Major Taylor Velodrome

Today we visited the Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis. This was one of the highlights of the trip, for a few reasons. For the non-bike geeks, a velodrome is an oval track with highly banked turns that is used for bicycle racing. I couldn't get the whole track in one picture. It's pretty big. The ancient Greeks had hippodromes for horse and chariot racing. Hippodrome is derived from the Greek hippos (horse) and dromos (course). The velodrome is the modern version, with velo coming from velocipede, an alternate word for a bicycle. This replaced the hippodrome because bicycles are easier to clean up after.

I took several laps around the track. The banking of the turns is meant to match the centrifugal force generated by a track cyclist in a race, so it's quite steep. If you're leisurely circling the track, you feel like you might just slide down to the bottom. You can't touch the brakes or change gears on the turns, or you might lose traction and actually slide down. (Track bikes don't have gears or brakes. That makes track cyclists macho.) Serious track cylclists are odd looking humans. They have enormous quadriceps to generate maximum power for short periods of time. And like all cyclists, no upper body. If you get in a fight with one, just don't let him kick you.

Riding the track was a trip highlight, but another was visiting the track named after Indianapolis native Marshall "Major" Taylor.

As the plaque says, Taylor was a cycling world champion. He won the world championship in 1899. As an African-American, he had to overcome incredible discrimination to get there. He had to move to Connecticut to enter races, because he wasn't allowed to compete in the South. Even in the North, people threw things at him during races, including nails in front of his tires. You can read more about him here. He led an interesting life, so take a look.

Today also marked another two major milestones. Roy ate his first hamburger in 10 years. Not only a hamburger, but a double bacon cheeseburger. Much to my surprise, his heart didn't stop. I was ready with the camera just in case.
The burger was at Five Guys. They claim to use better ingredients than other chains, so that's probably why Roy is alive.

The other milestone was TWO Starbucks stops during the ride. We're definitely back in civilization and definitely well caffeinated. Life is good. And visit Indianapolis sometime. It's a very nice city containing things other than the Indianapolis Colts.