Good Morning, Class.

Follow the Leader

This Ain't Hard

Put That in the Bank

David Warms up on the Apron

Devon Blisters the Boards

Sprinter Lane

Match Sprint, Anyone?

Banker's Hours

World Class Speed?

Joe, the Track Teacher, talks to our little group about what to do and what to avoid.

Before turning us loose on the track, we played a bit of follow the leader around the warm-up circle and the apron.

Riding on the apron is sort of like riding on nice smooth concrete in a big circle. In fact, it is exactly like riding around in a circle on smooth concrete.

The track is 250 meters long and is banked 17 degrees on the straights and 44 degrees in the turns. I didn't have my protractor with me, but it looked more like 144 degrees.

The big blue band at the bottom of the track is a good place to get comfortable with the track. After a few times around, you're ready to move up onto the banked turns. (Yes, that is a pole in the picture.)

The Superdrome is wooden track painted with a textured paint (think of sand paper). It sounds pretty cool when riders go by . . . sort of like they are riding on a drum.

The black line at the bottom of the track is the measurement line (exactly 250 meters around). The space between the black line and the red line is called the "Sprinter's Lane."

Mark and Devon mix it up in a little match sprint. This is a three lap race that relies heavily on strategy and bike handling ability (ask Mark for details).

You only have to go about 10 mph or so to "stick" on the turns. Rumor has it that if you go slower you are at risk of sliding off.

Not hardly, but Mark was fast enough to contribute to a blurry picture. After the class was finished, we watched some world class riders do some motorpacing behind a motorcycle. They finished their 30 lap "warm up" with a few laps at 38 mph. Now they were fast.