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Marginal gains come to beer drinkers at Track Worlds (+ gallery)

Stackable cups from Lee Valley VeloPark help you carry more back to your seat, without spilling

Marginal gains at the velodrome, it seems, are now being rolled out beyond the cyclists racing and to the fans watching them - spectators at the UCI Track World Championships which started in London today benefiting from an innovation allowing them to carry more beer back to their seats than ever before.

Our curiosity was piqued this morning by a tweet from Lee Valley VeloPark this morning that promised its new stackable cups would make life easier for fans fond of a beer or three, but it wasn’t clear how it worked.

Luckily, road.cc’s Laura Laker was on the spot and with the help of Aussie fans Narryn from Aldinga Beach and Danielle from Munno Pava West, who have travelled from South Australia to support their best friend Stephanie Morton, we’ve got pictures to show how the cups work, using interlocking handles.

Lee Valley beer cups 01 (picture copyright Laura Laker).jpeg
Lee Valley beer cups 02 (picture copyright Laura Laker).jpeg
Lee Valley beer cups 03 (picture copyright Laura Laker).jpeg

Morton was gold medallist in the individual sprint at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, defeating her compatriot Anna Meares, the reigning Olympic champion and one of the greatest names ever in women's track sprinting.

She has already tasted success at Lee Valley – at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, she was tandem pilot to Felicity Johnson, who won the 1km time trial B for blind and partially sighted riders.

Hopefully Narryn and Danielle will have plenty of excuses to raise a glass or three to their friend in the coming days.

Lee Valley beer cups 04 (picture copyright Laura Laker).jpeg
Lee Valley beer cups 05 (picture copyright Laura Laker).jpeg

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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10 comments

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stonojnr | 8 years ago
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well it wasnt Meantime beer but Fullers instead  2 I stuck with the Frontier lager, as the London Pride really wasnt at its best after 5 days at velodrome temps.

but they had "half pint" 250ml stackcups as well that people could also use for wine, the cups were a £1 deposit, which you got back when you returned the empty cup, and £5 for a "pint" which is I think more on par with the Olympic prices IIRC, than previous track events, though some Fullers pubs you can pay that much thesedays in London.

but they certainly were doing a roaring trade, and saw plenty of people using the stacking system and werent spilling a drop, so definately a marginal gain worth having  1

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mattho72 | 8 years ago
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Had these cups at 2012 Olympics.. laugh

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jollygoodvelo | 8 years ago
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Bloody genius!

 

BTW - until recently at least, the Meantime lager/pale ale was actually cheaper at the Velopark than anywhere else in London.

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PaulBox | 8 years ago
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Wow, I only came down here to see how many "what has this got to do with cycling?" comments there were... 

The cups look good!

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Veloism replied to PaulBox | 8 years ago
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PaulBox wrote:

Wow, I only came down here to see how many "what has this got to do with cycling?" comments there were... 

The cups look good!

It's different when there's beer involved!

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Veloism | 8 years ago
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This is amazing. Had many issues carrying beer there in the past, why don't all venues have these?!

 

www.veloism.cc

 

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stonojnr | 8 years ago
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also having a handle means you arent warming the beer up when you hold the cup,which probably is a marginal gain when the air temp is pushing 30C, but every little helps.

but for previous events the pricing there hadnt felt  out of line for London prices for beer,cant comment on what its like for this, but it certainly wasnt O2 levels (£6 500ml £4.50 330ml) last time I went

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sanderville | 8 years ago
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Someday all cups will be made this way.  But the beer looks like Bertie's last sample.

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EddyBerckx | 8 years ago
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I can confirm the cups are good...

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SteppenHerring | 8 years ago
1 like

Given the prices of food and drink there, spilling 3 pints would be a major financial crisis.

(Also something about reducing the length of club sessions from 3 to 2 hours)

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