London 2012 Olympics Tickets and Tours: Beach Volleyball Venue Under Pressure

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We're just 18 months away from the London 2012 summer games. As Spyns clients count down to July 2012, British organizers have set an ambitious schedule for beach volleyball. The frenzy of work essentially constructing a gigantic sand pit will be concentrated during the day - as nearby neighbours including the official residence of the Prime Minister in Downing Street won't want to be disturbed. But preparations for that site in the heart of London and the controversial Greenwich Park site for equestrian have already begun.

Underneath both the 20,000 tonnes of sand at the beach volleyball and the massive showjumping and dressage arena will be huge metal decks, currently being manufactured in Preston. The decks are to ensure a flat surface, particularly important at the 20,000 seat Greenwich arena which has a significant fall line of about three metres. ''To construct a 15,000 seat venue usually involves a year to 18 months planning and to construct it normally takes a year to 18 months but for these Olympic venues the preparation is the same, but the construction is much, much quicker,'' said Drivers Jonas Deloitte project team manager Stephen Jepson.

''Horse Guards is six weeks to get on site after the Trooping the Colour is complete and Greenwich Park is a bit more time, but the aim is to make sure we take as little of the park for as small a time as public so the stadium goes up and then the site is expanded out.'' Jepson said constructing the venues with seating and toilets and other paraphenalia is business as usual, but it is the field of play at both venues that adds to the complexity.


The metal deck underneath the equestrian arena has been tested by both showjumpers and dressage riders at Berkshire and found to be acceptable, alleviating earlier concerns it may reverberate and scare the horses with any unusual sensation or noise. When installed the metal decking will be covered with layers of synthetic mix of track. ''The spring and bounce has to be exactly like it is on the ground,'' Jepson said. The same project team will also construct the temporary venues at the Mall for the start and finish of the marathon and road cycling and Hyde Park for the triathlon finish and marathon swimming events.


Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets Tours Hotels: French British Working to Mobile Coverage in Channel Tunnel

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For those Spyns' clients planning a swing through Paris before hopping the Eurostar train to London, rest assured your mobile gadgets will continue working in the Chunnel. It is understood that Britain's four mobile operators – Vodafone, O2, Everything Everywhere and 3 – have joined forces with their counterparts in France to share the expected £20m ($30 million) cost of providing mobile coverage along the tunnel's entire 31.4 mile length. Spyns is a Canadian tour operator providing London 2012 summer Olympics tour packages to clients in continental Europe and North America.

British operators will share the cost of providing coverage in the Dover to Calais tunnel, with France's Orange, SFR and Bouygues splitting the cost of installing the system in the Calais to Dover tunnel. Alcatel-Lucent, the French telecoms infrastructure company, has been contracted to install the technology. Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator, confirmed that it is preparing to issue spectrum licences to allow French and British operators to share airwaves inside the tunnel. We haven't seen this kind of cooperation between Britain and France since the Second World War.

It is understood that Vodafone is spearheading the ambitious Channel Tunnel project on the British side of the Channel. However, a Vodafone spokesman refused to comment. As The Sunday Telegraph reported earlier this year, Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, played a key role in speeding up the project, which has been talked about for years. Mr Johnson also took it upon himself to "bash heads together in the mobile phone industry" to bring 2G and 3G coverage to the London Underground in advance of the 2012 Olympics.


Mobile operators have agreed to collectively invest £150m ($235 million) in bringing the mobile network to virtually all of the city's Tube tunnels. French technology company Thales is the preferred bidder to install the technology, which is likely to be managed by Huawei, a Chinese telecoms company. Coverage is likely to be provided by a very long transmitter snaking along the top of the tunnel, with antennas on the ends of each carriage. Similar "leaky feeder" technology was used to establish communications between the trapped Chilean miners and their rescuers. Passengers will be able to make voice calls and browse the internet over the 3G network.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Summer Olympic Games Tickets Tours Hotels: Vancouver 2010 to London 2012 "Get Ready!"

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With less than 20 months to go before the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games begin, the time left for businesses to prepare for the onslaught of visitors not just to London, but to Britain as a whole, is rapidly running out. Spyns team is working round the clock to prepare its 2012 London Summer Olympics package tours.


A survey released today shows firms in Vancouver - the city that hosted The Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games - allowed themselves an average of 18 months to get everything they thought they would need - from extra network capacity to new working practices - in place. Twenty per cent started preparing three years in advance. Even so, 49 per cent of those contacted said their organisations had failed to take full advantage of the opportunities on offer.


Conducted for BT by Vanson Bourne, the survey also highlighted the benefits of being well-prepared and the consequences of inadequate planning. Two thirds of respondents said their organisations had benefited from the Games. A quarter reported improvements in sales of between ten and 25 per cent during the Games themselves - a further six per cent even more. And while demand obviously fell once the event was over, 29 per cent of those surveyed said their firms were continuing to enjoy higher demand for products and services. Forty three per cent attributed this to an increase in business from overseas.


In all, 61 per cent of respondents reported lasting benefits resulting from investments made in the run up to the Games. Twenty six per cent said their organisations were more efficient, 19 per cent were still benefiting from flexible working arrangements introduced to help staff avoid congestion caused by the influx of visitors while 20 per cent reporting enduring performance improvements resulting from upgrades to networks and IT systems.


Emer Timmons, President BT Global Services UK, said: "This is excellent news, but the results of the survey make it clear that the benefits many firms gained could have been even greater. Thirty eight per cent of those contacted felt their organisations should have equipped themselves better in advance. "The survey's findings have big implications for UK plc as well as for individual firms. The next few years are going to be tough for us all. London 2012 shines out as an opportunity for British businesses to demonstrate the quality of their products and services, show the world what they can do and win the new business UK plc needs. It would be tragic if the opportunity were to be missed." The survey highlighted the particular importance of having sufficient infrastructure in place. Twenty three per cent of organisations experienced shortages of network capacity during Vancouver 2010 as a result of surges in demand from employees and/or customers. Sixteen per cent wished their firms had increased the capacity of their contact centres in the run up to the Games, and 30 per cent said their firms should have done more to improve the flexible working facilities available to staff.


