The Politics of the Playground

by wjohngalloway

I logged on to Twitter as usual this morning, I keep a search bar for @velocast open since there are conversations there that I might want to be involved in (and I’m nosey). Until the account was deleted recently I also kept a Flammecast search bar open so I could keep engaged with listeners to the show I’d helped build.

So, imagine my surprise when I saw this:

As far as I was concerned Derek had made it abundantly clear that he wanted nothing to do with the cycling world other than enjoying riding his bike and helping with the local scene. This tweet was completely out of the blue.

As recently as the 5th of September I tweeted

and received this reply (no screenshot since the account is deleted but I can go through my backups if necessary)

                                                                               “It may need me but I have no need of it”

Simply put, I’m baffled.

The Flammecast came to an end because it was taking a lot of my time and I felt fairly unwell at that point. To be honest though I’d been talking about finishing for a couple of months because Derek and I were too similar and I felt there was no balance to the show. It was a great show, and I’m hugely proud of it but it was on the way to making me perpetually cynical about the sport I love. Derek and I share a Celtic pessimism that wasn’t going to end well.

Since the show ended I have linked to the Flammecast site often, retweeted Derek’s tweets and urged him to continue to let his voice be heard.

Scott has another, potentially very significant, cycling project on the go that he invited Derek to be part of. Derek does not want a role in that.

So, we’re left with accusations of back stabbing and folk I’ve conversed with for a long time on Twitter calling us cunts. Well, so much for community eh?

As Derek’s tweet makes clear there’s stuff afoot in The Velocast world, parts of which will genuinely move the goalposts for cycling podcasting. Why now? Well, on a personal level I’m getting much better at managing the fatigue and I’m on a preventative pain control regimen for my hip as opposed to a reactive one.

Simply put, I feel much better.

A lot of it is down to Scott as well, he’s working from home so is able to really get stuck in, I recently told him I felt guilty that he was doing too much of the groundwork.

So, I’m surprised and disappointed, but this isn’t about wee boys joining each other’s gangs in the playground. I’m trying to make a living here.

If Derek feels hard done by and agrees I’ll happily publish all emails, tweets and Google Docs relating to The Flammecast from start to finish including the later ones when Scott was part of the conversation. I’ll publish all Skype conversations that I have. I’ll urge @UCI_Overlord and @Cycletard to do the same since they were a big part of the Flammecast circle. If he feels that’ll show he’s been stabbed in the back let’s do it.

What I’d rather do though is have fond memories of a show I was proud to be part of.

If you felt aggrieved mate why didn’t you just phone or email?