Originally Posted by Super Rookie
We get about 60racers a night on Thursdays and bob williams is always running full intro classes.
Yow! That's awesome. When I was there (mid 90's) even a third of that was a good turnout. Bob was great for teaching the class-- he taught the intro class I took after doing the TCBC thing.
Indoor is the only way a track could work.
Indoor there would be awesome. It was great here in LA when we had huge amounts of rain last winter, and it's nice on the smoggy days in the summer, too. Plus the sound system is nice. Given the length and harshness of winter in Mpls, indoor would be awesome. We used to sit on the rollers in the living room in january and fantasize about a dome over Blaine.
On a side note I think that the ADT Center from a rider standpoint isn't very good. Where are the bathrooms for riders? Where are the changing rooms? Where is the access from the infield to the seats in the facility. What is up with the super soft wood? I
The bathrooms are the biggest pain. There are a couple of changing rooms donated by a bike shop that work fine, though for big meets a locker room would be nice. This being hollywood, if there were enough money it would be no problem to roll up some pretty nice bathrooms/changing rooms right outside the rollup door for temp use. The worst thing with the cheap portables is when it gets dark-- there's no overhead light outside, so they're totally black inside. They have been slowly making improvements-- there are finally concrete steps outside the top of the stairs to get to the bathrooms. You get used to the wood pretty fast-- it's just different, and you don't get splinters when you go down (as I can verify). I once watched a guy slide about 20 m on his butt on Blaine and people took turns with the tweezers pulling the bigger splinters out of his butt while his mom talked to the urgent care ("yes, he needs to come in. he has hundreds of splinters in his buttocks. Yes, from a bicycle crash" - you could hear the confusion on the other end).
The story I heard was basically good project management is why there are few amenities-- they had a base plan that put in the track and the building over it, and the amenities were basically bought out of the reserve that was left as it neared completion.
As far as catering to the roadies in the twin cities we have tried that and more are coming out. But, to honest with you I feel that they are scared. We have a number of cat1/2 on the road that will not race on blaine. I have heard many excuses mostly it centers around the idea that they would have to ride in a cat4 field. I find that stuckup and disheartning. Are they to good to race with the 4s? If they are in two weeks you can upgrade out. I am a cat4 on the road. A cat3 on the track. The cat4s on the road don't come to the track because it is 'scary.'
Yeah, I hear you. I wish we could get (yet another) track at the Rose Bowl and get people who do the Rose Bowl ride to move onto the track and learn to ride. I'm another track 3/road 4 (and a couple people have been suggesting I upgrade on the track...). I started racing road and track at the same time, and really got hooked on the track. I find crits and some group rides far scarier than the track. The Rose Bowl is just nuts-- the second time I smelled burning rubber in the pack I decided it was just a bad idea.
We just had a bunch of Cat 1/2 roadies come out this year (at encino and adt) and they rode the 4s with everybody else for a little while. It was killing some of the new rider type 4s. Fortunately they got upgraded pretty quickly.
This summer alone I could count about 10cat5s a night that had never raced on the road. They just wanted to do the track. They came back every week! I think that is the way to go.
This year was my first year back racing after a long break, and I raced only track. Next year I'm thinking about getting out and doing some road racing to improve my endurance for hanging off the front on the track. Track is just way more fun.