Before the track off Mosser Road picked up its nickname, it had a plainer name that put this county right on the marquee. When the first race ran in Trexlertown on October 12, 1975, the venue was called the Lehigh County Velodrome. It only became "T-Town" later, as the crowds and the reputation grew past the county line.
This year the place most people now know as the Valley Preferred Cycling Center wrapped its 50th anniversary season. The marquee series, Friday Nights Under the Lights, ran its final night on August 14 with the Madison Cup. Coverage of that closing night, and of the season that led up to it, has been easy to find all summer. What gets skipped is the part that actually explains why a velodrome in Breinigsville has stayed relevant to this county for half a century: the racing series is only twelve nights long. Everything else the track does runs on its own calendar, and that's the piece that keeps people coming back.
A Name That Started With This County
The velodrome exists because of Bob Rodale, of the Emmaus-based Rodale publishing family, who wanted a home for track racing in the Lehigh Valley. Five decades later, his grandson Andrew Rodale Norelli now chairs the venue's board, and he was the one reflecting on that legacy when the anniversary season opened on May 29.
That opening night carried more institutional weight than a typical Friday race. Pennsylvania State Rep. Mike Schlossburg and U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie were both on hand, along with Upper Macungie Township Board of Supervisors vice chairman Julien Godbarge and State Sen. Jarrett Coleman, all offering remarks on the milestone. Dan Bair, who works in clinically integrated networks at Jefferson Health and served as acting executive director of Valley Preferred, spoke too. The evening also honored two of the track's earliest stewards: Dave Chaucer, who managed the velodrome from 1976 to 1978, and Jack Simes, an Olympian who served as its director during those same founding years.
That's a lot of civic and family history for a Friday night bike race, and it's the kind of detail that gets lost once the story becomes "there were fireworks."
Twelve Fridays, Not a Season-Long Show
The pro racing calendar this year ran exactly twelve Friday nights, from the May 29 anniversary opener through the August 14 finale. Each night had its own named race: the Nicole Reinhart Women's Classic on June 19, the Artie Greenberg Memorial on July 10, a full week built around the USA Cycling Junior Track Championships in late July, and finally the Madison Cup, which executive director Gary Thornton called the sport's signature event. This year's finale pitted international teams against USA Cycling national champions Kyle Perry and Aaron Beebe, and as part of the anniversary, any former T-Town racer got in free at Will Call. Gates opened at 6 p.m., racing started at 7, and by the time the last lap was ridden, the 50th season was officially closed.
Around each of those twelve nights sits the same low-key food and drink pattern regulars already know. The Sticky Pig food truck is a mainstay at the snack stand, Shangy's Beer Garden handles the beer, and the kids' zone runs on inflatables rather than anything that requires standing in line. For people heading over before the gates open or looking for something after the lights go down, Trexlertown's own 1760 Pub N Grille, a sports bar built inside what locals call the town's historic tavern, has been a pre- and post-race stop for years, and the Samuel Adams Brewery just up the road in Breinigsville gives visitors another option within a few minutes of the track.
The Part of T-Town That Doesn't Wait for Friday
Here's the piece that the Friday-night coverage tends to skip. Long before this year's anniversary season was announced, Valley Preferred put out a separate, full slate of community programs that has nothing to do with the pro racing calendar. These run on their own schedule, largely funded through a partnership with Lehigh Valley Health Network, part of Jefferson Health, specifically to keep the cost of participating low.
| Program | Who it's for | What it actually is |
|---|---|---|
| Pee Wee Pedalers & Weeble Wobbles | Kids age 4 and up | Free, no-training-wheels learn-to-ride sessions |
| Women's Wednesdays | Women, all riding abilities | Women-run evening sessions, times rotate through the week |
| Mike Budjnoski Bicycle Racing League | Ages 9 to 16 | Coached youth racing league, bikes and equipment provided |
| Corporate Challenge | Local companies and their employees | Five-week program culminating in a team pursuit race |
| Try the Track / Adult Velodrome Experiences | Adults new to track cycling | Guided sessions on the banked track outside race nights |
| VeloFest | Anyone buying or selling a bike | The Valley's longest-running bicycle swap meet |
None of this is tied to the twelve Fridays. A family whose kid joins the Bicycle Racing League, a group of coworkers grinding through the Corporate Challenge, or a woman trying the track for the first time on a Wednesday evening is interacting with T-Town on a completely different rhythm than the crowd that shows up for fireworks and the Madison Cup. That's by design. As Gary Thornton put it when the community schedule was announced, the goal is a place where a first lap can turn into a lifelong habit, whether or not that habit ever touches a professional stage.
Why the Season Ending Doesn't Change Much Here
For anyone living within a few minutes of Mosser Road in Breinigsville, this distinction matters more than it might seem. The venue sits just off Route 222, roughly ten miles west of downtown Allentown, with free parking on-site and general admission priced to be accessible rather than a special-occasion splurge. That's not the profile of an attraction people drive out for once a summer. It's the profile of something built into the weekly routine, the way a rec league or a farmers market is, and the twelve marquee Fridays are really just the loudest weeks in a much longer calendar.
So when the last car pulls out of the lot after the Madison Cup, nothing about the velodrome actually goes quiet. The kids in the Bicycle Racing League keep showing up. The Wednesday sessions keep rotating. The next Corporate Challenge cohort starts building toward its own pursuit race. The track that once carried this county's name in its title is still doing what it was built to do in 1975, just without anyone announcing it.
If you're the kind of person who likes knowing what actually keeps a place like this running, that's the kind of local detail I try to stay on top of. I'm Bernadette Rabel, and I work with buyers and sellers across Lehigh County who want an agent who knows the area beyond the listing sheet. Let's Connect.
