Davide la Locomotive

This article is about the 2019 World Championships that were held in Yorkshire.

When people think of races, they often think of results and podiums. But sometimes, it’s the journey, the people, and the quirky moments that make an event unforgettable

Did you watch the World Champs on the telly?

Nice one, have a biscuit.

Or maybe you went there and stood in the rain?

Oh, well done.

I was one of the competitors.

Yes, the ones in Yorkshire.

Yes, a race.

Yes, really.

No… not a sportive.

2019 was the first time the Para World Championships had been held at the same time as the regular World Championships.

I have been known, on occasion, to pilot a tandem for Iain Dawson (more of our antics here).

Iain’s a multiple World and European Champion para duathlete and triathlete.

When Iain asked me if I’d be up for riding the World Championships – a tandem road race where half the participants are blind – I said “Of course”.

What could possibly go wrong?

There were quite a lot of shenanigans getting the tandem setup.

We barely had any time to practice, and the bike had some “issues”.

The only good thing about a bike with Shimano and disc brakes was that the sound of the (impossible to adjust correctly) gears drowned out the noise of the disc rotors rubbing against the brake pads.

We stayed in the same hotel as the Italian team.

They had some cool team cars and seemed to spend the entire time in the car park washing their bikes.

The day before the race we wandered around Harrogate staring at the course and amazed at the amount of work that had gone into prep – they had removed traffic lights and other road furniture, plus most of the town was closed off to traffic.

The UCI, being the UCI, insisted that I had a red helmet even though mine was white.

So, I spent most of the evening before the event wrapping my helmet with red insulation tape, without scissors.

The day of the race was lovely, 20C – probably the best weather of the whole champs.

We were transported to Beverley (near Hull) for the start.

The crowds for the whole day were unbelievable.

Before the start I was sitting next to the tandem stuffing my face with ginger cake when a guy with a massive camera walks up and, saying nothing, plonks it right in front of me.

I was staring right into the camera with my mouth full.

It was very awkward.

Then he moves the camera a little to film the tandem.

The shot of the tandem made it into the BBC highlights.

If they had ultra widescreen you’d see me to the right, slightly bemused with cake smeared all around my face.

There was a live stream of the event, I am in some of the shots.

Whilst we were waiting at the start there were literally hundreds of people staring at us and taking photos.

The race started with a big fanfare. The crowds screamed, clapped and cheered it was crazy.

There’s a pic of us starting on the BBC website.

That’s me you know!

Everyone else was wearing their national kit, so I guess that means I was riding for the PDROCCC (People’s Democratic Republic Of Cambridge Cycling Club).

There’s also a full double page spread of the pic in Cycling Weekly.

Oh yeah!

The less said about the race the better.

We were up against full time athletes and the national road race champions.

However the crowds were incredible.

There must have been over 10 thousand people by the side of the road.

Through some of the villages they were standing 5 deep all cheering and clapping.

I don’t think I will ever forget that.

It was quite an experience.

We got dropped early on then caught the UK National Champions before losing out in the sprint.

If I said we were 5th in the world – that would sound amazing.

But out of 5 – that sounds less amazing.

I think the truth is somewhere in between.

To invert a common saying “you can’t beat people that don’t turn up”.

If you think of racing as a kind of triathlon where step 1 is applying and step 2 is showing up then we were 5th… out of about 7.7 billion.

Which is not too bad.

Though that might make me a triathlete.

Many soldiers were terribly injured during World War II.

After recovering, they found their disabilities often made them stand out – they were stared at, discriminated against, or defined by their disability.

This was why Sir Ludwig Guttmann first organized the Stoke Mandeville Games in 1948, which later evolved into the Paralympics.

Guttmann didn’t just want to give his patients something to train for; he wanted to change how they were seen.

Rather than being defined by their disability, he wanted them to be seen as athletes – with all the hopes, fears, successes, and failures that come with the title.

In any competition, only one person wins, while everyone else loses.

Losing is normal, and sometimes it’s pretty nice to just feel normal.

Thanks to Iain for inviting me and making it happen and the thousands of people who supported the competitors and made it a really memorable day!