Day 5: Saturday June 7

Day 5: Saturday June 7
Today is the longest schedule of race events with all 4 different classes of cars running. The track opens at 7AM, and there's some kind of cars either practicing, qualifying or racing from 8AM through 6PM. I was tired when I got back to hotel around 9:30PM.

Not everyone is interested in the other classes of cars, but everyone wants to see the F1 cars. As the time of their scheduled sessions approaches the stands fill. Still, there were lots of empty seats today.

We saw a great set of F1 qualifying sessions! F1 has implemented a rather complicated method of qualifying, but the idea is to establish the race-starting position of cars based upon 3 sessions. In dramatic style, Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes McLaren) set fastest time with only seconds remaining in the final qualifying round, putting him at the front of the starting grid (pole position, or P1) for Sunday’s race.

Sitting nearby all weekend are 4 local guys, very friendly but they speak mostly French. Very amusing to hang out with nonetheless.

Saturday evening’s celebrity dinner (again provided by GP Tours) was hosted by a famous British motorsport commentator who I never heard of. Guests included Sir Jacky Stewart (retired race driver) and Sam Michaels (Technical Director of the Williams team). There was an auction of various F1 memorabilia to benefit the F1 mechanics fund.

Day 4: Friday June 6

Day 4: Friday June 6
Overnight rain lingered, and I misjudged the weather this morning, wearing shorts, expecting clearing and sunny but it remained overcast and cool all day.

Directly across the street from my hotel front door is a 1-square block city park. Seems like the young folks who inhabit the park and the police have an unspoken agreement: The kids stay within the park, and the police, while maintaining a visible presence, don’t enter the park. And there’s lots of activity within the park.

French words I’ve learned:
Sortie – exit
Petard - joint

The racetrack itself, the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit, is fully located inside a Provincial park on onto the man-made island Île Notre-Dame in the middle of the St. Lawrence River. Private vehicle access is prohibited all this weekend. The Metro station is 2 blocks from my hotel, then a 15 minute metro ride to get onto the island. Various entrances into the racetrack and seating areas are a good mile walk from the metro, so the entire commute takes an hour or so. Still, it seems to be pretty efficient.

http://www.static.everyday.com/editorial/DE-DE/images/F/F1_big_Montreal.gif
http://explorer.altopix.com/map/je3ct5/Montreal_Gilles_Villeneuve_Circuit.htm
http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/vill_bio.htm

Security is very visible but low-key – lots of sidearm-carrying police, either federal, provincial or local. A great number are women. They are carefully checking tickets at strategic checkpoints and at some places allowing only ticket holders into the specific areas for their seats. There’s also event security staff, “information persons”, etc.

The weekend of auto racing will run a total of 4 different classes of cars at different times, similar to bike race events. Each class has several sessions spread out over multiple days: Some practice time, then qualifying, followed by their race. Makes for lots of viewing opportunity.

I’m impressed by the meticulous cleaning of marbles (rolled-up bits of tire rubber) from the track surface between each session for different classes of cars. There are track workers with brooms, leaf blowers, and powered street cleaners mounted at the front of tractors.

The damp track in the morning kept all drivers careful and cars were visibly running slowly so the actual action was subdued. Despite that, when the F1 cars took the course for their first practice session Friday morning, the crowd went wild. Most of the F1 cars ran, some for only a couple of laps, some had rain tires mounted. Looked great, sounded cool, but they just weren’t running very hard.

Seating is reserved grandstand. Here’s the view of the racetrack from my seat. In this picture, to the left is the race course and to the right is the exit from the pits.
I’m at the Senna corner which is a severe S turn at the end of the start/finish straightaway, at the opposite end of the course from the hairpin. In other words, I’m at the first turn of the race looking back at the start/finish line. I can also look up the pit lane from the pit exit.

With less than spectacular action on the track there’s time to browse the venue. Pretty much the entire island is a Provincial park, site of the 1967 World’s Fair, with a few buildings remaining from then: The Casino, and the crystal sphere (my name, not their’s) which supposedly was the USA exhibit. Circumnavigating the outside of the racecourse on foot takes an hour. Inside the park are only approved name-brand vendors but each has at least several locations. Lots of beer vendors and beer drinkers.

