TREXLERTOWN, Pa. – T-Town is touted as the Bicycle Racing Capital of the World and in 2017 it is the track that every rider, around the world, will want to race at.
Traditionally, over one dozen different countries worldwide flock to the Lehigh Valley to race at the Valley Preferred Cycling Center throughout the summer’s World Series of Bicycling, which is the premier racing series in T-Town. Many athletes, coaches, officials, and administrators know the importance of training at and the experience one gets from racing at T-Town. Those benefits spread by word-of-mouth around the world of track cycling.
Multiple athletes, who competed in the recent Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, spent the time leading up to the summer games training and racing at VPCC and around the Lehigh Valley. Riders from New Zealand, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, and the Netherlands, among other countries, trained in T-Town and then went on to compete in the Olympics in 2016. Included in that group is Elis Ligtlee, a Netherlands national team member who won gold at the Olympics in the women’s keirn competition. Ligtlee spent multiple months competing in the World Series of Bicycling in 2015. Additionally, the current men’s Olympic sprint champion Jason Kenny spent a part of his early career training and racing in T-Town.
“T-Town has been the proving ground for Olympians and world-class cyclists for over 40 years,” said Marty Nothstein, who is the executive director of VPCC, an Olympic Gold Medalist, and America’s greatest track cyclist. “Past champions like Danny Clark and Patrick Sercu to current champions like Elis Ligtlee and Jason Kenny, at one time have made a stop in T-Town to compete in our dynamic summer racing series”
As the focus turns to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and all that qualifying for it entails, it starts for riders in T-Town in 2017. This summer’s World Series of Bicycling features all that riders seek. The schedule, which is not finalized yet, features at least 12 high-caliber race nights, including multiple nights with UCI points on the line in various different events. Additionally, between the WSB and the Fuji-Bikes Pro-Am Series, there is over $50,000 in prize money, which is waiting to be won this summer. A large portion of that prize list is dedicated to the WSB, making it the richest track series is North America.
Also, while competing for UCI points and prize money, riders also compete for Rider of the Year points in an effort to win the coveted Rider of the Year title at season’s end. ROY is two season-long competitions, both male and female, where certain events each week are for ROY points. The rider with the most cumulative ROY points at the end of the WSB season is crowned the year’s Rider of the Year and enjoys the benefits of being the top rider.
In addition to racing, there are opportunities for open track time and motor pacing. Also, there are multiple local road rides available and also plenty of criteriums, which are held within greater Lehigh Valley area.
For 2017, the VPCC is looking for new athletes worldwide to ‘Commit to T-Town’ for the summer. Riders can live, train, and race in front of thousands of fans every week between June and August, gaining prestigious VPCC Rider of the Year Points and invaluable experience on the bike.
Riders who are interested in committing to T-Town are encouraged to contact Nothstein, at martynothstein@thevelodrome.com, for more information as well as reading the Be a Rider section on the VPCC’s official website, which can be found here.
#committottown
Tyler Trumbauer
PR/Communications Assistant
Valley Preferred Cycling Center
