Inside the London 2012 velodrome

www.london-olympiad.com

Spyns started as a small company offering luxury cycling tours for the Tour de France. As time has passed and happy clients have returned, the company has expanded but still kept that small friendly feel. Now that we offer Olympic tours we will have a few cycling clients coming with us to London and checking out the new built velodrome, and the 250km Men and 140km Road Race. We will have VIP refreshment tents set up along the route for our clients only. If you would like to join us for a glass of champagne as the leader passes, check out our website and chat to Ryan about our tour option. www.london-olympiad.com

Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton led a host of Great Britain's track stars, fresh from the Manchester World Cup, for a spin on the boards after the London 2012 velodrome was officially unveiled. 

The 6,000-seater velodrome is the first Olympic Park venue to be completed, 23 months after construction began in March 2009.

Hoy, who struck gold three times at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, had a hand in the velodrome's design and was joined by Pendleton, Jason Kenny, Ross Edgar, Shanaze Reade, Pete Mitchell, Jess Varnish, Dave Daniell, Matt Crampton and Becky James on the track.

Racing will begin on August 2, 2012 before climaxing six days later on August 7. Tickets will cost between £20 and £325 and go on sale next month. 

"Having been involved in a very small way in the design process in the early stages it is amazing to see the velodrome finally completed," he said.

"And to be able to have ridden on it gives me a feel for what it's going to be like in a year and a half's time. I can't wait."

London 2012 chairman Lord Sebastian Coe added: "This is a stunning venue built for champions, and designed for legacy. The ODA has done a terrific job. Over the next 18 months Locog will be testing the venue and installing the temporary facilities needed for an Olympic and Paralympic competition velodrome.

"The British cycling teams provided many of The team GB superstars in recent Games' and I am proud to see them on the track for the first time."

Read more: http://www.roadcyclinguk.com/event-news/photo-gallery-inside-the-london-2012-velodrome/6291.html#ixzz1EsDAtxsK

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720. www.spyns.com.

England Finds 2012 Olympics Don’t Spur Exercise

www.london-olympiad.com

At Spyns we are pretty active, you really need to know how to more when running with the bulls in Pamplona www.pamplona-spain.com. We also run tours for Tour de France www.tdf-tours.com so enjoy all sports. If you would like to be another one of our happy clients, we invite you to come with us to London in 2012 and experience what it is like to be given the Spyns experience.

When London was awarded the 2012 Olympics, organizers promised an ambitious legacy: to get two million more people in England involved in sports and physical activity.

But with the Games in less than 18 months, that commitment now resembles a wheezing jogger, bent over and winded from a New Year’s resolution whose ambition could not be matched by exertion.

London’s original pledge evolved into a plan to get one million more people around England playing sports three or more times a week for at least 30 minutes at a time, known as the 3x30 plan. Even that target is proving elusive.

Figures issued in December by Sport England, the governing body for community sports, indicated that participation at the 3x30 level had increased by 123,000 since 2007-8, when the one million baseline was established. But that number increased by only 8,000 in the last year. At the current rate, the goal of one million new participants would not be reached in 2012-13 as hoped but more than a decade later in 2023-24.

Meanwhile, in a country that is among the fattest in Europe, the number of couch potatoes apparently continues to grow. Surveys by Sport England indicate that the number of adults doing zero moderate sports activity rose by nearly 300,000 from 2005, when London was awarded the Olympics, to the fall of 2010.

Inadequate planning, a change in government, severe funding cutbacks to sports organizations and an apparent overestimation of the impact the Olympics can have on mass participation have all forced a rethinking of England’s Olympic legacy.

The latest plan, unveiled in November by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, omitted the one million target figure. It spoke instead of encouraging more people to take up sports through Places People Play, a program sponsored by the National Lottery.

“We haven’t yet dropped the target, but we’re looking at it fairly carefully,” Hugh Robertson, Britain’s minister for sport and the Olympics, said in a telephone interview.

What is needed is a more sensible way to define and measure sports and physical activity, Mr. Robertson and other sports experts said. Does walking to the bus stop count? If someone plays a pickup soccer match for 90 minutes, does that count as one sporting session or three?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that more people participate in sports than surveys reveal, Mr. Robertson said. But, he added, measuring participation involves a “slightly clunky mechanism.”

