After years of wanting to do track racing and living near Newport, my dream has moved a step closer. I’m booked into the combined beginners and improvers intensive course on Friday, and I can’t wait! Five whole hours at the track! And now I know who to call I might be able to book an accreditation test and race!

Although I’m a little annoyed I had to start with beginners as I’ve done a fair few random sessions already.

Probably still some places, if anyone else is interested.

Ooooh, intensive course… Busy I think and the Seta needs a ride 🙁

I win a track experience day with Katie Archibald. Had no interest in track cycling whatsoever before this but really enjoyed the buzz of it so talked the BF into do8ng the full accreditation process. I enjoy it whilst it scares the sh!t out of me at the same time. Takes a lot of time to get my head around the no brakes thing. I’m cool with it on my own just when I get half wheeled, all sorts of profanities exit my mouth rather loudly.

I have been to quite a few practice sessions at Herne Hill and Lee Valley, I absolutely love it! Also keen to do a race at some point…

Did stage 1 and 2 at Calshot the other day. Awesome.

Booked into two club sessions and then stage 3 in Jan. Should get accredited by Feb.

Oh and bought a condor lavoro frame today
🙂

If you’d given me more notice I’d have been very much in!

Get involved – Calshot is pretty steep if I remember rightly?
Haven’t been for ages – and keep meaning to get booked into a session at the Emirates, but their website is rubbish.

Yeah Calshot is only 150m so it’s steeper than the Olympic size tracks. When you’re out there though you don’t notice it at all.

I ride at Glasgow every few weeks. Too old and crap to race, but the drop ins are good fun. Only had one crash in 4 years , though that did involve unconsciousness, ambulance and concussion 😀

I do the SQT sessions at Manchester pretty regularly. Used to do some of the lesser league racing but to be honest that was pretty dispiriting. What were supposed to be low key training races were often ripped to shreds by super keen Juniors who were slightly too crap to hold their own in the proper races so used to drop down to the training races.

Bit like That Guy on the club run who pops out of the bunch every few miles to sprint for a sign or Strava segment…

The SQT sessions are normally quite good though and it’s a sound way of getting in some nice safe efforts in the warm & dry!

Now shopping for track specific bars. My (cheap) bike has road bars on it. I want track bars cos.. er.. just cos.

Re racing, Newport have a vets evening for which I qualify, and I’ll be the young whippersnapper. Apparently they are also short of numbers. Not many left this year though I think.

It’s great fun and worth giving the racing a go – it’s not to everyones taste but i find it pretty addictive.

Having 3 or 4 races in a night is really useful as it can be a concentrated learning experience. Means you can try out different things in a way you cant do in other types of racing….if something doesnt work out then no problem try again 30 minutes later

molgrips, I know we’ve talked about it, but can you say more about requirements and times?

Part of me is hugely interested, but the other part of me is daunted. And I’ll certainly never get away with buying yet another bike!

@SaxonRider – daunting how? As for the new bike thing, I got around that by arguing that since you NEED to have a track bike to do it the extra bike is justified. Plus mine lives stored in its bag all the time, you wouldn’t want to leave it outside. The velodrome can store bikes for you too. Also, track bikes aren’t particularly expenisve, Dolan frames are £175 new, you do need a bit of track specific stuff to build it up though but that can be scavenged on eBay. Their complete bikes are £550, but there are lots on eBay at £150-250 ish.

And (this will appeal to you) look how beautiful track bikes are. This is the basic entry level Dolan:

Summarising for posterity:

With respect to riding, there are various types of session held weekly by Newport, and then the rest of the time is booked up by clubs from around the South West. The club either brings or hires a coach to be in charge of the session and they are normally for anyone, accredited or otherwise. Usually they need to make up the numbers so you join the South West Velodrome Facebook group and they are always asking for people to go along. You can hire a bike from the velodrome for these, and there are always some beginners on them that the coaches will look after.

There are also regular structured training sessions for accredited riders, there are racing leagues also for accredited riders, and there are also drop-in sessions regularly – not sure what goes on in those. Timetable and lots of info is here.

To get accreditation, you need to do the beginners and improvers course before taking the test. To find out about these you need to call Newport Live on 01633 656757. The lady I spoke to knew about the courses and was helpful. Each course runs as three two-hour weekly evening sessions on Monday nights and you have to book.

Looks like for masters they have:

10 lap scratch race
10 lap Hare and Hounds
10 lap eliminator
20 lap points race

Just reading about racing tactics gets me all excited 🙂

I go to Manchester with our club once a month during the winter, and bloody love it. Just a bit too distant from there to go very regularly and as this is private session I don’t need to get all the accreditation either.

Don’t have my own bike, have reached D-1 in our house so I just hire one. Because of the low gearing it’s bloody hard to keep up with those who bring their own big ratio track irons!

@molgrips – There will be another block of track league races in the new year (usually around 10 from memory).

I have raced there before, it is good fun, don’t take it too seriously and enjoy it.

They change a couple of the races each week. Elimination is probably the most technical because positioning is so critical. You could be the fastest on the track but get boxed into the wrong position and you are out!

I haven’t ridden there for a couple of years now because my kid’s have knicked my track bike!

