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Tactics and Communication
Wow! Again….
Recovering from the last two days of racing and I did manage to see some of the racing afterwards thankfully.
We all started at 5am on site on Saturday morning, welcomed with a bit of drizzle but really warm temperature and drying roads so no one was concerned with a forecast of a really hot day on the cards to boot.
Our role involved monitoring and communicating the various activities happening on site to ensure everything went smoothly as planned so that the roads where closed and safe along with the measures put in place to allow traffic to move, one big complaint from the test event, and that the public could enjoy the race with enthusiasm.
Can’t say everything went smoothly but simple communication up the channel, constant monitoring and updating and a little bit of common sense, all went together to make it happen and the big result was that no one knew, or will know, that anything was ever an issue. All comments fed back from press, tv, local authorities, the cycling governing body etc, where all positive and upbeat. Result!
Shame the same communication and monitoring didn’t help Team GB win gold in their key event on home soil but that’s racing. No effort spared though, we could see it in the riders eyes as they passed, I’ve never seen those guys so exhausted in a single days race. Four men led the entire pack around 140 miles on the route, doing almost all of the work, sticking to their plan with confidence and commitment. It just needed those other minor areas to be addressed to succeed and gold would’ve been theirs.
Not to be, however it was clear that TeamGB learned quickly from this and the women’s race resulted in a very well earned Silver for Lizzie Armstead. Gold would’ve been hers if the dominant female rider of the year wasn’t with her, Vos has been supreme all year round with the only chink in her armour being real mountains, which Lizzie dominated.
All of this went on whilst we went about our roles, almost oblivious to the events unfolding. More concerned about ensuring road closures and race safety, I spent the morning riding up and down my patch, about 4 miles through Twickenham to Bushy Park. Nice area and great people. It was especially good to see non-cycling supporters really get behind their country and the sport. Kids weren’t kicking footballs on the empty streets, they where cycling, actually cycling around on bikes on the roads.
Closing the roads a few hours prior to the race may have been imposing on the traffic and negative aspect of focus for areas of the press, but they didn’t see what happened to these streets. They where transformed from busy roads you would be afraid to let your kids walk alongside without holding their hands, to streets that featured very young children cycling around under the watch of their parents who all stood out in their gardens with BBQs ablaze and TVs arranged in windows. The queens jubilee street parties may have been large where they didn’t happen but they didn’t happen in the numbers that these household parties did.
All of this did have a knock on effect though, prior to the race, the road closure allowed for safety to be monitored and instilled, safety cars proceeded the race to confirm all was in place as my team took to the pavements with the public also. It was afterwards that this public enjoyment of the streets, had an effect on events as the roads should’ve been clear for workforce staff to arrive and replace traffic measures, collect safety barriers and get the area back to a normal looking road environment. The public enjoying their day didn’t seem to be concerned about this. They all took to the streets on mass, making it difficult for us to even monitor our areas never mind HGVs arriving to drop off traffic islands to collect barriers. It did get done though and far quicker than the test event in February. My area opened about 4 hours earlier this time and I was able to redeploy to another sector assisting the race as it returned to London for the finale.
This was the first point that I realised Team GB had their backs against the wall with reports of a large breakaway featuring Cancellara among others, then he ‘dropped’ out. Such a shame for him as this was a classics type stage and his plan seemed to work perfectly until that corner, not his first over-cooked corner this year, too much power?
I was based in Fulham and Putney for this part of the race and the crowds here all spent the day on the roadside enjoying a summer party atmosphere. Plenty of invites to join these, where handed out on mass, photos where taken as if we where athletes ourselves and I don’t think one security staff member I met, had a single issue with crowd management, their main role on the day. There was always the odd traffic management issue where some people from out reach areas didn’t take the time to plan their route through London only to find almost no way through some if their timing was bad. There was always a way round if not through but this never appeals to an impatient, demanding driver who feels their human rights have been removed by not being allowed to drive where they wish to. Thankfully this wasn’t my domain and I only witnessed two actual heated exchanges. All other traffic flow points, allowed traffic to move across the route upto the point that the safety of the riders and public took priority. If they actually stopped and watched, they wouldve seen the crowds amassed, preventing safe passage, or the race unfold in front of them. Quite a few did just that and commented positively on the atmosphere roadside as a welcome reward for their patience.
I’m now recovering with sleep and food, both lacking on long shifts, however the party goes on on Wednesday with the TimeTrials.
In the meantime, my wifes coming to meet me so we can go to the Olympic Park for a day out and enjoy the atmosphere for ourselves, albeit on big screens as I couldn’t get tickets to anything.
Let the games begin
Wow!
Don’t know about you but I loved that opening ceremony. Only watched upto about 10pm as I had a really early shift start the next day for some road race thing but we joined a crowd in the pub and even there, the atmosphere was electric.
