Pedaling Through a Pandemic — Star Track’s Hard, but Still Sometimes Wonderful Year
No one expected this kind of year. We didn’t surely, coming out of 2019 with crazy optimism and a stronger sense of mission than ever. The plan: use our new resources to bring more NYC kids into the sport and support our growing race team in ever better ways.
Our brand new Star Track van and new-to-us trailer — made possible by the Rapha Foundation and the Hagens Berman-Supermint team respectively — opened up so many possibilities. In December, the van had just made its maiden voyage to Toronto, giving first time international racers good run on the beautiful wooden 250.
And 2020 did begin well. Kids came together regularly in both Manhattan and Queens to maniacally spin pedals and steam up plate glass windows at our expanded indoor trainings.
Outside, during what would be a mild winter, racers sweated out road sessions in Prospect Park with coach Alan Buday of CRCA/Dave Jordan Racing and Plan to Peak Coaching.
Late February brought our best-attended Winter Camp ever with the van a huge help in delivering families to South Carolina’s Giordana Velodrome. We love this camp; it mixes young racers just catching the bug with our strongest collegiate and elite cyclists. Seeing the awe on a 10-year-old’s face while watching an older champion roar down the banking is always satisfying. Mentoring happens. Team-building happens. Fun happens. Winter camp energizes everyone.
Our kids came back so hyped, then just as we were about to unleash them into racing season …. EVERYTHING STOPPED.
As the lockdown went from days to weeks, the realization grew that this wasn’t a short-term thing. We wouldn’t be able to start the season on time, or maybe at all. We also realized that this wasn’t very important in the scheme of things. Especially in our part of Queens.
The ambulances kept pulling into New York Presybterian Queens Hospital just a few blocks up from the Velodrome. There, real heroes fought the toughest battles at the heart of the pandemic’s early epicenter. We salute them for their unbelievable efforts then and for the work they are still performing today. Anytime our masks feel heavy, we think about how much we owe them.
We did our best to keep on —sharing workout videos with the kids stuck inside while spring unfolded.
Restless siblings, moms and dads joined in at our remote spin sessions. Guest cyclists like Ashton Lambie kept our young racers motivated.
Our own spirits lifted when the Jr. Club of the Year award from USA Cycling arrived in the mail — but it also heightened the frustration.
We had earned the award by helping kids discover a wonderful, beautiful sport. Now we couldn’t do that at all. Spring season at Kissena was cancelled. Event-after-event was erased from the calendar. Summer season cancelled. No local races. No national championships. It was tough.
In July, some daylight appeared. At a carefully re-opened T-Town, we held our first in-person workouts in months
Having the team back together, if six feet apart, felt wonderful, but what we really longed for was the full program with all our kids. We wanted to be back on track at Kissena.
In mid-September, we got the news from NYC Parks. Here’s your permit. You can reopen for the first time in 2020. YES!!!!
We were thrilled, but a little nervous, too. Could it work with all the restrictions? Kid distancing. Bike distancing. Bike sanitizing. Group size limits. Activity limits. No mass start races. No bumper bikes. No playing tag in the infield. Would it still be fun? Would it still be Star Track?
We needn’t have worried. These kids were so hungry to get back on their bikes, to get back with their friends,
… to feel the joy of riding fast again.
For both kids and coaches, it may have been the most satisfying semester ever.
It certainly was the most needed one.
And while we couldn’t hold our customary finale, we didn’t skip out on the traditional Halloween Track-or-Treat.
It was a tough year, but we loved how it finished. We’re looking forward to so many things in a better, brighter 2021 — like the return of founding coach Delroy Walters!
In the end, we’ll enter 2021 much the same way we entered 2020, optimistic, excited, ready to keep breaking down barriers to get more kids into this sport; ready to push our racers to push themselves and discover what they can achieve. This is what we do. That hasn’t changed.
But if we can open the gate to Kissena Velodrome on time for the first day of the Spring session, we’ll surely be a lot more appreciative and thankful. We’ve learned how fragile everything can be, how extraordinarily fortunate we are when everything is “normal.”
Go Star Track!
Star Track’s 2020 season was made possible by its generous sponsors, partners, donors and supporters including the Aetna Foundation, Affinity Cycles, the Carolan Family Foundation, the Center for Spine Care + Mobility, Dave Jordan Racing, Davidson Kempner Capital Management, Christine D’Ercole, ERO Sports Pennsylvania, FFWD Wheels USA, Hincapie Sportswear, Lenox Advisers, Lucarelli & Castaldi, LLP, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, the New York State Bicycle Racing Association (NYSBRA), the New York Velodrome Association, One Equity Partners, the Rapha Foundation, Sid’s Bikes NYC, the USA Cycling Foundation and many others!
If you would like to support Star Track’s free track cycling program for New York City kids, your donations (more important than ever as the pandemic wiped out our traditional in-person fundraisers) are warmly accepted here.
We would also like to salute our parent volunteers and junior coaches. We could not have held our Fall semester without your amazing work.
A big shout-out too, to Jonathan Tan who tried his very best to ride 310! miles on Christmas Eve to help raise money to keep our program free :)
Many thanks as always to Kenji Edmonds, Robert Lai, Neo Afan and Bicycle Racing Photos who take incredible photos.
If you want to learn more about Star Track Cycling, you can do so here and keep up with the program on Facebook and Instagram.
p.s. If you haven’t watched the amazing video Kenji made for us last year, you should! It’s right here:
