Track World Cup 2014 - London Round

[mattc]

I missed day 1,  but otherwise lots of good racing.

I didn't know they'd changed the Omnium scoring!!! But I now think its a much better system - you can now easily follow the REAL (i.e. overall) positions during the Points round finale.
(Its also good to get away from the awful "less points is good!" situation, which pundits were constantly tripping over while trying to explain it.)

This guy sums it up well:  http://spokeydokeyblog.com/2014/06/25/exploding-the-b-omnium/

[yoav]

It was entertaining, that's for sure. I'm not sure the new scoring rules make a huge difference. As Laura Trott was quoted in The Guardian, she went into the points race knowing exactly what to do, stick to the wheel of the woman in 2nd place going into the race (a Dutch rider, I think), and that is exactly what she did, bar one sprint when the other rider got the 5 points followed by Trott winning 5 points at the next sprint, thus ensuring her win.

TBH, I think the omnium is a sop that the Olympics used as an excuse to get rid of a lot of other events. My favourite is the Madison. The TV pictures never quite captures the atmosphere of being there.

[Oaky]

I was at the Saturday daytime (qualifying) session.  The velodrome was far from full, but the atmosphere was good nonetheless.

We saw several rounds of the womens sprint; two rounds each of the mens and womens omnium (including two wins for Trotty, and Jon Dibben taking a lap in the scratch race, along with two other riders) and a couple of rounds of the keirin (including the debut for the electric derny).  I would have liked to see some of the team pursuit, but the way the sessions worked for the family, we weren't going to be able to get to those.

We watched quite a bit of Sunday's action on the TV too.  I found the omnium points race much more interesting than I'd expected, probably because of the additional tactical element owing to the re-jig of the scoring.

The experience has left me itching to have a session on the track now, although I'm guessing that an initial session won't have people racing round the top of the banking and swooping down.

[mattc]

It was entertaining, that's for sure. I'm not sure the new scoring rules make a huge difference. As Laura Trott was quoted in The Guardian, she went into the points race knowing exactly what to do, stick to the wheel of the woman in 2nd place going into the race (a Dutch rider, I think), and that is exactly what she did, bar one sprint when the other rider got the 5 points followed by Trott winning 5 points at the next sprint, thus ensuring her win.

Well for me the advantage was in WATCHING it. You always knew that the current points tally displayed on screen was also the ACTUAL overall position. None of this "if she only finishes 4th, then Sue needs 2nd or better, but Tracey can't win unless Jenny finishes lower than 10th .... " That's a problem that has always plagued multi-discipline events. It's even worse in track-n-field where your points don't just depend on your position!

I haven't watched enough past Omniums to comment on whether the riding has changed. But perhaps you can explain:
Surely under the old system, it made sense for the overall leader to mark the riders just behind him/her? If something else happened, why?   

[JenM]

I was there on Friday and had a cracking day - loads of empty space so you could move around. Not too many exciting moments as it was mainly  qualifying day. A couple of photos from the day are below.

I have a ticket for a track taster session in March, but looking at the steepness of the banking at either ends I don't think I'll be get off the cote d'azur never mind swooping down from the top.

[sizbut]

Went on Sunday - both sessions - my first time.

Venue inside is great, nice to be able to get up and walk around from time to time at a sporting event without having to miss anything.

Slightly disappointing that for the break between sessions there isn't really much around (especially on a cold day) except one cafe (though a very good cafe).

Watching the Madison live was much better than I expected. 120/160 laps goes by surprising quick and you have a much wider view than you get on telly so you can easily follow the pack and any various breakaways all the time. They did try to show the updated points standing at all times on the screens - might be my age but either the acoustics are bad or the commentator wasn't very clear - loud but not understandable.

The cut down Segway for the cameraman was impressive to.

Now who can explain the three Bromptons in the rider's area. Think the US team went shopping and were showing them off.