Outside London, Olympics show off iconic England - The Guardian
DAVID STRINGER
Associated Press= HAMPTON COURT, England (AP) — Medieval cottages crowned with thatched roofs. King Henry VIII's storied riverside palace. A wind-swept naval fort that helped to defend Britain's coastline during World War II.
Away from the bustle of London's Olympic stadium, the Summer Games will also showcase the country's postcard perfect rural charms, and highlight centuries of its history.
While it was Britain's vibrant capital that won the right to host the 2012 Games, events aren't confined to London. Spectators will flock to Wales and Scotland, to verdant hills in southern England, and even to a working farm — where rare breed sheep must make way for Olympic cyclists.
"It might be called London 2012, but really it's a countrywide event. There are places right across the country which are getting a chance to taste the Olympics," said Beverley Egan, of the Salvation Army charity, which owns a swath of eastern England countryside where the Olympic mountain bike competition will take place.
Egan, the organization's director of community services, lives close to the site, the 950-acre Hadleigh Farm, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of the London stadium, where cattle graze amid the ruins of a 700-year-old castle.
Sports fans can head to 10 venues outside Britain's capital. Canoeists will slalom through bubbling rapids at Lee Valley White Water Center just beyond London's northern outskirts, while rowing crews will compete on a lake at Eton Dorney, set inside a tranquil 400-acre park about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of the capital.
On England's southern coast, visitors will watch sailing events at Nothe Fort — a 19th century naval defense post. During World War II, troops fired the fort's heavy guns in warning on two suspicious ships, but later found the vessels were carrying refugees fleeing the Channel Islands, the only corner of Britain to come under Nazi occupation.
Quaint images of rolling hills will provide a quintessentially British backdrop to events beamed around the world. However lovely, they are also critical to the country's plans for capitalizing on the Olympics, which have cost Britain 9.3 billion pounds ($14.6 billion) to stage. Ministers hope prospective visitors will be captivated as they see historic landscapes and landmarks and book a vacation. They also hope potential investors can be wooed.
Competitors in road cycling races will travel into England's picturesque countryside as they compete for gold medals. Their route — 156 miles (250 kilometers) for men, 87 miles (140 kilometers) for women — begins outside Queen Elizabeth II's Buckingham Palace home, but quickly swaps London streets for tree-fringed country lanes.
Their path winds through fields of grazing deer in Richmond Park, bringing the Olympics into the southern England county of Surrey and to the historic Hampton Court Palace.
Home to Henry VIII from the mid-1500s, the palace sits at the heart of his scandalous personal life. It was here that he and his aides plotted England's break with the Roman Catholic church to allow the king to divorce. The king married two of his six wives here, too. Two were accused of adultery and beheaded.
Road race cyclists will flash by, headed toward the spine of chalk hills known as the North Downs — but competitors in time trial events will start and finish their races inside the palace grounds, where William Shakespeare and his company of actors once performed for King James I.
During the road race, athletes will continue past the ruins of the 12th Century Newark Priory, on through woodland copses shaded by canopies of trees and down heart-stopping, twisting slopes.
Alan Flaherty, a highway engineer at Surrey County Council and a road cycling fanatic since he first visited the Tour de France in 2004, helped to devise the course once organizers chose to take the event outside London.
Olympic authorities had planned for the route to snake through the capital, but the sport's governing body wanted a course that would better challenge riders and show off more iconic British views.
Flaherty was tapped to share some of his own favored paths. "I literally went out with my rucksack, a camera and a pen and paper and looked at the whole route and then reported back," he said.
The final course offers a checklist of famous British images — from Westminster Abbey to sheep-filled meadows — and some competitors have already interrupted training rides with Flaherty to snap pictures with their smartphones.
"It does manage to go past all the main tourist sites in London, starting and finishing on The Mall, and also takes in a huge amount of Surrey," Flaherty said. "It's a real contrast — all the countryside shows another element of Great Britain to the rest of the world."
Spectators, though not the riders who will speed by, can admire a vision of English nostalgia nestled along the course at Shere, an unspoiled village with a 12th century church, tea house, gently gurgling stream and cluster of thatched roofed cottages.
Nearby at Box Hill, a favorite southern England picnic spot and vantage point, competitors face a grueling ascent up the aptly named Zig Zag Road, an energy-sapping climb which men will complete nine times and women twice. The summit will host about 15,000 spectators, while tens of thousands more are expected to pack along the remainder of the course.
Flaherty said that since he helped to finalize the route scores of enthusiasts have taken to the course with their own bikes — meaning he must find new paths for his own peaceful weekend cycle rides.
"I've been cycling around here for about 25 years and one of the things I liked is that it's always really quiet," Flaherty said, ruefully. "Then I got involved with the Olympics and now there are hundreds of people out on the route every weekend. The lesson is to be careful what you wish for."
London 2012 Olympics: David Beckham set for inclusion in Stuart Pearce's Team GB football squad for Games - Daily Telegraph
There are still over one million football tickets up for sale, with interest slowing down to the rate of just 150,000 sales over the last month. Beckham's inclusion in the tournament would certainly drive interest.