All Olympic bids are required to show how the Games will provide lasting benefits. Each city is allowed to devise a legacy plan. There are no specific penalties for failing to reach a target, but the fallout can undermine the reputation of a particular Winter or Summer Games and bring political opprobrium.

Some critics have accused Mr. Robertson of watering down London’s post-Olympic ambitions. He replied, “That’s emphatically what we’re not trying to do.”

Darryl Seibel, a spokesman for the British Olympic Association, said sports and government officials were determined to leave a meaningful legacy from the London Games and to transform plans “from rhetoric to reality.”

London is hardly the first host city to struggle with its Olympic legacy. In truth, international events like the Olympics and soccer’s World Cup leave a greater discernible impact on infrastructure than on sports. Roads, airports and rail systems are improved while a number of stadiums become white elephants and lingering sporting benefits remain indistinct.

Six years after Albertville, France, hosted the 1992 Winter Olympics, the figure-skating arena and speed-skating oval there were fenced off and abandoned. The magnificent Olympic stadium showcased during the 2008 Beijing Games, known as the Bird’s Nest, was seldom being used a year and a half later.

In London, there has been heated debate about whether its $854 million Olympic Stadium should be demolished after 17 days’ use and replaced with a soccer stadium or downsized and left as an arena that could host both soccer and track and field. The second option prevailed Friday in a vote by the company in charge of the Games’ legacy.

Research on the Olympic Games stimulating mass participation in sports has not produced encouraging results. In 2007, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the British House of Commons concluded that “no host country has yet been able to demonstrate a direct benefit from the Olympic Games in the form of a lasting increase in participation.”

A study of the 2000 Sydney Games showed that while seven Olympic sports experienced a slight increase afterward in Australia, nine showed a decline.

After the 2002 Commonwealth Games, held in Manchester, England, “there appears to have been no recorded impact on sports participation levels” in the country’s northwest, Fred Coalter, a professor of sports studies at the University of Stirling in Scotland, wrote before London won the 2012 Olympic bid.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720. www.spyns.com.

Will there be global mobile coverage in London 2012

http://www.london-olympiad.com/

At Spyns we know our clients are busy people and usually like to keep a finger on the pulse at home while on vacation. That’s why we take care of all the necessary arrangements, that way you can keep an eye on their affairs at home, and still get the most out of your adventure with us. Having mobile coverage all over London will definitely help everyone stay in touch. If you would like more information on our luxury 5, 7, and 10 days tours then check out our website www.london-olympiad.com or email me at henry@london-olympiad.com

London Underground, colloquially known as the ‘Tube’, may roll out mobile coverage across the network ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

The rollout is currently under bid by Chinese telecoms manufacturer Huawei, which would allow hundreds of thousands of Londoners and tourists each day to work while commuting to work.

Mobile access has been difficult, if not impossible on the vast majority of the network in central London. Only certain mainline railway stations and Underground stations are equipped with Wi-Fi and cell repeaters, such as Charing Cross and St. Pancras.

Oddly enough, nearly 60% of the London Underground network is in fact over ground which has good cell coverage. But for those hundreds of feet under the surface of London who commute around the city center each day, teleworking is impossible.

But mobile network access on the Tube has gone without controversy.

After the Kings Cross fire in 1987, an inquiry headed by Desmond Fennel QC led to recommendations in radio communications on the Underground. Though nearly twenty years after the disaster, now police and emergency service radios now work underground.

Had these changes been implemented sooner, it could have assisted the recovery in casualties during the London suicide bombing in 2005, where 52 people were killed.

Conversely, some are concerned that the ability to communicate through cell networks on the Underground could assist bombers who could remotely detonate explosives on trains, as seen in 2005.

As a frequent commuter on the Underground, along with hundreds of thousands of students who study at over a hundred universities in London, the benefits would outweigh the perceived negatives.

Similarly during the time I spent in New York City last year, I recall looking at my BlackBerry, clear as day as I sat next to Mary Jo Foley on the subway traveling south towards towards Wall Street. I turned to her and said, “Ooh, I can get mobile signal” in a moment of delight.

