As ways to spend a significant portion of your weekend go, standing on a small grassy island in the middle of a busy roundabout exit is unlikely to leap to the top of many lists.
And while this might be a bizarre and confusing start to a story about cycling to some, there will be a small but noble phalanx of readers who are nodding sagely, and very pleased to be able to say that this is exactly what many of their summer weekends consist of.
I’m not proud to admit that it had been some time since I’d last turned my hand to volunteering at a cycling club event – probably more than 15 years – although that is at least in part due to the fact I’ve not been an active club member for much of that time.
And so, determined to get involved again with club life, I changed tack and signed up to volunteer at the club’s open 25-mile time trial last weekend.
In a past life (though not pre-Cycling Weekly – not much is to be honest) I organised my old club’s open ’25’ for a few years, so standing on roundabouts, or serving tea, is all in my vocabulary. I also have a reasonable grasp of how important (and sometimes difficult) it can be to find enough volunteers as a race organiser. In fact it’s one of the major issues facing modern grass-roots cycling, so it was nice to be useful of a Sunday, instead of lounging around drinking coffee and studiously putting off mowing the lawn.
Given it was a lunchtime race, I did have to avoid all social media for a few hours to avoid Paris-Roubaix spoilers though.
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The volunteering consisted, essentially, of three parts. Part one: turn up, meet new people (and a few old faces), talk about cycling and have a cup of tea. What’s not to love? Part two: stand on the roundabout giving directions and shouting encouragement. There were even a few appreciative responses which, considering they came from riders halfway through an hour-long max effort, was pretty impressive. Part three: return to base with fellow marshals for more tea, more cycling chat and a big vote of thanks from the organiser.
We were helped by what was a relatively small field and generally clement weather, but all in all it was a rewarding experience and fun, even, in parts – and it was great to finally meet some of my clubmates.
For all the reasons I’ve just listed, I’d thoroughly recommend this side of club (or cycling group, if that’s what you’re in) life, be it marshalling at a time trial or helping with refreshments at the social. Grass-roots sport relies on people giving up their time for free and, it seems, there is currently a bit of a dearth of them, so you’d be giving back something that is much needed.
Finally, despite being made to wait for it, my enjoyment of Paris-Roubaix wasn’t spoiled at all, as the sore throat I picked up from yelling at the TV would attest.
