Marion Clignet's World Track Championships Diary

Berlin, Germany, October 20-24, 1999

Entry 1

Arrived in Berlin on Thursday night, October 15th with the French national team. We came a few days early to have a mini training camp, get used to the track, the neighborhood, food, etc. You would have thought we were travelling farther. It took us the entire day to get here from Paris, and Lufthansa said the plane was too small to hold our bikes so they'd show up later...

In mid flight I had a panic as I realized that my shoes - yes, my one and only pair, were in my bike bag. As soon as we thumped to a landing, I filed a lost baggage claim and gave them our hotel number and address. We crossed the city by bus, took the same road that the love parade does, went through the gateway from West to East and arrived at our hotel. When I came down to breakfast I was relieved to see my bike bag leaning up against the wall. We were on the track at 8 so I got my shoes, put the road bike together and off I went with the pursuiters.

The track is set in a huge sports hall, I'd imagine a school at one time for the Ullrichs and Fiedlers. There's also a huge swimming and gymnastics facility as well. At first glance the track itself is a bit shocking. The top has been left painted with publicities as the bottom has been scraped and sanded and left as is. Apparently it makes for faster wood. So be it, if it's faster we'll take it. The temperature has been regulated as well, minimum 25, optimum, record breaking heat. We did our regular warm up and a few flying 1500's in small gears. Felt OK for an after travel day, nothing spectacular.

As soon as I got back to my room I tried every which way to get online. It's been three months since I've logged on and I was dying to pick some news from people here and there. My MacGyver skills were not on form though and I couldn't do it. Finally after days of trying every adapter and plug combo I had the bright idea to try the plug across the hall...et voila.

It's now Tuesday - race day for some tomorrow. I start on Thursday at 12.30 with the qualifying heats. I wasn't sure this track would be as fast as Cali, (a wooden 250 meter track in Cali, Columbia). However, this evening proved that it is maybe even faster. We did flying 1500's in race gear and I managed to break my P.R. I should've been turning at 17 seconds a lap but ended up turning at 16.01 to 16.30. Needless to say I left the track this evening feeling quite happy.

Tomorrow: two hours easy on the road plus 2 x 1km standing starts in race gear.