First Track Race...

have fun. and watch the higher grades

jock.c said:

have fun. and watch the higher grades

I was very nervous on the track. MOre so than I usually am.

I warmed up a little but had forgotten to take my roller so didn't warm up as much as I usually do.

Somebody either a team member or an official signed me up for a preliminary 500m sprint race. They called my number out and rather than argue and say I didn't want to race it I went in it. This was a good test for my race and I had a feel of what to do. A team mate said I was going too wide and to hug the bend more.. That was good feedback before my main race...

In my main race (1000m TT) there were about 50 riders. I signed up early to get it over with asap and went off the 7th rider...

Took it pretty easy on the 1st lap and pushed it to the max on the 2nd lap. (2 X 500m Omiya Keirin track).

I was a bit wobbly for the last 50m but finished as hard as I could.

I ended up coming 16th. 1st was 1 minute 14. 2nd & 4th my team mates at 1:20.## and me at 1:24:42

I didn't set the track on fire but was happy to finish near the leaders. The race was not graded. I was in with all levels...

There was a bit of a strong wind on the back straight and I didn't fight with it....

Was surprised at how hard it was to generate speed around the curves...

I heard that to become a pro keirin rider in Japan you need to ride the 1000m course in 1:10:00

Was also happy that nobody older than me finished in front of me.
The winner was 23. I am 43.

Was fun!

Well done on your first race event, top marks!

Don't ever worry about doing too many races on track night: you can normally never get enough. Even the toughest races are so short that you can easily recover unless you do something wrong with your preparation.

Keep on racing, and keep on having fun! 🙂

Congratulations on your first track race! The pic that you posted shows you on your road bike....I'm guessing that they let you ride the 500 and 1000 m TTs because you don't have a track bike? If that is the case, you should get yourself a cheap or used track bike and have a go at the sprints...I'm sure you'll be hooked! There's so much strategy and speed compacted into a few moments that it really is much more exciting than road races (tho I am biased!).
Do you live close to the track there in Omiya? If so, you are really lucky. I have to drive about 6.5 hours to get to the nearest track here (Hakodate, Hokkaido)...so I never forget to take my rollers! 😉

They had two categories. Road or Track bikes. I could have entered the track as well as our team had 2 bikes to use. I live nearer the matsudo Keirin track. Because it's hard to get use of the tracks I haven't bothered buying a track bike yet.

I will use the team bike next time. I just wanted this first time to be a warm-up and ride on the bike I'm used to.

The winner of the track 1000m TT recorded the same time as the winner of the road bike...

2 or 3 times a year they have these 'experience the track' races where they let road bikes on the course.

Usually they don't allow road bikes anywhere near the courses.

There is a keirin track near Chiba city that lets anybody use it, you just have to book the track. Our club may start going there on Saturdays...

The Omiya track is going to close next year as well. (rumour)

JAPANic said:

They had two categories. Road or Track bikes. I could have entered the track as well as our team had 2 bikes to use. I live nearer the matsudo Keirin track. Because it's hard to get use of the tracks I haven't bothered buying a track bike yet.

I will use the team bike next time. I just wanted this first time to be a warm-up and ride on the bike I'm used to.

The winner of the track 1000m TT recorded the same time as the winner of the road bike...

2 or 3 times a year they have these 'experience the track' races where they let road bikes on the course.

Usually they don't allow road bikes anywhere near the courses.

There is a keirin track near Chiba city that lets anybody use it, you just have to book the track. Our club may start going there on Saturdays...

The Omiya track is going to close next year as well. (rumour)

excellent, i hope this is the start of a long and successful track racing career