Swimming, stolen bikes and bandwidth

• Keep it short. And remember that we reserve the right to edit for grammar, length and clarity.
• Include your full name, hometown and state or nation.
• Send it to webletters@insideinc.com.

Are we really No. 1!?
Dear Velo,
Is the U.S. a cycling nation? Not quite, but nonetheless it is impressive to see more UCI registered teams from the USA (3) than from France (2). Even though not all the riders are Americans on those U.S. teams, it sure shows support is growing for cycling in this country.

Go USA!

Don Atkinson
Tacoma, Washington

Swimming is worthy of respect
Editors,
I have to say I am disappointed a bit in the cycling community’s view and attitude towards swimming. Having swam competitively in high school for USA Swimming club and swam at the Missouri State Championships for four years in high school I can say that every event in swimming has its own characteristics. Most individuals train their entire career to specialize in one single event that fits how they swim. I know many people who swim for NCAA D1 schools whose scholarships ride on only one event. It’s just like how cyclists will either be a climber or a sprinter based on their body type.

Having this kind of cavalier and ignorant attitude is very insulting to individuals who train their entire life for a single even in swimming to be told that their even doesn’t matter. It’s like saying the Sprinting Jersey in the tour should be taken away. Phelps is a freak of nature in that he wins so many events. That’s not normal.

As a cyclist, if we want people to appreciate sports in this country besides football then we need to help people understand all the subtleties and complexities to our respective sports. Not tear them down.

Drew Cistola
Asheville, North Carolina

Drew, the letter we published was a suggestion from one person who wrote in to VeloNews.com. That’s hardly representative of “the cycling community’s view.” – Editor.

For swimming, the Olympics are pretty much it
Editor,

All one has to do is look at the athletes in Olympic swimming and cycling to know which is deserving of Olympic exposure. Olympic cyclists seem to fit the Olympics into an engrossing professional or quasi-professional schedule. With swimmers, the Olympics is the marquee event. When it comes to swimmers, their hearts are in a better place for the Olympics.

Keith Whelpley
Las Cruces, New Mexico

VeloNews or lostbikes.com?
Yo Editors,
Why am I turning to VeloNews to find a cover story about a stolen bike? Oh, it was a LIVESTRONG bike – sorry, my mistake.

I would like to report that my Devinci Stockholm commuter bike was also stolen. It happened while I lived in Victoria. Its primary rider during the summer 2008 season was me. It’s a hybrid bike, with a Bontrager seat and old Profile bar ends I had kicking around from the early 90′s, and can be easily identified by the Shimano 747′s – only one side of the pedal on the drive side works.
Cam Robertson
Canada

We will enlist millions of the Twitterati to recover your lost steed, Cam. Seriously, good luck. – Editor

The speed of change?
Hello from Cancun!
I am not sure it has to do with you, but your new version of VeloNews is very slow on my computer at work, and it freezes very often. It might be the firewalls we have in the company, or probably the low capacity of these very basic generic computers. I like the new version a lot, but it doesn’t do me much good if I can’t open it from work.

I am very glad that today I could open the old version again and catch up with the latest news. There is no other website I like as much as yours.

Thank you so much!

Jesus Nieto
Cancun, Mexico

You know, we kinda noticed that, too. In fact we’ve been saying it a lot. Our crack tech crew is working on cleaning up some coding issues and we’re making sure the new servers have the capacity to handle traffic before we permanently make the jump. It’s a beautiful piece of work, but it’s a work in progress, Jesus. We’re just glad we didn’t make the big switch in, say, late June? – Editor

FILED UNDER: Mailbag TAGS: Olympics