Rubber checks, Wiggo’s move and the off-season

Work with the locals

Dear Connor,
Regarding your letter to “The Explainer” on Thursday, I would like to offer a suggestion. As the president of the Illinois Cycling Association, we are the Local Association for USA Cycling. Since this issue involved an Illinois race, I’d like to respond and further clarify this issue.

If you’ve tried sending the check through again and you’ve also tried resolving this directly with the promoter and nothing has happened, please contact the Local Association next. USA Cycling is busy with national championships, the National Race Calendar and sending promising young stars to Europe and really is not going to be the next best option. What will end up happening is that USA Cycling will contact the regional coordinator who will contact the Local Association anyway. The Local Associations permit the events and should know their promoters personally and can best deal with this.

I cannot speak for all of the country’s Local Associations, but in Illinois we will contact the promoter to find out what is going on and attempt to facilitate getting the promoter to meet their obligation. If the issue is not resolved we can take additional steps which can include not permitting any future events for that promoter. The flip side of this problem is that occasionally riders write checks for their entry that bounce. For promoters with that problem, they can contact their Local Association and the rider in question could have their racing license suspended.

In these times, the pressures on promoters are huge. Sponsorships, grants, and municipality payments that support the race can be much slower in coming in than in previous years. This has put promoters into a really bad juggling act. However, promoters throughout the country don’t want their events getting a bad name by bouncing checks. The problem is usually rare and when our association gets involved it is almost always resolved.

Yours,
Steven Hansen
President
Illinois Cycling Association

Fight the power

To the Explainer,
The advice you gave is pure crap. You should have told the guy to get a lawyer right away.

That person is in competition for funds with the 30 other people whom the promoter didn’t pay. The promoter did not have the advertised funds available at the race, no one else can be blamed, not the sponsors or anyone else.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. If funds are available, then the ones who raise the biggest noise will get paid first. The promoter is responsible for all funds promised, collection fees, lawyer fees and punitive damages. Period.

Going in soft and nice plays into the promoter’s plan, hoping the problem will go away, hoping the person will go away. Unfortunately in this day and age, immediate, aggressive, no-holds-barred tactics are the only way. Damages must be demanded or this person will continually be taken as the door mat of the cycling world.

Ric Howland
North Bend, Washington

Slower can be faster

Dear Explainer,
Spot-on. While people may tempted to pull out all of the stops to collect a check, it makes sense to work through some steps before all of that.

I got a bad check from a promoter a few years ago and freaked, so I hired a lawyer. Well, it worked but the costs were high (they don’t come cheap) and while most of the collection costs were passed off to the check writer, because of procedural delays and all of the stuff that make the wheels of “justice” turn so slowly, it was six months before I got the original face value of the check.

In retrospect, with a little more personal contact, I probably could have settled it quickly and cheaply and probably gotten paid a little extra for my troubles. I didn’t have the same problem the following year, though, because the promoter gave up in frustration and one of my favorite races – one I would build my summer vacations around – went by the wayside. Sure, it probably wasn’t my fault, but my $350 in prize money wasn’t as important to me as seeing the promoter stay in business.

Try being nice first. It may work.
Jay Byrnes
Parma, Ohio

Hit him where it counts

Dear Velo,
I’d recommend that the recipient of the bounced check include in his letter to the promoter a clear indication to take his complaint to the sponsors, to USA Cycling, and to the local media if he doesn’t find a way to honor the check.

A promoter will have a terrible time getting sponsors for any future event if this gets out, and is likely to be more motivated to get the funds to the cyclist if his livelihood is threatened.

The letter should state clearly that he will give the promoter 30 days to provide him with a certified check for the funds due, or his complaint goes very public. And he should follow through exactly. A statement that he understands that times are tough is a nice addition, along with a mention that they’re tough for riders as well, and that cycling events depend on riders to ride in them.

Susan West

Vaughters’ dilemma

Dear Velo,
The Sky signing of Bradley Wiggins confirmed what I had believed all along: Jonathan Vaughters is a class act.

If someone does not want to ride for your team let them move on and collect what you can. I hope he and Garmin were well compensated for turning a track rider with no major wins into a fourth place finisher in the Tour de France.

Maybe we will see an American rider come from nowhere to finish high for Garmin. Cycling would be better served if someone at Astana would have taken the same approach with Contador. I would bet money that they will try to pressure the Tour into accepting Vinokourov back at the tour since he will be on the defending champion’s team. One would hope that the Tour would have none of that.

Good luck Garmin and Vaughters

Eddy Winkler
Lenoir, North Carolina

It’s not Man’ United

Dear Velo,
To quote Bradley Wiggins on his chances of winning the Tour de France with Garmin “It’s a bit like trying to win the Champions League and to win the Champions League you go to Manchester United and I’m probably playing at Wigan at the moment”

While Garmin may be “Wigan”, I’ve seen Sky’s lineup, and it’s not exactly “Manchester U”. Good luck with that, Brad.

Matt Ferguson

National alliances

Dear VeloNews,
I totally understand Bradley Wiggins wanting to ride for what is essentially his national team. I just hope that Christian Vande Velde beats him at the Tour.

Brad DeBoer
Bennington, Vermont

King is the king

Dear Velo,
Ted King’s most recent diary, includes what qualifies as a last-minute entry for sports journalism sentence of the year:

“It’s very convenient that the off-season is the most delicious time of year.”

Oh, how exactly and excruciatingly true.

Diren Singhe
Dallas, Texas

FILED UNDER: Mailbag