Velodrome!

Over the past couple of weeks many members of the UBCTC have made trips to the velodrome in burnaby to give a try at track riding. Its a pretty good program they have there, every week they offer learn to ride courses to introduce people to riding at the velodrome.

Just some background on the velodrome. Its a 200 meter track, with 47 degree banking in the corners. That is steep! You need to be riding at least 30kph in order to not slide out of a turn.

Two weeks ago I took the learn to ride 1 course which introduced getting up onto the track and then simple riding techniques like holding a line. Last night I took learn to ride 2 which was a little more technical. We learnt to ride right next to someone, riding with one hand (preliminary technique for riding the Madison), and finally pacelining.

Its a lot harder than it looks. But once you get the confidence in the corners you can really rip along at a good clip. Unfortunately I don't really have many photos from the nights out, my camera has broken. But I do have this one taken by Meyrick during our learn to ride 1 course.

During our first visit it was Claire, Kendra and I from UBCTC who went out. Claire sent me this photo of the three of us.
Unfortunately last night we didn't get any photos, but it would be more of the same.

I hope to soon take learn to ride 3. During that you do more race like techniques at higher speeds. 

Now that I've done LTR 1/2 I can go for drop in. So I hope to do that every once in a while over the summer as well.