I arrived in London after a few detours round the North Circular road but pretty easy going on the roads and all the hype of traffic jams didn’t seem to live up to expectations, thankfully.
Only issue I did have was discovering that my rear brake lads needed replacing so I spent the morning changing them prior to leaving so that I could run them in prior to the events. Fiddly but simple job, just took a bit of time off of my day.
Arrived to sign in for the accommodation which is the university halls of residence, and the rooms seem fairly good compared to how they where played down by Locog. Some people complained but I can’t see why as we only get about 5 hours in the room until Sunday night.
Went to the briefing which was brief, thankfully. The guys from the National Escort Group are all volunteers who give their time week in week out to marshal cycle races for the safety of the riders and public, they have each amassed a wide range of skills and experience and it was this knowledge that Locog where relying on to ensure the race route was just that, safe. It’s just a good job they didn’t want them for their managerial or communication skills as some of them are like children who need spoon fed whilst others only want to know what’s in it for them prior to doing anything, unprofessional and sometimes embarrassing to the group but there’s room for all and we all accommodate them and work together to make up for any short comings.
Next up is the Men’s Road Race, first medal chance event and one that’s big on Team GBs list.
Nearly there
It’s Sunday the 22nd July at 6am and I am awoken with excited dreams of what’s just about to happen.
In 5 days I shall be achieving something that I set out to do over 5 years ago after methodically working my way through the ranks the gain the experience needed.
I shall be riding my motorbike as an escort rider in the Olympics!
Albeit the TimeTrial events only but still, I hold a key position in both road races and shall be trackside during all 6 competition days in the Velodrome. There isn’t much more I could do without riding a bicycle.
My minds filled with small details, have I got room for clothing on the motorbike, will the tent survive the weather, will my back survive the ground, will I be able to make porridge in the mornings before shift at 6am?
Today is my last regional road race prior to the Olympics and I’m mentoring a couple of riders who want to learn how to escort cycle races just like I did once. Few will start their journey with the thought of achieving something as big as this but major events still beckon.
Today will see Britains first ever Tour de France winner cross the line on the Champs Élysées, bar disaster, and this is going to start a chain reaction of events in British Cycling history that should see yet another Tour Depart on our shores. Dublin and London have hosted the initial stages of the TdF before and we now see both Yorkshire and Edinburgh bid to do just the same in about 4 years time. Now there’s a familiar time frame.
I read tweets every day from athletes who are achieving their dreams by qualifying for the Olympics and can’t help but think that I’m feeling exactly the same in my life as they are in theirs. I’m no athlete, if I was, it would’ve been on the track, competing in the sprint races like the Keirin or Sprint races just like Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny, but I didn’t have the foundation of professionally organised cycling federation behind me or the actual world class track, never mind the belief that it was possible. Any half talented youth cyclist, has now got a chance to find out if he or she has what it takes to become the next Chris Hoy or Jason Kenny and even the next Mark Cavendish or Bradley Wiggins. To play just a small part in that is as much as I can do but every but as rewarding when I remember how the opportunities didn’t exist for me in the same way.
I hope I have time to write about my experience as they happen but I’m sure the next 2 weeks will pass so quickly that recounting my steps will bring back enough memories to fill a lifetime of stories to recall whenever I get the slightest of opportunity.
I will try to stop and take it all in though, I can’t see me ever being in this position again in my lifetime…..unless I move to Rio?
As the flame arrived
So, as the Olympic flame arrived on the UK shores for the first time in 64 years, I was riding my motorbike from Norfolk to London for an overnight stay prior to a final venue test for the Cycling TimeTrial at Hampton Court Palace.
Short nights sleep followed by a 5am ride into the city with very little traffic and strangely warm weather, the sun even came out every now and then.
Met up with colleagues from the National Escort Group who are supporting the event alongside the police and of course the teams from both Locog and the GamesMakers.
I can’t remember meeting so many happy smiling people at such an early time of the morning. Coffee and Danishes for breakfast, followed by instructions for the day.
All went well, needless to say they had pretty much sorted it all on paper long before we got there, so it was a matter of fine tuning and for us, just understanding more about what else a major event like this involves over and above the likes of the Tour of Britain.
Team pic afterwards followed by egg butties and coffee and a chat with people from all walks of life. That’s one of the best things about being involved with an event like the Olympics, no matter what role you have, what position you hold or wether your paid or a volunteer, you’re all there for the same reason and with the same enthusiasm to make one thing happen. No room for egos or attitudes. The guys getting paid are more than earning their wages and regardless of what the press may try to say, they are doing a great job, one that ends just a few days after the closing ceremony for many of them. We may have to give up out time for free but we’ve got jobs at the end of it.
More training days in London from now until August, getting very real now.