"The lessons from Vancouver are clear," added Timmons. "To gain from the opportunities London 2012 will create, businesses need to prepare well in advance. The benefits will persist long after the Games are over, so executives should take a long-term view of any investments they are asked to make. But time is running out. The longer firms delay before taking steps to get ready for the Games, the greater the chance they'll miss out."

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets Tours Hotels: 2 Million Register for Summer Olympics Tickets

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As Spyns clients gear up for the London 2012 summer games, our London package clients can rest assured there will be plenty of tickets going around. Two million people have signed up for tickets for the London 2012 Olympics, chief executive Paul Deighton said on Christmas Day. Organisers are steeling themselves for the "mind-boggling" task of masterminding the ticket sales, as well as planning and managing seats for the 8.8 million tickets, which are vital to raising £2 billion from the private sector to stage the Games. The London 2012 organisation needs to get 25% of its revenue from ticket sales. London 2012 tour operators like Spyns will purchase tickets through the regular channels and then via re-sales of tickets through British consolidators.

The 6.6 million tickets for the public go on sale in March and, according to Deighton: "The sheer scale of this is mind-blowing. Just the operational stuff is mind-blowing." The real pressure will come when the application system goes live in what London 2012 chairman Lord Coe has described as the "daddy of all ticketing strategies". Mr Deighton said: "One of the key things for us in March is to make sure that things go smoothly. Making sure that everyone understands there is no advantage in submitting applications on the day.

"With two million people (on the database now), and probably nearer 2.5 million by March, it is also about making sure they are transferred into the ticketing system. "It is a year of extraordinary demands in getting ready for the Games and in terms of operational delivery. "Don't forget most of our venues are not yet built. Work is being done on how many games of volleyball are in one session, how many television channels there will be and where are the televisions going to go. And all this is given that we still have to get our licences.

"The showjumping venue in Greenwich and the beach volleyball venue in Horse Guards is just a diagram on a page at the moment and we are figuring out if it is A4 or A3. We have to figure out how many seats there are. e (London 2012) have been around for five years now and this process (ticket sales) is really an important part of a project."

London 2012 Olympics Tickets Tours and Hotels: Olympic Stadium..Let There Be Light!

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A snow-covered London 2012 Olympic Stadium

As Spyns clients gear up for the London summer games, the United Kingdom is blanketed in snow. Artic winds and subzero temperatures didn't dampen enthusiasm for a lighting ceremony of London 2012's olympic stadium.

London's snow-covered Olympic Stadium sparkled under floodlights for the first time on Monday. Prime Minister David Cameron, accompanied by a choir of local schoolchildren, hit the button for the big switch-on which shone a megawatt of light on to the showpiece venue. It was the first time that all 532 bulbs had been lit together - in a scene that will be repeated during the London 2012 Games.


Mr Cameron joked that the £537 million stadium in Stratford, east London, looked more like a winter Olympic venue with ski-jumper Eddie the Eagle expected at any moment rather than the setting for the London 2012 summer Games. But he told the 400-strong invited crowd, which included 2012 builders at the site: "It is being delivered on time and on budget thanks to British genius and many of the people here."


Introductions were carried out by London Mayor Boris Johnson, who did not seem aware that the lights take up to eight minutes to reach full power. "They are coming, they are coming," Mr Johnson told the crowd before all the lights had phased in. He described it as a "wonderful and historic evening", while also joking that with plans so advanced, including 75% of building work complete, London 2012 might consider holding a snap Olympics now 17 months before the Games "to catch the world napping". There are 14 lighting towers reaching 70 metres (230ft) above the sports area. They are supporting a total of 532 individual lights.


Mr Cameron also spoke of changes to unpopular plans to cut £162 million from school sport. On Monday, the Education Department announced it will fund School Sport Partnerships to the end of the summer term 2011 at a cost of £47 million, ensuring they can run until the end of the academic year.A further £65 million has been earmarked to enable every secondary school to release one PE teacher for a day a week in the school year 2011-12 and in 2012-13. This recognises the considerable impact the current network of School Sport Co-ordinators have had on PE and school sport throughout the country over the past decade.


The Department also announced it will fund the Youth Sport Trust (YST) to expand its Young Ambassadors programme so that every secondary school and some primary schools can create more Young Ambassadors ahead of London 2012. The Government also restated its commitment to a nationwide school sport competition.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets Tours & Hotels: Bond-Like Atmosphere at the London Summer Games

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As Spyns clients gear up for our 2012 London Olympic Games tours, the UK is attempting to balance severe budget cuts with escalating security costs for the summer olympics. Intelligence officers from MI5 and possibly M16 too are working on secondment on the London 2012 Olympic Games project, contributing to security and anti-terrorist initiatives. Sources say some are ‘embedded’ within the Olympic Park in London, working undercover, and more detail can be found in today’s ‘Inside Sport’ column in the Mail on Sunday. Every brickie and bag searcher may not be who they seem.

Recommend supplementary reading can be found at the Home Office website, here for an official safety and security assessment PDF download, and here for a speech from the effective boss of MI5 Jonathan Evans. The Inside Sport column mentions that 150 of 500 guards on the Olympic Park site are Gurkhas. They work for the security firm G4S, the largest employer of Gurkhas in the world, and providers of security to events including Wimbledon. Other security measures in place at the Olympic Park, beyond Gurkhas, spooks and a 17km electric fence are:

• Hand scanners providing biometric access control, alongside photographic smart cards, for up to 5000 workers an hour at peak.
• Iris scanning and access is also available as an alternative system where required.
• On site searching and screening at entry and exit points as well as off site searching and screening of vehicle deliveries.
• Coordinated CCTV and supporting perimeter security systems.
• A dedicated police team at the Olympic Park which is liaising with on-site staff and contractors as well as the local communities.

