An accelerator physicist at a particle accelerator, a lawyer dealing with criminal cases, a waiter at a police rehabilitation centre, and an engineer working on flood risk management; These are the various hats worn by the cyclists of the Schils Doltcini Racing Team. Taking part in the Union Cycliste Internationale 2.2 Pune Grand Tour event, the UK-based team boasts an impressive resume.
“I think our team is probably one of the only ones where we all have jobs,” says Eugene Cross, the lawyer. His teammate Carl Jolly works on the ISIS neutron and muon source, a government-funded particle accelerator in Oxfordshire, UK. He completed his degrees in physics at the University of Bristol and is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Oxford, alongside his work and cycling.
ISIS’s neutron and muon source is a proton particle accelerator, which is used to eventually generate intense beams of subatomic particles called neutrons and muons. The result is a giant microscope.
“So, it’s like getting an X-ray of your leg. But instead of seeing bones with X-rays, with neutrons, you see the positions of atoms in a solid or other material. And that’s very useful for things like designing new batteries,” explains Jolly. His workplace, like that of all his colleagues, offers him generous leave and flexible work schedules so he can prepare for his cycling career.
Stage 4 of the Pune Grand Tour began from Balewadi on Thursday. (Express photo by Pavan Khengre)
Eugene himself began working as a lawyer a couple of years ago after graduating in law, moving on from his original choice of mechanical engineering. Describing how he handles work in his demanding profession, he says: “If I’m defending someone and they decide to plead guilty on the morning of the trial, well, I can be home at lunchtime and I can go train on my bike. If it’s a busy week, I have to accept that I’m not going to train as much that week. But the advantage of being self-employed is that I can take as much vacation as I want.”
Although he works on his own, he is part of a group of lawyers who cover his work when he travels to distant tournaments such as the Pune Great Tour.
His teammate Archie Cross works as a civil engineer at a company called Atkins. He works in the area of flood defenses and flood risk management. The company has offices in Pune and Bengaluru Additionally, Archie works with his colleagues in Bengaluru on a daily basis. “I did civil engineering in Sheffield, BSc and MSc. And then I moved to Bristol to do the work. And that’s where I met GAL and Charlie. So the team was formed from people from Bristol,” Archie said.
His teammate Matthew Ellmore, 20, works as a waiter at a police treatment center, which provides rehabilitation services for injured police personnel. He says: “I’m very good at cycling. They understand it perfectly. I have favorable shifts, I can train during the day and then work at night.”
Also on the team, Stevan Kervadec has a master’s degree in Physical Training and Charlie Lacaille has a master’s degree in Chemistry. Team members say they are proud to break the myth that athletes cannot compete in high-level cycling events unless they pursue the sport full-time and give up their other passions.
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