spartanKid

Attention: as of Feb 20, 2018 FVA Operations Postponed Indefinitely ? FVA

Sad, sad day.

If you live in Broward County, FL, or in the surrounding area, the velodrome needs your help!

Morelock

saw that on FB earlier.

Sad, never got the chance to make it down, but it seems like a great location.

Voodoo76

I was there once, for a UCI Masters race in the mid-90's. As I remember a very nice facility in a really well maintained park. Surprising that they don't have a deep volunteer pool, been around for almost 25 years?

octopus magic

Some of my family lives a half hour away from the Velodrome and I was trying to figure out a way to get a race in while visiting. Bummer!

carleton

To put it bluntly, this sucks.

Velodromes don't run themselves. It takes A LOT of dedication and hard work to keep it in race shape.

I don't know what it takes to inspire a new generation of volunteers. Maybe suggestions in this thread will help.

From what I hear, South Florida has a thriving road/crit community (as does Atlanta). I'm not sure how to pull even a fraction of those racers over to the track.

carleton

I made this post in the Road Racing sub. Let's see if it gets some replies: https://www.bikeforums.net/33-road-b...ace-there.html

brawlo

I read the FB post where it's mentioned that 10 volunteers are required to run racing. Why so many? That could be a big part of the problem. Most volunteers would be racers, and that's a lot of people that can't race each event

FBinNY 

The simple truth is that a facility and program like this cannot operate long term with volunteers alone. People have lives, and the nature of an all volunteer structure is that it will slowly devolve to a small core willing to do all the work, and rarely have a provision for continuity when these people move on.

This is exactly what happened here. Going forward, they need to think about a core of salaried staff, maybe only 1-3 people, leveraged by volunteers. To do that they need an adequate revenue stream, possibly consisting of corporate sponsors, advertising, special event sponsors, food concessions, and rider fees. That plus some gate revenue, keeping in mind that the entrance fee has to be low enough to not be a barrier until such time as some events are able to draw a gate at slightly higher fees.

Hopefully, they'll pull their act together, reach out to successful programs like T-town for advice in putting together something durable.

BTW- this is a cautionary tale for all tracks in the USA. A track alone, even a beautiful track in a good cycling area, is not enough to succeed. It takes a serious plan and program to make anything happen.

carleton

My guess would be 10 total for various things:

- Opening the track for training/racing (unlocking the gates and doors)
- Giving out rental bikes and receiving them. Maintenance on them.
- Periodically raking leaves and repairing fences
- Running the website
- Financial accounting
- Officiating races
- Updating results on the website

It takes a team for sure.

At DLV for race nights it's not uncommon for there to be 2 bell-ringers and they would swap back and forth when it's time for the other to race.

But, as you suggest, maybe their system of doing things could be rebooted and their processes reevaluated.

carleton

+1 to all of the above. DLV wouldn't function if a small few people stopped caring.

chas58

linky no worky.

was that thread moved or deleted?

carleton

The conversation got derailed after a while. I asked mods to delete the thread.

EDIT:

Basically, those who responded said that either:

- The track was too far away.
- Traffic getting to the track was a mess.
- The intro classes were not friendly.
- The races were too short and the breaks in-between too long.

carleton

The thread is back up @chas58.

zizou

I can see it needing 10 volunteers quite easily.

I dont know about Florida but i have heard anecdotally that part of the problem with lack of volunteers is that riders are racing until later ages, previously they would get to a certain age, no longer be competitive but still want to be a part of their sport so would start officiating and volunteering. From what i gather that isnt happening so much these days - there are more masters and veterans racing and as a result the volunteer pool is getting older and older. I'm not knocking these guys still racing i hope to be doing the same too in my 40s, 50s and 60s!

carleton

Wow. That's very insightful and something that I had not considered, but it makes a lot of sense.

queerpunk

in my experience it's not too hard to get a handful of volunteers, but the difficulty is getting that core group, those 2 or 3 people who are essentially staff people. honestly they deserve to be paid - it can be a rough road if there's not the structure or funding to do that. basically exactly what FBinNY said.

i wonder if the problem in florida was a lack of riders. it wouldn't be too hard to imagine that a regular schedule for a few years could make it THE winter time destination for competitive track racing in the usa. trackies travel.

Muddlfuc

The Australian model for velodromes is that a local racing clubs is based out of them, while the facilities are owned by the local councils (departments that run parks)
This gives the club a clubroom, and also a great space to run a juniors programs and winter spin sessions.
The clubs maintain the basics of the track, like sweeping, opening up, running events and running the hire bikes.

This could be a by product of how the sport in Aust is set up.
Cycling Aust governs upper tiers of the sports and the licensing of riders.
Cycling Vic runs the state races and governs the clubs.
To have a racing licence the rider has to nominate a club to be a member of.

