Track World Cup Manchester - spectator's viewpoint

Tim Farr

Any comments about this event? I went on Friday pm and evening, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was a bit confused about teams - for example the British team was split into three teams - some of the established riders such as Vicky Pendleton, Jason Kenny and Ross Edgar were in 'Team Sky + HD' . Other senior riders such as Bradley Wiggins and Chris Newton, along with some of the up and coming trackies were in the 'GREAT BRITAIN' team; and some of the up and coming. eg Liz Armistead were 'TEAM 100% ME'

How was membership decided?

On another tack - did anyone else find the PA to be very good quality but turned up too loud? It was a bit of an ear bashing.

The event was supposed to be a sell out, but there 'seemed' to be a lot of empty seats in the home straight grandstand; perhaps the absentees were queuing for Chris Hoy's autograph?

As for the racing - Beresford is keeping the production line going. Just who is David Daniell - sensational ride in the kilo.

redvee

Heard on the Beebs coverage there were touts outsode the place flogging tickets :x

squired

I was also there on the Friday and was surprised to see the empty seats. Didn't see any ticket touts though. A really good event. I only had standing tickets, but being right at the edge of the track was fantastic. Manchester is lucky to have the Velodrome. I can only hope that the one that will be built in London for 2012 will be as good. Despite a pretty bad train journey back to London today I'm definitely planning to visit the Manchester velodrome again.

The one thing that did disappoint me was that the crowd didn't seem to be even slightly interested in anyone that wasn't British. No cheering or clapping, only for the Brits.

Tim Farr

I saw one tout

ddraver

There were loads of empty seats today too - but because they sold standing tickets people could walk around - many of the best viewpoints - especially for budding photographers - were where people stood - they also didnt let us standing scum sit down......

ddraver

squired wrote:

IThe one thing that did disappoint me was that the crowd didn't seem to be even slightly interested in anyone that wasn't British. No cheering or clapping, only for the Brits.

agree entirely too!!!!

cycling fans are just miserable :?

Earthbound

My brother and I went Saturday, he is not a cyclist and he had a fantastic time. I've never been before because the world cup/championship in Manc is always on my girlfriend's birthday - late March.

The venue is fantastic - but there's nothing nearby. Man Citeh's stadium is over the road but there isn't a pub for miles if you want to fill in the 2 hrs between afternoon and evening sessions. (Except 2 well dodgy pubs)

But really the venue and Team GB/Sky/100% ME are just amazing. They were toying with the very best that the rest of the world has to offer.

We have 17 and 19 year olds from the youth development squad DESTROYING experienced former 3 times world championship riders. There were quarter finals where we had 3 rider taking place and they each won their 1/4 final race. The only rider who can stop a GB rider from winning - is another, younger hungrier GB rider!!!

London 2012 could well be a clean sweep.

Oh, and the sight of Pendleton warming up on the rollers stripped down to shorts and a pink sports bra will stay with me for a VERY long time

redvee

Earthbound wrote:

Oh, and the sight of Pendleton warming up on the rollers stripped down to shorts and a pink sports bra will stay with me for a VERY long time

And me as I go to bed :oops:

Agent57

I was there on Friday and Saturday. I had a ticket for Sunday but my wife took the car so I stayed at home. The two days I was there were fantastic.

I recall the venue commentator saying something along the lines of "if British Cycling has a youth team, 100% Me is it", but I don't know how it works, or if that's even an accurate assessment. Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton, Shanaze Reade, Jamie Staff, Ross Edgar and Jason Kenny make up the Sky+ HD trade team from what I've read. I assume they are the people Sky have approached to sponsor and wear their colours as part of the partnership between Sky and British Cycling. There were other trade team riders there as well, IIRC, such as Evan Oliphant riding for Plowman Craven.

I thought there seemed to be a lot of empty seats at times, but I suppose some people just didn't go even if they had tickets (such as myself on Sunday), and other people were either standing, buying food, etc.

Non-British riders did get polite applause if they won a race etc., but there's no doubt the crowd was partisan. That was to be expected though, I reckon.

Anyway, the racing was brilliant. So many great British riders doing their thing that I find it hard to pick out any one or two favourite moments.

ob

I was a sort of spectator, if you could sitting in front of my laptop watching the BBC coverage!

Points race was definitely my favourite. Lots going on, loads of riders. I loved it when all the riders moved together to the outside, and then someone woud drop down and take the lead. Great to watch

I'm slightly confused by the teams we had. As far asI could tell we were the only onesdoing that. I'm not sure how entry to world cups works, but does that mean that we could enter more riders because we had more teams, or do you qualify individually based on time, in which case we'd have had the samenumber, but all under one team.

If we managed to field more riders because we had more teams, then IMO that slightly marrs the 15 out of18 golds that we won.

Agent57

ob wrote:

I'm slightly confused by the teams we had. As far asI could tell we were the only ones doing that.

There were cyclists riding for France and riders for Cofidis and Bouygues Télécom (French trade teams); there were riders for Spain, and Cespa-Euskadi. There was a South Africa team, and riders for Willie Engelbrecht Track Development Team. So we weren't the only nation represented by more than one team. I think we just had more riders as it was a local event, really. There was only one Australian rider, most likely a factor of distance as much as anything else. I dare say other nations might have more entrants in events in their home countries.

FWIW, we had 11 riders riding for "Great Britain" (according to the programme), while Germany had 15.

ob

Cool, that makes a lot of sense. I probably paid far more attention to the British riders, which made it seem like a lot

Wooliferkins

By Sunday the standing ticket holders were being told to take a seat if it appeared to be empty. It was frustrating for many who were told the event was sold out to see so many empty seats. I was lucky and got a full weekend ticket but in none of the sessions was the velodrome near full. As for only putting the seating block number on the stub that the staff are supposed to remove, the ticket printers/designers need having a word with. Have you seen the pictures of Jason Kenny's back after his baseball slide victory? Ouch. They're on the BBC sport site.

graeme_s-2

Wooliferkins wrote:

By Sunday the standing ticket holders were being told to take a seat if it appeared to be empty. It was frustrating for many who were told the event was sold out to see so many empty seats.

Yep it was very annoying to be sat on the sofa having been unable to get tickets only to see a half empty velodrome