My family was headed to Atlanta for my grandmothers 95th birthday in Peachtree City about 30 mi just south of Atlanta so I decided to combine a little pleasure with business and check out the Dick Lane Velodrome just south of downtown Atlanta. Yes, it’s the only velodrome with a name that sounds like a porn star! Checked out the schedule and as luck would have it, there was a special Zipp Need for Speed sprint night the night before the bday party. We usually plan on about 12 hours with stops, plus the one hour time difference from central to eastern so I figured we needed to get there about 6pm eastern time for a 7pm race start, which meant leaving at 5am St Louis time, ouch! I had left all the packing till the night before so went to bed at 11pm to get up at 3:30am to finish packing, spin a little and stretch to endure the long drive. The drive was uneventful except for a few spot showers, and we hit Atlanta just during Fri rush hour, headed right through downtown and came to a screetching halt on the 10 lane wide highway 85 in downtown. Then the rain came down hard. I was thinking no way we are going to race, but I’d still like to see the drome just the same after driving all that way. The original plan was for Analyn to drop me off at the track, head to Peachtree City for a family dinner, and then pick me up after the race, using the GPS to find the track again. Plan B was just to check out the track, take some pics, and then head to the dinner. Sat and Sun were full of family events so no other time to race.
The track is located in a residential neighborhood, not quite the slums, but just south of downtown and just north of the big Atlanta airport, small residential housing, something on the order of Maplewood or a near downtown hood in St Louis. The track is tucked in a park with a tree and river running through the infield, a big iron entrance gate that locks with big iron fences all around, a small pavilion where racers were seeking shelter for the rain, a bathroom, and about 10 rows of concrete bleachers for fans, a roofed platform in the infield with speakers for the announcer.
We arrived about 6:15pm and the first person I met was “Bill” who turns out operates the scooter for motor paced races. I asked him if the race was canceled, assuming it was, and he said, “Oh no, this track dries off pretty quick, there’s a little sun coming out, we’ll race for sure!” Sweet, that got the old heart pumping. So we switched back to Plan A, unloaded my crap and Analyn headed off for the dinner. There were about 10 racers hanging out, some serious looking dudes with serious bikes so I introduced myself where I could and found out most guys ran about 110-120 psi. I think I was the only one there with a steel bike. I had written Jeff Hopkins the organizer, an Aussie, who did the announcing, about my experience at Penrose, that I was in my second season, and pretty much a mid-pack B racer at Penrose with a 13.86 flying 200m and 1:23 kilo, and thought I’d try to sit in the C race at Dick Lane. He gave me the green light. When I went to register, I told the guy the story and he looked me up and down and gave me the OK. Asked what gear C racers use, said I run an 88 at Penrose, he said C race is usually 90-92 but I should stick with the 88 till I got used to the steeper bank. $15 dollars for four races was quite the deal. About 40 racers showed up, guessing around 10 A racers, 5 B, and 20 C. Dick Lane has a lot more control over what race you do and talking with Jeff Hopkins later, he said they were ready to move several of the C racers up to the B, but usually didn’t do so till mid-season. C race definitely turned out to be the race for me, the B race looked small, slow and lame.
The evening featured four races, a flying 200m to seed for the matched sprints, top 12 plus two from the sprint repechage for a total of 14 racers. Then a 5 lap scratch, 10 lap scratch, and a motor-paced 20 lap scratch for the A and B racers.
http://www.dicklanevelodrome.com/sites/default/files/11theomniumflier.pdf
Sweet! Took a couple laps and the track felt fast. I was running a 90 inch gear (47x14) and felt like I was just spinning it out. I had bought some Vittoria Evo Cx tires especially for this race and took some slow laps to see how they gripped and they did just fine. Track was concrete coated with weather proofing material, much more steeply banked and narrow feeling than penrose, but wonderfully smooth! Funny, the local racers thought it was bumpy because you could slightly feel the seams between the concrete slabs. One guy said it was built by sidewalk contractors, and true it had tiny seems between the slabs like a very very smooth sidewalk, but not one crack in this track. Another feature is that the back stretch is a slight downhill because turns 3 and 4 are four feet lower than 1 and 2 so if you dive down from the rail into turn 3, you have the sensation of flushing down a toilet bowl.
