Star Track is a free, urban youth outreach program created to teach New York City area kids the fundamentals of track cycling at Kissena Velodrome in Queens. Founded in 2004, Star Track has helped thousands of children — many from under-resourced areas of the city — discover the joys and benefits of bicycle racing and has been repeatedly designated a USA Cycling Center of Excellence. The Star Track program provides the opportunity to join a competitive cycling team, and Star Track racers have earned an unprecedented 28 National Championship jerseys over the past two years. Star Track is funded entirely by sponsors and private contributions, and thanks to this generous support, the program is fee-free for New York City children aged 8-14.
We had the opportunity to check in with Mike and Pete from Star Track to learn more about their youth program and understand their team goals!
Star Track recently held its first outdoor group activities since February, a COVID-aware track and road session in T-Town, PA. Hopefully, it’s just the beginning of our restart. Their focuses right now are threefold:
- Building on a 16-year-long commitment to diversity and inclusion in cycling, a program cornerstone for founders Deirdre Murphy Bader and Delroy Walters. More than two-thirds of our riders come from communities that are underrepresented in the sport and almost 40% are girls. We are exploring new programs and partnerships to expand our reach further and help others to replicate our success.
- Anticipating a variety of pandemic possibilities and developing appropriate programming — more sessions with fewer riders in each, remote training for all participants, new safe training activity sets. We long for “get back to the track and go” but we can’t plan around our fondest wish. With school sports and youth sports in NYC facing budget cuts as well as safety issues, we know our programs are more necessary than ever and are determined to find ways to get more kids on track bikes as soon as possible.
- With most of this year’s race & championship season cancelled, we are keeping our race team motivated and focused on a new set of goals and targets for 2021. It’s not hard, our riders are hungry.
Check out this amazing club here!
If you are interested in helping clubs like Star Track Cycling grow the sport of cycling, please consider donating to the USA Cycling Foundation's Center of Excellence: DONATE HERE
Article Hero Image Courtesy of Neo Afan
