Ron Webb's enduring legacy will be tracks like the Cooks Gardens Velodrome, seen here during the 2020 West Coast North Island Track Championships. Photo / File
Ron Webb's enduring legacy will be tracks like the Cooks Gardens Velodrome, seen here during the 2020 West Coast North Island Track Championships. Photo / File
The visionary designer who took his work on the Whanganui velodrome to the tracks of the Olympic Games died last month in England.
Former world class professional rider and track builder Ron Webb, OAM, passed away peacefully on March 1 at the Farnham Mill Care Home in Surrey, aged 87.
Ron Webb at a racing meet in Herne Hill, London, 1957. Photos / Supplied
Former NZ Cycling coach Ron Cheatley kept in regular contact with Webb, who from the 1970's onwards would build 64 temporary or permanent velodromes around the world, including for the Olympic Games in Seoul (1988), Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and London (2012).
"He always said to me that the design he achieved in building Whanganui was the best ever and consequently he tweaked the Athens track to be the same," said Cheatley.
"He was very proud of the Whanganui track, as the design and transitions allow any rider, if they are good enough, to win from anywhere they are positioned.
"Riders can pass freely on the bends, whereas many tracks the riders need to wait until the straight."
Since its construction under Webb's direction in 1995, the debate and negotiations between regional and national authorities to get a roof on the velodrome has been ongoing.
"At the time of building, he emphasised the need to cover the track surface within five to 10 years," said Cheatley of Webb's assessment for his wooden marvel.
"He was amazed it had lasted so long, even though we have had to increase the maintenance in recent years.
"He has always stressed, however, the many lost opportunities we have had with weather cancellations, and major promotions cancelled has been disappointing and a loss to the city."
From the obituary by friend Phillip Taylor, Ronald Vincent Webb was born in Penshurst, New South Wales, in 1932 and he moved to Europe in 1953, aged 21, to settle in Amsterdam.
Showing great versatility as a track rider, he turned professional in 1958 and was twice a finalist for the World Motor Paced Championship, while he came fourth at the 1958 World Championships in Leipzig, Germany.
Ron Webb, left, celebrating a track win.
He then settled in the United Kingdom and became involved in cycling administration after he retired as a competitor in the mid-1960's.
Webb is best known in England as being the race director and promoter of London's Skol Six Day event for 12 years, while he was race director for six day events in Denmark and Germany for many years as well.
He is considered the inventor of the modern six day format, which was a more condensed and popular programme for spectators.
Webb coached and managed riders at all levels from schoolboys to professionals, while learning about track design under the tutelage of respected architect Herbert Schurrman.
He went on to become a world class designer himself – as well as his Olympic tracks, he created the 1986 Commonwealth Games track in Edinburgh, the British National Cycling Centre in Manchester, and the Welsh National Cycling Centre in Newport.
His final build – the London Olympics track at Lee Valley, was a design award winner.
