Already caught up in the tidal-wave of post olympic gold plated euphoria it seemed to me like an announcement for another Christmas Day.
When the events were finally formalised and included a 100 mile closed road sportive I was positively salivating.
That was until I realised that there was a ballot.
Its funny how such a word can mean so much and offer so little
One mans ballot is another's prejudicial toolkit.
By now you may have detected my tone of disappointment - you guessed right I did not get in
I am well versed at entering cycle events both here and overseas which include events with even greater participation. I appreciate that there always have to be limits which are governed by a multitude of factors.
Usually such applications are selected on a first come first served basis and you know directly if you have a place.
If your a real cycling enthusiast you will know or be aware of an upcoming event and if you apply on the date that it opens you can pretty much be guaranteed a place.
I entered ride London on the day it came on line along with most members of our club in the UK and five from America.
I did so in the realisation that I might not get in, but with the reassurance that statistically some of our members would.
The maths was easy 55,000 applied and 20,000 were to be accepted.
So at least 3 or 4 would get in
But hey of those 55,000 there must have been some discarded
Surely the organisers had checked the credentials of the applicants who may had stated they had completed 'The Cheshire Cat' in 5 hours? Or in listing their previous rides got the wrong dates as they copied events from old cycle magazines. Bitter.....of course
So with my new calculations it was not unrealistic to think that maybe 5 or 6 of our club members may have got places. I could live with that.
Being a domestique is a role I am quite accustomed to on the bike and I am sure I could do it manfully in the London suburbs.
Holding bikes and handing out bottles whilst suffering the hardships of supping over priced warm beer.
When I found out that I had not been selected I was actually quite emotional and felt a huge sense of disappointment.
I immediately starting calling my friends to have them lift my mood with their potential acceptance.
Unfortunately my mood was not lifted but changed from disappointment to anger when nobody got a place.
This was further inflamed when my twin brother in Houston informed me that all 5 of their entries had been accepted !!!!!!
Clearly my statistics are all to pot
If you are living in East Yorkshire you get 0% chance
If you live in Texas you get 100% chance
Maybe the Tour de France organisers should have organised the ballot, after all they saw no problem with us Yorkshire folk by bringing the Tour here next year.
