Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Manchester Flashback

Since today was a rest day here in Germany and as promised, I will wander back a month or so when I was in the UK for the 4th and final World Cup of the season.
We got there a day earlier then normal which gave us a bit of time to actually check out the surroundings. Apparently Manchester is a very industrial city but we happened to stay very near the city center which seemed metropolitan.

Super old buildings... of some significance I am sure. We didn't have the time or energy to actually be real tourists... just ones who are in search of a good coffee shop.
In the city center.
My first event was the Team Pursuit with Kim Geist and Kristin McGrath.
As a team, we rode a PB (personal best). That is me 2nd wheel.
It's hard to explain to people in the US how big this sport is in other countries around the world. This 3 day event sold out each day/night session. I would guess the facility holds 3k-4k people. Pretty impressive and fun to race with that many people cheering!
The most talked about event from this World Cup was this little incident. Don't watch if you are squeamish or my mom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rltqF-HT9iU

What should have been the most talked about event from this World Cup was Sarah THE HAMMER dominating the women's omnium. She never fails to amaze me... and inspire me. Congrats to Sarah! More rainbow stripes in her future! (for the non-cycling people- you get a "rainbow stripes" by winning a World Championship which happens to be a big deal.)

So, the second race of the weekend was the Scratch which didn't end up how I had planned. For once, I actually had the confidence of winning a race at a World Cup. Yes, seriously. I just said it out loud. I actually thought I could win it. Damn it for crashing! Thank goodness for not being injured but damn it for crashing. No splinters for me though! Congrats to my teammate Jennie Reed for taking the podium. Let's hear it for recovering sprinters in the scratch race!!!

So, that's Manchester in a nutshell. I am still not done filling you in on the rest of February...

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