such as a barn roof, that would still be better than demolishing and disposing of a concrete track.
The maintenance itself should be modest. Occasional sandblasting may be necessary to renew the surface texture. Gouges can be repaired with epoxy filler. Compared with the long-term problems of outdoor wood or the demolition cost of concrete, aluminium offers a different lifecycle.
That is where sustainability becomes practical. It is not only about the embodied carbon of the original material. It is also about lifespan, maintenance, reuse, recyclability and residual value.
A concrete track may cost more to demolish and dispose of in 15 years than it originally cost to build. An aluminium track has material value at the end of its first use.
Velodromes to the people!
Tucson confirmed my belief in the basic principles of building in aluminium.
Most of what I learned during design and construction was about technical details: assembly, fabrication, production and how to improve the next generation. I am already thinking about those improvements. They may involve alloy selection, profile design, fabrication methods or final assembly.
For architects and engineers who are hesitant to think of aluminium as an outdoor sports surface, I understand the hesitation. New ideas take time. It will take time to convince decision makers, and also some cyclists. More aluminium tracks will have to be completed and ridden.
But I believe the direction is clear.
For velodrome building, aluminium offers possibilities that are better than I expected. In some ways, I see it as the same story we have seen before in cars and aeroplanes: a move from wood to aluminium when strength, precision, durability and weight begin to matter in a new way.
I do not see plastics, even carbon fibre, competing with aluminium for this particular application. A velodrome needs strength, surface control, durability, repairability, recyclability and economy. Aluminium brings those qualities together.
My goal has never been only to build a different kind of track. It has been to contribute to the development of track riding and racing, and to rider safety. Velodromes give cyclists a safe environment to ride fast, learn skills and compete.
If aluminium can make more outdoor velodromes possible, in more places, with better durability and a better end-of-life story, then it is more than a material choice.
It is a way to bring track cycling to more people.
