Picture the scene if you will… It’s Thursday evening, you arrive home from work, shower, eat, turn on the laptop, catch up on some emails and there in your inbox, completely out of the blue, is an invitation from someone you have never heard of before (Alice) inviting you to a media event (the details of which are a bit sketchy) involving Jaguar and Team Sky, that is taking place the following day in London… I have to say that my immediate reaction was that I was the victim of a sophisticated wind-up..!
Fast forward 12 hours… I have confirmed that it is a genuine invitation, it does involve Team Sky, Mark Cavendish and Juan Antonio Flecha will be present and yes the Team Sky Fans website (me) have been invited… All that remains now is to convince the boss that I need a day off at short notice and by 11 o’clock I’m on the M20 heading for London…
Arriving at the impressive Syon Park, presumably not too far from Sky’s Middlesex HQ, I was directed to the media suite where the assembled press were waiting and the body of a car currently shrouded by a cover took centre stage. I saw Juan Antonio Flecha standing to the right of the car and shortly after I entered the room Cav arrived.
The purpose of the event was to announce a new three-year global partnership between Jaguar Cars and Team Sky, which just happened to coincide with the launch of the new Jaguar XF Sportbrake, first seen at the Geneva motor show in March.
After introductions by Geoff Cousins, Jaguar Director of Sponsorships (what a great job he’s got – I want it!), Cav and Flecha unveiled the vehicle and yes, I have to say, it looked a beast…
As Geoff pointed out, the team car at a race is actually the ‘nerve centre’ of the team out on the road, where all vital strategic and split second tactical decisions are made, not to mention the £100,000 of cutting-edge cycling equipment that is probably carried on the roof. It is vital therefore that the vehicle delivers reliability, performance, space and practicality, something that the XF Sportbrake would appear to provide in spades…
Apparently the vehicle, which we are likely to see for the first time at this years Tour de France, has an Adaptive Dynamics System which continuously monitors the suspension and can adjust damping rates accordingly up to 500 times a second – handy no doubt for Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and the other early season races. Hopefully, RadioShack will keep out of the way next year..!
Cav and Flecha were then asked a few generic questions and I took a few photographs:
After the general presentation had ended the event was broken down and dependant upon which type of media you represented you were given a slot where you could access Mark, Flecha or the car. I recognised a few ‘hacks’ from my limited press accreditation experiences at last years Tour of Britain and the Olympic Test Event and I joined ProCycling, Cycling News, Road Cycling UK and others at Flecha’s Q&A session.
I have to say Juan Antonio Flecha is, in my view, an absolute legend and as a cycling fan one of my favourite riders. Having met him and spent the best part of an hour in his company today I can also say, with a degree of authority, that he appears to be a really nice man as well. The full Flecha interview can be found on the team sky fans site here and I even plucked up the courage to ask a couple of questions…
Once Flecha’s interview had concluded the day was pretty much done. Unfortunately I did not get an opportunity to speak to Mark. Hopefully as the Team Sky Fans website continues to improve, and achieve recognition as a responsible reporting outlet, more media opportunities will present themselves in the future.
As I left the hotel I took another photo of the XF Sportbrake (@sportbrake on Twitter) and I have to agree with Dave Brailsford who said, “…the car provides the perfect environment from which to direct race operations when we’re on the road. The fact that it looks stunning too will make it the stand out car behind the peloton”
It certainly will Dave… More information can be found via Jaguar’s website – www.jaguar.com
What a lucky so-and-so you are, Neil!!
Bet you’re glad you checked your emails that night, and what an understanding boss!!
Can’t wait to see the XF on the Tour – a superb marketing opportunity for Jaguar – Skoda did pretty well out of last year’s advert. Surprised you managed to wangle the day off at such short notice though Neil!