Madison

I thought I would share with you my experience today at the track.  I was on some Madison training, arranged by the LVRC (for 'veterans' of over 40 - I easily qualify!).  In case you aren't sure, Madison is the track discipline where teams of two race together against other teams on track.  There can be as many as a dozen teams of two on at the same time.  In each team, one of the riders is riding hard and racing, the other

 is resting (going around high on the track).  About every 3 laps the resting rider takes over from the racer and they swap places.  The racing responsibility is passed over by tagging your teammate, normally done with a handsling to transfer the momentum of the racer to their teammate, who becomes the new racer.

Handslings are an interesting technical skill I had to learn!  Along with that was the understanding of how to move around the teams that are doing a handover.  Despite there being about 18 riders, most learning these skills for the first time, the session went well, with no collisions at all.  It requires a lot of thinking and observation, just to avoid problems in a training environment, but I hope that we get the chance to develop further and have a couple of semi competitive races next time.  I'll keep you posted.

​In the meantime, here is a video of the other, experienced group doing a decent handsling - check out the riders in red, white and blue.  Or to see a classic race, try this YouTube link of Wiggo and Cav.