A Fresh Start

A lap around the velodrome in Munich

Today we left Munich and went to Tübingen, parting ways with David, who plans to stay in Munich for remainder of the pro racing before returning to the US.

After a remarkably pleasant train journey, we arrived and were picked up by Adrian's cousin. He's a research scientist at the local university, working on how hearing works, but more pertinent to our immediate existence, he lives at the top of a really long, steep hill. I'm glad I brought my road bike. Adrian opted to just bring his track bike, with a front brake a 45 x 20 as
his lowest gear combination. Ouch. Tübingen looks like a nice place, very picturesque, set on a river in the valley surrounded by some good sized hills. There are two national parks nearby, so there should be plenty of options for riding. I also met a guy named Andreas on CouchSurfing who lives here and is an active cyclist, and he offered to show us the good places to ride, as well as give me a place to stay for the week if I need.

I should probably repeat just how awesome CouchSurfing is.

We're here in Tübingen until Thursday, then we're off to Geneva for a 3-day. It looks like it's going to be an awesome week.

If you want to read something truly epic, check out Adrian's tales of his time racing for a pro track team in Hungary last year and all the drama that ensued. It's quite a tale. A sort of Iliad of the cycling world.

This is how we traveled for the first 12 or so days. Crammed in the back of a cargo van, with only a little window into the cab for light.

If this is my alternative, I'll stick with the trains from now on. They're comfy, quiet, spacious, well-lit, ventilated, cheap, and fast. Let's list off how many of those things the van is:

Adrian and I exchanging at Dortmund

I was in the hurt box in no small way.

The concourse/staging area in Munich was more like something out of a poorly done sci-fi movie. The Star Wars-esqe exterior of the Olympiahalle doesn't help either.

I kept track of the distance I rode while we were in Munich. Over three days, between warming up and racing, the total came to almost exactly 200 km. I wouldn't have guessed it was that much.

In every race..

...someone has to finish last.

Munich is done. Adrian and and I managed to scrape ourselves together tonight and actually race rather than merely survive. Things didn't look promising at the start of the evening. Neither of us brought rollers on the trip, as they're simply too heavy and massive to haul around. Today was the first time it looked to be an issue. There was some sort of concert going on in the track when we arrived to warm up, so we weren't allowed to ride. No big deal, it was only 5:00, and we didn't need to race until 6:40. Concert ends. Tear down begins. Everyone jumps on rollers in the hallway outside of the staging room.

Everyone except us, of course. So we wait. Eat a gel. Drink some water. Stretch a little bit. 6:00 rolls around, we grab our bikes and wander up to the infield. The service door (same kind as in Dortmund) is open in turns 3 and 4. So we sit some more.

6:20 comes around, and we're getting nervous, so we start to roll around the apron. The door finally comes down just before 6:30. Nothing like a sub-15 minute warm-up to clear out the legs after two hard days of racing. And it's not like things start out casually here. Even the neutral lap is full on.

Whatever. We take to the line and rail, roll off, and suffer like it's going out of style for the first 15 laps of so. Funny thing happened then. I started to feel good. So did Adrian. He made a big move over the top of the pack, got us some prime position at the front of the pack, and before you know it, we picked up some points in a sprint. Then we stayed at the front. No more tail-gunning for us. We continued to pick up a few points here and there, in one case actually exchanging as we crossed the finish line at the head of the pack (one team was off the front). Perfect timing. Things got back to suffering soon after that, but we managed to regain our composure and actually race like we belonged here.

When it was all tallied at the end, there was still something amiss. Munich isn't using chip timing the way that Dortmund did, and the scoring shows it. Last night there were people scored ahead of us that we lapped, and tonight was no different. Even our sprint points didn't add up the way they were supposed to. We were placed 12th, but should have been somewhere around 7th or 8th. Thanks once again to omnium scoring, this means we're last. 15th out of 15.

There was some redemption though. Even if we netted a big old DFL for our resumés, we picked up some compliments on a very good race from the coaches and riders of some very solid teams. While the absolute standouts like the Australians weren't here, the level of the field on whole was probably better, with national team riders from Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and the US as well. If you're going to lose, you might as well lose to the best.

On to Munich

Alright, things have been a bit crazy since leaving Dortmund. We had a great time hanging out with Vio and her friends, and they took us all around the city. It was great to get to look around without needing to stress over racing for a couple days. On Wednesday we piled back into the van and set out for Munich. We didn't ride the day before in order to recover from solid week of intensity on the bike, and planned to hit the track when we reached the Olympic Stadium.

No luck. We got in on Wednesday afternoon to find that the track was still being painted. By the time we got to where we're staying, it was about 10:00 PM. No riding. So two days off, and racing beginning the next night. Not exactly an optimal riding plan.

