Last year was my first year of racing at the Dick Lane Velodrome. It was a fun experience moving up from the Cs to the Bs that I wrote about last year.

This year my team (FM:Race) was out in full force and we did really well! Most of the team details are here: "FM:Race 2010 Track Season ends with a win!". The short version of the team story is that we were the first place team out of 25, and Justin of FM:Race got 2nd place overall individual for the season.

The FM:Race B field between races, Jim, Me, and Jason. Photo Credit: Dan McCauley

I came in 10th place for the season racing in the Bs the entire time, a bump up from 25th last year with a combination of D, C, and B points. Aside from showing up, I had two goals for track racing this year:

Do some team pursuit and madison racing

There weren't really any opportunities to do team pursuits, but I participated in almost all of the events this year. Usually, Jason was my partner but occasionally I raced with Justin. The Madison is a crazy race, and a lot of fun. Us FMers were the slow ones, being the only Bs racing in a field of As (most of whom were Pros each time). Here's Jason and I doing an exchange while Joe Eldridge comes around us on the outside:

Photo Credit: Todd Kaminski

Jason and I got better and better at exchanges as the year progressed, and the most we would get lapped in a 50 lap race was 3 laps. If we both get faster next year, we might be able to snag some more points, and I'm looking forward to seeing what we can pull off.

Get points in a Pro Series event

This one turned out to be a lot easier expected, with me grabbing 3rd place in a 5 lap scratch race at "The Omnium" event early in the year and taking home a few dollars in winngins. Then, at "The Madison" event later in the year I got a 4th place in a 5 lap scratch race and thought I was done, so I worked for Jason in the points race (getting lapped and pulling him off the front a few times) which helped him get 3rd place. I kept racing in the other races to get some more time on the bike and, unexpectedly, I managed to win the Miss-n-out which got me 4th place overall and sent me home with $70! 12 total pro race points over the season definitely counts for getting points.

Photo Credit: Dan McCauley

This year at the track was lots of fun. 40 race days, 50+ hours, and almost 800 miles. All more than last year, and I continue to get faster. I set a new personal record in the flying 200m tt at 12.79s, and set personal bests in a few other events. I also set a new personal best in goldsprints at the DLV end of season party with a 24.48s 500m, which on a track instead of rollers would be a world record (Especially at 48:16!).

Will next year be faster? Will I move up to the As? Or will I remember that weekends should be spent mountain biking...

After being out of town for a week, this past Tuesday and Wednesday was the Working Man's Madison at the Dick Lane Velodrome. Jason and I teamed up to represent Faster Mustache's race team, while Jim and Justin from FM:Race wore different jerseys and raced as Man Hands. (Each team had to wear different jersey's to avoid confusion in the Madison races.) Read about what a Madison is over on wikipedia.

Photo of Jason and I about to do an exchange in the 50Lap Madison by Jon Woodroof who, as usual, has lots of photos and a broader writeup: here.

The field for The Madison was somewhat ridiculous: 4 super fast A riders, 2 solid B teams, both from FM, and 2 teams consisting of an A rider and a junior rider. The As, particularly Joey and Oscar racing for Mountain Khakis has no problem lapping the entire field and as things got spread out it got pretty tricky to keep track of where the lead group was, and what placing on the sprint laps (every 10 laps, the field is scored 5,3,2,1) ended up being based on who they were passing at the time. Jason and I also both managed to slip and fall, me in the first race and him in the second, and while only minimal blood was lost it meant the racing rider doing an extra lap while the relief rider that had slipped and fallen at 0MPH at the boards had to pick themselves back up and get their acts back together. My fall early in the first race left my shoulder feeling pretty achy, and we had a few hand-sling transitions that we completely blew. Even after that, we ended up 4th place for the night behind the two A teams and Man Hands, 4 laps behind with 10 points. (results)

On wednesday, Neither Jason nor I placed in the first non-madison race, and our 23.81s one-lap madison-exchange time trial placed us in 4th place (with the entire field placing as the same order as the racing on Tuesday). Last up was the main event, a 50-lap Madison. We were feeling pretty good, and the first 19 laps were super solid. Jason pulled ahead on lap 9 and slung me in to seal a first place in the first sprint, and we stayed with the pack until the second sprint when Joey/Oscar turned up the gas and started lapping the field. Everyone got pretty spread out, and while we both rode solidly and had a lot of great exchanges, we were riding solo for most of the rest of the race. The day ended with us 5th overall in the combined standings for the two days, 7 laps behind the lead with 21 total sprint points. (results).

The only team doing any lapping were the two A teams that grabbed 1st and 2nd, and even though no other teams changed positions, we were all 4,6,7 and 9 laps behind due to timing. I'm happy with our 21 sprint points and hopefully enough teams in the future will do the Madison that we can have separate A and B races with a smaller spread of abilities so the final standings aren't as crazy! Next weekend at the track is "The Omnium", see you there!

This past weekend was the first Dick Lane Velodrome Pro Race Series event of 2010. I'm now racing in the B category (categories), so I was able to race on both Friday and Saturday for the first time.

Friday Night Sprints

I've done the friday night sprints in the past, and this year my 200m time was 13.18s which is pretty average for me and as usual, did not seed me in the sprint tournament. (I was 18th of 28.) David Espinoza and Andy Lakatosh tied at 11.03s for a new track record. Crazy Fast! Not being elgible or the sprint tournament meant a few mass-start B races which is where things came together. In a small field of 6 including two of my FM:Race teammates: Justin Barber and Jason Atwood, we got to play a little bit with team tactics. The second race, a 10-lap scratch race came together perfectly and landed me a 1st place, Justin 2nd, and Jason 4th. This was the first cash win for Justin and I in the Bs, and we promptly spent the $25 + $15 on pizza and beer at the end of the evening to fuel up for Saturdays racing. I'm looking forward to a season of team tactics in Wednesday night races! My Results. Twotone's Photos.

