A **velodrome** is a track built for bicycle racing — an oval, usually about 250 metres round, with the corners banked steeply so riders can go through them at speed without sliding out. Walk onto the steep part and you can barely stand up; the slope can be over 40 degrees. Modern racing velodromes are indoors, roofed, with a smooth wooden surface, though older ones are outdoor concrete. This is where **track cycling** happens — the Olympic events like the sprint, the team pursuit, the keirin, the madison. The bikes used there have no brakes and a fixed gear: you cannot stop pedalling, and you slow down with your legs. How the word is used: it is a countable noun for the building or facility. *the Olympic velodrome*, *train at the velodrome*, *a new velodrome opened in Kaohsiung*. Nothing tricky about the grammar. Register: neutral but specialised. Ordinary people know the word only if they follow cycling or the Olympics. In everyday talk someone might just say "the cycling track." The shape of the word is worth a minute. It is French: **vélo** is the everyday French word for a bicycle (short for *vélocipède*, from Latin *velox*, "fast"), and **-drome** is a Greek ending meaning "running-place, course" — the same piece you see in *hippodrome* (a place for horses) and *aerodrome* (a place for aircraft). So a velodrome is literally a bicycle-running-place.

自行車賽車場、單車競輪場（室內木質斜坡賽道，即奧運場地自由車比賽的場地）