Last Sunday saw 5 of the Wattbike Team at the Manchester Skyride. We were working with the British Cycling membership team ably led by Terry Greenwood, the membership manager for British Cycling. The Wattbike tent was really the activity zone providing people the opportunity to try to be the best in their age group, with winners of each age group getting a signed British Cycling jersey. The day started slowly, but once the ride got going we were inundated all day, with people queueing up out through the barriers that had been errected. The best times of the day came late on when one 50 year old rider produced a 9.99s for his 200m, the only two people to beat him were Jason Kenny and Ed Clancy – who are pretty impressive.
Jason Kenny produced a 9.59s with a peak power of 1581W whilst Ed Clancy who led up to the last few metres in their race produced a 10.89s and 1340W peak power. Both of them comfortably beat Syride celebrity Gethin Jones who managed a 13.18s 200m. Gethin, however, was the favourite with the female members of the Wattbike team, especially when he came back onto the stand to commentate on a race between a few of the British Cycling staff.
Throughout the day the British Cycling stand also featured interviews with athletes, staff and coaches from British Cycling and turned up some very interviews, most notably Shane Sutton and Dave Brailsford. Vicky Pendleton was also interviewed, although the commentators seemed more interested in the fact that she had been on the cover of FHM than the fact that she has been the golden girl of British Cycling for years, although that interview did produce one of those moments when you do not know quite where to look when the interviewer introduced VickyP…..FHM cover girl but not as hot as Megan Fox! Not sure he could believe he had just said that, but Vicky took it in her stride.
The other quote of the day was from Jason Kenny. When asked what his favourite bike was, he responded "My facourite bike is a Wattbike". Sounds like someone is looking for a freebee.
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