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We are bike racing, Redmond! No more long nights with nothing to do but YouTube videos of track racing and Googling your own name. Instead, we have begun our three and half months tromp through the summer months with all types of racing, categories and excitement.

We wanted to take this time to share with you two things that we are looking forward to for racing on this Friday, June 14^th.

Festival of Speed:

This is track racing, fast-forwarded. We’ll start the night off with $5-a-lap to ALL categories. I recommend attacking in this race, because five dollars per lap is the rough equivalent of making $600 an hour. Do it!

We’ll also be having Keirins for the Elite Men and Women and 2-lap heats for the Cat 3 Men. If you’ve been coming out to Sprint Mania on Mondays, you have the advantage!

Do you like sprinting? Do you like attacking and getting paid to do it? Come race this Friday!

Jeremy Storie Memorial Junior Series:

The MVA is proud to announce that our Advanced Junior racing on Friday nights has been renamed to The Jeremy Storie Memorial Junior Series in honor of Jeremy and all of his contributions to the junior cycling community. Jeremy’s efforts towards growing junior cycling will live on forever. We are proud to showcase our junior talent and thank Jeremy for his role in building junior cycling all throughout Canada and the Northwestern United States.

Come out this Friday for the fun!

Ah, much better. If you have not seen it in person, come check out our awesome new windscreen that is located just above corner four!

The Marymoor Velodrome is excited to display and use this screen throughout the season: we hope that not only will it provide some shelter for our riders and a quiet spot for fans to cheer from, but we also hope that it will attract some attention from non-track racing enthusiasts. We’ve got a great sport and fantastic racing community, and we love to share that with new people!

The MVA would like to extend our gratitude towards Element Bicycles and TechCity Bowl for their partnership in making this windscreen possible.

http://www.elementcycles.net/

http://techcitybowl.com/

We race four days a week! Come check out our screen underneath the lights Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday nights at 7pm.

We’d love to see pictures of our new screen in action! Are you spectating in front of it? Riding by? The first person to tweet a photo involving the new windscreen to @marymoortrack wins a MVA water bottle!

Did you think that it could not get any better? Well, if you did, I’m sorry to inform you that you are completely wrong. It is about to get way better. The fuse on the firework is getting shorter and soon, on Monday night, it will take off. That’s right! Starting Monday June 3^rd, we will be racing at Marymoor four times a week! You’ve already heard about Fridays and Thursdays, so let’s catch you up on the other two days of racing possibilities we are offering you: Mondays and Wednesdays.

Monday Night Racing: June 3^rd-August 26^th  

Categories: Juniors (10-18) and Sprint Mania (OPEN cat 1-4)

* June 3^rd will be 200m tt’s at the beginning of the schedule

• New for 2013 is the inclusion of weekly Sprint Mania in place of Category 4 racing on Monday nights.
• Every Monday night all summer, Men and women categories 1-4 will race Matched Sprints or short, sprint events based on their 200m TT time (recorded on a Monday night). These races will be highly competitive and we think that Sprint mania night is going to greatly benefit everyone’s pack racing arsenal!
• Juniors will be placed into three categories: A, B, C.

For more information, including tentative race schedules/fees:

http://velodrome.org/mva/content/monday-night

Wednesday Night Racing: June 5^th– September 18^th

Categories:    

• Cat 4 Men
• Cat 4 Women
• Masters A’s (35+ Cat 1,2,3)
• Master B’s (35+ Cat 4, 60+)

For more information, including tentative race schedule/fees:

http://velodrome.org/mva/content/wednesday-night

Other important things to know!

• Cash or check only
• Free spectator admission!
• Rental bikes available
• Show up early. We suggest planning for a 5:40 arrival
• Don’t forget to pay to park!

It’s finally here! After weeks of thrilling racing showcasing rider developments, wily tactics, exciting attacks, bold breakaways and nail biting finishes, the Marymoor Velodrome and our racing community are ready to step it up a notch. Or two. Gone are the paper numbers and self-seeded categories of Preseason racing. Lube your chain because regular season Friday Night Racing starts this Friday!

Sure, bike racing is bike racing. However, there’s something about cloth numbers that add some thrill to the bike racing experience. This number becomes you. It molds with your skinsuit and is your numerical equivalent. For some, the cloth number is a target on their back- a symbol of their successes the previous years. For others, dreams of season points accumulating throughout the year to be represented by your number in 2014. Whatever it is, the cloth numbers are permanent. And comfortable. They are also soft and quiet. Cloth numbers: Get yours on Friday.

“They’re just numbers” you say. “They make no difference in the bike racing”.  OK, that is an interesting argument. What if I countered that with the offer of prize money every night? Starting this Friday and continuing into September, the Marymoor Velodrome is offering prize money for the top three (four on the final race) for every race of every night! I think you’ll side with me when I say that people find it within themselves to sprint just that little bit harder if there is money involved. Who knows, it might buy them a beer in the beer garden after the racing is over!

“Did you say beer garden? This is getting interesting!” That’s right! Starting the first Friday in July, the Marymoor Velodrome beer garden will be serving great beer and great views of the racing. Is there a better way to watch racing with your friends? The MVA Friday Night Racing Beer Garden: Turning up the crowd volume, starting July 5^th.

If cloth numbers, prize money, season points, excited fans and beer gardens do not contribute into a great time, here’s some more things that might:

• New races
• Novelty events
• Kiddie Kilos
• Seattle Biscuit Company
• Sunshine
• Advanced Juniors racing
• And MUCH MORE!

We’re excited to kick of the regular season! See you out there on Friday, May 31^st.

More information, including race schedules and prize breakdown:

http://velodrome.org/mva/sites/default/files/files/2013_FRIDAYS_events.pdf

Photos courtesy of dbcphoto.com