Bikes! Going fast!

We went to watch the World Cup cycling event up in the Manchester velodrome last weekend. We got tickets for the Sunday, which worked pretty well. Manchester is about 260 miles from here, so we drove up on the Saturday (hitting nasty traffic on the M25 and the M1 – no surprises there then) to see some friends who live just outside Manchester. Had a lovely Thai meal with them, couple of beers, and just a generally chilled out evening.

Then on Sunday – to the races!

5.Keirin-qual1

(All photos were taken by GG and are on her flickr stream. She’s got a whizzy new camera, and was learning how to take fast-moving things. I think she’s got some great shots!)

It’s got to be said, I don’t have a great record of really enjoying sporting events. I got thoroughly fed up during the Twenty20 match we went to, mostly managed to ignore the rugby at the varsity match I saw, the boat race was very much “is that it?” as they went past us and then we listened to it on the radio, and I think a football match might be my idea of hell on earth. But I loved this.

32.Pendleton-leads-final2

I loved the raw power of the keirin. The four laps of getting up to speed followed by all hell breaking loose.

30.Womens-keirin-final

I loved the way that the noise of the crowd moved from one side of the velodrome to the other, with the cyclists. And the mayhem of the madison (how do they not crash more?).

12.Madison-tag1

I spent large amounts of time marvelling at the extreme size of the thighs and calves on display, and the steepness of the banks.

38.Ross-Edgar

In fact, there were only two parts of the day I did not like. The girl behind who managed to drop a hot chip covered in brown sauce down my back, getting the shot just perfect to land right down my pants, and just said “well I didn’t do it deliberately” when I turned and got cross with her (what happened to sorry?), and the really long drive home. Other than that, it was an absolutely brilliant weekend.

Of course, I’ve been knackered all week. But it was worth it…

22.Jamie-Staff-flash


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