Never happens at football matches.....

Following Wirral Mamil Ade's extended trip abroad he needs to complete the final phase of the accreditation process at the Manchester Velodrome. Having been away so long, before participating in the structured assessment, we decided to go and join a taster session. For those of you who are yet to enjoy the sheer pleasure of sprinting round the boards, for just £10 you get an hour on the track with a coach, bike and helmet provided. Great value for money.

Before going in we had a look round the new shop at the velodrone. Plenty of bling there and the staff are not too pushy. I fancied an aero helmet but I'm not too sure it provides a significant advantage below 12mph.

Once in the track or 15 minutes before it was our session we had a chance to watch some of the British team practising sprints. They are flying round and certainly inspire us mortals. When it came to our turn there were only two people who hadn't ridden the track before so the rest of us were free to practise some through and offs for an hour of high speed cycling, it was certainly good to get the machine back out. Although both Ade and I have spent many hours on a track, the thrill of riding so close to the tyre of the bike in front heightens your awareness of everything around you, improves your pedalling technique and your speed. Not to mention the feeling of stupidity at the lack of brakes [and in my case gears]. I don't think either of us will grow up and loose the excitement of riding a track.

After an hour I felt as though I should leave the track shuffling backwards with my nose to the floor as the Royalty of cycling including Sir Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny started their training behind a motorbike. For a while we gloated at the speed they were doing; much less than ours until the warm up finished and we were stunned into silence.

Exiting the tunnel we bumped into Poppa and Mrs Hoy who were leaving the track for lunch, after exchanging a few pleasantries about Sir Chris's performance in London we joined them for lunch. OK they were two tables away and didn't know they were having lunch with us but we did. The cafe had so many potential Olympic athletes from both the track and BMX it was a pleasure just to soak up the positive atmosphere. Ade even pointed out Bob from Emmerdale, though I have to take his word for it. He is apparently doing something on a bike for sport relief and was picking a bike up.

So that was it, you don't get day's like that at the football ground ......