They ran the flying 200m in reverse order of reg for C, B, and A racers. You ride slowly around this little oval track in the infield till they call you up. Guys before me were riding in the mid-13s, I hoped to crank out a 13.5, maybe a 13.0, cranked it up at the rail, then dove down to the white line out of turn 2. The track is 321m with turns slightly tighter than Penrose but similar enough where guys were launching their flying 200s about the same place. Dove down into turns 3 and 4, and was spinning like crazy. Cranked it down the stretch with a slight wobble and across the line. Didn’t hear my time but the guy after me had 13.3 a “new best time” so I was definitely above that. Another C racer cranked out a 12.3! The A racers looked fast, best time was in the low 12s, like a 12.2. Posted the results and I was about 2/3 down the sheet with a 14.14, argh, embarrassing. All the C racers who missed out on the sprint got a chance to do a five lap scratch race to fill out the 13 and 14th seed in the match sprints, to go against the top 1 and 2 times, woo hoo! Don’t think any A and B racers who missed got to race the rep race. Anyway, another chance to race, about 12 guys in this race. We all lined up on the rail, which felt pretty cool. There was about a foot of flat concrete at the top to steady your bike on. Another detail is that they rang the bell in turns 1 and 2 of the first lap if everyone was together so no long slow neutral lap, which helped move things along. Ding ding, we were off. Fast pace. One lap, two lap, then an acceleration, bam and I was off the back. Geez, couldn’t believe it. Went back to the infield to sulk, chat with some guys. Several had connections in St Louis, including a guy named Wayne who used to race for the clubbers and knew guys like Mike Murray of the old Cyclones that I raced for just before they became Dent Wizard. Took a couple warmdown laps around the infield track. Looked at my bike and happened to notice some numbers on my rear cog. Wait, my 14t does not have any numbers. I took a double take and saw the numbers “16t” . . . GAAAAAAA. I still had my commuter/ warm up gear on! I had just done a flying 200 and 5 lap scratch in a 79 inch gear, doh! Guess that’s what I get for 4 hours sleep and 12 hour drive. So got out my chain whip and wrenches to switch out the gear only to hear Jeff announce “C racers to the line for the 5 lap scratch”. Damn! No time to switch it out. Lined up expecting the same result as the 5 lap rep, and yep, off the back with the first acceleration. Kicking myself for wasting 3 races on a smooth track. The gear chart says a 14.05 flying 200 in a 47x16 (79 in) gear is about 135 rpm. 135 rpm in a 47x14 (90 in) is a 12.29. Not saying I could have done that, but I will never know till the next time at Dick Lane. Maybe Grandma’s 100 bday !
Finally switched out the gear and got on the track, dejected, for the 10 lap scratch, not my best event due to lack of endurance this year. Lined up 3rd position behind this fast dude in black and this woman with kick-ass huge thighs. I mean one of her thighs was a big as my waist. This time it felt like normal racing. First five laps were pretty uneventful, with a couple half hearted attacks. Then lap six, the guy in black took off, for the first big acceleration. I decided to follow and tucked in third wheel, looked back and we had about two length gap. He pulled off and I took a pull down the stretch to keep tempo, then pulled up track. This race felt a little more aggressive than Penrose. Guys were a little more sketchy than I expected. I was on the front slowing things down just a hair to save some gas, riding right on the sprinter line. Then the big-thigh woman decides to come through under me! I turned my head just slightly which moved my bike just into the lane and she had to back pedal and cursed a little. Then I shoulder checked right, moved out of the lane to let her pass but she hung back. Went up track the next turn, lap 8, and everyone seemed to follow me up track, doh. Looked down and the dude in black made a huge acceleration in the lane, I wooshed down track but the gap had developed and it was game over. Lucky I was off the back because in the sprint a dude touched wheels and went down. No broken bones thankfully.
Notes from the other races. I was pretty pre-occupied with getting my own stuff together and chatting that I didn’t watch things too closely. Only to notice that the B race was exceptionally lame. Only 5 guys lined up for the 10 lap scratch. The first five laps were as fast as neutral laps so Jeff had to chide them on the PA system “this is a race guys!” They saved it for a sprint finish. Jeff later said they were going to move up some of the C racers in a couple weeks, yeah, like the guy who cranked out a 12.3! There were 5 or 6 guys in the A race that were superfast, like Eddie, Devin and Russ type of fast or better. I only caught one name “Dan Harm” who raced in yellow and was announced as a silver medal in the mens elite pursuit nationals last year. The match sprint came down to Dan Harm vs somebody named “Valentino”. Valentino had won all his sprints with a huge acceleration in turns 3 and 4, whipping around the lead rider, always coming from the back, in a textbook sprint that left him at least one or two bike lengths in front coming into the stretch, where he appeared to sit up and make hand motions to the crowd and announcer, pointing and celebrating while his competitor put on a dejected sprint to no avail. The only time I saw him race down the stretch was the final against Dan Harm, who he held off for the win. Sprinters, geesh. No sign of Steve Hill. I asked Jeff Hopkins later if he was there and said he didn’t see him. I said I heard he’s quite a character to which Jeff dead-panned, “That’s an understatement”.
Also hung out for the motor-paced 20 lap scratch. Pretty cool to see the pack all strung out in keiren style. Bill got them revved up but after about 3 laps, the skies opened up with thunder, lightning and rain, and they had to call the race. Too bad, would have been fun to see the full race.
Hey Grandma, hang on for 100. I want to race at Dick Lane again!
pics . . .
http://thebillhgenericracepicsblog.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html
pics . . .
http://thebillhgenericracepicsblog.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html
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