Chemnitz Velodrome

Race during the World Track Championships in 1960

Arie van Houwelingen , former stayer from the Netherlands, at the 2010 World Cup

The Chemnitz Radrennbahn is located in the Bernsdorf district of the Saxon city of Chemnitz .

Details

The track length is approx. 318 meters, the blue line (standing line) is 333 meters long. The cycling track is made of concrete and is open. It offers space for around 15,000 spectators, is the fastest concrete track in Germany alongside the Bielefeld cycling track and is particularly suitable for standing races . Before that, there was a cycling track in Chemnitz in the Altendorf district , which was built in 1909 to a design by the Chemnitz architects Zapp und Basarke . At their weddings, up to 30,000 spectators came to national and international cycling and motorcycle sport competitions . After the war, the railway was badly damaged and was no longer used.

history

In 1948, the then city councilor and cycling organizer Rolf Seyfarth initiated the construction of a new Chemnitz cycling track on the site of today's Sports Forum , the curves of which were made from rubble and which was completed in 1950. The Stayer World Championships were held on this track in 1960 and the German Track Championships in 2001. In 2010, the 50th anniversary of the Rail World Championship in 1960 was celebrated on the track. It is used for training purposes by the Chemnitzer Police Sports Club (CPSV), the Chemnitzer Radfahrerbund and the Chemnitzer Radsportverein (RSV Chemnitz).

In 2007 the road surface of the cycling track was renewed; however, the following cold winters caused so much damage that the European Stayer Championship planned for 2012 in Chemnitz had to be canceled.

At the beginning of 2014, due to structural defects, the track was then closed for standing races and competitions with a large audience for safety reasons. In December 2015, around 1.5 million euros were approved for renovation, to which the State of Saxony contributed with 834,000 euros in funding. Completion took place in the early summer of 2017. However, reworking on the surface was necessary, so that the first major competition on the new track could not take place until August 2018 with the German championship in the standing race.