What's even cooler? Riding on said expanse of unfinished wood.
So, a bit of history: From late 2003 to just last summer (June 2006) I was living in the vast, manicured souless wasteland just north of San Diego County that is Orance County (AKA The OC) and pretty much hated ever minute of it.
The one upside to that Godforsaken place (that is populated by convenient christians, ironically) is that it's about equidistant between the SD and LA Velodromes. So that meant that it was a wash on which track was closer. That meant I spent a lot of time on the road with a track bike atop my Audi. That was the price I paid for riding on an indoor, wooden 250m track. A price I gladly paid.
If you haven't had the opportunity to ride at such a venue, I highly suggest it.
ANYway, the thing is that when I moved to SD, it made the LA Track WAAAAAY too far away to do on a regular basis, so I haven't been to that track since last last summer.
Alison, was denied racing at the first SoCal Track cup in SD but is bound and determined to make the rest of the series. This includes the next installment at ADT (LA Velodrome). Trick is, racing on that velodrome requires certification since it's so freakin' steep that you can easily get yourself in trouble.
So, we ventured up to LA and did the Accelerated class. This involved about 20-30 minutes of Roger Young lecturing on how to ride the track without screwing it up and and a basic test of getting to on the track, riding the pole lane, riding on the blue line, coming down to the pole again and on to the apron. Basic stuff.
I sat through the lecture, anxious to get suited up and turn some laps on the wood. We got to the riding part and I bet you no has seen anyone change into a skinsuit so fast. I was on the track way before anyone. Happy, happy, joy, joy! I'm on wood! Oh boy!
Alison spent the required minimum time on the track to get the nod that she wouldn't be a hazard to herself, other riders or the wood and I just went around in circles going on about how it had been too long since I was on this track.
I educate her on how to do exchanges on the track and somewhere in there, Roger pretty much told everyone that "it's time to go home" while we were still riding around. He even told us "Go ahead and ride around some more, if you want".
So, we did a bunch of mellow 20mph laps taking half lap pulls for the practice. She needed it to be allowed to race on the May 12th and I needed it for my peace of mind.
Golly that track is steep!
Turn and burn.
No comments:
Post a Comment