Team GB are awesome and are clearing up in Gold medals

6 at last count :clap:

Chris Hoy beat rival Kevin Sireau from France (who beat him earlier this year) to make him the first rider to win world titles in track cycling's four speed events - the kilometre, team sprint, keirin and sprint.

BBC Sport's Personality of the Year anyone?

Or how's about Rebecca Romero who swapped from rowing to cycling and has won 2 gold medals, The ladies team pursuit was awesome with them making a new WR in their qualifying and then breaking that in the final, Joanna Rowsell was brilliant!

Victoria Pendleton's setting herself up nicely too, she rode a sub 11 second 200 metre time trial beating China’s Guo Shuang and will meet American Jennie Reed in tomorrow’s semi final.

This week's championships in MCR have been excting stuff, I kept on watching on the red button - the men's points race was excellent with Vasili Kiryienka from Belaruss taking the Gold after a gutsy last lap by France's Christophe Riblon that took him to within one point of the Gold. Former World Champion Peter Schep took bronze.

I expect Jo will be able to give us a roving reporters view soon :)

Bring on Bejing :yahoo: :clap: :yahoo:

It's too early to be discussing SPOTY. I think we should wait until after the Olympic Games before casting the decision.

I've been watching quite a lot of the cycling and I've really enjoyed it. Fantastic atmosphere.

it was meant to be a tongue in cheek comment nevets ;)

cyclists rarely get any such accolade...

I see. I couldn't believe Victoria Pendleton wasn't even on the short-list last year and if a cyclist is, they usually get asked dumb questions like 'have you ever fallen off during a race' or 'does it hurt when you fall of your bike?'

9 golds for GB now. That mens sprint thing was pretty impressive from the team...

Hope they get the credit they deserve. Paper today said the best team performance since the footballers in 1966 :o

Apparently..the best performance by a nation in cycling..I hope it translates to the olympics... a bit more competition and atmosphere then..

I'll give you guys a proper report at a later date but i'd just like to say it was f*cking awesome!!!! In the 3 days i was there i saw 6 golds, 1 silver and the team pursuit world record. :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

can't wait for your report hun

It was the most exciting thing I've seen on TV for ages

:clap: :yahoo: :clap:

I'll try and post a few pics, and possibly videos if someone can tell me a way to do it that doesn't involve posting them on youtube :unsure:

honestly lex, i came close to losing my voice......which takes some doing :blink:

me too :lmaao:

Mrs Lex was not impressed - she was trying to do her eBay stuff

I'd never seen the points race before, it was amazing! Pity Cavendish didn't do more, but I guess he was saving himself for the following day - how did he do btw?

Cav?? him and Brad Wiggins won the madison yesterday :D which i watched on TV and cursed the fact that we weren't there :angry: the madison is just awesome on the track.

Just seen Dave Brailsford the performance director for the GB team on TV and he said that out of the 10 olympic events we had just won gold medals in 7 of them B)

wahhooooooooo ;)

I was trying to remember the name of the Madison and couldn't be arsed to go to another site to check - thanks hun :hug:

I haven't seen that event, it's not too easy to watch sport when your other half isn't realy into it :wacko:

Can't wait for Bejing - perhaps I'll suggest Mrs Lex visits her family in India :whistle:

:lol:

Glad you had a good time, Jo :D

It must be very hard to take pictures as the cyclists move so quick!

yeah!!! it's actually so much faster than you realise on TV - for almost all the events the average speed is over 50kmh :huh: most of my photos are of them at the start, or i've done videos!!!! :unsure:

Glad you had a good time Jo! I've never really watched cycling before (bar some races in the Olympics) and really got into it!

