Hello from Manchester, from the famous Manchester Velodrome, the National Cycling Centre,

where I am just about to start day three of a three-day commentary shift,

commentating for the first time on my life

on the national track championships which is a thing that I didn't even know was televised

and it has been kind of streamed on YouTube and by British cycling free to access this year

which is a free to air service available to all and it's been good fun. I must confess that track

cycling is a slightly unfamiliar world to me. It's not something I follow necessarily very

closely. Always struck me a slightly hidden closeted world that just goes about its business

and pokes its head above the parapet

every now and again with the world championships and then every four years with the Olympic Games

one way or another but you know it just rumbles along a lot of the time content with its own

comings and goings and the national championships on the track are a kind of a little moment where the British scene gets together

and everybody seems to know each other extremely well and over four days actually of competitive

action in the afternoon and evenings three of which have been televised they distribute a whole bunch

of medals and stripy jumpers with the red, white and blue bands.

And I have to say, despite how hard I found it from time to time,

commentating on this relentless pace that is track cycling, where you flip basically from one event to another,

it's been enormously good fun and I as I often

experience in the world of cycling even though I'm a little bit of a fish out of

water here I've been made to feel extremely welcome and I've enjoyed it and we've

seen some great racing as well I think probably some of the standout performances

just to pick out maybe three so far that may change over the course of the standout performances just to pick out maybe three so far. That may change over the

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