RCC riders scorch the track at Calshot

Do you like new challenges? Are you a bit competitive? Do you like thrilling situations? do you like cycling and want to experience a new side of cycling? if your answers is yes to all the questions, well why not trying track cycling? Now, with the London Velodrome opened, you have no excuse not to try this thrilling experience...

Track cycling is a finest disclipine that teaches racing tactics, pushes you to the limit, improves your pedalling efficiency, develops bike skills. As Chris Hoy said once ' Track cycling is a combination of speed, power and skills' and it is a hell of fun and seriously addictive!
I cannot ever stop liking track cycling so once again, i called Calshot and booked the velodrome. Eleven riders joined me for another day on the track. Agnes and I were the only two female riders and two riders, Nigel and Brian, joined us from SLH Triathlon club. Bruce came for a spin around the velodrome in preparation for his 120 miles audaux ride in New Forest the next day. Charl and Angus came full of energy and eager to learn a few racing tricks; John T and James came representing the Off roadies and were not scared of those steep bends at all; John McC and Stuart thought of changing their usual saturday club ride for a high intensity spin indoor and Kevin.
But this time we had a plan: to learn some inside knowledge about track cycling and skills and put them into practise like a GB track rider. Our previous coach Nigel moved to Germany, so I got one of Calshot coaches, Ben. After an initial chit chat, we had a surprise. Ben told us we did not have to pay for the hiring of the bikes. We all smiled. Calshot now has new bikes: real all carbon track machines, yes the same Solan that the GB team has! These are beautiful things and only weight 6kg! We also found out we did not have to bring our own pedals (sorry folks for making you bring your own pedals and thus wasting your time trying to remove them from your bikes - as i know some of you had a few probs with it!) , now the velodrome provides shoes with LOOK Keo cleats as well as helmets etc... so you now you can travel light to the velodrome. After we picked our beauties and got all ready, Ben divided us into three groups: two groups of people who were new to track cycling and one of 'veterans' (so we like to be called)

Whilst Ben was demonstrating how to handle these stunning and sleek works of art, Agnes, Nigel, John T and myself went on the track for some warm up laps. We did laps riding on the black line (the shortest and fastest), on the blue line (the rest line) , on the red line (the sprint line) and also on the high steep bend.
Ben let each group ride on the track in turns, and whilst we had rest, we got more tips of the trade from Ben, such as when he explained us about the pressure on the left and right hand for getting more speed and balancing the bike better to ride on the black line. We rode in our groups doing different things. One exercise was to ride as a group on the red line for a while at the same pace for a while. Then at the sound of the whistler, the front rider would drop to the black line and ride as fast as he (or she) could to re-join the group from the back. At that point, he (or she) would shout 'GOOO" to the rider in front who do repeat the exercise. However, one the trick was to pace ourselves. As the front rider sprint to re-join the group from the back, he (or she) would have to use the track to pace himself (or herself) in order to avoid crashing into the group, so you would have to re-join the group from a higher level in the track..and well..if you want to learn more secrets of track cycling, you gotta try it yourself and see first hand.
Time went by quickly and soon it was almost time to go, so Ben got us to do some solo time trialling. One rider would ride on the track, do some warm ups and then when the bell went, he (or she) would shoot off and do a lap of the velodrome. The skill is to ride on the red line first to gain speed and power and then ride the rest of the velodrome on the black line, but it is not easy to stay on the black line when you round the bends. I had the marvellous idea of putting it into practise, but had too much speed as i approached a bend and lost control of my machine so instead of staying on the black line, i went zig zag and up and down on the bend and all i could think of was not to fall off, thus loosing a lot of time...eventually got back on the right line and crossed the end line. Nigel seemed to be leading the fastest time (12.61) - although Bruce recorded an amazing time ... but finally the fastest time went to John Twitchen with 11.38s which was around a second quicker than next quicker and a 1.5s away from the lap record! Plus well done Agnes for staying on the black line all the time.

Then it was time to go, just when we were having fun! We packed our things and most of us head to Capers for a nice and warm meal.
It was a good day, but it was too short. Ben told me in October / November we could book the whole afternoon for the club, so we could have more time for racing exercises. What do you think?I always struggle to come off the track (it is not just because of no brakes!) If you want more, then there will be more..
A huge thanks to all of you my dear Trackers. I had a cracking time. A special thanks to the spectators who patiently watched us in such cold velodrome. Hope to see spinning round the track soon again.

Cheerios

Maria

Event / Article Type
Calshot Track session - MEMBERS ONLY - 26-02-11
On the boards at Calshot 26-02-11