UCI President on the World Track Champs velodrome

Mar 15th '09. On the 25th of March, the most prominent event of the year will take place on the new-built Pruszkow track.  Pat McQuaid, the UCI President, is convinced that competition on the BGZ Arena velodrome will be remembered for a long time.

The New Zealand team for these World Track Championships (March 25-29) has been announced, now the 12 kiwis are preparing to head to Poland for their first look at the new Pruszkow velodrome.

Here Pat McQuaid discusses the new velodrome that many of the invited teams have yet to see.

It is going to be a fabulous event, as a new track has been built in Pruszkow?

It will be the first event of such importance on this velodrome and I'm convinced, that this event will go down in history as a perfect one in every respect. As a matter of fact, the European championships already took place in Pruszkow, however, the world championships are a totally different event, which gathers a lot of cycling stars.

The Polish track is reportedly numbered among the best ones in the world, is it?

I won't be surprised if the world records will be beaten in Pruszkow. Of course, it's hard to envisage, but even during the last Word Cup, in Kopenhagen, contenders were close to the world records in the pursuit races. Therefore, I can't see the reason for a different situation in Poland. Even if the records aren't broken, the results certainly will be very impressive.

Are you afraid that something may go wrong during the championships?

It's going to be the track event of the year, so I'm not worried about the quality of the competition. The additional guarantee of success is ensured by the participation of the track stars.

In September, Pruszkow was the host of the European Track Championships, and now the world championships will take place here. Do you think that Poland can hope for more events of the international importance?

Pruszkow is one of the largest velodromes in the whole East Europe, so it's very likely to become the facility, where the big international events take place. What is more, Pruszkow should be visited and used for training purposes by the national teams of the neighbouring countries.

When the UCI decided to grant Pruszkow the right to organise the world championships, The Pruszkow track was still under construction, wasn't it?

That's right, but we took the risk. We put faith in Wojciech Walkiewicz, the chairman of the Polish Cycling Federation, who promised that the track would be ready on time. We also knew that the construction was supported by the right authorities. Now, we are sure that the risk payed off and we wait impatiently for the beginning of the world championships.

How do you like the BGZ Arena velodrome?

It's a very nice velodrome. I visited Pruszkow a few times, first, when the construction begun, and also later, after it was finished.

Source: "tor-pruszkow2009.pl"

Keep to to date the with latest news and information about this event...

UCI World Track Championships 2009 news, March 25th-29, Poland