广州大学城体育中心自行车馆

The Velodrome of the Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Centre Sports Centre stands on Xiaoguwei Island in Panyu District and is the core building of the centre's extreme-sports park, completed in August 2010 for the track cycling events of the 16th Asian Games. The hall covers about 24,000 square metres and is shaped like an oversized silver cycling helmet, its curved metal roof throwing moving highlights in the sun and making it one of the most recognisable structures around the Mega Centre's central lake. Inside is a 250-metre professional timber track, 7.5 metres wide, laid with imported wood and banked to International Cycling Union standards so that international track events can be staged; the stands hold 3,000 spectators along both sides of the track, with no barrier between audience and racing surface, so that during a sprint the sound of tyres crossing the timber joints carries straight up. The venue hosted track cycling at the 2010 Asian Games and afterwards became the largest and best-equipped velodrome in southern China, used for training by provincial and municipal squads and opened for public track sessions and junior coaching. The wider extreme-sports park around it also contains a BMX track, a roller-skating track, a skate park and a climbing wall, forming the 'one hall, four grounds' cluster that began trial operation in October 2014 and opened fully on 1 January 2015, turning the Mega Centre from a Games venue into an everyday sports park. For event owners the velodrome's distinguishing feature is its column-free interior and the ring of seating: track cycling, roller racing and indoor BMX displays can all be staged as they are, and ceremonies, launches and brand pop-ups can use the banking as a backdrop. The timber track, however, demands strict floor protection, with protective decking and a ban on heavy vehicles during load-in and load-out. The site sits by the central lake, reachable from Higher Education Mega Centre North station on metro line 4 by bus or on foot, and is surrounded by ten universities, which gives it a young spectator base.