Action during this afternoon F1 practice session was much more aggressive than this morning’s. Every car ran and most ran hard. Of course, being here live is way different from watching on TV at home. The visual element is a big part of it – for example, you can really see just how late these cars brake for corners and how quickly they decelerate into turns – but the sound is a huge sensory experience. The engine sound from these cars is loud, and no amount of TV volume does it justice. The BMW Sauber cars’ engines have a distinctly different sound under compression, a sort of low toned and growly sound (almost like a big ‘ole Detroit pushrod engine!), but as soon as the throttle opens they pick up that lovely F1 wail. After paying attention to these differences during the practice and qualifying sessions, I could identify the Saubers by sound during the race even when they were running in a group of cars.

Also, the scent of the F1 cars exhaust is sweet and intoxicating. Just another sense that does not get exercised while watching from home.

Alonso spins out and stalls his car in the grass right in front of us, and gets a huge cheer.

One of the advantages of my Grand Prix Tours package http://www.gptours.com/ is the evening celebrity sessions. Thursday evening was light refreshment and snacks followed by a talk with Peter Windsor (TV commentator & journalist) and Mark Webber (Red Bull driver). This is an example of the benefits of buying one of these tour packages - maybe I could have arranged my own race tickets and accommodations, but there's no way I could have gotten into last night's Q & A session.

Day 3: Thursday June 5, 2008

Day 3: Thursday June 5
Weather was a chilly 48 degrees at 7AM but the rain had stopped sometime overnight. No wind, still heavy overcast, but the roads were dry or drying. I drove back to the drome, intending a light workout for an hour. The Stonyfield Yogurt dairy is between the hotel and the drome, they offer tours around the dairy. Might be interesting some other time.

The track was mostly dry. It looked to be 300 meters or so, asphalt paved like a nice roadway that’s a few years old. The banking is gentle so there’s no outside rail. Bicycle access to the track surface is easy from the pavement surrounding the track, and infield access is similar. This place looked to be casual and low-key, I would like to have raced or ridden with the locals, but there was no one around except for the family of woodchucks living nearby, and a wild turkey passing through the woods.

Back to hotel for shower and breakfast, then on the road. This was a transition day – from bicycle to Formula 1 cars. During the 265 mile drive, I realized I’d been out of touch with F1. Did Kimi get penalized for rear-ending Adrian Sutil at Monaco and ending Sutil’s race due to damage to the Force India car’s rear suspension?

I arrived at Montreal during afternoon rush hour, battled traffic to get to hotel but the van is now parked underground and I don't intend to move it until I depart on Monday. Room is on 19th floor, with some nice views of downtown. I should have brushed up on my French, but the locals I tried to speak with were all willing to work with my English. Most shops will not take US dollars.

A big thanks to Sharon for her support, especially her help with blog updates. She rocks…

Total driving for the day: 265 miles

(images: Steve's Olmo at NE Velodrome, Montreal Late Afternoon)

Day 2: Wednesday June 4, 2008

Day 2: Wednesday June 4
Intermittent rain with warm temps at Ttown this morning suggested a tropical setting. Technical glitches and time constraints have prevented reliable online connections and timely updates to the blog. I’ll keep trying.

Got underway without incident, headed north for the New England Velodrome http://www.leadcycling.com/ in Londonderry, NH, which is in the southeast corner of the state. Over those 350 miles I headed into mountains and cooler weather with continued intermittent rain. Matt’s van runs good on the highway, even uphill.

Arrived at the drome well before the posted 4:30 opening for 6PM races but the place was empty. It’s raining a steady fine mist so everything’s wet but there are no puddles. I call Tony (Race Director) to confirm what I already knew: they had cancelled for the evening. I walked around a while and took pictures, then consoled my disappointment with steak and beer, then to the hotel, all nearby.

Total driving for the day: 350 miles

(images: NE Velodrome, Self Portrait at NE Velodrome)

Day 1 Tuesday June 3, 2008

Day 1: Tuesday June 3
I packed the van and ran some errands near home Tuesday morning, including picking up a sunshade for the van.

The familiar drive from home in Baltimore to the Valley Preferred Cycling Center in Trexlertown, PA http://www.lvvelo.org/ was uneventful. I checked into hotel, then took the short trip to the drome, arrived around 4:30PM during one of the Air Products beginner junior training sessions with 20 or so riders, age range looked to be 10-16. Their session was scheduled to finish at 6:30 which begins open track time. Respecting the organized training session, I brought bike and equipment to the infield but waited to ride. As open track time grew closer another group of riders came in and waited with me. This group consisted mainly of experienced juniors aged 14-16, with a couple of parents or other adults of various abilities.

