This questions is geared towards people who have ridden or raced at the NSC velodrome since that's where i'm going to be riding, but I guess anyone who has ridden on a Schuermann-designed 250m steep (NSC is 43 degrees I believe?) velodrome can probably weigh in too: What's a good gear range for track newbs on a track with the aforementioned dimensions? I know it's personal preference for the most part but what is a good starting point?
And I guess another quick question that is NSC-specific (queerpunk, maybe you can hep me out with is one) is: What's it like to wipe out there? I've heard a few gnarly tales about people picking splinters out of their skin for a couple months afterwards after eating it at NSC... i'd imagine the surface takes a lot of abuse from the Minnesota winters considering it's an outdoor track which might make it the wood bit more prone to splitting and stuff like that