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.

#coffeneuring 2017: Cranksgiving

Yesterday I had the opportunity to combine a coffeeneuring ride with Cranksgiving. Cranksgiving is a combination of a food drive and an alley cat bike race. You get a manifesto with a number of supermarkets and items that you have to buy at each of them. The event started in 1999 in New York City, and as I learned from Jon Kendziera of Jonny Cycle, a veteran of the Madison bike scene, Madison had a couple Cranksgivings in the early 2000s. After a long hiatus, the event made it back to Madison.

Thanks to one of the sponsors, Cafe Domestique, there was good coffee at the start/finish at Revolution Cycles, allowing me to check off another coffeeneuring ride on the final weekend.

The alley cat was great fun, despite strong winds. My knowledge of the street and path network in Madison paid off and I finished second (in spite of a mishap where I lost my manifest and had to backtrace my route to find it again...). Sorry, not too many pictures, as I was too busy racing :)

A last minute tire change was in order... The Panaracer Paselas have been a real disappointment 

Start/finish at Revolution Cycles

Tasty Intelligentsia coffee, courtesy of Cafe Domestique

Le Mans-style start, with people placing their bikes on a green space and running there from the start location

Awards ceremony (Photo credit: Billy Calkins)

Race Report: Corning Circuit Race 2010

Yay, I had my first race evar (unless you want to count the 2009 Cascadilla Hill Climb) and--important things first--I've completed 4 out of 4 goals!

Getting to the race

As announced in the previous post, I rode out to the race and back, which turned out to produce some minor complications. Somewhat spontaneously, my accomplice had decided to come to the race with me and cheer and take some pictures. So we and our bikes got on the bus to Enfield at 1:10 and arrived in "downtown" Enfield at 1:35. The race was scheduled to start at 4 and since I had planned to get there for the sign-up etc. half an hour early that gave us about 2 hours for the 35 km to The Glen. Well, complication 1 was that Enfield Center Road turned out to be not only a "seasonal access road," but supposedly also was completely closed. Probably we could've gotten through with the bikes, but Gunnar's 23 mm Dachshund-slicers (German bike slang for thin tires) aren't made for dirt and I knew there would be a parallel road just a bit further West. What I didn't take into account was the fact that this little detour would also increase the amount of climbing quite a bit--something absolutely not appreciated by the accomplice's legs. Thus, we ended up walking most of the way up Harvey Hill which was annoying and, more importantly, cost us quite a bit of time. The part of the ride to Montour Falls was very pleasant (I had ridden parts of it during my epic December 100k) and the pace was good. Nonetheless, there was still a big climb coming up out of Montour Falls, and it was already 3:30! At the bottom of the hill we therefore separated and I rode up the hill in a pace that was much higher than was good for me. I made it to the registration tent at 3:45 and was pretty exhaustedwell warmed-up. Fortunately, the race was postponed to 4:30, giving me a bit time to rehydrate and "eat" some gel and giving the accomplice a chance to make it in time for the race start.

Warm-up

About 25 minutes prior to the start we were allowed to get on the actual track for warm-up. The track was really great! Smooth asphalt, wide lanes, and wide turns--I guess just what you'd expect from a race track. Unfortunately, the course also included two short but kind of steep climbs, which would later turn out to be my doom. The warm up lap took me about 12 minutes, and the race organizers later announced that the Cat 5s would race a total of three laps. In the meantime, the accomplice had also made it to The Glen and I quickly did the obligatory pre-race bathroom run.

Race!

