After racing through Ireland north to south and through Italy south to north for 3 weeks in May, the finish line for the 2014 Giro d'Italia is in sight.
If the placings on general classification (as I write on
31 May) going into the final day and arrival in Trieste on 1 June remain, the
2014 Giro which started in Belfast on 9 May will provide an unprecedented
result for the three grand tours.
Columbian
cyclists will take the first two places on the podium.
I will be quietly pleased to see the 59 kilogram climber Nairo Quintana
take the most important pink jersey if only because he was the one I tipped to
win.
The observation I recorded emerging from the Team Presentation event at Belfast City Hall was that the only two team leaders who declared their intention to win the maglia rosa, the pink jersey, were Rigoberto Uran, team leader of Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Nairo Quintana of Movistar.
The observation I recorded emerging from the Team Presentation event at Belfast City Hall was that the only two team leaders who declared their intention to win the maglia rosa, the pink jersey, were Rigoberto Uran, team leader of Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Nairo Quintana of Movistar.
I added on that blog-post that apart from a common
nationality, these two cyclists share another characteristic – runner up in a
Grand Tour in 2013.
Uran came second to
Britain’s Chris Froome in last year’s Tour de France; while Quintana was the
runner up to Italy’s Vicenzo Nibali in last year’s Giro.
The story of this year’s tour of Italy was about its
impact as a street festival, spectators celebrating a communal escape from
local concerns, and a story about international publicity and image – every bit
as much as it was about the sport of professional cycling.
At the forefront of ensuring public support for the
event, praise has to be heaped on the regional press and television - and on the local community.
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The same applies to Volunteer Now, the
charity which recruited about 1200 helpers (some of whom came specially from England and Scotland) to assist the professional race
organisers.
This essay examines both the
public relations and volunteering aspects.
The volunteers’ role
This volunteer’s souvenir of La Grande Partenza (which
was a team time trial) and of the first two open road stages is a blog which
records the opening days of the race in pictures and with some words.
Given the sizeable length of volunteer
shifts, the composition of the blog-posts turned out to be a metaphorical time
trial each day - contre le montre in
French, or prove a cronometro in
Italian.
Scurrying around with chaotic intent, gathering thoughts
and impressions, writing about the day’s events, downloading and selecting
photographs, and redrafting before bedtime in time to report for duty at 5 am necessitated
disciplined time management.
Each blog
post was an attempt to capture the pre-race and the three race-days from a
volunteer marshall’s perspective.
Because of the daily deadline, they are intended as spontaneous pieces.
The first two posts set the scene - teams’ arrival and
opening ceremony.
The other three
recorded the three days of racing in Northern Ireland.
You are invited to read them. (All links can be copied and pasted into readers' browsers).
Each article contains 500 to 1000 words and
plenty of photographs:-
http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-teams-arrive-in-belfast.html
http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-opening-ceremony-team-presentation.html
http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/la-grande-partenza.html
http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/dont-knocknaguilliagh.html
http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/arrivederci-irlanda-grazie-mille-giro.html
http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-opening-ceremony-team-presentation.html
http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/la-grande-partenza.html
http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/dont-knocknaguilliagh.html
http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/arrivederci-irlanda-grazie-mille-giro.html
After the race left for Italy, Volunteer Now sent every
voluntary marshal a message of congratulations, including a kind invitation to what it
calls a recognition event.
While it is
gratifying (and flattering too) to be thanked, I suspect that most people who volunteer
are satisfied with having the honour to participate in events which bring
enormous civic pride to a place more often beleaguered than content.
In comparison with the massive input by the
Italian race organisers as well as the public, private and community sectors in
Ireland north and south, our contribution was small – but hugely enjoyable and
rewarding.
Significantly, Volunteer Now’s message referred to “the
atrocious weather conditions.”
It is
understandable that the Tourist Board and others may have been disappointed
that the scenic beauty of our landscape was less apparent in the absence of
sunshine.
The comments attributed to[1]
the German sprinter Marcel Kittel (who won the open road stages in Belfast and
in Dublin) were that the weather would be his abiding memory of the Giro’s stay
in Ireland, along with the locals’ tolerance of it.
Significantly, he was unable to resume the race in Italy because of a chest infection.
Despite that disappointment, I could not help noticing that the first
couple of stages to take place in Italy, in the far south of the country in
Bari, were just as wet windy and dangerous as anything the cyclists
experienced in Ireland.
Moreover, on
stage 16 when the racing took place in the stunning Dolomites of northern Italy
(and Nairo Quintana took the lead for the first time), riders had to deal with heavy
snow, rain and fog.
