• Mailbag

Wednesday’s Mailbag: Gilberto’s grief; Hard men in snow; Liberty’s prerogative

by VeloNews.com

• May 31, 2006
• Comments Off

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

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Simoni, please…enough
Editors,
Can this man not take defeat graciously? His most recent tantrums duringand following the Giro are reminiscent of his loss to Cunego. I wonderwhat whiny comment he would have had if Basso had given him a stage win?
Tony Whetham
Courtice, OntarioJust drop the guy sooner
Hello,
Mr. Simoni seems to contradict himself in his attack on Ivan Basso.He says he wants no gifts, and wouldn’t ‘buy’ a win, yet he assumedthat Basso’s asking him to ride together down the descent was a sign thatBasso would be ‘giving’ him the win. Didn’t he just say he didn’t wantany gifts? Didn’t he say he wanted to earn his wins?Let’s face it – even if Simoni would have dropped Basso on the descent– Basso would have caught him on the next climb anyway…. After all he putover a minute into him in the last 3 km of that climb. So let’s say Simonipulled out 30-40 seconds, he would have been whooped like a “red headedstep-child” as soon as Basso was down the hill himself.Now my last real point; it was in Simoni’s best interests to ride WITHBasso so that he could cement third place in GC. Simoni followed Basso’sattack (not the other way around) Simoni Chose to ride with him… his choice.Bet next time Basso isn’t so nice letting the whining little man in yellowtag along on his next escape.
Matt Usborne
Edmonton, AlbertaSi-moan-i?
Velo,
It’s understood, of course, that the officials need to conscientiouslyinvestigate Simoni’s allegations about Basso trying to sell Stage 20 ofthe Giro. If true, it would be a serious infraction. But thesmart money’s onSimoni being shown (again) to be a whiner. He whined when Cunegospanked him. He whined when Armstrong spanked him. There’scertainly a prior pattern of behavior.Conversely, all reports are that Basso’s a class act. His director iscertainly classy, and he rides with guys like Jens Voigt, who’s about asstand-up a guy as there is. Apparently, Simoni just can’t toleratebeing beaten (by 20 minutes, no less.) And now he may be caught ina web of lies, too, with no way to back down. It should be an interestingnext few weeks.
Jon Parshall
Minneapolis, MinnesotaAn inelegant solution
Editor,
Would somebody please just bitch slap Gilberto Simoni so thathe will stop his whining!!
Paul D. Weston
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

That’s easy for you to say
Editors,
In response to a letter asking what the hard men of cycling would sayabout the shortening of Stage 17, my guess would be “Thank you!”Bernard Hinault, one of the ultimate hard men, led the strike againstsplit stages. The first man over the first mountain stage inserted intothe Tour called the organizers “assassins”, and it should be noted thatseveral riders were hospitalized after that “epic” Gavia stage in 1988.Riders already risk injury, illness, and even death in this sport. Uppingthe ante for the amusement of some fans is akin to asking for more lionsin the Coliseum.It’s a maxim in leadership schools that you should never ask someoneto do something you aren’t willing to do yourself. If the Barcaloungercrowd wants to see people suffer and collapse in the snow and ice, thereare plenty of locations where they can take their own bikes to ride, andget up close and personal with the phenomena.
Kurt R. Bickel
Reno, Nevada

If it isn’t your hide, don’t complain
Dear Velo,
With all due respect to Misters Sharp and Schaub and any other personwho took issue with shortened stage of the Giro, have you ever investedyour life for a portion of a race? Have you even considered riskingyour skin, bones and brain matter coming down a mountain, blind, cold,on wheels 1/3 of an inch think? Now, add 100 other people doing thesame thing side by side, TV cameras beaming your every thought into theeyes of a fanatical country and world, while cars and motorcycles dodgearound you, daring the ice to loose grip.