The Cat 4s started at 4:30 sharp, exactly one minute ahead of us. Since the track was a slight downhill, the field picked up pace pretty quickly. Because the track was so wide, the peloton was less compact than in your usual road race, making me feel rather safe. The downhill right turn was followed by the steep uphill bump, getting most people out of the saddle and hurting my legs significantly. I hung on with the field through the mostly flat parts and the long downhill halfway in the course. What goes down, must come up, and the less steep but longer uphill hurt me good and transported me to back of the field. I held on for a little longer but before the first lap was finished I had fallen behind. I assumed there would be a couple people behind me and in the course of lap 2 I was passed by a couple of them, making me think I was last. I made brief attempts to hang on with the people passing me but my legs didn't comply. During the final lap I saw someone maybe 300 m ahead of me and he seemed to be going at a pace similar to mine. This gave me glimmer of hope and tried to gradually come closer to him. By the time we were at the last turn before the finish line I was fairly close and I thought I might be able to take him by surprise in a final effort. I dropped some gears, got down in the bars and just pushed as hard as I could. The finish line came closer and closer and I was still behind him, but within meters of the line I finally passed him (I think, at least). Much to my chagrin, I then saw the guy's number and realized that he wasn't even in my category and maybe not even in Cat 4 but only doing an (illegal) warm-up. While my exhausted self was a bit annoyed by that and the conclusion that I probably came in last, I didn't care too much. I had achieved 3 out of 4 goals (no DNF, no crash, no crash) and riding the race track had been a blast.

The Way Back

After a much needed cool down and chugging like three bottles of water, it was 5:30 and we had to get going in order to make it back home before dusk. I (as it later turned out: incorrectly) thought the ride back would be a little less than 40 km, including one major climb out of Montour Falls. Well, major it was, but even though both the accomplice and I were fairly tired we made it up all the way. The road was a really nice back road with almost no traffic and great pavement. After 20 km we turned onto NY-13 and the accomplice, getting increasingly tired, spotted a sign claiming that it was another 17 miles to Ithaca. This obviously was pretty demotivating and we took a quick Gatorade break at the Dandy Mart. Fortunately, NY-13 was mostly flat all the way back to Newfield, but the accomplice suffered nonetheless. Once we were in Newfield all was good though and we thoroughly enjoyed the downhill into Ithaca. The 100k of race day were concluded with a big serving of poutine.

Aftermath

We're currently internetless at home and, thus, I could only look up the race results this morning. And, much to my surprise, I hadn't been last! Place 28 out 35 and therefore fulfillment of all of my goals. Even better.
Unfortunately, there are no more races in biking distance this season. 

First Race Tomorrow!

My identity as a cyclist is definitely not that of a racer. Yeah, I like going fast and pushing myself, but

• I'm not competitive;
• I dislike the idea of depending on other people's riding (and potentially crashing);
• I dislike the kind of macho crap that is very prevalent in the road cycling section of bikeforums.net;
• I don't want to drive to a ride.

But nonetheless I have registered for the Corning Circuit Race tomorrow. Why? Well, for a couple of reasons. First, the race will take place on the Watkins Glen International Speedway, a Nascar track. Aside from it being a closed course and therefore presumably being safer for racing, I have a longstanding connection to Nascar racing. I love car games like Need for Speed, Colin McRae Rally, the Lotus series -- and I played the 1994 NASCAR Racing extensively. I distinctly remember not liking the Watkins Glen track very much, as it was the most difficult one, with all those crazy turns. When I moved to Ithaca the first time and saw that the town of Watkins Glen was very close to it, it took me a while to realize that it was that Watkins Glen. After all, the race tracks in the video games are very much disembodied places for a German teenager who had never been to the US. Long story short: I really like the idea of racing the Speedway. The second reason for racing is that Watkins Glen is in biking distance. I can take the bus to Enfield, and from there it's only 35 km (unfortunately including a bunch of climbing) to the Glen. The race starts at 4:30, giving me a comfortable window to get there and back. The way back after the race might be painful, but whatevs.
I have four goals for the race:

1. no DNF due to mechanical problems
2. no crash
3. no crash
4. not finishing last

As preparation for the race there is a bunch of things:

• map out the ride and write a cuesheet (I left my GPS in a friend's car in California)
• adjust rear derailleur
• switch seat posts, so that the racing saddle is at the correct height
• maybe buy a cycling cap to prevent annoying sweat-in-eye problems
• go for a short ride to shake out the legs
• study turn-by-turn guide of the track (just kidding)
• maybe shave legs, in case I fail to achieve goals 2 and 3...

