Delivering on the promise

Promise delivered

In life I have one rule*
Never believe anything until you can actually see or touch it.
In cycling, this is a pretty good rule of thumb. Time after time you hear fantastic ideas that are in play or what "such and such a team" have promised you for next season only to have the rug pulled from under you.
Last week the promise of a fully fledged indoor velodrome came to fruition.
Twelve months previous I had stood on the bare concrete basin that would be the track centre. At the time it was more akin to a building site in side a huge metal hanger. Wires hanging, no glass, an abundance of "hi viz" (high visibility) jackets and hard hats were a common sight.
Stepping out of the car and on to the newly finished car park and looking up at the outside of The Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome and NISA (National Indoor Sports Arena) I started to feel like a little kid again. This was a moment in history.
I walked through the plush reception area where I was guided to the track centre.
As I walked up the stairs to where I had stood a year ago I was dumb struck; a dream like status. Everything was were it was meant to be and looked unbelievably new. The hi viz and hard hats had been replaced with seating, sound proofing glass and 250 metres of beautiful Siberian pine. I stood for a few moments surveying what I was looking at.
We had done it.
As I stood on the track side meticulously observing the workmanship I completely forgot I was in Glasgow for a moment. Then I was quickly snapped back to reality by a voice coming from the stands "Haw mate, is the guy gonna get back up on his wee automated bike thing again?"

Thump, it hit me!

Twenty or so years of looking at every weather forecast praying for no rain for Meadowbank track league was gone, to be replaced with a brand new shiny world class facility.

Our promise had finally been delivered.

*I do have another couple of rules in life but this one works