Velocity was my favourite day of track racing last season. How could it not be? Organized by some of the best people alive today, Squid, Brean, Val and Josh, Velocity was basically a party at the track. There was also an alleycat (where I finished second last, I think) and an IRO Sprints roller race party. It was basically a weekend of events. The main day started with everyone meeting up in a rainy Dominick’s parking lot, and ended… I don’t remember how it ended. But in between that parking lot and wherever the hell I ended up that night was some of the most fun track racing evar!!1!
After we loaded our bikes into the trailer that Val and Brean were towing (not me, I managed to get my bike on Aaron’s truck with the other bikes too sexy to mix with the proletarian rabble) we all boarded a school bus for the trip north to Kenosha. We got lost twice. Once while still in downtown Chicago. I think the driver was legally blind.
The "sexy bikes" truck that I somehow managed to get my average bike onto. From left to right: Henry's ICE, my Concept, Michelle's Watanabe, and Aaron's Gentili. Photo by Chris.We made it to Kenosha eventually. Bikes were unloaded. Tyres were pumped up. Race numbers were distributed. Infield chilling space was claimed. Barbecues were lit. There were lots of people there, lots of racers but also just a lot of people hanging out and having fun, watching the races and cheering the racers on.
The racing was split into two big groups, messengers and city riders. The top male and female messengers won plane tickets to Dublin to compete in the Cycle Messenger World Championships, and a bunch of other stuff like custom Chrome bags. Fancy!
The races were a blast. In my first scratch heat I came third behind Lyle and TJ. I won my second heat. Here’s a picture of me making my “comedy smug bastard” face as I cross the line ahead of TJ:
Then, in my last scratch race, I decided I’d jump coming out of turn 2 of the last lap, and try to keep it going. I got a good jump, and I had no idea where anyone was so I thought I’d caught them napping. I hammered away at the pedals, and coming out of the last turn and into the straight I started to smile. I slowed a bit and did the my “comedy smug bastard” face as I crossed the line. I even included some “smug nods to the crowd.” Except I had made a mistake… I had slowed enough to let Lyle, barrelling along behind me like the fast lunatic he is, pass me. Right. On. The. Line. Did I mention that everyone was sitting right there at the finish? The howls of derisive laughter will haunt me till I die. I had fecked it up by celebrating too early, and ended up looking like a total gobshite. Mortified.
I don’t remember much after that. There were points races and miss’n’out (which I think I came 3rd in). We raced, I was made fun of, people not racing drank, prizes were given, I was made fun of, people tried to tell Josh how to run a race, I was made fun of, whatever. Andrew Nordyke and Jen Greenburg won the messenger category and got their tickets to Dublin. Lyle and Val won the city biker category. I was proud to come 4th overall in the city rider category, behind Lyle, Ted, and Henry, three great riders.
Group photos were taken, beers were downed, bikes dismantled, and buses boarded. The day had gone by so quickly, but I realized that I’d learned more in that one day of racing than I had in all of the track clinics and Friday night races I’d done at Northbrook. Plus, just hanging out with everyone was great, and it was cool to see so many people try track racing for the first time.
Velocity is not coming to Chicago this year, because Chicago has the NACCCs. But if it’s coming to a city near you then you have to go, and if you race, and you think you’ve won, don’t celebrate too early…
Go here for details on Velocity 2008.
1 comment:
this report was pleasant...yeah, thats the word for it, pleasant(serious)...peace.
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