Monday: Northbrook clinic
Ten 27 Bicycles (formerly Turin) is located smack dab
downtown Evanston, so I called ahead and reserved a track bike for Billy (my 14
year old), who had never ridden the track.
They have a loaner program where they charge your credit card $500, but
if you return the bike in good condition, there is no charge, so basically a
free rental program to encourage racing at Northbrook. Chris the owner has been running the clinics
and race nights at Northbrook for the past 30 years. About a 20 min drive from Evanston, through
Skokie and Wilmette, with a little jaunt north on I-94, we found the Northbrook
track situated in a nice residential neighborhood with a Whole Foods market and
aquatic center next door. The racing
here is USA Cycling sanctioned so a license is required. Showed up at 6:30 and a good sized crowd of
20 were there in various stages of warmup. Kevin Perez, a seasoned elite rider,
led the clinic, which was a structured workout for the weekly crowd of citizen
racers as well as a smattering of categorized riders up to Cat 2. The night was also designed for first-timers,
which split off on their own group, led by masters racer Harold, also
associated with Ten-27 (Turin). There
was one other first-time racer, a young women road rider, so Billy basically
had a private track lesson with Harold.
As a parent, you sometimes learn, that your child will take instruction
better from total strangers, rather than his own mom and dad, so I let Harold
do the instruction and I followed in our little group of four. My secret plan was for him to have his first
track experience on a nice smooth track, fearing that our own Mr Bumply would
be too jarring of a first experience. By
the end of the night, after about 1.5 hours of instruction and practice, and a
lot of encouragement and compliments from Kevin and Harold, who from the
glowing comments, pegged him as a young track phenom, Billy said he really
liked riding the track and could see how Dad was “really into it”. So fingers crossed that I could get him to
raced on Thu.
In the big group, Kevin explained his philosphy of track
training was to keep intensity out of the “dead zone”, which is the 75-85%
intensity, which is also where most people tend to train. At about 7:30, he started the main group with
a 30-lap super slow pace line, just to get the new riders used to riding in a
paceline, followed by a 3 lap all out sprint.
Then some rest and more instruction about how to pull up on the bars and
push down on the pedals like a dead lift, and not rock the bike in the
sprint. The next set was a jump
exercise, where they laid out orange cones to designate the line for the jump
at the 200m line. Compared to other
tracks, Northbrook is flat as a pancake so there is only a tiny downhill to
jump from off Turn 2, but we nevertheless did the drill. Kevin split the big group into smaller groups
of four of similar ability, with the pure beginners forming our own group. The set consisted of two seated jumps and two
standing. They taught the best line was
from the very top of Turn 2 down to the black line in Turn 3, and made sure
each jumping group did a cooldown lap under the cones and blue ribbon while
other groups were jumping, so in this manner they were able to accomodate four
or five groups of four doing continuous jumps and cooldowns, a well-run group
workout.
The next exercise was to practice the skill of coming over
the top of a large pack and slotting down on the front of the the large pack of 30 racers. They suggested forming groups of two or three
racers to come over the top and slot on the front, then slow down so the pack
would not continuously speed up and make it too difficult for slower riders to
complete the exercise. Then after
everyone had a chance to rotate to the front a couple times, they would finish
with an all out sprint for the last two laps.
The passing exercise went well so I decided to follow some of the faster
guys for the sprint. Five upper level
riders went off the front and had their own sprint, while I followed some
superfast 14 year old juniors, who I only managed to pass in Turn 3 because
they had spun out their junior gears!
Doh. I was running a 47x14 which
is about 90 inches.
This took us to about 8:30 and I could tell Billy was
getting a little burned out so we decided to head out, and also to save my legs
for the next day of real racing up at Kenosha.
So we thanked our instructors all around and said our goodbyes. Kevin said the session would last till 9:30
and when we left, they were practice a two man match sprint drill where one
rider practiced whipping around his partner.
All in all, a great way to start the night. (Sorry no pics, left the camera in the car
and didn’t want to waste time retrieving it).
