Velosolutions Builds The Philippines' First Pump Track
Both the riders and the sound designer had way too much fun in the making of this video.
The Philippines is not the first location that springs to mind when thinking about riding destinations. But Athena Beltran and her Husband Bans had a different vision. Both of them had aspirations of racing World Cups but were never able to break beyond the Continental Championships. When the opportunity arose to create "The Bike Playground" it was a stepping stone for them to realize their vision for the future generations of bike riders in the Philippines and create a breeding ground for new talent.
Working alongside Velosolutions, Athena, Bans and the team at Velosolutions have come together to build the first asphalt pump track of its kind in the Philippines combined with outdoor trail riding and a kids outdoor track.
Could this be the breeding ground for the next superstar of DH, Enduro or BMX? We caught up with Athena to find out a little more.
Circulo Verde (property) of Ortigas and Company (developer) was moving into an active lifestyle direction and had this unused land with 2 covered warehouses. They asked us to visit the place sometime in October. We have long been wanting to have an indoor pump track and pitched the idea along with the other complementing features outside the warehouse. I contacted Claudio, put together the project and it was approved in December! From there everything went so fast that New Year passed by and we were looking forward to Claudio coming over and seeing him build.
Bans (my husband and part of the project too) and I were both national team athletes for DH, but during our time the farthest we got was the continental championships. We were always curious on how to breakthrough to the world cup, world champs and other big races outside Asia. We started working on developing the sport with whatever we could do, along with our friends who have the same vision for our local scene. When we travel we always take in all the learnings, tracks we ride and stuff and apply it here to have our local scene experience a bit of what is out there. A Velosolutions pump track was one on our bucket list that we hoped we could have here for the local scene to progress! We learned a lot in every aspect from how professional and tirelessly the Velosolutions crew worked, their approach to building, the design, the building, the riding.
How many people do you expect to use The Bike Playground in the coming year?It has been a week since we opened and we have an average of 500 visitors already, we are expecting more especially now that we are breaking the image that it is just for certain disciplines with it being mostly associated to DH, BMX, and DJ. We are in the informative stage on the benefits of the pumptrack as it may look intimidating for others while for some they don't feel they need to ride it.
We have a lot of things we look forward to about bike riding in the Philippines: that soon we'll have an athlete that will represent what biking in the Philippines is about; that biking be embraced as a lifestyle where people can use it as a mode of transport safely; and that we can share the beauty of our country as a riding destination.
So What is on offer at The Bike Playground?The first asphalt pump track in the country The first pump track where riders can create their own lines The Bike Playground also has an outdoor trail and a kids outdoor track where we offer lessons and coaching Entrance is P65 or €1.19 during daytime and P90 or €1.65 night time We are open from 7am to 8pm The pump track is housed in a 36x21m warehouse Future plans include yoga sessions, high altitude training The whole project including the outdoor track was completed in 2 months
For more info visit thebikeplayground.com and velosolutions.com
