Day 10: Thursday June 12
Crossed the US / Canadian border back up to the Forest City Velodrome http://www.forestcityvelodrome.ca/index.php. I’ve never been at an indoor velodrome. The front door is unlocked so I enter. The place is chock full of racing memorabilia – posters, medals, trophies, vintage race programs, etc. The air is heavy with tradition (or maybe it’s just damp), and I have a feeling of being someplace special.
Inside I introduce myself to Rob on the infield and examine the facility. The framework of the track is wood beams and looks strong. The surface is very smooth, made of a plywood-like laminate that's almost seamless and countoured to the turns and banking. The surface is tightly attached to the framing with no fastener protrusions. Since it’s indoors and climate controlled, there’s no need for any expansion gaps. Even indoors, it’s quieter than outdoor tracks whose surfaces are made up of separate individual panels.
Crossed the US / Canadian border back up to the Forest City Velodrome http://www.forestcityvelodrome.ca/index.php. I’ve never been at an indoor velodrome. The front door is unlocked so I enter. The place is chock full of racing memorabilia – posters, medals, trophies, vintage race programs, etc. The air is heavy with tradition (or maybe it’s just damp), and I have a feeling of being someplace special.
Inside I introduce myself to Rob on the infield and examine the facility. The framework of the track is wood beams and looks strong. The surface is very smooth, made of a plywood-like laminate that's almost seamless and countoured to the turns and banking. The surface is tightly attached to the framing with no fastener protrusions. Since it’s indoors and climate controlled, there’s no need for any expansion gaps. Even indoors, it’s quieter than outdoor tracks whose surfaces are made up of separate individual panels.
The building is the former home of the local hockey team (remember, this is Canada, eh?) who moved into a bigger ice arena back around 2004. The sign for The London Gardens remains mounted on the building, next to the Forest City Velodrome sign. The track was designed specifically to fit inside this small arena and was built on-site. Arena-style seating remains where track banking allows a view.
I carry bike and gear inside, and eventually there are 6 of us. Rob wants to check me out alone on the track, and there’s good reason: Riding this track is unlike any other I’ve been on. It’s listed as 138 meters long with 50 degrees maximum banking, but the turns feel very tight. Radius of the turns is a metric I’ve not seen listed for different velodromes, but would make for an interesting comparison.
Laps go by really quick – the straights last only 2 breaths – and the centrifugal force in the turns is strong. It takes me a while to get familiar enough so I can maintain a respectable line through the turns. I find maintaining control out of the turns to be the biggest challenge. Also, I kept sliding forward on the saddle in the turns, and would have to slide my butt backward into place on the straights.
Trivial amusing observations:
· I would typically remove bikes from the car and let the tires acclimatize outside before inflating, but here I need to bring the bike inside before inflating the tires.
· Etiquette – where do you spit in an indoor velodrome?
Everyone is friendly and there’s no real sense of competition, more like we’re all just sharing a facility for individual workouts, which works fine for this small group. Our eldest rider Gene is practicing specific events for an upcoming week of racing. I find this is not a heavy-duty hard workout but more of a skills drill, heart rate never rose above 144 BPM (although next day my upper arms feel a bit sore, especially the right, probably due to fighting the turns). After a couple of hours everyone is pretty much finished. I get a few more photos, some advice on travel directions, and depart.
Hotel, shower, dinner at 9:30PM.
Total driving for the day: 133 miles.
Laps go by really quick – the straights last only 2 breaths – and the centrifugal force in the turns is strong. It takes me a while to get familiar enough so I can maintain a respectable line through the turns. I find maintaining control out of the turns to be the biggest challenge. Also, I kept sliding forward on the saddle in the turns, and would have to slide my butt backward into place on the straights.
Trivial amusing observations:
· I would typically remove bikes from the car and let the tires acclimatize outside before inflating, but here I need to bring the bike inside before inflating the tires.
· Etiquette – where do you spit in an indoor velodrome?
Everyone is friendly and there’s no real sense of competition, more like we’re all just sharing a facility for individual workouts, which works fine for this small group. Our eldest rider Gene is practicing specific events for an upcoming week of racing. I find this is not a heavy-duty hard workout but more of a skills drill, heart rate never rose above 144 BPM (although next day my upper arms feel a bit sore, especially the right, probably due to fighting the turns). After a couple of hours everyone is pretty much finished. I get a few more photos, some advice on travel directions, and depart.
Hotel, shower, dinner at 9:30PM.
Total driving for the day: 133 miles.
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