Street Velodrome! Whaaaat is that I hear you ask!?
Well basically its a mini sized Velodrome thats erected in different city streets across the UK that holds races! Its open to anyone that would like to race or even just turn up and have a go to see what its like. Its only been going since 2014 – so its a pretty new event, which is exactly what I got invited to race – the pro series superfinal a few weeks ago at Canary Warf, London! As I’m sure most of you know my riding background is – well.. Mountain biking (I also have a three gear Amsterdam cruiser) so I didn’t really have any experience riding a drop handlebar fixed gear bike.. Eeeek! But as much as I was a tad worried about my lack of experience in this department I was like, yessss sign me up cause I need to try this as it looks awesome!
Its a pretty simple racing format
You do your timed qualifying lap, and from the timed lap you then get seeded against the other competitors. You go head to head in a three lap knock out with the fastest rider to cross the line being put through to the next round! Which keeps going until its the final – Simple.
The line up of female riders for the super final was epic, which made me even more excited to race! Juliet Elliot was down to race, Virginia Cancellieri, Rowena Prica, Vero Widmann, Charlotte Green, Jess Stone, and Jessica Watts! All of them from different riding disciplines, which would make for an interesting race.
The big race day!
So the day came when it was time to make my way to London to race and I was pretty nervous for three reasons..
1) Ive been to London three times in my life and Ive always been with someone who guides me around so I don’t get lost (I was travelling up on my own) – I know, I don’t get out much..
2) I would be riding a type of bike that I’ve never been on before as well on a street velodrome. Eeeek.
3) It was going to rain on the day – a lot.
I made it to the event for 11am (after getting a slightly stressed working the tube system haha) to find that it was indeed, raining – A. Lot.. The race director called the shots and said we would need to wait a few hours before we began as it was too dangerous to ride, plus the rain was meant to be stopping by 2pm giving it time to dry for an hour before we could start practice. I was prettyyyyyy happy about this! We spent that time waiting drinking coffee, having lunch and getting to know each other as well as laughing at how typical it is that it was raining after so many weeks of glorious sunshine!
The race director said we could finally go and practice after the track dried out bit! I picked the bike I was going to use and got out there! It was really weird getting used to drop handle bars and the body positioning at first, but the more I went around the track the more it was becoming second nature! It was so much fun!! I was so unsure about whether I would get used to the bike and the type of riding – but I honestly couldn’t stop grinning! I think its because its always exciting trying new things, especially when it involves bikes! It was awesome trying to build my confidence quickly to push myself to go faster and faster around the track! The other girls were rapid though. Like, I mean -rapid. I was so impressed! As it was the super final they had all won previous street velodrome events though out the summer and I was one of the wildcard entries! So I had a lot to learn in a short amount of time!
After practice it was time for the qualifying lap!
By this point people were starting to finish work and the crowd was getting bigger! I was up first to do my qualy lap and it safe to say it wasn’t the time I had hoped for! My foot missed the pedal as I began pedalling (I blame the nerves haha..) and I completely forgot to keep pedalling around the first corner! Whoops.. But these mistakes cost me when it came to the first knock out round as you are seeded against the top fastest qualifers. Thankfully I made it through my first knock out round – I managed to keep my feet on the pedals and peddled HARD. But I wasn’t so lucky in the next round as I was against Jess Stone who has previously won the Street Velodrome championship three times! I tried my best to put up a good fight but she was just too fast! Hats off she owned it! She went on to win, and what a tense final it was with Rowena Price giving it her absolute best!
All in all, it was an awesome event! I had the opportunity to try something completely different to my usual riding and I loved it! I also got to meet so many insanely talented riders and see people from the crowd giving it a go and loving it as much as we did. Keep an eye on the Street Velodrome Instagram and Street Velodrome Website for the cities it will be stoping at next year! As it is awesome to watch! You can even give it a go too and be in with a chance of racing against the pros – plus its completely free!
Alyssa Podesta 