Junior Track Cycling

There are several lists of velodromes out on the web, but few have such complete contact information. I took this list verbatim from the USCF Rulebook for 2004 and then made some corrections.

I have just made two changes from the rulebook. First, I updated some Trexlertown (Lehigh Valley) information from their web site, since their director Pat McDonough has been named National Track Programs Director for USA Cycling. Second, I added links to all of the velodromes. Many of these were from the American Track Racing Association members page, but several of the links there were bad so I found alternates. All of these work as of today’s posting.

Another change, as of February 2005. The rulebook seems to no longer have the list of velodromes, so this list will only be updated as errors or changes are noticed. I’m also adding the ADT Event Center.

By the way, the ATRA page includes velodromes in Canada which are not listed here.

To see these locations on a map and zoom in for aerial views, please see the Velodrome Locations page.

Hellyer Park Velodrome
985 Hellyer Ave
San Jose, CA 95111
Contact: Matt Martinez
408-924-1134

ADT Event Center Velodrome
The Home Depot Center
18400 Avalon Blvd
Suite 100
Carson, CA 90746
Contact (cycling): Roger Young at adteventcenter@aol.com
Contact (event tickets): Individual: www.ticketmaster.com Group: aegtickets.com or 1.866.LAGROUP

Encino Velodrome
17031 Oxnard St.
Encino, CA 91415
Contact: Joe Holmes
818-881-7441
110

San Diego Velodrome
Balboa Park
2221 Morley Field Dr.
San Diego, CA 92104
Contact: Tony Olsen
858-860-6400 x1186

7-11 Olympic Velodrome
Memorial Park
250 Union Blvd.
Colorado Springs, CO 80909
Contact: Mark Tyson
719-634-8356

Brian Piccolo Velodrome
9501 Sheridan St.
Cooper City, FL 33024
Contact: Kerry Runyan
954-437-2600 ext. 227

Dick Lane Velodrome
Lexington Ave.
East Point. GA 30344
Contact: Peter Antonvich
404-627-3392

Edward Rudolph Velodrome
1730 Pfingsten Rd.
Northbrook, IL 60062
Contact: Peter Janunas
773-279-9697

Major Taylor Velodrome
3649 Cold Spring Rd.
Indianapolis, IN 46222
Contact: Linda Fink
317-327-8356
111

Baton Rouge Velodrome
7122 Perkins Road
Baton Rouge, LA 70895
Contact: Debbie Spica
225-767-4003

National Sports Center Velodrome
1700 105th Ave., NE
Blaine, MN 55449
Contact: Bob Williams
763-785-5614

Kissena Velodrome
Parsons Blvd. & Booth Memorial Ave.
Queens, NY
Contact: Donald Winston
212-597-1217

Alpenrose Velodrome
6149 SW Shattuck Road
Portland, OR
Contact: Mike Murray
503-661-5874

Lehigh Valley Velodrome
217 Main St.
Emmaus, PA 18049
610-967-8372
Not from the rule book, but things seem to have changed:
Interim Director: Nancy Seay
610.395.700o
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 880
Trexlertown, PA 18087
Velodrome Location:
1151 Mosser Road
Trexlertown, Pennsylvania 18031

Alkek Velodrome
18203 Groeschke
Houston, TX 77084
Contact: Kathy Volski
281-578-0693

Frisco Superdrome
9700 Wade Blvd.
Frisco, TX 75035
Contact: Ryan Crissey
214-336-6211

Marymoor Velodrome
King County Marymoor Park
Redmond, WA
Contact: Dave Mann
206-621-8868

Washington Park Bowl
22nd Ave & Washington Road
Kenosha, WI 53141
Contact: Tim Kemen
262-947-5604

Velodrome at Bloomer Park
375 John R Road
Rochester Hills, MI 48307
Contact: Dale Hughes
248-650-1062

Mellowdrome
Carrier Park at Amboy Road
Asheville, NC

Penrose Park Velodrome
Penrose Park
St. Louis, MO

This is old news to many of you, but I can’t have a site about junior track racing without mentioning the Junior National Championships. They are scheduled for June 30 to July 3 in Carson California. More details can be found at USACycling and the Home Depot Center/ADT Event Center site. The latter includes a preliminary schedule of events.

You may want to visit the Schürmann site for pictures and information about the construction of “The first permanent wooden indoor track of international standard in the USA.”

This is a post just for new riders. The rest of you can ignore it. If you have more information
or corrections, please post a comment.

Velowhat?
You’ll see that I use the terms “track” and “velodrome” interchangeably. What I mean is “a banked oval track for bicycle racing, and the facility which supports it”.

What’s it Like?
Here are some differences from other types of riding:

• No cars, no dogs, no stop signs, no potholes, no wrong turns.
• No brakes or coasting - this may sound scary, but remember that there is not much to stop for. To slow down you angle up the banking and/or gradually resist the pedals.
• Banked track - the banking on a track can look scary when you walk up to it, but it actually makes the turns easier. You don’t have to do anything special about the banking - just ride. The one exception is that a few tracks are steep enough that you can slide down if you go very slowly on the bank. Don’t let this stop you - the required speed isn’t very fast and the mentors who introduce you to the track should tell you about it.
• No shifting. Part of the clean look of track bikes is due to the lack of derailleurs, shift levers, and all that. Pedal slowly to go slowly. Spin like crazy to go fast. Simple.
• It’s a small sport. You won’t find leagues with hundreds of kids as in soccer or baseball. There may even be a shortage of riders to compete against. The good side is that most tracks actively welcome new riders because they know the value of helping the sport to grow.