In a post-9/11 world, security has become one of the major concerns of Olympic organisers. The costs are staggering. For the 2008 Beijing Olympics, security was nothing short of overwhelming. A 100,000-strong security force of armed police, commandos and other troops were stationed around the city. The authorities installed 300,000 surveillance cameras and sited anti-aircraft missiles next to the olympic stadium (called the "Bird's Nest"). ID checks were everywhere. People who gave police detailed evidence of a "major security threat" to the Beijing Olympics were offered rewards of between 10,000 and 500,000 yuan (five times the usual maximum amount).

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets Tours and Hotels: "The Gift of London's Olympics"

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People across the UK were last night urged to make the most of “the gift of the Olympics” by running legend Sir Roger Bannister. Sir Roger was speaking at the launch of a new initiative by Oxfordshire 2012, which aims to ensure the county benefits from the Olympic Games in London. He was joined by local Olympic hopefuls at the Iffley Road Sports Ground, where he made history by running the first sub-four minute mile in 1954 (pictured here). Sir Roger said the games should leave a lasting legacy for Oxfordshire, extending far beyond sport to provide educational and tourism opportunities. He said: “There is a great opportunity for local sports facilities to be improved. We are offering Oxford as a site for competitors who want to come for pre-Olympic training. “While there will be those hoping to compete in the games from Oxfordshire, individuals can volunteer to become helpers, giving them perhaps a life-long link with the Olympic movement, and an understanding of its ethos.” Oxfordshire 2012 will look to involve young people in the Olympics as volunteers, organise local events and boost tourism.


Sir Roger said he hoped the games would spark a new enthusiasm for creating new sports facilities in the county, particularly for young people. But the news came as campaigners were delivering a petition to Downing Street, urging David Cameron to reverse a decision to axe funding for the School Sports Partnerships. Oxfordshire youngsters have been prominent in the campaign to save the partnership, which oversees the district’s 18,500 children in 56 schools, and runs teachers’ training, sports activities and competitions for ages five to 19. However, Sir Roger said there were grounds for hope the Government was ready to change its mind.


He said: “It is well known sports facilities in schools have to compete with science labs and computer centres and things geared towards getting better GCSE and academic results. We have heard the Government is thinking of withdrawing grants of £165m for School Sports Partnerships, that was ringfenced. But this is already being reconsidered.” Oxfordshire 2012 is backed by Oxford Inspires, Oxfordshire Sports Partnership, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford University, Oxford City Council and Thames Valley Police.

Jon Roycroft, director of Oxford University Sport, said: “The Iffley Road sports complex is on the list of approved training sites for Olympics. We can offer facilities for track events and hockey teams.” Details of what Oxford has to offer is now being circulated to countries taking part. Mr Roycroft said there had been preliminary discussions with nothing yet settled on which countries will be coming to Oxford. Kathelene Weiss, director of Oxford Inspires, said: “The new website will show how people can get involved. It will encourage local business, education and sports communities to engage in projects.”


Andy Gardiner, the former greengrocer who broke into the Great Britain Disability Shooting squad, said: “Oxford has such a wide range of sporting talent. 2012is a great showcase for this. “We’ve got such rich history. Roger rewrote the rule book here in 1954, it would be great if a British athlete could repeat that.”

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets and Tours: Organisers Say Security Won't Suffer Despite Cuts

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As Spyns' clients gear up for the London 2012 Summer Olympics, security and the terrorist threat remain on the main concerns for travel to Europe. With recent budget cuts, London 2012 organisers faced questions about inadequate funding for policing and security. In reply, London 2012 Olympic chiefs said on Tuesday they were confident a safe Games could be delivered despite the prospect of a 20 percent cut in its security budget.

The coalition government has made cuts across most departments to tackle a record peacetime budget deficit approaching 11 percent of national output. Paul Deighton, chief executive of LOCOG, responsible for staging the Games, said the revised figure was the result of getting into the "nitty gritty" of what was needed. "They are very focused on what the level of risk is and as a consequence will put in place the police support, the counter espionage support," he said. "All the work that goes on will be in response to their perception of the level of threat and what's needed to make it a safe and secure Games, and that is the driver." He said he was confident risks were being covered, despite not being party to all intelligence.

When the former Labour government set out its Olympic Safety and Security Strategy, experts suggested anti-terrorism measures could push the bill toward 1.5 billion pounds. The security budget for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics rose five times above its bid estimate. London's original 600 million pound figure would still be available if required, Herbert said. A further 280 million pounds was earmarked for LOCOG to secure venues across the country, taken from the overall 9.3 billion pound Games budget.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets and Tours: Athletes Demand Legacy for Stadium

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Artist's rendering of stadium once completed.

As Spyns clients gear up for the 2012 summer games in London, a mild controversy is building over plans for the Olympic Stadium.

Kelly Holmes and Daley Thompson are among a group of UK Olympians urging authorities to keep the Olympic Stadium running track after the 2012 Games. Plans by Premier League club Tottenham to relocate to the stadium would result in the running track being removed. "We urge the decision makers to ensure the track remains post 2012," the group wrote in an open letter. "[It would] bring to life a sporting promise made to a whole community for generations to come."


Tottenham's proposal has been submitted in collaboration with AEG, who manage the O2 Arena, and, together with West Ham United's plan, is one of two bids being considered by the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), the organisation responsible for the long-term management of the Stratford site. It would be unacceptable for the stadium to lose the track and effectively become an Olympic Stadium with NO Olympic connection or legacy


The Spurs proposal has been deemed "completely unacceptable" by UK Athletics (UKA) because their plans for an 80,000-seat stadium would involve ripping up the athletics track. That would break the original pledge for a world-class athletics venue after the 2012 Games. West Ham, however, want to create a 60,000-capacity arena for football, athletics, concerts and community use in a collaboration with Newham Council, a bid endorsed by UKA. Former Olympians Alan Wells, Steve Cram, Steve Backley, Roger Black, Jamie Baulch, Lynn Davies, Brendan Foster, Katharine Merry, David Moorcroft, Alan Pascoe, Wendy Sly, Ian Stewart and the Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, added their weight to urge the OPLC to honour the 2005 pledge of "an athletics legacy in the form of a world-class stadium".


