At the Velodrome 4/17/2010

So this past Saturday I again got the chance to take a trip to the track. I went for the morning beginner session again, which was fun. We did a nice 40-lap warmup, then we did some bumping drills for a while. After that, Mark (who was running the session) decided that it was time to get our heartrates up, so we practiced lapping the field. The group rode around slowly and he'd send people around the lap them. At first we did it solo, then in pairs, in threes, then back to pairs, and finally one last time solo. So that was kind of a workout, since all told we each lapped the field quite a few times. After that, Mark decided to torture us a little more and decreed that it was time to time us doing flying 200s. Everyone rode around at a nice slow pace while waiting to go and watching whoever was currently going. When you were up next, you'd get to take a preparation lap, which would be ridden at the top of the track, and build up speed to the start line of the 200 which was right after turn 2. By the time you crossed the start line, the idea was to be up to full speed, then go all out for the 200. Mark timed us and yelled us our times as we went by right after the finish. I did 3 flying 200s, and my times were 14.3, 14.4, and 14.7 seconds, which seemed to be pretty respectable from what I could tell. I'll be curious to try again sometime though, because I was definitely using too low of a gear and was spinning as fast as I possibly could, which seemed to me to be pretty fast. I've certainly never had that high of a cadence on the road, but I wasn't exactly counting so I can't say just how fast I was spinning. Since after the 200s, we still had a little time left, we did a couple of practice Keirins again. I actually managed to win the first one, because I made my move at the right time. It was really close though, and I'm pretty sure Doug wasn't really trying because I know I couldn't have beaten him otherwise. The men demanded a rematch just to torture me, and Doug tried to help me win again by giving me a leadout, but it backfired because I hesitated. He came by me and told me to follow him, but it took me a little too long to realize what I was supposed to do, and other Mark was too fast for me and moved up on me before I had a chance to make my move so I ended up being boxed in.

After the beginners session, I decided to stick around for some races in the afternoon. There was a Get Ready for Summer race, which had four events that made up an Omnium, and there were 3 categories of racing. Category A corresponded to Cat 1/2, Cat B to Cat 3, and Cat C to Cat 4/5 on the track. This week there weren't any women's categories, so I raced in the C races with the men, as well as about 4-5 other women who showed up. Before the racing started, I decided it was time to switch to a bigger gear. I had had a 48 tooth chainring with a 16 tooth cog, but that just wasn't big enough for going fast. I decided that I didn't want to make too big of a change, since I figured it was better to be spinning out than unable to spin fast enough. Anyway, I swapped the 48 for a 50.

The first event was the Keirin. There were a couple of heats, so 1st and 2nd in each heat went to the final, while 3rd and 4th went to the Repechage (aka rep(s)) for a chance to get into the final. In my heat, two people made a move in the last lap and I missed my chance to go with them. I chased them down, but still ended up in 3rd, losing 2nd by maybe half a bike length. So, I went to the reps, and I actually won my rep fairly easily, but I perhaps burned too much energy, because I didn't do so well in the final, as I think I got 6th out of 8 in the final.

The second race was the scratch race, which was 15 laps (5k) long. A couple of people made some attacks, but I waited until close to the end to make my move. I don't remember how long before the finish I went, but I came around the top and actually got behind another guy's move and went with him. He and the girl with him were too fast for me, so I ended up holding onto 3rd at the finish.

Third, it was the Miss and Out, a race where every lap the last rider to cross the finish line is pulled from the race. Unfortunately, this meant that the was more than the usual movement for position within the pack. Each lap there was a surge over the top of the pack in an attempt by a lot of people to not be last and leave people on the bottom inside stuck behind. Apparently this can make for a dangerous race, since there was actually a really bad crash in my race, about 3 or 4 laps in. I'm not sure what caused it, because it was behind me (I was about 3rd wheel on the inside). I heard that horribly familiar awful sound of bikes sliding on concrete, preceded by some yelling, and followed by the sound of a tire blowing out. We immediately neutralized and exited the track. When I came around, I saw that there were still three people lying on the track not moving. It was really scary. Ambulances were called and all three of them were taken away. One of them was even fully immobilized. I don't know the extent of their injuries, or actually even who was injured (since I barely knew anyone). Eventually out event was restarted, with 11 people left, but my head wasn't in the race after the crash so I got pulled a few laps later.

The last race was the Points Race, which was supposed to be 15 laps, but because of the delay from the crash, it was shortened to 10 laps. Since sprints were every five laps, that meant that we only got 2 sprints. I managed to get 3rd in both sprints, but I don't know what place I actually got, since I wasn't keeping track of who beat me in the sprints. I think I got 3rd or 4th.

Anyway, I ended up getting 4th out of about 20 in the Omnium, which I guess is not to shabby for my first day of racing on the track. I also figured out that I probably still need a slightly bigger gear, since I was pretty much hitting my top spinning speed in the sprints, but I don't think I was quite going all out. Hopefully I'll be racing on the track some more so I can learn more about track racing.