Riders from some of East London’s leading clubs viewed Hog Hill’s new cycle circuit which is being built by the London Development Agency (LDA) to relocate the Eastway Cycle Circuit. They gave the thumbs up to that part of the circuit which will be open in March on their visit to the upper fields where an ‘indy circuit’ of less than 1km is being built. They saw how it features several bends and climbs that will be an ideal short training circuit.
Viewing the much larger expanse of the lower field, all agreed that the full 2km of road circuit will be challenging to ride and in some of the pleasantest countryside around. Racing on this full circuit should be outstandingly fast and challenging. Users have been very keen to get riding at Hog Hill but there have been several delays due in part to the presence of a protected species.
The Great Crested Newts which live in this countryside are being collected and placed in their own special habitat. Once this is completed in early summer, the LDA intends to have the full circuit and off-road areas completed in early autumn this year.
Riders were shown the off-road plans that have been made by CTC’s Off-road expert Ian Warby. Together with representatives from the UCI, British Cycling and IMBA, a set of off-road trails and features is to be provided on the site, making it suitable for cross-country mountainbiking as well as giving younger-minded riders a taste of ‘freeride’ and ‘dirt’ features.
Road riders will find that the circuit offers them three separate options;-
The indy circuit - stays in sight of the clubhouse has sharp short gradients and several turns that demand caution and allow novices to be trained in using the racing line and all the gears. This will be open from March.
The lower circuit - progresses gently around the lower field for novice riders or groups who just want to circulate without too much physical effort. Not open until later in 2008, newts willing.
The full 2km circuit - offering one of the hilliest profiles of any purpose-built cycle circuit around. Corners and gradients will be as demanding as those that riders knew from Eastway. It was important to recreate this aspect of Eastway on the new site at Hog Hill because users know it produced some of the country’s leading young riders and staged some of the best circuit races. There is even the further option of three additional tight ‘alpine-style’ turns on another 250m loop to encourage stronger riders off the front of a large bunch.
Since Eastway closed in November 2006 to make way for the Olympic Park to be built, the clubs and race organisers that were using the circuit have all had to make their own arrangements. With the impending opening of Hog Hill’s upper circuits in March 2008 the road riders, mountainbikers and especially the youth clubs will be able to enjoy a solid base for their sport once again.
The Lee Valley Youth CC recently had three of its members recruiited into the National Olympic Talent Team. The club is looking forward to having a base where it can develop these riders and bring more like them on in the sport. A base at Hog Hill is also important for the senior riders from all clubs as a place where they can meet to train, race or just socialise in traffic-free safety. For anyone who visits the site, they will be welcomed to a facility which looks set to be one of the country’s finest. The pleasant environment and proper circuits for road and off-road riding should bring many more people into cycling and cycle sport. The site has the most spectacular West-facing position looking over open fields eight miles towards where Eastway was and where the Olympic Park is now rising.
The facility at Hog Hill was secured from the London Development Agency only after a long campaign run by Eastway Users Group. It is a 17ha site intended as a relocation while London’s Games are being built and run. In 2013 the site reverts to its operator the London Borough of Redbridge for revenue funding, when the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is to provide a legacy cycling facility back in the Olympic Park roughly where Eastway was. Details of the legacy are still to be finalised, but the requirement to replace the facilities for Olympic disciplines of road-race, time-trial and mountainbike cross-country from Eastway has been acknowledged by the legacy planners.
Eastway was built on an old landfill site in 1975 and acquired the protected status of Metropolitan Open Land for its London-wide importance to cycle sport. It was a 24ha site created and run by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority with funding from all the London boroughs and others where its lands run out into Hertfordshire. Eastway cycle circuit was home to the country’s largest mountainbke cross-country weekly race series and its road circuit regularly accommodated over 120 riders in circuit races for all categories, ages and abilities, plus social, educational and recreational riding at all other times. Users successfully recruited political and media support to the cause of securing a suitable relocation and a legacy replacement for their amenity with a campaign that started at the end of 2003. Details of the ODA’s final legacy provision are awaited, but for now it seems that the relocation can offer users the facility they have missed so badly over sixteen months between Eastway’s closure and the opening of Hog Hill.
Hog Hill can be found at the top of Forest Road above Fairlop. The site is bordered by Forest Road and Romford Road. It will be operated and managed by the London Borough of Redbridge.
Source: London Cyclesport [1]