Recently I heard that:

a) the ISU (international Skating Union) wants to shake op the Olympic and World Cup speed skating program – and so do I.
b) the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) would consider moving track cycling to the Winter Olympics – and so would I.
c) the Koreans want to hold crazy races on ice in Dubai (Icederby) between different sport disciplines – well that’s exactly what I’ve been suggesting.

It couldn’t be a better time to promote IceTrack Cycling and the Icebyks. I was even on the radio recently getting stuck into the issues (not) and promoting the icebyk (definitely). The question is, is anyone listening?? Send me an email at steve@icebyk.com if you have any leads, suggestions or you want a piece of the action.

And I’ll tel you another thing – the icebyks have racked up a 1000 miles now in testing and racing!

The IceTrack Cycling Association has released the official 400m ice oval specifications for  Speed Skating and IceTrack Cycling, detailing the IceTrack start grid.

See also www.icetrackcycling.org

..to quote Lightning McQueen!

Developing the icebyks so they go faster has been (and still is) one of the most enjoyable of the many challenges involved in getting IceTrack noticed and relevant. But the racing in Breda demonstrated that the byks are probably fast enough at the moment. Fast enough to be exciting and a little dangerous, but not excessively so. If you turn into a sharp corner at 30kph, the natural instinct is to lean into the corner. However if you do that on the icebyk, the weight reduces on the cornering skate and you head off into the crash cushions! Hitting them at 30kph is fast enough and plenty of people go that fast on their first attempt at racing round an ice oval! So for the time being we will stick with the current speed configuration until more people have done a bit more practice!

We have 2 events to go – 9 March in Breda and 23 March in Hoorn. The best thing about these events is that the Icebyks will be part of the skating program. Adding extra activities on the ice makes the whole event more fun and gives more people the chance to see and use the icebyks.

I haven’t had much time to keep the blog up to date but here are some more photos!

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B0VWn0QWM6EJM0JvTjA0VUljUm8&usp=sharing

Report to follow soon on another top session on the ice which included the first crash in a race..! In the mean time here is the link to some videos & photos.

https://mega.co.nz/#F!gkgABZ4D!vjL4DA_lzvV9PaBXnRwdpw

Program
1600 Meet in reception area of De Bonte Wever in Assen, NL
1630 Go to ice oval; session 1 (instruction, adjust bikes, get used to bikes)
1700 Session 2 (speed trials)
1730 Session 3 (racing – optional)
1800 end

Why International Day?
In order to even be considered for inclusion in the 2022 Olympic program, 8 different nations need to take part in an IceTrack Cycling event every year from 2014 onwards.

How’s it looking?
On 11 Feb in part 1 of the event, Russia, France, Israel, Australia, Netherlands and Great Britain were represented. On the 18th we had entries from Poland and USA well as some returning nations from the 11th. Which means we achieved the 8 Nation target!