Perhaps we weren’t that deep underground after all. Nevertheless, I saw this as New York taking care of its telecommuters. How wrong I was.

Though there is no direct cell provision installed on the network, the city authorities are also hoping to bring mobile signal to the entire subway system. Costing $200 million and starting three years behind schedule, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority called the subway “an information black hole”.

Considering what the Tube is like first thing in the morning, it should probably come as no surprise that the most popular reason for wanting mobile signal on the Underground was to “let people know when I’m running late”, according to recent research.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720. www.spyns.com.

London 2012 Olympics: why you should buy tickets for swimming's morning sessions

www.london-olympiad.com

At Spyns we have small intimate tours that will cover the whole swimming schedule, for the opening ceremony on the 27^th July until the last day of swimming on the 4^th August. And if you want to stick around to the closing ceremony on the 12^th August, we are more than happy to have you. Hotels, tickets, and London attractions will all be included in our tickets. Get in contact with me at henry@london-olympiad.com for information on our Gold, Silver, and Bronze tour options, or have a look at our website http://www.london-olympiad.com/

Mulling over Olympic tickets and the 2012 schedule already, in particular the swimming events? Wondering if morning heats and sessions are worth the money in the likelihood that the finals are going to be over subscribed?

You may look at the schedule and see five session events in the space of an hour and think is it worth it. The swimmers will race and be gone in a flash. Not so. Go. You won’t regret it.

You’ll be watching athletes who’ve toiled for the last four years just to get to the Aquatics Centre. Of course, some like Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte will breeze into the semi-final and finals of their events.

But for the rest, racing to get one of the eight lanes on offer will be their own Olympic final. You’ll witness their own personal dreams.

As Steve Parry, Britain’s former Olympian turned BBC pundit, says: “People are at their best on that one day every four years so it is a great chance to see them in action before the finals.

“There is an awful lot that goes on in the morning heats and it is just exciting to see a host of different nations.”

These sessions are still likely to be filled to the rafters with patriotic Britons and the swimming fraternity. There may even be a huge upset or two. The fact of the matter is that complacency comes at a price at the Olympics.

Parry, then aged 27 and the world No 5, thought he would do enough to qualify in the morning heats at the 2004 Games in Athens.

“I made the semi by 4/100ths of a second,” he recalls. “I thought I would easily make it through to the final but finished sixth in my heat and qualified last overall. I just had the afternoon to sort my head out.”

The Briton came back that night and qualified for the final from lane eight, edging out Phelps to qualify fastest. The final saw him return return home with bronze, the first British swimming medal since Graeme Smith, Parrry’s team-mate at Stockport Metro, took bronze in the 1500m freestyle at Atlanta in 1996.

Parry backs up the notion that there are relatively few duff swimming sessions at an Olympiad.

“There was only one event that was considered a non-event at the last Olympics and that was Rebecca Adlington in the 800m freestyle where she smashed the world record.”

And what of Parry’s event? There’s no question that Phelps will be overwhelming favourite for a third gold on day three of the meet (ticket code SW008).

“It is his best event and he won it at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. He beat me in the event aged 15 which was outrageous so I fully expect him to win at 2012.”

British Swimming also realise there a number of high-profile athletes with decisions to make with the schedule now set in stone. Those include Hannah Miley, Fran Halsall and Rebecca Adlington, who is considering a four-pronged medal attack.

David Sparkes, British Swimming’s chief executive, says: “Just to make the final of the Olympic Games you have to be close to your very best. To make the final of the world championship is similar but not quite the same.

“There have been athletes over the years who have medal favourites who have subsequently slipped up in the morning. Cruising is not an option at the Games.”

Still need to mull over morning session tickets?

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720. http://www.spyns.com/

Argentina out of London Olympic Games

www.london-olympiad.com

At Spyns we have 5, 7, and 10 day London 2012 adventure available. Our Gold tours include a 5 star hotel suite, dinner at Gordon Ramsay restaurant, and Champagne tour of the London Eye....... If you would like more information, check out www.spyns.com or www.london-olympiad.com
Argentina will not defend their men's Olympic football title in London next year after they were pipped to the two South American qualifying places by Brazil and Uruguay at the weekend.