They wrote: "Here was a stadium that would see young athletes competing for an English schools title run on the same track as Usain Bolt, where Premiership footballers could play whilst club athletes train. "Here was somewhere that could play host to Twenty20 cricket one week and a pop concert the next. The whole idea of an Olympic legacy is that something tangible is left for the sport afterwards


"There is no doubt a legacy of bricks and mortar can work. Look to the Velodrome in Manchester, a true legacy of the 2002 Commonwealth Games that is paying dividends every time British cyclists compete on the world stage. "As Olympians we are all ardent sports fans and that is why we believe the Olympic legacy HAS to be the Olympic Stadium complete with track. "It would be unacceptable for the stadium to lose the track and effectively become an Olympic Stadium with NO Olympic connection or legacy." BBC commentator Cram, a silver medallist in the 1500m at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, said the Stratford stadium could host major international athletics meetings in the future. "If you are going to have a stadium of that size it needs to be used well, not only as a national centre for UK athletics but also to host major athletics events in the future," he told BBC Radio 5 live.


"While Britain has pulled out for bidding for the 2015 World Championships, there is an intention to bid for the 2017 Worlds - and then there are the future Europeans and Commonwealth Games too. "The whole idea of an Olympic legacy is that something tangible is left for the sport afterwards." However, London 2012 chairman Lord Coe told a Culture, Media and Sport committee on Tuesday that the organising committee is "not party" to the bids process by either Tottenham or West Ham. "I'm loath to get into this discussion," said Coe, who is also vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations. "It is not up to us. The OPLC are conducting the process of the stadium along the recognisable lines that commitments have been made on the basis of future use." Asked whether it would be a shame if the venue were to be pulled down, Coe replied: "I would agree with you."

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, including hotels, tickets, and VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets and Tours: Organisers Want to Avoid "Beijing Ticket Syndrome"

As Spyns gears up for its 2012 Olympics tours, London 2012 organisers are at pains to avoid "Beijing syndrome" for its summer games tickets. All the London 2012 sponsors have been told they must make extra effort to ensure all their guests use their Olympic tickets, so the Games stadiums are as full as possible. Deighton told a House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport committee: “We will talk to sponsors, they have a stake in this too, and there is a reputational risk. "We are saying, ‘Make sure your guests take up the seats, you do have a responsibility to work hard to make sure your guest sits in that seat’.” Sponsors, combined with broadcasters, have access to 10 per cent of the total 8.8 million Olympic tickets available.


Deighton also said the sale of the Paralympic tickets would take place after the Olympic tickets go on sale in March, 2011. He said this was to ensure they “had their moment in the sun”. But it also gives organisers some breathing space to refine ticket prices and marketing strategies depending on the success of the Olympic sales. Locog has budgeted to raise £500 million from the Olympic and Paralympic tickets, a huge chunk of its £2.15 billion operating budget.  Deighton was upbeat about the budget overall and said another key element – the marketing budget of £600-700 million – was on track.


“We are trending towards the top end of that range and I expect we will reach £700 million at the end of March 2011,” he said. "We are very confident of getting to the top end of the range.” Deighton confirmed that the Locog budget would not be tabled at the end of the financial year in March 2012, but after the Paralympics had finished in September 2012 so that the organisers could focus solely on delivering the Games rather than accounting. He said this 18-month accounting period had received government approval. “We took a balanced assemessment and everyone accepted this was the best way to go,” Deighton said.

Meanwhile the Olympic Delivery Authority said it would shortly reveal a shortlist of candidates interested in long-term investment in the athletes’ village. ODA chief executive David Higgins said there was significant corporate interest in the athletes village apartments, which will be without kitchens when used by the athletes so that the residences can accommodate an extra bedroom during the Games.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets and Tours: Lee River Rafting Centre Opens

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The Princess Royal has unveiled the Lee Valley White Water Centre, the first brand new venue for the London 2012 Olympic Games to be completed. The £31m project, which incorporates the 2012 Olympic slalom canoe course, was finished on schedule and will be open to the public from April 2011. Britain's top canoeists have exclusive use of the facilities until that time.


"I've been waiting for this course for such a long time - it's absolutely brilliant," said GB's Richard Hounslow. Until now, World bronze medallist Hounslow and his British team-mates had trained at Nottingham's Holme Pierrepont course. We now have in Britain the best white water stadium in the world. But the entire squad will now move from Nottingham to Hertfordshire and base themselves at Lee Valley ahead of London 2012, offering what could prove a crucial home advantage.

"Our programme has chosen to relocate and, personally, I think that's a brilliant idea," said Hounslow. "To train here day in, day out, will be so good for us. "After April [once the course opens to the public] other international teams can relocate here if they want to, but I can't see it happening, so for us it'll be a really big advantage." The venue, near Waltham Cross, will be operated by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and will offer the public rafting and canoeing facilities, on both the main 300m Olympic course and a separate 160m intermediate run. Temporary stands will allow up to 12,000 spectators to watch the Olympic events in 2012, with hopes high for a British medal after David Florence won silver at the Beijing Games in 2008.


The £31m course was completed in just under 18 months. "The completion of the White Water Centre - on budget and over 18 months before the Games - is a huge milestone," said John Armitt, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority. "As the first brand new 2012 venue we have finished, it is a clear sign of the early legacy the Games are already delivering." Construction at the site began in July 2009 and has involved more than 150 workers. The course uses enough material in its banks, obstacles and venue landscaping to fill the Royal Albert Hall, while canoeists must navigate a drop in height of 5.5m from start to finish.

"The biggest thing about the course is the amount you can change it," Hounslow told BBC Sport. "There's a new system which means you can put obstacles wherever you want - you don't want to build a course out of concrete and then find something doesn't quite work. "Here, we can tweak things until we have the perfect configuration. And it's just fun. It's a little bit cold in this temperature, but it's great fun. In 25 years it will still be a very good course."