Tuesday: Kenosha
We headed up the 94 to Kenosha, about an hour drive from
Evanston, arrived early and after asking around a bit, figured out the nearest
beach with sand was in Racine, another 15 miles up the Lake Michigan
shoreline. Finally found North Beach and
Zoo Beach. Unfortunately, North Beach
was closed due to high levels of E Coli from the massive storm that passed
through the night before and caused some of the storm drains with stagnant
water to dump into the beach area. Zoo
Beach was just a quarter mile north so we were able to enjoy some nice cool
Lake Michigan water with air temps in the mid-90’s which felt like spring
compared to the 105 sauna that is St Louis.
Arrived at the track about 6:30pm for 7pm race start so
everyone was warming up, but I managed to get a couple laps and a sprint before
the program started. This track is
sanctioned by ATRA but I told the registration officials my experience and they
were fine with me racing Cat 4. Turned
out only four Cat 4 and a couple Cat 5 beginners signed up so they combined the
categories and a few fast juniors jumped in to make a good race. The Cat 3 was the most popular race with
about 15 racers, and an equal number in the P12 races. To my eye, the Cat 3 at Kenosha looked about
as fast as the A race at Penrose, except the Kenosha racers were all old, but
superfast, forming a nice tight pack in the 3 lap scratch.
The feature race was the Mayors Cup, a massive 75 lap points
race on the 333m banked track. The pack
featured the pro Chad Hartley racing for Kenda, formerly of Jittery Joes, and
two fast XXX racers, Liam Donahue and Johnny Moyer. Moyer and Donahue took turns working over Hartley,
but mid-race the three had formed a breakaway group that blew apart the field
into small groups of 2, 3, and 4 racers, so split up that the officials
announced there was “no field” just a lead group of 3 racers. Donahue ended up with the win, Hartley
second, followed by Moyer.
The first race was titled “Sprints”, which was basically a 3
lap scratch race with fields of about eight.
Lots of junior racers such that each age group of two years (11-12,
13-14, 15-18) had 8 to 10 riders. There
were so many Cat 3, they had two heats of eight, then a final. The Cat 3s looked as fast as the Penrose A
racers, except they were all old, silver-haired, and chunkey, if not downright
fat. But those old mothers could race,
roaring around the track in their tricked out carbon framed, deep-dish Zipp
wheeled machines.
The Cat 4 race was no joke either, as fast or more fast then
Penrose B race. Some young fast dudes in
this race. I was able to follow the
moves in the first two laps. With two to
go, the pace had paused for a moment, stacking the field across the track. I had to decide whether to go low behind two
guys or stay high with a chance of passing in the final. Coming around for the bell, the pace went up
a couple notches, and I was still on the back.
The inside guys took off, and by Turn 3 I was still stacked high on the
track as the sprint started in earnest.
With no chance of reaching the front, I shut it down and enjoyed the
front row seat from the track.
Next up was a miss-n-out.
Some of the guys had checked out but some juniors jumped in so we had a
nice little group of six. I lined up at
the back, and at the rollout, one of the juniors looked over his shoulder to
assess the field and promptly ran into the guy in front of him, unclipped, and
nearly went down. I decided to get in
front of this kid. This was shaping up
to be a short fast race with the six of us echeloned across the track with me
in the top back position. At the start
bell, the fast fit dude shot off the front, no one reacted, then “POP-POP”, two
shots from the starting gun. I initially
thought the official was restarting the race for some reason, but then the rain
started to fall and they announced an end to the nights racing. So a little disappointed to drive all that
way for a shortened night of racing, but that is part of racing too. That track would have been super-slick in the
rain. Have to tell myself “there’s
always another race”.
