Good article

Since 2001, over 90,000 cyclist's have joined Cycling Forums to discuss topics from general cycling to equipment, training, racing and travel or vacation destinations (especially in europe during the tour de france). We also feature an great deals in our online store, 100's of articles, classifieds and product reviews.

Good article that delves into UCI corruption among other things.

The non-payment of the UCI-required minimum salaries to riders is common among many teams. One source told me that he thinks every pro-continental team has at least some riders being underpaid in this way. One method teams employ is to create two separate contracts for a rider. One contract is the official one sent to the UCI which lists the normal minimum salary as the amount the rider will be paid. The second contract is the real albeit secret one, which specifies the lower salary amount that the rider will actually get. In some cases, the rider is paid the official UCI-contract amount, but then is quietly required to pay back part of this to the team according to the second real contract amount. In other cases the team pays the salary but then requires the rider to buy his own bike and/or other expensive equipment for the season, and then the team takes the bike to sell at the end of the season, leaving the rider with a pitifully small net gain. Other scenarios are teams that make the riders pay for all kinds of expenses themselves that are supposed to be paid by the team, so that in the end the rider is making far less than the required minimum salary.

http://cyclingfansanonymous.blogspot.com/2007/11/who-speaks-for-riders.html

Indeed, a good article. It touches upon a greater issue of sporting and journalistic integrity too...

..The integrity of the media is only as good as the ethical codes they adhere to. If they refuse to report a newsworthy story, what does that say about their most basic integrity? Consider also that some media sources such as Cyclingnews.com are partial sponsors of teams themselves. Have you ever wondered what has gone on behind the scenes at the British team DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed that Cyclingnews very conveniently never bothered to report on? For another example, don't forget that at one point Eurosport was a co-sponsor of Kelme, a team who employed Dr. Fuentes. Do you think that we can rely on Eurosport to report reliably on Fuentes, when they were paying a part of his wages of sin?

Well done again Bro. I am collecting a good list of web-sites with your help.

Excellent read. The writer gets to the crux of the systemic problems. Cycling really would benefit from a Professional Rider's Association running the tour like golf has. However the presence of sponsored teams, unlike golf, where it is all sponsored events, may pose some challenges.

I am now getting more down about the situation. The system is an anachronism and is farked. It needs a total rehaul. And the public has to ...HAS TO.. have confidence that rider's are clean for professional cycling to succeed.

The article got rid of what I thought was one of the good points about the ProTour: minumum salaries. It seems like a rather minor thing, but for some reason I find the UCI ignoring abuse of the salary rules more corrupt than the larger issues. I can understand why the UCI would downplay the doping issue and try to sweep it under the rug. They are worried about economic damage to the sport. But its failure to enforce rules on the smaller issues points to corruption and incompetence that must extend completely through the organization.

The UCI needs to be leveled and a new organization built to take over its duties. There is too much corruption to be reformed with a few changes at the top.

Indeed, a good article. It touches upon a greater issue of sporting and journalistic integrity too...

..The integrity of the media is only as good as the ethical codes they adhere to. If they refuse to report a newsworthy story, what does that say about their most basic integrity? Consider also that some media sources such as Cyclingnews.com are partial sponsors of teams themselves. Have you ever wondered what has gone on behind the scenes at the British team DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed that Cyclingnews very conveniently never bothered to report on? For another example, don't forget that at one point Eurosport was a co-sponsor of Kelme, a team who employed Dr. Fuentes. Do you think that we can rely on Eurosport to report reliably on Fuentes, when they were paying a part of his wages of sin?
Good point. I have not been all that pleased with cyclingnews reporting on doping. They have quite a bit of it, but it is never very good at drawing conclusions larger than the specific case they are reporting about. They seem very keen to use the word "cleared" even when the case has simply been shelved. I think they also used the word "cleared" when Dr. Ferrari's conviction was tossed due to Italy's statute of limitations; I don't recall a good explanation of what really happened.

Then there was the time Velonews reported on Prentice Steffan's allegations about Postal. Armstrong's lawyers got into the act and Velonews ended up putting on their website what amounted to a denial of story. At first the "denial" was acknowledged to be written by Armstrong's lawyes, but shortly afterward that acknowledgement was removed so it appeared that it was written by Velonews. My memory is a little hazy on this.

It makes you wonder how much you can trust the cycling media. Surely they must know a lot more than they are reporting.

Thanks for the link. It's pretty amazing that even those pretty pathetic minimum salaries are so routinely broken. A new pro on a continental team isn't much above the legal minimum wage for the UK (which itself is low by EU standards), so the idea that tricks are routinely used to get around paying even that is horrible. The teams obviously view it as a simple supply-and-demand situation: there are queues of amateur riders who would step over any of the existing pro's to get a contract, so why should the teams value their lesser riders when they could replace them so easily?

