Herne Hill Saturday Training

What the nice old man should've said was this:

http://www.hernehillvelodrome.com/sessions_and_training/session_pathway/

Simply put, you do not have the skills to ride a track bike at anything close to Cat C race pace and you would be a danger to other users.

But hey, if someone wants to tell my I'm wrong....

The consensus between the coaches seems to be that Mondays is ok for beginners. I also work most Saturdays and got the same answer from a different coach. I asked if Mondays would be too difficult and was told that there's usually two groups and that the slower group should be fine. Whilst I appreciate that there are obvious safety concerns, I also think that the attitude to newcomers might be more welcoming than this. After all, the Monday night sessions are part of the pathway, not separate from it, and any rider who skips straight from induction to Mondays is only missing out on three hours of track time. If it's too fast / difficult / nervy for beginners on Monday than they can always just stop or be pulled off by the coach.

Ideally there would be an alternative basic training slot for those who can't make Saturdays (of which there must be plenty).

For the meantime I'm planning on changing shifts until I've done my Saturday sessions, so I am essentially in agreement with the safety-first opinion... but that's mainly because I don't want to feel out of my depth. It might be not so easy for others to switch work days, so they'd just be missing out forever...