'Purest form of cycling'
Published: Friday, December 15, 2006
Old-time cycling will make a 21st century comeback in the new year, as the second annual Six Days of Burnaby hits the banked wooden track at the Harry Jerome Sports Centre.
Highlighting the Jan. 2-7 event at the Burnaby Velodrome is the Madison, a unique tag-team-type competition pitting teams of two against each other. One cyclist races around the 200-metre track while the other rests by pedaling slowly, high on the bank. They change places when one rider grabs the other's hand and slings him -- or her -- into the pack.
"It's quite a rush for competitors and fans. It's an old-fashioned extreme sport that was forgotten about for a while," says Andy George, president of the Burnaby Velodrome Club. "A lot of people don't even know it -- or the Velodrome -- exists."
Top riders can reach speeds of 70 km/h on the Velodrome's banked sides and steep corners. Besides staying aware of their surroundings, cyclists have to also fight the G-forces that are drawing their bikes upwards while they try to maintain as straight a line as possible.
They must maintain a speed of at least 30 km/h to prevent the bike from sliding off the track.
"It's the purest form of cycling," says Keith Bruneau, a former national cycling team member who holds four national titles and more than 30 provincial titles. "No brakes, fixed gear, plus the degree of the bank and the speed. It has its extreme components."
Six-day races were extremely popular in North America in the 1920s and '30s, says George, when they were tailored to arenas like New York's Madison Square Garden -- hence the name Madison.
Last year's six-day race in Burnaby was the first of its kind held in Canada in more than 30 years.
"Back then it would attract as many people as a hockey game does now," says George, who will be competing in the Madison and sprints competitions.
The Madison will be the featured race each night, while the evenings will be rounded out with a mixture of other events, including scratch races, points races, sprint races and Australian pursuit racing.
Bruneau will be joined in the elite category by Symmetrics pro riders Svein Tuft, Cam Evans, Christian Meier, Zach Bell and Marsh Cooper, as well as U.S. U-23 individual pursuit champ Dan Harm.
iwalker@png.canwest.com
SIX DAYS OF BURNABY
WHERE: Burnaby Velodrome, 7564 Barnet Highway
WHAT: Top North American track professionals will race for six nights in a variety of events, including the feature race, the Madison.
WHEN: Jan. 2-7
COST: Food donation
WEBSITE: www.burnabyvelodrome.ca
1 comment:
I wish we could go to this...I imagine it's filled up already. Might be a good template for us to run a similar event in Calgary this summer though. Craig D. and I have talked about it.
Post a Comment