British Canoe Union chief executive Paul Owen said: "We now have in Britain the best white water stadium in the world. "We look forward to providing a sensational event for the 2012 Olympic Games in a venue with a lasting legacy." Weymouth - where the sailing events will take place - was the first venue to be completed after London won its Olympic bid, but work largely involved enhancing pre-existing facilities - whereas Lee Valley is an entirely new development.


Olympic organisers expect the velodrome to be the next completed venue, early in 2011, followed by the Olympic Stadium.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Summer Olympics Tickets & Tours: International Olympic Committee's Shopping List Revealed

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As Spyns gears up to launch is London 2012 Summer Games website, Londoners are starting to resent the growing list of demands by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Entire hotels have been reserved for IOC fart catchers, the Union Jack must be smaller than the Olympic Flag and, of particular insult, French will be the official language of the London 2012 games.

In a WikiLeaks world, Britain's document cache is just as long, just as embarrassing to the UK, and just as closely held as the collected thoughts of the U.S. diplomatic corps: it is the complete, ­contractually binding and previously ­confidential set of demands made by the 115-member International Olympic ­Committee (IOC) on poor old London for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Like the WikiLeaks, the Olympics leak is by turns creepy and amusing. And it is just as revealing in its detail. Londoners already knew, for instance, about the politburo nature of the IOC. What Brits did not know is that London is, according to these contracts, required to provide the IOC and the ‘Olympic Family’ (including the Committee members, staff and officials) with 40,000 hotel-room bookings for the entire duration of the Games.


This includes 1,800 four and five-star hotel rooms for the IOC elite. Six Park Lane hotels have been booked out for the ­duration of the Games, including the Dorchester, the Grosvenor and the Hilton. The 40,000-room booking does not, of course, include accommodation for the competitors themselves — they are having an Olympic Village built for them at a cost to taxpayer of £325 million. Nor is any accommodation being reserved for spectators. On the evidence of the documents, visitors to the Games will probably find that any hotel within a 50-mile radius of London is already fully booked by the third assistant director of the Togolese handball federation and his extensive support staff.


We knew the IOC was being given 250 miles of so-called ‘Zil’ lanes — named after the old Soviet limousines that enjoyed traffic-free passage. They will stretch from London to Weymouth, where the sailing games are being held. It now emerges that there will also be 500 air-conditioned limos whose drivers must wear hats and uniforms. The IOC does love its little details. The hat stipulation is one of literally hundreds of examples of its micro-management. ­London must provide a ‘dance café’ in the Olympic Village, so that the ­athletes can boogie together.


A flower shop is also required, which the IOC insists ‘should ­provide a range of flowers and gifts for customers in the Olympic ­Village’. British taxpayers will be relieved to know that ‘a balloon rental service is optional’. The guidance given by the Olympocrats can be bewildering — it offers pages of information about the employment of housekeepers for the athletes, for example. ‘It is recommended that the same housekeeping staff perform their duties for the same teams daily’, because this will ‘build relationships and trust’, ‘give confidence’ and ‘maintain standards’. Making the bed is not enough.


These IOC edicts are called the ‘Olympic technical manuals’. They are attached to the contract signed by the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, when we won the right to host the Games in July 2005.  The contract itself was later made public, but for years London 2012 and City Hall refused to publish the manuals, furiously resisting Freedom of Information requests on the grounds that the ‘confidence of the IOC’ must not be breached. It took two years of campaigning by Paul Charman, a strikingly determined east Londoner, for the documents to come to light.  The real reason, perhaps, for this sensitivity is not because of the hats, the dance cafés or any of the other petty embarrassments. It is because the documents show that the British authorities have ­cravenly agreed to let the IOC ­create what is, in effect, a state within a state.


During the Games, normal ­London life, including ordinary commerce and the right to basic freedoms, must be subordinated to the five-ring circus that is the Olympic ‘brand protection’ policy. The IOC is paranoid about what it calls ‘ambush marketing’, which it claims is a ‘serious potential threat to the Olympic Movement’ even if it admits that it has, in fact, ‘not been a significant problem in the past’.  Ambush marketing, in the Olympocrats’ eyes, appears to be any branding or promotion for an organisation which has not paid large amounts of money to the Olympics organisers.


Candidate cities, the manuals say, ‘are required to obtain control of all billboard advertising, city transport advertising, airport advertising etc for the duration of the Games and the month preceding it to support the marketing ­programme’. The cost of hiring these billboards alone will surely be enormous. Customs officers and police must ‘co-operate’ in taking action against unapproved Olympics advertising and the ­confiscation of non-official goods. So in other words, police officers may be diverted from catching criminals to enforcing the commercial interests of the IOC. ­Customs officers, instead of searching for heroin and child pornography, may end up targeting fake Olympics T-shirts.


Spectators at the Games ‘must not wear clothes or accessories with commercial messages other than the manufacturers’ brand name’. So, for instance, any ten-year-old boy who is foolish enough to wear his Manchester United ­replica shirt, emblazoned with the commercial logo of the team’s sponsor Aon, could be forced to remove it or be denied admission to the Games.
No ‘athlete or other participant’ at the Games can wear any ­clothing on which the manufacturer’s name takes up more than 10 per cent of the surface area, or 12 square centimetres. No journalist covering the Games is allowed any ‘signage of any kind’, even for his or her own publication — on ‘camera bags, hats or other garments’.


The toughest restrictions apply inside and immediately around the Olympics venues (if you’re a newsagent next to, say, Greenwich Park with a Pepsi sign on your shopfront, heaven help you). But there are also quite serious restrictions in so-called ‘Level 4’ areas — that is, the whole of the rest of the city — in which the organisers of the London Games ‘must attempt to exert as much control over advertising as possible’.  Brand protection teams’ will, according to the manuals, ‘conduct surveillance . . . in the [host] city’. They must ‘attempt to confiscate any infringing ambush material whether inside or outside the venue’.


