Storm the Drome

Last night's velodrome clinic was AWESOME!  

I was super pleased by the turn-out - somehow it ended up being a full house of 16 riders.  I was only expecting 10 or 12....  a few didn't let me know they were coming and just signed up - that was a nice surprise.

There was a lot of energy around the velodrome since the group was jam-packed with first time track riders.  Before long the instructor, Jeff, had the group rolling around the track with confidence.  Nobody crashed, nobody failed the course, and everyone seemed to enjoy the experience.

I may have just found a few track partners....  at least THREE of the riders seemed eager for more in the near future.  So my initial goal may have been satisfied as well!  

Thanks very much to everyone who attended and to Jeff Ain and Jeremy Storie at the Velodrome. 

Today is a beautiful West Coast day and I am looking forward to hitting the road for a 2 hour blast on the bike....  the next chapter in what I have dubbed:

Operation: Don't Get Dropped in Florida

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Track Clinic

I have organized a Learn to Ride Clinic at the Burnaby Velodrome.  This is all part of my master plan to have other people to ride with at the 'drome.

If you are interested in joining there are a handful of spots left....  Here are the details:

• When:  Wednesday March 4th, 8:30pm - 10:00pm
  
• Where:  Burnaby Velodrome (MAP)
  
• What:  Learn to Ride 1 Certification course and open track time after until facility closes.
  
• Who:  7 or 8 riders I have roped in (so far) as well as myself.  The course is taught by certified instructors.
• Why:  Because the track is A LOT of fun and a great workout.  It's also a great way to get time on the bike in the winter.
• How:  To register you need to click HERE and fill out the form, name, address, yada, yada, yada....  It costs $30 and includes:  Instruction, insurance, track bike rental, and track time.

So there you have it....  come one, come all - it is a lot of fun and it would be cool to see some MJR readers there.

You never know....  you might love it and before long you'll look like this:

If you do sign up let me know at:  meyrick@meyrickjonesracing.com

Have a great weekend!

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Bicycle Tree Not Producing

Velodrome Wrap-Up

Last week's camp at the velodrome left me hungry for more.  It was a great intro to track riding and racing.  By Friday we were drafting, riding in a pace line and switching positions on each lap.  We also practiced starts and worked on strategy and technique...

Indoor tracks are a real rarity and I feel pretty lucky to have that facility just 30 minutes from my house.  I am planning on rounding up 5-8 of my cycling friends and arranging a Learn to Ride course for them so that I'll have friends to head out there with.  Friends.... consider yourself warned!

I want to get more into it but there is an investment required - the bicycle tree I planted in my back yard has yet to produce anything that looks like this:

Until that tree starts producing I suppose I'll have to rent...

Here are a few more pictures I took at the track.  Incidentally, as difficult as it looks to ride on the track, it is actually 50x MORE difficult to take a good picture there.  Low light + fast moving objects = hors categorie photography.

The Burnaby Velodrome...

Track close-up....  it kind of creaks and groans as you fly around it...  pretty cool.

Some of the bikes...  I was riding a Cannondale...

Mark (riding) and Stephen (timing/steadying).  Photography is a lot easier when objects don't move...

Mark sprinting at the start of his 3000m effort.  

Locked on the black line....  

I didn't get a single photo of myself during the whole camp.  I didn't want to trouble any of the other riders...  some other time....

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Burnaby Velodrome

Yesterday was my first day on the track at the Burnaby Velodrome.

My first impression was that the track was WAY steeper than I expected in the corners.  I guess the tracks I have seen before are 400m tracks and this is a 200m track.  That means the corners are a lot tighter and therefore a lot steeper.

We were told that in order to stay upright we had to maintain a minimum of 30km/h in the corner.  Any less and the tire would slip without warning and you tumble to the infield.  Ouch.

I didn't take this photo (and I have no idea who this guy is) but he is demonstrating the steepness of the corners quite nicely.

We were instructed on how to get going and how to stop....  in between you just ride (at >30km/h).

My first 7 or 8 minute stint went by in a flash - I was gripping the bars pretty tight.  I had very little in the way of thoughts as I was super-extra-overly focused.  My dismount began mentally about 6 or 7 laps before it happened physically.  I kept slowing down to get off the track then losing my nerve and sprinting to get back to 30+ for the corner.

The second stint was way more relaxed and I began to experiment with some harder efforts.  I tried sprinting out of the saddle, climbing the wall and shooting down to the sprinter's line (which is low down.)

Third and fourth stints were just messing around and getting a feel for the bike and the track...  a couple of timed efforts.  We did a few "Flying 500s" - 500m is two-and-a-half laps of the track.  My fastest lap was 16.something - not bad, but leaving lots of room for improvement.

Jeremy Storie and Stephen Burke did a great job of teaching us the etiquette, skills and tricks of the track....  I am looking forward to more of the same today.

My pictures were pretty bad - the lighting is dodgy....  but here are a couple I took of Darren late in yesterday's session.  I'll hopefully get some better ones and maybe a bit of video today.

Darren chilling on the "Côte D'Azur"....  The mellow blue zone where you can go sub 30km/h without eating it...

Darren laying down a "Flying 500"....  The best line is the black line (shortest route around the track) but generally if you are between black and red you are in the right area for sprinting.

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