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I mentioned having joined a road club a couple of weeks ago. Now, having ridden chain gang twice in two weeks, I will hit the track at the Geraint Thomas Veldrome this Saturday and next.
I’ve never ridden track before, and I am so looking forward to it!
[To be fair, molgrips tried to get me to in recent months, but the peer pressure just wasn’t enough.]
I’ve never ridden track before, and I am so looking forward to it!
If you're anything like me, you'll love it - I did a two hour session in Manchester with the kids earlier this year for the first time and we all had a whale of a time! It's bloody hard work ("ride as fast as you possibly can...and then ride faster") but very rewarding and exhilarating.
I have often fancied giving track a go; but the whole creditation ... the travelling back & for .. cost of new bike or rental ... just too much faff😟
zwift FTW
@mooman: as I understand it, we’re going to be doing track through the winter. The sessions cost £15 per two hours, and include the bike.
When I consider that playing ice hockey costs me £10 for one hour, it’s quite a good deal.
£15 for two hours is pretty good. It cost us twice that through our club for two hours at Manchester as part of an exclusive session. Still worth it 🙂
Yes - that does sound good for a 2hr session and bike hire included; I always assumed it was double that cost with bike hire.
That said - time would still be my biggest sticking point. I guess its still best part of a 4-5 hour round trip with changing/showering all included for how long exactly on the track? 60-90mins max??
The Chris Hoy Velodrome is a 20min drive from home for me 😀. Had a great drop-in session last night - great fun on a dark wet evening, and I try to go most weeks from now through till Spring. Doing my coaching qualification there in December too, as I volunteer coach with a local club.
2 hours on the track will be enough to see most comatose for a week afterwards, if you do it properly.
My club went in April, a group of about 18 which we split into two halves for the 2 hour session...... one had prior experience and the rest of us were complete novices. So while we were doing some rudimentary rules and what each line was and do's and don'ts, the other group went on the track, and did some laps / gaining laps.
And then after 10-15 mins we swapped, and we did some circuits on the flat inside to demonstrate we could speed up and slow down on the fixed gears, and then a few circuits on the banking. Then we swapped again, and so on. So we only rode an hour of the 2hr session but I was properly f***ed by the end.
We did - basic laps getting used to the banking and speed necessary to stay up and riding close behind.
Taking laps (group circulating on the blue line, when you reach the front drop to the black and try to get on to the back of the group..... do you go as fast as you can to minimise the time and risk blowing up, or just increase pace and diesel back...... First couple of times were hard but doable but the third time was full on lactic lung burning pain)
circulating on the blue with a couple of bike lengths between us and taking turns for the back rider to slalom through to the front
and then an individual 500m TT....... another one where you're not sure if to go full out and try to hang on, or go hard for the first lap and then balls out for the second. Or, as I did, hard for lap one, balls out for lap two, only to find that lap two seems to be 50% longer than lap one so as you hit the back straight for the second time you actually wonder if you will still be alive by the line. I got proper starry eyes and blurred vision on that one, and still couldn't break 40s!!
Coaches were great if a little 'acquired taste' in places. Fully recommended.
I have often fancied giving track a go; but the whole creditation … the travelling back & for .. cost of new bike or rental … just too much faff
There are loads of ways to do it. Mostly its clubs booking sessions then they advertise on the FB group when they have spare places - you can tag along with those. But there are also coaching groups that have 'open' sessions they let anyone join. The South West Velodrome FB group is the one you want. You don't need accreditation for most of those.
Then there are genuinely open sessions run by the velodrome themselves. Some of these you need accreditation for but some you don't.
Bike hire is a bit of an extra cost but the worst part is that you can't adjust the bike. That was the main reason I bought one - a Dolan Pre Cursa for £225 F&F then I bodged s/h bits onto it, but they are only £550 complete bike.