But first a little about where we're staying. It's a considerable notch down from the Hilton they put us up in at the Dortmund race. We're at a rowing center some 10 km outside of town that was built for the 1972 Summer Olympics. Some interesting things about this place:

--The 2 km long canal in the middle of nowhere.

--The building looks like a cross between a horse stable and a bomb shelter.

--The lights are all on timers, so you hallways are almost constantly dark, and when the are lit, they go dark at random.

--There are vents in the bathroom that open automatically when the lights go off (timers again) and let what would be hot, steamy air from the showers escape into the warm summer surroundings. In this case, it just lets even colder, winter air (it snowed today) into an already cold building, with extremely cold toilet seats.

--The doors creak severely, and the place generally just smells like a hog farm.

On to the racing. We finished night two today, and are, in short, getting worked over. Last night only one team took a lap, and we stayed on lap, even though Adrian's legs weren't feeling to hot and I felt like I was bonking. They don't feed us before the race here like they did in Dortmund, so I ate about 6 hours before race time, and didn't have anything with me when we went to the track. Again, poor planning. Tonight was longer than the previous racing, at 48 km instead of 40 km, but it hurt an awful lot less thanks to the track being much smoother than Dortmund. I think that really redefined my standard for discomfort on the bike. It just sucked. In any case, things got shattered, and while my legs were doing better today, Adrian felt even worse than yesterday, and we made some stupid mistakes, like a missed exchange on my part, and some messy ones where I had to slam on the brakes to get to Adrian. Not too good. There are a few strange things though, namely in the scoring. We're listed in dead last right now, but I know we beat several teams last night, and there were a handful of teams that went down more laps than we did tonight. So something is screwy here. They don't have transmitters on our bikes the way they did in Dortmund, and that can't help.

The show here is generally a lot smaller. There was almost no one in the stands either night. Last night it was chalked up to a Bayern soccer game here in town, but tonight was nearly as vacant. To their credit, they do have fireworks, but the practice of setting them off on a freshly painted wood track is bit dubious...

Tomorrow we'll try to scrape ourselves together and put in a real race. After that, we're off to Tübingen, where Adrian will be based with his cousin for the remainder of the season before going to Geneva on Thursday for a 3-day.

Pictures and video will go up when I'm somewhere that lets me get on Blogger.

12000

Check out this bit from a newspaper Adrian and I found on the U-Bahn last night.


12000 fans for came to Westfallenhallen for Sunday's racing. And this was only day 4 of the pro race. The close seats were nearly all filled, as was the infield, and spectators were starting to fill the upper deck, too. The finale is tonight. This should be amazing to watch.

Dortmund Day 3

Well it ended last night for us, as Adrian and I concluded our 3 nights of racing in Dortmund. After out lackluster performance on day 2, we scrapped back together for a decent ride on day 3. Still not quite up to par with our first night, but not too bad. We lost one lap to the field, and the Dutch team took a lap on everyone else, so we ended the night officially at 2 laps down. The Aussies won, and no one was surprised.

Hanging out before the start of day 3.

When the points from each night were tallied up, Adrian and I pulled off 10th. Again, not to good, but really not that bad for my first try. One unfortunate thing is that even though we had such a terrible day on day 2, we would have actually finished one spot higher had the race been scored normally, with laps and points carrying over from one night to the next. As it happened, we finished a lap ahead of the 9th place team. Oh well, rules are rules.

Tom and Adrian.

Despite a few close calls, we managed to avoid hitting the ground this weekend. For example, last night the Polish team decided to chop down and go under an exchange, and to take my front wheel with them, but somehow it all stayed upright. A few other teams weren't so lucky, but at least Adrian and I didn't crash.

Average speed for the races was 52-53 km/h. 40 km per night, covered in between 46.5 and 48 minutes. All in a 49x15 gear. Bob and Bill, thanks for all the motor pacing this fall. It certainly paid off here.

The pros going at it.

Now for some lowlights, and the lessons learned:
1. After night 1, I ate a mystery meat burger/sandwich/??? at the track while we watched the pros race. Sometime around 1:00 AM, said meal woke me up, and I spent a good while giving my offerings at the porcelain alter.
Lesson Learned: If it's cheap and unidentifiable food, don't eat it. Especially before a race.

