Mount Fuji rises majestically in the background of the Izu Velodrome, which is nestled in the hills above the town of Shuzenji, 150km from Tokyo and just a few hundred metres from the Keirin School.
A winding forest road takes you up to this indoor track, part of the Japan Cycle Sports Centre, where many Asian athletes have been put through their paces over the years. Indeed, since 2002, the centre has been a satellite of the UCI World Cycling Centre (WCC) in Aigle, Switzerland.
The Continental Cycling Centre Shuzenji (CCCS) regularly hosts the Japanese national track cycling team, and also welcomes athletes from nations throughout the continent on twice-yearly training camps. In addition, it sends its expert coaches to at least one mobile training camp a year held in a South East Asian country.
In four years’ time this velodrome, built in 2011, will host the track cycling events of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Before then, certain renovations will be carried out and the seating capacity increased.
A busy few years lie ahead, but in the meantime it is business as usual for this velodrome, which provides idyllic training conditions for athletes wishing to dedicate themselves to their sport far from the distractions of every-day life.
Since its opening, the CCCS has been the training ground of six Olympians, not least Lee Wai Sze, Hong Kong’s flag bearer at London 2012 and bronze medallist in the keirin. Lee Wai Sze has completed no fewer than eight training camps at Izu with her national track cycling team, and last month was crowned Asian Continental Champion in the keirin on the same velodrome.
“We have a very close relationship with the centre,” confirms Hong Kong Cycling Coach Dr Zhang Jie.
“Many of our riders come here - probably 90%. They learn very good discipline and are taught well.”
“I have trained here many times,” confirms Hong Kong’s Cheung King Lok, newly crowned Asian Champion in the road race and individual time trial. Also a talented track cyclist (2016 Asian Champion in the individual pursuit and bronze medallist in the scratch at the 2014 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Cali, Colombia) the Hong Kong athlete adds: “At home we often go to mainland China to train on a velodrome. In Izu we have a professional environment, and we learn a lot of technical things.”
Last month’s Asian Continental Championships at Izu were almost like a family reunion for many of the athletes, who know each other from their weeks spent together clocking up kilometres on the indoor 250m track.
None were more pleased to be part of that reunion than the CCCS Head Coach and Olympic Solidarity Coach Akira Kato and the centre’s Assistant Manager and Coach Naohiro Noda.
Their office is hidden behind the main entrance to the building, but during the Asian Continental Championships they could regularly be found in the teams’ zone.
“Many of the riders at this event have trained here and it’s always a pleasure when they come to say hello,” said Naohiro Noda.
Akira Kato adds: “And we’re even more pleased when we see the riders succeed.”
The two have seen a great many athletes pass through their doors: since the opening of the CCCS in 2002, riders from 24 National Federations have trained at Izu or at mobile training camps organised in different countries. In 2015 alone, 72 athletes and 13 coaches benefitted from the centre’s facilities which, besides the track, include a sports science laboratory, weight training equipment and medical facilities.
Malaysia’s Suod Hussain is just one of the coaches who have regularly accompanied his athletes to Izu, where he gains as much benefit as his riders:
“We improve a lot when we come here,” he says. “I get new (coaching) ideas and take them back to Malaysia.”
One of his athletes Muhammad Azri is still drawing the benefits of a mobile training camp he attended in Thailand in 2013: “We learnt technical tips, pedalling technique and tactics. I was a better cyclist afterwards. And I made a lot of friends… from Uzbekistan, Myanmar, all over.”
Between training camps, the Izu velodrome is open to hobby riders and even has its own cycling team.
Venue of the annual CL1 Japan Track Cup, the CCCS last month hosted the 2016 Asian Continental Championships for the first time since 1973, when they were held on the 400m outdoor track. The announcement, just one month before this year’s Asian competition, that Izu would be the track cycling venue for Tokyo 2020, added to the excitement of the event.
“Until the actual decision, we didn’t believe it would happen,” said the CCCS Assistant Manager. “We are very happy. When the Centre opened in 2002 we certainly never imagined we would one day host an Olympic Games.
“This will certainly provide extra motivation for athletes training at the Izu velodrome, especially the Japanese riders, and I think there will be an increase in training camps in the lead-up to Tokyo 2020.”
The Continental Cycling Centre Shuzenji is one of five UCI World Cycling Centre satellites around the world along with South Africa (Pietermaritzburg) Korea (Yeongju city and Yang Yang county), Argentina (Mar del Plata) and India (New Delhi).
UCI WCC Director Frédéric Magné said the satellite centre was an excellent example of the WCC’s desire to develop cycling worldwide: “The CCCS has helped athletes from many countries, some of whom do not have a velodrome to train on. Thanks to the coaching expertise and facilities at the centre, these athletes have been given the chance to be competitive at an international level and we will definitely see some of them in action at Rio 2016 later this year.”