Olympics Cycle Time Trial: the Gamesmaker's view

This was the only shift I had that was not in central London, I was not looking forward to the drive to Esher, the 40 mile stretch of the M25 Car Park, or the queues to get through the road closure.
With a 9am start time, I decided to try and miss the majority of the traffic and leave at 5:30am, hopefully getting me there by around 7:30-8am. Nope, it didn't quite work out as I had hoped, and I still got stuck in nose to tail stationery traffic at around the M4 / Heathrow exit.





I arrived at just after 8am so not too bad all things considered. Wouldn't want to be doing it too often though. But hey, this is the Olympic Games, right? This doesn't happen too often, does it!!

Free coffee (lots of it!) and collected my lunch then we were off, on a bus to our marshalling destination: Cobham. I had never heard of the place before but I can now tell you that the people of Cobham are lovely friendly cheerful and patriotic people! The forward announcers car that has a tannoy and precedes the race by around 15 minutes said as he came through the village 'anyone would think it was the Jubilee!' there were that many union flags!




Our spot was right outside the St Johns ambulance station, and this time we had a dream team that consisted of GB age group triathletes! (plus a nice man called Simon!) not only that but the St. Johns staff offered us free tea and coffee all day. Perfect!
Cyclists aplenty in Cobham meant that keeping the traffic free road clear pre-race was a challenge, as the barriers stopped at the edge of the village. One old boy who decided he would take advantage of the empty road, cycles towards me up the centre of the course. I stopped him and asked could he clear the race circuit. He replied 'it's ok, I have done the tour de France' !

With a perfect view down the road and across the roundabout, it was quickly obvious that our crossing and a warning whistle would play a huge part in crowd safety in the main part of the village, the next crossing up not having much view therefore relying on us.

I was stood outside the local fire station (which was fenced off - glad there were no 999 calls!) and got chatting to the lovely group of locals, who had set up a GB flags and bunting corner, barbecue and everything! They clearly had it well planned! A group of children with them enjoyed helping me out too, playing the part of my spotters, as they could see fractionally further round the corner this enjoying dashing across to the fence to tell me 'they're coming Mel, they're coming!'

Some lengthy deliberations went on as to whether we could open the crossing between cyclists or not. Whilst the officials were deciding, two latecomer cyclists to the fire station barbecue party ended up stranded on the wrong side of the road. Taunts from the other side regards how tasty the sausages were, etc continued, so I offered to be the deliverer but the owner of the barbecue said 'no, make them suffer!'

With a running order - I kept the crowds updated as to who we expected next, but the fact that each cyclist was accompanied by a police bike and a team car labeled with their name, it made it very easy for the spectators to follow.

The crowds in Cobham erupted when the British cyclists came through, both men and women, making me think it surely must make a huge huge difference to be competing in front of a home crowd. You couldn't help but be lifted by the massive support in Cobham, scenes that made it clear that the nation has got right behind these Olympics to support team GB.

After the last cyclists came through, people crowded into the local park to watch the big screen, the local village hall TV, portable radios and smart phones, to find out who won the medals. You could hear the crowds erupting from the village green a block away, which clearly signalled the news that Wiggins had won Gold.

A proud nation, a proud village, and a proud team of gamesmakers that were pleased to be part of such a great Olympic event.