I have 3 sessions on the track now, 1 with my friend Nick and the other 2 as part of the 8 week intermediate class that I am taking. I am sort of stoked on the velodrome but I must admit the stoke is not coming without some risk and for sure a few scary moments already. It is a daunting experience riding on this track with its 45 degree banks and 130 meter track; now mix this with varying levels of cycling experience and knowledge from complete newbies, kamakazies, excel catalog riders and me ( a fredly wanna-be racer) throw 10 them on a velodrome doing drills and it is bound to bring some close calls.

I have found that the track is great for riding at the blue line and riding tempo, one of the guys in the class whom knows I race and such asked why I wasn’t lighting it up during our open 10 lap ride, I felt as though hammering below the pole line was not necessary. 10 people of varying abilities do not need me hammering all out. Anyhow, safety is my biggest concern and coming out of this experience in one piece is my number one goal.

Session one last week had a group of us riding 1/2 the class above the blue line as we were the ones that went through the beginner 101 and the others had never been on the track and the instructor was just getting them up to speed. After .5 hours we got into a paceline and then proceeded one by one to drop to the pole line and proceed to ride hard, lapping the group and slot onto the back of the paceline. Not to tough but it was my first time riding that fast and that low on the track but no big thing. I did see some funny lines taken but a few… oh boy.

After this session the BIC had an exhibition race with 12 riders for a first Friday event, it was very cool to see these awesome riders ripping around the track.

This week we went right into a drill called the snake, the 10 riders rode in a spaced out paceline , roughly 2 bike lengths between each rider. The last rider has to snake his way around and through the gaps. I was a bit scared going into this one, I suspected there might be carnage. The instructor demoed this and went first, riding nice and steady and aware. After he finished the first rider came and came hard, riding really fast and swerving like a rice rocket on the Schyukll Expressway. More riders came and for the most part it was blind weaving and dicing. One older dude came hard and fast, dove down the track, off the track and onto the apron, up the corner and pinned the instructor on the rail, the instructor did a nice job not getting drilled. I think this scared him a bit. This drill I think may have been bit soon for this group. I tried to gauge my speed and not feel as though I need to weave like it was a car chase.

Drill number 2 tonight had us advancing from the back and passing the whole group on the high line. This was real simple but I think a better drill than the more advanced first drill we did, perhaps this would have been better first.

The last bit just had us riding laps for 15 minutes, I finally got in the drops and drilled a low line below the pole and went pretty hard. The drops were a little frightening at first. I learned that the arms should be more straight and stiff, like a sway bar or brace it helps to hold the corners.

A few guys from my team showed up after for the open session and asked me to stay and ride but I chose to go eat at Picas with Anna instead and get ready for tomorrow 100 miler.

Peace velo-heads. I am stoked to do some miss and out soon!