Man, we’re getting clobbered here in SoCal. It doesn’t compare to Hurricane Katrina or anything that dramatic but by SoCal standards this is bad. The rain is going on and off today. It’s been cold, once again, by LA standards. Not sub-zero east coast but consistently under 40F here in the desert. We drove up to Visalia today to visit family and it was nasty on the way up the 99. There were tumbleweeds everywhere – blowing all over the freeway and tumbling into the miles of barbed wire that line the 99. My nephew spotted a tornado that went by his backyard around noon in Visalia. He said it was down to the tree tops. His brother drove about a 1/2 a mile away when we got there and found 4 big trees tossed to the ground. Wild!!!!
Saturday was exciting for me personally. I went down to the ADT Event Center and successfully completed the Accelerated Class for experienced trackies. Roger Young gave us a talk on the aspects of safety and equipment choices for the velodrome. It was very helpful to learn from someone that has the experience he has. Tires, bikes, and general safety were stressed. You can’t go into the 45 degree banked turns without sufficient speed or you will crash. Johnny Walsh led us around for a few laps showing us the speed we needed to stay upright. I led us out for the first few real laps and stayed on the blue line until Johnny said to move into the sprinters lane. The degree of banking is intimidating however once you’re up to speed you don’t really notice how steep the track is. Even riding up on the very top of the track wasn’t too bad. My buddy Pat Hogan that went along was going good and having fun on the track. There were 4 others for a total of 6 of us that completed the class. We did a bunch of pace line drills that got us familiar with the track. Once we were all done with the instruction and a load of laps we got to do a flying 200. With an 82 inch gear I quickly spun out but it was awesome to tear one off and get the feeling of hitting the boards at speed. The first race for me here is in April. I can’t wait!!!!
