Kayce

Penrose velodrome is expanding in all sorts of new ways, which is awesome. But leads to some new things we have to figure out. My team is throwing the first event day that is not the state championships in the recent history of the velodrome. Before now it has just been regular Thursday night racing.

The big key event is going to be an Olympic distance points race. We want people to get more than one race for their money, but we cannot figure out what would be good races to do after everyone has destroyed themselves on the points race.

MarkWW

Maybe put the other races before-hand as a warm up. Something like a short scratch or elimination.

bitingduck

I like to put points races in the beginning or middle of the program for an omnium. If you put them at the end, people who are out of contention for omnium placings will often skip the points race. Since it's going to be a special event, you might not have that problem for your big event day.

A miss and out could be very interesting after everyone has cooked themselves in a points race-- people who normally ride tempo at the front of a M&O might be less interested and have to pick a new tactic.

Win and out can also be good-- even if you're going 5 places deep, the track is usually nearly empty after the 3rd sprint after people blow themselves to bits in the first couple.

A long tempo could be kind of cruel...

Australian Pursuit would be fun for everyone except the last two or so chasing each other around. they'll hate you.

Unknown distance might be good for thrashed people-- a very tactical race but not necessarily aerobically intense if they're all cooked.

The other rule of thumb we tried to follow was just total number of laps-- some people from San Diego said that for it to be worth the drive they had to get about 200 laps of racing (50 km on our 250 m track). So if you keep to that and just add some shorter versions of typical races you're probably ok. IIRC olympic is 40 km.

carleton

The guys at Dick Lane are really good about posting their weekly and special event programs. Have a look. I've raced them and they are pretty good.

https://www.dicklanevelodrome.com/pag...klyracing.html
https://www.dicklanevelodrome.com/pag...aceseries.html (find the "Race Flier" pdfs)

One important note: For racers to have enough recovery time, I suggest that you field 3-4 categories of racers, not just 2. If you have 2, like an A/B field and a C/D field, the races come up sooooo fast that you won't get good performances from the racers. Maybe have fields like:

- A/B
- C
- D

or

- A/B
- C and slower Bs
- D

Notice how rookies race together? It's about the bike handling, not their speed. Most experienced racers don't want to race with rookies. Too much drama

Also, put the shorter, punchy races early in the program and the longer races towards the end. This way the sprinters can have a go in the short (5-10 lap) races then the enduros can shine in the 50-lap points later. If you put the 50-lap points first, the sprinters will be tired and not have any energy for their fav events, whereas the enduros can usually ride at the same level all day.

queerpunk

It sounds like you want something that's good to watch; won't waste people before or after the long-arse points race; and is also good racing for people whether or not they're expected to do well in the long-arse points race. So, I'd think a warmup scratch race (4 km long?) would be a good opener, with the Olympic-distance points race in the middle as a featured race, followed by a miss and out or a win and out - those are crowd-pleasers. [could switch the points race and the m&o/w&o]

Olympic distance is what, 30km? 40km? You could also trim that down a bit and still have a long, exciting, high-level enduro event. That would give you a little more flexibility in what other events you'd feel okay running. But I do like the idea of a long endurance event being the featured event.

carleton

Also, maybe sprinkle in 2-3 junior races in there, if you have enough juniors. Fans dig that.

Kayce

The plan is to do the categories how we do our State Championship. Women, Open, and Elite. I like the idea of a shorter scratch as a warm up race, and some sort of elimination for a cool down.

carleton

Please describe the difference between Open and Elite? I have taken those to mean the same thing.

Kayce

Open races are usually won by the mid-level B Racers. The bottom half of the Bs and all the Cs race in that field. The elite is the top half of the the Bs and all the As. Like I have said Penrose has been such a low key and local track that we have our own thing. We are still working on things. Do you have any suggestions on what to call fields that would break up that way?

carleton

Ah. Why not just call them Elite, A, B, or C races?

Kayce

Our Thursday nights are a, b, and c. But this is only going to have two fields. I don't want to just call them a and b because I feel like it would discourage c racers.