The picture attached to this blog is Felix Neely who represented the Bahamas at the Commonwealth Games in the time trial on Thursday.
I promise this is the last time I’ll go on about the Commonwealths (although I could probably write a series of blogs that inspired me to better things myself, but I’ve got other things to do).
Louis and Callum and I travelled to the Commonwealth time trial in Wolverhampton on Thursday 4th august.
It was a crazy trip because I’d been in Glasgow the night before, got up at 4.30 in the morning and caught a flight from Glasgow at 7am, landing at 8am only to drive to Wolverhampton to pick Louis and Callum up from the station to head to west park for the start of the women’s race.
I didn’t quite know what to expect because I’d never been to a time trial like this before but by far and away the best part was the warmup of the riders.
Each team has a tent of its own and the tents are all beside each other and linked and they have a ‘patio area’ which is just cordoned off with barriers but in effect you are absolutely on top of them and can speak to them and chat with them and shake their hands and even hold Commonwealth gold medals from some of the guys who were there supporting their teammates.
And so, we positioned ourselves close to the Welsh and Scottish and English tents (obviously) and Geraint Thomas’s warm up bike was there for the whole morning, his £25,000 Pinarello time trial bike which looks extraordinary.
I could have patted him on the back whilst he was warming up and he was really lovely.
I was really interested in the Scottish team because they genuinely had a chance of a medal and some of those guys are really good riders, but we were able to chat to one of the track cyclists who was there supporting the Scottish team who had won a gold and silver medal as part of the partially sighted tandem team.
And then, in the midst of all the nonsense and the superstars on their bikes getting ready to kick the sh*t out of the time trail course, a young lad the same age as Louis turns up with broken kit and no support.
His name is Felix Neely, and he was representing the Bahamas.
All the rest of the cyclists had extraordinary and expensive electrical and mechanised turbo trainers and mechanics who would put their bikes on and off the turbo trainers as they warmed up exactly to a schedule which was usually written on boards in front of them.
They all had expensive headphones and sunglasses and the perfect kit.
Some of the guys were warming up with specific ice vests on so that their core temperature stayed high but their external temperature stayed low.
All of them had bespoke nutrition for their warmup.
Dan Bigham who was England’s great, big hope for this had a whiteboard in front of him stating what time he left the hotel, what time he arrived, what time his warmup started, what time it finished, when he would head to the start etc etc so the whole team and circus around him knew exactly what to do and when.
Felix didn’t have that.
We found Felix on Instagram and he has 4 times been junior Bahamas cycling champion but the time trial bike that he was warming up on was considerably worse than the time trial bike that hangs up in my garage (or the practice and I have had that for over 10 years).
His shoes were cracked and broken and his ‘Aero overshoes’ were torn and ripped and hard to get on.
His nutrition consisted of a bottle of something and then a bottle of coke zero before he went down to the start (that is rubbish).
He brought a pair of rollers (non-mechanised warmup devise to put his bike on and held onto the fence whilst he got on.
The English mechanics were kind enough to give his bike a once over and the Scottish team allowed him space to warm up in their little bit because the Bahamas didn’t have any room.
Halfway through his warmup the coach did appear to see if he was alright at which point, he got off the bike, walked to the side of the tents and vomited twice before getting back on his bike.
I think he was terrified.
This is the thin end of the wedge of minority sport.
Three bikes to Felix’s left was Geraint Thomas’s bike. Thomas finished 3rd in the Tour de France this year after having won it several years ago and earns 3million per year and rides a £25,000 bike for fun.
Felix does none of that.
In the end Felix was last, 54th out of the 54 people who finished (with 3 riders not completing it). Thomas crashed, as did Dan Bigham but Thomas still managed to scratch a bronze medal (he would have won gold if he didn’t come off his bike) but Thomas’s bike will be fixed by now with brand-new components, by some somebody else and ready to go again.
Felix’s bike will be the same.
When Louis and I chatted about this afterwards I was struck by the similarity between the two.
Louis’s time trial bike is held together with duct tape and bits of old washing machine because he simply doesn’t have the money to buy a £12,000 time trial bike to make him considerably faster in the races that are to come.
He doesn’t have a mechanic on tap or a team of people to advise him on nutrition (although he does have some really generous and incredible people trying to help and support him).
The chasm between Felix and Grant is probably wider than any of us can imagine as is the chasm between Louis and his hero Lionel Sanders.
And so, Felix should stop now shouldn’t he.
He should give up and go and get a ‘proper job’ and forget his dreams of cycling and forget riding his battered old bike with his battered old shoes and become a proper citizen doing proper things and minding his p’s and q’s.
Or he shouldn’t (and neither should Louis).
They should continue to disrupt and try their best and inspire the generation that comes after them and live their life full of wonder travelling to places that they’ve never seen and meeting people that they’ve never met and maybe, just maybe, they’ll get the break that pushes them on to another place and that pushes them on again from there.
That’s how work gets done and that’s how life gets lived.
Chapeau Felix, you were my hero of the Commonwealth Games. I will look out for you again.
Blog Post Number - 3167