So much for the idea that it was just the police that had search-and-seizure powers on the streets of London. Some of the teams will be accompanied by ‘an attorney, in case it becomes necessary to serve any court documents’. And they ‘must have a police officer within the team or on call within range to assist if necessary in the enforcement of the orders’. Here, things become even more grandiose. There is even, according to the documents, an ‘airspace plan’ for London 2012, ‘to prohibit any [non-sponsored] presence within the airspace above Olympic venues, and in the ­surrounding areas within the host city’. However, even the IOC has the grace to admit that ‘there may be obstacles to carrying out airspace requirements completely. For example, it may be impossible to alter the regular flight pattern of commercial airlines’.


Long-suffering taxpayers have been given the impression that the Games will put our nation on the global map, but the documents suggest that something rather ­different will happen. In fact, a geographical space off north-west Europe currently occupied by a nation called Britain will, for the duration of the Games, be taken over by an entirely new country. For at every ceremony during London 2012, by contractual requirement, the Olympic flag must be more prominent than the Union flag: ‘Precedence of flags: Olympic Flag, Flag of the Organising ­Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOG) or city, flag of the province, region or canton, national flag,’ the manuals insist.


Her Majesty will doubtless acquiesce to the IOC’s demands for an Olympic ceremony and royal reception on the day before the Games officially open, although it is worth noting that she has little choice. The documents make clear that, as a matter of course, ‘IOC members are presented to the Head of State’, after which they will all watch ‘an artistic programme reflecting local traditions or ­culture’. What a national triumph. Naturally, the costs associated with all of this are not borne purely by the British taxpayer: £1.4 billion of sponsorship has been raised to finance the games, and the IOC will contribute tens of ­millions more.


The trouble is that the burden on the taxpayer has already reached roughly £12 billion. We may be ­paying the piper, but these ­documents show that it is the IOC who is ­calling the tune. In perhaps the most insulting touch of all, London must ‘ensure that billboards and pageantry are displayed throughout the city’.  As well as being in English, ‘such billboards and pageantry shall be in French’ — which is the second language of the IOC. London beat Paris to host the 2012 Olympics, and yet we are required to plaster our capital city with thousands of posters in French. England may still be sore about losing the World Cup last week — but by God, look at the Olympic guidelines and you’ll realise that we dodged a bullet. There really are only so many Zil lanes and smartly dressed chauffeurs a country can put up with.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets and Tours: Sports & Performing Arts

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An A-list roster from across the arts world, including Mike Leigh, Toni Morrison, Damon Albarn, Cate Blanchett, Rachel Whiteread and Jude Law, will take part in what was today billed as an "extraordinary, once in a lifetime" series of events to coincide with the London Olympics. More than three million people are expected to attend the Cultural Olympiad's London 2012 festival, which if successful, will represent a spectacular turnaround for a project which has been widely derided as a potential flop. David Hockney, asked if he'd like to send a message of support, emailed an artwork from his iPad which included the text "See you in 2012". His Olympics contribution will be a major exhibition at the Royal Academy during the 12-week festival, which will begin in June 2010 – about two months before the sport starts – and run until the end of the Paralympics, which follow the main Games.


Announcing some of the works already commissioned, Cultural Olympiad director Ruth Mackenzie, said: "This is just a small, small taster. We are still 18 months away and we want to hold our fire for when we actually start selling tickets in October 2011. But we are going to tease." So the launch at the Royal Opera House included headlines rather than details. In the visual arts, Rachel Whiteread will be doing "something" in east London, while Martin Creed will be creating a new sound piece, and Olafur Eliasson will be creating an unspecified work. The Nobel-prize winning novelist Toni Morrison is collaborating with the Malian singer Rokia Traoré and the director Peter Sellars on a Desdemona inspired work, while Damon Albarn and his Gorillaz partner Jamie Hewlett will create something new with theatre director Rufus Norris. Regular collaborators, director Deborah Warner and actor Fiona Shaw, will create what is described as "an extraordinary coastal installation".


Ironically, one of the most detailed project synopses came from an artist famous for giving precious little away. Mike Leigh has been co-commissioned by BBC Films and Film4 – normally rivals – to make a short film which will, according to the publicity, be "an Olympic reflection on athletics in general and running in particular, as well as aerobics, karate, football, swimming and Pilates, not to mention taxis and secondhand cars." The accompanying photograph of the Mile End Road in east London may be something of a give away to its setting. Not everyone will have noticed, but the Cultural Olympiad, which has £83m at its disposal, has been going on, with a series of events around the country, since the Beijing games ended in 2008. It was criticised as too uncoordinated and directionless – 'we don't know who's running it' was the complaint among arts leaders – until the arrival of first Tony Hall as chairman a year ago, and then the experienced arts manager Mackenzie as director.


They soon decided that the Cultural Olympiad needed a big bang finale as its main event, hence the 12-week festival in the runup to the Olympics. Mackenzie said they wanted to create an "extraordinary, once in a lifetime" series of 1,000 events that had excellence at their core. The festival is UK-wide; so choreographer Akram Khan will work with post-graduates from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds; the composer James MacMillan will produce a new work to commemorate the anniversary of Coventry Cathedral, 60 years after Benjamin Britten marked its opening with War Requiem; and the film writer Mark Cousins will present a 12-hour history of innovation in cinema that will be screened across the UK.


The festival kicks off at the Ebrington Barracks in Derry with an event devised by the Peace One Day charity which promotes the idea of having one day, 21 September, which is free from conflict – a global day of truce. Jude Law, an ambassador for the charity, will co-produce the event.There will be a lot of Shakespeare in 2012 but full details of the World Shakespeare Festival, co-ordinated by the Royal Shakespeare Company, will be announced next year. A few Bard scraps were though revealed including the fact that the RSC will present plays around the theme of 'What country, friends, is this?' – from Twelfth Night – and there will be specific commissions of Romeo and Juliet from the Iraqi Theatre Company in Baghdad with the Montagues and Capulets being Sunni and Shia; a Richard III inspired spectacle from Rio de Janeiro's Companhia Bufomecanica; and a reimagined Coriolanus from Mike Pearson and the National Theatre of Wales.


