Herne Hill track league 6th June

[Tamar Collis]

After discovering that cycling sedately through the countryside (see p56 of today's comic...[modest cough]) was good for stamina but not so good for developing speed, I decided it was time to haul my ass down the track for some proper hard work.

I arrived in plenty of time to sign on but unfortunately my bike did not arrive until just after the 1st race (B cat points) had started. The reason being I had taken the lazy option of cycling from work to HH leaving Keith to go home and load the car with bikes on his own.

I was ready in time for the A&B cat hare and hounds. I am not a confident track rider and have only ridden track once in the last year or so....so everyone else set off apace and I wobbled slowly away from the barrier and then time trialled round on my own. Oh well....at least I didn't fall off. or get in anyone's way....and nothing fell off the bike, which is an improvement from a sprint training session at Calshot when the nuts holding the front wheel on started to work loose... .

Next race was for novices and the organisers invited myself, Maria and another woman (Hanna) to join them to make up numbers. Thank god! Much better. It was an 8 lap points race and with only seven riders and a slower pace than the hare and hounds I was able to 'give it some beans' and even take a few points. Was giving it all for the sprints and had a funny metallic taste in my mouth afterwards - presumably from my tongue dragging on the handlebars?

The A&B devil was predictably awful. There was meant to be a free lap to give us chance to all group together, but the front riders either hadn't heard or didn't care so tore off at top speed leaving a considerable number off us still of the back of the main group for a couple of laps until the organisers pulled us out before they'd even begun the devil proper. Can't say I minded. Scary stuff the devil.

I forget the event order but there was a novice block handicap which I again did OK in, an olympic sprint (Maria for the first half lap, Hanna for the second and me dragging my tongue across the finish line to bring us in last place behind the juniors I think).

We finished up with a 20km A&B scratch race. I never got near the bunch but soon found myself riding with Maria, a junior and an older bloke who is recovering from having fallen through a roof and broken his leg in 23 places . Did some nice thru'n'off and had a little sprint from time to time to try (and fail) to get onto the bunch as they hurtled past.

Got pulled out a lap before the bunch finished and sat up to take the Lanterne Rouge, which annoyed Maria as she'd had her eye on it.

So...no top results for Addiscombe this time I'm afraid...but a good hard workout and great fun. Was coughing hard enough to dredge up chunks for hours afterwards so know I had ridden pretty hard.

[Andrew G]

[quote]Was giving it all for the sprints and had a funny metallic taste in my mouth afterwards - presumably from my tongue dragging on the handlebars?

[Tamar Collis]

I'm not entirely sure but I think that you have to have done the saturday starter session or have some previous track experience. No-one actually asked me - just asked if I was paying for one race or entering the league. If there are enough novices they do separate novice races, if not then you're lumped in with the B cats.

[Maria David]

If you wanna have a go :

If you have never ever ridden track before you'd need to go to the saturday morning beginners' session at around 9am. That lasts about an hour and a half and you get shown very basic stuff like stopping and starting, what the different coloured lines mean, and track etiquette. They then tell you if you're good enough to progress to the main session that starts around half 10. Most people "graduate" ok after this first beginners' session and then do at least the first part of the main session straight after.
If you've done a bit of track cycling before you don't need to go to the beginner sessions.

That consists of various sprint drills in small groups, and then mini races with people in similar ability groups.

There's a tea break at around 11.45, and often the newbies have had enough by then.
The final session starts around 12 and that consists of everyone doing through and off for about 40 laps, with the last 7 or 8 laps becoming a free for all race.

Sometimes they vary the last session and might do something like an italian pursuit. (team pursuit but with two teams of 15).

If you don't have a bike you can rent a track bike that is not bad quality. They now have a batch of new Fuji track bikes that are good for track racing with. People usually rent them of the season.

If you can get through the whole of the Saturday morning session you would be good enough to do the track league. You will need a racing licence to enter the track league as an A or a B. If you don't have a licence you would race as a novice/go-racer.

The A's are for the really speedy people. The B's are for the rest. Like Tamar says, if there are not enough novice riders you get lumped in with the B's if you have licence. The other day, even though there weren't enough novices to do a race they started pulling some people out of the B's to do the novice race. I can only assume it was because there were novices there who didn't have a licence so that was a way of giving them a race.
So that meant some of us, including Tamar and me ended up racing in B races and novice races that evening. No wonder we were KO'd at the end of the evening. Well, at least you get more track time for your money !

[Maria David]

"Got pulled out a lap before the bunch finished and sat up to take the Lanterne Rouge, which annoyed Maria as she'd had her eye on it. "


Don't worry I'll make sure I get it next time !!