A beautiful morning on Wednesday 3rd July required a tough decision for the evening’s activities: take the MTB to work and ride the first Beastway at Hog Hill, or head down to Herne Hill for the regular summer Track League meeting. It was tough decision, but although I love Beastway and have raced it for years, this year there are only four races, and I know I can’t make two of them. Herne Hill then!

I now keep my track bike in a container at the track, so getting there is a doddle from work. The League races change format slightly from week to week, but the races are a mixture of sprints, points races, ‘Devil Take the Hindmost’ and scratch races. They sometimes throw in a pursuit for good measure. The seniors are divided into A’s (roughly cat 1/2 equivalent) and B’s (think 3/4). I am racing in the B’s, although I raced in the A’s for the ‘Devil’.

The atmosphere is really nice, with breaks in between races (the juniors and youths race too). It’s pretty sociable and laid back. Some Cat A riders are even used as makeshift dernys to allow the youths to ride a keirin and derny paced race! As usual, Brian Taylor of VCL was incredibly strong all night, but yours truly ended up with a first in the B Sprint (“Skinny Climber in Sprint Win Shocker!!!”) and a second in the points race. In the points race, we raced 10 laps, with points awarded for the first 3 over the line every other lap. This can be pretty tiring, but after grabbing a second in one sprint, I decided to keep going and got a 100m gap to allow me to get first in the next sprint. The evening ended with a 20km scratch race as the sun began to set – all in all a great night. As luck would have it, a sponsor was giving out special prizes this week, so I won some pocket money for the kids too.

Don’t forget the LP Track Day is on Saturday 22nd August where we will have our own instructor and you can experience all of the above action (bikes provided). We also hope to have a proper derny for some keirin action of our own! See you there. Alex