Jay,
Thanks for pointing out the story about riding on the Vandedrome. I saw some races on it while it was here at the Del Mar Fairgrounds back in the early 90's. It was scary to watch the races; I can't imagine actually riding on it. I like the track, but that thing was too much for me; I don't have a death wish. The surface was not very even in addition to being ridiculously steep. They were even running a Kerin on this track (the SHORT version!!)which took 3 starts to get a clean release. One of the starts included a crash where I saw Mark Whitehead engage another rider knowing full well that they were both going to go down. Mark tumbled and caught his bike as it bounced down the apron with him, and all in one movement he jumped back on the bike and was just behind the rest of the riders in seconds! The other guy fell and broke his collar bone, needless to say out of the race. After the restart Mark won the race. Most amazing thing I've ever seen on any track.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
I almost, but not quite, miss track racing.
Here's a "ride report" of the Vandedrome (no relation):
http://members.aol.com/
Jay Van De Velde Seal Beach, CA
WD Baseley <wdb@pobox.com> wrote:
At 07:06 PM 12/16/2003 +0900, Dennis Young ushered forth:
>Here is a interesting site listing most, if not all(?) the velodromes in the
>world, past and present.
Great link, thanks!
> I learned that my local track in Matsumoto has 34
>degree turns. I'd like to check out the tracks with 47 degree banks, and
>the one in Casablanca. It lists something called the "Vandedrome" in
>Colorado, 1995-, portable, 125-155 meters, wood, 53 degree turns. Wow, 53
>degree turns! Anyone ever ride there? It must be like surfing the north
>shore in Hawaii.
I did a (semi-)loaded tour through the Adirondacks of New York a few years back, and our return trip took us past a "bicycle summer camp" run by Mike Fraysse in the New York hills just off the Delaware River. We stopped in, and he was a most gracious host. He told us about a portable velodrome he had. Wooden track surface, very short, very steep. Turns out it was set up in the woods about a mile from his "camp". We tooled over and I did a few laps, bags and all. It was very very steep, much steeper than Lehigh County Velodrome, so steep that I made sure I was moving at a good pace before going up onto the banking. And the wooden surface was pretty rough. Racing on that track must be absolutely wild.
rgds, Dave Baseley, dodging ice melting from the trees in Berks County PA
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