The father of Olympic gold-medallist Chris Hoy, David Hoy, is hoping to convince the city of Edinburgh to replace the Meadowbank velodrome where his champion son learned to ride with a training facility, the Scotsman reported on Friday. The renovation of the sporting complex has been the subject of great debate, and the estimated price tag of the new velodrome has been tagged at £11 million - about twice what Hoy thinks it should cost.
With Glasgow set to build a velodrome suitable for international competition as part of its Commonwealth Games bid, Hoy said that Edinburgh need only build a minimal 200m track without all the expensive accoutrements of a larger facility.
"Scottish Cycling has commissioned a report by outside consultants in light of the fact that the competition velodrome is now going to be based in Glasgow," Hoy said. "That will be the centre of excellence for cycling in this country. We want to have a structure in place to feed potential world class cyclists into that centre of excellence."
Hoy fears that the high price tag quoted in the proposal would prevent the facility from being approved in Edinburgh. "Nobody from the council has spoken to us [about this] in over two years. I'm not sure where the figure of £11m came from but it is either too high or too low, depending on the type of facility that would be needed,"Hoy insisted. "It looks to me as if it has been plucked out of the air.
"If they are talking about building a new facility, it would cost about half of the £11m that has been quoted and we can prove that."
According to the report, a spokesman for the council said that the estimate was not final, and they would work with Scottish Cycling in replacing the facility. "Gleebs' independent report was ordered to determine the costs of refurbishing the existing competition facility on a like for like basis, not to determine options for a training velodrome.
"The council's sports manager met with [Scottish Cycling's] chief executive two weeks ago to discuss their national facilities strategy. We look forward to the publication which will discuss Edinburgh's future requirements for cycling."
