oh what a night

As we make our way from the car park to the venue I’m surprised to see so few people making the same journey.  I say as much to Anniemay.  She thinks we’re early.  We’re not - doors are about to open.  I’m sure we didn’t come this way last time (it’s been a couple of years and a lot has changed).  Anniemay is convinced we did.  I’m not.  Same old, same old.  

Anniemay has many great strengths which contribute much to our life together and a sense of direction is not one of them.  Often, in the car, she will tell me to turn left when she means right.  I jokingly refer to her as ‘the Sat Nag’.  Jokingly.

Buildings either side of the road, which weren’t here last time, start to peter out and ahead I see only wilderness.  And three men.  For some reason I assume they’re heading for the same place and follow them as they turn a corner.  Ah - there’s the venue.  And crowds of people as far as the eye can see. “I told you we didn’t come this way last time”. Point to me I think.  

Back in the summer Chris bought me two tickets to ‘6 Day London’ - a six day track cycle race - to be held in the last week of October at the London Velodrome.  My tickets are for Day 4, October 28th.   “You can choose who you’d like to take” he says hopefully.  A tough call, but I settle on his mum.

Having joined the queue, had our tickets scanned and our bags searched, we make our way into the velodrome.  The first thing that hits me is the noise; the second is the dark.  Then a light show to the sound of drum and bass.  We’ve stumbled into a rave on an upmarket building site in East London.  

Anniemay is asking me where our seats are.  But I can’t reply because, I don’t know - I can’t see the seat numbers in the dark - and I can’t make myself heard over the noise.  It takes a while and the light of a phone, to make the ascent to our vantage point just under the roof.  OMG - we’re in the Gods.  Once I’ve recovered, I take stock.    I hope I don’t need the loo, because I’ll never get back up these steps.  The view, though, is amazing (see extra).  

I’m not really a sports person.  I always bin the sports section of the weekend paper (along with the cookery supplement) without reading it.  Never watch sport on TV apart from the Olympics and the Tour de France.  But the velodrome is something special.  Perhaps it’s the shape - reminiscent of a coliseum.  Track racing is hard.  And exciting.  And often confusing - especially on a TV screen.  

Over the six days, 16 teams of two play chess on wheels at 60kph.  The roar of the crowd each time Bradley Wiggins and team mate Mark Cavendish make an appearance is deafening.  Anniemay is standing up clapping and shrieking like a banshee.  I wave to them like Godfrey from Dad’s Army.

The most bizarre event - and by far my favourite - is the Derny Race.  A Derny is a small motorbike and in this race there are 8 riders each following a Derny to wind up the pace (see extra; not a great photo, but you get the idea).  It’s incredibly noisy and exciting with both riders and motorbikes sprinting for the finish.

Anniemay has more images of last night, here.

We follow the crowds back to Stratford (different route this time) and the car park.  The M25 and M1 are surprisingly quiet and we get home just before 1.00am.  A great night out.  Thanks Chris.


ps; disadvantage of a late night out.  It’s taken me half the day to post this blip - and I’ve still got today’s to do.