I am writing this while waiting for my qualifying run for the sprint events. We get to circle the track 3 times and are timed over the last 200m to seed for the sprint draw. Heaps of big motors (guts) on the ageing sprinters, not too much road work has gone on here. There are some seriously big guys, with seriously big legs racing today and I feel that if my New Zealand skinsuit wasn't so tight I would chuck a pillow down my front so I might blend in a bit more. I note over in the French compound that they have a pair of silver back gorilla's in French skinsuits warming up on the rollers.
Behind us the German squad is warming up and one of their sprinters in my age group is Michael Hubner who I recall was a multi gold medal Olympian from the old East German “ chemically adventurous” days, interesting to see how he goes now.
I had the final of the 10 km scratch race last night and was hoping to do well. Qualifying went well as I stole a lap on the field with the South African world pursuit champion and was able to just sit in to the finish. Unfortunately in the final I wasted heaps of energy in bridging or working in doomed breaks and when what was left of the field came back together with three laps to go a couple of Frenchmen who had sat in the whole race won the sprint. Risky tactic sitting doing nothing, as the race was very aggressive but they called it right and virtually the rest of us were too stuffed to counter the idle French strikers.
We share our compound with Japan. In the scratch race after mine the Japanese rider rode off the front near the end and while the top guys watched each other totally ignoring him he managed to stay away for the win. With a 10km scratch race you got to take your chance as the speed is so high you don't really get a chance to recover, think about things and go again.
Have now qualified for the last 16 in the sprint, did a 12.2 second 200m at 58.5kph.
British multi world champion legend Dave LeGrys is here as always. I noticed him last year just before his 500m tt. He was fired up like nothing I had seen before. He almost ripped out the start gate when he took off and barely was able to control his bike round the turns before breaking his own world record, but that wasn't the impressive bit. After I headed outside of the Sydney stadium to get some food, there was Dave quietly puffing up before the medal ceremony, as the velodrome was non smoking, as I said a legend.
Failed in my bid for sprint glory in the first round against some American. Have beaten Hubner as he didn't turn up.
Racing has been delayed a couple of times as the rain in Spain and for that matter Portugal has been falling mainly through the velodrome roof. This brand new structure leaks worse than a sieve and sort of sums up this area of Portugal, no one knows why it is here or what drives the local economy. It is quite run down and the locals don't exist. One thing it can boast over Hawkes Bay apart from a velodrome is a very busy and very fast rail network. We hear the trains but they are gone before you see them, perhaps once the fast passenger trains started running the locals bailed.