Even though the weather in Ulster and Leinster was disappointing, my abiding image of our three days as hosts was of smiling faces and one
big happy community.
The quotation by the
Australian Michael Andrews, who led in pink on those first three days, is worth
framing[2]:-
“You
are all incredible. I was so cold
yesterday and you were five deep the whole course. I am truly honoured to be part of this event
and you guys have been amazing.”
The media
The public’s imagination and attention was caught and
captured through a slick campaign of promotion.
Here are a few examples.
The professional PR experts captured the spirit and
energy of the event.
For example, this
short and highly exhilarating video was used to promote public interest in the
build-up to the start of the race itself.
I first saw it on social media.
It was extensively used in mainstream cinemas nightly before every film
on show. From time to time extracts also
appeared on our TV screens:-
In Belfast, one of the very many side-shows was a book
launch. “Gironimo” recounts the
incredible story of the Giro of exactly 100 years ago.
In 1914 only eight cyclists managed to finish
the most arduous Giro there ever was. It
also featured as the Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/posts/Gironimo-Riding-the-very-terrible-1914-Tour-of-Italy
Each day the regional newspapers presented saturation
coverage of the event, with slide shows and video clips complementing the
written word.
All of this added to the
momentum of the event and the sense that something really special and joyful was
taking place on our streets.
This report
is an example of the opening day, the team time trial:-
The Belfast Telegraph even provided an on-line interactive map
which changed daily to show the map and profile of every day’s race stage together
with the day’s complete placings:-
Likewise BBC NI reminded us of the heartbreak that sport can
provide with pictures of the horrific crash which ended Dan Martin’s Giro:-
During the three days of racing in Northern Ireland, BBC
NI provided live coverage of the race’s final couple of hours.
Another memory will abide with me above all from
that coverage.
As the two English
commentators vied unsuccessfully with each other about the pronunciation of
places like Carnlough and Knocknagulliagh, their attention was diverted by the
sheer numbers and cheering of spectators in each of the “string of pearl”
villages along the stunning Antrim coast road.
In spite of poor visibility, low cloud and driving rain, people had come
out in droves.
The commentators
triumphantly asserted[3]:-
“We
love this race - and so too do the Irish.”
When the race departed for its Latin home, the BBC’s
national website carried a 25-30 minute video of every day’s race
highlights.
The next link is of May
28 (stage 16 referred to above) when Nairo Quintana defeated all of the adverse
elements to jump all the way from eighth to first place with just a few days
left to the finish:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/27604971
The best collection of still photographs, containing over 80 stunning images, appeared on social media. The link is:-
http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/they-came-we-saw-we-nailed-it-the-iconic-photos-of-irelands-giro-ditalia-2014/
Finally and as a complement to the pre-race video produced by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, this next clip with extracts of key moments of all 3 opening days of the race is a wonderful summary.
I say this on the basis of its vox pop comments from foreign visitors, all paying flamboyant compliments to our country:-
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=636294943130929&set=vb.336747413085685&type=3&theater
Legacy
It is impossible not to feel anything but immense pride for our compatriots and the exemplary céad míle fáilte accorded by them to our foreign visitors during their stay in Northern Ireland and the Republic.
This everlasting image of people who are welcoming and inclusive trumps all else.
The crowds were so enthusiastic that they gave the caravan and support vehicles as boisterous a reception as the cyclists.
The crowds were so enthusiastic that they gave the caravan and support vehicles as boisterous a reception as the cyclists.
I have not witnessed such an uproarious celebration of sporting life since seeing Ireland winning the 6 Nations in Cardiff in 2009.
Everyone, spectators and volunteers alike, was awestruck by the uniqueness of an event which proved that elite international sports stars could race through your own village, past your own wee house. What a thrill.
Life doesn't get any better.
Another significant image of the event is summed up in the sketch below.
Previously
someone had remarked to me about the apparent chaos within the main field of
cyclists.
TV cameras show support cars weaving through the peleton, seemingly at random as cyclists mill about fetching bottles, rain capes or food. The aptly-named domestiques are loaded up with supplies to somehow dole out their team leaders.
TV cameras show support cars weaving through the peleton, seemingly at random as cyclists mill about fetching bottles, rain capes or food. The aptly-named domestiques are loaded up with supplies to somehow dole out their team leaders.
But this is the quintessential spirit of European cycling and one that people in our country embraced with a beautiful joie de vivre.
Long may the feeling last.
To entice readers to embrace the Giro again, the first person who can prove to have read the six posts in this blog and to have viewed the slideshows and video clips in this post will be rewarded with a special pink Giro cap.
©Michael McSorley 2014
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