BUCS Track Cycling

DaveC · November 22, 2016

Hi all,

On Sunday, I competed in the British University and College Sport track cycling. My one and only event for the day was the points race, at 30km long (120 laps).

I got there for 8:30 am ish, ready to sign on and have half an hour on the track to familiarize myself with riding on a velodrome. I was excited and nervous so i set off rolling around the côte d’azur for a few laps then along the black line before i knew it i was flying around the velodrome along the top of the banking. After 40 mins I went back into the rider's D and had a little warm down.

I sat in amazement as the sprint races happened along with the team pursuits, then the men's elimination race qualifiers started and I cheered on my friend Nick Clayton who qualified for the final. Then a few sprint minor finals and women's elimination happened and the elimination final happened but sadly nick got eliminated. After that the women's points race started so I started to warm up as the men's points race was after the major sprint finals. I felt good in the warm up, then I found Jim Varnish and had a few words of advice from him as i didnt know what to expect.

We got called up to the ramp to get briefed and the nerves start to set in, after the brief we slowly roll around the corner and hold onto the fence. We get let off the fence from the back im trying to calm my nerves and pretend i know what im doing just stay low, turn left and keep pedaling I say to myself, as i set off. The first couple of laps i leave a bit of distance between myself and the bunch to ensure i dont cause a crash or im not involved in a crash. A few laps later when i think its safe i push a little and rejoin the group, all is good for now. I am relaxing as the laps tick down but all of a sudden I'm back on high alert as i see a guy above me bin it and see him slowly sliding down into my path... I slowed down enough to avoid him but he was going quicker than i thought as he takes the guy in front of me down, a sigh of relief that it wasnt me. I speed back up trying to rejoin the back of the pack, as i got back in the race was neutralized. Then once the riders had got up and brushed themselves off the race was allowed to continue. All of a sudden the pace starting ramping up and the laps went flying down. With a sprint every 10 laps i was determined not to get dropped but sadly my lack of sprinting power started to show and every sprint lap i would see myself get dropped and i would slowly catch back up for the first 3-4 times. Then i got dropped and i got lapped but i stayed within the bunch and a few laps later went on in search of gaining a lap to be back on track. It took laps to get this lap back and i eventually got it but i couldnt hold on to the speed as trying to gain a lap on my own had drained my energy a lot so i ended up being half a lap down, which the gap slowly started to extend and i slowly started to run out of energy trying not to get lapped again but with 80 laps gone i got lapped again and once more as 90 laps came around. Sadly I got pulled off, so i didnt get to finish.

I gave it my all but this year it wasnt meant to be, and i really did chuck myself in the deep end of velodrome racing. However it hasn't put me off track racing it has made me want to do more and compete and mean that next year I can try and put more of a competitive performance in. I have found out that i can train at derby on a wednesday afternoon with other universities.

Dave Cunningham