Big up to the Beeb for some excellent coverage!

yeah, i'm really impressed by the BBC coverage this year - i suspect the fact that it was in manchester and that the british team are without a doubt the best in the world probably explains why they put so much effort in to it :ok: I still don't think you can appreciate the speeds they are moving at when watching it on TV though - i must admit that i watched the sprints through my fingers - i was so convicned someone would end up falling off :unsure:

DJs world championship report

Ok, i'm gonna waffle for a bit about the worlds :D We went for the evening sessions on wednesday, thursday and friday (didn't bother with the qualifying sessions in the afternoons). In that time we saw the Brits win 6 golds, 1 silver and break a world record :D In general the atmosphere was just amazing - everyone was so friendly, all the cyclists got a big cheer (admittedly the Brits got huge cheers!!!! B) ) - it was just kind of electric! The one thing that the BBC coverage seemed to manage was to drown out the sound of the crowd, but honestly, when the crowd started you couldn't hear anything except scream, cheers, claps - why the commentator in the velodrome bothered I don't know :whistle:

Anyway, here's a few of the highlights:

1) Brad Wiggins winning gold in the individual pursuit - this was the first final we saw where the brits had a good chance, and good old brad didn't disappoint. Brad rode round with the crowd screaming for him, whereas his opponent rode round in near silence (although he did get a huge round of applause at the end.) It was a great start to the whole event really :D

2) The team sprint medal ceremony. This has got to be my favourite moment of the whole weekend - despite the fact that we didn't win! The french beat us - they truly do have the best team sprint team in the world at the moment. When it came to playing their national anthem something went wrong and it all went silent. And then some guy behind us started singing the anthem, so we joined in and within seconds the whole of the velodrome (consisting of mostly Brits!) was singing the tune of the french national anthem (i can't say i knew the words!) They didn't even bother to play the actual anthem - just let the audience sing it and clap along.....the french guys on the podium looked a little stunned, but ended up smiling and laughing. truly a great moment (probably did more for anglo-french relations than Sarkozy's visit :P )

3) The team pursuiters breaking the world record. just unbelievable!!! Bearing in mind that going under 4 minutes for the 4km pursuit is seen as a good time - the fact that both of the finalists got under the 4 minute mark shows how good the GB team is. but by the last km (about 4 laps to go) my dad was going "they're going to get under 4 minutes......." and every split we could see they were going to record a fast time, but when it came up world record......well....i nearly cried!!!! :blush:

4) The scratch race - this is simply an all out sprint for 30km or something and is usually dull as dishwater. but this time with about 15 laps to go a japanese and another rider head off the front. and then suddenly this belarussian guy jumps off the front - and with about 5 laps to go he's still about 3/4s lap ahead. and it was simply 5 laps of the bunch bearing down on him at top speed and the audience on their feet willing this belarussian on!!!! he did it - just and i never knew i could be so pleased for someone from belarus! :P

5) Chris Hoy vs. Theo Bos in the quarters of the sprint - these are the two top sprinters in the world (dunno how they ended up in the quarters) and watching them go for it was something else!!! exceptionally scary i must say :blink:

6) The women winning the team pursuit and rebecca romero winning individual pursuit - vaguely unexpected medals i must say, and the girls just looked so pleased! as romero put it they "stonked" it!

7) Hoy winning the sprint gold! He was up against the world cup leader and we really thought he'd find it tough, but he was just too fast! the first one was so tight and i really thought it would go to 3, but good on Hoy he just went for it :D he was thrilled!

so all in all a great time, and i'm already looking to see if they will hold a world cup event in manchester later in the year so i can go again B)

:clap: :clap: :clap:

brilliant summary hun

Makes me want to go next time too, it was truly exciting watching it onTV so I guess live it was awesome

yep, i would truly recommend it. They have 5 world cup events every year so i'm hoping that one will be in manchester so i can go back :pray: the world champs next year is apparently in poland :wacko:

hehe - Manchester's closer for me as well I think :unsure:

from poland? probably/ but they hold world cup events all over the world - and I think the top riders have to ride world cup events to qualify for the world championships.

How much were the tickets for the World Cycling Champs, Dinky?

