Paramount Cycling Club from Shrewsbury had booked 2 hours on Saturday night at the velodrome in Derby and had a few places spare so put them on the Raiders Facebook group. Nicole and myself signed up – I’ve been wanting to try velodrome cycling for ages so it was the perfect opportunity.
I arrived and met up with the others. They were all really nice guys and I was soon changed and joining the others by the side of the track and choosing a bike and shoes. The bikes are different to road bikes in that they have a fixed drivetrain and no brakes. You break by slackening off pressure on the pedals (but not too much as the back wheel will kick out behind you!).
We were split up into groups, with most people in the beginners one with me. We started by getting to know the differences in bikes before heading out onto the track for the first ride.
I was pretty nervous as the big high banks on the track looked intimidating. I need not have worried though as the coach we had was excellent and soon had you flying round the track feeling comfortable.
After learning how to control the bike, we progressed onto riding round the top of the banks and then chainganging round the track and finally we had a 6 lap race, with one of the more experienced track riders acting as the derny for the first 3 laps and then us racing each other for the final 3 laps.
All really good fun and very different to normal road cycling. I’ll have to come back for more very soon!
Strava: click here
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