World Cup

Beijing seems to have disappeared into the distant past and the Manchester round of this years World Cup is with us. Several of the big GB stars are absent, but the medals still keep coming. I'm really impressed at the strength in depth the GB team now has because lets not forget there's several up and coming names (Dowsett, Hampton etc.) are waiting in the wings in addition to the "new boys" riding here. Victoria Pendleton was interviewed in the Grauniad during the week and bemoaned the fact that there are so few events for women at the Olympics. She's right and let's hope the blazers in Lausanne are listening.

It also shows well when the weeks roundup takes up 3 hours of prime time Sunday afternoon on BBC2. The track was sold out for every session even before the Olympics had finished which , when you consider that 4 years ago they couldn't give tickets away is pretty astounding and shows the lottery money has been well spent. Every time a GB rider took to the track the noise was deafening and when yet another one won a medal I began to get worried that the roof would still be missing when I'm up there training in December. It must be terrifying for Johnny Foreigner, faced with a shouting, yeling stamping crowd against them to a man. I'm not saying they were partisan, but very noisy....