2. Temporary tracks can be bumpy, and even if you have a saddle that fits and is comfy in most situations, if it isn't padded, it will still feel like someone is kicking you in the ass 5 times per lap. If the saddle fits well, it will just feel like their kicking the bones. Not much better.
Lesson Learned: Bring a more padded saddle next time.
(This lesson and similar justification also applies to bar tape)

3. Dave Wiswell was unfortunate enough to have his saddle literally snap off during the third night of racing due to the bumps in the track. First the rails on one side broke, then a while later, the other side went, leaving him teetering dangerously and uncomfortably on a shell perched on top of the post.
Lesson Learned: Look at my saddle tomorrow, and figure out what the creaking that got louder each night was.
Alternate Lesson: Buy a downhill saddle.


For now, Adrian and I are staying with a really cool woman in Dortmund named Violeta who we meet through CouchSurfing. If you don't know about CouchSurfing, sign up and get on the boat, it's great. We met up with her last night, met her friend Mathias, and spent the evening wandering around Dortmund. It's like having instant friends. Today we had an easy spin around town, but backed out early in our 2-3 planned hours, as it's getting cold here, and we figured we felt "good enough." We have a few more days in Dortmund before heading to Munich to start racing again on Thursday.

Cruising around Dortmund this afternoon.

Check out BF-One to brush up on your Dutch and see some pictures of Adrian and I racing at Alkmaar, and a shot of us traveling in the back of the van (no seats, just two folding chairs and a bunch of bike gear).

Dortmund: Day 2

"...I'm the one that looks like I'm breathing out of my arse!"

Neil Campbell told me this in an email this summer, pointing out how to find the picture from the Madison Cup at T-Town. It could pretty much be used to sum up how tonight's racing went for Adrian and me. If yesterday was a promising start to 6-day racing, today was a slap in the face with the realities of inexperience. We were swarmed at the start, ended up at the back, and in short, spent the whole race either there, or somewhere behind there. It was a whole lot of chasing, catching on, chasing, realizing we were screwed, giving up the lap, chasing, catching on, and getting gapped again. All in all, I think we lost two laps on what was left of the field. There were a handful of other teams in our same position, but that doesn't really make you feel any better when you're actually racing. We missed a few exchanges at inopportune times (there really aren't any good times to miss a lap, but these were exceptionally bad), and were getting dropped like it was going out of style.

All I can say now is that I'm glad the director is running this race as an omnium, with the results of each night netting you points. Laps gained and lost don't carry from night to night. You simply finish each night, get points based on the standings, and start the next night with a clean slate. We had better scrape things together for tomorrow, because today's racing was over before it started.

Dortmund: Day 1

This is a whole different world. Everything I thought I knew about track racing was turned on its head last night. The racing is still premier, but what's so amazing is the racing itself, but the spectacle that gets created around it. Pictures will sum it up better than any description I can give.

First, a lap around Dortmund during warm-ups this afternoon.

At the conclusion of the first pro madison of the night. The light shows they put on are more like something from a rock concert of a discotheque.

Erik Zabel and Leif Lampater won the madison, but both were out early in the barely contested eliminations that followed. There were some riders who looked crestfallen to not be the first or second eliminated, as that meant they had to go a few more laps before resting in preparation for the next madison.

One thing that makes racing here seem even more surreal is that they have the lights on the track set very bright, but the everywhere else, in the stands and on the infield, is comparatively dark. It has the effect of making the track look like it's glowing.

The service door that opens in turn 2 to provide access to the infield, and let a German rendition of the Blues Brother drive a mock-up police car around the track a few times. It may be good for the spectators, but the seams it creates in the track can really hurt if you hit them and aren't expecting it.

What race would be complete without a beer garden, VIP dinner, mini-blimp, and German Blues Brothers act? We need some of this action in Blaine.

Adrian and I managed a pretty solid race for my first time in a 6-day. Beforehand he had been giving me some advice on how to position in the group, and the importance of staying at the front. The sprints here rarely have people going for it 4 or 5 wide, shoulder to shoulder. Instead, the pace ramps up, and if you're at the front, you'll probably get some points. The tricky part is maintaining your position at the head of a line of 14 teams, which means swinging up and chopping straight back down about 3 or 4 wheels later, hooking whatever hapless team may be there to the apron, and taking his spot. This would never fly in the US, but it's just what's expected here. People know it's going to happen, and it's never done maliciously. You simply make the move with conviction, and they let you in. If you don't, and just drift down (like I was doing at Alkmaar) not only do you not get back in until you reach the end of the line, but people will think you're a pansy.

I got the positioning thing down pretty quickly, but the wind-up to the sprint is still giving me trouble. About 10 laps out, teams start swarming over the top, and I would tend to get caught under the wave. Tonight I'll try to force my way into the line and keep from getting spit out on the back of the pack.

One thing that surprised me is how many American teams got into the race. We have 3 teams here: myself and Adrian, Dave Wiswell and Jackie Simes, and the USAC team of Guy East and Austin Carroll. The only country more represented is Germany, with 4 teams.