Isn’t it enough to be a part of something bigger, isn’t it enough to contribute, is it vital to always be leader?
At the Tour de France in Yorkshire, on the opening day some people said there were two million people lining the roads and nobody saw Dave and I. We were there from Leeds to Harrogate via Harewood House, part of the crowd, part of the people on bikes, part of the noise in Harrogate.
When the sprint finished and Cavendish was lying on the ground we made no difference to the noise and no difference to the crowd but we were vital just like everybody else.
If everybody decides not to travel to the tour, if everybody decides to stay quiet, if nobody decides to bring their bike then it isn’t the event that it was, it isn’t a huge success.
All of the people who stood by the road side or shouted or cheered or put a brass band in their garden or sold cakes or painted their windows like polka dot jerseys or were the leaders or the makers or the chief executives or the bosses, they were one piece of a two million piece jigsaw and they were crucial and vital.
We’ve lost this concept along the way and many of us have forgotten this. The joy of being a part of something bigger like London 2012 or Glasgow 2014 is deep seated and fundamental, it’s community pride it’s coming together with humanity, it’s not being the king of your own little Island it’s being a tiny cog in a massive machine and its hugely gratifying and it’s something we need to find more of and need to find again.
