Hellyer Velodrome Track Racing

John Licatesi pushing Marianne Hernandez off at the start of the Keirin race

My experience with track/velodrome riding started in May 2009 when I was persuaded to go to a women’s weekend beginner session at Hellyer Velodrome in San Jose, CA.  All I knew about track racing was the rarely televised Olympic race where two people were time trialing around a very steep wood velodrome opposite each other.  As the day approach and I learned more about track racing and realized it I would be accompanied by many others on the track, the bike had NO BRAKES, and was on a fixed gear.  My apprehension grew.  I hadn’t ridden a fixed gear EVER and riding without brakes and learning to ridden banked track, however slight, made me more apprehensive day by day.  Thankfully, we had great coaches who took us through the skills and all the rules at a comfortable pace. As you can imagine, there are a myriad of rules to keep the many riders of various abilities safe while racing, training, entering and leaving the enclosed track. I survived the weekend and was hooked.  Hellyer Velodrome is 333 meter concrete track with the steepest pitch at 29% gradient.  (The Olympic-sized tracks are 250m in length with the steepest bank at 45% grade.)

 Well, now it’s 2011 and I’ve been at the track to race multiple times.  People often ask me what it is like.  I like to use the analogy of playing playground games when you were a kid.  One played, Red Rover/ Red Rover, Green Light/Red Light, Hide and Seek, etc.  Track racing also seems to have endless types of racing to keep it interesting. What I like best of all is that if you don’t succeed in one race all you have to do is wait 10 minutes and it’s time for another.  Track racing has a lot of strategy and inevitably it comes down to an all-out sprint.  If you don’t leave the rack with “a track hack” you haven’t raced hard enough.   I’ve found this intensity hard to replicate in other types of bike racing.  The camaraderie among riders is strong because after doing and watching races, all racers congregate in the middle of the track to wait for their next race so getting to know each other is inevitable.

Track has many, many events, some for fun and also the traditional sprint and endurance events. There are sprint specialists who do only short sprint events and nothing else but for the most part riders at Hellyer need to have both skill sets to be victorious at night’s end. Most of Hellyer race events have a total of 4 events in which points are totaled and overall placing is given by category for the night.

My favorites to watch and do are what I consider the “Fun” races.  Several along with the descriptions are below:

Chariot Races--Holders push off riders as they line up the track. The race is 1 lap.  This is often the kid’s race for the evening.

Miss and Out--After 3 initial laps, the last rider is pulled every lap thereafter until there are three riders left.  Points given to top 3 finishers.

Win and Out--After 10 laps the first rider to cross wins the most points and pulls off the track, then every lap thereafter, the winner of that lap gets the next successive points an can pulls off the track.  The last riders race for places 4 and 5th place points.

Hellyer Crawl--Riders line up as far as 75 m from the start, they let go of the rail and cannot touch the ground with their foot, impede other riders, nor cross the start line for 2 minutes.  The best strategy is to track stand the entire time or slowly “crawl” forward with your bike so you hit the start line at full speed.  It is a one lap race. This is the most fun to watch.  Watching a YouTube version of it to get the full effect.

Sprint races are generally between 3 and 8 laps in length and focus on raw sprinting power and race tactics over a small number of laps. Sprint riders will train specifically to compete in races of this length and will not compete in longer endurance races.

Sprint (200 m) –The rider has one lap and half and the time is started 200m mark from the finish.

Team sprint (6 laps with 2-3 riders who exchange leading out one lap then drop out.  The sprinter with the most endurance rides the entire race with the last lap by him/herself)

Keirin (5 laps w/ 2 lap lead out w/ a motorcycle which pulls off.  Four riders each heat ride this elimination race

Time Trial (500-1000K) Two riders on the track at opposite sides.

Endurance races are held over much longer distances. The length of these races varies from 12 - 16 laps for the Individual and Team Pursuit races, right up to 200 laps for a full length Madison race in World Championships or Olympic Games.

Individual Pursuit (3-5K)

Team Pursuit (3-4 riders exchanging time pulling.

Scratch race (Points awarded by place at finish)

Points race (Points awarded on designated lap—usually the 5th, 10th, 15 and 20th lap)

Madison- One racer propels his partner like a slingshot during a madison race.  The riders determine how often they replace each other in the race.  The race usually lasts 30-60 minutes.

Omnium-(The cumulative placing and points for 4 races in any given meet or night of racing)

I recommend all cyclists give track cycling a try just to see what it is like.  Beginner sessions happen almost every Saturday mornings of the year.  

For a schedule go to:   http://www.ridethe track.org

Efforts are underway to get a velodrome in our own Sacramento Valley see http://sacvalleyvelodrome.org for this ongoing effort.