Brazil, who need the Olympic title to complete a full array of the major footballing prizes, won their third successive South American under-20 title in Peru with a 6-0 victory over Uruguay in their final match.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720. http://www.spyns.com/

New images depict how key London 2012 venues will look during Olympic Games

www.london-olympiad.com

 

Spyns is excited to be releasing tour information shortly. We have a package of 5, 7, and 10 day tours starting from the opening ceremony through to the closing ceremony. All tours include handpicked Hotels in central London with easy access to Olympic Park, as well as added extras like London walking tours, luxury dining, river cruises....... If you would like to join in and be one of your many happy customers, have a get in contact with me through our websites www.spyns.com, and www.london-olympiad.com

London 2012 - along with Populous, Atkins and Drivers Jonas Deloitte - have issued new images showing what Lord's Cricket Ground for archery, the Lee Valley White Water Centre for canoe slalom and Greenwich Park for equestrian and modern pentathlon will look like during the Olympic Games.

The images aim to illustrate the work done to enable more than 120 world class temporary venues to be created for over 20,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes and 10 million ticketed spectators to experience.

James Bulley, the London 2012 Director of Venues and Infrastructure, said: "The London 2012 Games will deliver what no other Games has before in terms of the complexity and scale of the event overlay and temporary structures needed.

"Alongside the absolute commitment to meet the Games requirements, central to our plans have been legacy, sustainability, accessibility and safety.

"Our vision for the London 2012 venues is the integration with London's historic and iconic landmarks alongside our existing world class stadiums and sporting arenas.

"Our combined overlay team are world class and will deliver the technical excellence required to make this a spectacular Games."

The London 2012 Games are unique for their innovative approach to the use of temporary and existing venues both on and off the Olympic Park.

From Horse Guard's Parade for beach volleyball to Wimbledon for tennis, London is being used as the stunning backdrop for events hosted in entirely temporary venues.

Working together to create these sites, and under the direction of London 2012, Populous, Atkins and Drivers Jonas Deloitte have developed all aspects of the venues from the look and feel, the user experience, the delivery of seating, accommodation and landscaping, as well as back of house requirements including power, water and lighting, together bringing an innovative approach to the delivery of London 2012.


Jeff Keas, Principal of Populous, said: "Sport is at the core of the overlay project, but more than that, we have focused on London as the backdrop.

"This means ensuring wherever we can that either the historic buildings at venues like Greenwich Park or Lord's, or the iconic London skyline, remain in sight for spectators whilst creating an intimate atmosphere for the athletes.

Steve Cardwell, Atkins Director and Design Manager, said: "The unique approach taken towards temporary venues for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has presented fantastic opportunities to think differently about the delivery of major sporting venues.

"As a result we have in essence had to go back to first principles, and are proud of the innovative, light touch, and sustainable solutions we have developed with our partners."

Stephen Jepson, Director in Drivers Jonas Deloitte's Sport team, added: "The venues we are project managing at Greenwich Park, Horse Guards Parade, the Mall and Hyde Park are entirely temporary and present an exciting challenge.

"We have spent a great deal of time understanding the site constraints and making sure the way in which each venue is delivered is done sensitively and ensures there is no long term impact.

"This gives us the confidence that it will be delivered - after all we can't change the delivery deadline."

In total, the overlay project for the London 2012 Olympics will include 250,000 temporary seats, 165,000 square metres of tents and 2,500 cabins.

A further 140 kilometres of fencing will be used while 250 kilometres of crowd barriers are set to be in place for the Games.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720. http://www.spyns.com/

Velo Vuelo Velo 8: first look at this $17K titanium wonder bike

www.london-olympiad.com

While on our last Tour de France tour, we stopped in at a bike shop in the Pyrenees to get some brakes adjusted and it took one client all of two minutes to purchase a new $5,000 bike. I know some people love bikes more than others and with a price tag of $17,000 I would love the new Vuelo Velo like a child. At Spyns we offer tours to major worldwide sporting events including Tour de France and the London 2012 Olympics. If you would like more information check out our websites. www.spyns.com and www.london-olympiad.com

Vuelo Velo are a tiny bicycle company based in Sydney, Australia who specialize in custom titanium. Their frames are built by Black Sheep Cycles in Fort Collins, Colorado, and the designs are definitely unique, with a strong emphasis on curved tubes and ultra-short rear ends.

