Last night I traveled to the Forest City Velodrome in London, ON for my first experience with track cycling. Overall, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves save a few more serious crashes. One rider left in poor shape with a potentially broken collarbone, but the rest had at worse a tear in their shorts. I was luckily able to avoid any confrontations with the ground and any rubbing of wheels was done at low speeds with no harm done.
Things did not go at all as I'd have expected though, for my first time riding a track bike. Coming to a stop was the first skill to be learned, and I found it tricky even at a standstill to unclip and put a foot down without rolling. With that out of the way, riding around the apron and controlling speed was no problem. Up on the straights around cones was fine, though the slalom like drill was tricky given the tight spacing of the cones. When it came to getting up to speed and moving up on to the track, it soon became apparent that I was not doing very well. As our instructor pointed out, I was thinking too much. Though I was probably the last to get the hang of just looking forward and going around the turns, I soon caught on and had little trouble from this point forward. I was then able to keep pace with the subsequent drills - following different lines, standing up and maintaining cadence, various hand positions on the bars including one hand behind the back, and finally varying the line though the corners (low-high-low and high-low-high). It was at about this point that riders started to go down and I decided I'd best get off the track when it was safe. After a number of crashes, everyone was mostly ok save one. Back out for some more riding, we got a few more laps in before heading out to some dinner and socializing.
Track cycling wasn't as easy - or should I say natural - as I'd expected, and as such I suppose I could have enjoyed it more with more realistic expectations. That said, I did have a great time and would like to head back for a rec session from time to time. Thanks to Jasmin and the UWCC for organizing this session, and to the Forest City Velodrome for their hospitality!