First photos of the Boulder Velodrome

David and myself got a 1st class tour by Paul Wells, the Managing Directory of Boulder's first Velodrome. First off, its going to unlike anything you have ever seen in cycling, this will unique and fun. Paul spent a good portion of an hour talking to myself and David about the track, track bikes, how the leagues work, training, the coaching, etc. There is very little that Paul has not planned for yet.

Here are the highlights from the conversation

• Schedule. Few set backs but still on for Dec 1.
• More than just a Velodrome This is more than just a place you come to ride you bike, this will be the place to hang out, watch the tour(s), have a team meeting, throw back a few beers after a race (track or not), etc. The top deck (sorry no photos of that) will have a bar, large projector TV, coaches, etc and additionally the top deck will back right up to the top of corner #1 so great viewing from up there
• Classes. If you have never ridden a track then you will want to take their classes. The first track I ever rode was the track at Penrose Park in St. Louis, I'm not sure of what the banking was but I will guess that was around 20%, this track will have something like 45% banking, notice the photo above or this photo from a near identical track in Canada. With 20% its easy but 45+ you might want to ease into it. I'll be there taking the class. Also with the class you get borrow one of their track bikes from their fleet of bikes.
• Great timing. All timing will be done via AMB Timing allowing all lap times to be posted immediatly on My Labs.com
• Racing Leagues. This will be unique to the Boulder Velodrome with no other Velodrome in the country to have this. The concept has been adopted from Boulder Indoor Soccer and details of it can be found on the Boulder indoor cycling website. It sounds like a friendly yet competitive way to get started into track racing which for me might be great because I really don't see be becoming a "trackie" but do want to get engaged into the sport.

Interested, now what?

Get a bike or sign up to take a class. If you are not 100% sure about racing on the track but want to give it a go then sign up for their classes and with the class you get access to a track bike. Another option is to buy a track bike, BEAWARE due to the steep banking of this track it is likely that a road bike that has been converted into a "fixie" might not work, your bottom bracket and crank arm length needs to be so that the inside pedal clears the track. If you're not sure contact Paul at Boulder Indoor Cycling (303-CYCLING) and he can tell you more. Getting a fixie set up even if you won't be using that bike to race the track still isn't a bad thing to do because if you haven't ever ridden a fixed gear bike before you might want to get some practice outside the track. Paul mentioned to me that both Felt and Surly are two bikes that will work and those can be found in this town.
Start getting a team together, if existing ACA teams want to sign up as a team then there is something like a 10% discount for all members. Don't feel intimidated, for 95% of us this will be our first really experience on the track to just sign up and do it, it will be fun!