Wednesday: Chicago Velodrome Campus (CVC)
I was really excited to check out the little 160m high
banked wood track in South Chicago, founded by businessman Emanuelle
Bianchi. I posted on their facebook
page, asking about certification, and they said to show up around 3:30pm to get
before the 6pm clinic. My GPS took me from
Evanston straight down Lake Shore Drive (Hwy 41) to South Chicago and into a
pretty dicey looking neighborhood, lots of run down buildings, abandoned lots,
then all of a sudden . . . a velodrome appeared out of the weeds on an
abandoned lot. I later learned that US
Steel leased the land to Bianchi for $1 per year.
Met Joel in the trailer, who also works as a bicycle
delivery rider with Jimmy Johns, who got me registered, $10 certification and
$15 clinic fee for the night. Headed out
to the track and watched him do some laps.
The track is visually very intimidating because of the nearly
vertical-looking turns. Most tracks are scary
going fast. This track, it is scary
going slow because it feels like you might just drop off the track onto the asphalt
infield. So the experienced riders can
go as slow as 12 mph but novice riders tend to go too fast, burn out and have
to pull off after a few laps.
Certification started out with learning how to get on the
track, basically riding the blue plywood ribbon, which is joined to the
sprinters lane by a sharp, nearly 70 degree white taped joint. The thin plywood is very dipping so can’t go
to fast on it. So you ride the blue
plywood, then go up track and get up to speed pretty fast on the short straight
before Turn 1. The first task is just to
ride the red line for six laps, which is no easy task since your momentum pushes
you above the line in the apex of the turns.
The trick, which really works, is to look well through the turn as you
enter, so you are constantly craning your neck up and to the left, peering
under the top of your helmet. It really
feels like an amusement park ride, due to the Gs experienced in the turns, and
the sense of danger, waiting to fall off the track at any moment to certain
death or serious injury. Several guys
that night recognized my kit and knew about Kevin and Tylers visit several
weeks earlier. However, no one spoke of
the events of their visit and I did not care to bring it up.
Next up was riding the blue line, which looked about six
feet higher than the red line, towering above the infield. The only concern was the wind off Lake
Michigan, picking up in the late afternoon and sending the flags lining the top
of the track straight out. Coming out of
Turn 2, you get a blast of wind in the face on the straight that is lower than
the high banked turns. By that time, I
was building confidence and Joel seemed to have faith in me so I entered the
track, did a couple quick laps on the red line, then stood up to get some speed
to climb the wall up to the blue line, much easier than it seemed from the
infield. I was able to control the bike
keeping a line just below the blue line, just above the blue line, and took it
all the way up to the white dashed line about a foot from the top of the track,
then swooped back down to the red for a couple laps to slow and exit the track
on the dippy blue plywood. I actually
preferred riding up near the blue line because the turns were slightly more
gradual, and not as nervous riding in the sprinters lane just inches from the
sharp angled joint onto the plywood.
Final test was the flying lap. By that time, Emanuelle showed up to certify
another first time rider so I wanted to ride well with the big dog in
attendance. Also in attendance, his son
Samuelle Bianchi, 14-year old junior racer, who had competed at junior track nationals
and recently won the Illinois state RR at OFallon several weeks early. Sam is a big strapping boy nearly six feet tall
and shoe size already at Euro 45. We
learned his shoe size because he was selling his “old” Vittoria shoes (free from
sponsorship) because he had outgrown them while they were being shipped. ! Sam
had a couple of his junior friends, first time track riders, doing laps
inbetween me and Joel. Joel demonstrated the flying lap by gradually winding up to the top of the track with two slow laps, then actually standing in Turn 3 through 4 and swooping down to the sprinter lane in Turn 1, made it look easy. Well, it wasn't that easy. I entered the track, grinded the pedals up to speed, up track, up, up, up to the dashed white line. I told Joel beforehand I probably didn't feel comfortable standing on the banking but gave it a little go and swooped down across the line into Turn 1, compressed into my saddle by the G force, then immediately flew well out of the lane at the apex of the turn, swerving back into the lane at Turn 2, terrible! Stood on the backstretch to keep my speed, then again flew several feet out of the lane in the turn. It would take me several more runs to get my balance right so I could control the bike at near top speed, again practicing looking through the entire turn, and starting at half, 75%, 80%, 90%, laps, not trying to gun it as fast as possible the first time through. It really had the sensation of a roller coaster, when they go down the hill and into those tight turns, pressing your body into the seat. Fun and a little scary! Emanuelle later deadpanned in his Italian accent, "looks like you went a little high in the turn". Haha. But they passed me anyway, saying that everyone swerves out their first time. That's why they have a certification and don't throw you into a race right away.
