Crits and Giggles

If youve never raced on a velodrome, you simply have to make it happen. After watching some Eurosport coverage of the UCI Track Worlds in Bourdeaux and hearing about Hillarys adventures, I knew it was something to try, but now Im hooked. The 2.5 hour drive down to Hellyar might be a problem, though. Well see. If I win the lottery, Im totally building a velodrome in Sonoma County.

The Coyote Creek course was just a couple miles from the track, so this was my initital justification for the long drive. The crit was fun, more like a circuit race...an approx. 2 mile circuit, no free lap, etc. The start/finish was on a long hill, and that tore my legs off every lap. Im happy with the way I raced. I wanted to take Ians advice about how you just have to get out there and make it a hard race. Thats how you get stronger. Unfortunately, Im not strong enough to make it hard on anyone else. I thought I had spent all my tokens, but...

I headed over to the track for the last part of the beginners session with Steven Woo. You pay $5 to use the track and $5 to rent the track bike. Now this is a pretty good deal because you do like 6 races if yuo want to! I spent 15 minutes or so getting used to the bike, making my legs remember to keep pedaling, learning how to use the banking to speed up and slow down. I think the Hellyar track must have a relatively shallow banking because I didnt feel uneasy about it at all, you get to feeling comfortable right away. The first few scratch races I watched, then I tried one. This is basically like a criterium, we did 10 laps I think, then you sprint on the bell lap. I got 2nd in that race.

The next race I tried was a "Win and Out". Here you race for 14 laps I think. The first 7 laps are just to establish your position, set yourself up, make a break of it, or whatever. Then on lap 8 you start going for it. First one across the line on that lap wins. They then drop down off the track. Okay, now everyone is sprinting again on the next lap, this time for 2nd place overall. It goes on like this until 3rd and 4th place are established. I was unclear on the concept at first and thought we were supposed to go for it right away on the first lap, so I attacked. Nobody screamed at me to tell me that I was dong it wrong, but I figured it out when no one went with me. Okay, wait for 6 more laps, THEN sprint! There was a really strong guy who got a fat gap and took 1st place, with me and another guy right behind him. So I held up and got on a wheel. It was looking good, I had a good wheel and we were mooooving. But someone else came from behind really quick and took the next lap. Darn. Okay, at this point the days gear-moshing was taking its toll, and I knew I had to be first on the next lap or Id crack completely. So I glommed onto the same guys wheel and he drug me around again, we sprinted, and I pipped him. Whew!

Then I watched a few more races and some 200 meter sprints. Pretty cool. I cant wait to go down again with some fresh legs and try one of those 200 meter sprints.

Note: I might be unlcear on more concepts than I realize, I think Ive described these events properly, but dont rely on it.

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