• Mailbag

Wednesday’s Mailbag: Promoters and placings; Discovery and Landis; plus a defense of Kentucky

by VeloNews.com

• May 03, 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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Promoters, please put us in our place
An open letter to race promoters:
I’m writing on behalf of the middle-of-the-pack (and back-of-the-pack) riders in your local races. You may or may not remember them. They are the guys who pay an entry fee of $15 to $30 and receive a number and four or five pins in return (and sometimes the use of a Port-O-Potty). They ride hard on roads that may or may not be closed to traffic and around corners that may or may not be swept. They rarely receive trophies or medals or cash, but they do make your event happen. It would be a boring race if only the top three guys showed up, and three entry fees won’t pay the bills! Not much of a spectacle for fans, either.

Why do guys who rarely make the podium bother to show up? To participate, to support your efforts to put on an event, to take our riding to a higher level than we’d ever achieve ourselves on training rides, and to measure ourselves against others doing the same.

But lately race organizers have gotten sloppy about providing finishing places and even listing finishers that aren’t in the money. This is very discouraging to the riders that make up most of your field. Some cyclist may have had the ride of his/her life only to be left with no record that he/she ever participated. They won’t be coming back to your event.

I would propose that riders who don’t get listed in the results should get their entry fees refunded. Results are why we ride – not pins and numbers!

Mike Giudici
Davenport, Iowa

Did Discovery blow it with Landis?
Editor:
Is it only me, or does anyone else think the biggies at Discovery Channel are grinding their teeth over allowing Floyd Landis to escape? They are combing the planet for the next Lance Armstrong — but perhaps they already had him and let him get away.

Do you think they could have dumped a couple of guys from the current roster to pay for Floyd? Seems to me from a strategic and business perspective Discovery simply blew it.

Tay Voye
Spokane, Washington

Kentucky ‘ghetto?’ He begs to differ
Editor:
I read the following on your website today, written by associate editor Fred Dreier:

“I’ve heard athletes and SoCal natives use the term ‘Fontucky’ to describe Fontana, and my response was always something like, ha, what a funny way to say the town is kinda ghetto. As it turns out, that pretty much hits the nail on the head.”

You do a disservice to the many cyclists located throughout the state, and particularly Louisville, by referring to us as “ghetto.” We have a thriving road scene and around eight to 10 well-sponsored teams. Many other cyclists simply love to ride on our amazing, quite challenging roads.

Also, within a 45-minute drive of the city there are six great mountain-biking trails of six to 12 miles. How many other cities and states can say that?

I hope that if you get the opportunity to visit our beautiful state, you will let me and the many other riders here show you what cycling means to us here in Kentucky, or as you referred to it, “the ghetto.”

Gavin D. Camp
(No hometown and state provided, but we’ll take a wild guess and say he’s from Kentucky)

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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.

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