The big question was whether the organisers of the Cultural Olympiad would return to the custom of the earliest games and treat the arts as a competitive event, perhaps even awarding their own gold medals. Instead, they've opted for the more conventional model of a festival. The organisers have chosen a risky slow-striptease strategy, in which they dangled a few names yesterday – Mike Leigh, David Hockney, Toni Morrison, Cate Blanchett – while warning that these are only a fraction of the eventual commissions. This is potentially a clever approach – because pundits can be told that the best will be in the rest – but, with tickets not even going on sale until next October, it risks encouraging anticipation fatigue. But the biggest danger for the Cultural Olympiad's director, Ruth McKenzieRuth Mackenzie, on the basis of the repertoire sketched out today, is that she will be accused of turning Britain into a vast Barbican centre.


The events about which she became most excited at the press conference – the UK premiere of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's experimental epic, Einstein on the Beach, and a rare chance to see here a play by the German dramatist Botho Strauss – are all niche theatrical events of a sort familiar from the London International Festival of Theatre: the artistic equivalent of the small-bore shooting rather than the 100 metres. Beyond theatre, there are creators with broader appeal: Olafur Eliasson, after attracting two million people to the Tate with his fake sun, deserves another big stage, and dancer Akram Khan, whose choreography appropriately combines aesthetics and athleticism, is another good fit for this gig. The overall theme of "truce" – including a Peace One Day concert in Derry – is potentially problematic, given that the failure of Osama bin Laden and his followers to sign up means that the games will take place amid one of the biggest security operations in history.


Many will be sceptical about why a sporting event needs an artistic sister – the Ashes and the FIFA World Cup manage without – and, if Mackenzie and her team are going to make the case for spending £83m on supplementary culture, they must find at least some events which match the mainstream, feelgood appeal of the topline sports.


Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Summer Olympics: Hotels and Politics Don't Mix

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London recently lost a bid to host the 2018 World Cup. A backlash was inevitable but little did we think it would result in bouncing international soccer federation (called "Fifa") VPs from London 2012 hotels. Fifa president Sepp Blatter may be bumped from the swank Dorchester Hotel, not because of a fit of pique from Mayor of London Boris Johnson, but because international dignitaries may pull rank.

Mr Johnson, who initially claimed Fifa executives would not be welcome at the Dorchester Hotel following England’s embarrassing two votes for the 2018 World Cup, has now said it is up to the London Olympic organisers to deal with accommodation issues. Johnson told Inside The Games: “The Dorchester Hotel business is really a matter for Locog and I’m sure they’ll make their decision on the best possible basis. “It’s no secret that we are very upset with Fifa though.”

But it is understood that Locog has received an overwhelming flood of applications including from Fifa but also from other VIP’s and embassies who may want to house visiting politicians and their mandarins at the swish hotel. Anybody who is accommodated at the Dorchester, and other leading London hotels, through the London organisers has to pay for their room. “We have had more applications than rooms available,” a Locog spokesperson said. “We haven’t allocated any rooms to anyone at this stage.”


The Olympic rate is based on a three-year average of the rack rate, which at the Dorchester, with its marble finishes and four-poster bed suites, can eclipse £1,000 a night (roughly $1600/night). Only athletes staying at the athletes’ village are given Olympic accommodation free of charge. Fifa officials have stayed at the hotel previously, including during the official evaluation period of England’s bid last summer.


Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets and Tours: IOC Impressed with London's Progress

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Spyns clients planning to attend the 2012 London Olympics with us in a few years can take heart that preparations are proceeding on schedule.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission (pictured right) for the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games ended its seventh visit to the city Friday, following three days of meetings with London 2012 representatives and its partners. The commission, led by Chairman Denis Oswald, visited several venues including Wembley Arena, Earls Court, Hadleigh Farm, the Royal Artillery Barracks and the new velodrome being built in the Olympic Park.

Oswald said, "we can see the pieces of the puzzle falling into place now, and the big picture is rapidly visible. Preparations are advancing at an astonishing rate and LOCOG, the ODA, and their partners should be congratulated for the high quality of the work they are producing across this complex project. The continued support of the British government for the Games has also been key to the progress made since our last visit, and they should be thanked for the efforts that they have made in these challenging times. This underlines the British people's strong connection to sport and to the Olympic Games in particular".


The commission also received updates on the London 2012 volunteer program and ticketing prices in recent months, and welcomed LOCOG's plans to ensure that families of athletes participating at the 2012 Games will be able to secure tickets to events featuring these athletes.


However London organizers refused to back down Friday on their decision to change the Olympic marathon route, but said they may have found a solution to restore a multimillion-dollar fabric wrap around the main stadium for the 2012 Games, reports The Associated Press. Sebastian Coe, head of London 2012, said potential sponsors have offered to pay for the more than half-mile long stadium wrap that was scrapped last month to save $11 million as part of government budget cuts in Britain. He said, "since the decision was made, we have had a number of commercial overtures to fund the wrap..." But sponsors won't be able to brand the wrap with its name or logo since venue advertising is banned at the Olympics.


As for changing the Olympic marathon route, Coe said he made the decision for "operational reasons" to avoid traffic congestion on what will be one of the busiest days of the Olympics.


Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets and Tours: Hotel Rates May Double During Olympics

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He won't see a windfall during London 2012.

When demand far exceeds supply, prices spiral out of control. We've seen it happen during the Tour de France (http://www.tdf-tours.com/) and Running of the Bulls (http://www.pamplona-spain.com/). London's Olympic Games won't be any different.

Hotel prices across London may more than double during the London 2012 Olympics, according to market intelligence company Rubicon. However, while hoteliers can expect bumper profits during the course of the Games with demand for the city's 120,000 hotel rooms reaching a high, they could risk losing out in the long term with corporate business expected to plunge by up to 80% over the whole summer period. Traditional package business from overseas visitors is also expected to fall over the summer with tour operators fearing they may be priced out of the market. Rubicon has based its predictions on evidence gathered from Vancouver earlier this year, during the four months around the winter Olympic Games.