That’s one of the strengths of this place - it’s a central buzz of cycling. Roadies meet in the parking lot for group rides, there’s the adjacent fitness park, and there are lots of organized programs on the track from kids’ introductory sessions to elite-level training, and a regular weekly schedule of racing at all levels. It’s not just the track and facility itself; it’s how it gets used. The track itself is poured concrete, listed as 333 meters long with 28 degree maximum banking in the turns. Infield access is via bridge.

Weather was mostly sunny warm and humid with a slight breeze, headwind in the finishing straight. Rain was forecast for later.

6:30PM. This was to be my equipment check session: Try out some new gear in an old familiar setting. I started on traditional laced-up aluminum wheels with a 47 x 16. The track resurfacing, completed earlier this year, is good. I’m glad that squiggle along the blue line in turn 2 is gone. The juniors were working hard so I'm tried to stay out of their way.

After 20 minutes of warm-up and recon, it was time to try my new wheels. Thanks to Joe's Bike Shop http://www.mtwashingtonbikes.com/home.aspx for hooking me up with these Bontranger Aeolus wheels last Christmas (similar to these but for fixie http://www.bontrager.com/model/06329/en). They're 50MM deep carbon-rimmed tubulars, I mounted a pair of 120-gram Vittorias, but I've been really careful about where they get ridden meaning they had never been ridden yet. At 160psi they're stiff and I could feel they accelerate quicker than my other wheels, even with a one-tooth higher cog. At first I was a bit pensive about riding them hard, maybe not used to that sound of carbon fiber, but they became more familiar after a few laps. Climbing up the banking was fun.

Next was the aero setup. I left the wheels and gear unchanged but swapped the bars and helmet. Shortly after I started with this setup most of the juniors took a well-timed break, so I had clear track for a hard 3-lap (1K). No doubt a bigger gear would have been appropriate, but I was able to work up to my lungs making that impressive wind-sucking sound.

I put the drop bars back on and rode about 20 minutes of conversational cool-down with one of the parents, stopping around 8:30PM.

Drove back to the hotel for a quick shower, then walked to Italian pasta dinner next door. As I'm walking back to the hotel around 10PM the rain begins. Forecast is for heavy rain and wind overnight. I'm glad the weather timing worked so well.

Total driving for the day: 145 miles

(images: Van empty, Van packed, Steve at Ttown, Ttown neon sign)

Introduction

Introduction
This trip combines 2 of my favorite racing sports – Bicycle racing and Formula One auto racing.

I’m a fan of Formula One http://www.formula1.com/ and I’ll be at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, June 6 – 8, 2008. I’ve traded my Honda S2000 for a teammate’s Ford minivan for 2 weeks, and I’ll be driving it in a big circular route loaded with a couple of bikes and all the customary supporting equipment. I intent to race at (or at least ride on) 7 different velodromes along the way, plus spending the F1 weekend in Montreal.

Scott Patton’s “FixedGearFever” website proved to be a great resource for world-wide velodrome information -
http://www.fixedgearfever.com/modules.php?name=Velodromes&op=map

From Scott’s site, here’s a snapshot of the world map with push-pin locations of all known velodromes. Note the high concentration in Great Britain -

Here’s an enlargement of the area I intent to cover –

Initially, I had targeted 8 velodromes that seemed to be within striking range:

1. Valley Preferred Cycling Center (formerly Lehigh Valley Velodrome) in Trexlertown, PA
2. Kissena Velodrome in Queens, NY
3. New England Velodrome in Londonderry, NH
4. Velodrome at Bloomer Park (aka Mike Walden Velodrome) in Rochester Hills, MI
5. Forest City Velodrome in London, ON, Canada
6. Wind del Velodrome in Windham Centre, ON, Canada
7. Centre National du Cyclisme in Bromont, QC, Canada
8. Caisse Populaire Velodrome in Dieppe, NB, Canada (New Brunswick)

However, a more thorough analysis showed that the total driving time to include New Brunswick would just not be practical and it was eliminated. Maybe next time…

Sunday afternoon, Kelly Benefit Strategies / LSV http://www.lateralstressvelo.com/ teammate Matt stopped by to watch final day TV coverage of the Giro, then we swapped cars for 2 weeks. Thanks to Matt for being a sport and letting me use his van.