Keep your thumbs pressed (as the Germans say) -- race report will be posted soon.

Hollenbeck's video footage

As mentioned in my previous post, I shot some footage at the Hollenbeck race and now I've uploaded it to youtube (note to self: get a Vimeo account). Please excuse the shakiness and mediocre editing. I'm still new to this video thing.

A whole lotta bike

Last Sunday was a day full of various kinds of bike-related events: I volunteered at the Hollenbecks Spring Classic race, organized by the FLCC, and I did a lot of riding. Leaving the house at 7 am, I rode Gunnar out about 30 km to the start of the race, Hollenbeck's Cider Mill in Virgil. It hadn't cooled down much during the night and the forecast predicted a hot and potentially thunderstormy day. I coated myself in a thick layer of sunscreen and hopped on the bike in just shorts and a short-sleeve jersey. Because it was early Sunday morning, I took the most direct route, following NY-366 and 13 to Dryden, and then 392 to Virgil. As expected, there wasn't much traffic and the only thing I was struggling with was the fact that I can't eat that early in the morning and was therefore pacing along on an empty stomach. Nonetheless, I got to Virgil well before the scheduled pre-race meeting for the corner marshals.

After we had been assigned our corners, I had about 35 minutes left before the start of the race and so I decided to ride out to the corner instead of getting a ride. The distance was 9 miles and involved one large climb, meaning that I'd have to put in quite a bit of an effort to make it in time. The racers warming up on 392 at a more leisurely pace were probably wondering why that guy with a Carradice saddle bag and baggy shorts was passing them at maximum effort... Well, I got to my corner just before the other volunteers arrived by car and then had 3 hours of flag waving, videotaping, and waiting for the next pack of riders to come through. After the last rider had made past our corner, I rode back to the cider mill and after hanging around for the little ceremony for the winners, I decided to ride back immediately in an effort to avoid getting t-stormed upon.

On the way to Dryden I could really feel my legs and I decided that I definitely needed water, electrolytes, and calories. Well, what better way to get all these things at once than going to McD and having large fries and a large coke? And indeed, this made me feel much better! So I got going again and thought of ways of lengthening the way back to Ithaca in a way that would make my total kilometrage that day get over 100 (at the McD in Dryden I was at 70km). Initially I thought I'd just ride out to the airport and take NY-34 back into town instead of following Upper and Lower Creek Road into campus. However, as I was feeling really good and the weather had gotten better again, I decided to something a bit more crazy: ride out to the airport but then not return to Ithaca but instead follow the route of the FLCC "Almost Genoa" ride that I had done a couple of weeks ago. And that I did.

For the part of the route that heads north, I was doing fine. The strong winds were mostly coming from the side to back and the route is rather flat. The climbing along NY-90 made me feel my legs again but the prospect of getting to the gas station at the intersection NY-90 and -34 propelled me forward. At the gas station I took a quick break to down a bottle of Gatorade -- and made the mistake of not also topping up my water bottles. On the way back south, first following 34 and then Salmon Creek, I had to head into the wind (even though not as badly as I expected it to be) and my body got more and more complainy. My butt hurt, my legs and upper arms were tired, and overall I felt a bit bonked. The steep climb up Brickyard Rd certainly didn't make things better and I was also running out of water. Anyway, in the end I made it all the way home, having ridden almost exactly 150 km, at an average moving pace of 25 km/h. Pretty epic, I'd say.

Lessons for future long distance rides:

• find a way to deal with the breakfast issue. Maybe I can force myself to have some liquid calories in the morning?
• The Brooks did a good job but nonetheless my butt did hurt quite a bit. Not sure what to do about that. 
• Gunnar rode like a charm. I think running 700x23c tires works very well, even over long distances. I might raise the handlebars a little bit to put less stress on my arms. 
• Drink more. Eat more. As much as I know how important this is, on the ride I still keep on ignoring this knowledge.

As soon as I have the time, I'll try the 200k to Lake Ontario and back.