For the seasoned rider it doesn’t sound that daunting, but for the novice who has never been on a banked cycling track in their life- it is rather terrifying. Both the surface and the bike is different than anything any of us had ridden before.
“Well track cycling is different than road cycling in a couple of ways. Of course, the course is closed, it’s only 250 meters around and the emphasis is on speed and explosive power – acceleration, if you would. That requires riders to be very powerful and because the bicycles have only one gear with no brake, they have to have the power to overcome that gear. They then have to have the leg speed to stay with the gear and make it go faster and faster,” said Williams.
After some friendly reassurances about falling, “If we go through the steps properly there shouldn’t be much problem with that.” And some helpful reminders, “Mostly, just go fast. Speed is your friend out here. It’s centripetal force that holds you up on the banking. With speed you have the momentum necessary to create that force which sticks you to that banking, without it you have to come back down to the apron.”
Soon we were suiting up and getting on the bikes. First a nice and easy ride around the infield.
Williams exclaimed, “It’s just a bike after all.”
We kept hearing that phrase from Bob “it is only a bike”. And, he was right, but mentally you wondered how this bike with narrow wheels would keep you upright. After a few laps around the infield we made our way onto the apron of the velodrome track. We all successfully made it around the apron several times, but it was clear that we were not cut out for any actual racing. If you want to see real velodrome racing, you will have to come out to the weekly racing series.
Williams explains, “Every week we have races. On Thursday nights, starting at 7 p.m., we have about 12 different races. We race four different categories or ability levels of riders. They each have three races, sometimes a few extra heats for getting into the finals. So it’s at least 12 to 15 races every Thursday from 7 to about 10 p.m.”
While we certainly did not show it, this track is designed to elite standards and can handle the fastest racers in the world.
“This is a great facility for anyone. Again, it was built by Schurmann Architects out of Munster, Germany. They are the top builders in the world of velodromes. The Olympic Velodromes that you see outside of the London Olympic Velodrome, almost all of the Olympic facilities have been built by the Schurmanns. And this is not only similar, but almost identical to those facilities- with the absence that theirs are now indoors, rather than outdoors. So it’s a world class bike track. You can go as fast as a rider can humanly go on a track like this and not have a problem.”
In the end we declared intern Annalise the winner, but really we are all winners for surviving our first trip to the Velodrome.
To learn more about the Velodrome and the weekly racing series click here.
