WOW What a Closing Ceremony



Olympic Stadium ready for the closing ceremony





Nicola will blog about her day at the Cross Country Mountain Bike Race once she has time, but what a fantastic closing ceremony....For me the music was Muse, The Who and Queen, but Jesse J was fantastic and Spice Girls and Take That fantastic. Not forgetting Elbow as professional as always. But the biggest cheer of the night was rightly for Nicola and the other amazing Gamesmakers. We have so much to live up to as Gamesmakers for the Paralympics!. Pity we could not all be together to share the experience.

The games may have finished for the Athletes but Nicola is back in the Olympic Village tomorrow morning as usual to help the partygoers get to the airport and safely home.  

Bicycles in Dorking

Cycling Statute outside Denbies Winery, Dorking 

As bikes seem to have been such a big part of Nicola's Olympic expeerience I though I would post this picture from the road outside Dorking in Surrey on the course of the Cycle Road Races.

Saturday: To Essex and Back

Nicola spent a lot of the last two days at Hadleigh Farm for both Mountain Bike practice and technical registration and checks. She took the opportunity to stay on in the Olympic Park Saturday afternoon and sit on the grass with the crowds at the big screens.  Pleased to see the Gamesmakers getting such good press and the suggestion they should get the team award at the BBC Sports Personality of the year !!!


Crowds watching the big screens from anywhere they can 

Thursday: On the Final Straight!

Thursday - another day at the Mountain Biking Circuit at Hadleigh Farm which was previously a country park overlooking the Thames Estuary about 10 miles from Southend.  At least I do now know how to get there; ignoring the sat nav as necessary.  Yesterday the weather was wonderful and I also found my way to the track as you can see from the photos.  On the way back we even managed to find a cycle shop where we could buy a new sadle - the previous one having been destroyed in a crash.  The mountain biking is the last event of the Games although we do still have a man in the marathon.  We are now acting as tour guides in the main with one  of my colleagues going to Stonehenge yesterday and another sorting out a trip to the Tate Modern and the British Museum.

The Mountain Bike Circuit

Paolo Montoya on the circuit

Back in the Village, below is a picture of the Team GB quarters.

More Gold and Silver inside this bulding that the Bank of England!!!

Team GB - Hockey in the Riverbank Arena

We watched a tight and controversial final group match between Team GB and Spain with both having potential to qualify for the Semi-Final. After a 1-1 draw Team GB qualified. The rain then poured down as we watched an end to end 5-5 draw between Germany and New Zealand.

Team GB play Spain

Team GB salute the crowd after qualifying for the semi-final

Great atmosphere in the Arena and fantastic support for Team GB with us joining in with the flag waving and chanting. The Olympic Park looked fantastic at night from high up in the stands.

The Spectators at the temporary Riverbank Arena

Today Nicola is enjoying a well deserved day off before the "final sprint" to the Marathon, Mountain Bikes and the Closing ceremony  We watched the Costa Rican athlete in the Taekwondo on the TV. Unfortunatelty he lost, not sure how or why, the sport is still a mystery to us.

Enjoying the Olympic Park

Gus, Rob and Nicola at the Olympic Park

Yesterday (Tuesday) gave us the opportunity to soak up the atmosphere in the Olympic Park as we had tickets for the Men's Hockey. After a day in Essex at the Mountain Bike track Nicola joined Rob, Gus his friend Oki to walk around the park. Some pictures below from the park

The BBC Studios on top of Shipping Containers 

The wetlands above make a green oasis and below the crowds watch on the BIG screens

Just an easy Sunday morning bike ride!

I spent most of yesterday with our mountain biker and his coach (his father!) - looking for mountains! The previous day we went to the official training loop in Essex but I have to agree that the hills were a bit tame. I explained that there are no mountains in southern England that will compare with Costa Rica but we settled on going to Box Hill and enlisted Rob's help to find us a route with some hills.  When we got there Box Hill was covered with cyclists, but unfortunately also some local residents that seem to have lost their Olympic Spirit. So following the bike was pretty much a nightmare. In the end Pablo seemed quite happy with 'La Ruta Olympica' and I spoke to some very friendly cyclists who suggested we try Ranmore Common and I am going to phone a cycle shop there this morning to see if they will be able to act as guides.

Paolo Montoya ready to cycle

Following in the summer rain