Today I competed in an event called the Heartbreaker, - I think they call it the Heartbreaker because some of the races are long or lots of laps - one is 100laps. This is a velodrome event held in Portland, it was my first official OBRA race. It was a day of many races, different categories and styles of riding the velodrome, the weather was awesome (finally) and I placed 10th in my category. This is out of 16 riders, yeah I know, not great, but first official race. It was 35 laps with sprints for points every 5 laps. With 16 other riders I soon realized that the start was critical, my start was not good, I was positioned really close to the back and I was not aggressive enough to bump forward. Once the lead group had broken off, I had lost the opportunity to roll with them as I was so far back. Anyway, it was fun, it was good experience and I know I will do better next time. I have to say 35 laps is pretty tough, this is an all out sport, where you are riding just below or at max all the time.
One of the most interesting races today was called a Madison , where there are teams of riders, normally two riders per team, where the objective is to do the most amount of laps in a given time, this sunday it was 30minutes. The rides changeoff (like tag in wrestling) by using their arms while riding to slingshot each other up to speed all,while riding a banked surface ! fun fun.
The keirin is a mass start track cycling event in which 6 to 9 sprinters compete at one time in a race with a paced-start. Riders draw lots to determine starting positions and start as the pacer (which could be a motorcycle) approaches. The riders are required to remain behind the pacer, which starts at the deliberately slow speed of about 25 km/h, gradually increasing in speed and leaves the track approximately 600-700 meters before the end, at a speed of about 50 km/h. The first cyclist to finish the race is the winner (sometimes finishing at 70 km/h). Keirin races are about 2 kilometers in length (8 laps on a 250m track, 6 laps on a 333m track, and 5 laps on a 400m track).
More photos here:
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