Why velodrome

A blue area on the inside of the track is the warm-up area and is prohibited during races. On the outside of the black line is a red line.

High speeds, fixed gears and no brakes makes track cycling a potentially dangerous pursuit, requiring equal parts of skill and bravery. Track bikes are built incredibly stiff to cope with the extreme power world-class sprinters produce, allowing them to generate speed quickly.

Modern day track bikes are made from carbon fiber with aerodynamically shaped tube profiles. Track bikes have few components; the frame and fork, handlebars, wheels, cranks, pedals, a single chainring on the front, one cog fixed to the hub on the rear wheel and the chain itself. The handlebars on a track bike are similar to a road bike but narrower and with a deeper drop to allow the rider to adopt a more aggressive aerodynamic position.

They also have no brakes so trying to slow down quickly is not an option. The only way for riders to stop is to slow their pedaling. Bikes competing in the Keirin, Omnium and Sprint events will typically have a solid disc rear-wheel to optimize aerodynamics and either a deep rim, tri-spoke or five-spoke front wheel.

They will also have regular drop handlebars to allow the rider to easily maneuver the bike. Bikes competing in the Team or Individual Pursuit will typically have a disc wheel on the front and rear, and time trial specific handlebars allowing the rider to adopt a very aggressive aerodynamic position.

The time trial handlebars enable the rider to rest their forearms on the bars creating a low frontal profile, reducing the surface area that meets the wind, therefore reducing the aerodynamic drag they create. Anything to save a few tenths of a second.

Sprinters will exert enormous amounts of power trying to exit the starting gates as fast as possible. Interestingly, track riders are not allowed to wear shoe covers like on the road, and there are restrictions to the height of their socks. These rules are in place to create a level playing field and make the racing all about the riders as opposed to the technology.

Sprint events are short in duration and require raw power over endurance and strength. Tactics play a large role in the Sprint and Keirin competitions requiring riders to play cat and mouse with their opponent to gain the upper hand. Even though the Sprint event is short in distance and duration, it relies heavily on tactics and bike craft.

Only the last m of the m total are timed, resulting in explosive bursts of speed in the last few seconds. Riders line up vertically on the track from a stationary position. The Sprint is won in a best of three race contest and riders will alternate their riding start position. The Sprint is a game of cat and mouse with the lead rider often dictating how the race will play out, not wanting to provide a drafting opportunity for the rider behind.

As a result, the lead rider will often try to slow down, forcing the following rider to the front or riding slow enough to not provide any advantage. Riders will often come to a complete stop to make this happen. Officials can call a truce on this and either re-start the sprint or tell the riders to move on if they feel the race is being hindered by these negative tactics.

The Team Sprint is one of the most explosive events on the track program. Competing teams three for the men and two for the women start on opposite sides of the velodrome from a stationary position and complete either three laps for men, or two laps for women as fast as possible. Each lap must be led by a different team member who then drops out at the end of their lap. Each rider needs to ride as hard as possible while also keeping in tight formation to provide some assistance to the final rider who has to ride the furthest.

The team with their final rider across the line first wins. The Keirin is one of the fastest track cycling events thanks to a motor pacer that sets the pace before releasing the riders to sprint for victory. Riders perform 8 laps of the m track initially following the motor-pacer, typically a small motorbike or electronic bike, that starts slowly approximately 25kph and gradually increases in speed approximately 50kph while riders line-up behind, ready to attack when they are released.

Riders cannot attack over the top of the motor-pacer and have to wait until it exits the track, which will happen with m to go. The banking on a velodrome allows riders to stay on by creating a centripetal force - one that pushes the rider inwards.

This is important as cyclists in the lead aim to travel the shortest distance possible, which means taking a racing line along the inside. Dave Cockram, National Facilities Officer for British Cycling, told the magazine that velodrome tracks have changed over the years from two long flat straights with two banked circular turns to something more complex.

The modern velodrome now has "short straights with slopes of 10 degrees or more, transition curves with steadily increasing banking angles", circular curves with banking angles of around 45 degrees and transitions back into the straights. Air resistance is the bane of a cyclist's life. What determines resistance is the size of the object and the speed at which it's travelling.

At the kind of speeds cyclists are going, resistance force exerted on cyclist is proportional to the velocity squared, says Jardine-Wright. So for every doubling in speed, the resistance goes up by a factor of four. The power required from the cyclist goes up by an even greater margin as speed increases.

This is because power force x speed is related to velocity cubed, Jardine-Wright says. So for every doubling of speed, the cyclist is required to put in eight times more effort. Coaches work with the riders in a wind tunnel to create the most streamlined body position, Boardman says. There's a trade-off because you can lose muscle efficiency when you make yourself small. The rider has to choose the right balance. Aerodynamics becomes ever more important when the need for manoeuvrability - useful in road races - reduces.

In time trial events, cyclists race against the clock rather than each other. There is no slipstream to shelter in. It explains why the bikes are different. The back wheel is solid rather than spoked, and the handlebars go straight out rather than to the side to create as little wind resistance as possible.

The reason the front wheel is still spoked is that the steering would be too slow if it was also solid. In both the time trial and velodrome events, there is less need to worry about moving your head, says Matt Seaton, author of cycling memoir the Escape Artist. It explains the tear drop-shaped helmets with their long tails and reduced venting. Having a minimum of air vents is a good way to maximise aerodynamic efficiency.

These helmets would be far too hot, would restrict head motion and offer little protection in the Tour de France, Seaton says. But they offer the most aerodynamic shape for the rider in the velodrome. The difference between sprinters and endurance cyclists is a good lesson on types of muscle.

The muscle in your body that you can control is essentially divided up into two categories - slow and fast twitch. The sprinters are bulkier and have more of the fast twitch muscle associated with explosive power. Chanel Zeisel started regular bike racing in and finished her first USA cycling track race in Los Angeles two years later.

We entered the park, home to an oval-shaped track; it was similar to a running track but its platform was sloped. As an active road cycling athlete myself, I had heard of track cycling races, but this was the first time I had seen a velodrome: a superelevated, oval-shaped track used in the sport of track cycling.

The only velodrome in Georgia and one of the only 22 active velodromes in the United States, the Dicklane Velodrome DLV was constructed in as an initiative led by a group of locals who had visited the Munich Olympics and were inspired by the sport of track cycling. One of a kind, the East Point velodrome loops a grassy island, home to an oak tree and a running creek, that provides both cyclists and spectators with a view of natural serenity that contrasts with the adrenaline rush and the thrill of the races.

My eyes fell on the steep embankments, as we pulled our bikes onto the track. Nervously, I clipped in on the pedals of my road bike and decided to stay on the apron.

However, as I gained speed, my bike started to lean towards the ground while bending along the track curves, and I found myself jumping over to the blue strip, the innermost, and the shallowest side of the banks. As I gained more speed, I would jump over to the steeper side. Soon I was riding in the same lane as Chanel along the highest elevation and steepest curves. It was true, and the laws of physics are what kept me riding on the banks rather than playing out the collision I had imagined when first seeing the DLV.

Cycling on an angled surface or on a curved path is slightly more complex as it also requires an inward force towards the center of the curve to maintain the circular motion. This inward force is called the centripetal force. A centripetal force is a force induced by a cyclist to continue moving at the same speed while taking a turn by tilting their body towards what would be the center point of the corner of the curved lane. In the absence of this force, the cyclist would end up in a straight line and then bump into a tree or a car.

In other words, if a cyclist wants to make a turn at a high speed, they must lean more to create adequate centripetal force. Conversely, if they want to slowly turn the corner, they require less centripetal force and turn the corner without leaning much.