Pendleton watch
When I arrived at the track earlier this afternoon, Vicky was sitting in her usual chair, then went to warm up on her stationary bike (see if you can pick her out in the rubbish photo below) and now she's sitting in the chair again. She seems quite animated, mind and is looking around chatting to various people. Sometimes she sits there motionless, wearing shades and headphones, staring straight ahead of her in full-on "do not disturb" mode.
Where's Vicky? Clue: on a bike. She *never* stops cycling. twitter.com/bglendenning/s…
— Barry Glendenning (@bglendenning) August 5, 2012
Previously on ... this Sunday in the Velodrome
While you were catching an extra couple of hours in bed, scratching yourself and possibly watching that cookery show with Tim Lovejoy on it, Victoria Pendleton was busy smashing Olympic records. In the women's team sprint, she set a world's fastest time at sea level in qualifying with 10.724seconds to set up a match against Russia's Ekaterina Gnidenko, which will kick off this afternoon's bout of cycling entertainment.
Meanwhile in the men's omnium, Ed Clancy moved into the silver medal slot with just the scratch race and time trial to go, thanks to a fine ride in the 4000m individual pursuit. With the men's sprint due to conlcde tomorrow and the women's on Tuesday, the men's omnium is the only event being staged that will produce a winner this afternoon.
Today's order of play
4:00pm: Women's sprint 1/16 finals
4:35pm: Men's sprint quarter-finals race one
4:50pm: Women's sprint 1/16 repechages
5:00pm: Men's omnium 15-kilometre scratch race:
5:20pm: Men's sprint quarter-finals race two
5:35pm: Women's sprint 1/8 final
5:55pm: Men's sprint quarter-finals race three
6:05pm: Women's spring 1/8 finals repechages
6:10pm: Men's omnium one-kilometre time trial
6:45pm: Men's sprint finals race for fifth-eighth places
6:50pm: Women's sprint finals race for ninth-12th places
6:55pm: Men's omnium victory ceremony
Preamble
Good afternoon bike fans and greetings once again from the muggy interior of the velodrome, where at the time of writing, the volunteers are congregated in seats across from the press box, the members of assorted back-room teams are milling around the oval pit area and various cyclists are generating a steady hum, warming up on stationary bikes and creating enough wattage to power a moderately-sized family-orientated weekend rock festival with a strict 10.30pm curfew.
There are fewer cyclists here than usual, possibly because many of those who'll be cycling here later have already been competing earlier today and have no doubt returned to their quarters in the Olympic Village to catch 40 winks and refuel ahead of their return to the velodrome for the sharp end of their respective competitions. I can tell you that Victoria Pendleton is here, however, sitting in the usual chair in front of the Union Jack backdrop that adorns the British section of the pits, wearing a black T-shirt, black leggings and with her dark hair pulled back tightly in the usual businesslike fashion. Later this afternoon, she goes in the women's sprint quarter-finals.
Ed Clancy and Jason Kenny also represent Great Britain today, with the former nicely poised in second place going into the final two events of the men's omnium and the latter scheduled to contest the men's sprint quarter-finals. Stay tuned for what should be another omnium- and sprint-tastic evening's racing. To the velodrome, from where we report at 3.15pm for a four o'clock start.
