Don't pedal harder, pedal faster

Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff of Great Britain compete in the team sprint. (Getty Images)

No shifting, no brakes and no coasting: track cycling is all about pure speed. The action at the velodrome is underway in Beijing and thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can follow along at home thanks to wonderful video on demand.

The story of the Games this year is 18-year-old American Taylor Phinney. The son of two Olympic medalists, he only started cycling in 2005 after seeing the Tour de France in person. St. Petersburg Times columnist John Romano has the full story.

Still learning all the different track events? Here's a great guide to what to watch and you can find the complete cycling schedule here.

Comments

[Mel]

Track racing is awesome. It's what seperates the men from the boys!

I'll bet racing indoors on wood is super fast too.

[Kerstin Upmeyer]

I always think about that movie Breaking Away. (That was the name yes?) I watched it as a kid. I thought that was the only kind of bike racing then. It's pretty exciting stuff!

[Kimberly]

I clicked "video on demand". Unfortunately, they are using a video program I don't have, and I don't download programs from the internet.

I love watching bicyclists moving in unison in a peloton. It's like ballet on a bicycle.

Where have all the Olympic cycling evetns been in the St. Petersburg Times? I keep wasting my time looking through the sports section.

[Mel]

When I went to CNN's site the other day and tried to watch the video they had of Dara Torres' 50 meter swim, it told me I had to download some special sort of a player so I did, thinking, "gee, this is CNN how could it be defective" and about an hour later my computer virus program told me that I had visited a fake site and that possible malware had been downloaded on my computer!! So I will NOT go to any site and download anything anymore!