Top stuff happening over in Majorca at the track worlds… Golds for Brad ‘Turbitowel‘ Wiggins in the individual pursuit, and for the awesome Vicky Pendleton / Shanaze Reade in the first ever Worlds Womens Team Sprint. great stuff from an ex(ish) grass-track racer and a youngster that learned the ropes racing BMX. And if team GB are gonna get beaten into silver in the men’s team sprint by anyone its ok with us that it was by the Master himself. Good to see that he’s still got what it takes.
Cyclingnews results & reports:
wiggins
pendleton / reade
tournant
And for those who have the good fortune to be up in Manchester this coming w/e, there’s always the start of the i bike MCR festival.
When you’re done roller racing / alleycatting / boozing the Palace on Oxford St oozes the kind of, um, ‘faded glamour’ (ie it’s seedy) that you need to complete a classic trip up North. Beats crashing next to the bin in the kitchen of yr mate’s-pal’s-ex-girlfriend’s-dealer’s flat. Just about.
My old pal Jon B from the Sustainable Development Foundation has been helping to set up the inaugural re:solution event at Spitalfields this Sunday April 1 (and no foolin’). Hopefully this’ll be the first of many. Not directly related to Bike Kulture™, but hey, us bikies have been quietly doing our bit for sustainability since back in the day, especially now that everyone’s recycling and fixyifying all those old steel 70’s and 80’s road frames. 100% carbon neutral 
See you in the beats ‘n beers corner.
On the track you gotta hold your line when riding in the bunch. If you’re unsure, go to the park and practice with pals and have some fun until you’re used to it. Just please keep it away from the velodrome until you’ve ironed out the kinks. For everyone’s sake.
Am relieved to say that as of last Friday I’m no longer sporting this coat-hanger like contraption in my left arm. Though I was getting kind of attached to it – the feeling of wires and pins sitting just underneath the skin was getting a bit, err, intriguing… 
Kind of a logical progression from carbon fibre. The wheels are something special; shame about the discs. There’s something of the ‘why did we make it? Just because we can’ about this that I really admire. And check those bullhorn bars – guess you could switch to a rams horn for those days when ya gotta be track-legal for mass start and sprint events Seems that health & safety concerns took precedence when it came to the fork. Wusses.
When it breaks, you could just plant a new one.
from www.cyclingnews.com
Final day. Madison, Team Sprints, JKA Keirin. Day 3 results are here.
Now that’s done with, I’m off to do some training to try and shift some of the beer and dodgy food I’ve been living on for the past 3 days. Anyone wanting to open a falafal & organic yoghurt franchise on Alan Turing Way gets my full approval. What is it about velodromes and really bad fried food? I’m all for trying to recreate the ambience of the Northern European sixes, but you’ve got to draw the line somewhere…
(more…)
Day 2 of the Track World Cup from Manchester. Same deal as before – unedited pix. Men’s sprints, individual pursuit, team pursuits. Great day but I’m knackered and off to bed.
Day 2 results are here.
(more…)
Okay, a real quick ‘n dirty update from day 1 of the UCI Track World Cup at Manchester… Maclean won the kilo, Wiggins got gold in the pursuit (McGee was third…), Vicky Pendleton won the women’s sprint by a mile, errr, Newton didn’t win the points. Oh, and there was a pile up in the Keirin final which took out 4 of the 6 riders, leaving Australia (Perkins) and China (?) to cross the line for gold & silver.
More pix below, completely unedited and straight out of the camera, so go easy if they look a little rough / the levels are all screwy. I’ll fix ‘em when I’ve got access to a proper PC (ie a Mac). We got a deal? Grand.
Full results are here.
(more…)
