First Open Riding Session

Now that I've been taking a class at the velodrome, I've developed some mad track skills - enough so that I was certified last week to ride outside of class. That means that my instructor thinks that I'm not a danger to myself or others. Jeremy and I took advantage of our brief break during Sunday school to ride at the track. The first 45 minutes went pretty well. I mostly rode with Jeremy and his teammate Stephan. We kept a nice pace line and then did some fast laps. About when Jeremy had to leave to pick up the kids, a couple new riders showed up, Alan McCormack and his wife. Don't know who Alan is? I didn't either, but then Jeremy told me that he's an old school pro, rode in the '80 in the Coors Classic, did the Tour de France. Won the pro criterium champion ship LAST YEAR. Not the master's division - the regular pro.



Needless to say, when he got on the track, the pace picked up a bit. I was in the middle of a take-a-lap (when you drop down the the sprinters lane and have to ride really fast to catch up to the pace line again) when he got on our pace line and I never could catch up again. I eventually pulled up and caught on the slow way and spent the next 7 minutes trying to stay on the new pace line. And it was super hard. I took a water break and tried again, but only stayed on a few minute more. Thankfully my hour was up by then so I could leave with dignity.

So today I learned that riding 1 hour a week is probably not keeping my bike fitness up and also, that riding with pros is hard. And, also riding with 50 year old men is hard too (even the non-pros).

And I've realized I've been talking about the velodrome for a while, but haven't really explained what it is. It's this track:



And here's a little video about riding on it. It's a little dramatic, but you'll get the picture: http://www.boulderindoorcycling.com/BIC_video.htm