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.

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Pro racing is so over
Editor:
I admit to being a regular VeloNews.com reader. And I'm not critical of the publication. It's great, and I think you should keep writing stories about these situations.

But as an avid participant in amateur competitive cycling, I feel that stories like this have driven professional cycling into the dump. No longer do I see links posted on our local message board to stories about top-level pro riders, except when one of our own makes it somewhere. Even then we wonder, "Are they on the juice?"

Pro racing is oblivion. The only thing we care about anymore is grass-roots racing. We're still passionate about cycling, but Jesse LaLonde winning the Cheq Fat Tire Forty on a single-speed is more interesting.

Marcum Martz
Kewaskum, Wisconsin

Regarding the rant
Editor:
"Yawn," is about all I can say about Patrick O'Grady's latest screed. Disagreeing with the mainstream - wow, how "out there" can you be? Don't you get tired of writing about the same old stuff every time? Don't confuse simply being contradictory with being insightful; you seem to do that every week.

J.T. Hicks
Free Home, Georgia

Cycling doesn't need O'Grady's voyeurism
Editor:
I usually tend to agree with Patrick O'Grady's remarks. However, this time I think he missed the mark. His comments make me wonder if he spends his nights in the back alleys watching the junkies and addicts for the hilarity of it all. Professional cycling does not need this type of bottom-feeder voyeurism.

Byron Erath
West Lafayette, Indiana

Best rant yet
Editor:
This past Friday's Foaming Rant was probably the best I've ever read. O'Grady's views are always refreshing and entertaining.

I have been dumbfounded by the letters condemning Michael Ball and his exciting new contribution to the sport. Hasn't your mother ever told you that if you don't have anything constructive to say, don't say anything at all?

As a young racer with dreams of one day becoming a professional cyclist, I'm gonna support anyone who creates opportunity and growth in the sport, whether he wears $5 jeans from the Salvation Army or $250 jeans from Rock & Republic.

And for all those Euro wannabe's who stick their noses up at anything new or un-kosher like tattoos or controversy - suck it up. And while you're at it, spend more time riding your bike than making fun of newbies who can't afford $5000 bikes, $200 jerseys and bibs, and aren't stupid enough to ride bare legs in freezing temps. It's time to rehabilitate this sport, with its good-old-boy network, and welcome new riders and the change necessary to overthrow the old and bring in the new!

Welcome, Michael Ball, to the greatest sport on Earth. I hope you're here to stay.
Ned Walsh
Rochester, New York

Rock on, O'Grady
Editor:
I certainly do not always agree with Patrick O'Grady's rants, but when I read his rant about Rock Racing and Michael Ball I couldn't help but say to myself, well, "Rock on, O'Grady."

Michael Ball is apparently not a warm, fuzzy pro-cycling-team owner, and may not know all he needs to know at this point to make a team work the way it should. But even I, a 46-year-old conservative Mormon guy with eight kids who still loves cycling (and even used to race back in the day), can't help but like Ball, who himself loves cycling enough to pour millions of dollars into a team, and then give some guys who, guilty or not, have already paid their dues and deserve a second chance to do what they do best.

And as for Steve Hed yanking his sponsorship from Rock Racing, who cares? I can't afford Hed's products anyway, and now I have another reason not to buy them.

Even though I won't run out and get a tattoo, I will be watching Rock Racing this year and hoping that Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevilla, David Clinger and everyone else can put the hurt on the rest of the peloton and find success.

Kevin Watkins
Salt Lake City, Utah

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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.