THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Wednesday's Mailbag: Money v. fun
The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside Communications, Inc.
T-Mobile’s departure regrettable, understandable
Editor:
All of the news about T-Mobile's doping coming from Patrick Sinkewitz is about 2006 and earlier, prior to the replacement of old management by Bob Stapleton. Even Sinkewitz is saying that the team was clean in 2007 (except for himself, of course).
I wish Deutsche Telekom/T-Mobile had the fortitude to stick it out for one more season; to see if Stapleton's reforms within the team continued to take hold; but I do respect the team for sticking it out as long as it did, regardless of doping scandals ... five or six years is a long time for a sponsor in this sport, and Deutsche Telekom was the title sponsor for 16-17 years.
New-school organizations like the now Team High Road, Team Slipstream, and CSC (yes, even them) are starting to restore my faith.
Now if the UCI, USADA, and WADA would just pull their heads out of their collective rear ends....
Steven L. Sheffield
Salt Lake City, Utah
Sponsors showing sport the way
Editor:
It is a rare year in cycling when the two biggest teams lose their sponsors. Has it ever happened before? That, of course, has to be seen as bad news for the sport. Or is it? Between doping and war among the sport's constituent factions, "dysfunctional" has to be the descriptor for the sport over the past several years. Something has got to give. And yet, until now, those constituent factions still believed there was something to fight over. As long as the dollars and euros kept flowing, UCI and ASO, et al., could be forgiven for believing that the sport's problems were not so deep as they seemed. One the one hand, the departure of Discovery and T-Mobile (and Unibet), would seem like terrible news that reflects the utter collapse of the sport's credibility and viability. On the other hand it is finally one of the constituents yelling, "Stop!" at the top of its lungs. It cannot help but be heard. It cannot be ignored. When the money stops flowing, everything stops. There is no choice. Some in these pages have commented that it is not for the sponsors to clean up the sport. But it is. They, in the end, are the only ones who can. They have an interest in it. It is their brand names that are being promoted. And, make no mistake, they want to promote those brand names via cycling because the audience it has traditionally delivered is the one among whom they want their products promoted. They want that back. And because of that, it is the sponsors — and only the sponsors — who have the power to make themselves heard. Their voice is loud, it is clear, and it is sounding. That is the silver lining to this tumultuous year.
Michael A. Gardiner
San Diego, California
Sport should be fun, but there’s all that money
Editor:
Charlie Carroll said it so well, if a bit naïvely. Competitive cycling should be fun, but, unfortunately, there is too much money at stake.
His example of Shaun White, the Flying Tomato of snowboard fame, is a good one. Perhaps Shaun has the best of both worlds; he is paid very well and he has a lot of fun. Isn't that the way it should be? Oh, the hubris of the young!
Keep the faith, Charlie, because it is young riders like you who will trump the bureaucratic idiots and lawyers and return cycling back to where it belongs — as a fun, clean, exciting sport to participate in at any level.
Ted Leech
Woodinville, Washington
You can find fun on the road, too
Editor:
To the junior rider switching over to mountain biking because he didn’t like what he saw in pro cycling – give me a break. If you want to have fun on the road bike while competing, who says you have to ride in the Tour? Enter local races with amateur fields and you won’t have to worry about doping.
Or don’t even enter races – go riding with some friends on the road and enjoy the time together. Granted, a three-hour ride with your buddies won’t give you the “fame and appreciation” a Tour victory would, but is that really what riding is about?
John P. Keating
East Lyme, Connecticut
Tasty waves and a cool buzz
Editor:
Dude, I totally agree with Charlie Carroll . Who would ever accuse "surfers" and "snowboarding" of doing drugs! I am manufacturing "Believe Spicoli" rubber bracelets as we speak.
Duane Henderson
Lewisville, North Carolina
The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside Communications, Inc.