Took a break to get a sandwich before the clinic. Just head down 87th, left on Commercial, then find the Subway at 91st. This was the first Subway Sandwich shop I've every seen with one inch bullet proof glass between the servers and the order line, though I felt perfectly safe here, having experience in other inner cities like South-Central LA.
Back at the clinic, perhaps 15 guys had trickled in, a mixture of first timers, curious citizen racers, some citizen riders trying to get good enough to race on Sundays, and a smatter of 3s and 4s. Some elite XXX guys led the clinic, the second guy was Liam Donahue, who had won the Mayors Cup the night before up in Kenosha. They split us into groups of four, and had us practice pacelines, then a bridging exercise with six riders, three going off the front and lapping the group, practicing integration into the lapped riders, then the lapped riders go off the front and gain the lap back. The idea was to get a good workout and teach track skills as well. And most importantly allow everyone to get comfortable with this challenging track. They are working toward a Madison so have been practicing Madison skills like exchanges and one-handed drills. Several of us agreed a Madison would be chaos on this track! The mix of riders this night was too novice to do actual exchanges so we broke into two groups and practiced one-handed drills, which was no easy skill. Liam lead the group slowly around the track and held one hand on the top of the handlebar with the other hand off the bar in various positions, right elbow bent, right arm straight out, right arm straight up, then repeat on the left, with everyone else playing copycat. Then finished off the night with a practice scratch race, no crashes!
Thursday: Northbrook Race Night
Thursday night at Northbrook put the spotlight on the juniors
with the second annual 30 lap points race, featuring a national champion (Brad
Coke?) and the winner of last years inaugural race in a two man break, but with
plenty of primes to keep the field of 20 junior racers interested, notably
water bottles filled with a $20 dollar bill is enough to make a 15 year old
sprint. The top two were tied in points
coming into the last lap, but Coke took the sprint and the trophy.
The Pro/1/2 field was stacked with a pair of pro Columbian
racers who were in town for a big week of crit racing; one of the pair had
participated in the 2008 Olympics. They
were up against a strong field, including the pair of XXX racers, Liam Donahue
and Johnny Moyer, who had cleaned up at Kenosha two days earlier. The 30 lap points race turned into a
strategic race of the two Columbians vs the two fast XXX guys. The Columbians were racing on borrowed old
Schwinn steel bikes, while the XXX had fast carbon machines. Donahue took a mid-race flyer with Camillo
marking the move. The two worked
together with a third rider bridging up, while the field sat up, Moyer and
Perez, the other Columbian, setting a false tempo on the front. The three worked together for several laps
until Donahue darted off the front and took about a couple laps to bridge to
the slowing field, taking 20 points on the field. The pattern repeated itself in the 20 lap
scratch at the end of the night, except that Donahue integrated into the field
with two trailing riders. At that
moment, the two trailing riders became the leaders of the race and laps counted
according to their position on the track, to the confusion of several racers in
the field who gestured to the official that the lap counter was incorrect. Fortunately, the PA announcer kept the
spectators, about 100 in number, apprised of the situation on the track, adding
to the enjoyment and excitement of the racing.
The 4/5 race was pretty fast, perhaps a little better field
than the Penrose B race, also stacked with some fast junior racers. If it’s one thing I learned this week, juniors
are force to be reckoned with on the track.
