At the velodrome

Today I went to the Queen Elizabeth Park to the Velodrome to watch a round of the UCI world championships. It is about four years since I have been there to see a cycling event and today as well as the ‘normal’ races they have had masses of lights and new technology installed. So there was lots of flashing lights, changing colours, loud music etc…I was not that impressed! Also the sound system was not very good so we had real trouble hearing what the commentators were saying. In addition instead of putting the names of people in each race on the big screen they were on the sides of the track and…the winner was also put up there with their heart rate and the power they had used, presumably all the cyclists were wearing monitors which could connect with the IT system there. See extra for an eg of the display.  I actually think I preferred the more ‘old fashioned’ events I have seen there before without all the loud razzmatazz . It went ion until 10.30pm but we left early. I may watch the events from there tomorrow on Eurosport and see how it compares when televised.

Have not been to Stratford Westfield for ages and found it very busy at 4.30pm, except for John Lewis where I bought some warm gloves. We also found a quiet cafe for drinks and snack before the event.