Track Fever

Oh boy, track racing has sucked me right in. Im pretty sure that I love everything about it. And I felt it from the first Saturday beginners session, like an epiphany: Ohhhhhh!!!!! I see!!!!!!!!!!!! Im a trackie!!!!!!!!!!!! Too bad the track is 2 hours from my house. This is a problem, but its not insurmountable. Please contact me if youre interested in being on my new committee, the Sonoma County Velodrome Project. If youre interested in meeting about once a month to drink beer and brainstorm about how the heck we can get a velodrome built here, please contact me. Im serious.

Last night was awesome, my first official track race. There were enough women to constitute separate fields, so I raced against about 6 or 7 women in each of the following races:

Win and Out: This is where they ring the bell and the first person across the line on that lap wins and drops out. On the next lap you race for 2nd place, and on the next you race for 3rd. Very fun.

Scratch Race: This is essentially a 10 lap criterium. Also very fun.

Miss and Out: Last person across the line on each lap is eliminated. When you get down to 3 riders theres a neutral lap and when you hear the bell you sprint for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Quite fun.

Points Race: There are lots of versions of this race depending on the size of the track, category of riders, etc. For us, it was a 15 lap race and every 5th lap is worth points. So on lap 11 they ring the bell and you sprint for 1st (5 points), 2nd (some # of points), and 3rd (some smaller # of points). You do this again with 6 laps to go and one lap to go. Also, if you lap the field you get 20 points, or if you get lapped by the field you lose 20 points. Neither of these happened in our race. This was the best race. I know that with the elite riders they do like 140 laps or somehting with sprints every 10 laps. You can imagine how focused you would have to be in a race like that. You would have to keep track of where all of your opponents are on points, and with a field of 20 riders or so, youd have to have a computer for a brain to know exactly how many points everyone has. Super challenging, both mentally and physically. This is my favorite event so far.

Also, the atmosphere at the track was super laid back and friendly. Everyone I met was really nice and helpful. It was especially good to see several collegiate women and several junior riders out racing. We really need a velodrome here, I mean it.

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