Page 22 - WMPF Federation Aug-Sept 2018flip_Neat

Police Unity Tour

A personal view

By Stu Collins
West Midlands Police officer and avid road cyclist Stu Collins took part in
he venue, the sights, the experience the Police Unity Tour (PUT), the annual 180-mile cycle ride completed by
and the people make the arrival of policing teams around the country to raise funds for Care of Police Survivors
Tthe Police Unity Tour and the Care of (COPS).
Police Survivors (COPS) memorial service an Stu is part of the West Midlands Chapter of the tour and, along with
incredibly moving morning for me. all the PUT cyclists, wore a wristband honouring a fallen police officer in
It’s that point when we ride into the his case PC James Davies of Worcestershire Constabulary who was killed
arboretum that it hit me last year, and it was arresting a theft suspect in 1885.
the same again this year. What resonates Stu explains: “Representing him has personal meaning as I previously
with me is that the Unity Tour is very much policed the same beat he did 130 years before me and I grew up, lived and
about selflessness from a rider’s point of still ride in the same area.”
view, and that selflessness is such huge The Force was also represented by recently retired Chief Inspector Kerry
aspect in the sport of road cycling itself. Blakeman who rode for his father, PC Kerim Blakeman, and Sean Walker,
By riding together, shielding each a police staff member, riding for his father, PC Mac Walker. Gill Wall, a
other from the wind, sharing the effort, member of police staff from Lloyd House, formed part of the seven-strong
working at the front of the group, pushing support team.
and supporting each other physically and In addition, officers from other forces in the chapter, which is made up
mentally, sharing the mutual suffering, using of 29 riders, rode for fallen West Midlands Police PCs Michael Chapman,
all your strength and effort to help someone Anthony Salt and Deborah Harman-Burton.
else succeed, the peloton achieves greater
things. You give your effort for the sake of
others and the greater good. That mutual to cycling as tyres and pedals themselves)
suffering and sacrifice, and the camaraderie and taking on water, we were back out and
and closeness that comes from it, is heading north which put the wind behind us.
something I love about the sport. It struck The little bit of easing out, the combination
me how that ties in with riding the Unity of coffee-stop-legs and those early climbs
Tour. was soon forgotten as we passed through
We each ride the tour bearing the name easy B roads and we swung off up a narrow
of a fallen officer, and on riding into the lane to hit the bottom of the first real climb
arboretum, you look into the faces of some of the day, The Goggin.
of the loved ones of these people, see the I’d ridden the harsher of the two roads
memorials to them - some of them known up it on the recce out there so had chose
personally to us, some of them killed during this one to keep things a little kinder. It’s still
our own service and some whose names a tough but manageable climb - narrow,
we’ve seen on rolls of honour before. a bit of gravel and a few potholes, but the
We see these people and we see and gradient stays steady and you can work your
hear about what Care of Police Survivors way up it. Until the last 200 metres. The last
does for them, how their memory is kept up Stu Collins on Day 3, riding to the 200 metres is steep. Steep and narrow and
and how the people left behind are affected. arboretum. gravel and pot-holed.
I think it must be impossible for any of us as just about managed to visit all four force It was here we heard how one of the
serving officers to not then imagine if that areas that the chapter represents and then I team had a little get-down on the climb,
was us and our loved ones. It’s that which think we managed to get nearly every kind of but having known it was coming, had the
sticks with me and it works in two ways. weather over the three days to top it off. presence of mind to choose his landing and
We spend three days riding together, Day 1 was a 168km/104-mile route went for the softer option of falling into the
putting our efforts in to see us through around from Worcester to Telford. After a hedge rather than hitting the gravel and
the tour as a group and get everyone to short send-off service at Hindlip and a steady taking a bit of road rash. Fortunately, both
the finish at the arboretum; but more roll-out through Worcester city centre, we he and his bike came off unscathed and we
importantly, we’re not riding for ourselves were quickly into the rolling lanes heading were able to crack on and make it through
in any way at all. We’re each riding for that out through the orchards and hopyards of to our second feed stop at Bishops Castle,
officer whose name we carry round for those Herefordshire. It’s fair to say that some of where it was probably a good thing that we
three days, for their families. those lanes are more ‘rolling’ than others and let everyone take a little longer to get some
As for the actual ride and the three days a couple of short, steep ramps got the legs food in and get the legs back together as the
itself, it kind of had everything. I’d been very warmed up and the blood pumping to say narrow road back out of the town centre all
grateful to be asked to plan the route this the least. The first feed stop at Leominster of a sudden rears up.
year, and it took in every kind of scene, road ‘nick’ was welcomed by everyone. We were past that and on our way
and area that we could have ridden in. We After a quick coffee (almost as essential quickly enough, into the beautiful Shropshire

22 federation August/September 2018 www.polfed.org/westmids