Sean is feeling better, and the game doesn’t start until 5 PM, so we decide to go have brunch at one of the many creperies near our Airbnb, then go to the nearby Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg garden). The creperie appears to be run by an older woman and her daughter. The older woman is waiting tables, and is also making sure that everyone is enjoying their meals. I had a Breton style crepe with sausage and cheese and some vegetables. It was delicious! We head toward the gardens.
The gardens were part of an estate built by Marie de’ Medici, widow of King Henry IV, in 1612. Marie wanted to build a palace similar to the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy. Here are some pictures:
The garden is now owned by the French Senate, who meet in the palace, and it is a popular place for Parisians to hang out, especially on hot days like today. We see basketball and tennis courts and you can rent radio-controlled sailboats to sail on the Grand Bassin. There are many, many Parisians having picnics or just laying on blankets in the shade. I’m not sure what is up with the rectangular trees, but it certainly makes them easier to prune! After all the walking around, Sean’s stomach is still kind of marginal, so he decides to stay home again.
A velodrome is not a small building. The track is 250 m long, 8 m wide with a 43-degree inclination and is a sort of saddle shape. In order to find enough space, it had to be built quite far out from central Paris. In fact, the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome is located one train stop beyond Versailles in the western suburbs of Paris. The good news is that we already know how to get there! This is one of the Paris 2024 venues that already existed before the came to town. It was built in 2014 to be the fastest velodrome in Europe, if not the world.
The venue isn’t open yet when we arrive, so we get in
the food line. Beth gets a salad, and I get the one different thing on the
menu – bruschetta. This is tomato, onions and blue cheese on a piece of toasted bread. It’s
Italian, not French, but it is not the same old thing. The venue has lounge
chairs and umbrellas set up on the lawn outside and it is pretty hot and humid,
so we are happy to sit in some shade and eat.
Inside, the venue is spectacular. I really liked the light show before events start:
This is the first time that we’ve managed to get track tycling tickets since Sydney 24 years ago. This is because, even though the
velodrome is huge, there are only about 10 rows of seats, so the venue only
holds about 3,400 people. In the middle is a pit area where technicians can
fine-tune the bikes and the athletes can warm up and warm down. One other thing
that I should mention. These bikes are not like your Schwin. They are single
gear bikes meaning that you can’t decide not to pedal. They also have no brakes
so getting them off the track involves a procedure that looks a little like
jets landing on an aircraft carrier. After the race, the athletes will go
around the oval 2 or 3 times to gradually slow down and then when they are
going slow enough, they go down to the bottom of the track and one of their
team members grabs them as they go by.
The first event is the seeding round for the eight
teams in women’s team sprint. In this event, a team of three starts out on a
three-lap race. The three women start side by side up the inclined track, so
they’ve got special devices to hold the bikes upright until they start.
The woman in the front is doing most of the work
pulling the other two along behind her so after a lap or so, she will peel off and
the 2nd woman will pull for another lap and leave the final person,
who has done the least amount of work so far to cross the finish line. We notice that the first few teams have a lot
of trouble keeping the three women close enough together for the aerodynamic
drafting to be effective – the first woman gets too far ahead so the 2nd
woman has to do too much work. But even the slowest team from Canada is going
more than 35 mph – a speed that I’ve only reached on a bicycle going down a
steep hill! The final team, from Great Britain, sets a world record with a time
of 45.472 seconds (36.895 mph). We’re told by the public address person to
expect more world records in the final because this is the first year that team sprint has used three athletes. Before this, they only used two, so it is as if it is a new sport.
The second event of the evening is the seeding round
for men’s team pursuit. This event is similar to the sprint except that you
start with teams of four men, and you have to finish with at least three. This
race is also longer, 4 km instead of 750 m. There are 10 teams competing, but
only the 8 fastest will advance to the next round. In this event,
when the first rider gets tired, he will turn up the track, let the other three
riders go by and then latch onto the back. This takes precise timing because if
you get too far behind the other riders, you lose the aerodynamic advantage and
will not have enough power to catch back up. This is what happens to the
Japanese team. When the lead rider turned off, he couldn’t get back on. This
left the team with only three riders for much longer than they had planned and
by the end, even the 3rd rider was falling behind. That is
devastating because the official time is the time of the 3rd rider.
They finish with a time of 3:53.489 minutes (38.3 mph). The other team not to
qualify was a surprise, at least to me. Germany is normally among the best
teams, but perhaps they just brought a very young team. In any case, they
finish in 9th place with a time of 3:50.083 (38.9 mph). At the other
end of the leader board, the team from Australia edges the favorites from Great
Britain by just under 0.3 seconds in a time of 3:42.958 minutes (40.1 mph).
It is really hot in the arena (no A/C) so I go looking for Powerade and again, don’t find any so I settle for a frozen desert on a stick something like a popsicle. Along the way, I spot this woman:
At each Paris 2024 venue, they honor two people who
have contributed greatly to the success of the Olympic Games. For the men, it
is Pierre du Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics. For the women, it
is Alice Milliat. Alice was a feminist who pushed for greater inclusion of
women in the Olympics. She organized the Women’s World Games in 1921, 1922,
1926, 1930 and 1934. This was well before women were even allowed to vote in
France. To honor these two people, every venue hired an actor to dress in
period costumes and walk around the venue taking selfies with people and
posting them to social media.
The women are back for the next round of the
Team Sprint. Now there are two teams on opposite sides of the track and the
format is #1 vs #8, #2 vs #7, etc. based on the rankings from the seeding
round. In all four races, the higher seed wins and Germany, New Zealand and
Great Britain broke the world record on successive races with Great Britain
eventually lowering their world record set in the previous round to 45.338
seconds (37.0 mph).
Next is the seeding round for the men’s team sprint
with the same rules as for women’s team sprint. The Dutch team sets the best
time (and Olympic record) 41.279 seconds (40.6 mph) followed by Great Britain,
Australia and Japan. They will compete for medals tomorrow.
The final event for the evening is the finals of the women’s team sprint. The first race is Poland versus Canada for 7th
place which Poland wins by about 0.5 seconds (this is a big margin!). Next,
Mexico beats China by about 0.3 seconds to take 5th place. Now, we
are down to the medal races. Germany beats the Netherlands by 0.29 seconds to
take the bronze medal and Great Britain breaks the world record for the 3rd
time tonight while beating New Zealand for the gold medal in a time of 45.186
(37.1 mph).
We don’t stay for the medal ceremony to get a head start to the train. When we come out, we notice that it is at least 10 degrees cooler outside than inside. I read later that the venue carefully controls temperature and humidity because warmer, more humid air will allow the athletes to go faster. It explains the ice vests that we see some of the athletes wearing between races. Here are some pictures:
Steps for the day: 11,002.
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