NCC Take to the Boards...

The day I had been looking forward to had finally arrived, today 15 of the North Cheshire Clarion descended upon the wooden boards of the Manchester Velodrome in an attempt to emulate our Team GB cycling heroes in a one hour taster session. The icing on the cake would have been a glimpse of Sir Chris if by some remote chance we bumped into him but alas that wasn't to be...

Arriving at the 'drome we picked up our shoes from reception, got in a quick change and headed up the ramp to grab our hire bikes which were all set up with our names on the top tube so it was just a matter of finding your bike and walking it up into the 'D' enclosure in the centre of the track and hanging it up. The previous hirers were still riding so that gave us newcomers a chance to have a look around to see what we had coming. My first impression was just how steep the boards are; 42.5 degrees on the bends I read somewhere on the Velodrome website, looks very steep indeed and would soon find out just how steep.

Our hour comes and we are called onto the track. We are split into two groups, those who have already ridden a taster session and those who haven't - I was a haven't. The alreadys were told to ride above the blue line, the highest line in single file with just a couple of feet between bikes at a fast pace for 15 minutes. This group wanted its accreditation so were given this task to perform.

Us newbies were given a brief speech about the 'do's and the dont's' and was set off to ride a few laps of the azure which is a bluish band on the first 3 feet of the boards. The only worry for me and probably all of us was not to forget that we needed to keep pedalling or else the horror story is a floor head-butt as you fly over the bars. A couple of laps of this and I was ready for more, I found it surprisingly easy to come to terms that you do not lean into the bends as you would do on the road and just let the bike find its own path with NO leaning; I did nearly come a cropper though when after a few laps I attempted to ease up slightly by trying to coast only to be immediately reminded by my legs being forced to keep pedalling that this idiot is riding a fixed wheel bike - the first and last time that I forgot...

We are pulled over after a few minutes of this and just the act of stopping presents another new challenge because of the fixed wheel and NO brakes - yup you read that right you cannot brake simply because there are NO brakes on a track bike. You are also told to never clip in or out unless you are stopped and holding onto the hand rail that rings the inside of the track so that means picking a spare spot ahead amongst the other parked bikes then plan to slow down just enough to cruise onto that spot and grab that spare patch of hand rail without falling over, it's a bit like an aircraft trying to land on an aircraft carrier, well maybe that's an exaggeration but you get my drift...

Next we are told to go up to the black line and do as the other group were doing but keeping a bikes length apart. After 10 minutes of this the line sort of fell apart and we were all doing our own thing. Next the highlight of the night, the mock race, an individual pursuit of 2 laps (500 metres) but as a team affair with each individual result counting for the team. So two teams on opposite sides of the straight are lined up to race each other. On my side Antnee is first to go racing Phil J on the other side. Next it was my turn. I clipped in and with a shove set off to race Gaz who was shoved off on the opposing straight to race me. Into the first bend I went with a full bore all out effort that lasted for the duration of the two laps accompanied with shouts from our coach to "stay on the black line" as I drifted on occasion. The bell was rung for the 2nd and last lap ding ding, I powered into the last two bends and over the finish line - I won I was told... I really enjoyed that and two laps was just about right for me in this sprint, I was really out of breath come the finish line and it took me a further half a lap to come to a stop.

After the mock 'race' we had five minutes left to ride the boards and I took the opportunity to ride high into the bends which was scary indeed for the first bend but just as long as I didn't think about being so high and kept the speed up I was OK. I enjoyed riding high and fast through the bends and powering down the straights only to climb back up high into the next bend and repeat - hard work but utterly exhilarating. The weird thing on the bends was overtaking someone on the outside by a gap of say 6 feet and yet their head is at your foot level...

So a great evening was had by all and I thoroughly intend to be a regular visitor to the Velodrome I enjoyed it that much...


Do my legs really look that out of proportion!?!
<-----