Originally Posted by
smitty22
how do the changes work on madison? do you have to trade every lap or is it that you just have to trade, and do it when you need to?
on a big flat 333 m track you can do maybe every lap and a quarter, or lap and a half, because you can basically stop when you come off, but you still need distance to slow down and speed up. At SD they let you hang on the rail, so you can keep it relatively short.
On a shorter, steeper track it's more like every 3 laps, and as mentioned it might vary depending on strategy--e.g. if one rider is a much better sprinter he might time the exchanges so he's always coming in for the sprint laps.