Gary is also speaking from experience,having done the same job at Barnard Castle.
I can't speak of other nationalities, obviously, but my over riding memory of being on the bike stand at Barnard Castle, was this: I never ever saw the experienced AUkers, [not that I know them all, but I now a few]. Never saw 'em. Why was that? Well....go figure as those over the water would say.
Not that I minded, as volunteers we're there to do what needs to be done, and I've no complaints whatsoever with all that, but [generally speaking, and sometimes crap happens] it was very, very noticable that those riders who knew all about this kind of thing, were nowhere to be seen when it came to the bike stand.
I think my most memorable instance at BC was a guy[looked a bit like Worzel Gummidge] who was riding some beaten up kind of 14 speed reck that looked like it had been pulled out of a skip [and I should know what they look like, cause I've had a few myself] who appeared at the bike stand gesturing about this that and the other, but I could not make head nor tale of what he wanted to express at first. Not speaking his particular version of what sounded like an East European language, we eventually communicated that the gears weren't working properly. Ok, fine, go my advice was, go have a cup of tea and some food and I'll see what I can do. So....quick inspection saw a clapped out old relic with a sadly frayed rear shifter cable and gears that were all over the place. So...new [very cheap] cable, bit of fiddling about and things sooner or later looking much better. So, chap returns, gets on bike rides round the car park, come back, gives me a massive thumbs up and the biggest, beaming smile you've seen since the revolution, and off he went into the night. And you kind of think......what one earth is going on here? But I suppose that's the good thing about LEL and maybe the bad thing too! He made it though