Cool Stuff
Track Events Defined
There are many different racing events held on the track. Most of the events you will see are mass-start events, meaning a group of riders start at once from the same point on the track. Otherwise, they are individually timed events. Of these events, riders either specialize in endurance or sprint events, each requiring a little different strategy.
Race Descriptions
Over the course of the season, we run a number of different race events at CBTL. Most of these are standards in the European six day circuit or at UCI world championships. A couple are just CBTL traditions.
| Scratch Race | The traditional type of bike race over a pre-determined number of laps. The first one across the line wins. |
| Unknown Distance | A scratch race with the bell ringer being the only one who knows how long the race is. The bell ringer decides how many laps the race will be before the start but doesn't tell the riders. Maximum 10 laps. |
| Points Race | This event involves a number of mini-races within the main race. When the bell rings racers sprint to finish in the top 4 places on that lap and win points (5-3-2-1) to count to the overall race total. Rider with the most points wins. 20 point bonus to any rider who laps the main pack (the largest group on the track), 20 point deduction for any rider who is lapped by the main pack. |
| Avalanche | A points race which has the number of points awarded for each sprint increase throughout the race. Win the first sprint and you earn 1 pt. win the last sprint and you get 5 pts, points down to fourth place. |
| Point-A-Lap | Like a points race except there is a sprint every lap and there is only one point up for grabs each lap. |
| Elimination | Also called Miss and Out or Devil, as in devil take the hindmost. This is an elimination race with the last rider on every lap being removed from the race. Once there are only three riders left they sprint it out for the finish. |
| Fox and Hound | A scratch race, except that the highest placed rider in the current six day standings gets a _ lap lead (1/2 lap in C). |
| Win and Out | A five lap race with the winner of lap one taking first place and getting to retire from the race. Winner of lap two earns second place and pulls out etc. |
| Reverse Win and Out | A five lap race with fifth place going to the lap one winner, fourth to the lap two winner, etc. Pack must keep up with a pacer riding on the apron. |
| Keirin | A group of riders pace around the track for about four laps behind a motorcycle. With just over one lap to go the pacer pulls off of the track and the riders sprint for the finish. For Group C, the Keirin is bicycle paced, rather than motorcycle. |
| Chariot Race | A neck-to-neck one-lap race from a standing start. May, at the discretion of the night's organizer, be handicapped for obvious differences in ability. |
| 3 Minute | Two lap race, with the first lap to take no less than 3 minutes. |
| Flying 400 | Each rider will have one lap to reach maximum speed, then try to maintain for a second, timed lap. There will be two riders on the track at once - one doing their build up lap on the upper track, one their flying lap on the black line. |
| Winners | Sprints every 3 laps. A rider who has won a sprint stays with the pack but does not contest further sprints until the final. After the sprint with 3 laps to go, all riders except those who have won sprints leave the track. Remaining four riders contest the final sprint. |
| Madison | A points race with teams of two, one riding with the field, the other recovering. Points normally every ten laps. No bonus for lapping the field but team placement is a combination of laps completed plus points. A team that has completed the entire distance and has 10 points will finish ahead of a team that is one lap behind with 25 points. |
| Individual Pursuit | Timed event with two riders on the track at once. Elite men/A 4,000 metres, Elite women/masters men A and B/junior men/B 3,000 metres, Masters C and D men/Junior and masters women/U17 men and women 2,000 metres. If there is both a qualifying and final round, a rider caught in the final is eliminated and the race ends. In qualifying races, a caught rider finishes the distance. |
| Team Pursuit | As individual pursuit except team of four over 4,000 metres (Elite and junior men) or three over 3,000 metres (Elite women) |
| Kilo/500 | Individual timed event over the stated distance. |
| Matched Sprint | Two riders paired by qualifying times compete head to head over two laps. |
| Team Sprint | Three riders (two for women) with the lead rider peeling off at the end of each lap. |
| UCI Omnium | 200 metre TT, 12 lap scratch, 3 km pursuit, 48 lap points (6 sprints, including final). Kilo TT. Winner based on lowest overall score where in each event first gets 1 point, second 2, etc. Must finish each event to start the next event. Race distances shorter (except 200m) for categories below A. |
| Australium Pursuit | A Hammerfest favourite. Riders start at equidistant intervals around the track. Any rider who is caught is eliminated. May be terminated early if field down to two placed opposite one another on the track. |
| 3Poker Race | Another Hammerfest event. |
| Team Points Race | All riders are put in teams of 4 or 5. Teams with the most points wins. The organizer selects the teams so that they should be even. |
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