Rubicon managing director for Europe Andy Storey said the study shows that hotels should be mindful of losing the revenue they make during the Olympic Games. "Generally hotel owners fail to put enough attention on the shoulder seasons either side of sporting events, and this is what causes them to do worse than in normal years. "It is no surprise that hotels will be busy during the event itself, but London properties should heed warnings and set pricing and market accordingly." Meanwhile, Rubicon believes towns within an easy commute of central London could be the winners during the Olympics, with business travellers and tourists forced to head further afield to find reasonably priced hotel rooms.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets and Tours: Budget Cuts to Affect Games?

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

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What will be the fate of the London 2012 Olympic games when the Cameron government announces its cuts on October 20?

Sport and Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson told insidethegames he is ready to face impending cuts to his budget, with D-Day approaching in less than three weeks. The Government is set to announce huge expenditure cuts to practically all departments as part of a major spending review on October 20 - with sport in Britain almost certain to face a 30 to 40 per cent reduction in its annual budget.


However, Robertson said he is braced for the worst and has plans in place to help sport through what is set to be an extremely difficult time. Robertson told insidethegames: “It is my absolute intention to protect the funding for athletes and to make sure that all sports have their plans to increase participation up and running. "Any money we have left over will go directly towards the London 2012 legacies we are planning.


"We know what we want to do but obviously we’re not going to release the exact details until we know for sure how much money we’ve got to play with. Sport is one of those things that could almost absorb an incontestable amount of money. You could triple the budget and I could do all sorts of wonderful things, like ensure everyone going through the British education system has full opportunities to participate in every single sport. That would be fantastic but it’s completely unrealistic as we’ve inherited a horrible situation which means that cuts simply have to happen. The fact is I’m going to do my utmost to protect sport regardless of what the financial settlement is on October 20."
Robertson also gave his full support to Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, claiming he is fighting hard to secure sport the best possible settlement when the cuts are made. He said: "To be fair to him, Jeremy is doing everything he can to protect the DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sport) budget and treat all sectors of it equally. "I know first-hand from being in all of the meetings with him that he is doing everything he possibly can to protect both the DCMS budget and the Olympics budget to the best of his abilities. Clearly though, I am the person inside Government who speaks up for sport and tries to defend it. Once we know what the settlement is, I am determined that we don’t just ‘salami slice’ the top off everything we are funding as I want us to actually sit down and look carefully at what is working well and what isn’t. I obviously want us to carry on doing the things we are doing well. That’s going to mean full funding and fully backing projects that function well and probably cutting out a number of things that don’t function well. I’m determined we don’t simply bumble along as we are, doing everything as we are now, but just rather less well than we have in the past because of the funding cuts."

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.

London 2012 Olympics Tickets and Tours: British Cyclist Clancy on Track for Olympic Gold

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For so long the quiet power behind Great Britain’s team pursuit squad, Ed Clancy rode to individual world championship glory on Sunday with a performance of bewildering dominance in the men’s omnium.

That the 25-year-old experienced the full glare of the limelight was due to an agonising defeat in the women’s keirin final for Victoria Pendleton, who lost out on a second gold medal in as many days by the width of a tyre. That would have denied Clancy his moment. His explosive burst of speed within an endurance event perfectly fits the profile of the omnium, cycling’s equivalent of the decathlon and heptathlon disciplines in athletics.

With five elements in a single day - essentially three time trials over different distances and two bunch races - it tests even the strongest of bodies. For Clancy, it was the first omnium of his life, making the achievement even more remarkable. He didn’t even have a bunch race bike when he was selected for the event three weeks ago. Olympic champion in the team pursuit in Beijing, the Yorkshireman collected asilver in that event in the Ballerup Super Arena on Friday and admitted he had struggled to overcome the disappointment of that result.

Clancy said: ‘It’s my first individual medal and one that I didn’t really think I would get. It’s just a bit bizarre. It felt like a hangover the day after the team pursuit and that wasn’t just because I raided the bar. You just feel so down when you lose by such a small margin having worked so hard for it. ‘I’ve never done a flying 200m sprint before or been in a bunch race at world standard before and, man, was I in for a shock. The points race turned out to be the hardest 40 laps of my life.’ With the omnium having been added to the Olympic programme for 2012, the dilemma for Clancy now is whether to stay true to his team pursuit roots or go for the iron man discipline, which in the Olympics will be over six events spread across five days. He added: ‘Those who know me know that I live and die for the team pursuit. That’s in my heart and what gets me out of bed. But then after today it makes you think about the omnium, for sure.’

Pendleton’s silver to the gold of Simona Krupeckaite took a photo and a protest over the Lithuanian girl’s racing line to decide. It meant that Britain finished in second place in the world championships medal table, comfortably behind Australia’s impressive haul of six golds.
That was across all 19 world championship events. However, take account of solely the 10 Olympic disciplines and a different picture emerges, with Britain winning eight medals to Australia’s five, three golds apiece.

Director of British Cycling Dave Brailsford insisted that it is the proper gauge of the progress that is being made towards re-establishing the dominance of Beijing and that the time to judge is not now, at the midpoint of the Olympic cycle, but in London in two years’ time. He said: ‘You can’t get blinded by the stats. My job isn’t to win every event in the world championships. We took a strategic decision to come here and ride the Olympic events with relatively new line-ups in some of them to see where we are at. ‘Why did we not enter a rider in every event at the world championships? It’s a valid point, but we’re an Olympic team, looking to perform in that home Olympics and our strategy is ruthlessly built around doing exactly that. ‘The competition has increased, which is a good thing. We can’t step off the gas. New Zealand have moved forward, but they, the French sprinters, the Germans and the Aussies are absolutely flat out here.

‘This isn’t everything that we’ve got. We’re not quite foot to the floor yet. To try and do that for four years is hard. You need to be cyclical with it. We weren’t the top nation at this point in the Olympic cycle four years ago. Are we in good shape? We’re in terrific shape.'

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympics, please visit our websites http://www.london2012-tours.com/ http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720.