A Jolly Good Velodrome

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 15 December 2018 at the Lee Valley Velopark
Result	Women’s Sprint: Stephanie Morton (AUS) Men’s Keirin: Matthijs Buchli (NED) Men’s Madison: Denmark Women’s Omnium: Kirsten Wild (NED)
Competition	UCI Track World Cup (Event 4 of 6) Day 2 evening session.
Hopstats	My first time at a live track cycling event.
Context
This event is part of a sequence which allows ranking points to be scored towards the next Olympic Games.  Spread over three days, tickets are available separately for each session.
In one sentence
A varied full-house evening of sporting excellence in a superb venue.
So what?
It would be too expensive to attend all sessions of one of these events, but I would go again.  It made a nice change from freezing on a touchline.
Event Report and Pix
It’s still mildly surprising that the 2012 London Olympic venues have been left so far from a public transport stop.  The Velopark, like the Copper Box, is a 20-minute brisk walk from the stations at Stratford.  The pre-event mailing had warned us that the track is kept very warm inside (high 20s Celsius) and to dress in layers.  Sound advice – I was dripping from a downpour on arrival but ended up in T-shirt by the final event.  Fortunately I had taken a waterproof bag within a small rucksack so no damage done and the programme stayed dry!  You enter the velodrome by an “airlock” style entrance so that the temperature is maintained. The ticket price (around £50) means that I must compare this event with top-level football.  I’d say this was better value, with almost three hours of sporting action.  There was a range of food and drink outlets – not cheap but very varied, and expensive rather than Wembley-outrage expensive.  The only annoyance was the constant trickle of spectators going backwards and forwards to the caterers.  I just don’t get this – you’ve just spent a lot of money to watch a live sporting contest, sit down and watch it.  There was a mildly amusing feature of the pre-event entertainment – Oblivious Cam.  Some unsuspecting member of the crowd appears on the big screen, and remains oblivious to this.  Oh how we laughed. Anyway, here’s the sporting report.  A lot of physics involved in this sport, by the way, and nothing wrong with that. The Women’s Sprint semi-finals are one-on-one confrontations with a tactical element.  The event lasts 3x250m laps.  The first is usually slow and cagey, with the person in front looking backwards and the person behind trying to use the slope of the track to gain an advantage in a sudden burst of acceleration.  At some point during the second lap or even later, one or other of the riders will make their move.  It can be an advantage to be in second position at this point, using the slipstream to conserve energy, but you need to be close to get the advantage.  The semi-finals are also best-of-three but neither Stephanie Morton (Aus) nor Emma Hinze (Ger) needed a decider as they saw off Olena Straikova (Ukr) and Laurine van Reissen (Ned). Meanwhile, in between those two sprint runs, we had watched the Elimination race, one of the four components of the Women’s Omnium.  Two events had taken place earlier in the day.  Essentially, the rider in last position every other lap is eliminated, and they are informed of this by flashing LEDs on their handlebars.  It is fair to say that sometimes they appear to be indignantly surprised by this.   It is an impressive sight, and even more impressive that they don’t end up in a giant heap of twisted metal.  Gradually the field is whittled down and there is a showdown between the last two.  Kirsten Wild (Ned) held off Amy Cure (Aus).  British competitor Elinor Barker had been eliminated around half-way, leaving her 6th overall at that point. The second round of the Men’s Keirin followed.  Six riders on track, three laps following strictly behind a slightly comical motorised cycle known as the durney, gradually speeding up, before the durney pulls over and there is a three-lap race.  Once again, track positioning and slipstreaming are vital elements of the tactics.  There were two second round races, each supplying three riders for the final.  GB’s Joseph Truman was eliminated in 4th, but Jack Carlin, riding for a scratch team, made it through. The action continued with the Men’s Madison.  This moderately incomprehensible event is for pairs of riders.  At any given moment, one of the pair is active.  He hands over to his partner by catching them up where he was dawdling on the higher levels, and then with a joining of hands and a “slingshot” action propelling them ahead.  It’s astonishing how it is achieved, safely, over and over again with another twenty or so pairs trying to do the same thing.  Every ten laps there is a sprint to the line that scores points for the first four active riders, with the last one worth double.  It is also possible to score 20 points by lapping the field.  In the end, the young GBR pair of Fred Wright and Matt Walls had to be content with the silver medal despite winning the final sprint.  Even though they had picked up points regularly in the sprints, Denmark’s Julius Johansen and Casper von Folsach had taken a lap out of the field earlier on and they managed to hold on to that advantage. In the Men’s Keirin final, Matthijs Buchli (Ned) took the win, with Jack Carlin pipped for a medal in fourth place. The Women’s Sprint title went to Stephanie Morton (Aus) who saw off Emma Hinze of Germany.  Laurine van Reissen (Ned) took the bronze. This left us with the Points Race, the last event of the Women’s Omnium.  Points are scored for lapping the field or for the sprints that take place every ten laps.  When all was added up, Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands took gold from Jennifer Valente (USA) and Alison Beveridge (Can) with GB’s Elinor Barker in 5th after a decent showing in the final event. All great fun.  At least it had stopped raining for the walk back to the station.  Cycling has developed a good spectator product with some interesting ways of competing for going round a track.  They vary from the intense one-on-one to the co-operative carnage.  It is athletically and technologically very impressive.
What Next?
All being well and weather permitting, back on the Step 4 football trails next week.  Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter!

