The Austrailian team were pretty friendly too. I worked on a couple of their bikes. The young lady who I replaced brake pads and chain for was lovely.

I like that people turned up to the Olympic test event needing new pads and a chain!

If you knew someone was going to fix your bike for you wouldn’t you turn up and just hand it over Nick?

anyone know if there will be any chance of getting tickets if you didnt get them in the ballot..?!?!

I applied too, was it a “Ballot” a Lucky dip or a fix though?

Most people I speak to who applied for tickets didn’t get anything, one fella at work reconed he’d bid top end for seveal events for the whole family and was potentially £1300 down if they all came through, he got chuff all…

Are they running similar Test Events on the BMX track does anyone know?
I wouldn’t moind a day trip to Laaandan to spectate at one of those…

Also if you been traveling from race to race, staying in places only a few days at time finding a shop that stock the new XTR pads etc is going to be hard, so you might as well get it done at a race by a pro! 😀

some coverage

Wow – people being positive about something on STW and its about the Olympics! 😀

Really wish I had applied for tickets for this now. Oh well, will see it on the telly I guess. Hopefully get a chance to have a go on it at some point.

Most people I speak to who applied for tickets didn’t get anything, one fella at work reconed he’d bid top end for seveal events for the whole family and was potentially £1300 down if they all came through, he got chuff all…

Wife applied for tickets to both mens and womens XC and got both. wonder if she got them because she didn’t look “greedy” if you know what I mean, plus they probably weren’t the most sought after ticket.

Are they running similar Test Events on the BMX track does anyone know?
I wouldn’t moind a day trip to Laaandan to spectate at one of those…

Yep details here: London prepares BMX

I applied too, was it a “Ballot” a Lucky dip or a fix though?

What’s the difference between a lucky dip and a ballot?

I applied for, and got, mens tickets, and the Womens didn’t sell out in the first tranche. Surprised how few people did get tickets though I must say.

Also if you been traveling from race to race, staying in places only a few days at time finding a shop that stock the new XTR pads etc is going to be hard, so you might as well get it done at a race by a pro!

Exactly. This is why after the women’s race I put a new brake lever on Georgia Gould’s bike as she was flying off with it somewhere else the next morning.

Hope you charged full retail 🙂

Do you get a big box of spares to use at the event?

Quite a large box yes. It looks like this –

How does it work for the athletes then?

Names on a list, anyone using Shimano, anyone racing?

I beleive that its neutral support, so any of the athletes competing can use it. Mister P will be able to confirm for certain though.

But it is in the team pits so Joe Public won’t get a chance to get near it.

Great, always said it would be a great venue
missed the test event but have got tickets for
the Olympics. (smug)

Got tickets for the Ladies race on the Saturday – can’t wait..

Can spectators get close to the course to take photos?

Look at the photos – there’s spectators everywhere 🙂

Strangely the pits are a bit of a spectator magnet. Probably the most boring part of the track, no-one falls off in the pits.

cool, all I need now is for Nikon to bring out the D4 before the Olympics 🙂

The course looks ace after seeing those pics.

Really wouldn’t fancy hitting that on a skinny tyred XC race machine to be fair

Can spectators get close to the course to take photos?

Spectators can access the whole course. The double taping of the course is just to stop them wandering around the track (there are official marshalled Crossing Points to get around) but you can literally stand inches away from the riders as they pass at almost all points of the course. Really good atmosphere with thousands of people there – it should be mental when there’s 20000 spectators! 🙂

More importantly, how do I get a Photographer pass for the event?

mister P you need anyone to hold a spanner say er… next august at all…?!