After the month shut down of night riding at the velodrome, it is coming back in full force. There will a new class starting at the start of August. Kieron has all the info here so if you want in read up and sign up. Can’t wait! Some of the best times I have at the track are on Wednesday nights that’s for sure. Here are some pictures I took a few weeks back from Wednesday night.

Saturday was the last of the races for the Bob Hansing Memorial Cup Series Sponsors at Encino Velodrome so I went out to join in on the fun. Great show up from the guys that have been coming out on Wednesday night training. Pretty stacked field for the 5′s, it was 14 people deep. The 3/4 field and 1/2 field were so fast today it was awesome to watch. They also held some Keirin races that I joined in on so I could finish last in, but it was a good warm up…Points, Scratch, and Match sprints to follow, all tough and lots of work. I ended 5th at the end of the day, same as the last 2 times..but, in the end I came out as the best sprinter of the category 5 series!! I was surprised but stoked to get my trophy. All in all, fun series and races, I’ve got one more race then it is time to see if I can get my way into cat 4 races. Aaron came out and took some pictures. Dan, Anthony and Jordan also came out to cheer on. Anthony told me I was embarrassing myself…big words from that almost 4 yr old. Kieron wrote more about it on his blog here.

A few more here

What a night! Great show of people riding and to spectate. Tough riding as usual, but it was fun and there was some good action. Lots of awesome prizes donated from Faction Cycling, Predator Cycling, LA Brakeless, and Velo Cult. BBQ after was tasty, got some good eats. Bummed this won’t be happening next month as of now, hopefully it will change…Thanks to Jared and Kieron for organizing it all.

More here.

Tonight wraps up another round of track racing clinic at Encino Velodrome. Tonight is the final night so there is going to be an international omnium for all the students and BBQ for everyone else that comes! Ride The Black Line wrote more about it. Got some prizes from the good guys at Faction Cycling to give out to some of the winners. Should be a great time!

DVS & Cadence put on an event at Encino Velodrome last night to reveal the fastest riders from LA to move onto there main event in SF. I went to race and attempt to be the fastest, but came a little short, nonetheless it was a great time! Tons of Match Sprints were had but I fell victim to Woody, who fell victim to Jack in the end, who won a bunch of cash and a Giant frame! They had some more races after the race including a miss n out and a unknown distance race. I took second in the miss n out after leading the whole thing out the whole time, my strategy to not get pulled, ha. I took first in the unknown distance race, where I just decided to break away from the pack which was moving but not fast enough for excitement. Held them off all the way til the bell lap where I got to sit up over the finish line which was a pretty rad feeling. Got a handful of goodies from the sponsors! Overall, fun evening/night in the velodrome with a lot of good people. I hope this brings more exposure to track riding, because it is so much fun. No pictures really since I was riding, but I will find some when some people post them up. Posing with my goodies post race, very tired but stoked!

Drew has a spot with Decline Magazine that he will be writing for while he is back up in BC again for the BC Bike Race. Make sure to check out his blog and Decline website for updates.

Can’t forget about Colby and Scott either! Colby will be racing/riding the whole epic and Scott will be documenting it all!

This past weekend the Amgen Tour of California bike race came on through our town. We have been waiting for a while for it, and were pretty excited. To see the pro cyclists ride through our backyard and be televised, doesn’t happen to often. We prepped the night before by chalking up the road on rockstore so it could be seen on the TV. Like we planned(well, hope) we watch the recording of the stage and got some great TV time with the chalk! Rode the course in the morning before the race, and then up it again to watch them fly by so we could yell and be obnoxious. Drew decided to ride his tall bike up, and he made it with some great domestique work from Aaron, Colby and I. Took some pictures with a new camera I picked up, the Olympus XA, and I am loving it so far. Well, here are those pictures, Enjoy!
Picture Gallery

Picture Gallery

Found some film rolling around in my bag, and got these images off of it. This was from a few months ago when Drew, Norm, Aaron and I decided that we should be like the Europeans and ride no matter what the weather. It happened to be not so bad when we rolled out, then after a stop to get some rain jackets it was some of the hardest rain I have ever experienced on or off the bike and there was lightning to make it more interesting. We descended down into Camarillo and took a bit of a break to dry off and eat some snacks. Kept riding on the PCH where I really felt like complete crap. Stopped at Neptunes to warm up, but I had to call it quits and get a sag vehicle to pick me up. The other guys made it back over the canyon home like men. I proceeded to sleep for the next 15hrs when I got back, feeling achier then ever. Well, enough story time, here are some pictures.

Swarm! puts on a yearly even called Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer, where the objective is to race up the 10 of the steepest hills in LA, one after another. The supposed steepest street, Fargo, is only one of them. Aaron and I decided to head out and give this a go. Super nice morning but then it turned to a hot day which made climbing even more fun. Some of these roads are ridiculous, barely kept up, pot holes, gravel, glass, dogs, peacocks, narrow, but that adds to the fun of it. Everyone had a good time, and I definitely felt my legs after racing up all 10 of the hills. Can’t wait til next year! This is the view of Fargo, 33% of torture for one block.

I have been going to Encino Velodrome on Wednesday nights with Matt these past few weeks to get some race knowledge of the track. It is way more fun now that we really know what the races are and how they run. It is always fun when there are more people to ride with, so come on out. We are going to get the BBQ grill going on the infield for some warmth and some food. Aaron came by one of the nights to take some pictures and hang out and see what the track was about. The pictures came out rad.

The rest of the pictures here:
http://aaronpalmerphoto.com/galleries/encino.velo/

Go fast, turn left!