Westplex to become bicyclING center; considering velodrome

Lehigh Valley Velodrome by Fußgänger

The first annual Tour of Missouri made a big splash when Stage 5 finished on the banks of the Missouri River in St. Charles--the largest crowd of any start or finish location.

On result of this is that the four-county Westplex area is making plans to make bicycling a major focus of the area.

The Katy Trail runs through the area, several area cities and a county are participating in an effort organized by TrailNet to create bicycle plans and make the area more inviting for bicycling, and the Westplex already hosts some major bicycling- and outdoors-oriented events like the triathlons, the John Howard duathlon, and the 5000-participant Lewis and Clark Marathon.

Now to top it all off, the Westplex Enews announced recently:

The newly formed Westplex Sports and Entertainment L.O.C. is exploring the prospect of building a Velodrome to provide a venue for the growing interest in cycling that was ignited by the Tour of Missouri. A Velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Only 23 Velodrome Tracks are currently operating in the U.S.

The Velodrome idea came about at the MoBikeFed board meeting November 4th in St. Louis, during discussions between the board and Westplex area resident and Tour of Missouri fund raiser Ed Watkins.

Westplex is the four county area taking in St. Charles, Franklin, Lincoln and Warren counties, and towns including St. Charles, Warrenton, Washington, Augusta, St. Peters, O'Fallon, and Wentzville.

(Westplex Enews subscription page here--it's free.)