Andy DS, Josh and I are off to NJ's premier (well, only) track this afternoon / evening in Wall for the 2013 Keirin Cup. Me and Andy in the 1/2/3s, Josh in the 4/5s. Three keirins for each category, placings in each contributing to an overall classification.

https://www.bikereg.com/net/Confirmed/20165

Personally feeling pretty crap the last few days with a bad chest and on the verge of what feels like a flu-like virus (since my exertions on Sat and some heavy work days), but still looking forward to it. Might have to limit my efforts to the last 200m, rather than any Chris Hoy style rampaging on the front with 400m to go...

Wish us luck...

We'll report back soon.

In the meantime, here's a video to get excited over.

http://www.nowness.com/day/2011/3/8/574/keirin--speed-racers

Good luck lads!

In the meantime, here's a video to get excited over.

http://www.nowness.com/day/2011/3/8/574/keirin--speed-racers

Love the guy dropping his pack of cigarettes as he gets up to race at 0:34...

AWESOME JOB KIERAN! Huge congrats on the top step.

Kieran wins the Keirin

Nice work Kieran

Congrats!

(NJ has a velodrome? How did I not know that?)

All hail the unstoppable Kieran! 

Kieran,

Photo

CLEARLY not having a badass helmet like Josh S is holding you back....

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=700021026692524&id=238708842841328&ref=m_notif&notif_t=backdated_content&actorid=1069908089&__user=19609860

Video o roun two. Both Kieran and I made a few friends during this round!!

Kieran went from last position to first real quick. I got third.

Thanks guys! It was a super fun night. I LOVE racing keirins (other than the time when er, I crashed badly in one - see previous video) and these were great. The GSVelodrome is a little "idiosyncratic", let's say, but good fun. It's 400m, like Kissena, and while the surface is rougher (more like "parking lot" asphalt), it doesn't have the same bumps as Kissena. Getting through turns three and four at speed were fun though - you almost had to force your bike to steer through them to avoid getting completely thrown up the track (see attached pic for my face of concentration). I was fortunate / unfortunate enough (depending on your perspective) to race from second or third wheel going into these turns in each race so had to go pretty high to hit the front. The not-hitting-the-front too early part was half intentional on my part - I have good speed at the mo but my lungs were hurting (have a nasty cough) so I didn't want to have to sprint too far too long. As it was I timed it so I hit the front just coming into the home straight in all three rides.

I was chatting to Andy and Josh before the races that the beauty (?) of keirins is that they are really unpredictable - a whole bunch of people each trying to do their own thing. So you can have a plan in your back pocket, but you have to be prepared to improvise. I had to do the latter a lot last night in coming from the back and going a lot higher up the track than I would want to! (Doing the latter is really really hard on a faster track with really fast riders - you end up going backwards very quickly).

The people there on the whole were super friendly and really happy we came *all the way* from NY to race at their budding track. The track looks pretty cool at night as well - with the floodlights (imagine that) and the fact it's located in a dip with paths leading down into it from the car park gives it quite a cool look when you look down at it.

There's a plan for a bunch of Wed night Kissena Velodrome regulars to go out to GSV on a Wed night at the start of Sept. Details on FB. Get on it!

Coming into home straight in first round...aargghh...

Ahhhh....

Your Roger Moore impression is coming along Josh ;-)

View of GSV at night

The content of the Cock Spare song I posted was supposed to act a my race report.

kieranleahy said:

Your Roger Moore impression is coming along Josh ;-)

And everyone knows he was the best Bond.

Andrew Da Silva said:

The content of the Cock Spare song I posted was supposed to act a my race report.

I was wondering what the link was. I figured it was just another Shane Perkins video ;-)