ccf
Guru
I entered five races at the HPV Fun Day at Hellyer Park Velodrome: 200m flying sprint, 4-lap race for newbies, first man out, 8-lap race, and 30-min race. This was my first experience with racing (except for the ad hoc race that occasionally happens when an old guy on a recumbent passes a younger guy on a carbon road bike out on a road somewhere). The temperature was up around 90 degF. Fortunately there was a canopy on the infield that provided shade. Winds were 10-15 mph. My GoPro failed me, so I only have stills.
For the 200m flying sprint, I searched online to figure out the tactics. I started at the finish line. For the first half lap I rode a medium pace close to the wall to get comfortable. Through turn 2 and heading into turn 3 I accelerated at about 80-90% effort. Just after entering turn 3 I “jumped” on the pedals. The foot steer of my Silvio caused the bike to jump about a foot closer to the wall, which got my attention. I think I timed the dive reasonably well. But heading into and through turn 4 I found it difficult to concentrate on riding at full power and stay in the sprint lane. I like to plank slightly when sprinting to recruit my hamstrings and glutes. But doing that and holding a line while leaning way over wasn’t easy. I bounced above the red line a few times going through turn 4. I posted a time of 13.05, which was good enough for second place. The guy who won is the WRRA record holder for Masters. He smoked the field with a time of 11.63. The photo below shows me getting ready. Even though it was hot, I wore the tights and long sleeves for an aero improvement over my unshaved arms and legs.
There were three of us newbies in the 4-lap race (shown in photo below). I was racing against a lowracer and a fully-faired trike. I jumped out to a quick lead, which I later realized was not a good idea. The trike tried to pass me on the backstretch of the second and third laps. I held him off both times and forced him to take a high line through the turns. On the final lap the lowracer attacked on the backstretch and I couldn’t hold him off.
Seven of us entered the first-man-out race. From the start, I settled into fourth position behind a row-bike. We held that formation for four laps at 27 mph. Then a velomobile shot past all four of us on the fifth lap. Everyone accelerated rapidly at that point. I passed the row-bike but couldn’t catch the lowracer in front of the row-bike (he accelerated to 34 mph), so I ended up fourth.
I was pretty fatigued by the 30-minute race. Midway through the race, the lowracer that I couldn’t catch in the last man out lapped me. He yelled to me to get on his wheel. He was being tailed by a partially-faired trike with a pedelec. I moved in behind the trike, but could only stay with them for two laps. My Strava app shows that my average speed for this race was 24.7 mph. The wind was forcing me to switch gears every lap to keep my cadence where I like it.
This was a really fun, low-pressure event. I’ll definitely be back next year.
For the 200m flying sprint, I searched online to figure out the tactics. I started at the finish line. For the first half lap I rode a medium pace close to the wall to get comfortable. Through turn 2 and heading into turn 3 I accelerated at about 80-90% effort. Just after entering turn 3 I “jumped” on the pedals. The foot steer of my Silvio caused the bike to jump about a foot closer to the wall, which got my attention. I think I timed the dive reasonably well. But heading into and through turn 4 I found it difficult to concentrate on riding at full power and stay in the sprint lane. I like to plank slightly when sprinting to recruit my hamstrings and glutes. But doing that and holding a line while leaning way over wasn’t easy. I bounced above the red line a few times going through turn 4. I posted a time of 13.05, which was good enough for second place. The guy who won is the WRRA record holder for Masters. He smoked the field with a time of 11.63. The photo below shows me getting ready. Even though it was hot, I wore the tights and long sleeves for an aero improvement over my unshaved arms and legs.
There were three of us newbies in the 4-lap race (shown in photo below). I was racing against a lowracer and a fully-faired trike. I jumped out to a quick lead, which I later realized was not a good idea. The trike tried to pass me on the backstretch of the second and third laps. I held him off both times and forced him to take a high line through the turns. On the final lap the lowracer attacked on the backstretch and I couldn’t hold him off.
Seven of us entered the first-man-out race. From the start, I settled into fourth position behind a row-bike. We held that formation for four laps at 27 mph. Then a velomobile shot past all four of us on the fifth lap. Everyone accelerated rapidly at that point. I passed the row-bike but couldn’t catch the lowracer in front of the row-bike (he accelerated to 34 mph), so I ended up fourth.
I was pretty fatigued by the 30-minute race. Midway through the race, the lowracer that I couldn’t catch in the last man out lapped me. He yelled to me to get on his wheel. He was being tailed by a partially-faired trike with a pedelec. I moved in behind the trike, but could only stay with them for two laps. My Strava app shows that my average speed for this race was 24.7 mph. The wind was forcing me to switch gears every lap to keep my cadence where I like it.
This was a really fun, low-pressure event. I’ll definitely be back next year.