The latest model, the Vuelo 8, continues that trend but adds on a slickly integrated Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 electronic groupset complete with an internal battery setup designed by long-time carbon builder Craig Calfee. Its seat tube is less curved than Vuelo Velo's more radical fixed-gear design but still allows for very short chainstays – at 388mm they're about 20mm shorter than standard.

"A conventional, longer chainstay will be a more sedate ride if all other things are equal," said Vuelo Velo's Marty Renwick. "But this particular bike is built specifically around the notion of lively response. A short rear end feels fantastic climbing, sprinting or carving a tight line in a sharp corner. It's all about heightening your sense of awareness, the connectedness to each moment – infinitesimal control, like an F1 car."

Additional rear-end stiffness comes from the 86mm-wide, press-fit bottom bracket shell, which provides room for widely set chainstays along with a large-diameter down tube. The curved seat tube has an actual exit angle of 69 degrees but an effective one closer to 73 degrees – so while the look is unusual, the fit is conventional.

Gently arcing seatstays and titanium's natural ability to smooth out the road lend a characteristically lively and comfortable ride – metal bikes still have their place in this world, though those requiring the highest level of performance should still look to carbon fiber. Just as intended, the rear end of the Vuelo 8 is surprisingly stiff and there are no issues with wobble or instability even at 72km/h (45mph). 

The front end unfortunately struggles to keep up and is noticeably softer than most carbon bikes and even some aluminum ones. Vuelo Velo specify a fairly generous 44mm-diameter down tube and 35mm top tube but even so, the Vuelo 8 wags a bit when you really stand on it and would benefit from an integrated or tapered head tube, or an even bigger main triangle. We were also disappointed to see low-rent cut vinyl decals on a bike like this.

The ultra high-end build kit of the bike seen here is rife with carbon fiber and includes a custom Dura-Ace Di2 internal wiring kit. Total weight is a fantastic 6.37kg (14.04lb) as pictured. Among the highlights are a custom Di2 battery housed inside the seatpost and a set of Shimano's latest sprint shifters – an extra set of buttons mounted on the drops for faster shifting and no need to move your hands when going full-out.

There are also trick Mad Fiber carbon tubular wheels, a full complement of cockpit components from ENVE Composites, Selle Italia's SLR Teknologika Flow saddle, and a SRM power meter. Additional lightweight bits include a Tune carbon fiber seat collar and bottle cages, Nokon aluminum cable housing and Cane Creek's AER headset.

Vuelo Velo estimated the price for the build as pictured here at over $17,000 USD. It'll be offered as a frame-only for $4400.00 USD, prepare to settle in for a long wait. Quoted lead time is five to six months after drawings are confirmed.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720. www.spyns.com.

2012 Olympics admits aquatics centre is a race against time

www.london-olympiad.com

Spyns has been busy booking Gordon Ramsay restaurants and finding the best suites in London for our 2012 clients. If you would like some information on our tours, email me at henry@london-olympiad.com or check out our website. www.london-olympiad.com

Target end date for construction of the £262m structure has already slipped from April to June this year

The £268m Aquatics centre, which has soared in cost from the £73m originally cited in London's bid book, will contain two 50-metre pools, a 25m diving pool and associated training facilities.

A new National Audit Office report into the 2012 Olympics has underlined the extent to which security costs have risen and warned that timing is "becoming tight" to hand over the aquatics centre to organisers.

But the fifth NAO report into preparations for the Games concludes that preparations are going well overall and that the Olympic Delivery Authority, the body charged with spending £8.1bn of public money constructing the Olympic venues, remains on course to deliver.

The ODA's recently appointed chief executive Dennis Hone has acknowledged that it faced a race against time to hand over the Zaha Hadid-designed aquatics centre to the organising committee by July.

The NAO reports that the target end date for construction of the £262m structure has already slipped from April to June this year "because the design and fabrication of the roof steel, which proved more complex and protracted than envisaged, has affected the rest of the project".

