Dear Reader - Lack of realism on UCI cycling + mother of all storms

Speaking purely for myself, last year’s UCI cycling championships were a mostly very enjoyable experience.

While Harrogate played host to this global sporting tournament for the best or worst part of a fortnight, you be the judge, the town centre was amazingly quiet which, in at least one way for me, was good.

Traders in the town centre may have been suffering from surprisingly less footfall than when the town isn’t hosting such a big event but my drive to work was peaceful and quick.

Now, obviously, this was no real cause for celebration.

The reason for many of the shops having a miserable time was the same as my easy ride - fear of disruption and road closures meant many of Harrogate’s own residents had stayed away.

The other reason it was so easy to get into town from the Empress roundabout side of Harrogate was there weren’t actually that many roads in the town centre which were closed.

Yes, that came as a surprise to me, too.

Now that the dust has settled on the UCI Road World Championships, if not the mud on the Stray where the fan zone was, two detailed assessments have now been published about the event’s benefits and costs.

In different ways, both reports say a lot about those nine controversial days last September.

What they don’t analyse is the lack of realism from all sides in the build-up to the cycling circus arriving in town.

That to me seems a big factor in where we are now in the lingering debate on the subject.

PM Boris 'backs' Harrogate rail improvements

The one thing you can say about this week’s nasty turn of weather is at least it’s proper winter.

My minor jest the other week about setting off on foot in the two and a half miles to work like an explorer in the South Pole has almost turned into a cold, hard fact.

That’s not to trivialise the impact of Storm Ciara.

For the weather is no laughing matter if you live in Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd in the Calder Valley when your street is flooded and your house several feet under water.

With Storm Dennis now on its way, too, how must those people living in waterlogged Pateley Bridge be feeling right now or the owners of the Marigold cafe on the Waterside in Knaresborough who had to clear out the water from their business last weekend?

I’ve been lucky enough never to have had to go through anything like that.

I did once find myself driving across the Deep South of the USA, however.

For two days no matter what state line I crossed in my small blue hire car on the long, flat journey from El Paso on the Mexican border to Montgomery, Alabama the mother of all storms was waiting for me.

The giant forks of lightning on the distant horizon were beautiful in a way but when the rain hit I feared for my life.

At one point I wound the window down as I was driving and stuck my head out to see if it might improve my vision.

I couldn’t make out a single thing except water.

It was like standing under a power shower the size of Texas which, in effect, is what it was.

New six-week road closure for Harrogate area plagued by house building