Monday, June 23, 2008

Le Velodrome

Yesterday was my first experience on the velodrome.  It was so much fun!

At the Marymoor velodrome in Redmond, they make you take an intro class before you can do anything else on the track.  I did that yesterday.  It was 4 hours of instruction and drills.  We did some elbow bumping drills, pacelining, and some other general stuff.

I thought I would hate track riding because my natural instinct is to brake when I get scared.  I had never ridden a fixed gear before, but it wasn't so bad at all. :)  After the class, we got to ride around for awhile, and I practiced sprinting out of the saddle.  It's much easier on a fixie because there is a constant pressure on the pedals and the pedal strokes are more fluid.  

On Thursdays, they have women's night at the velodrome where they do training.  I think I will go this Thursday.  Then I'll start with the Monday night racing and hopefully quickly move up to Wednesday and maybe eventually Friday night.  Now I need a track bike.  I really want a green bianchi, but I am having trouble finding one.   I may resort to painting my own bike.

1 comment:

BrendanBenson said...

http://www.bianchiusa.com/568.html

You might be able to find one on eBay because they don't make the Pista Concept any more - just the Pista.

Oh, and I know what you mean about the no brakes thing - how it takes some getting used to. The good part is that people on the track ride a lot smarter than people on the road because they have to anticipate what's going to happen.