Lee Valley VeloPark - taster sessions!

Yes Hoke mentioned that before. We only did slaloming in the last training session I did though.

How does the stacking go ? There are six of you riding on the track on top of one another ?

And then if you're on top, you drop behind everyone else, and then drop to the bottom of the track, as they all shift upwards ?

Do what the coach says and you'll be fine. If you can find people of a similar ability to you early on then that will help if you can keep with them when doing group exercises.

Five or six of you stacked from the datum line up the boards. Rider on the inside, upon reaching the pursuit line before start/finish, drops back as others carry on and then move down (still in a stack). The rider formerly on the inside has to move behind the other riders to the top and replace the top rider in the stack before the back straight. Because the inside rider has slowed and has to move up the banking, you likely will have to get out of the saddle to get up there in time.

Thanks for the tip @roboto, yes definitely keeping away from a couple of wobblers in stage two made it a lot easier. Will try to ferret out others who are reasonably confident, without being dicks about it...

Cheers for that info, appreciated. Doesnt sound too complicated, hopefully I'll be alright.

@pharoahsanders What is the overall point of it ? To show you can hold your line ? Or maintain safe distance between riders on either side of you ? Or ... ?

I am not a coach so am willing to be corrected here. But I think it's mostly about bike control, coordination, rider awareness, communication. For example each rider will need to travel at different speeds as they are covering different distances. One numpty in my group on the datum line kept speeding off without realising this, for instance. Need to be watching the rest of the group, talking to each other and generally be aware of where everyone is and if the stack is staying intact or not.

Stacking is about controlling your speed and riding at close quarters with other riders. The rider going to the top needs to accelerate hard up the track to catch the group before the end of the banking and then slow before the banking takes them past the rest of the group. They don't expect you to be perfect on it straight away, so you will have a few rotations to get it right. Once you can judge the speed that smoothly puts you inline with your group then it gets easier.

@pharoahsanders Thank you.

@dubkev In my experience when doing stacking at lee valley I would strongly recommend gearing down (49x16) as the people above said its more about bike control than race speed at the end of the day.

I just did stage 2 and there were quite a few people who were geared too high and/or not listening to the coach and kept kicking the pace up when leading a lap.
There was also a lot of yoyo-ing of pace when in single file but pairing up seemed to smooth things out a lot.

The saddles on the hire bikes are Fizik Ardea saddles.

Thanks to all for the info with stage three. I think only four or five of our group passed (of which I was one, thankfully). The stacking was fine, one guy in our group was a bit of a mess, kept on wobbling around coming in and out of the turns, nearly taking people out, but generally the group I was with were good. The other group were more of a shambles. They just didn't seem to be able to time anything right.

What do they do in stage four?

You do the drills you've learnt during the first three stages, but you won't have much help form the coaches. They'll tell you what drill they want you to do and remind you how they want it to be done. The rest is down to you to complete the drill to the right standard.

Make sure you do all the basic safety bits like checking over your shoulder before changing line etc.

Thank you very much.

But no slaloming, or 1v1 sprinting??

I did slalom at the end of my stage four. I'm not sure why would you do 1v1 sprinting during accreditation. It's about basic safety standards, not who's the fastest around the track.

As far as I remember, I did pairs on the blue line with a crossover onto the back of the bunch, stacking and slalom. I think there was another exercise, but I can't remember what it was.

Yeah sorry my brain was conflating the skills session with that casual session I was at previously.

I've done those three exercises you mention, please let me know if you remember the last one.

Just booked my first session/taster.
I don't own any kit aside from shorts (shit fixie skidders say>>>) do I need to borrow a jersey or can I get away a with t shirt?

I'd say you'll be fine with a t-shirt for stage one, maybe just wear something figure hugging so you're not flapping around.

just wear something figure hugging

@ChainBreaker?

Id be willing to hug peoples figures.

Ill be wearing a figure hugging vest.

@Elra make sure you cover you shoulders, wear cycling gloves, helmet, trainers are fine but can you can hire Look Keo cleat/shoes at the velodrome on the day.

Cheers everyone.
I didnt even think about shoes. Obviously I cant ride in my sidis so I'll try and hire some keos. Thanks @Lifebuoy1988

They also have helmets at the velodrome.

Just got given one of these for my birthday - excite! I use look keo pedals on my roadie so am I ok to just bring my Sidis along?