Track Racing, 6-27, Mike Bergstrom
First and foremost, I will never ride on the road again!
Not true, but track racing is the absolute bomb!
I arrived way too early, I thought that there would be some sort of “how to ride fixed gear” or “how to get off the bike with fixed gear” but there wasn’t. I was very apprehensive and almost didn’t go, but I arrived and signed in (#156), and walked over to the loaner bikes to pick out a ride. Richie was there and he and I looked at a couple, found an old steel 57 cm with a 53×16, that turned out to be a good gearing for me. I took the bike back to my car, adjusted the saddle and put my pedals on it, used my front wheel and went out to the track.
The track is a 318 m oval with banking, it looks like a car track ( which it was ) and they also do go-cart racing there sometimes I guess. I was still a little nervous about the fixed gear thing, so I stretched some and thought about pulling a hammy and avoiding the embarrassment of not being able to ride this beast. A big guy came over and we chatted for a minute, I told him I was a newbie so he gave me a few getting started pointers and off we went around the track. The first thing you get used to is pedaling ALL THE TIME. Not pedaling gives you a very quick jolt, you control speed by simply not applying pressure to the pedals and as I got more comfortable we went a little faster, I practiced easy pedaling and started to get the hang of things. Oops! Forgot to pedal and my leg snapped around for me….that takes a little time, you freewheel weenies have no idea. We rode for about 20 laps and he moved off, I went back to the pits to adjust the saddle angle a bit. Came back on for more warm up and started talking to Mark Bowen (sp?) from NEBC, he noticed I was wearing my new NEBC shorts ( very comfy, BTW ). He was an old hand and started giving me some advice on tactics and riding the pole line. We got down low and he showed me how to ride a good paceline on the track, and how to use the curve to come off the front and fall back into the line without losing speed, very slick. Soon we had a paceline of 10 guys and we were absolutely flying. I discovered quickly that you had to trust the curve and the bike and let it lean into the curve to hold the pole line ( the lowest riding line on the track ) and fight centrifugal force that wants to push you higher in the turn, hey that’s rocket science!
So now we are ready to race, the A/B race is first, a scratch race of unknown distance, meaning they ring the bell for the last lap when they feel like it. This wasn’t my race, I was hoping that the newbie race would not get me killed. There were two other new guys, so we were going to get combined with the B/C race due to numbers. The first race went, one guy screwed up and landed in the infield, fortunately it was grass so his injuries were less serious ( if that’s possible ). I said hello to the other NEBC guy there Peter Esselstein( sp, again? ). Peter had a disk in the back and a Spinergy four spoke on the front and a trainer he was warming up on while the other race was going on, I figured that he was a guy who knew what was up.
Mark won the A race, a good start for NEBC. Now I head toward the like with about 18 guys, including the other new guys, one from BOB who looked like a guy who had raced before and was very young, mid late twenties at best. We start and I am sitting in the back, thinking that this is pretty tame, so I start to move up slowly. The most important thing is always to peek over your shoulder before you change lines and to talk to people when you move around them. So now I’m sitting third wheel and the BOB guy starts to accelerate, but not so that I was in any difficulty, I stayed on his wheel after moving around the second guy. We move quickly away and I heard on the loudspeaker that we had a little gap. He comes to the turn and pulls up so I can go by, and I go and we goose it a little more. I pulled for a full lap and came up the curve, he followed and wouldn’t come through! So I pull another lap and again he won’t pull through. What the heck! Repeat again and I look over my shoulder and the entire field is on the other side of the track, we had a 200 m lead on them, then it hit me, we were gone! Peter was in behind him so it was going to be a three way sprint for the bell lap, with no one else in contention, I finally came way up ( bad move ) and got them to pull through, dropped in third wheel just as the bell went. Last lap! The BOB guy got a little gap on Peter, which proved pivotal in the final turn. I rode third wheel and tried to get around on the final straight, should have started a little sooner, third by half a wheel! Third in my first track race! I was pretty pumped. And I learned a good lesson about track tactics. The hardest thing to do in track racing is to sprint until you lungs are about to fall out and after you cross the line…..keep pedaling. I was now figuring out back pressure to stop and getting in and out of the pedals on the fixed gear. I really like fixed gear, it makes you so aware of everything!
Next race is an Olympic Sprint, basically a kilo race. We did it with teams of three from a standing start. First guy pulls for one lap, second guy for a lap and the last guy goes solo for one lap. Winner is the best three lap time. The A’s go first and all the times are really close, in the low 1:20’s. I get hooked up with Peter and Scott, the big guy who I first rode with. I didn’t think he was going to be very fast, but he said he could pull first and get us a good start, I was second and Peter was anchor. We started and Scott got going slower than we wanted, but got up to speed and we were moving well. He came off and I was pulling now. I peeked to see if Peter was there and we came around the second turn, I put the hammer down and we flew down the straight and around the curve, I had a very good line, and put my head down and drove to the line pulled off and Peter went. He did well, and we ended up in 1:21. My split was good, we were fifth, not too shabby. They decided to run this again as everyone wanted to do it again. This time Peter and I formed a team with Mark, the NEBC crew. Mark had already gone twice, but agreed to go with us. He was to be our anchor, Peter would go first. I was second again. Peter pulled a great start and I had a good run out. When Peter pulled out, Mark called to me “good”, so I put my head down and spun my arse off. We drove around the curve again right on the pole line and I gave Mark a good run out to finish it off. I was gassed by this point.
Intermission, I rode another 20-25 laps, talking to Peter about the races and how things went, etc. They were going to do a couple more races, but it was already 8 pm, so I decided to close up and get ready to go home. Packed up my stuff, cleaned up the bike and walked out to thank the organizer for having me. I will absolutely be going back!!!! So much fun and so fast! That one crash was the only one, overall it was really safe.
So, three races : 3rd, 5th, 3rd. I learned a lot and looking back could have been no worse than second in the scratch race.
Mike