On this bright and sunny day the MIT crew headed out to Londonderry New Hampshire to check out the Northeast Velodrome to learn what it is like to ride on a track. When we arrived, Mark and his volunteers, Wolf and Jed got us set up on the bikes quickly. We all got to match black and red bikes which match our MIT kits (how cute), except Tatem who is a traitor and wore a Minnesota kit for some reason?? Her excuse was that “her MIT kits were dirty” but that’s lame, tell her to do laundry.
While we were getting set up, Mason and Tatem overheard Michael exclaim “These handlebars are so narrow! How wide are they?” and next thing you know Mark whipped out the tape measure while Michael was still in disbelief. Rumor has it that Michael is still learning what it means to be “aero”.
After getting set up on the bikes, we all sat down and received a pre-ride talk from Wolf to learn about the mechanics of a track bike as well as track etiquette and the meanings behind the lines on the track.
There weren’t quite enough seats for the lecture but that’s alright because clearly Mason and Felix did not mind.
After the lecture we got to hop on the bikes and learn how to get comfortable riding the fixed gear. To be honest, it was quite frightening at first to ride a bike with no brakes and getting used to the fact that your legs must move at all times and there is no coasting, but we managed to get the hang of it rather quickly. We even did some fun drills which included bumping into and hugging a buddy.
Once we got comfortable riding the bikes and doing drills we got into the fun action of racing. We split up into two groups and ran through a full omnium of scratch, tempo, elimination, and points. We think Berk may have had the most fun of us all and may have a calling for track racing? To be determined.
Overall, we had a very fun day on the track and hope to return. We also would like to challenge other ECCC teams to try the track and have an ECCC omnium day??? That would be a blast, y’all better get on it!
And of course the day ended with a gatorade stop on the way back and of course Hannah and Mason are enthusiastically twinning, well maybe just Hannah, but I think Mason just needs some more electrolytes.
This post would not be complete without another big THANK YOU to Mark and everyone who supported our clinic. We learned so much and could not have had a better set of instructors. Your care and excitement were obvious and we loved being brought into the fold of going fast and turning left. Can’t wait to come back!