Astra Felipe and West Ham Flop

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Thursday 26 August 2016 at the London Stadium
Result	West Ham United 0 Astra Giurgiu 1 Astra win 2-1 on aggregate
Competition	UEFA Europa League Play-Off Second Leg
Hopping	591 on the lifetime list and I am here to complete “The 92” and “The 116” and cheer for an English side in a European competition.
Pre-match preparation
Decided to heed the social media warnings and go by public transport.  The tie is level at 1-1 after West Ham conceded a late equaliser in the first leg.  The club’s public pronouncements are expecting a home win even though Astra beat West Ham at this same stage last season.  I won’t get a chance to see Dmitri Payet, Manuel Lanzini and Andy Carroll who are all injured.  I might get a chance to see former WBA fringe midfielder Felipe Teixeira. I think I last saw him on 28 August 2007 in a league cup game at Peterborough.  For the record, the match ticket was £20+1.
This match in one sentence
A cool finish on the break by the aforementioned Teixeira was the key moment in a textbook away European performance by FC Astra.
So what?
I never, ever have to go into Stratford on a West Ham match night ever again. Ever.  Plus West Ham have 85 fewer fixtures this season and will need to keep their squad members happy with adult colouring books or something.
The drama unfolds
The journey was horrendous for starters.  Massive Central Line delays meant that I had to switch via Bow Road to the DLR and then walk to the ground from Pudding Lane.  Fortunately fans have already trampled a shortcut over a perimeter fence and I managed to avoid spraining an ankle as I allowed gravity to pull me down a bank.  I had time for a few snaps and I picked up a programme but I got to my seat sweating profusely, without food or water, just as the teams were coming out.  The security checks had been ridiculously inadequate and I could easily have brought in a picnic hamper.  When I saw the food stall prices later I realised my error of omission. Anyway, to the match.  This will have been well-documented elsewhere for anyone interested so I will be brief.  FC Astra lined up with a red-topped Silviu Lung in goal facing up to Darren Randolph’s orange which did not bode well.  Slaven Bilic doesn’t follow this blog, clearly.  The game started at European pace in line with the warm evening.  West Ham used their wide players whenever possible and I liked the look of Sam Byram.  As a West Brom fan I don’t get to see full-backs very often.  Lung looked dodgy.  However, there was no end product and West Ham were often muscled off the ball by very organised and strong opponents.  0-0 at half-time would have been OK, but the classic away goal sucker punch was coming. A crossfield ball to the other fullback Reece Burke left him with too much to do.  In the split second to make a decision he kept going forward but the ball was lost leaving Astra the chance to break into the wide open spaces behind him.  Filipe Teixeira arrived from midfield like an untracked express train and finished really well.  A game changer, and West Ham would now need two. Bilic sent on Enner Valencia at the break and West Ham started the second half with more urgency.   They created several half-chances with Winston Reid in particular being unlucky that he couldn’t keep a bullet header down below the bar.  On the rare occasions that the defensive line was breached, Lung was now showing Hollywood form. The systematic time-wasting by the Astra players contributed to a grim spectacle and the home fans were getting restless.  A scuffle broke out to my left.  A target of two goals in one half became one goal to take the tie to extra time as West Ham reverted more and more to hit-and-hope tactics.  It never looked like coming and home fans with better knowledge of local infrastructure were leaving in the proverbial droves well before the end.  To be fair, another 45 minutes for extra time and penalties would probably have left people like me sleeping rough overnight in the Olympic Park.  There was a late flurry of yellow cards.  James Collins was sent on as a targetman, which must be a sign of desperation.  There was a weary resignation about the place as the whistle went and the small posse of away fans celebrated with their heroes.  Final score 0-1
Ground Pix
I like the stadium.  It doesn’t look like a ground with a running track.  I like the shapes, the lines, the angles.  I’m not bothered that West Ham have been very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to be here.  The infrastructure still needs huge improvement to give an acceptable matchday experience to fans and local residents and businesses.  I didn't like the atmosphere inside which was muted and disappointing.  There were plenty of football tourists like me and lots of empty seats.  I never got the sense that the Hammers fans were that bothered about the Europa League.  If there had been a late equaliser, thousands of them had already given up the chance of watching extra time. The red structure nearby is The Orbit, original design by Anish Kapoor.  I last went to the top in 2012 during the London Olympics and a tunnel slide experience has now been added.
Match Pix
These days I don’t get the chance to watch football from high places that often so I tend to choose the upper tier and enjoy the ebb-and-flow rather than the blood-and-thunder of lower leagues.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
As “expected”, red beats orange and adds another clean sheet.  Here’s the latest from the last 88 games I’ve seen. 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, -1pt for a goal conceded (GC) and +5pts for a clean sheet (CS).  Ranked by points-per-game (PPG). P W D L GC CS Pts PPG Red 7.0 4.0 0.0 3.0 6.0 3.0 21.0 3.00 Green 45.0 25.0 5.0 15.0 69.0 13.0 76.0 1.69 Maroon 4.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 6.0 1.0 6.0 1.50 Blue 24.1 9.0 5.0 10.1 40.0 8.0 32.0 1.33 Grey 32.5 14.0 7.0 11.5 48.5 8.0 40.5 1.25 Orange 14.5 4.0 3.0 7.5 18.5 4.0 16.5 1.14 Purple 9.0 4.0 2.0 3.0 20.0 2.0 4.0 0.44 Yellow 17.0 4.0 5.0 8.0 31.0 4.0 6.0 0.35 Black 3.0 1.0 2.0 0.0 7.0 0.0 -2.0 -0.67 Pink 10.0 1.0 4.0 5.0 23.0 1.0 -11.0 -1.10 Radioactive Bile 9.0 2.0 0.0 7.0 23.0 0.0 -17.0 -1.89 White 0.9 0.0 0.0 0.9 3.0 0.0 -3.0 -3.33
What Next?
Watch @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!  Work commitments mean that all decisions are last-minute until further notice.  My Step 2 priorities for this season will be Fylde, Poole, Bromsgrove Sporting (landlords to Worcester City) and Darlington (on the move soon) to restore “The 160”.