I did the MTB eliminator at BBB one year – best fun I’ve had racing 🙂

Part of me is hugely interested, but the other part of me is daunted. And I’ll certainly never get away with buying yet another bike!

The taster sessions are a great place to start, full of people equally as daunted as you!! 🙂

I built my track bike up for around £350, using the above Dolan Pre Cursa frame, bits from the spares bin and Planet X wheels

I bought a Dolan frame, and from here a complete track bike (after I bought the Dolan!) of lesser frame which I then stripped and sold the frame for nearly what I paid for the bike. So wheels and drivetrain cost me about £20; then spares bin donated the saddle, bars and stem. Oh, I did shell out for some nice new high TPI tyres though.

My LBS advised me to get track specific drivetrain bits for compatibility reasons and apparently they are made to higher spec/more round which matters more on the track since everything’s so smooth. My wheels are only cheap Miche shallow section though so I may be giving up a bit of power at track speeds.

Oh and I will be taking it seriously, but in good humour – as the excitement is what makes it fun!

Molgrips – please stop this now!

I moved away from near Derby 3 years ago, just as they were opening the new velodrome. My ex tri club have regular sessions and delight in telling me how good they are via Facebook.

I now live near Llandrindod Wells, so 60 miles to Newport. And I’m very tempted (yep, and daunted) by this.

A bit far away to become a regular, but might be fun to do the taster or get accredited for something a bit different.

No! No! Stop it now!

There are often longer sessions on the weekends. You could join a club or just pick them up when they are advertised on FB. People come from further away than that!

8th Jan is a taster session, 4pm-5pm… £20… Got to be a goer ?

A bit far away to become a regular, but might be fun to do the taster or get accredited for something a bit different.

Some of the tracks occasionally do “bulk” accreditation weekends where you can do the entire thing in 4 sessions over 2 days.

You usually have to do at least 1 SQT every 6 months in order to maintain your accreditation. All the indoor tracks have an arrangement now whereby accred at one is recognised all over, the only proviso being that your accred is all done at the same track (you can’t do Sessions 1 & 2 at Newport and then 3 & 4 at Derby for example).

Fill your boots:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/tracksessions/

There’s a session on the 17th of Dec, all welcome it says. Also there’s a spreadsheet of booked sessions, almost all of which have spaces. Join the group!

Re bikes – anyone managed to use their track bike on rollers? I tried it and nearly died. Talk about twitchy.

Mine’s setup with random bits and it was ok on the track itself, but maybe I should be tweaking the setup? Or is this normal?

@molgrips did you shorten the length of the rollers to account for the generally shorter wheelbase of a track bike? Track bikes can be twitchier but they should be easier on the rollers than a road bike!

Yeah I did, I think at least. Could have been one click out though maybe.

I started track riding in October as a way regaining fitness without getting filthy, cold & wet all winter at the NCC in Manchester, it’s ace.

The bikes there are well used, so I picked up this rather nice Fuji Track Pro in CRC’s sale with added BC discount 😀

[/url]#FujiTrackPro #fujibikes #trackbike by Steve Bowman, on Flickr[/img]

I’ve got my accreditation booked in Jan after cancelling it last Sunday due to the snow and driving issues, did a club night there last week and that was ace too.

Re bikes – anyone managed to use their track bike on rollers? I tried it and nearly died. Talk about twitchy.

Yup been banned from doing it in the house as I came off and hit a wall leaving a nice tyre mark 😳

When riding the rollers for the first time on a track bike it can sometimes help to open your hand up (so just the palm is resting on the top of the bars). That gives a really loose relaxed grip.

Did a taster an Manchester on Monday and loved it. Going back to do another in Jan and not sure where it’ll go from there as i live in the lakes and its a bit of a mission, but it was brilliant. That Dolan looks lovely too but if i get another bike there’s going to be a serious falling out.

i live in the lakes and its a bit of a mission

Fingers crossed Hope build their own velodrome!

Fingers crossed Hope build their own velodrome!

That’s been “in planning” for a decade, it’ll never get built! At one point the proposal was to put it on the roof of the factory. 🙄

Manchester is scheduled to be resurfaced in about March/April time which will put it out of action over early summer.

Love going to the track at Newport.
Really good fun, nothing to be scared of, just do what the coach asks and you’ll be fine.

If you are in South Wales don’t forget there is Maindy velodrome in Cardiff also. A little less intimidating than an indoor track, and they used to let you train on a normal road bike during the winter (not sure if they still do).

Manchester is scheduled to be resurfaced in about March/April time which will put it out of action over early summer.

Oh well, it’s nice enough once every week or so to ride outside then 😆

BTW, how about organising an STW trip to one of the open sessions? For those who are daunted and want some support?

Well that was a great session. We were all fairly experienced apparently so we got lots of riding in all in one group. The drills are all straighforward really. Not much to worry about. @SaxonRider you will need to learn how to hold a wheel though 🙂

Quite a bit of riding in it though so you’ll need to be confident being on the bike for a while. We must’ve ridden three hours.

Accreditation booked for the 22nd!

Accreditation booked for the 22nd!

Finally! good work. Remember you mentioning years ago about giving it a bash.

Who’s the coach you had? probably Jason or Chris Davis?