In response to earlier NAO calls to finalise the cost of venue security during Games-time, which was not separately accounted for in earlier versions of the budget, the overall cost has risen.

Although the NAO reports that the Home Office has predicted it will be able to deliver policing for £475m, rather than the £600m originally budgeted for, the £282m allocated to Locog to provide venue security from within the overall £9.3bn public sector funding package has pushed the overall cost £757m.

Although it acknowledges that risks have been reduced as the construction phase of the project nears completion, the NAO warns that the final cost remains "inherently uncertain". Of the original £2.75bn in contingency funding, £974m remains.

"As there can be no guarantee that the remaining contingency will be sufficient to cover further unknown risks to the Games, the GOE should have plans for how it will meet any requirement for extra funding which cannot be met from within the remaining contingency," said the NAO.

The report also calls on the government to carry out work to estimate the net benefits that will accrue to the UK that can directly be attributed to the Games, in order to help it measure progress towards delivering on legacy targets.

"Good progress is being made in the preparations for the 2012 London Games which will begin in 17 months. All construction and infrastructure projects are forecast to be completed on time, albeit in two cases with little room to spare before the deadline for handover to Locog, the Games organiser, and operational planning has improved," said Amyas Morse, head of the NAO.

"However, the final cost of the Games to the taxpayer is inherently uncertain and as the Games near there will be less flexibility to make savings in response to any unforeseen financial pressures."

Lord Coe, the Locog chairman, said he was confident that the 8.8m tickets for the Games due to go on sale on 15 March would sell out. This week, the schedule and pricing details were published for the first time.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720. www.spyns.com.

The schedule of events for the London 2012 Olympic Games has been released.

www.london-olympiad.com

Spyns is excited to see the full 2012 London Olympic schedule released today. We will be running 5, 7, and 10 day tours spanning for the opening ceremony to the closing ceremony. If you would like more information on our luxury packages or sign up and become one of our many excited clients, check out our website www.london-olympiad.com

The first action will be women's football in Cardiff, Glasgow and Coventry on 25 July, two days before the official opening of the Games.

The middle weekend promises to be unmissable, with British trio Jessica Ennis, Christine Ohuruogu and Paula Radcliffe set to be going for gold.

The men's 100m final, with Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt likely to be centre stage, takes place on Sunday, 5 August.

The dates, times, venues and prices for more than 600 sessions of competition across all 26 Olympic sports will be emailed to the 2.2m people who have signed up for information ahead of tickets going on sale on 15 March.

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe described them as the "greatest tickets on earth for the greatest show on earth".

Double Olympic champion Coe said: "This is a really big moment, a huge moment.

"In my own experience as a competitor this is the point that it suddenly becomes very real.

"I remember this point in the build-up to Los Angeles, and suddenly realising I was going to be running seven races in nine days.

"We are now getting to the business end of the project and we know from the number of people who have signed up for ticket information that there is a real hunger from all parts of the country to be there."

After the women's football group games on Wednesday and the men's on Thursday, the opening ceremony of the Games will take place inside the Olympic stadium at 1930 BST on Friday, 27 July.

Mark Cavendish could capture Britain's first gold of the Games in the men's cycling road race the following day.

Attention will turn to the Aquatics Centre on Sunday, 29 July, where swimmer Rebecca Adlington hopes to be defending her gold medal in the women's 400m freestyle.

On Monday, 30 July, swimming legends Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe could be going head-to-head in the men's 200m freestyle, while Tom Daley expects to be competing for his first medal of the Games in the 10m synchronised platform diving final.

Rowing, taking place at Eton Dorney, will also feature heavily in the opening week, with Greg Searle's comeback 20 years after his Barcelona 1992 gold set to be one of the Games' most romantic tales.

Track cycling, dominated by the British at Beijing in 2008, gets underway at the velodrome on Thursday, 2 August with Sir Chris Hoy hoping to lead the hosts to gold in the men's team sprint.

The Olympic Stadium's track and field events begin on the Friday, with Ennis in line to begin her quest for heptathlon gold and finals in the women's 10,000m and the men's shot put.

