In the early hours of Saturday, around 6:30am, there was an overwhelming sense of excitement coming from 77 Massachusetts Ave. The MIT cycling team was pumping their tires and housing coffee in anticipation for a ride to New Hampshire. The sky was clear, the sun was shining, and the forecasted rain was nowhere to be seen. A long awaited break in the consistent Saturday rain.
Such luck did not last for very long, and the cyclists found themselves with a face full of road spray and bone rattling chills. Yet they ventured on, and valiantly found themselves at the Northeast Velodrome. Upon seeing the elegantly banked curves and the beaming côte d’azur, they could hardly contain their smiles (see Figure 1).
There the MIT cyclists—Lorenzo, Matteo, and Ryan—met their instructors for the day. A huge shout out to Mark, Ed, and Wolf for putting up with the fixed gear noobies (well except for Lorenzo who already had experience on a track).
The day started out simple, with sizing the bikes and practice clipping in. From there the first laps were made around the track, learning the rather unusual sensation of pushing down on the pedals to slow down. Matteo could be seen reaching for the brakes and grabbing only air on occasion.
The sun showed its face intermittently and the outlook improved. The water was slowly making its way off of the concrete and into the chilly air above. So the cyclists gathered up by the boards.
After learning the ropes, the cyclists were ready for their first race. They were led through both a 12 lap scratch race and an 18 lap points race, with two intermediate sprints. Each was hotly contested, with Lorenzo sending early and sustained attacks while Matteo and Ryan bumped elbows for the fast paced draft coming around corner four. Their high cadence skills were at full display as they crossed the white line in a photo finish.
At the conclusion of the day, the cyclists were still all smiles and more than ready to make their return. It was fully worth the bike ride there and the bike ride back, and the mud accumulated on the way. See you all there soon!
See the Northeast Velodrome’s blog post here: