A Life Too Short by Ronald Reng: a review

Depression. There, I said it.

It’s a word which means different things to different people. For some, it can be just a bad mood. For others, an illness that is all-consuming.

Before I read A Life Too Short by Ronald Reng I fell somewhere between the two: I knew depression wasn’t just a bad mood, but I was also slightly ignorant of how serious it could be. I guess I always saw people with depression as slightly weak people not able to handle everyday life like the rest of us. I was wrong.

The book is the real-life account of the German goalkeeper, Robert Enke, who committed suicide in 2009 when on the cusp of being Germany’s No. 1 at the 2010 World Cup.

The story in how he got to that dark day when he stepped in front of a high-speed train is the heart of this book. In many ways, Robert was in the wrong job. England’s goalkeeper Joe Hart recently commented that he doesn’t like letting in any goal – whether he could have done something about it or not. It eats away at him for days, he conceded.

And that’s one of the many contradictions about Robert’s life detailed in this book: he was in a job that added to his mental stress constantly, but it was the one thing he was very good at. He was trapped.

He was driven to his suicide not by the death of his daughter who had a heart defect, but when he had adopted a daughter, was a father again and his career was on track at Hannover 96. Again, contradictions.

The accounts of his isolation, despair and solitude as football games go against him are beautifully written and painfully sad. One passage in particular, where having finally got a start at Barcelona in a game against lowly opposition he concedes three goals and they lose the match to widespread condemnation, is desperately sad.

It highlights the mental fortitude goalkeepers need to do the job they do, always one mistake away from humiliation.

Knowing the ending gives the book an inevitable black cloud – even the happier moments are tinged with sadness at knowing where the tale ends. But don’t let that put you off. This is the best sports book I have ever read. Life changing; oddly life-affirming.

Many would argue that Robert was unlucky: unlucky to have conceded those goals for Barcelona, unlucky to lose his daughter, unlucky to break his arm when on the cusp of the German national side. He wasn’t. Not at all.

He was just blighted by an illness with a job that compounded it. And the black dog he described as chasing him finally caught up with him in the train tunnel on that dark day.

That’s not unlucky. It’s just desperately sad.

London 2012 Games Maker: Velopark venue specific training



The Olympic Velodrome ready for action



It was finally here. The last step: venue specific training.

It didn’t start well. Having arrived in Stratford an hour before the 10:00 start time, I decided to grab a coffee. Having worked at two test events over the past year, and been prompt on both occasions only to be left waiting around, I thought I would turn up bang on 10:00. This was the wrong time to take that approach.

First there was the rain. Lots of it. And then there was the queue to get through security. A long one. Luckily I was advised that as I was there for training I could be fast-tracked through – an action which saved me lots of time and my hair from going wet and flat.

Once through security (mostly manned by armed forces BTW) there was then the trudge across to the Basketball Arena. For those unfamiliar with the Olympic Park, this venue and the Velopark are the furthest from the entrance. It took 20 minutes and I walk fast.

I was late. I hate being late. And thanks to the long walk I was also hot and wet at the same time. Not a nice combination. Finally taking my seat in the arena, I was greeted with the sight of fellow Games Makers having a go on the basketball court. Apparently the early birds were ‘breaking in’ the balls that will be used during the Games. Oh how I wish I had got there early this time.

Finally, it started. As rain crashed down on the roof of the temporary venue, creating an audible din at it did, Jonathan Edwards came out to host proceedings. What a great guy he is. Lots of inspiring anecdotes and such a professional when interviewing LOGOC staff.

After the usual talk about the sports and venues, we were grouped off into our work areas for a tour of the venues. Having worked at the Track Cycling, BMX and, fleetingly, the Basketball test events, I had actually seen the venues before, but it was still good to see them in all their Olympic glory.

The Basketball Arena has a distinctive pink hue, while the Velodrome has a startling orange. The Dutch riders and supporters will feel very at home in there, I feel.

After the tour we broke off into our role specific areas. I am a Flash Quote Reporter for the Olympic News Service so will conduct interviews and get quotes from athletes after they compete. I will then have 15 minutes to file the quotes onto the Info+ system used by the world’s media. I will do this in an area called the mixed zone where athletes and journalists can, er, mix. It should be great.

After a quick tour around other functional areas in Press Operations, we were on our way. The next time I step foot in the Velodrome will be on my first shift on 30 July. 

I can’t wait.

Can Bradley Wiggins lose the Tour de France?

Is a mechanical the only way to beat
Wiggins at this year's Tour de France?

With under a week to go, talk has turned on how Bradley Wiggins can lose this Tour. How times have changed.

Such has been the dominance of Team Sky at this year’s race, we can be forgiven for getting a little complacent. It leads to the obvious question: can Bradley Wiggins actually lose this year’s Tour?

On current evidence, probably not. But here are some ways it could happen:

Crash
Yes, it is a little pessimistic, but a crash could scupper the Kilburn man’s dreams. Assuming he can continue to ride following any crash that may befall him, it shouldn’t have too much effect.

The conceived wisdom that the peleton stops when the yellow jersey crashes/has a mechanical will have even more weight after Wiggins neutralised the group today. It was a canny move which should assure him a safety net against any issues from hereon.

Of course, not everyone buys into it. As Rolland showed today, one person’s misfortune is another’s opportunity and don’t be surprised if a rider placed high in the GC tries to take advantage should Wiggins come a cropper. We can expect Evans to wait, but what of Nibali? Those spats in the press earlier in the race may make a cheeky dig more tempting.

And what of Wiggins’s own colleague, Chris Froome? As Tejay van Garderen showed yesterday, taking a jump on your team leader is not beyond the realms of possibility and Froome’s comments to L’Equipe certainly suggested a frustrated rider.

However exciting the prospect might be, the chances are Froome will obey team orders and wait for his leader in the event of misfortune.

Audacious attack
With just two big mountain stages left, the chances to take a bite out of Wiggins are diminishing. In fact, you could argue the real race now is between Evans and Nibali for a spot on the podium.

For this reason we can expect Nibali to have a go. Assuming the Sky train is in order, the chances of getting the necessary time to bring Wiggins out in a cold sweat remain slim.

This race is really crying out for an audacious attack akin to Frank Schleck on Stage 18 of last year’s Tour. The issue here is that the two riders capable of a punchy attack strong enough to shake off the Sky train – Contador and Schleck – are not in the race.

In fact, the irony is that the one rider who has looked capable of getting a jump in this year’s race is Wiggins’s own right hand man, Froome.

Time trial
The penultimate stage of this year’s race is a time trial, which should play into the hands of Froome and Wiggins, although it’s not without concern.

Firstly, the starting order is dictated by GC position. Assuming neither of the two mishaps above happen between now and Saturday, we can expect Froome to go off just before Wiggins with a two minute deficit.

Of course, this is much harder to manage as the riders will ride alone against the clock. It’s unlikely, but should Froome have a flier and Wiggins fatigue badly, Sky will have the unenviable task of telling Froome to slow down. Now that could get ugly.

The other issue is a mechanical. As Tony Martin has proved twice in this year’s Tour, punctures are not uncommon during a time trial. Should Wiggins have an issue with his bike, it could make things very tight at the top with no unwritten rule to slow his competitors down further up the road or teammates on hand to pace him back. It’s a tenuous proposition, but possible nonetheless.

ConclusionAlthough these are possible ways Wiggins could lose this year’s race, they mostly rely on him being struck down by bad luck. As Cadel Evans showed yesterday, when it’s not your Tour, it’s not your Tour, and this seems to be Wiggins's year.

He missed all the big crashes in week one and even managed to not puncture when carpet tacks were thrown on the road today. In short, unless there is an audacious attack which blows the race apart on Wednesday or Thursday, Wiggins should be crowned on Sunday.

Tour de France 2012: cycling celebrations

Cycling celebrations. They are a curious thing, aren’t they? I always marvel at a cyclists ability to judge the point at which the race is won and that they are safe to take their hands off the bars and celebrate as they see fit.

It raises obvious questions. What if they were to sit up too soon and get caught? What if they were to lose their balance and fall off completely? And is it right to celebrate a win with the same level of premeditation as a footballer unveiling a base layer with a cryptic message on it (© Mario Balotelli)?

Of course, we can blame one man for making the subject a talking point: Peter Sagan (pictured above). The 22-year-old Slovakian rider has taken this year’s race by storm, winning three stages in a thunderous opening week of broken bones, cracked carbon fibre and ‘fankled’ cyclists (© David Millar).

Putting the ease with which Sagan won his three stages aside, the thing that got most people talking was his celebrations.

So, in honour of all this, here are some of the best (and worst) cycling celebrations:

Peter Sagan

Let’s start with the man who has got us all talking. This year’s Tour has seen a plethora of – quite random – film references. 

At Stage 1 we had the clucking chicken, the following day Forrest Gump arrived in Boulogne, before Stage 6 saw the Incredible Hulk.

It wasn’t to everyone’s taste, with Robbie Hunter a staunch critic via his Twitter feed. What is next is anyone’s guess, although as this video of Sagan shows, a wheelie might not be as out of the question as you might think.

Mark Cavendish

If anyone has a right to have a premeditated celebration ready, it is Cav. Such is the prolific nature of his success at the Tour over recent years, it would be odd if he didn’t have something up his sleeve as he rolls out at the start of each flat stage.

We have seen the best and the worst of Cav at the exact moment of triumph. Who could forget his two-fingered gesture aimed at his critics on winning a stage at the Tour of Romandie in 2010? Or the incongruous ‘phone’ gesture at Stage 3 of the 2009 Tour that would have had his team’s sponsors, HTC, purring but made the rest of us feel slightly queasy.

There has been some good though. Perhaps the best being Stage 7 of last year’s race into Chateauroux, where he mimicked the exact ‘hands on head’ celebration he had done at the same finish three years earlier on winning his first-ever stage at the Tour. It was a nice touch and the fact that he remembered to do it was a fine illustration of how clearly he thinks in chaotic sprints.

Bradley Wiggins

Now, you wouldn’t normally expect to see Bradley Wiggins in a list like this, saved as it normally is for sprinters and not GC riders. As Andy Schleck has proved (more on him later) overall contenders can be quite one dimensional in their finishing celebrations.

But Brad bucked the trend earlier this year, winning Stage 1 of the this year's Tour of Romandie with an uncharacteristic sprint finish. The celebration was a fine one – until he realised he was about to lose control of his bike and frantically put his hands back on the bars.

Andy Schleck

Many will miss Andy Schleck at this year’s race. His one-man assault on Stage 18 of last year’s race is exactly the sort of thing this year’s race is crying out for. Whether anyone has the guts to have a dig remains to be seen.

What we won’t miss is his celebration, easily as one-dimensional as Alan Shearer’s goal celebration. He wins, he puts his puny arms in the air, he roars. Every time.

When it all goes wrong

Of course, celebrating too early can often get you in trouble. I think the moral of this story is: don’t celebrate too early. Especially if it’s wet.

Tour de France 2012: why Bradley Wiggins doesn’t need drugs

Bradley Wiggins

Mud sticks, the old saying goes. Or does it?

I can’t say I was surprised to read that a cursory eyebrow had been raised amongst the Spanish and Belgian Twitterati at the sight of Bradley Wiggins in a yellow jersey.

He would have been expecting it, just not so soon. His response was unequivocal, if unnecessarily terse. In a sport blighted by innumerable drugs scandals, it is unusual to see a rider defend himself quite so aggressively when questioned about doping. The applause which greeted his response in the press conference was illustration enough that the endless anodyne answers riders have given in the past have worn a little thin.

