Track Cycling is beautiful
I’ll start with this: Track cycling is beautiful.
Like many of you reading this, I come from the “street” part of track cycling where our only goal is to have fun and just ride in traffic. And even though I’ve done my fair share of velodrome riding, I’ve always been more attracted to the wild side of riding fixed gear rather than cycling round and round as fast as I could.
Well, I wouldn’t say my point of view has completely switched but I definitely felt the same thrill standing on the side of this particular track as during my first time ever in the oval ring. The feeling of speed and the statement every rider makes in all four corners:
This is what human power can do, this is how fast we can go.
As I said, the feeling of absolute brute force in every rider but also the amount of gear and track parts in the pits. So many items I thought I was never gonna see with my own eyes: Lotus, Vorteq, team-specific bikes, titanium 3D printed cockpits and so much more, I fed myself on some serious eye candy for hours.
The few shots you’re gonna see below were all taken with my Nikon F100 on some 200 ISO film. With the very light-colored Siberian larch wood and the amount of light coming into the velodrome, I could have underexposed my shots a few stops but in the end, I’m pretty happy with the result.
I would say though, my only regret is to not have invested in a longer lense earlier. I had my 50mm strapped on there and I knew it was not enough, but I just didn’t have the time to get something more appropriate like a 200mm. Next time I’ll come better prepared I guess.
Enough reading, here is my gallery of the 2021 UCI track cycling world championship in Roubaix. Enjoy!
