VeloCity Tour

The VeloCity Tour has started and hit the Kissena Velodrome on Sunday. The tour is a multi-city (NYC, SF and Chi) event aimed at bike messengers (though non-messengers can compete) with the top prize for first male and female messengers being round-trip airfare to Dublin, Ireland for the Cycle Messenger World Championships.

I competed in the first VeloCity Tour last year and it is what prompted me to start racing at the velodrome. Of course this meant that I had to compete again this year.

Since so many people registered (over 40 racers I believe) they split the Men's field into two groups based on the rider numbers (evens and odds). There were no categories (in fact many of the racers didn't have licenses as this was a non-USCF race) so everyone was lumped together. This meant there was a huge gap in terms of experience and speed.

The first race was a 10 lap scratch race. As soon as the whistle blew the pace picked up, and stayed pretty high the entire race. Most people would have taken it a little easier on the first few laps but I guess the faster guys, particularly those who hadn't raced on the track before, wanted to take off immediately. I stuck to the front the entire race and we had some semblance of a pace line. However on the last lap I was about 7 or 8 riders back when the top 5 or so started to take off. The two guys in front of my didn't respond so I was left to bridge a two person gap and try to catch up to the break. I wasn't able to catch up in time and ended up in a distant 6th.

The next race was a Miss-and-Out. Because the field was so large the final lap would consist of five people (all the previous Miss-and-Outs that I've been in have had a final lap of three). Since many of the riders were not very experienced with track racing and Miss-and-Outs are notorious for crashes I stayed near the front of the pack for most of the race. Fortunately there were no crashes during the race and slowly but surely the field was whittled down until there were only five riders left - and I was one of them. In the end I took fifth.

Next up were match sprints. The qualifiers consisted of groups of four. I was paired with Pablo, Craig and this other guy whose name I did not catch. As soon as the race started the other guy just took off. Craig, Pablo and I debated for a second whether we should chase him down immediately or not; since none of us knew him or how fast he was, we decided to chase him. We got on his wheel around the start of the second (and final lap). We all easily passed him, with Craig winning the sprint, Pablo taking a close second and me lagging behind for third. Afterwards I briefly spoke to the guy who took off early in our race, and it was pretty clear that he didn't understand the strategy of a match sprint. I told him that usually the first lap is really really slow as people try to jockey for a good position, and it's only in the second lap that someone will take off.

The final race was an Australian Pursuit. This was the first time I've ever done this sort of race and it was definitely an interesting type of race. Basically all the riders are evenly positioned around the track. Once the race starts, each rider tries to chase down the rider in front of them. If you get passed, you are out of the race. Unfortunately my legs just weren't into it and I got passed after two laps.

After the VeloCity tour was over there was an Alleycat race to the after party. I didn't participate as I didn't want to race an Alleycat on my track bike and I had brought my rollers with me. Instead my parents gave me a lift home where I had some time to take a shower and eat before heading to the after party (which was only a few blocks from where I live). I got on my commuter bike and started heading towards the bar when a guy on a road bike came flying up next to me and asked me where Union Ave. was. The bar was on Union Ave. so I figured he was racing the Alleycat - he was, and it turned out that he was totally lost (he was from SF) so I showed him the way.

Once there, Felipe (who organized the Alleycat) started the award ceremony. I have only three words to describe this award ceremony - UNDERGROUND, ILLEGAL, INTENSE!