But, if not drugs, how has he done it? Firstly, this is not a sudden increase in form. Wiggins finished fourth in the 2009 Tour (on a route which, like this year, suited him), was third at last year’s Vuelta (despite riding with metal pins in a broken collarbone sustained at last summer’s Tour), as well as a series of high profile wins this year. It’s been coming.

The upturn comes from a training regime and application to it that has been unwavering. For more detail, check out the brilliant pieces by Brendan Gallagher and William Fotheringham, who were privileged enough to go and see Wiggins at his training camp in Tenerife earlier this year. Where some use drugs, Wiggins uses application and hard work.

What sort of distraction wearing the yellow jersey will offer Wiggins remains to be seen. It will be like a light attracting those doping questions over the next two weeks. And, as has been documented, once it is on your back, the post-stage routine in elongated by over an hour: the sanctuary of the team bus becomes even further away. If he is to keep it all the way to Paris, it will be a test – on and off the bike – unlike any other.  

But whatever the result come 22 July, we should all salute Wiggins – a beacon of hope at what can be achieved through nothing more than talent and single-minded dedication. And for answering straightforward questions with straightforward answers. 

In his case at least, the mud just won’t stick.

Why saving the surprise is impossible

The opening scene. Or is it?

So, the spoilers have started – and only four weeks until we all finally see Danny Boyle’s vision for an Olympic opening ceremony.

I am sat firmly on the fence with this. Firstly, in an era when real-time information makes prescience a pastime, keeping a lid on this was always going to be an impossible task. Given 60,000 people (and animals) are involved in the staging of the event, Chinese whispers were always inevitable; you just can’t control that many people.

They have tried valiantly though. I know of a reporter from a well-known national daily newspaper who auditioned for a role in the ceremony, subsequently writing an article about their experience. On attending the next rehearsal, they were frog-marched off the premises with the threat of losing their Olympic accreditation for good ringing in their ears.

But can they really expect to keep a lid on it all the way to 27 July? Not really. They have admirably tried being up-front to put off the naysayers. The unveiling of the opening scene two weeks ago was a clear attempt at that. The assumption being that a national newspaper would only have to charter a helicopter to fly over the stadium with a photographer on board to see it anyway.

Some have suggested it’s a red herring, and the glint in Boyle’s eye during the media interviews certainly suggested that all was not as it seemed. Let’s not forget this is the film director who gave us a heroin addict soiling himself, Indian beggars made blind and a man sawing his arm off with a penknife. Conventional is probably the last thing we can expect the ceremony to be.

Of the details which have been released (which I will not list here) the most troubling for me is the appearance of Paul McCartney. A Beatle, yes; but he is also a 70-year-old music veteran who will only appeals to a certain demographic. I also hate Hey Jude (the song tipped to close the show).

If true, this really is off-kilter with the over-riding theme of these Games of inspiring young people. I would rather have a more relevant young performer like Dizzie Rascal take centre stage. But then maybe he is part of the plan anyway. I hope so.

But even I don’t want too many spoilers. As a GamesMaker I will be attending a dress rehearsal two days before. Will I tell people what I see? No, but by then will I be seeing anything that hasn't been leaked anyway?

I would expect a few leaked videos as well over the next few weeks. The Beijing ceremony four years ago suffered the same indignity so we should not be too surprised if it does happen.

What I do know is this: some aspects of the show will not be rehearsed in front of an audience and some pieces – such as the lighting of the torch (and who does it) – will be a closely kept secret.

How do I know? I asked someone at LOCOG who has worked at several Games and they confirmed that the lighting of the torch never forms part of any rehearsal in front of spectators.

This is the piece of the ceremony where I feel most strongly. I don’t want to know who is going to do it or how it will be done. It has the potential to be the iconic moment of the ceremony and I want the surprise on that one.

As long as it’s not David Beckham, obviously.