hello velo: Track Part 2

The track school at the velodrome is run by volunteers, people with a great love for cycling and who want to see the velodrome succeed. Their approach is to introduce participants to track riding and get people on and off the track safely. The cost of the Track 1 course is $30 including bike rental. A team from PedalPerformance.com was there with me along with a couple of other first-time riders.

The program starts with bike setup. The velodrome has a number of bikes in a variety of sizes that are far from a custom fit, but are just fine for the first time track rider (bike #21 was mine). The bikes at the velodrome have a shorter wheel base, track specific bars, and possibly a steeper position than your regular road bike (it may be close to your tri/TT bike). The wheels were clinchers, tires were garden variety (save your money and just buy a good quality tire, not a track specific tire I was told) and inflated to about 100 psi. Participants need to bring their own pedals/clips.

Gearing at the track is limited to 48X16 or less in order to restrict speeds in what was described to us as the shortest and steepest track in North America (138 meters, 50 degrees in the corners, 15 degrees on the flats). According to Sheldon Brown's Gear Calculator (700c, 172.5mm cranks), a rider with a crank RPM of 80 would travel at approximately 30 km/hr. That means that if you want to go 60 km/hr, which people do reach on the track, you would need to pedal at 160 RPM.

The first lesson is just learning to ride the bike. If this is your first time on a track bike, be prepared for cross over between your front wheel and foot on the forward portion of the pedal stroke. The drills practiced speeding up, slowing down, steering by turning the handlebars instead of leaning and beginning to be comfortable with the momentum or speed that track bike stores up. The many kilometers that I put in on the fixie over the past 2 years prepared me for riding in a straight line, but adjusting to the new turning technique took a little while. "Twist your shoulders!" was the mantra that followed me around the track. It is also possible to coordinate turing with the pedal stroke so that the wheel is always turned away from the leading foot, allowing you to avoid contact between your foot and the front wheel, although I was only successful at that about 50% of the time. If this happens, just keep pedaling, do not panic.

Next we worked on manuevering between sets of cones placed on the floor, followed by moving on to and off the track. Hitting the bank on the straight-away for the first time was pretty exciting and my mind was very busy doing calculations (too busy I would soon find out). The technique is:

Shoulder check
Twist the bars and ride up the track, don't lean into the track
Slow down at the top cone
Shoulder check
Ride in a relaxed angle down and off the track, controlling the speed of the bike

Next we were given the chance to get on the boards. Riders need to be mindful about the entrance and exit angles to avoid contacting the pedal with the track surface (as so many have clearly done as indicated by of the scars on the boards) and to maintain about 30km/hr to stay upright in the turns. On my first attempt I was stiff as a board and I did not accelerate as fast as I should have. I came into the first corner and felt the press of gravity as the bike leaned on its side. The sensation was so foreign that I fought the track instead of staying loose and I soon found myself riding off the track about half way through the turn. No wipe out, but my over-thinking almost had me sliding down the boards on my first attempt.

After watching a few others, it was my turn again. I loosened up, gave it a good push at the entrance and all of the sudden I found myself up. I let out a couple of "woohoos!" that echoed through the building and 2 laps later I was back down.

The leaders then set up a pace line of 5 and the instructors led us around the boards, along different lines at different heights on the track (black is the lowest, red next and the blue line at the top, the yellow line is really a warning line that you are at the top of the track and are about to launch into the rafters). On the second lap the lead rider peeled off and rode above us. That was a little alarming at first as in the turns, we would basically be stacked up, one rider leaning over the other. On consecutive runs, I relaxed more, fiddling with my position on the bike, practicing the art of steering in the corners and using the slingshot of the turn to pick up speed. There is nothing quite like the feeling of being pressed into the bike as you build up energy and are fired out the other end.

All totaled, I went around the track about 40 times, or about 5.5kms.

Key Points I Learned

Relax the arms
Press on the left side of the handlebars in the turn to correct your line if you are edging up the track
Use the turns to accelerate and be careful not to go too hard into a turn.
Be aware of the pace and learning how to gauge your speed to prevent going too fast and working yourself up the bowl and over the rails!!
Enter and exit at the right place on the track
Always check over your shoulder before changing lanes or entering and exiting

The next step is to schedule the Track 2 lesson and participate in the Sport-Rec session on Thursdays.