For the organizers, sponsors and parents of children looking for heroes,I’m not sure I would degrade my responsibilities for not only a safe environment,but one where tragedy would spark a lot more speculation as to why theydidn’t shorten a meaningless stage. The last thing the cycling worldneeds is to see riders, heroes, and friends plunging off a cliff, slidingdown asphalt, or being run over by a chase car that could not stop.The blood stained snow looks great in action movies, not so cool in reality.Leave the best interests of cycling to the people who made the right callin shortening the stage. If you want sporting blood, action and dramago rent Rocky IV.

It is somewhat selfish of those who would rather risk the life andtalent of a gifted athlete just to add drama to a meaningless endeavor.Salvodelli wasn’t going to make up 10 minutes on a descent into ice andrain. Simoni clearly would not have overcome Basso on one mountain.Boo hoo if we didn’t get the epic story of Hampsten vs. nature.But, which would you rather have: more kilometers on one stage of a race,or 160 riders able to start stage 20 where the next mountain became evenmore meaningful? Ask Dale Earnhart, Jr. if he would rather win theDaytona 500 or see his father again. Why risk Ivan Basso never seeinghis newborn son for a, relatively and in hindsight, meaningless, few secondsof time? Again I ask, have you ever invested your life for a portionof a race? No? But I bet you lived to ride another day.
John Nelson
Alexandria, VirginiaLiberty is right
Dear VeloNews,
I’d like to take issue with the letter by Matt Neyens entitled “Standby Your Team.” He brands Liberty Mutual as a quitter and challengesLiberty to rebuild and overcome adversity. I cannot disagree more.In a sport that he admits is overly reliant on money and sponsors, thereis no better way to send a message than to deny both. Mr. Neyen claimsthat “fair play” is not a corporate value. Neither is being liedto by your own people. When someone who works for me is deceptiveand violates an agreement – they get fired.I think the key to what bothers me about the letter, is that I trulybelieve that the sport of cycling is bigger than Liberty Seguros.It’s bigger than Manolo Saiz. And in the end, hopefully it will proveto be bigger than money and greed. It is not up to Liberty to resurrecta sport that has gone down the wrong path. It is up to you, I, sponsors,and the millions of cycling fans to talk with our wallets.
Jay Pearlman
New Haven, ConnecticutDirtier than Bonds, even
Dear Velo,
I was devastated to hear of the drama going on in Spain. Thelast thing our sport needs is more doping and more reputation-sullyingallegations. All over the U.S., people are arguing about Barry Bonds’alleged drug use, and discredit his accomplishments, but cycling lookslike the dirtiest sport in the world, as much as I love it.Why do people keep doping? The answer is quite simple, really.The rewards are too great, and the penalties too light. In a nutshell,there is not a strong enough reason for them to NOT dope. How dowe fix it? I see two options. One is the option of clean sport:make the penalties excessively stiff as other letters have suggested (lifetimebans, etc.). The other is to not worry about it. Admit thatdoping is widespread, and let the whole sport turn into a freak show bysteroids, EPO, altitude tents, and transfused blood. Why not openthe door for other methods of cheating while we’re at it? We couldeven go back to the days of riders hopping trains or hitching rides, allowriders to beat each other up, maybe even allow pedal-assist motors on bikes. Why not, it works for the WWF.None of us want cycling to go that way, but we need to do more to stopit. Here are a few recommendations for things you can do (other thanwrite whiny letters to VeloNews.com).
1. Send your comments to USA Cycling or the UCI. Get involved.
2. Communicate with your favorite riders and teams on the subject.
3. Support and encourage local amateurs and teams that are committedto racing without doping. TIAA-CREF is a great team for that.
4. Educate yourself. Learn more about doping instead ofrelying on the opinions of others.A final note. The thing that bothers me the most about the waydoping is handled in cycling, is the instant assumption of guilt.What happened to the American ideal of “innocent until proven guilty”?Let’s not discredit people for life before anything is proven, buthow about a little faster system of trial? Let’s not drag out verdictsfor years, like in the Hamilton case.
Karl Martineau
Fruita, Colorado

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The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.