Velodrome!

I have been reading Greg Lemond's Complete book on cycling and there was a chapter where he describes all the different ways to ride a bike. One of the pretty popular ones that I didn't know anything about was "track racing". I've been riding a lot on the open road and hadn't really considered riding at a track. A quick google search lead me to the San Diego Velodrome Association. It seems that right here a few miles from my apartment there is a big track racing scene. The Velodrome is tucked away in a remote corner of Balboa Park. The velodrome is a oval track with banked walls and measures 333.3 meters at the inner part of the track. As you move away from the inner "line" and up the track towards the outside, the diameter of the oval increases so the distance around the track increases. Anyway, the association has this phenomenal deal where for $100, you can attend a 6-week class to learn how to ride fast on the track. Each class is 2-hours long AND they provide you with a bike to ride so you get a lot of bang for your buck. so yesterday, I attended my first class.

Besides being on a bike and pedaling with human power, track riding is fundamentally different than the type of riding I have been doing in a couple of key ways:

1) Look ma, no brakes. There are no brakes on a track bicycle. You control you speed by moving up the banked wall and/or slowing your pedaling effort.

2) Track bikes are single fixed gear bikes. There is no coasting on a track bike. If the wheel turns, the pedals are turning. Gotta keep pedaling or you your momentum will throw you over the handlebars if you try to stop abruptly!

3) Track bikes, have no cables since there are no brakes and only one gear. The good bikes have aerodynamically shaped bike frame tubes.

4) The handlebars are also lower so when you ride, your body is tucked lower to have less wind resistance.

5) The bicycle bottom bracket (ie, where you pedals connect to the frame) is higher than in conventional road bikes and the pedal arms tend to be shorter. This is so you don't hit the track when you are riding along the banked wall.

6) Track riding is ALL about speed. Training is simulated races.

First class was awesome. First part was instructional about how to ride the course safely, then we went on to some practice riding the fixed gear bike and then we moved on to riding on the banked track. I'll elaborate more on the type of riding we did in a future post as I'm getting drowsy.