They don’t have the endurance to race with older guys on the road, but
the short format races on the track play to their strength: speed! 14 and 15 year olds are fast enough to dust
old guys like me in the sprint, and that is exactly what happened. Our race started with a miss-n-out. 13 racers, six eliminations, then a three lap
sprint for places. I found myself on the
top back of the pack coming around for the first elimination so a couple quick
strokes of the pedal and scooted across to catch someone else out. Fast pace but the same exact thing worked for
the next four eliminations. But I was
getting tired standing and sprinting each lap at the line. Final elimination lap. I was on the back, tailing 14-year junior
phenom Sam Bianchi (and son of CVC founder Emanuelle Bianchi), with a guy boxed
on his inside. Coming into Turn 3, the
guy gestured to Sam to let him out, Sam slowed just enough to let him slip up
track so I knew I had to step on the gas, with the pack spread out ahead it was
a two man sprint to the line with Bianchi nipping me at the line. Even if I had made the elimination, I was
gassed and would have dropped out. There
was no slowing down the final three and the fast guys showed their speed in the
sprint.
The night wore on with the long points races for five groups
of riders, juniors, P12, 3s, 4/5, and women with a special masters tempo race
thrown in for good measure. Cat 4/5 did
a 20 lap points race, and I was happy to sit in and follow wheels. Temps dropped to the mid-70s, which felt
great, but with all the humidity in the air, everything was wet with a layer of
dew, so had to wipe off the tires before racing. With the time headed past 10:30pm, they had
to shorten the last few races. The final race of the night, a planned 15 lap
scratch was shortened to 5 laps, which was fine by me. I jumped with the pink suited Cutting Crew
dude to lead out the first lap, and again was able to follow wheels, but too
gassed to make the sprint. Jason, former
Penrose racer in the Wheelfast jersey, now racing in pink for the Cutting Crew,
had a good showing for the night, as well as all the fast junior racers who sat
in and did well in the Cat 4/5 race, including some Fraley disciples like Mark
Ryan, identifiable by their Serenity bikes.
Met lots of guys and had a great time.
Friday: Northbrook Garner Cat 4/5/citizen racing
Decided to get one last night of racing in at Northbrook
before leaving Sat morning. I had met a
few of the Garner guys at the Thu night race so decided to check out the racing
on Friday under the lights. I arrived at
8pm just as the junior races were finishing, and these were the “little tyke”
juniors, age 6-12, on all sorts of bikes, doing one and two lap races. The adult racing starts at 8:20 and goes till
about 10pm, depending on who shows up. The
night was advertised as Cat 4/5 and citizen level races, with separate races
for those with track bikes and road bikes.
About 8-10 guys showed up with track bikes, all the way from newbie
juniors to out-of-shape masters, with quite a few first time track riders,
including two college racers from Indiana Univ who had just done the Little
Indy and wanted to try out the local track.
Racing started with a 15 lap scratch race. This was a much more dicey race than Thu,
slower, more chaotic paceline with guys coming out of their pedals and
wandering up track. There was no
instruction for the first-timers other than “pass on the right” and “don’t look
around, keep your eyes front”, not sure I agreed with that! After four straights nights of riding clinics,
practice races, and all-out real races, I was pretty cooked but thought I had a
chance to do well in this group that felt much like the Penrose C race. Wrong!
Some of the first-time roadies and the Little Indy guys had good legs,
just hung onto the tail end of the sprint.
Since no one brought road bikes and the announcers were itchy to get
back to the Olympic opening ceremony, they gave us a short 5 minute break and
moved on to a 10 lap tempo race for track bikes (thankfully, they don't race road and track bikes together).
Great! Same group of four guys
got off the front and I paced around in the second group with the guy from
Albertos. 10 minute break for the final
race of the night, a 20 lap points race.
I decided to just try to sit in this race, which turned out to be fairly
easy because the pace slowed down to a crawl between sprints so I was able to eke
out a couple points and finish fourth in the final sprint. All in
all, it was worth the $15 to race on a smooth track for the last time this
summer, before heading back to Mr. Bumpy.
For pics of the certification and clinic at the CVC . . .
http://thebillhgenericracepicsblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-chicago-velodrome-odyssey-july-23-27.html
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