The Old Flames coming
In 4 days time the old flame arrives from Greece and does its rounds of the good old UK…and Ireland, possibly as a thanks for allowing Mrs Queen to visit again and in respect of the many Brits origins being Irish anyway, especially in London.
So, I’m off to collect my uniform this week and get all excited about the event of a lifetime getting that next big step closer.
Since the Velodrome test event in Feb it’s mainly been a case of receiving emails confirming schedules and job roles.
I’ve added a bit of confusion by volunteering through Locog along side my skilled contracted position through British Cycling/NEG.
The role I undertook on the RoadRace test event last year has been confirmed again with added roles on the TimeTrial and Paralympic events. An additional 6 days racing I hadn’t expected but am thrilled to have been chosen for.
It turns out that all these additional races will involve me riding a sponsors motorcycle including wearing their complete head to toe kit to boot. Been measured up for an existing range with the actual one differing as part of a summer range, good job too as the kit I tried on was a heavy winter specific kit and I’m hoping for warm weather if not sunshine.
As for the Velo event, I’ve been scheduled for not just ten but fifteen days starting two weeks prior to the track events starting and nearly all being 12 hour shifts. Length of shifts I expected but I wasn’t prepared for the number of days.
I had booked a total of two weeks over the entire racing schedule to cover road and track events and with the additional time trial work it has left only seven days I can use to cover the track events with most being the key medal days rather than any pre-event days. Even this is only due to my employer allowing me to buy additional holidays to compensate, or else it would’ve been just four.
I have read a lot about GamesMakers not being able to commit to the schedules theyve been given and having no luck in discussing alternatives and although I may also have found the schedules overwhelming at first reading, I did expect the 12hour shifts and numbers of days to an extent. Like everyone else, I read the job disruption before volunteering and it highlighted unsociable hours for many positions so the shock was lessened to that extent. I think some just never read this or never thought about how they’d be able to get in and out of London to attend. It’s just a shame that more from inner London itself didn’t volunteer, choosing to just watch or profit instead.
So the next step is getting dressed for the occasion followed by an additional test event I put my hand up for. The TimeTrial has a simple test event this weekend just for event staff to get to grips with procedures on location now so we can iron out any issues now ahead of the actual event. It will be a good chance to see the start and finish venue from the race point of view and work with those that will be there on the day, get rid of any race day nerves now.
Then I’ve got another day for role specific training for the velodrome, in June. I thought we’d done this all in Feb but this will include a visit to the permanent facilities building that wasn’t ready along with more indepth discussions on shift availability and role duties, possibly looking to share the skills better. Great to see as I’m sure some of the volunteers can do a lot more than they where doing at the test event due to unused skills.
Before I know it, the events will all be over and I will be looking forward to Septembers Paralympics which is a real bonus for me. But in the meantime I’ve got a few cycle races and charity events to cover alongside a job to commit to so I can afford to miss sales targets in August with all the time off. Good job Aviva are supportive.
My new bike
At last, I’ve finally got a bike that’s worthy of my ability!
Well not really, if I can get close to its quality I will need a new one though so its more than enough for me.
I’ve been looking at a new bike for a while as my 5 year old Giant was a budget sub £500 bike that has done me well but if used more will need a few parts replacing including the chainset, rear mechs and brake/gear levers since I had an off. The wheels also could do with replacing due to wear and movement. When I priced all this it was IRO £600 with current parts pricing, always doable over time but still costly and with a few compatibility issues to boot.
So, in comes the RidetoWork scheme as promoted by the government as a way to encourage people to commute in ways other than cars and busses. This has the added advantage of allowing me to purchase a bike on instalments which would be taken from my wage prior to tax and NI contributions therefore saving me IRO 40% on the purchase price. So, a £1k bike would cost about £600, the same total amount that parts for my existing bike would cost. No brainer there then!
Whilst in London for the velo racing, I did get a morning to go into an Evans bike shop to check out a bike I had my eye on, just so I could get my leg over it and check out all the dimensions to be sure it was the right size. I was looking at a small sized frame which was a step down from the medium Giant I was currently riding, but I reckoned the lower back pain I was getting from riding, could be down to riding a bike frame to large for me, in length rather than height. I did some research on the frame I was buying so new what I was after and hey presto, I ended up buying it with my C2W vouchers.
Velo racing
So, finally get round to blogging how the race went in the velodrome.
Had a craicin weekend, all my shifts where evening shifts apart front the last, which meant I got to be there when the big finals where on and all qualifying had already taken place apart from Thursday. So many differing jobs to do, the role really exists of adhoc jobs within the velodrome as needed and some external maintenance work. Can’t really describe it too well as the event security is so high they don’t want us to pose a risk to ourselves really, fair enough I think, don’t want to be asking for trouble.
