Round and round and round: Track cycling 101 at the Kenosha Velodrome

 

Me, high on (the) track

When does a thought enter your mind? How does it mature, disappear, resurface, and eventually lead to an action, and maybe a temporary(?) obsession? I'm doing some mental archaeology of the process that had me participate in a track cycling clinic last weekend and now obsessively watching track cycling YouTube videos and sending pictures of track bikes to my SO (who's clearly rolling her eyes). 

Maybe it started here: A couple years back, at a bike swap in Madison. Browsing the aisles for bargain bike parts, I stopped at the table for the Washington Park Velodrome. They were raising funds to repave what is the oldest still operating velodrome in the US. Maybe I threw some money in their donation jar, maybe I didn't. And I don't remember any other details -- clearly at that point a velodrome was something abstract: Related to biking somehow, not related to me. But something must have stuck, and at some point it was clear to me: Here was an opportunity to try something new and different, and an opportunity that I wouldn't have in many other places. After all, there aren't many velodromes left in the US.

Art, one of our coaches and race official at the velodrome

For a few years I tried to recruit some bike friends to make a group trip to a cycling clinic. While there was interest and enthusiasm (or maybe they just were humoring their weird friend), we all have busy lives and nothing ever came of it. This year I was committed: Pick a date that works for me and just do it. If people want to come: awesome. If not: I'll just do it anyway!

In the days before the clinic I kept refreshing the weather forecast. It didn't look promising: Showers throughout the day, maybe some thunderstorm. I was prepared for an email from Chris, one of the organizers, calling it off. But that email never came. It seemed safe to assume that the organizers knew what they were doing, and so we booked the rental car and hit the road on Sunday morning. Just like the forecast had promised, on the way to Kenosha we hit several rain showers. They never lasted long, and so I was cautiously optimistic that there would be at least some riding.

In front our our little group, practicing paceline rotations

 At the velodrome, I signed a liability waiver, paid my $10, and then a volunteer set me up on a loaner bike. The club has a small fleet of track bikes in various sizes, and I ended up on a 58 cm Felt. I'm 6'5" and usually ride a 62 cm frame but for a couple hours the 58 was just fine. Maybe my knees were a little close to the ends of the handlebars, maybe my neck was a little strained, but it worked. 

We were sent into the warm-up circle in the infield of the track, and I did many loops to become familiar with the bike. I have been riding a fixed-gear bike as my everyday bike for several years (with wide tires, fenders, racks, lights), and so riding the track bike wasn't a completely new experience. Sure: I've never ridden tubular tires, I haven't ridden tires that skinny for a long time, and my everyday fixie has a front brake. But it was still just a bike. 

I saw some other riders leaving the warm-up circle and starting to make laps around the main track, and eventually I followed suit. The banking looked very intimidating. As I later learned, they're angled at 30 degrees, i.e. at a gradient of 58%! Would I slide off or fall over if I took them at slow speed? I didn't know, and so I just did some circles on the level part of the track. I observed the other riders who were going on the banked parts of the track at moderate speeds, and clearly they didn't fall over. So I tried it. And it felt weird. And I went quickly back to the level part of the track. Let's wait for some instruction on this... 

Keeping a safe distance from other riders for now

 

Instruction came: Leading the clinic were a team of seasoned track riders. Chris, Art, Bob, Lucy, and Mike. We started with some theory: How to slow and stop on a bike without brakes? What do the different lines and markings on the track mean? What to do and not to do to keep yourself and others safe? Will your bike slide down the banking if you go too slow? Then it was time to ride! The group was split into two, with a coach in the lead and in the back. After a couple laps in the warm-up circle, we entered the track. Group 1 got a half lap lead and then we followed. With the knowledge that I didn't need to worry about losing traction on the concrete, I quickly got comfortable riding on the banking. After a few laps low on the track, our leader took us up high, and then we changed between riding high and low.

 

Next were drills to rotate out and back into a paceline: The lead rider keeps their effort constant but goes high into a turn, thereby converting kinetic into potential energy. The paceline passes below, and the former lead rider drops down the track and gets to the back of the line. This quickly became my favorite sensation. At a 30 degree incline, the loss and gain of speed when going up and down the banking is exhilarating! After a drill to practice safely going around other riders we did a first mock race: I don't remember the name of the race format, but basically it's an individual timed effort over 200 meters, with a flying start. You build up speed over the course of a lap and a bit, and then it's all out for 200 m. At the beginning of the last 200 meters you want to be high on the track to get that extra boost of speed when you move down. My time was middling: between some sudden headwind gusts and no intuitive feel how hard I could go without blowing up, I did the distance in a little over 16 seconds. At maximum effort you can really feel how the bike wants to carry you up through the turns!

Finishing those 200 meters

The final opportunity to ride was a scratch race. I have no idea why it's called scratch race, but it's simple: You have a neutralized group start, a fixed distance, and whoever crosses the finish line first wins. It was neat to ride in a paceline, but also a little disorienting. The fast folks pulled away quickly and I settled in another small group, as the third rider behind another novice and Lucy, one of the clinic coaches. I figured sitting on her wheel was safe and probably not slow. Out of the final turn we were passed from behind and I tried to hang on as best as I could across the finish line. 

All in all I had a blast. If Kenosha weren't a two-hour drive from Madison, I would do this regularly. And I say this as someone who has zero interest in participating in road racing. Tuesday night is race night at the velodrome, and there are all kinds of race formats: Races where you don't know how many laps you have to do; points races where the winner of the first lap earns 1 point, 2 points in the second lap, and so on... Special laps that earn you dinner from the burger joint across the street; and many more. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend doing the Track 101 clinic. All you need is a helmet and 10 bucks and the commitment to just do it.