MOVE ALONG INSIDE. HOLD TIGHT. DING DING

 

There was once a bus conductor called George

He’d stand at the foot of the stairs

On the double decker Number `10

 For town and the Pier Head

He’d help people off

And  he’d help- people on

With a smile and a greeting, “‘ow do”.

“hOLD TIGHT,” he’d call out

Ding Ding on the bell

To set the bus on its way

He’d enliven the trip

With many a quip.

“Move along inside”

And

“Fares, please,” he’d call out.

The regular calls of a conductor,

And then he'd call out

 “Anyone wanna  pay twice”

That would raise a few smiles.

As he squeezed through the downstairs saloon.

For it was standing room only on his Christmas bus stopper.

But his piece de resistance – this raised the most laughs

Was for all those alighting at TG’s

“Shop lifters paradise,” George would loudly call out

With a knowing wink and a grin.

“Ooooo…Y OUSE  are a one!” alighting shoppers would chuckle,  

Brushing past George to step down and away.

Celebrating the late John Prescott MP

 

Here’s a thought.

The late John Prescott and former deputy prime minister, ought to be celebrated as the first - indeed the only UK politician - ever to promote an integrated transport policy. His infamous 1998 White Paper.

 Instead, he was humiliated

 Infamous because it terrified his boss, Prime Minister Tony Blair who saw it as anti-motorist.

Blair feared a backlash from the road lobby, stoked by the right wing Daily Mail who would put the frighteners up Middle England.

 Prescott’s proposals sadly back-fired, as his own party, Labour, turned on him and rejected his plans.

 Prescott was punished by having his transport brief taken away from him.

The report had centred on the need to reduce car dependency to address the need to reduce congestion and pollution which was becoming worse by the minute. Bus and train travel was also poor and expensive.

This was a telling moment in Britain’s transport history and a brief look at the details reveals what a missed opportunity this was for the health of the nation, in particular the need to reduce transport pollution to help stave off climate change.

Cycling figured large in Prescott’s plan, laying the ground work for creating the safe roads needed if cycling as transport was ever to fulfil its promise. The stuff of dreams. Bus and train services would also become more efficient and cheaper in a plan aiming to better coordinate all transport modes and to offer people greater choice.

 As is well known, Britain has never had a transport policy. And judging by what happened to Prescott, it never will.

Bias towards the roads lobby and vested interests in the multi-£billions roads construction industry remains the major obstacle to achieving anything approaching integration.

That and a laissez-faire approach from the many government departments which need to co-operate to achieve it that is the killer.

Cavendish and Deignan leave the circus

 

Two British stars are hanging up their wheels, as the saying goes.  Mark Cavendish the Tour de France sprint champion with a record 35 stage victories to his credit has already gone at the end of this season.  

He will be followed at the end of 2025 by Lizzie Deignan - classics winner and former world champion. - Unless both have second thoughts about leaving the glamour of the cycling circus.

We will miss trying to spot Cav – the Manx Missile - Carve a path through those mass sprint finishes on Le Tour, and in the classics and in taking the world road title.

And we will miss those Deignan moments, too, the lone breakaways which have brought her so many victories, including the world road title and that memorable inaugural Paris – Roubaix among other classics

There have been many newspaper features about their exploits recently.

The question is, how will they adapt to the humdrum – by  comparison – of  family life put on hold these past two decades in the pursuit of victories in the great races?

Or will it come as a relief, to have a more stable life, a mix of the mundane like shopping, dusting,  catching up with those special moments of their children’s development, making up for the birthdays missed because they were racing.

Not all ex-pros can cope with a return to home life – men mostly.  Some scurry back to the sport, as team directors, or drivers, or as TV pundits, press, to continue on the merry go round, leaving their spouses once more to the chores.

They start racing as youngsters with few ties, but as they get older, marriage and kids come along.

Easy for the guys. The vast majority just expect to carry on – not just in sport but on the business/work career ladder as well, leaving the women to run the home. Is there resentment at this? Bound to be among women who feel they have been denied their chance.

