[Andy aka Rut]

Friday, Saturday and Sunday UCI hosted the World Cup Track Competitions in Carson (Los Angeles) at the Home Depot Center. It was is amazing event to watch if you have never been. For those not in the know, in the track events, the riders ride a fixed gear bike, without brakes and with their feet basically locked into the pedals. There is actually a strap that is "belted" across the shoes. There are several events that are spectacular to watch. My favorite is the Madison. Two people per team with what seems 20-30 people on the track. One team member sprints around the track while the other recovers. When they finally meet up with each other, the one that was sprinting grabs the hand of the teammate and launches him forward. He is now the active team member while the first person recovers. The crash possibilities are HUGE and the excitement is extreme. The photos are from a race that had 160 laps! Every 20 laps was a "bell lap." This is where a person can collect or gather points for crossing the finish line first. Basically, it is a sprint in the middle of the race. Spectacular. None of us could leave. It was just amazing to watch. Here are a few photos. I hope you can understand and see the exchange of the races.....

 

[Andy aka Rut]

How close were some of the results?? How does 100th's of a second sound?? The Path represented at the event as well. While we didn't race were on the track in spirit.

 

[Andy aka Rut]

Some amazing sights...
Bud and Bud light....$7 per bottle... we passed on that!
I'm not sure what year this bike is but it was beautiful.
I think these rollers are a bit out dated now a days
Pretzels only $3.25 each and the Churro's were only $3.00 each!

 

[08nwsula]

what speeds do those guys hit?
were there any big crashes?

 

[Andy aka Rut]

what speeds do those guys hit?
were there any big crashes?

We talked about what kind of speeds they were going but we never really heard any actual mph announced. Sorry. I can say when the group of riders passed, there was definately a breeze! Seriously!!
We witnessed two crashes. The first one was in the middle of a pack of riders. It actually damaged the wood flooring of the track. The officials delayed/stopped the race and actually repaired the damage right away. The second crash was in a three lap sprint race. Two teams; each starting on the opposite sides of the track. Each team has three racers. They start with a gun start. All three racers (on each team) start together and immediately get in a chase line. The lead person completes the first lap, pulls out of the chase line and is finished with the race. Left are two racers-still sprinting as hard as hell! Soon the second lap is completed and the second racer is now done. It is now up to the sprinter to finish the last lap. The fastest team completed 3 laps from a dead start in 45 seconds!!! 45 seconds!!!! They were amazingly fast.
Oh, on to the crash. It was for the gold; Great Britain and France (I think.) It was the second lap and the sprinter for France accidently touch the back wheel of the other team member with his front wheel. He instantly went OTB and slammed his head into the wood! It was awful to see and hear. After 10 minutes the officials restarted the race. They went on to finish 3 tenths of a second behind Great Britain. It was a hell of a race and a huge ability of the injured athlete to get back out there and complete the race.

 

[perttime]

There's all sorts of different races on the track: some of them are all about speed and then there is stuff like the individual sprint where it seems to be all about timing the final sprint so that the other racer cannot catch you, or overtaking the other guy who timed his sprint wrong.

When things go wrong, they can go very seriously wrong: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/6185486.stm

 

[Mike T.]

Woopsie! What you were watching was not the world championships but one of the many World Cup track events around the world.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/track.php?id=track/2006/worldcup0607/losangeles07/losangeles075

I think the world track championships are in China this year.

 

[DiRt DeViL]

Our team isn't doing good at all.

Our youth program saw action yesterday and my kid's best event was the 200m in which he finished 3rd.

Mode details on my mtbr blog.

Preview

 

[dr hoo]

what speeds do those guys hit?
were there any big crashes?

I think the men do about 35mph in the one kilometer race. Match sprinters 45+ at times I am sure (briefly right at the end). REALLY fast in any case.

 

[Horus]

Man I miss track racing. But as mentioned, when things go wrong, they go horribly wrong. One crash is all it takes, and you realize how easily you can wind up permanently paralayzed. It's easily the most dangerous discipline in cycling. Lots of fun when things are going smooth though.

 

[Fast Eddy]

Cool Post!

You're not that bad of a guy after all... Is that Molly hovering there in the background?

Over on the Norcal board you can find the thread about a brutal OTB that happened on the concrete track in San Jose, including the crasher's account and recovery. The thread was started by "Velodromed" if that helps finding it.

I rode my fixie in to work today. What a coincidence. 8^)

 

[wooglin]

Velodromes are cool. I used to live near one in Florida and watched the Master's Nationals there once. Definitely a spectator friendly facet of the sport, and with enough potential for carnage to keep the average Joe Sixpack interested. Now if only they could gamble on it....

Nearest 'drome now is over in Atlanta. I'll get there one day.

 

[Nagaredama]

Now if only they could gamble on it....

You can in Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keirin

http://keirin.jp/pc/dfw/dataplaza/guest/

 

[Andy aka Rut]

You're not that bad of a guy after all... Is that Molly hovering there in the background?

Over on the Norcal board you can find the thread about a brutal OTB that happened on the concrete track in San Jose, including the crasher's account and recovery. The thread was started by "Velodromed" if that helps finding it.

I rode my fixie in to work today. What a coincidence. 8^)

Why yes that is The Poacher.
I'll take a look on that board... thanks

 

[E !]

cool stuff

Andy, isn't this a mountain biking forum?
Throw some dirt on the track, OUCH!

 

[Horus]

You can in Japan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keirin

https://keirin.jp/pc/dfw/dataplaza/guest/

Long nekkid Japonese wimmin are srexy:

 

[onegearqueer]

???

No pictures of Sarah Hammer? I heard she did some hammer'n :eekster:

Nice to see San Diego chicks kick ass :thumbsup:

 

[*rt*]

based on the angle of your pictures i was sitting right below you!!!

AMAZING races. i'd never been to an indoor track before so that was really cool. and to see the quality of the racing defies description.

as a funny afternote. after the races, my friend and i stopped off at the starbucks before getting back on the road to San Diego. piled up right outside the door to starbucks was this heap of bikes and sitting right inside drinking coffees was...............the entire Rabobank team!!!!!!!!

now i know what the real pros use as a recovery drink.

rt

 

[*rt*]

I think the men do about 35mph in the one kilometer race. Match sprinters 45+ at times I am sure (briefly right at the end). REALLY fast in any case.

yup. as i recall, the speeds hit 55+ kph.

certainly fast enought to burn your clothes off your body if you hit the ground.....just ask the Polish rider and the French rider who went down in their races. ouch.

rt

 

[*rt*]

No pictures of Sarah Hammer? I heard she did some hammer'n :eekster:

Nice to see San Diego chicks kick ass :thumbsup:

I'm pretty sure if you look closely you'll find Sarah somewhere in the pack...

another shot....of the warm up area......fyi, everyone is warming up on rollers. they were so still & steady that from afar it looked like they were all on trainers but in fact, every single one of them was on rollers.

and a pretty sunset shot from our cruise along the boardwalk in PB after the races

rt