World's smallest velodrome coming to London (and beyond)… and you can ride it +video

What is surely the world's smallest velodrome - the Red Bull Mini Drome is coming to London for a night of racing and you can be a part of it. The action takes place at London's York Hall, in Bethnal Green on the 15th of January. You may have seen our story on the original Red Bull Mini Drome (video below) in NZ this is a new and better track.

You can Pre-register for the London Mini Drome at www.redbull.co.uk/minidrome or in store at 14 Bike Co., Tokyo Fixed Gear, Look Mum No Hands, Brick Lane Bikes. Registration closes at 5PM on the 10th of January and then 100 riders will be randomly picked to compete on the night. The format will be a straight 10 lap time trial, the riders with the fastest times progressing through to the finals which will be a single pursuit race format. This sounds like it is going to be an awesome night.

Even better news is that Red Bull have plans to bring their Mini Drome to other venues around the country too. Well, when you've had a track built for you in Germany by Velotrack, the team who built the velodromes for the Atlanta Olympics and the very highly rated track for the recent Delhi Commonwealth Games you want to get the most out of it.

Red Bull Minidrome from Eyeball Moving Image on Vimeo.

The New Zealand video probably gives a flavour of the atmosphere but given the differences in track design the racing is going to be a whole lot different. Unlike the track used in New Zealand which was of a two semi circle design (so essentially the riders never come out of the turn)  which demands a lot of steering the London Mini Drome is more  like a modern full size track. That means it's going to be all about power – no steering required just so long as you have the nerve to hold your racing line. The guys who built the track expect riders to be hitting speeds of 80 KPH.

The London Mini Drome is open to fixed riders of all ages (but you do have to have a bike with a track height bottom bracket - no conversions). If all that isn't good enough admission on the night is free to the first 500 entrants and the York Hall's capacity is 500, but donations to the Save Herne Hill Velodrome campaign would be appreciated.

We'll have more on Mini Drome in the run up to the big day. See you there!