FFWD Weekly
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Sports by Harry Vandervlist Wander south of the Glenmore pool and you'll find a semi-hidden banked oval track, like a concrete bowl 200 metres long. Apart from offering a discreet venue for rumoured nude frisbee tournaments, what good is this thing they call a "velodrome"? Drop by any Thursday night and you'll find out. Early in the evening, cyclists of various skill levels circle the track, some up high on the banking in the turns, while others whiz by 10 feet below. Once everyone's warmed up, the races start. For spectators, track is the most satisfying form of bike competition because you can see the whole race, rather than just watching riders whoosh by and disappear up the road or trail. For Heather Cooper, a 35-year-old new Calgarian with triathlon experience, becoming one of those riders took some persistence. Curious after noticing the facility, she had to invest "about 20 phone calls" before hooking up with the Calgary Bicycle Track League. The league runs novice "Track 101" courses and a weekly training and racing series. Heather signed up for the year's first course. Her debut ride on the steep banking was, she recalls, "freaky." After an initial stage in which she "just kind of prayed and held on tight," she’s completed the mandatory intro course and is already riding in novice races. Track cycling is good cross-training and a social thing for Karen MacNeill, a forward on the national field hockey team who took the same course. Despite the 28-year-old's strong athletic background, the newness of the sport puts her on the same level as others. "It's the first time on track bikes for all of us this weekend," she points out. "And just trying to sprint, for us non-sprinters, it's killer." Despite the available coaching and the gradual introduction to the sport, the learning curve can be a little bumpy, as John Karg, 44, found out. "I had a couple wipeouts," he says, laughing. No serious consequences though – "just road rash. I was glad to get it over with." Like most novices, he began by riding his own bike around the track before getting used to the special track bikes the league lends to participants in its summer programs. These bikes are minimalist machines. In a world of mountain bikes that look like motorcycles and road bikes with 27 gears, the track bike hasn't changed its basic form for a century: you get two wheels and a light, nimble frame, with pedals, a seat and some handlebars. That's it. These limitations make track cycling the best place to learn the pure skills of cycling: smooth pedalling, balance, agility, speed and endurance. With no gears, there's only one way to speed up: pedal faster. The "fixed gear" means that when the bike moves, the pedals turn, so there's no coasting, ever. Without brakes, riders must be agile, steering around things instead of stopping in a panic. (To slow down, you can try to hold the pedals back a bit as they rise. Do this too abruptly though, and the pedals will toss you over the bars.) Riding these bikes in a group forces cyclists to sense the others around them, control their speed with finesse, and steer a smooth line through the turns – all while working pretty hard. Cycling on banked tracks is one of the oldest forms of the sport, dating back to the track-racing boom of the 1890s in Europe. Ernest Hemingway hung out at the Paris velodrome in the 1920s. More recently, Canadians like Kelly-Anne Carter-Erdmann, Curt Harnett and Tanya Dubnicoff have set records and won medals for Canada on the track. Bike couriers even compete in wild track-like figure-eight "alleycat scrambles." Visitors to the Glenmore Velodrome may see riders training for national and international events, since Calgary's one of only a few Canadian cities to have a decent track. But on most Thursday nights the racing, divided into skill-group levels "A" through "C," is just as much about meeting other riders in a friendly competition for a chocolate bunny (mmmm) or a spare tire, as it is about stepping onto a medal podium someday. (The Calgary Bicycle Track League has brochures in bike shops and a Web site for info: http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~bentley/cbtl.html. Or call club chairman Mike Bentley at 284-3165, or e-mail bentley@ucalgary.ca.) Who's winning? The variety of different track events can be dizzying. The many events include: · Points race: If Carl Lewis could play mental chess while running the 8,000 metres, he'd be good at this. Every few laps you sprint to win points. Most points overall, wins. So you just have to race in a pack, compute other riders' point totals, gauge your remaining energy, and strategize when to use it. In the final laps when you're tired, they double the points per sprint. · Madison: Kind of a tag-team cycling relay. You circle slowly and rest, then I come flying out of the fast-moving pack below and "sling" you back into the race at high speed. Alternate until exhausted. It's kind of tricky with many teams doing this all at once. · Match sprint: Two riders have to sprint for the line at the end of two laps. Lose the pre-race coin toss and you get front position. This is bad since you can't see the other rider, who saves energy by drafting behind you till the final seconds. That's why after the first lap riders may slow or stop, trying to force the other rider to "lead out" the final sprint. * add names: Kelly-Anne Carter-Erdman, Tanya Dubnicoff

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