The purpose of this Blog has always been to invite people to participate in helping “Disabled Sport” and join me in creating a team which will assist “Disabled Cycle Athletes “ to participate in the tours whether here in Europe where my main focus is or pick up the idea and apply it at the “Tour Of California” amongst other venues.
Seeing the Twitter ride in Adelaide on CNN is a further reminder of the need to include our “Disabled Friends”, was it just the cameras and TV personnel or were there no “Handbikes, Tricycles or Tandems” on hand. Reports of crashes in the group do not surprise me so I was not unhappy to miss the throng. Great PR for the cycling community nevertheless. Could not help laughing at the hilarious badly spelled comments about Education! Comments about being late for work are one thing but complaining about riding in other than single file is another.
Europe is asking drivers to observe a 1 1/2m separation for cyclists and it is a mandatory 1m in most countries, so the campaign for the 1m in Australia is not as excessive as some of those commenters would deem! Single file riding is a non starter as whilst most road users are adults there are many parents riding with their children and naturally ride on the outside as protection. Vehicle drivers who dispute this safety issue are either totally inconsiderate or have a “low boiling point” and seek justification for their tardy behaviour. “How dare a cyclist/s be in my way as I speed to my destination because I did not allow enough time for the journey” is their catchall cry! Any road user should start out leaving time for delay, each day there is some problem that contributes to a late arrival so why “stress “ yourself further by “planning to fail”! when going to a job interview ,do you arrive late? So why are other aspects of your life treated any different.
Great to see Greg Henderson take the win today in Adelaide , a season of setting up the Manxman has equipped him for the podium. Looking at the tweetpic of a speedo on a Radio Shack bike shows how quickly cyclists can move on the road and it is not uncommon for a flat sprint to finish crossing over the line above 71kph. Even better news was that Robbie McEwen was strong enough to finish third and racing alone as is his custom, knows whose wheel to be on for the final metres. Looks as though the Tour Down Under will become the “Thunder from Downunder” this season as I am sure the quality of the racers is better than at most other races until the Tour de France. If this should prove to be the case then there will be an even stronger cast for any event next European Winter Season and I suspect more events for them to participate in. sponsors of TDU should consider demanding more events as the level of exposure of their wares can only increase!
Congratulations are due to “SAPol” for “planning to succeed” their forethought and planning enabled the day to be a success and the majority of the citizens of Adelaide were treated to an event that will become Folklore for those that were there. One hopes their “Ride Like Crazy” event today was equally successful and sponsors will come forward to make the event more and more successful each year.
Those who follow www.twitter.com/skippydetour will have seen my tweets about the situation in Haiti, where a not so comical series of defects in planning have brought about additional and unnecessary loss of life . President Obama gave an order and his planners sleep walked through the preparations in the next days. Earlier this week I stated that the Paratroopers could parachute into the situation, well they arrived in comfort on Saturday but in the interim we were treated to a spectacularly difficult scene of discord. I am referring to the Belgian doctors who were forced to withdraw through a series of misunderstandings and left a field hospital in the care of a reporter , cameraman and assistant.
These Doctors had arrived as Volunteers expecting to be treated with consideration and care. What the Doctors were offered was a night at risk as the relevant authorities , if , there were any available, could not provide or refused to provide basic security whilst they continued assisting those suffering trauma injuries. All day these Doctors gave of their time and energies willingly whilst their admin sought to avoid the crisis that ensued, seemingly their entreaties and warnings were ignored and they were perhaps badly treated by the media reports! My first inclination was to condemn them for leaving their post and patients and I am sure I was not alone in this conclusion, but there is always another side in each story. The truth will come out eventually!
Dr Sanjay Gupta is on assignment by CNN in Haiti and on discovering this drama took over and stabilised the situation by training his team to assist him through many hours of dark and drama, there is very little footage from this period as they were doing a job that they had not had training for. Surprisingly all the patients survived the night even though some had undergone major surgery. The morning saw the returned Doctors on site.
Here is another reason that the Airborne should have been on site earlier, couch potatoes such as I see what needed to be done but the “planners decide what will be done”. there are so many planning faults that need addressing that my suggestion of a “Dedicated Combined Services Response Team” with proper logistical support becomes more necessary than ever. Living in Austria I have access only to CNN as an English speaking TV station so my thinking could be easily swayed by the excellent reporting by a 12 person team. Had my German language skills been better I would no doubt have seen equally as good coverage from other networks pointing up the same shortcomings!
The media were on the scene within a matter of hours and past experience has shown them the short cuts necessary to achieve the most effective results in the shortest time possible. Instead of Admiral Mike Mullen making a Podcast about his efforts he would do well to send his people into CNN and learn some of “the tricks of the trade” so that the “Command Structure” will know what to expect when these occasions arise in the future, as they most certainly will, regrettable as they are. Suffering on this occasion has been unnecessarily prolonged by inadequate preparation and training for disaster relief. The only successes todate appear to be amongst the volunteer teams that reacted spontaneously within hours to the event.
Congratulations are due to the Volunteers from a variety of countries for giving up their comforts to assist their fellows in distress.
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