When and Where?
Every velodrome has a different schedule and different organizational details. You’ll just have to contact the nearest one. The USA is probably the most velodrome-poor of the major nations, with fewer than 20 sites. If you live in upper Montana, it could be over 500 miles to the nearest track. If you don’t know where your nearest velodrome is, take a look at this list of US velodromes. or one of my maps of velodrome locations.

Be sure to find out when the track holds introductory sessions. No velodrome accepts complete beginners for actual racing. After a specified number of practice sessions and approval according to local rules, you can race if you want.
Also note that velodrome organizations vary widely. Many are run by unpaid volunteers, so be understanding if the schedules seem a little odd. Other places are more structured, with professional staffs. Just adapt to what your track offers, and if it’s volunteer-based consider helping.

Equipment:
Don’t start by spending money. Most tracks have some rental bikes you can use to try things out. All you need the first day is a good helmet. If you use shoes with cleats on the road, bring them, plus your pedals. Depending on local policy, they may want you to use them, or to try it once in tennis shoes.

If you decide to stay with track riding, the people you meet there will be your best source of further equipment information. If you are lucky, the velodrome or a local club will have a way for juniors to use a bike at little or no cost. Of course if you want professional-level equipment, things can get expensive.

Most good bike shops have someone who knows a little about track racing, but only a few carry track-specific equipment. Again, people at the track can recommend good shops.

Clothing:
Track riders tend to be particular about their clothing. You’ll find that most riders are fully decked out in flashy cycling gear. Still, they should welcome you as long as you bring a helmet. Riding shorts and gloves are strongly recommended, but the jersey can wait. If you end up joining a team, you’ll be wearing their clothing.

Cost:
Many tracks have great introductory programs for juniors. Contact your local velodrome organizers any way you can. The cost to start is often very low. Of course personal coaching from professionals is another matter, and it can be expensive.

Age:
Junior racing categories officially cover ages 10 to 18 (based on your age at the end of the current calendar year). Your local track may differ - some even have a time when very small children can ride around with training wheels. Others may not have enough volunteers to provide sessions for all ages and abilities.

Physical preparation:
If you are comfortable riding for an hour or more and you like to go fast, you are more than strong enough to try things out. You’ll be focusing on skills for a while anyway, before you are ready for actual racing.

Safety:
Be aware that track riding is about racing. All racing involves risk. Introductory sessions will be made as safe as possible, but there is no such thing as risk-free riding. Take a parent along the first time (at least) to sign any required release forms.

But my coach says…
The information here is simplified to keep it easy for beginners and fairly short. Don’t be surprised when you find out that there is much more to learn. If your local coaches and mentors disagree with me, they are probably right.

Southern California/Nevada just held their state championships on May 22, 2004. It’s a little confusing that they bill this as THE State championship when there is a separate district for Northern California/Nevada, but I won’t go into that right now. Added comment 12/19/2004: they apparently never posted results, and the event isn’t even acknowledged in the Encino results archive! I removed the one link I had to the site, which was broken.

The event was a good one, with a large turnout compared to past years. The women’s fields were quite small, but the guys had perhaps a dozen riders per age group. Everything was run well, except that they were not prepared for the large turnout, and fell far behind schedule (3 1/2 hours by the time of the final awards).

I was particularly impressed by the way the officials handled the inevitable mistakes made by these young racers. They did not stop with formally issuing a warning or relegation. On three separate occasions I overheard officials carefully and calmly explaining why a decision was made, so that the rider could learn from it. They seemed to do a great job of explaining the seriousness of each offence without making the rider feel worse than necessary.

I didn’t collect enough information to offer results here, but a couple of notable items were:

• Four different riders won in the four events of the 15-16 men’s omnium. This suggests a deep pool of talent and keen competition in the future. Cody O’Reilly’s win
  was well deserved.
• Daniel Holloway dominated the 17-18 men’s field. Several excellent riders were simply not up to his level that day.
• Kim, Kelly, and Michelle LeFleur were impressive in the women’s 13-14 and 15-16 categories, in spite of having a lot to learn.

Daniel Holloway early in his Kilometer TT

Early in the 15-16 2k scratch race, favorites mark each other as an unknown attacks over the top.

I’m curious about blogging, and fairly obsessive about cycling. Thus it seems natural to pick a cycling topic and give it a try. I’m going to focus on track (velodrome) cycling for juniors (10-18). Certainly I’ll stray a bit from time to time.

Please give this thing time to evolve. At first it will simply contain postings of information I pick up. Over time, this may become a really useful reference. I don’t picture this as a discussion forum, although I’ll leave the ability to post
comments turned on for now. I would like to add other authors who have frequent information to offer.

This site will naturally start out with a bias toward the West coast of the USA, but that’s only because I live there. Coverage will expand if I get contributions from elsewhere.

If you have relevant information such as a race announcement, results, or a useful web site, please email me. My
user name is “velo”. Use the domain name of this site as the rest of the address.