During one of my recent pre-work rides I stumbled across the local velodrome I didn’t even know was there! Well, it’s not so much a velodrome but a lightly banked circular outdoor track. Okay, so even though it’s got a cricket field in the centre, it sounds enough like a velodrome to me!

Empty track early in the morning. Time for some hot laps!

Since then I’ve made it a bit of a regular thing. It’s a 6km ride from the office so a perfect warm-up for my a 45 minute track hammer fest before heading back to start the working day. I will admit it makes me feel a little bit “pro” smashing it around an empty velodrome first thing in the morning!

Fabian Cancellara eat your heart out!

It’s great fun hammering around the smooth, car-free track and even though it’s a simple circular track, it can offer up different types of training depending on what you’re after. You can attempt an even paced 20km TT effort, throw in a sprint lap every so often, sprint finish each lap, test different aero positions, etc. There’s loads of variety just from a simple circle.

Usually it’s empty, but one morning I rocked up to the sight of a guy being motor-paced inches behind a scooter at what must have been 60kph or more. It was quite an impressive sight! Not sure I’m quite that game – or skilled – to get that close to a vehicle (although I will admit to some cheeky and slightly dangerous drafting out on the road). Now, do I add a track fixie to my N+1 Christmas list? Haha!