Thats is a cool story Dennis, thanks.
It reminds me of a similar experience I had. I was riding a crit in North Jersey. I think it was Red Bank. With about 5 laps to go they neutralized the race because a house on course was on fire. A bunch of fire engines came on the course and blocked off half the road in front of the house; but the promoter let us keep going around. There was nobody off the front so we rolled round at half throttle. I guess it was a grease fire in the kitchen because I didn't see any flames or smoke. The firemen did their thing pretty quickly and got out of there. So now there was only five laps to go but everybody had gotten a real good breather. Of course I made sure that I was right near the front when the race got de-neutralized. It didn't help. Those 5 laps were about as fast as I ever experienced. I swear we were taking the turns at 30 miles an hour. It was a five lap drag race and the spinters were hanging on for dear life...
Jamie Swan Cell - 516-238-6782 Centerport Cycles Inc. 245 Main St. Northport, N.Y. 11768 631-262-0909 http://www.centerportcycles.com (mapped) http://www.cabinfeverauctions.com http://www.limws.org http://www.liatca.org
On Mar 27, 2006, at 9:41 AM, Dennis Young wrote:
>
> Since we are discussing inside the track usage, I hope my track tale
> is not off topic:
> My local has a grass infield that is used as a landing pad for the big
> helicopter bringing patients to the nearby university hospital. A car
> pulls up at the gate and someone in a suit comes out and sometimes
> nearly gets run over while flagging us down to tell us to stop riding
> and scatter to the outer edges of the track, all very hurried like.
> Then off in the distance the whump whump whump of the helicopter grows
> more audible to somewhat deafening as it comes beating in. The wind
> gets kicked up like a force nine gale, a bike in a stand can get blown
> over, then a poor soul gets carried out in a gurney and is rolled away
> to a waiting ambulance that whisks them away with the siren blaring.
> The helicopter lifts away, force nine again, and those who waited or
> didn't wait for the all clear sign are back to their anti-clockwise
> movements on the track; probably some like myself, thinking that it is
> better to be healthy out riding, than having to be wheeled away under
> someone else's power. Long live track bikes!
>
> Dennis Young
> Hotaka, Japan
>
>> Dan commented: "And thus we have the answer to the question, can a
>> bike
>> track fit into the
>> footprint of a hockey rink? Yes, indeed it can."
>>
>> The Frankfurt Germany velodrome is converted into a skating rink in
>> the
>> winter, however they fit two rinks into the infield. I used to live
>> less
>> than one km from the velodrome and would take my road bike onto the
>> track in summer and played ice hockey there during the winter.
>>
>> Steven Maasland
>> Moorestown, NJ