It’s the women who ferry the babies out to the big races won by hubby. So he can stand on the podium showing off his trophy in his arms. The little mite looks at this unfamiliar bloke – his dad – wondering who the hell are you?  Before remembering the picture on the sideboard at home.

Was it German star Eric Zabel who started this trend? I seem to recall him clutching an extra child each year on various podiums.  Zabel won six consecutive points jerseys (1996-2001).

Deignan determined to show a woman  can do both, have family and racing career. Twice she successfully put racing on hold  to have children. Her husband,  former Team Sky pro Philip retired at the end of 2018 after a 14-year career and has held the fort since.

 

When she was a single lass, Lizzie – Armitstead, as she was then -  made a big impression on me in the 2008 Olympic Games road race in Beijing, famously won by Britain’s Nicole Cooke.

She was one of the GB team dedicated to protecting Cooke in that race – marking rivals, closing down breakaways; ready to offer up her bike if necessary.

I recall a news report summarising the race afterwards quoting Lizzie saying to Cooke in the closing stages:  “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Well! That spoke volumes to me and I thought, that is a future champion speaking.

It showed maturity, confidence and strength. It showed total commitment.

Four years later she won the silver medal in the London Olympic road race.

And she went from strength to strength in stage races and the single-day classics, world title races.

In Britain you will occasionally hear a rider say, as if to justify their cycling career, that cycling is his/her job.

Surely, cycling is fun, your hobby?

Well, until you become full time, I suppose, and then it’s no longer merely a hobby as you come under orders to perform, to justify sponsorship, the need to train hard and to rest, be committed to a busy season of events. You have to pay your bills, the mortgage.

Hard work, yes.  But come on, let’s not get carried away! One of the kicks of becoming a  pro abroad is you get to ride to races in the swell team coach, to be greeted  by spectators gawping, some wanting autographs. You become well-known, famous even. What an ego trip, being the centre of attention.

On stage races after your work is done you don’t have to lift a finger; hotel waiting, meals provided, time to relax. It must be a huge ego trip.

That said, history reminds us that cycle racing abroad has its roots as a working class sport.  It was always a means to an end.

Good prize money meant you could earn more racing than working in a factory or in a pit, or any number of manual jobs. So although clearly you competed because you enjoyed it, the financial reward was the major factor, made the suffering worthwhile. Many riders depended upon it. It provided them with an income, or supplemented it.

And the prize money at all levels is a lot more generous than in Britain, and far reaching – down to at least 20^th place.

I recall one British pro in the 1950s on a steep learning curve racing in a fairly important local race in Brittany, a few rungs below international standard. He’d got in a winning move and was clearly a contender until finding the others, all former pros - ganging up to shut him out in the sprint. He was furious, until he discovered what was going on.

No hard feelings, nothing personal, he was told afterwards. But so and so over there is on hard times and needed the money! The riders decided that if he could get in the move, he deserved to get his chance of victory!

Race fixing, but with a benevolent touch.  

These days riders, at least those at World Tour level, are a lot better off.

Although pay varies considerably, with stars like Cavendish on about three million euros a year. The lower ranks of male World Tour riders are on basic salaries of around 40,000 euros.   But the elite women have had to fight hard for good pay and a decent calendar. Women’s racing is now an exciting sport, with big fields and classy riders.

However, it is only in recent years women have begun to earn better money, 150,000 euros for the top women riders. But a survey reveals 25 per cent of women riders are still paid nothing.

There is prize money – if you can get it!

And after 20 years of racing, with age creeping up, form difficult to maintain, coming home can be relief, especially from all the travelling.

By contrast it is not that easy for the pros and top riders who race at home.  Most must balance a job with racing and earn nothing like their overseas colleagues.  I’ve heard jokes about finding
time for training and racing means letting the garden become overgrown, the front gate left to hang.  It can’t be easy making ends meet.

There was one woman I recall -  her husband was a top UK time triallist in the 1970s, she doubled as wife/manager – indignantly responding to a friend when he said why don’t you get some decent furniture. Her retort? “Oi, you!  ….Tyres come before furniture!”

Last I heard of them they were running a pub in Earls Court, London.