A Day at the Track
Ashley has been itching to get her new Cinelli on a real track since the moment she laid her hands on it. We finally had the truck around, so we headed down to the Hellyer Velodrome in San Jose.
Stopping to get cash and gas we were there in about an hour with no traffic, however looking into the future of Wednesday night racing, getting there in traffic could prove tough. We parked and met Ben and the rest of the mouse squad. We definitely had a presence in San Jose that morning: Ben, Matt, Greg, Ashley, and I were all in Mouse colors ready to ride around in circles. Greg, both new to riding and to the mouse had brought his new Leader track bike.
I was skeptical of the Leader frames, having seen the crappy welds in photos on eBay auctions, but it looks a lot nicer in person, especially with some carbon fiber FSA cranks. Ben brought his white IRO Mark V, which made me think that I could get my commuter somewhat track ready with a little effort (and money). And of course Ashley had her beautiful Cinelli Olympic.
After a little fiddling with the rental bikes and milling around the instructor gave a preliminary spiel and sent us off in two groups on a 30 lap warm up which went fairly smoothly until the end. One guy in our group kept taking off which screwed up the lap count and when one group finished everyone scattered. During the confusion one girl with very little riding experience went up to the rail and nearly became roadkill beneath Matt as he was speeding up to catch Ben. Somehow no one crashed, but it put a lot of people on edge for a little while. Fortunately all was forgotten during the next portion of the warm up as we did some sprints.
The fun really started when the instructor put everyone on the track for a twenty lap scratch race; when he said it was like a criterium I saw Matt’s eyes light up. All the riders got set up on the rail, Matt and Ben making their way to the front. It only took them a lap or so to start taking off. I held my own for at least fifteen laps, overtaking most of the field, watching most people drop out before we were even seven laps in. But as I was starting my sixteenth lap Ben and Matt, along with a Cat 3 junior named Nick and a few others lapped me. I couldn’t jump on but I did manage to keep pace long enough to not lose more than another half lap.
Next came the Italian pursuit, or team sprint. Matt, Ben, Ashley, and I joined up against another group of four on the other side of the track. At the whistle we were sent off at full effort for four laps with Ashley in the lead. She went off so fast at the gun that it was hard to keep her wheel and she even gapped Matt and Ben briefly. In the Italian pursuit the leader pulls of at each lap, leaving the last riders of each group trying to catch each after four lightning fast laps. In our first heat we made up so much ground that Ben nearly caught the other rider at the line. Our first pursuit went so well that we went again after a short break. This one went just as smoothly, but we were started to feel the wind in turn four and we lost by about a bike length.
The last event of the day was the Australian pursuit. With riders starting lined up at every other light pole along the rails the winner would be the last rider standing as other riders must pull of to the stairs once they are passed by any other rider. I was feeling pretty worked so I got picked off after only a lap and a half. Matt held strong against the two remaining riders until a 3 lap lead out into a sprint. He made the mistake of pulling the whole way and trying to attack at a half lap to go when the others went to the rails. They came off the rails so fast that Matt was out just before the final turn. Still an incredible effort. It’s so easy to ride so fast on the track that you have to ride that much harder to ride faster than everyone else.
Overall the day was awesome, great training, and educational. I can’t wait to go back and eventually start racing for real. Check out Ashley’s report of her first day at the track too!
