Client: Bordeaux City Olympic Committee
Architects & engineers: Roger Taillibert, Paris
Structural timber fabricators: Haas-Weisrock S.A., Saulcy-sur-Meurthe
Main contractors: Bordeaux Velodrome

This purpose-built velodrome, seating 4,500 within a 107m square envelope, features a 250m steeply banked track. Both the structure and the surface of the track are timber. For the surface, the dense, durable, and stable tropical hardwood, Afzelia, was used, a frequent choice for such projects.

The banked seating is arranged diagonally across the corners of the square plan. The four principal reinforced concrete supports for the roof structure are located on the diagonal points, from which flat-topped composite timber-steel girders span 75m from pillar to pillar. On each of these girders are mounted three lozenge-shaped glulam trusses whose inner tips support a diagonally-square 37m wide roof pyramid.

The main girders are 8.68m deep, with upper chords of hollow box section. There are two 160mm x 1330mm vertical hollow sections over the most highly stressed zones, tapering to single 135mm x 1330mm elements in the outer bays of the girders. The lower steel tie chords are 400mm x600mm x 8mm box sections.

The pyramid main roof comprises diagonal timber girders with steel tension chords, a series of secondary glulam trusses and a central lantern upper roof, also in glulam, with 37m sides.