Track World Championships, Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome – 18/12/2012

The weekend saw the Track World Championships come to the Newly opened Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome. Scotland has long awaited a world class cycling facility for our up and coming stars……… now we have it!

Having never been to a velodrome before I wasn’t quite sure what to expect…… ok I knew there’d be men and women in lycra flying round the track at break neck speeds on some of the thinnest bikes I’ve ever seen but it just totally blew me away. We arrived for the Velodrome opening at 8:45am to get parked and suss the place out and grab a quick bite to eat for breakfast. We got parked just across from the Velodrome and stood in awe at the sight of such a wonderful looking building. I was like a kid on Christmas morning as I headed into the building and then to the track side. We had front row seats in Section C and couldn’t complain with the view, Glasgow really did have something special in the way of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, something to make other cities green with envy!

We were entertained all day with with some spectacular races, including some sore looking crashes. It’s amazing how much skin a rider can lose to the boards even with a slow speed fall. In the qualifying round of the men’s sprint Philip Hindes of Great Britain faced Czech rider Pavel Kelemen. On the home bend just in front of us Kelemen slowed right down to practically a standstill with Hindes behind him, then caught his pedal on the track and crashed out.

A restart was called and they lined up once again. Bearing in mind this was the qualifying round so there was no margin for error as the qualifying round is a one off race and not the best of three as is in the following rounds. Hindes and the Czech rider made it round the first two laps successfully then on the final lap just after the start/finish line there was a crunch of wheels at speed and Hindes just managed to keep control of his bike, that was until he hit the bend and his rear tyre blew and he hit the track hard!

The race was called for a restart as the crash was put down to a mechanical so would it be third time lucky for Hindes? Sadly not, he was beaten on the third attempt and would now compete for the lower placings.

By far the best and most exciting race came at the end of the day when Great Britian’s Olympic Gold Medalist Laura Trott took to the track for her final event of the Omnium. With Laura sitting two points behind the Australian Ankudinoff she needed to finish two places better off that the Australian in the 500m time trial to win the Omnium overall. This was going to be a tall order with the Australian favourite to take the overall win, but with the backing of the home crowd and one of the strongest rides I’ve seen she raced to victory in the time trial and the overall Omnium!

The Men’s sprint final was contested between Robert Foerstemann and Stefan Boetticher of German. Now this was one exciting race, my favourite for this was Foerstemann who had blown his opponents away in all of the previous rounds and who also had the biggest set of thighs I’ve ever seen!

My prediction was wrong as Boetticher outwitted Foerstemann and won the final 2-0! It really was a great final to watch.

At one point we were told to go to the top bend at some point in the day and have a look at how steep it was, I knew it was 45 degrees but I couldn’t believe how steep it was when looking down from the top!

The future is looking good for Scottish/British cycling with the World Class facility that is the Chris Hoy Velodrome.

My first visit to the Velodrome has left me buzzing and desperate to go back to see more of the action, and to have a bash at the track myself.

Stuart
IT Manager