Saturday, 4 August is already being dubbed as "Super Saturday" with the climax of the heptathlon competition and the women's 100m final taking prime-time slots. The Olympic rowing and swimming competitions will also reach a conclusion.

The following day features an equally mouth-watering array of sport, with Radcliffe and Ohuruogu hoping to be involved in the women's marathon and 400m final respectively, before a potentially electrifying showdown between Bolt and American Tyson Gay in the men's 100m.

Coe added: "We can already start to picture what might happen. There is a recognition now that the men's 100m is a pretty serious moment and we have planned that to be fairly early on the evening of that Sunday.

"The things people remember are head-to-heads and we could potentially have one of the best given that Tyson Gay is going to make this a really tough run for Usain Bolt."

Also on the middle Sunday, British gymnast Louis Smith should be aiming to surpass his Beijing bronze on the pommel horse at the O2 arena, Ben Ainslie could be lining up to add to his three Olympic titles off the coast of Weymouth and the men's single's final will take place at Wimbledon.

Hoy and gymnast Beth Tweddle should be in action on Monday 6 August with Alistair Brownlee expected to be vying for a home gold medal in the men's Hyde Park triathlon the following day.

Canoeist-cum-doctor Tim Brabants, a gold medallist in Beijing, hopes to defend his kayak single 1000m title at Eton Dorney on Wednesday 8 August.

On Thursday, 9 August, Phillips Idowu could be adding an Olympic title to his world and European crowns in the triple jump final, while the women's football final takes place at Wembley.

The men's football final is on the concluding Saturday of the Games when the athletics programme reaches a finale and Daley competes in the individual 10m platform dive.

British boxers Tom Stalker and Bradley Saunders will hope to still be involved when the medals are decided on the final day of the Olympics on Sunday, 12 August

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720. www.spyns.com.

A look at the Eco-friendly Olympic Water Polo Arena

www.london-olympiad.com

Specialised: water polo will have its own

arena on the Olympic Park site 

At Spyns we are busy planning our client’s adventures in the London. We have 5, 7, and 10 day tours available for every budget. Our Gold class tours is our premium package with suites reserved at London’s finest Hotel and it includes dinners with chef including Gordon Ramsey’s. Our Silver package is still extravagant; we have suites at a brand new central located luxury hotel, dinners and London tours. While our Bronze tour is designed for the Olympic goers who is happy to experience London by themselves all the while staying at a luxury hotel on the Thames.

Specialised: water polo will have its own arena on the Olympic Park site 

Hosting: Water Polo
Schedule: Water Polo: 29 July – 12 August
Capacity: 5,000
Fact: The Aquatics Centre and Water Polo Arena will be adjacent to each other in one of the most tightly-packed areas of the Olympic Park.
Test event: planned for 2012
Post games: the arena will be taken down, although it is expected that materials will be reused or recycled.
Transport: Stratford (DLR, London Underground, National Rail) West Ham (London Underground, National Rail)

Possibly the only elite sporting venue in the world to be built from recycled cushions, the water polo arena is a temporary venue located next to the Aquatics Centre in the south-east corner of the Olympic Park. The venue will feature a 37-metre competition pool and warm-up pool.

Designed to complement the look of the Aquatics Centre, the wedge-shaped arena will rise from 12 metres to 25 metres and feature a rippling roof made of recycled PVC cushions inflated with air to provide extra insulation.

It will share some of the Aquatics Centre’s back-of-house facilities such as catering, security and the area for broadcasters.
After the Games, the arena will be taken down. Various parts of the dismantled venue are due to be re-used or relocated elsewhere in the UK

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720. www.spyns.com.

Thought the Olympic Road Race course would be easy? David rides it and finds it’s anything but a walk in the park

www.london-olympiad.com

 

Cooke lands the big one.
Crossing the line after a long sprint to take her
first Olympic medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Spyns offers both London 2012 Summer Games packages and cycling tours to France (including the Tour de France). Spyns former clients will be thrilled to learn London 2012 organisers have unveiled the route for the men's 250-kilometre (156 miles) road race. The race takes place on the opening weekend of the Games, and will start on the Mall outside Buckingham Palace before heading south west towards Surrey Hills. Following the departure, riders will pass through the London boroughs of City of Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham, Wandsworth, Richmond and Kingston in what will be the biggest one-day bike race ever witnessed in Great Britain.David rides the London 2012 Olympic Road Race course

Thought the Olympic course would be easy? David rides it and finds it’s anything but a walk in the park

So what is the route of the London 2012 Olympic road race going to be like? Well, there’s only one way to find out, so with a rough idea of the route before the official announcement today, we (Richard, George and I) cleared a day in our diaries and, with enough food for a day's riding, set out for a recce.