Saturday Pro Racing

Photo courtesy of twotone, thats me in the red and white in the bottom right.

Saturday was something new, both me racing in the Bs at one of these events and C racers having a few races. Charles Earl, another FM:Race member, snagged 8th in the first C race of the afternoon, only to be run into the boards by another beginner. He managed alright with a bent up bike and a few stitches in his right hand at the emergency room, so hopefully he'll be back on the bike soon. After he left there were a few other crashes, but none that required a trip to the ER.

The B field had 15 people in it, including the faster of the people that show up for Wednesday racing and two fast people from out of town, and we had 5 races:

• 10 Lap Scratch - 8th place. No teamwork and some poor decisions!
• 15 Lap Snowball - On the first lap, I sprinted off the front and managed to win the 4st 4 laps for a total of 10 points (1+2+3+4), but couldn't hold out for lap number 5 and I barely hung on to the rest of the field for the rest of the race. 5 other people got points on later laps, so I ended up in 6th place. If I'd won the 5th lap, I could have snagged 5th or 4th place. Next time!
• Unknown Distance - 8th place. The bell rings and it's the last lap. Stuck in the pack.
• 40 Lap Points Race - A very long and pretty fast race, I hung with the pack for the first 30 laps. There were several breakways that all got caught, and around lap 35 I sprinted from the middle of the pack to grab a few points and sling off the front to try and catch Darren Cormer who was off the front. In about a lap I caught him and we did half-lap pulls for a few laps but were both completely empty and the field caught us with a few laps to go. I crossed the finish line in 5th place for 1 point, and ended up in 7th place.
• Miss-n-out - 15th place. Didn't have anything left in me, last place after getting boxed in and passed on both sides.

I had a lot of fun racing, as well as having a few beers and taking a few photos while watching the pros ride in "The Keirin". Twotone's Photos. The next Pro Race Series event is July 9th and 10th!

This was the last week of track racing season at the Dick Lane Velodrome, and the end of my first year of track racing. This was supposed to happen last year, but a pesky broken collarbone got in the way so my first race wasn't until the beginner races this year on April 7th. This was 2 days after a mountain bike race, and this would be pretty consistent for a while: racing mountain bikes on Sunday and track bikes a few days later. My only goal for year 1 was to move up from the D beginner category (which races on Tuesdays) to the C category which races on wednesdays, and to be slightly competitive in the Cs. After 4 days of beginner racing, I'd collected enough points to move up to the Cs just in time for the first of 3 Need For Speed events that preclude the 3 pro racing series events each year. My 200m sprint that Friday was the first one I've ever had timed, and I pulled a 13.03s which, while not a world record by any stretch of the imagination, did place me smack in the middle of a field of familiar names. That night, I got to race with some Cs and Bs for the first time, and had a blast.

Because I wasn't a B, I couldn't race in the Pro series on Saturday, but the following week I started up racing with the Cs and continued to improve over the summer. I'd occasionally get a 1st place in a single event, but never for the points total for the evening because there was always someone really fast (Cat 1 roadies for example) that was quickly moving through the Ds, Cs, and Bs, up to the As. However, I consistently was in the top 3 by the end of the evening and on September 2nd, none of those crazy fast people showed up, so I got first place in the C 8 lap scratch, the C miss-n-out, and the C tempo race (what all these mean) which placed me 1st out of 11 that night and I figured that meant it was time for me to move up to the Bs. I'd sat down and taken off my helmet, but heard Hoppy call out my name "Chris Kelly, you're up!" and after a bit of heckling from the B field, I geared back up and climbed onto the back of the B tempo race.

I wasn't at all prepared for this, but the field was very slow to get going and I knew I wouldn't have a chance to get any points later in the race so I headed up to the boards in turn 2 and took off the front. As I came around turn 4, the field was pretty far back, Jason Atwood was right behind me yelling "GO GO GO it's just us!" and I got points on the first lap of my first B race! Right before crossing the finish line on lap 2, twotone inched by me on the outside and said something along the lines of "in your face!" but I managed to stay at the back of the pack for the rest of the 20 lap race and got to do the same thing to him on the last lap. Lots of fun, and I ended up in 5th place out of 11 which got me 8th place overall for the evening for Bs points on top of my 1st place for Cs.

It was close to the end of the season and due to weather complications, there were only 2 more nights of B racing. The first one, I didn't get any points but played a part in setting the 8 mile scratch record by pulling for 4 or 5 laps, and at the second one (this past Wednesday) I managed to get 3rd place in a win-n-in which got me 6th place overall for the evening. Not too bad for just planning on being in the Cs all year. I was 1st of 28 for points overall in Ds when I moved up, 2nd of 53 in the Cs when I moved up, and with my tiny venture in to B racing, I managed to get 38th of 55 in the Bs. Using some crazy formulas, this got me 25th overall in Mens for the year of atleast 75 but probably around 120 people that raced at the track in 2009.

Next year I'll continue racing in the Bs and will be able to participate in all of the pro events now that I'm out of the Cs, and we'll see what happens! I've met a lot of people including a few that may be on FM:Race for next year, and even if I don't get too much better I'll definitely have a good time. Check dicklanevelodrome.com for the next beginner class, take it, and come out for some races next year! And heres my full results.