All of us at Vortex RT will be involved in racing at the track league for 2011, the olden days of sitting in the car in the rain, outside the velodrome, staring at the sky for a break in the clouds are thankfully just a nasty memory of ‘days gone by’. They now harness modern technology with online weather forecasts, text messages & emails to make sure nobody make the journey without knowing the conditions.
For those of you who are not familiar with the track, it’s located at Meadowbank stadium in Edinburgh, just East of the athletics track. It’s an outdoor wooden 250m velodrome, it was originally built for the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, then rebuilt for the Commonwealth Games in 1986. As you’d expect, an outdoor wooden track of that age in Scotland needs a load of work to keep it in an order that you can still race on it, can’t imagine what will need done after the winter we’ve just had/are having.
I first rode the track league in 1989 or 1990 (it was a long time ago, I can’t remember exactly), riders racing on Tuesday night around that time included Olympian Anthony Stirrat, British sprint champ Stuart Brydon & a couple of youthful and incredibly talented riders called Craig MacLean & Chris Hoy. Having been around the UK for a few year, last year I started racing (well, turning up without training more like) at Meadowbank again, really enjoyed it, loads of the old faces still riding, brought back a load of memories.
So it’s back on the boards again, stronger, lighter and faster than 2010, with some km’s in my legs, things should be different with my old track legs back. I’ve heard loads of bad stories floating about, “riders from the West are not made welcome” etc, total nonsense, we’ve had no such bother, in the 90’s or now. So if you have an interest in track racing and want to be up and running for the new velodrome next year, get ourselves across, there are a few routes in which avoid the bulk of the traffic, but it’s worth the trip. You’ll all have to get used to track racing soon enough, it’s going to become a staple of the Scottish riders competitive diet in the next few years, even winter track leagues will proved very popular, year round racing is about to hit hard.
If you want to use public transport, you can get a train across from Glasgow Central station, it’s much cheaper than the Queen Street commuter line. Get the 17:50, takes over an hour, then you’ve got 20 mins to get to the track before the racing starts, that train even has an area that takes about 12 bikes, ideal! See map below.
Track at top right of map.
As for how it’s run, everybody involved in the organisation knows the job they’re doing, most have doing it for some time. In the commentators hotseat is The Old Man of Hoy himself, David Hoy. The first thing you’ll do is a flying lap, where generally your time will determine which category you’ll race in, A, B or C. If you’re new they’ll most likely stick you in with the C group, obviously if you lap the field you’ll be moved up. The events vary week to week, so there’s always something different, for different types of riders, culminating in a scratch race (mass group, first over the line is the winner) at the end of the night.
Conditions at the track are often the same, head wind down the back straight, tailwind down the home straight and a chill in the air. Meadowbank sometimes appears to be the coldest place in Scotland, so wrap up warm between races, a blanket is a popular accessory for the seasoned Meadowbank track leaguer, a habit worth considering. Occasionally you’ll get that incredible sunny and windless evening, the night legends are made of, the last one in 1997 is still talked about, you never know, if you get yourselves through there in 2011 you may be lucky enough to witness another.
The DHL track league has a website with a weekly programme and results.
http://www.esca.uk.com/mtl/index.html
The first event of 2011 is on Tuesday 19th April.
http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/52872/DHL/Meadowbank-National-Track-Series
We'll be updating the weather on our twitter feed, you can see it on our website, see you there.
Colin.
