Ed Rudolph Northbrook Velodrome

My kids have had a blast riding in the Friday night races starting when they were on tricycles. Popsicles or ribbons or medals or pins for the finishers — everybody goes away happy.

Let’s be serious– this is an 18 degree banked track in a sport where the Olympic standard is 45 degrees. That’s like learning how to roller skate on a gravel road, or like learning how to surf on Lake Michigan. Still, it’s all we’ve got (until we get the Olympics?).
Training clinics are Monday and Tuesday evenings in the «on season,» and racing is Thursday (serious USAC racing) and Friday (developmental/​newbie racing) evenings. They have loaner bikes if you don’t have a track-​legal bike, but you need to bring your own helmet.
The thing that sucks sucks SUCKS is getting to Northbrook. If you work in the loop, you’d need to have a car and leave work right at 5pm to make it in time for registration most days, since traffic on 94 is so bad. The Metra goes right by the track, but since it’s rush hour, you can’t bring your bike along. Grrr.
The other point of frustration is rain-​outs. The track doesn’t have a reliable source of info for when it’s closed for rain, so it’s always a gamble whether it’s worth making the hour drive there to see if it’s open. I *really* hope they get it together and set up a regularly-​updated hotline!