Last month Beckham fiercely defended his career record and insisted his involvement with Team GB would be on merit and not because of his fame.
"I have never said it before but that suggestion has always felt a but disrespectful," said Beckham.
"Whenever I have been asked about shirt sales or filling stadiums it has always felt it is a bit disrespectful. Throughout my career I have been pretty successful, I’ve played for some pretty big teams, represented my country quite a few times, and played for managers without sentiment.
“When you play for Sir Alex Ferguson, Fabio Capello, Sven Goran Eriksson or the manager that I have played under, they don’t pick players because they want to fill a stadium or particularly to sell shirts.
“I have always found it an honour that people have wanted to buy my shirt and an honour that fans turn up to watch the team I am playing in. I have always found that a huge honour.
“But no, I don’t want to be picked for shirt sales or as a stadium-filler, I want to be picked for what I can bring to the team. That has been the case throughout my career and I don’t want that to change.”
Team GB play a friendly against Brazil at Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium on July 20 before taking on Senegal, UAE and Uruguay in Group A at the Games.
London hotels persist with Olympian price hikes - Daily Telegraph
This week JacTravel, which provides wholesale accommodation for inbound tour operators, said its London bookings were down by 35 per cent during July and 30 per cent during August, compared with the same months last year. By contrast, it said that bookings for summer holidays to Barcelona and Berlin had grown by more than 100 per cent.
JacTravel found that some four-star London hotels were charging up to £415 per night for stays during the Games, nearly four times more than usual.
A second hotel booking website, Hotels.com, found that the average price for a room during the Olympics had fallen slightly by five per cent since March, to £202. However, this is still 93 per cent more expensive than the same period last year.
A spokesman for Hotels.com said that some cheaper rooms could still be found if travellers were willing to look to outlying districts.
Our Cars: Vauxhall Ampera - June - News - What Car?
Week ending June 8
Mileage 5030
Driven this week: 180 miles
My brother-in-law is a dyed-in-the-wool petrolhead. The list of cars he's owned includes a Fiat Barchetta, Toyota Celica and VW Golf GTI. His current car is a 1996 Mercedes E240. He thinks electric cars are just a fad.
However, that changed after a half-hour passenger ride in our Vauxhall Ampera.
He liked the instant acceleration, the refinement, and was pleasantly surprised by the fit and finish of the Vauxhall. The range-extending petrol engine wiped out any concerns he had about electric cars and their range.
This total change of mindset bodes well for Vauxhall if it can convince enough people to at least test drive such cars.
I'm not sure that my brother-in-law's next car – or even the one after that – will be an electric car, but at least the acorn that one day he could own one has been planted in his mind.
What we didn't appreciate was the decidedly non-futuristic recharging mechanism. When the car has finished recharging, your hands get covered in dirt and crud as you wind-up the power lead. Some kind of retractable lead, such as that in a vacuum cleaner would be more user friendly, but Vauxhall says the lead can't be coiled when the car is being charged because it will get too hot.
Iain.Reid@whatcar.com
Week ending June 1
Mileage 4850
Driven this week: 100 miles
Now that the fun of having a new car is beginning to wear off, I've started to notice a few issues with our Vauxhall Ampera. It's great to drive through town – there's nothing quite like the smoothness you get from electric motors – and you get just as much attention as you do in, say, a Range Rover Evoque, but there are a couple niggles.
The first is that the incredibly low front diffuser scrapes on every speed bump. Bearing in mind that the car is badged a Vauxhall and, by virtue of its electric powertrain, destined for a considerable amount of town use, it's frustrating that it doesn't seem to have been tested in London, a city full of speed bumps.
The second thing I'm surprised about is that, although there's a fully functional Bluetooth phone connection, there's no Bluetooth audio to allow you to play music from your phone without plugging it in. In any other car, you wouldn't give it much consideration, but in the top-spec version of what would appear to be the UK's most technologically advanced car it's a strange omission.
Ed.Keohane@whatcar.com
London 2012: Selection 'a fairytale' for Mohamed Sbihi - BBC News
Mohamed Sbihi has described his selection in the men's eight boat for the London Olympics as "a dream".
The 24-year-old took up the sport nine years ago after being discovered through a talent identification scheme while at school in Surbiton.
He told BBC London 94.9: "An opportunity has become a dream and the dream has started to become a reality.
"I feel very fortunate. It's almost like a fairytale. If I hadn't gone into school that day, I wouldn't be here."
The Molesey Boat Club member was identified after British Rowing's World Class Start programme visited Hollyfield School in south west London.
"They wanted all the tall kids in the year to go to a special PE lesson," Sbihi added.
"I didn't really want to go because I wanted to play football but my PE teacher pulled me back and told me that as I was the tallest guy in the year, I had to go.
"Before I knew it, I was in the top four out of 10,000 kids who had been tested in our area. I didn't like it to start with but then it slowly hooked me.
"I feel honoured and proud to wear the GB flag. I have to thank everyone who has been involved in my development."
London 2012: Omega revels in its official timekeeper role - Financial Times
June 8, 2012 3:03 pm
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