by Last week I took Nicky to see the first day of Six Day London at the Lee Valley VeloPark. I’d been looking forward to it for ages, and was excited to finally get a chance to see Cav and Wiggo in action after they both missed out on the 2014 Tour de France stage 3 for various reasons. I’d been keeping my fingers crossed that Cav came through the Abu Dhabi Tour and the World Road Championships without getting injured and thankfully he came through unscathed (although unluckily missed out on the rainbow jersey to Peter Sagan).
We got to the Olympic Park twenty minutes before the doors opened but there was already a massive queue:
We didn’t get in until after six but they started with the junior Madison race and the elite men didn’t get started until around 7.30pm. We had some great seats at the top of the bottom tier, and it transpired that several in-crowd TV segments with OJ Borg and Rob Hayles were shot right next to us – Nicky was very excited to see himself on the big screens inside!
It did take a while to get the elite events properly going and it soon became clear that this was very much a home crowd – any time Cav or Wiggo made a move the crowd went wild! When they took a lap in the Madison Chase it was amazing, although Nicky was a little confused by the proceedings. He still enjoyed himself though.
It was a very enjoyable evening and on the way out Nicky was demanding that we try to get tickets for the remaining nights (they were all sold out though!) He definitely wants a go on the velodrome once he’s old enough, so for his 12th birthday we might both sign up for the starter session. The only criticism of the evening I’d have is perhaps the music, sometimes it was a bit too loud and we couldn’t hear the commentary. The sprinters were enjoyable and they did well in getting the crowd worked up, especially when one of the Rotherham brothers won an event.
I’d definitely go again, although I wonder if Cav will do it next year assuming that Wiggo does retire. It’d be good to see some other big names taking part too.