By Tom Degun

London_2012_BMX_track_in_practice_August_18_2011August 18 - British BMX star Shanaze Reade admitted that she is excited at the chance to step out onto the London 2012 BMX track tomorrow to take part in the UCI Supercross World Cup which will act as the test event for the Olympic Games.


The UCI Supercross World Cup will be the second test event on the Olympic Park after the basketball test event, the London International Basketball Invitational, began earlier this week but it will be the first to be held outdoors

Reade, who is a strong gold medal prospect at London 2012, will tackle the course alongside British team-mates and international world-class athletes with 64 men and 32 women set to take part and the 22 year old from Crewe said she is excited to test ride the course.

"Coming here and seeing the finished track is slightly overwhelming," she said.

"It's amazing to think that in a year's time I'll be competing here, on this track, in front of a massive crowd and millions of people watching on TV.

"Having a test event is a good opportunity to get to grips with the different elements and work out the challenging parts.

"I'm looking forward to getting out there.

"In a year's time I'll be back here and I'll be here to win; hopefully a victory in the test event will be a good omen for 2012."

Despite her tender age, Reade is one of the most experienced racers on the circuit and collected her first world senior title aged just 18 in 2007.

Mariana_Pajon_BMX_18-08-11
She has since landed several major titles during a glittering career in the sport, although it lacks an Olympic title after she crashed in Beijing in 2008, but will face a big challenge in the UCI Supercross World Cup at the Olympic Park with the 2009 world champion Sarah Walker of New Zealand and current world champion Mariana Pajon of Columbia set to provide the biggest competition for Reade.

All the riders have been training on the track, including Pajon, who is pictured above with London in the background.

The two-day test event will be made up of qualification rounds tomorrow and Saturday being finals day.

The 400 metre long track is located next to the Velodrome in the north of the Olympic Park and will have 3,000 seats for the test event, which compares to 6,000 seats to host the Olympic BMX competition in 2012.

After the Games, the temporary seating will be removed and the BMX Track reconfigured to make it suitable for riders of all ages and abilities.

It will become a key part of the legacy VeloPark where the Velodrome and BMX Track will be joined by a road cycle circuit and mountain bike course to combine facilities across all disciplines in one cycling hub.

The course is characterised by a series of jumps, bumps, tightly banked corners and a unique tunnel underpass with the venue covering an area slightly larger than a football pitch at 160m x 90m.

Some 14,000 cubic metres of soil was used during the construction which is enough to fill the Olympic swimming pool three times.

The soil, which was reused and cleaned from elsewhere on the Olympic Park, was piled up to four metres high in parts before the final track surface was laid on sections by the track designer.

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