2013 Herne Hill Track League (sponsored by Cycling Weekly)

Iain setting a track record...

The boy is an excellent sport for doing that!

Kilo/500m tomorrow. Anyone have any idea what the structure is going to be like? Do you choose which one you want to do or will it be down to turnout? One person on the track at a time or multiple people (so 900m/450m)?

Either way, I want that track record. :')

U12s do 450m, everyone else does 900m.

The track record should be achievable, especially on a nice warm night http://www.hernehillvelodrome.com/racing_events/track_records/

I was less than 1.8 seconds off when I did it at the first open season event (also when the current record was set). I now have TT bars and a Hed3 rear. No excuses. :P

Why do the women do 900m when the women's sprint TT is 500m?

Gender equality.

That's pretty groundbreaking, and very admirable doing it before the UCI! (Not being sarcastic btw, if gender equality is the reason that's awesome)
Assuming they also do the same distance as the men in the pursuits, bunch races and team sprints, and have Keirin paced at the same speeds.

Edit: Actually raises an interesting question; how important are physiological differences when deciding how much parity women only events should have compared to men's?

The first time I tried to introduce women only doing 450m they insisted on doing the full 900m!

Also it ended up a bit strange with U14 and U16's racing 900m, and since kids often ride with boys and girls in the same categories anyway, we ended up having U14 girls riding twice the distance of senior women.

Womens pursuits are still shorter though.

Did they still insist once they'd done it? ;)

Not even sure how the original distances were decided and why. How much science behind the decision to make a women's kilo half the distance? I'm going to look at some numbers later and come up with a distance which takes into account the differences in W/kg and TT times between elite male and female riders.

Doing a bit less, is fair enough, but the sprint TT being half the distance makes it a very different event.

Flying 100m sprints for women?

I've just attached straps to my pedals. Never ridden with a pedal/strap set-up like this. I really hope my holder doesn't fail me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Doing a bit less, is fair enough, but the sprint TT being half the distance makes it a very different event.

Flying 100m sprints for women?

There is actually more discrepancy in physical performance for sprint events compared to pursuit, but it's not 50%.

IIRC Vicky P's 200m TT in Beijing would have qualified her in the top 10 (or 12) for the men's event!

In my findings, the most significant difference in physical performance (power output) between male and female elite track sprint riders appears at the anaerobic threshold, where female riders produce around 65% of the male's output. Amongst endurance riders the difference is far less, where the females can produce 91% of their male counterpart's threshold power.

These differences are probably not entirely genetic, as the female sprinters will not be kilo training so there would have been less importance on threshold power (which may explain that larger difference), whereas with the enduros both male and female train in this area in a similar way.

So, for the sake of argument, even if the kilo was 100% dependent on power output at the anaerobic threshold, it would still need to be 650m for women.

I ended up getting 1:05.34 which beat the original record by 0.1 seconds. However, some animal managed to get 1:03.53 which gave them 1st place and the record. I had to settle for 2nd place and a new PB. Great evening of racing! :-------)

Woah, well done Joe!

Thank you, FixedCheese. What is the real name you go by? I know the aliases of no one!!!!

Nath, the Grupetto who gave you a flyer.

Top gurn
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vclondres/sets/72157634791601816/

Ha, YES! The vein in my neck looks....... scary!?

Definitely need to find a shim for my stem which goes deeper though. AEROOOOO!

Working on your track positioning would give you more gains.

It was my second time ever using TT bars. A lot of tuning to be done! :)

Why do the women do 900m when the women's sprint TT is 500m?

Results show women only doing 450m, and only getting 6 points for first place while men got 60. Guess herne hill aren't so progressive after all!

Seeing as they're competing for separate women's prizes the number of points they get makes fuck all difference.

I asked for some of the female rider's opinions. Given the chance to ride half the distance of an excruciating event - guess what they chose...

I think it's probably for the best, although it creates a bit of a headache with the track record.

Also, there is an average of £5.51 overall prize money per male competitor so far this year, compared to an average of £14.71 per female competitor.

That's what I meant.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vclondres/sets/72157634892210218/

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