I want to go to the World Athletics Champs in Berlin next year and the prices nearly made me fall out of my seat! The price for the best seats for one day is more than twice the price of the best seats of Valencia (World Indoor Champs), for the whole three days! :dohh:

http://www.berlin2009.org/130-1-olympic-stadium.html

we had seats on the finishing straight, just to the right of the finish line as you looked at the track. and for 3 days we paid £37 :D

WOW

That must be the cheapest world sporting event ever!!

yeah it was brilliant :D i think it was a bit more expensive if you wanted seats directly behind the finish line.

you can see why we went for three days - at those prices, you may as well go for it :)

absolutely hun

*checks air miles*

:D

:giggle:

i'm still waiting to see where the world cup events will be held this year - i'm hoping there'll be one either in manchester or somewhere else easily accessible. germany would actually be good being as i can speak the language - or holland 'cos they all speak english :P

me too :D

btw, you didn't answer in heyupp, have you finished your German course now?

Poland is ages away from here! About 10 hours drive :blink:

i did answer!!!!!! :o

*goes to find answer.....*

:blush: just seen....

Those are very reasonable ticket prices!

Cycling has moved to third in my favourite sports now :)

just 'cos of the cheap seats??? :giggle:

well you'll find i'll bore you senseless over the summer, what with the tour de france and the olympics :P

Believe me, I can outbore anyone talking to people about athletics ;)

just for those people who might be interested, i thought i'd post a few videos from the cycling. They're a bit wobbly (no, i wasn't drunk before anyone says it - just over-excited) and no sound (my camera is not that good), but they're still ok.

Hoy and Bos sprint

Ok, this one is Chris Hoy (GB) vs Theo Bos (NL) in the quarters of the sprint. now, Theo Bos is without a doubt one of the best sprinters in the world and we're still unsure as to how he ended up against Hoy in the quarters. For the uninitiated, the sprint is 3 laps of the track, and generally they start off playing a bit of a cat and mouse game - in fact, they're actually allowed to stop on the track if they wish :blink: it usually winds up in the last lap and a half to all out sprinting. In this video they were obviously not sprinting - and very nicely were going around the top of the banking so i got a decent video. Bos is the one in bright orange.......

Team pursuit victory lap

Ok, this is the team pursuiters on their victory lap having just won gold in the team pursuit and also broken the world record. (sorry it is a really wobbly video - i was having to get to my feet 'cos they got a standing ovation when they went past.) another quick introduction on pursuiting - it is a 4km (3km for the women) race, where the aim is to catch the guy who starts on the other side of the track. If this doesn't happen it's whoever finishes the 4km first. With the team pursuit they take it in turns on the front (all about wind resistance) and the changeovers are the most important bit. Our guys practice a lot together which is part of the reason they are so good. Btw, the world record for the 4km is 3 mins 56 secs.......with about an average speed of 60kph. :blink:

GB Team Sprint

Ok, final video. This is the team sprint - which is three laps of the track, with 3 guys on the team. After each lap one guy peels off, leaving 1 man to finish the race (not sure if that makes sense :unsure: ) So usually they have a very fast starter who can get them up to speed very quickly and who can also turn a huge gear usually. Then the last guy is usually a little bit better at slightly longer distances so he can keep the speed up for all 3 laps. Just to give you an idea of how fast they're going - that's a 9 second video and they've done nearly 3/4s of a 250m track. :blink: In fact the women do 500m in just over 30 secs and the men do a km in just over a minute. we actually won the silver medal in this event - the french have the best team in the world at the moment.


I've got more vids and pictures but i'll stop boring you all now :unsure:

:clap: :clap:

Nice one hun :ok:

You really get a better idea of the speed - especially in the team pursuit - from your vids than the TV.

Pity about the sound, you could have done a scream by scream commentary

;)

hahaha - my dad was dead worried when i posted them on his cycling website that there'd just be him screaming on them - he was quite pleased when i said i had no sound :giggle: