Situation Critical

Quoted message said:

Wish me luck, guys.

I don't think you require luck - you seem to have organised everything
exceedingly well.

Have a great day.

Cheers, helen s

Simon Brooke said:

OK, wish me luck, guys.

In the truck I have a whiteboard easel and markers, thirty whistles (for
marshals); six charged walkie talkies; race numbers (but not the ones I
intend to use); signs for commissaire's post, first aid, pits area,
crossing points; 'cycle race in progress' signs; cable ties galore;
chalk for the start/finish line; my winter bike so I can hack round the
circuit during set-up in reasonable time; a mountain of paperwork...

Andy Campbell has the barriers and road closure signs. The 'community
service' (convict) crew will be putting out the barriers starting about
eleven.

Dougie has got the race numbers I /do/ intend to use, and some of the
high vis jackets for marshals and will be on site about eleven; Janet
has another twenty high vis jackets and will be on site at two; Andy the
Commissaire has the bell and, I assume, other mysterious stuff to do
with commissairely duties and will be on site at one. Tony is supposed
to be organising old motor tyres to shield a stone wall on a dangerous
corner; Stewart is bringing a big pickup we'll use as the commissaire's
podium.

I've got three fewer actually filled in entry forms than the minimum I
promised the police and the council I'd start with, but I know of at
least half a dozen people who are planning to sign on the line so I'm
reasonably comfortable this will be OK. The Red Cross have just phoned
to say they can't bring their ambulance, and can I organise them a
private space where they can treat casualties, so that's the current
last minute panic, but apart from that....

Turnout will be fine. Sounds like for a first promotion you're doing
well. Good luck.

JT

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Simon Brooke said:

OK, wish me luck, guys.

In the truck I have a whiteboard easel and markers, thirty whistles (for
marshals); six charged walkie talkies; race numbers (but not the ones I
intend to use); signs for commissaire's post, first aid, pits area,
crossing points; 'cycle race in progress' signs; cable ties galore;
chalk for the start/finish line; my winter bike so I can hack round the
circuit during set-up in reasonable time; a mountain of paperwork...

Andy Campbell has the barriers and road closure signs. The 'community
service' (convict) crew will be putting out the barriers starting about
eleven.

Dougie has got the race numbers I /do/ intend to use, and some of the
high vis jackets for marshals and will be on site about eleven; Janet
has another twenty high vis jackets and will be on site at two; Andy the
Commissaire has the bell and, I assume, other mysterious stuff to do
with commissairely duties and will be on site at one. Tony is supposed
to be organising old motor tyres to shield a stone wall on a dangerous
corner; Stewart is bringing a big pickup we'll use as the commissaire's
podium.

I've got three fewer actually filled in entry forms than the minimum I
promised the police and the council I'd start with, but I know of at
least half a dozen people who are planning to sign on the line so I'm
reasonably comfortable this will be OK. The Red Cross have just phoned
to say they can't bring their ambulance, and can I organise them a
private space where they can treat casualties, so that's the current
last minute panic, but apart from that....

Wish me luck, guys.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
--Rudyard Kipling

Obviously dedicated to a race promoter.

Ron

Simon Brooke said:

OK, wish me luck, guys.

In the truck I have a whiteboard easel and markers, thirty whistles (for
marshals);

I think it's cool that you're giving the marshals whistles. I usually
end up yelling real loud. It's something I'm good at.

So how did it go, Simon?

Hopefully it all went completely smoothly.

Cheers, helen s

in message <[email hidden]>, wafflycat

('w*a*ff£y£cat*@£btco*nn£ect.com') said:

So how did it go, Simon?

Hopefully it all went completely smoothly.

Remarkably, yes.