Yes good article......... like this.... cyclingnews happned to obtain a letter from Pat McQuaid.... yeah right...... and he wants the leaks shut-down because he cannot control the output....
________

CyclingNews (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/nov06/nov30news2) is reporting that it has obtained a copy of UCI boss Pat McQuaid’s letter to Spanish minister of sport, Jaime Lissavetzky. In the letter, Pat blames the Spanish government for cycling’s poor image, his inability to investigate and punish evil doping riders, and probably high energy prices.
The cause of all this? Leaks. Pat McQuaid, Mr. Principle, is saying that leaks are damaging to the sport. Leaks lower the image of cycling by putting out unsubstantiated information. When information is leaked, there is no retort, no examination of evidence, it just ruins someone’s reputation.

“You understand, as we have discussed previously, this affair is doing enormous damage to the credibility of our sport,” writes McQuaid. “This began with the continuous leaks to the media of material related to the investigation all through 2006.

We cannot, as we would dearly like to do, use the information to discipline and sanction riders involved. Indeed we must legally allow these riders to continue to race throughout 2007 until this investigation concludes at which time we might, and I say might, be supplied with enough evidence to go after those riders allegedly involved.”

Thanks for the insight Pat. I’m really glad you leaked that letter. Did you cc the WADA? Floyd Landis?

Good point. I have not been all that pleased with cyclingnews reporting on doping. They have quite a bit of it, but it is never very good at drawing conclusions larger than the specific case they are reporting about. They seem very keen to use the word "cleared" even when the case has simply been shelved. I think they also used the word "cleared" when Dr. Ferrari's conviction was tossed due to Italy's statute of limitations; I don't recall a good explanation of what really happened.

Then there was the time Velonews reported on Prentice Steffan's allegations about Postal. Armstrong's lawyers got into the act and Velonews ended up putting on their website what amounted to a denial of story. At first the "denial" was acknowledged to be written by Armstrong's lawyes, but shortly afterward that acknowledgement was removed so it appeared that it was written by Velonews. My memory is a little hazy on this.

It makes you wonder how much you can trust the cycling media. Surely they must know a lot more than they are reporting.Great points Bro.

CN updates are basically a reprinting service. Whatever they report as news, including doping news, had already been sitting around for hours and days. Still, I like them as there is no one with their scope. I think Velonews is a bit more forthcoming with anti-doping stories. If one needs some spice, he needs to read Italian and Spanish media. I find all cycling journalism wanting...

Good point. I have not been all that pleased with cyclingnews reporting on doping.Check out this gem in the CyclingNews Q&A section (http://www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/?id=2007/letters12-12). It's a response to a reader who expresses disgust with doping in cycling:

You have to understand that as far as performance enhancing drugs go, it is nothing new. A handful of athletes at the top of the sport of cycling, and really most professional sports where sizable sponsorship dollars are involved, have always tried to eek out that last little bit to shine above their competition. What you need to realize is that, although the media coverage makes it appear much larger, it really is a very small percentage of competitive cyclists using these drugs. I honestly believe that 99.99% (not an accurate percentage) of competitive cyclists racing today are clean. Consider the number of Cat 5,4,3 and 2 cyclists, versus the number of top-level pros in the states in Europe.

Not sure where he's going with that last sentence, except that maybe he's arriving at his percentage by guessing at what % of ALL cyclists, from CAT 5 on up, are doping. If so, then his guess may not be far off, but it seems sort of meaningless to make that estimate if the vast majority of pros are doping and the vast majority of CAT 5s are not. The average CAT 5 has as much in common with a TdF contender as the average weekend softball player has with A-Rod.

I read this article and have a totally different take than most...

It is an enlightening article - to say the least. However, it is overly biased in my opinion and casts the riders' too much as sorry and helpless victims of their chosen profession - cycling. Only until the riders take full responsibility for the plight they find themselves in will sustainable efforts to correct the problem occur. Continuing to play the card of "I'm a victim and I'm helpless to do anything about it" will only serve protect the status quo.

Simply put, the riders must organize and present a united front, period.

Further, if conditions are so bad - and apparently they are, some of these riders need to find other means of making a living. That rider that's accepting that contract for below the minimum needs to realize that he's undercutting the next neo-pro coming up as management will continue the exercise knowing these riders will accept peanuts to ride a bike on a team.

Nonetheless, the dynamic of one party accepting less in order to "get one's foot in the door" (or the party with the leverage taking advantage of the other party) is far from being a recent occurrence. Witness many entertainment contracts where the agents, managers, casting houses, etc...make the majority of money while the artist makes a relative pittance when the artist is just getting started and trying to establish themselves.

These riders are adults and, for the most part, enter into these agreements of their own free will and choice. Yes there are abuses by management and by the governing bodies, but this occurs in workplaces everywhere and in every region of the globe. Is it something to be condoned, of course not! Can you really expect management to change out of the goodness of their hearts? Of course not, again! The riders themselves are on the front lines and need to take the matters into their own hands. If they continue to whine and want to play the victim role, then this matter will not change too much.

A single voice can easily be silenced; many voices all at once must be heard...