While you can read about the course, and indeed see the route we rode and see some great photos of Team RCUK in action, I just wanted to share some of my thoughts on the course. When it was first revealed that the course would start in London and its featured highlights would consist of Richmond Park and Surrey’s Box Hill, there was plenty of criticism and mocking and no doubt the course will continue to draw much criticism in the run up to the event next July.

Having ridden the course it’s easier to get a real sense of what the racing could be like on the day.

Sure, there are no mountains in Surrey but the course designers have worked around this obvious shortfall to create a course that should provide for an open and exciting race. It favours neither sprinters nor breakaway specialists, with it easy to imagine the race going either way.

Once out of London and south of the M25, the route really comes alive. Into narrow and quiet country lanes the early climbs like Staples Lane will cause some explosive racing, and the roll into Dorking via the A25 is a lumpy old slog. Another factor to consider is the road surface; in general it’s appalling and we noted only a few short sections of sublime new Tarmac. But rather than being a negative and something else to criticise, the road surface if it's not repaired will add to the demanding nature of the route. It’s rough and in places really drags, and there are millions of potholes. We rode the route on steel winter bikes; I can only imagine what a carbon race bike with deep section rims will feel like on these roads. Not nice, I feel the answer is.

Then there's the nine ascents of Box Hill. Not a big climb but taking into consideration the ascent to Headley and the combined 2400m of climbing that the nine laps add up to, all ridden on the same rough and slow roads and extremely narrow in places, and it, I reckon, could be the ideal place for a breakaway. It’s hard to see the bunch controlling proceedings around this repeated section.

And, once the succession of Box Hill loops are over, it's anything but an easy ride to the finish. Here, the route planners really have picked a good route for ensuring that the race potentially causes fireworks in the last 60-odd kilometres.

Once out of Leatherhead it’s generally a downhill and fast route run on wider roads, but there are a few rises to consider, and in places there’s little shelter from the wind. If a group of six or eight riders are still intact along here they’ll need a decent cushion of time over the peloton, as they’ll be really hurting by now.

One thing is for sure, it's going to be one hell of a finish. The route offers easy access all the way through London and around Surrey, with spectacular views around Dorking, Box Hill and Richmond Park in particular – the sight of the peloton roaring over Putney Bridge will be some sight indeed.

How the race will be won is a difficult one to put forth an opinion. As Richard points out, most of the press are pointing at a bunch sprint, but I don’t think that will be the case. I just feel the challenging and tough Box Hill circuit will be too much for the sprinters to stay in contact, and it’ll be tough for a team like HTC-Highroad to control.

Instead, I’m going to put my neck on the line and say that the winner will come from a solo breakaway. From a racing cyclist’s perspective, a breakaway win will be scintillating to watch on roads that I know so well. A rider like Phillipe Gilbert, with his aggressive attacking style that won him the Omloop Het Volk in 2008 could be a prime candidate, the course could really suit his style.

If there’s one thing having ridden the course has taught me, it’s that it’s too easy to judge a course and the possible outcome without having ridden. Only having ridden it can I get a feel for how it really rides, the challenges it’ll offer the pros and how the race could possible pan out. The mainstream might stick to the Mark Cavendish victory song for the next 18 months, but the route is perfectly setup for an open, thrilling, exciting race that no one will forget for a long time.

Spyns is an active travel company based in Whistler, BC (Canada). For more information about Spyns and our package tours to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games, including London Olympics hotels, London 2012 tickets, and summer games VIP access, please visit our websites http://www.london-olympiad.com/ http://www.london2012-tours.com/ and http://www.london-tours-2012.com/ or call us toll-free at 1.888.825.4720. www.spyns.com.