Velodrome Time

Today marked our first visit to the venue that we will be working at, the newly built velodrome in Beijing.  From the Communication University of China, where we are staying, it's about a one hour trip on the subway, making it about as far away from us it can be and still be within the Beijing proper.  Since it is a brand new facility, built specifically for these Olympics, everything is still being put together in preparation for the games.  The track however, appears to be just fine.

We walked around on the track during our tour of the facility including the corners, which appear to be near vertical walls from the bottom.  They sit at a 45 degree angle so the cyclists can keep full speed rolling through the corners, and the view from the inside of the track shows how tall these corners are. We saw what appeared to be the halftime show entertainment (I know cycling doesn't have a halftime, so maybe lag time entertainment, but it fits the idea) practicing in the center area of the track, the same area that we learned would be the mixed zone, or the area that we will be interviewing the athletes. The dancers were dancing with an inflatable version of the main Olympic mascot, the same kind of blow up character that Rowdy was featured as. We wanted to get a photo with the character, but he jumped out of the suit before we could. I've seen how sweaty people get in those suits, and with the Beijing heat hitting you even in the velodrome, I felt for the guy.

We've done research on the different styles of racing done in track cycling, and today we spent some more time doing research on track cycling, mountain cycling and BMX. We also took a tour of the BMX track and mountain biking course. The BMX track looks like a good time, and since we had a great chance to take this tour, we got to go up into the starting ramp for the BMX track, something that not a lot of people get to do.

Our training has not officially begun as of yet, since the ONS office has not been fully set up at this point, and so we do not know when exactly we will be working at the velodrome.  Also, we have not received our uniforms yet, a matter that has made some of us blue, as we are thoroughly excited about the fanny packs that are included.

But even though we have not begun our training, we have seen our work space and we now have an image of where we will be for the Olympics, which makes us all that much more excited to get to work.