Riding on a velodrome track is a rare treat for the Wheelsucker. The nearest velodrome to Annapolis is at Trexlertown, PA (Valley Preferred Cycling Center, in Breinigsville, PA), over three hours drive away. The Wheelsucker completed the introductory course there, and has raced there 3-4 times, including two MABRA Track Championships. T'town is an outdoor concrete velodrome, and is closed for the winter.
But there are two indoor velodromes close to Guelph. The Forest City velodrome – a tight 138 meter steeply banked track built inside an old hockey rink building – is about one hour and twenty minutes drive from Guelph, while the new UCI standard 250 meter velodrome built for the Toronto Pan Am Games, the Mattamy National Cycling Centre, is just 40 minutes drive away in Milton, Ontario.
The Wheelsucker had completed "track 1" certification at Forest City 1-2 years ago, and in November had completed "track B" certification at Mattamy. On this trip, the Wheelsucker first completed his "track 2" certification course at Forest City, so he can do any open cycling sessions (but not yet racing), but then bought a ten visit membership pass for the Mattamy velodrome, as members can schedule themselves in for sessions (pacelines), two weeks in advance, while non-members can only schedule themselves within one week. All sessions at Mattamy fill up within a few minutes -- or seconds -- of them being available on line, so a non-member would be looking for days and days before finding a session they can get in to.
The Wheelsucker prefers the Mattamy velodrome to the Forest City velodrome.
The Wheelsucker has been lucky as people have been cancelling out of sessions at Mattamy, probably because they have a Christmas activity to do. Each of the sessions he has booked has had space become available within the last 24 hours. The Wheelsucker expects frequent riders at Mattamy all know when the sessions will go online, and reserve themselves a spot as they come online, then cancel shortly before the day if they cannot make it.
So far the Wheelsucker has ridden five "drop in" Paceline sessions at Mattamy in the last five days, including taking Monday off for a recovery day! However, he flatted out of the one fast Paceline session about 13 minutes in, so it is more like four sessions.
The drop in sessions are either 1 hour or 1.5 hours. This is not 1 or 1.5 hours of continuous riding. The Wheelsucker needs to take breaks, as he gets very thirsty, very quickly, with a very dry mouth. Other riders take breaks as well, and some of the older guys seem to be spending more time standing around chatting than they are riding, but everyone gets on the track, burns some calories, and has fun, riding at their pace.
So the Wheelsucker hammers around the track in a slowly shrinking Paceline for 15-25 minutes, then drops off the back, gets off the track, drinks some water, catches his breath, heads back out, looks for a chance to join in at the back of the Paceline, and repeats. The Pacelines shrink as riders come off the back – or a strong rider splits the group during their pull -- then reform as riders finish their short breaks and get back onto the track.
All riding on the track is counter clockwise, turning left at the curves in the oval. The track has two “lanes” for Pacelines”, the first is at the inner edge of the track, between the black line that marks the actual inner edge and a red line about 1.5 feet to the left of it. The second is at a blue line perhaps 5 to 6 feet further to the left. Normally the faster Pacelines ride at the blue line, using that second lane, while slightly slower riders and Pacelines ride between the black and red lines. The spacing of the two lanes provides just enough room for the lead rider in the Paceline to pull off to the left and slide back and rejoin their Paceline at the back. Sometimes there are two Pacelines on opposite sides of the track, in each lane.
Being quite new to the track and unsure of his optimum crank arm length and gearing, the Wheelsucker is experimenting with these. So far the 167.5mm crank arms may be a little short, so next up is trying the 170mm crank arms. While experienced track riders quote gearing in "gear inches", the Wheelsucker is still counting teeth on his chain ring and cog. The standard sessions are easy with a 48x14 gear and more of a workout with a 48x15, as this increases the cadence required to stay in the Paceline. Speeds are higher at the "fast Paceline" sessions and some riders are using 50x14 gears.
Even though these are not races, the Wheelsucker wants to be riding with the fastest group, and does not want to be dropped or gapped! So far he has been wheelsucking well and hanging on until it is down to the last 2-4 riders.
Not everyone is a track racer. There are smooth riders, there are strong riders, and there are a few smooth and strong riders. But after a few minutes in a Paceline the Wheelsucker has his theories about who is a track racer and who isn't. In the most recent session, early on, the Paceline shrunk to one strong rider and the Wheelsucker. After dropping off for water the Wheelsucker learned that the other rider had 30 years of track experience and was a past national champion. That helped to explain why he was always the last rider left as the Paceline shrank.
Weeks ago when planning his trip to Guelph, the Wheelsucker was hoping to race. But both tracks prefer that he take separate race certification classes, and they also offer race training classes. While the Wheelsucker’s UCI license from US Cycling, and his cat 4 on the track, might get him into some races, it occurs to the Wheelsucker that he doesn't have much form and more time in Pacelines on the velodrome is going to make him faster and safer. Also, the Wheelsucker learned that if he were to race in his Masters age category, he would be up against a past Olympic medalist, Tour de France Maillot Jaune wearer, and World Championship podium rider, and other past and current Canadian track national champions.
The Wheelsucker now thinks he will stick to the Paceline sessions a little longer.
The Wheelsucker’s mother and sister probably think he is in Guelph to see them for Christmas ...
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