PTW

Charles and I have entered the above, which takes place this Saturday. I have also learned that there are 47 other teams taking part!! This is going to be fun!!

How many fffffing teams !!!1, i think the 47 teams are split over the 3 differnt races hopefully.... i need a jersey too !!!! anyone fancy lending me one for saturday night pleeeeeeeeeeezee

Shiteeeeeeee, just looked theres 2 qualifying races tb4 the final, well theres only one thing to do !! rock up on a whim and throw them shoestrings out and pull blooody hard !!!

Hey guys,
Give them hell, Ovbiously the roller league practice will be used to good effect
Have a good one and let us know how you get on ASAP

Charles, got to say, Think Positive............. there's no F in Teams.....

So Whats Occurrring!!!!!

Wos the goss and how did team 50 get on.....

Ok! Race report from your men in the field!

Right, let's get the excuses in early, on my part at least. Having never done a Madison before I knew I was in trouble. Owing to the nature of the event that meant Charles would be in trouble too. In fact, the whole field was going to be in trouble because of my ignorance in all things Madison!
A few hand slings sans bike on the Friday night before were not going to cut it!

So it was that we turned up to a full track and a few spectators to represent the Port Talbot Wheelers and mix amongst some stars past, present and hopefully future. With so many Olympic hopefuls whizzing around Team 50 (that’s us!) decided to start practicing on the 5 a side football pitch in the track centre. The organisers watched with despair as we slowly got the hang of it. Charles in fairness is becoming a seasoned pro at it, and gave me enough helpful hints to get us through.

So it was that we lined up for our heat, with the top 7 teams to go through to the final. Commentator booming and hearts racing we set off at breakneck speed, with me starting off and Charles taking over afterwards. I could see him coming up with his arm out, and with nerves of steel I reached for it and successfully slung him in! We were away. Unfortunately by this stage, my constant holidaying had blunted my speed somewhat and I found myself on the receiving end of a kicking every time it was my turn. Charles put in a sterling effort, but our ad hoc Madison team was not quite as slick or as sharp as the others and we missed the qualification!

But – we didn’t crash, we didn’t end anyone’s Olympic hopes before they had begun and had a great laugh. Most importantly, there was a Port Talbot team in the Welsh Madison Championships 2009.

Excellent report Davey. You've learnt the basics of racing. All you need now is to learn some fashion sense !!!

On a serious note, great that you are both "enjoying" your bike racing AND riding.
Well done Charles and Davey

Well what can we say !!, we definatly rocked up on a WHIM !!, as dave " the dangerous pretty disco ball" crowley, admited on the drive to the event he realy actualy had never technicaly raced madison before, we realised to qualify would be an achivement !!!. Anyway once at the track we then realised qualifying would be a bit toooo much to ask with 14 teams per qualifying race with only 7 teams to go through !!!. Well to make maters worse our planned 15mins of practice on the track never happened !! so the only practice we got in was riding round in circles on the badminton courts in the centre of the track !!!!. I was now pretty much sh**ing my self as the thought of giving 100% trust to davey in a national madison race was starting to scare me, how ever dai was still looking quite confident untill !! he watched the first qualifying race !! we both then were looking scared !! Well theres nowt much to say bout the race apart from we didnt fall off, only got laped once i must say tho that was nearly twice but i put an almighty effort in as the field came round to lap us for the second time and managing to hold them off and we almost didnt finish last but we missed our last change so i was left hung out to dry by mr crowley (thanks butt), so got caught by the 2 teams we were in front off.!!, but all in all i have to say we had a laugh and cant wait for the chance to do it again

Two nice write ups and two gallant efforts,well done for entering and riding in a dicipline that,going by last Friday nights slinging practice, must have been totally new to you both. I must say, I amongst others was quite surprised to see two adult males slinging each other around on a friday night without the evidence of any alcohol consumption and the absence of the mating call of the token blonde " leev 'im dive, ee ain't wurff eet" . Anyhow it took the conversation off gear inches and the colour of me new frame . Once again well done both for " avin' a go" and representing the club.

Soem images on the WCU website now - and a couple of Charles and I executing a text book hand sling. (perhaps in the 'how not to do a hand sling' section of said text book!)

well done lads.