Thea reports on thrills (and spills!) of cycling at the Velodrome.

September 13, 2017

#everactivgirl ambassador Thea recently took a trip to the velodrome for the first time. She tells us all about her experiences in this blog - it sounds like a great trip and as usual she's smiling the whole way!

This is a picture of me when I was standing just outside the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, the place where I watched the Track cycling World Cup !…..I wasn’t competing at the World Cup though!!! What I was doing was having my first track session! It was also my first time ever on a track bike,  I was a bit nervous about not having any brakes on the bike.

I went inside and down the stairs that led to the Velodrome with my dad. Seconds later I was inside the stadium, we went to the little bike hire station so I could hire a bike and some clip-ins. I got the bike but unfortunately there weren't any shoes left in my size  so I used my trainers and a toe cage. I did some cycling in the pit in the middle of the track to get used to the bike. After that the two coaches called the people who were doing the session over and we got split into two groups.  My group did the M check on our bikes and then went onto the track to do some cycling.  We did one lap on the apron, a little more cycling in the pit and then we were told to go round the track and to try and go on the steep bit if we wanted to.

So off I went, zooming round the track. It was so so so so so fun, I felt like I was flying! For the first lap or two I was going on the steep bits on the home straight and back straight and on the very edge, nearly on the steep bits on the corner. Then I decided to go on the black line - which is at the bottom of the steep bit - round on the corners. On my fifth lap I was up between the black and red lines. I was going quite fast and when I was nearly on the back straight my wheel caught the wood and my bike slipped from under me. I fell. It wasn't that sore so I decided to get back on my bike and keep going. I was having too much fun to stop!  One lap later we were all called in, the session was finished.I was very glad I had done it, and I hope I can go again!

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