For anyone wanting an energizing bike ride in January that won’t take them into the freezing winter cold, Hot Italian on 16th and Q streets has just the thing: Savage Sprints.

For the second year in a row, the Midtown restaurant is hosting a series of stationary bike races free to anyone who wants to show up and ride. The next racing event will be Jan. 8.

“They are small interval races of about 10 to 12 seconds (each),” Alisa Kuwabara, a supervisor at Hot Italian, said Friday. “It sounds short, but it’s really intense and gets your heart racing like crazy.”

The head-to-head races start with little kids on smaller bikes, and progress to adult races on larger bikes, Kuwabara said.

According to the Savage Sprints website, two or more competitors race side by side with a computer that calculates and displays the leader, the distance traveled, and the speed of each rider. The race distance is a simulated 250 meters and the fastest rider to the end of the distance wins.

The first races are for timing only – called “seeding” – to determine time brackets, the website states. Then the times are collected and the top 16 men and top 16 women advance to a normal bracket of eighth, quarter, semis and then to a final pair of racers to determine a winner.

All of the winners move on to championship brackets for the finale at the end of the season.

Steve Rex, owner of Rex Cycles in Sacramento, provides the stationary bikes for the races, and the series is set up in a bracket tournament schedule.

Kuwabara said racers of all ages are welcome to participate, and there are typically 40 to 50 riders racing each night of the series.

Participants really get into the race, Kuwabara said – some show up in their full cycling gear, and some even dress in costume for the occasion.

“We’ve had superheroes, nurses and all sorts of themes show up,” Kuwabara said. “People really have fun with it.”

According to Hot Italian co-owner Andrea Lepore, the races started after she saw a similar event at Rex Cycles a couple of years ago.

“I called (Rex) up and told him I thought having the races at our place would be great,” Lepore said. “He builds amazing bikes, and it looked like something people would really like to do.”

Winners are eligible for prizes such as T-shirts and other merchandise from Hot Italian, Lepore said, and Rex Cycles offers some merchandise prizes also.

“The Savage Sprints series are being held to raise awareness for the building of a velodrome here in Sacramento,” Lepore said.

A velodrome is a racing arena specifically for bicycles. The only other velodrome in northern California is in San Jose, Lepore said.

Representatives from the Sacramento Velodrome Association – a local nonprofit that initiated the project – were not immediately available for comment on this story.

“This is the second season we’ve had (Savage Sprints) at the restaurant, and it’s just gotten bigger and bigger,” Lepore said.

The number of competitors for each race is limited, Lepore said, and there are sometimes upwards of 150 to 200 spectators for each night of the series.

The next Savage Sprints will be Jan. 8 at Hot Italian. Signup for the races online at TimeYourRace.com, or on race day starting at 4 p.m. Racing will be from 5 - 7:30 p.m.

Hot Italian is sponsoring the races so no entry fee is required, however donations toward the velodrome project are welcome.

The remaining races will be held Jan. 22 and Feb. 5, and the tournament finale will be Feb. 19.

For more information about Savage Sprints and to pre-register for a racing spot, go to the race website.

More information about the velodrome project can be found here.

Melissa Corker is a staff reporter with The Sacramento Press. follow her on Twitter @MelissaCorker.