Velodiva

Last Saturday, Hermes (my husband and bike slave) and I participated in a day of track racing at the Hellyer Velodrome in San Jose, CA. The event was organized by one of our Webcor racing club members as a fund raiser with all proceeds going to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The cool aspect of this event is that road bikes were allowed to race on the track which is normally not allowed. We had over 45 racers show up for the event. I rode my Orbea Ordu time trial bike. All activities and races were divided between the track and road bike racers i.e. road bike racers did not compete against track bike racers. One could choose to participate in as many events as you wanted which were all structured as pursuits (except for the 500 meter TT) which included – 500 meter, 1K, 2K, 3K and 4K. There were also a 4K team pursuit event. We watched some velodrome racing, but this was our first time on the track.


Here are some pics. If you would like to read more about the day, there is more info below.

Spending 6 hours in the sun and heat requires a canopy, food water and a lot of sunscreen. Our canopy was the one on the left and another racer connects to ours as we build a canopy city on the infield.


This scene looks more like a day at the beach than the track.


Practicing - track bikes.


Paceline practice -track bikes


Hermes on the straight away 2000 meters.


Velodiva at the start.


Velodiva on the track (2K individual pursuit)


Men's track team pursuit start (4K)


Women’s track team pursuit team (4K)


Men’s team pursuit (4K)



I thought this would be a fun event, but it wildly surpassed my expectations. The whole atmosphere was special - a mass of totally cool equipment, being in the infield in the middle of all the action, warming up on trainers or sitting on lawn chairs under a canopy, food, and hanging out with friends and teammates. This was a loooonggg but fun day as we arrived at 11:30AM and did not race until 5:30 PM and finished our last race at 7:30 PM. When we arrived, we setup our canopy, trainers, bikes, food and chairs in the infield. When it was our turn to go on the track for practice, we had mentors that gave instructions and took groups out in pace lines. I wondered how long it would take to get a feel for the track at speed and riding high on the bank. I found it very easy to ride the track at speed and use the bank and ride at the top.

Once it was time to race, the adrenalin kicked in. Lesson learned on my first event (the 2K individual pursuit) - never look down at your electronics. I did that to do a quick check on my heart rate and cadence and found myself up on the bank. Oops - back down Velodiva! Before I knew it was over - I was pleasantly surprised with my results for my first effort- 3:06 - first in the women's road category and not too far off from the women's track state champions who competed. The team pursuits were next so I had about an hour to recover for my next event, the individual 3K pursuit (9 laps). I passed my competitor on lap 8 - very cool feeling!! Very few people did the 3K and 4K individual pursuits (most of the racers did the 1K and 2Ks), so I just enough time for one cool down lap before it was time to start the 4K (12 laps). It was me against the same woman and again I passed her - sweet. I won both the 3K and 4K events too. I was wondering why people thought I was crazy for doing three pursuits - I learned afterwards that per the official rule book, absent unavoidable circumstances, a rider may not participate in more than 2 pursuit matches on the same day, and two hours must be allowed between rides. I felt great and could have gone for more - I am blessed with great recovery. What I like about the pursuits is that it is a natural transition from time trialing and I am told that track racing will also improve road racing skills. It will be a while before I attempt any mass start track events (e.g., sprints, points races) or team pursuits, but I am hooked! We are going back to the track this Saturday to rent track bikes and do a beginner session on real track bikes. Never expected this! Another convert.

comptechgsr

oh man, i wish i went. looks like A TON of fun. i've never seen roadbikes at hellyer. i saw the post from Gary and marked my calendar too =(((.

is there going to be a next one?

Hermes

Not this year - this was a first for Beat the Clock. Hopefully, it will become an annual event.

https://www.scaledup.com/beattheclock...the_track.html

Velodiva

Beat the Clock Velodrome results are posted at
https://www.scaledup.com/beattheclock...road_bikes.pdf (road bikes) and https://www.scaledup.com/beattheclock...rack_bikes.pdf (track bikes).