It absolutely heaved down with rain for the last thirty minutes before
the start, and five minutes before start I was wondering if we should
abandon. The person who have should have brought old motor tyres as
crash barriers for the bend by the castle didn't show up, so all I could
do was station extra marshals and first aid there. And the police failed
to find the owners of three parked cars, so we had to move the barriers
outside them. Finally I was desperately shifting barriers in the rain
round the back of the course when Andy the commissaire formed the pack
up to move out on their controlled lap, and, due to a failure of
communications the police sergeant on duty failed to get a last safety
check from us. So I got a minor (and not altogether undeserved)
bollocking from him for having let the race away with a critical point
of the risk assessment unfilled (viz. the tyres), but ...

One rider went down overbraking for the bad corner on the second lap, and
another rider went down at the same corner after the first sprint prime
and a following rider went over the top of him. Fortunately only scrapes
and bruises, no significant damage to bikes, and no-one got anywhere
near the dangerous wall.

But as soon as the race was away the weather started to clear up rapidly,
and the course, which had been a little dodgy in the wet, rapidly dried.
The last ten or twenty laps were run in warm sunshine. Ten or twenty?
Yes. I had radically underestimated the speed that the good lads would
be able to make on that course. They were lapping - on non sprint laps -
in one minute seven seconds, less than that on sprint laps. Andy the
commissaire coped amazingly well with the mixed field, keeping track of
who had been lapped, so we were able to give the less experienced riders
a good run and still pull them out after an hour to allow the elites to
complete the final six laps on an otherwise clear course.

The commentator - the disk jockey/continuity announcer from Kirkcudbright
Festivities Committee, who'd never even seen a bike race before - did a
tremendous job of keeping the crowd informed of what was going on,
identifying the riders going past and whipping up excitement on the
prime laps. And the crowd were great (and many more people turned out
than I'd expected) getting behind the riders and really cheering them
on.

We had twenty starters, which was the minimum I'd told the council we'd
run the race with, but was enough to give a real spectacle. At the end
of the event the council's Events Strategy Officer was extremely pleased
and extremely complimentary, which is great because it will definitely
help in getting permission to run again next year.

Brief results here:
http://www.stewartry-wheelers.org/wheelers/story/article_93.html

There are lessons to be learned, particularly about organisation, and the
issue with the tyres was not good and we must not let it happen again.
But I heard only one negative comment through the whole course of the
event - a curmudgeon who objected to the street being closed - and
pretty much everyone who took part came up to thank me afterwards, which
was nice.

And the club presented me with a hamper of goodies, which I really hadn't
expected at all, and left me literally speechless!

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; in faecibus sapiens rheum propagabit

RonSonic said:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!
--Rudyard Kipling

Obviously dedicated to a race promoter.

Ron

I thought someone was going to post the lyrics to 'Situation Critical'
by 80's Canuck hair band Platinum Blonde :-)
http://www.musicbymailcanada.com/PlatinumBlonde/sitcri.html

J. Spaceman

Simon Brooke said:

Quoted message said:

So how did it go, Simon?

Hopefully it all went completely smoothly.

Remarkably, yes.

Glad to hear it. Congratulations.

Simon Brooke wrote:
A brilliant account of his criterium. Great stuff. Very impressive.
All the best
Dan Gregory

"Simon Brooke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

And the club presented me with a hamper of goodies, which I really hadn't
expected at all, and left me literally speechless!

Lovely. Glad it went well. Here's to a successful event next year!

Cheers, helen s

"Simon Brooke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Congratulations Simon!

Although I've never been involved in competitive cycling I know how
difficult it is to organise public social events of *any* kind with the
amount of red tape and nimbyism that exists today - and how stressful it can
be.

glad to hear it all went well - enjoy the contents of that hamper.. 😉

Alex
--
Mr R@T / General Lighting
Ipswich, Suffolk, Untied Kingdom
http://www.partyvibe.com

Simon Brooke said:

There are lessons to be learned, particularly about organisation, and the
issue with the tyres was not good and we must not let it happen again.
But I heard only one negative comment through the whole course of the
event - a curmudgeon who objected to the street being closed - and
pretty much everyone who took part came up to thank me afterwards, which
was nice.

dumbass,

good to hear that you pulled it off. i hope you put on more events in
the future.