Marginal gains at the velodrome, it seems, are now being rolled out beyond the cyclists racing and to the fans watching them – spectators at the UCI Track World Championships which started in London today benefiting from an innovation allowing them to carry more beer back to their seats than ever before.
Our curiosity was piqued this morning by a tweet from Lee Valley VeloPark this morning that promised its new stackable cups would make life easier for fans fond of a beer or three, but it wasn’t clear how it worked.
Our new stack cups exclusive to @trackworlds make the journey back to your seat a lot easier! pic.twitter.com/fz34avCbDv
— Lee Valley VeloPark (@LeeValleyVP) March 2, 2016
Luckily, road.cc’s Laura Laker was on the spot and with the help of Aussie fans Narryn from Aldinga Beach and Danielle from Munno Pava West, who have travelled from South Australia to support their best friend Stephanie Morton, we’ve got pictures to show how the cups work, using interlocking handles.
Morton was gold medallist in the individual sprint at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, defeating her compatriot Anna Meares, the reigning Olympic champion and one of the greatest names ever in women’s track sprinting.
She has already tasted success at Lee Valley – at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, she was tandem pilot to Felicity Johnson, who won the 1km time trial B for blind and partially sighted riders.
Hopefully Narryn and Danielle will have plenty of excuses to raise a glass or three to their friend in the coming days.
10 thoughts on “Marginal gains come to beer drinkers at Track Worlds (+ gallery)”
Given the prices of food and
Given the prices of food and drink there, spilling 3 pints would be a major financial crisis.
(Also something about reducing the length of club sessions from 3 to 2 hours)
I can confirm the cups are
I can confirm the cups are good…
Someday all cups will be made
Someday all cups will be made this way. But the beer looks like Bertie’s last sample.
also having a handle means
also having a handle means you arent warming the beer up when you hold the cup,which probably is a marginal gain when the air temp is pushing 30C, but every little helps.
but for previous events the pricing there hadnt felt out of line for London prices for beer,cant comment on what its like for this, but it certainly wasnt O2 levels (£6 500ml £4.50 330ml) last time I went
This is amazing. Had many
This is amazing. Had many issues carrying beer there in the past, why don’t all venues have these?!
http://www.veloism.cc
Wow, I only came down here to
Wow, I only came down here to see how many “what has this got to do with cycling?” comments there were…
The cups look good!
PaulBox wrote:
It’s different when there’s beer involved!
Bloody genius!
Bloody genius!
BTW – until recently at least, the Meantime lager/pale ale was actually cheaper at the Velopark than anywhere else in London.
Had these cups at 2012
Had these cups at 2012 Olympics..
well it wasnt Meantime beer
well it wasnt Meantime beer but Fullers instead 🙁 I stuck with the Frontier lager, as the London Pride really wasnt at its best after 5 days at velodrome temps.
but they had “half pint” 250ml stackcups as well that people could also use for wine, the cups were a £1 deposit, which you got back when you returned the empty cup, and £5 for a “pint” which is I think more on par with the Olympic prices IIRC, than previous track events, though some Fullers pubs you can pay that much thesedays in London.
but they certainly were doing a roaring trade, and saw plenty of people using the stacking system and werent spilling a drop, so definately a marginal gain worth having 🙂