I rode the motorbike down Thursday and parked in the new shopping centre in Stratford. The new car park advertised a limited space bike park outside the entrance so I had no idea what to expect. Strangely enough, when I got there, there where no sign for the parking so it took a minute or two to discover them on foot, which also led me to discover the sign for motorbike parking….inside the building! They had put the sign on the door which opens inward…..didn’t think that through did they?
Other than that, I was thankful to find indoor parking with marked spaces for about 12 bikes. No locking rails of any sort so I just locked the bike to its own pannier rails so it couldn’t be wheeled away. Out of sight can be good as far as making it more difficult to browse for bikes but also gives the thieving beggars privacy to break whatever locks you have. Still, I didn’t have any problems and the parking seemed to be popular.
Great location for the parking to as its just a short walk from the main entrance each day and open as late as the park was, thankfully as Thursday was a 10.30 finish and that was the earliest one.
I’ve since read a lot about the bus issues in the press but really, what do people expect at events of this size. Even if allowed to walk across the park, it would take over 30 mins to dander from entrance to velodrome so a bus that took 15 wasn’t exactly an imposition even if it took 10 mins to get to you. At the end of the day, they had 4000 people exiting the velodrome at once looking for buses and in fairness, they where caught short, maybe expecting a fair few to have left already, but all this was sorted the very next evening and when I went out to look at the bus que just after ten, it was completely gone by 10.30 when I was checking again for staff.
All buses ran well, on time and regular with informative staff too. Volunteers didn’t take any different buses to the spectators so we had to arrive early to be sure we didn’t have any issues, but then the same option was open to spectators, they didn’t have to arrive at the last minute and where warned it would take 30 mins to commute across the park. Just can’t please some people.
As I’ve already said, I can’t detail my duties to much but one thing I did get to do was to stand trackside during many key events, albeit not watching the action fully as I had a job to do, but aware of what was going on. The best memory I will have of this race was the noise level at trackside when the Brits come out on track or really attack and the crowd get behind them. Sir Hoy described it as a ‘wall of noise’. He wasn’t wrong.
On my last day, I finished at 3pm and went up to the public concourse level to see what it was like up there. You would not believe how much quieter that wall of noise is up there, or more to the point, if you think it’s loud up in the stands then appreciate that your not even hearing half of it, it’s so much louder at track level!
Many have stated that they fear the noise level and atmosphere will drop with a non-cycling crowd during the competitions but even if it does, it will still be loud enough for the riders, just maybe not as much of an impact for the crowd.
I got to chat to the track builders and they showed me their private pics taken during the building and it’s an impressive bit of work i can tell you. I didn’t realise that the boards are actually 2×2 pieces of wood, I always thought ‘boards’ meant they where like floor boards we all use, maybe a cm or two thick, not 6cm deep. How on earth these all bend into shape and stay there is down to the craftsmanship of these chippys who have built tracks all over the world.
As always, there was an Irishman in the middle of it, we can only hope he takes his skills over to Ireland some day and builds a decent indoor velodrome for the Irish some day. It would contribute greatly to the riding scene there but obviously it costs a lot to keep a velodrome never mind build it, you have to maintain a constant 25deg in the room so the wood used to build the track doesn’t get damaged from expanding and contracting.
I was thankful for a floor in a mates bedsit about 10mins away on the bike. Keeping the Irish links over the weekend, he lived in Belfast Road which made me feel right at home. Hardly got to see him though. I was back about 11.30 each nite and just had time for a cuppa before bed after an 8 hour shift on my feet, something I’m not used to these days. All being well I will be able to avail of the same accommodation over the competition days as the alternatives aren’t great. I can camp a short bus ride away but there’s no facilities for parking my bike.
I’ve had dates confirmed for the road race and will be working the first weekend on the motorbike so just waiting to find out what dates they want me to work over the velodrome competitions now, hopefully they won’t coincide so I can do both and maybe get back home inbetween to see my wife. It’s a big commitment volunteering for these events but I’ve got it easy compared to some. I met people coming down form Leeds and Manchester who where already paying £80 a night for b&b and some had booked rooms for the competition period at over £150 a night, just so they could volunteer!
One thing i reckon they missed out on organising the volunteers was a forum dedicated to the volunteers so they could discuss things like accommodation facilities and maybe inviting venues to support them. There is a campsite close by as I mentioned, that is offering a secure area for volunteers only, at a reasonable price too. They state that campers can book but will only get access with accreditation or letter of offer of position, all of which sounds great but I can’t find anything official to confirm it.
So, now the long wait to July. I’ve got no holidays left and most of next years will be gone too. I usually buy an additional week from my employer so I can cover races like the Tour of Britain but I’m going to have to give that a miss this year as I’m covering the Olympics and won’t have the holidays to cover it. Shame really but something’s gotta give.
The racing season has already started and I will be covering my first races soon so more posts to come I’m sure. Maybe a bit more picture rich too.
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