Tokyo 2020 Olympic Road Race

Like millions of people in Japan I was also super excited when Tokyo was declared as the host city of 2020 Olympics. Watching the Olympics event live was always at the top of my wish list. Yesterday, 24th July was the day I got my first taste of the Olympics, the world’s best and grandest sporting event. At the lake Yamanaka I was able to watch the world’s top cyclists competing with each other, my long held wish finally realized.

However, of course it came with difficulties and disappointments along the way. The biggest difficulty of course was COVID-19, the pandemic that brought the world to its knees. A couple of weeks prior to the opening ceremony, Tokyo saw a surge in the number of C19 infections. The Japan Olympics committee had to take the decision to conduct the games without any spectators. With that, my hope to watch an Olympic event live also went for a toss.

However, there is something different in the values that we have in Colt and one of the values say “We always find a better way”.

With this in mind, my brain started working extra to find a way to watch the Olympics event live. As all indoor events were out of the equation, my focus shifted to the outdoor events. Being a running enthusiast and a rider myself, the marathon and cycling road race events were my top options. The marathon was going to take place in Sapporo which is a 2 hours flight. In normal circumstances I would have loved to go there. But with “Social distancing” as the mantra of current times, I had to wave a sayonara to the marathon. So I zeroed down on the cycling event. The Olympic cycling course is 238km long. Depending on where on the 238km long course you wish to watch it and where you live in Tokyo, there were other points to consider or to overcome. In general there were restrictions announced on traffic in Tokyo from 7am to 10pm. Living on the opposite side of Tokyo to the start of the road race, I made the decision to leave home at 5 AM, drive and reach lake Yamanaka before the traffic restrictions came into effect. Still, I wasn’t comfortable going alone the full 150 kilometers, so my brother in law Shailesh Date agreed to join in. As photography is one of his hobbies, his long standing wish of taking photos of top class riders in action would also be realized.

With great enthusiasm and a good amount of planning, we reached lake Yamanaka in time. Found a nice spot with a bit of curve road in sight to watch the action live. Waited there for couple of hours. Around 13:30 lot of support vehicles zoomed past us and few minutes later a huge peloton of 100 plus riders came in the sight. A helicopter too showed up hovering over the lake Yamanaka perhaps filming the great action for the benefit of viewers glued to their television/smart-phones/tablets all over the world. Within few seconds the peloton rode in front of us. Just for the few seconds! Literally!! But that made my day!!!

Respect to the authorities, thousands of volunteers and everyone who is involved in conducting Tokyo2020 Olympics in the pandemic. I have no doubt this event is far more important to the athletes around the world who give their prime time to the sport of their choice. Unlike other professions where the average length of active professional life is 35-40years, athletes may only have an average 10years. Missing on one Olympic event could be a huge setback to them. 

Therefore, highest appreciation to everyone involved in finding a better way in making Tokyo2020 Olympics a reality, despite of very very difficult times. 

(Photo credits Shailesh Date)