trip report: first day at velodrome

roofle

It looked a lot easier in the pictures I had of the track.

I finally mustered up the courage to drive to the local velodrome and ride around. It was a humbling experience. The only other person there was some guy who looked like he was 50, and he was tearing the place up. I took a line outside of the outer blue line and honked up to speed. Then the banking. I am used to riding BMX bikes on vert ramps and this did nothing to prepare me for the banking at the velodrome. I noticed quickly that directional changes to the right would make the bike wallow and sluggish, while chasing a line to the left would make the bike handle like the fork was on backwards. Even thinking about taking a tighter line made the bike drift right down to the red line. The track was rougher than I thought it would be. Several places were so harsh that it pitched me out of the saddle. I wanted to talk to the older guy who was obviously winding down his workout and catching him was pretty easy, staying with him was another story. He was pretty cool, and we noticed that we had something in common, we both rode blue Pinarellos. His bike was newer and way nicer than my old rat, and god damn was he fast. I could taste blood in my mouth and was seeing stars by the 5th lap and this guy just kept cranking around the place.

I obviously have a lot of work ahead of me, and am so ignorant that I don’t even have a training strategy. I would like to be able to compete in the wed and fri night races and not be a rolling chicane for the other riders.

g'nite all, I'm gonna watch Enter the Dragon and cry myself to sleep for being so slow.