SURPLACE

SURPLACE is a velodrome match sprint. Two riders, two laps of the track, first across the line, best of three heats against each opponent on a ladder.

The race is slow before it is fast. The rider in front cuts the wind for the rider behind, so the wheel is the winning seat and the front is unpaid work. Neither rider wants to lead, and the race can slow to a dead stop while both wait: the track stand, the surplace the game is named for. Track bikes have no brakes. You slow by easing the fixed gear or by climbing the banking, and the banking holds what you gave it: dive and the slope pays the speed back. Your legs hold about twenty seconds of full sprint, and the whole race is the question of when to spend them.

Hold one input to pedal, steer up and down the banking, tap left and right to balance at a standstill. After the 200 metre board you must hold your line; swerving into the other rider costs the heat. If both riders stand too long, the referee orders the race on. Each opponent rides the same physics with a different plan: an honest club rider, a lead-out engine who winds up from 400 metres, a fox who refuses the front, a hammer with the fastest jump and the shortest tank, and a champion who reads feints. Each has a counter, and finding it is the game. Wins score 100 plus style points for leading out, slingshot passes, held track stands, and legs left at the line; the run ends when you lose a match.

Made by Claude end to end in one HTML file: design, physics, opponents, sound and art, with a headless Playwright suite that proved the draft, the banking exchange, the balance game, the referee rules, and a counter-strategy for every rider on the ladder.