A Grand Day Out

Between my laptop charger breaking and moving house I've not had chance to write a blog for a few days but here's my latest update on what I've been up to. On Thursday I went to Manchester with Alice to watch the National Track Cycling Championships. I've always enjoyed watching the track cycling on TV but I'd never even seen a velodrome before. Seeing as I'm back in Chester and Manchester isn't too far away, we made the most of free entry and went to watch some cycling.

For anyone that hasn't been before the velodrome is nice and easy to find if your walking from the centre of Manchester (we got the train to Piccadilly, either google map it, take the canal or follow the signs for Sportcity. All 3 ways are simple). The only problem is it feels like a fairly long walk when it's raining. But that aside we got down to the velodrome just before the afternoon session started (for anyone that knows me and/or Alice you'll know how much of a miracle it is that we actually got somewhere on time!). There wasn't many people about which I don't get. If you like sport, you live in Manchester and your not working on a Thursday afternoon why wouldn't you go down? No matter how mediocre some of the riders may have been it was still great entertainment for free! Although it is kind of funny when the cyclists that have just finished on the track come and sit in the stand by you. It wasn't quite the same as post race in the Tour of Britain when hundreds of people crowded round just to get a glimpse of Wiggins or Cavendish.

This year the Wednesday and Thursday of the championships were free but the next 3 days cost just over a tenner. From my experience that's still a bargain for the entertainment when compared to my regular sporting outing, the footy. I love a good footy match but upwards of £20 for 90 minutes when you could pay £10 for all day of something a bit different? I know which one makes more sense to me. I tactically chose to go on the Thursday. I was obviously going to go when it was free but Thursday had more events and included the points race. I've loved the points race for some unknown reason since it first baffled me whilst I watched it on TV. We saw the points race and the women’s individual pursuit in the afternoon, both great events, but sadly we decided to go home as neither of us were feeling great.

I was a bit gutted that we didn't go back for the evening session but it was for the best and I'll definitely go next year to see a full day if I can get there. By the time I'd got onto the train home I was dying to go out on my bike. I love watching sport and seeing it live is possibly the best motivation for me to get out there myself. The velodrome looked amazing and I would love to go when there's a full crowd. Seeing it really made me want to have a go myself and I might have to look into the taster sessions they offer. Construction is supposed to begin on the new Derby velodrome next year so who knows I might be able to go down and train on that? Maybe it could be me competing at the national championships in a few years time, inspiring some random sports enthusiast in the crowd to have a go at track cycling!