MDCC Track Day

This was a new experience for me - riding around a cycle velodrome. It's in Palmers Park in Reading, and isn't terribly glamorous like the steep sided ones with the shiny wooden floors you see on TV, but nevertheless it was a lot of fun. The event was organised by MDCC and we had a very pleasant Saturday afternoon - warm, a little sunny, with only a slight breeze.

There were about twelve riders in total, five of us from Evolution Tri club having our first experience on the track. We started off with some group riding in pairs. Every lap the front two riders would move aside and rejoin the pack at the rear. We try to do this on the Sunday rides but it's much harder on the pothole ridden roads with tailgating cars intimidating you. It was good to get some practice riding close with constant speed.

We split into groups of four for a team pursuit. The groups rode around the track until they were equidistant from each other a third of a track apart and then the whistle went. The idea is to ride as a team and try and catch the group in front. Harder than it sounds as all riders need to stay together - my group managed to drop a member.

Next were individual 200M sprints. You cycle round the track until you get the nod and then that is your time to race. There are markers 200M from the finish line, and the aim is to use the slope of the track to help you get to your full speed my the time you hit those markers. The timekeepers starts his watch at that point, and you have to pedal like crazy until you get to the line. I can't remember my time exactly, but it was approximately 15.6s. However, as I was on my TT bike, and used my tri-bars, I got disqualified and had to go round for another go. I didn't mind too much - I knew I'd not quite got it right the first time. I managed to get my speed up a bit higher at the start line for my second go, and beat the first time without tri-bars with an approximate 15.16 I think.

We got paired off next with our closest timed riders for a Kierin Race. This is a full lap race, but if you have ever seen it on TV, you'll know how odd it is. Riders start off really slowly, trying to use tricks to intimidate their opponent. Then suddenly one rider decides to go, and the race is on properly. I spent the first 150m messing with my gears, going slowly. Having chosen the second lowest gear, I was ready and decided to go - patience exhausted already :) I didn't look back, and my opponent didn't catch me. It's actually quite difficult to go that fast (approximately 47km/h for me) around a bend without veering out of the lane. He later told me that I'd caught him in the wrong gear - in a race like this that kind of advantage is almost impossible to recover from.

I hadn't realised that they were timing the final 200M for each race - and this time mine was even faster at 15.06 I think. Very pleased with that.

We finished off with a bit more group riding - quite a nice 30-33km/h pace depending on who was in the lead. By now I was pretty tired, having done 10 mile TT races on Thursday and Friday as well.

But the day wasn't quite finished - Anna, Amanda and I demonstrated our triathlon credentials with a few laps of the running track to test our legs. No running shoes, so went barefoot. This was also a lot of fun to try as I'm working on my forefoot striking technique.



A big thanks to MDCC and Andrew Crawshaw for organising (and taking the photos).