TDO downsizes

TDO downsizes
After eight frantic years at the Velodrome in Manchester, Track Development Officer Andrea Ingram is hanging up her whistle and making a big career move and lifestyle change by moving up to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

“It’s been great fun at the Velodrome – most of the time – and I have met some lovely people but time moves on and my partner Eve and I have decided we need a change of lifestyle to something better and a more relaxed way of life in a beautiful place. For the last five years I have been suffering from Chronic Fatigue and it sometimes has been a bit of a struggle – although the Velodrome have been very supportive.

Having worked coaching all sorts of people on bikes and tandems, introduced thousands of new kids and adults onto boards, I feel that I have done my bit. The highlights for me have been my partner Eve winning a World Masters Pursuit title last year plus Aileen McGlynn and Ellen Hunter taking Gold in Athens on the tandem – which was nice as Ellen came through the Women’s Track Cycling Days originally and is my Yasumitsu-Schlapp club-mate. Aileen has mostly stayed with us at home when she comes down for training at the Velodrome and I was heavily involved in coaching and getting the equipment for them for the Paralympics back then. The low-point was perhaps when Ellen broke her back.

It’s going to be a big change from the hustle and bustle of life at the Velodrome with hundreds of people to speak to every day to living on a remote island in a small settlement, but I hope to stay involved with cycling in some way – although not as a full-time job. The Outer Hebrides is the sort of place that runs at a slower pace and I’m hoping to have time to develop my photography – my new darkroom is almost ready to use – as well as taking on new challenges. Exciting as track cycling is, there’s only so much of people riding round in circles on a bit of wood that you can take every day before beginning to feel a bit constrained in life – and I’m not commenting on the people still there either – honest!.

I shall miss all the characters at the Velodrome, the Velodrome and BC staff, The Fishwife, WCPP Mafia ‘boss’ Shane Sutton bending my ear [again] over something – making me an offer I can’t understand, chatting with Craig, Chris, Victoria or some other multi-medalled super-star. But most of all I shall miss the punters; the kids from the schools around the UK, the schools tournaments, the ‘Buena Vista Social club’ on the Tuesday lunchtime Taster, the SQT crowd, the Vets sessions, the ‘Worst Jersey in the World’ competitions, those little kids I knew as mites who now have world titles and are winning big races round the world – like Christian Light and Ben Swift, Yasumitsu-Schlapp/Vital, Michael Hutchinson – despite the fact that I drink black coffee and he wrote I drank white in his book [and just maybe I shall write about this period from MY point of view], the Japanese Keirin bods and other foreign riders I have had the pleasure of making friends with – basically everyone.

I shouldn’t forget my club – Yasumitsu-Schlapp/Vital which was started by Graham Wilman and myself and which originally comprised of a bunch of misfits and novices but over the years has won shed-loads of medals at National and World Level – including Ellen & Paul Hunter & Ian Sharpe’s Gold and Silver and Bronzes in Athens. I can’t remember all of the medals and championships we have won but as well as the Hunters and Eve, Jon Norfolk has a load, Ian ‘Gorgeous’ George too – along with Glynis Francis, Gwyn Carless, Angela Undrell, Joby my nephew, Graham Wilman, Carine vanSchie, Denise Hampson, Joanne Wilman, Anthony Kappes [world champ and record holder], James Griffin, D Smith Esq, Dave Robson etc etc. Still a brill group of riders with new RunnerBoyGill taking the headlines at the moment. I’ll still be in the club – but ‘resting’.

Thanks for all the fun I have had, thanks for talking to me and thanks for letting me be part of your lives. And if you happen to be passing by, do call in for a chat in North Tolsta, Isle of Lewis”