World Cup Track – News – Day 1

Hi Folks,

I am certainly proud of the way the lads embraced the training camp last week, especially the track endurance lads, with no disrespect to the sprint lads intended at all, as they mostly followed their own program. The week flew past in a flash, with it being an absolute pleasure as well as motivating to be interacting with the elite squad. Certainly I encountered a couple of moans and groans during the course of the week, yet these were made in the best possible spirit, as can be expected from the likes of Evan Carstens, whose final answer will always be OK cool, before he gets on with it. Marco describes him as a sweetheart – yeah right…………………

Friday and Saturday’s racing ensured that Sunday arrived rather rapidly, with the team and their supporters meeting at Cape Town Airport at 10h00.

I thought that check in was a little tedious as this took close on an hour, yet was concluded without any major drama. Breakfast at Mug and Bean was all too short an affair before we had to depart for boarding. Unfortunately just prior to departure it was discovered that the plane had a flat tyre which proceed to take about an hour and a half to replace. Cutting a long story short, we ended up missing the interconnection in Dubai and had to spend an additional six hours waiting for the next flight to Heathrow.

Shoooooo this made for a longggg day which was felt by all.

The flight from Dubai was certainly pleasant enough more especially as the plane was half full /or was it half empty?? Luckily yours truly had four spare seats in my block, so I had an awesomely relaxed flight, except when Theuns came a visiting for chitty chitty, chat chat, probably because he was lonely on his side of the plane J, always calling me uncle, indeed I will need to fix that.

We landed at Heathrow, after circling for an additional 15 minutes due to a traffic jam. Customs and baggage clearance all went without a hitch. We collected our two hired vehicles one a large van to carry all the equipment, the second a Ford Focus.

The journey to Newport was uneventful and took just under three hours including a stopover for some refreshments. Bernard was here at the hotel on our arrival and is suffering from a bit of jet lag. Booking in and unpacking was a smooth process, which needed no supervision. Yay J, my lady and lads.

Dave’s backpack has gone astray since we were at Europcar, which has added to his stress levels. Dave doesn’t travel well as he struggles to get comfortable and sleep on flights due to his size. He is rather a large lad, not short and pleasing plump like yours truly.

He has been awesomely supportive over my hip operation and moans at me the moment I leave my crutch behind. I can’t explain how nice I feel after the operation, compared to managing the junior’s “where I was in constant agony all the time”, this is a breeze as I am walking almost normally and without pain. The airports have been a pleasure in comparison. Indeed modern medicine is amazing and I am truly blessed.

Prior to supper, I went shopping for tomorrow’s lunch, whilst at the same time trying to catch the daily closing specials, as well as to purchase some toiletries for Dave. The team seemed to really enjoy supper, the most vociferous being Smittie, whom really is a bundle of enthusiasm. Whilst the reality is Jeanne Nell is just as enthusiastic.

Lots of love from all of us to all of you back home
Roger

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