Thursday, November 19, 2015

Pedalling the boards

Out of the three disciplines, cycling is my favourite – I just love to get out on my bike and escape the city to get into the countryside. My only issue is that I suffer from a lack of balance or perhaps confidence in my balance, so I can’t really signal very well or reach for food during a long ride. I don’t ever ride on the drops and my hands are always placed firmly over the brakes!
The only time I’ve ever ridden a fixed wheel was somewhere in Mexico which I didn’t really enjoy and was quite glad to get off the bike at the end. This was an extremely short trip up to the top of the river on a mountain bike with no brakes, only the fixed wheel to stop you.
So the prospect of getting onto a fixed bike with no brake, and having to ride on the drops was extremely daunting. It was only the thought of getting to cycle in the Lee Valley Velodrome (where Olympians have raced!), Thea signing up and several people telling me that if they could do it, so could I that made me change my mind. I guessed I could give it a go and see how I got on.
Having to get up at 5:30 on Sunday morning wasn’t brilliant, as we were due to do another event that morning – my first duathlon. So Sunday was a day of firsts, a duathlon (which I didn’t really enjoy, and I don’t think I’ll be taking up any time soon!) and then the track session in the evening.
Things didn’t start particularly well. I’d been watching a movie at home and thought I still had time to make some lunch for the next day before I left my house. I didn’t, and ended up leaving home a little later than I should have. By the time I got to the station I was starting to panic a little and decided to take the tube where I had to change as opposed to the direct tube, which wasn’t going to arrive for another 10 minutes. I had to change at Canning Town and reckoned that if I caught the Jubilee line I would be faster getting to Stratford. Unfortunately, at Canning Town, I ran down to get the Jubilee train and all I saw was “St” at the front. Jubilee trains going the other (wrong) way go to Stanmore, and I ended up at Canary Wharf before I realised my mistake. Finally I got on the right train and ended up in Stratford, with about 10 minutes to go and about a 15 minute walk to the Velodrome (why is it soo far away from the station?!?). This ended up being a run/fast walk through the dark and gloom (it had been foggy all day) which was a bit scary on my own. I made it, a couple of minutes late, but the lady still let me through. Everyone was still getting ready and getting their bikes from the hire area so it was OK in the end. The guy I hired the bike from even said my shoes were OK, even if I might need to change my thoroughly worn cleats sometime soon! 
I viewed my fixie bike with apprehension while Darren took us through the format of the evening and a few safety notes – we were going to start off with a couple of loops around the track, getting ourselves used to the bikes. We had to alert him if our cleats came out of the pedals at any point – spinning pedals and loose feet not being a good combination! We watched the other riders with a mixture of awe and disbelief – apparently this velodrome has the (if not one of the) steepest banking in the world!
We started off all in line hanging grimly onto the rail that separated the riding area from the central area. Darren was trying to explain to us how to start – get your arm as far ahead of you as possible and pull hard to “launch” yourself out onto the track. I was really unsure about this, and as it came to me I almost got off the bike and walked off without even trying it. But Darren said “come on, miss” and essentially pulled me off the wall and got my momentum going. I spent a couple of laps cycling around the inner loop, trying to get used to the bike, and going nowhere near anything that looked like banking or wood! By the time to come in, I was a bit worried about coming to a halt, but I found stopping a lot easier than starting all the way through, just grabbed the side at a slow pace and it was fine. My heart was going 60 to the dozen and I still really wasn’t sure.
We watched the more advanced riders again, and just as they were ramping up two riders fell on the steeper part of the slope. Everyone on the track was instructed to ride above the blue line until the fallers had been scooped up. There had been a bit of slowing down, and of course when you’re on a fixie you can’t slow down quickly, so you fall off. Luckily both riders were fine and got up and started off again.
We were off sooner than we might have liked, and this time it was time to brave the wood. Darren once again got me moving away from the wall and I took little bites off the flat to move onto the wood and then back onto the safety of the flat, only going onto the wood where it was at its “flattest”. I started to enjoy myself a little more and when Darren told us to go past him on the wood I made the effort to try. I made it past him the first time, when he was just a little off the flat, and got straight back onto the flat blue. The second time around, he was a bit higher up and I just completely missed him. The third time around, he was almost at the top and I just decided to go for it and go past him. What I didn’t realise was he’d positioned himself at a point where I would have to go right round the top of the steepest banking before I could come back down to the flat! I shot past him, and he was shouting at me to keep pedalling round… Suddenly I was on the steepest part of the banking right at the top! I kept pedalling as he told me and I finally made it round to the flatter bit, whereupon I immediately got off the wood and onto the flat. My heart was absolutely off the scale! I think that was the round where I ended up doing the “ride of shame” where if you don’t manage to slow down enough you have to do another loop before you stop. That was the only ride of shame for me.
Thea and I in the velodrome!
 By the third go, I was well and truly on the wood, although Darren was still helping me get started. I did get stuck behind one rider at one point and had to pull off onto the flat to stop myself from riding into the back of them! We were supposed to be doing an exercise where the front person goes higher and the rest of us ride underneath, but as I got closer to the front I wussed out and escaped back onto the flat to slow down again… On the fourth go, I managed to stay on the wood for the majority of the session, even getting enough bravery up to overtake someone (on the flatter bit of the wood, not the steep slope!) and tried my best to keep up with the rest of the line. Lots of riders went past me going “Stay!” – instructing me that they were coming past and not to weave, but it kind of made me feel like some kind of dog! I started to feel the wind coming at me and really got into riding round the track, trying to go faster and then, when we had to slow down, trying to slow my pedalling so that I could come to a smooth stop at the end. I never did manage to keep up with the faster riders but maybe next time when I haven’t been cycling in the morning!

I came off the track for the last time exhilarated and wanting more. I think I went home and signed up for the next session straight away! I never thought I would enjoy it that much and actually not be that bad at it either, although I know I have to at least try to start off myself next time. I spent the next day almost walking on a bed of air (even though it WAS Monday) and as I went past the bike shop I even stopped to look in the window hoping to see a track bike…