How can track cycling make you a better road cyclist you ask? Well I am going to tell you. While not everyone is built to be a fantastic track cyclist, we can all benefit from the skills, technique and fitness we get from racing on the boards…or asphalt or concrete (depending on your local velodrome surface).
Introduction
As a young rider in the late 80s and early 90s I grew up riding both road and track. Track was always on in the summer, so it meant great evening sessions every week racing around 450m asphalt track. Track was a bit of a condensed version of road that emphasized and repeated different key skills to make us better riders. BMX also offers great skill development and bike handling and is especially great for young kids and families (Robbie McEwen came through BMX and was a master at appearing at the right time in Tor de France bunch finishes). But today we are talking about track (through which many of today’s pros have come through), so here are some of the areas I think track makes us better riders…
1. Fixed Gear Simplicity
One of the things that puts people off riding track is the fixed gear and no brake set up. This is in fact quite a big plus on many levels and the fear soon leaves after a couple of laps. Having a fixed gear forces you to keep pedaling regardless of your speed or effort. This helps improve your pedaling technique, smoothing it out and helping you become more efficient.
I actually used to ride a fixie, with a smallish gear (say 42 x 17 or so), on the road on some 1-3 hour endurance rides to help my technique. Some people would say two hours on a fixie is worth three hours on a road bike. While I don’t necessarily agree I do think there are some very worthwhile adaptions from riding a fixie.” Cadence is often the forgotten training variable and focusing on force (torque) or speed (rpm) can improve your cycling a great deal. Track racing is a good unstructured way to do this.
The overspeed component of this pedaling helps train the nervous system and the low rpm component helps you develop the ability to smoothly get on top of the gear, strength and power. A track bike is a simple bike which lets you get on with racing your bike and not worry what gear you are in, braking or cadence. On a track bike you are always in the right gear, because the decision is made before the start and there is no way to change mid race!
2. Social – Learn from the old timers
The great thing about track racing is the social aspect. Everyone is either racing, helping or watching the events. For this reason it can be good for the whole family whether they race or not.
With everyone in close proximity, bumping shoulders while getting ready for the next race, it is more than likely there will be greater interaction and learning off each other than at a single road race. The old guys will give feedback and tips and others will bring new ideas. You will learn a lot about positioning, tactics, technique and racing from those who have gone before you and this will make you a better rider more quickly than you would without the interaction.
Seeing, doing and learning from several races every track meet will exponentially improve your learning and race craft compared to a couple of hours of lapping out then sprinting in a weekly road race.
3. Controlled Environment
Another reason why track racing gives a good environment for learning the skills of racing is the controlled environment. There are no cars, corners, hills or any distractions. It is racing at it’s purest, so you can focus on what is important and not whether that truck behind you is going to pass safely. Once again the parents among you will see the benefit here for the kids.
4. Many Races
I may have mentioned this above, but it is worth making this a key point. Every time you race in a weekly club meet at the track you are likely to race at least four or more times. There is also a good chance there will be some lapping behind the moto after the racing. On any given race night there will be many races of different lengths and types. Lots of opportunity to try a tactic, fail, try again, succeed etc. When you have one sprint finish per week as in road racing, you may not be tempted to experiment quite as much.
Short to medium length races demand quick reactions and decision making or the race is lost. This process also translates over to road racing where often lethargy sets in and we hope someone else will react or we reason there is plenty of time to do something about it!
The moto at the end of the night will help develop speed, smooth lapping and general good lapping out practice.
Conclusion
So there are many logical reasons above to give track racing a go, but there are many more we didn’t mention:
- The most obvious being that it is a lot of fun,
- It is also fairly cheap to get started (you can use all your road gear and clothing and the club may even have loaner bikes),
- It adds a whole new set of skills to your repertoire,
- You can justify getting one of those cool track tool kits with a chain whip, track spanner, lock nuts and chain rings.
So I challenge you to come on down and watch a meet, investigate borrowing a bike and get started…there’ll be no looking back!