Melbourne (the city I live in) has 8 outdoor velodromes run buy clubs and 2 indoor timber tracks. of these, 4 or 5 have been upgraded in the last 5 years. (first time in 20 years).

Most are 330m concrete or asphalt with a relatively low banking there is one 250m concrete that is a real hoot to ride. and DISC is an indoor timber track that has racing 2 nights a week

https://www.momnium.com/a-list-of-th...und-melbourne/

DMC707

The Superdrome, now this one --- sheesh

queerpunk

well the Superdrome is getting torn down.

Sounds like nothing's happening to BPV, but the group that was running an ambitious race calendar there had to cancel it.

Pretty different situations - fortunately.

brawlo

Kind of interesting read.

Despite your insistence @carleton is certainly does appear that the US category system is a hindrance. From our perspective, we see a fun format of racing on the track. I love the fact that you can generally be competitive in at least one race format. If you bungle a move and lose out, it's ok, there's another race in not too long. From talking to road riders that we've tried to entice onto the track, there are barriers that are on the most part in their head:
- "no brakes, therefore it's dangerous" - no, I've seen more crashes in one road event than I've ever seen in my life on the track
- "I need another bike, it's too expensive" - we have a fleet of club bike available for borrowing for extended periods - zero cost!
- racing around in circles, it's boring - no it's not, just give it a go

From the outside looking in from Australia, the cat system seems too involved. You as a track rider may say it's not, but from that post, it's obvious that it certainly is in the minds of potential riders. Perhaps they've had a hard time with their road upgrades? Here, we have a handicapping system. The role of club handicapper is a thankless job, but one that is passed around the riders from year to year. It is usually done by someone that is heavily involved in racing and social and training riding to keep an eye on the development of riders. When we step up from the club level, our handicap rankings are sent to race organisers to grade riders accordingly for larger events. So, in effect, you just get out and race. How fast you progress is totally dependent on your ability. There is a huge amount of teaching given out by the riders around new riders and and those watching the racing. Very rarely in my experience has a Comm had to step in to deliver some more heavy handed education. For the winter racing in Sydney, new riders with no boards experience must spend 2 weeks in the novice class, regardless of ability. From there, there are 5 divisions and the new riders are free to insert themselves into whatever grade they think they can handle. Newer riders are encouraged to sit back and become comfortable with the racing rather than put themselves up into the mix from the beginning. The format works, racing is smooth, and there are very very few crashes.

carleton

Yup. I learned at a track run by an Aussie (Jeff Hopkins). Maybe i was fortunate to have that structure.

A lot of the gripes about upgrades is because they feel that the categories are measures of ability and not skill. They are *literally* insulted to have to ride with beginners as they learn to race track.

Being fast enough isn’t enough.

carleton

Very oddly, the USAC Category system is used somewhat as a social class system.

I don't know how rigorous the upgrade process for road racing. Maybe others can comment. But, there is definitely a sort of hostile "bro" environment that exists and holding a higher category license grants you a certain level of status in that world.

Some would gladly "CAT-up" and get their asses kicked every weekend than stay in a lower category and be competitive.

I don't feel that that is the case in the track world in the US.

chas58

That is what I thought for a long time too. I had no idea how interesting it really was, and how good it was for my general bike skills, paceline skills, and physical development.

Now I think of a crit race as boring - riding around for an hour and then doing a sprint at the end. How fun is that?

brawlo

Depends on the racers too. I remember a few years at my local where scratch races were just a paceline ride to a sprint finish and sprints were a kind of chat for a lap (2 laps of a 400m track) then a dash for the line. Then we had some new riders from elsewhere start racing with attacks and surging and my whole perspective on racing changed for the better.

I like crits because it is a form of road racing that suits me, but yes, it is rather boring at times

chas58

Yes, an interesting read.

Some of it is a mentality kind of thing

I like the downtime because it allows me to get to know my fellow racers and build a community. Track is more social than road (realistically, road seems to me (and has the reputation of being) pretty anti-social).
There is the belief that training time is precious and one should be in a hammer fest when training. Track has taught me the advantage of interval training. Going hard. Recovering (sitting down) and then going hard again.

I understand the guy who’s kid didn’t have the patience to start all over. Many strong fast road guys are kinda cocky and elitist. I know, it’s not PC to say that, but we have all met them. I’m strong enough for just about any road ride, But hanging out in the parking lot with a lot of road riders is too often not a very inclusive experience. Hang out at the track, mountain bike trail, CX event – they are much more laid back and inclusive.

I don’t care too much how I’m categorized. I just want seat time, to challenge myself, and have safe fun.

I did laugh when the guy wanted Carlton’s resume. That is kind of typical – “are you worthy of my time based on your UCI classification?”

And this quote was spot on (if difficult for others to understand): “… what you haven't experienced is a few veteran racers coming off the track and saying to the director, "You gotta pull that guy. He's gonna take us all out. If he lines up on the boards for the next race, I'm going home."