A Day Inside The Concrete Crater

Last Saturday was the Los Angeles leg of the Velocity 2008 Tour. I had the pleasure of attending my first track racing event, and two words best sum up the day. Hot and Inspiring.

Yes, it was a scorcher that day. Temps were at least in the upper nineties, and without a whole lot of shade to go around at the Encino Velodrome, it felt even hotter most of the time. But what am I complaining about? The racers are the ones who actually had to compete in that furnace!

I had a nice ride out from Hollywood. I took the Red Line to North Hollywood, then took my first trip on the Chandler Bikeway that runs alongside the Orange Line Busway. I have mixed emotions about the path as a whole. It's great to have a fully dedicated bike path that takes you out of traffic (most of the time). But as with virtually every other bike related piece of infrastructure in this city, oh are there ever flaws galore. But that's for another post.

I arrived at the race a little early, so I spent a while roasting, reading and watching the competitors steadily arrive over the course of the morning. Unfortunately, it looks like the "concrete crater" has seen better days. The track itself looks to be in good shape, but the grandstands are fallig apart. It's all splintering wood and peeling paint. I'd love to get involved in some fundraising to spruce the place up. For now, I just bought a $10 t-shirt.

Once the races started, I was glued to the track. The speed, the power, the blistering heat. It was a lot of fun to watch, and I found myself saying, "I gotta do this!" So I'm going to try to make it to one of the open training sessions at the Velodrome, which are held every Wednesday.


You can check out all of the pics here. I'll post some video soon too.