JEDDAH, 23 December 2003 — After a grueling four-week tour of the Kingdom, a British mountain bike display team returned home last night.
“It’s been an amazing experience overall,” said Jeremy Avery, the oldest member of the team. He arrived with the team in Jeddah with his knowledge of Saudi Arabia largely derived from TV and schoolbooks. “I thought the cities particularly would be less developed. The sheer number of buildings and shops was a surprise,” he said.
During the tour, the team met with an enthusiastic reception wherever they went. The east coast crowds were far more demonstrative than the ones encountered in Jeddah.
“We were rushed at during our last performance,” said Simon Sagar, the youngest team member. “It was actually quite worrying until we realized that they were just enthusiastic.” The team managers had to extract the team and get them into the vehicles quickly.
Their performances sometimes attracted crowds of young people who proved to be less well-mannered. On three of the nights, there were groups of men in their late teens and early 20s who threw both insults and empty drinks cans. At one performance they grabbed arms and even kicked the rear wheels of the bikes during the demonstrations.
“It didn’t seem overly aggressive, more as if they were showing off to each other and having a ‘good time,’” Jeremy said.
A high point of the tour was a visit to the British Embassy in Riyadh, which houses several keen mountain bikers. A very senior British diplomat joined in the fun of a demonstration at the embassy by lying on the floor while the team jumped their bikes over him. “I somehow didn’t expect that he would get into the fun that much,” Simon said.
Tired after working in strenuous demonstrations and taking their show around the Kingdom, the team left with a host of memories and some regrets.
“They have been incredible,” said Farhan Hassan of PepsiCo who sponsored the tour. “Great ambassadors for the sport and totally committed to making the tour a success. As far as we are concerned, they are welcome back any time.”
“I wish we had more time to explore,” said Simon. “There is so much more we heard of but didn’t have time to see and we have so many questions to answer.”
Jeremy concurred. “Overall it was an amazing, incredibly hospitable and very significant experience,” he said. “I go away much better informed and much more skeptical about the way that the Kingdom — indeed cultures outside Europe — are presented in the media.”
