Inside the Centre National de Cyclisme de Bromont – Vélodrome Sylvan Adams: Where a Continental Training Camp Meets a Community

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As part of Panam Sports’ strategy to support young athletes across the Americas, riders from eighteen nations have spent the past two weeks in Bromont, Quebec, attending a continental training camp delivered alongside the UCI World Cycling Centre and COPACI.

The camp took place in the lead-up to the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal, and brought together athletes from Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia, Uruguay and Venezuela.

In Bromont, the riders spent two weeks training under UCI coaches, supported by an on-site nutritionist, a mechanics workshop tuning bikes down to the fractions of a second that decide races, and eighteen NOCs benefiting under the same roof. In parallel, coaches from various countries completed a Level 2 UCI certified course. This aligns with Panam Sports’ strategic vision of the camps: to serve not only as a proving ground for athletes, but also as a development hub for the coaches who guide them. Sport is an ecosystem in which every role is fundamental.

The investment goes directly into the athletes and coaches, who then carry it home. That conviction sits at the centre of how Panam Sports builds its programs: collaboration. These camps are made available to NOCs with support of Continental Confederations and National Federations.

The training camp was hosted at the Centre National de Cyclisme de Bromont (CNCB), home to the Vélodrome Sylvan Adams — Centre Multisports Desjardins. This facility serves athletes, coaches, and an entire community. Guided by its director’s vision — Nicolas Legault — the Centre is a prime example of how collaboration can act as a transformative force. Panam Sports, COPACI, and the UCI have been leveraging satellite centres to empower NOCs, athletes, and coaches across various latitudes — from the Satellite Centre in Trinidad and Tobago to the hills of Bromont.

This close collaboration offers important lessons and a vision worth championing. Such is the perspective of Nicolas Legault.

“When you think of a velodrome, you often assume only elite athletes can ride there,” he said. “But when we envisioned our velodrome, we saw a place to gather people and introduce them to sport — from two years old all the way to 80.”

More than 3,500 schoolchildren visit the centre every year. In a siloed world, a place that brings a six-year-old, a national team rider, and a retiree onto the same track is worth protecting. In Bromont, everybody belongs.

That philosophy extends far beyond cycling. The centre’s kitchen is one of three production kitchens used by the Comité antigaspillage Brome-Missisquoi, which transforms unsold food into roughly 19,000 meals annually for about 12,000 people across the region. Nothing obliges a cycling centre to take on social work of this scale, but there is a community right outside its doors — and for the Centre, that has always been reason enough.

This holistic approach makes satellite centres a cornerstone of effective training camps, delivering a true 360-degree experience for athletes and coaches alike. Participants prepare in an environment that offers everything they need, and more. As Daniel Orellana, a Salvadoran rider at the camp, put it, the hardest part was facing things he was not ready for, including living alongside people he had never met. What he found on the other side was not only form.

“I feel fulfilled as a person,” he said. “I have learned a lot about discipline, about nutrition, about being a better cyclist and behaving like one.”

Legault’s commitment to sharing the joy of sport serves as a vital reminder to athletes of the power of their influence. That balance between athletic excellence and social responsibility is always present. For Panam Sports, these training camps are an essential opportunity to reinforce these broader values, helping athletes become ambassadors for the skills and principles that sport imparts.

Roughly a decade ago, Legault began traveling to Inuit communities in Nunavik, 2,500 kilometres north of Montreal — isolated villages of 200 to 500 people accessible only by air or sea. He returned in the summer of 2024 with five CNCB coaches to run two camps for children aged six to eighteen, leaving a fleet of bicycles behind when they departed. What struck Legault the most was what the bicycle represented to them.

“It becomes a symbol of freedom,” he said. “It allows them to venture a little further on their own beyond the village.”

This is precisely why, for Panam Sports, the venue is never an afterthought. Deep partnerships with Confederations like COPACI and International Federations like the UCI ensure an impact both on and off the track. Panam Sports is proud to work alongside the UCI World Cycling Centre, COPACI, the Centre National de Cyclisme de Bromont, and visionary leaders like Nicolas Legault.