Tell us, Lorraine

holli

You are writing here that nothing happens in canadian cycling and everything's shit, bad and miserable. I was thinking about that yesterday when I did a small local crit which was actually a very nice race. What if those course marshalls and other volunteers read your rants how canadian cycling is so bad and everything is made wrong. Maybe those volunteers thought that they helped to organize something good in expense of their time with their families (for example).

I know you don't really appreciate the grassroots that much, but you know, without those people who volunteer to stand in some intersection in the middle of an ass crack in pouring rain and cold or in burning hot sunshine are the ones who make races happen. It's not CCA money or CCA marketing director or CCA president. Don't talk down on the grassroots volunteer workers.

I'm sure you are quick to reply that you newer wrote anything like that but at least to me the message is pretty clear. I suppose you would like to be CCA marketing director so maybe it would be worth trying to write all this criticism in little different way?

Oh...and not too many people in other countries follow canadian cycling that much so that they would be laughing at canadian cycling, many people are busy with their own stuff. And that bike safety thing for kids isn't CCAs idea, other national federations have been doing that before just because it looks good to mainstream public and many others.

__________________
Pain is just weakness leaving the body.

Fausto Coppied

Holli,



You really should not assume things you do not know.



I worked with 13 municipalities in southwestern Quebec organizing a grassroots touring ride through the apple county there. We had about 2000 participants, kids to senior citizens and about 100 volunteers.



When I directed the Women’s Road World Cup in Montreal we had about 250 volunteers on the Mount Royal course. I assisted in training them along with my business partner and former teammate Stephane LeBeau.



I’m glad you had a “nice” crit. I like huge crits with 40,000 to 50,000 spectators and about the same prize money, $40,000 or $50,000. I doubt you have ever ridden in one of those, ever seen one of them or even been in same province as one of them. I have.



The best you can recruit volunteers is have big events and pro riders. You will have people lining up to volunteer.



Being small is not all being best.



I appreciate grassroots and understand their importance. I also appreciate and understand they important of top-notch, commercially profitable races. You can have all the grassroots races and volunteers you want, they will never ensure top level riders, results and events.



On the other hand if you have top notch big races and big expensive teams I can guarantee you will have grassroot support.

As for other countries laughing at Canada, you can be sure they are. The Executive Director, Chief Operating Officer or Director General, whatever you want to call the position is often the face of Canadian cycling nationally and internationally. When Lorraine Lafreniere sits down with her counterparts from other countries they ALL will have experience as riders, organizers, managers etc., IN THE SPORT OF CYCLING. After a five-minute conversation with Lafreniere they will realize she doesn't know anything about the sport.

holli

I just read what you post here.


Haven't done crits like that. However I've done couple of post tour crits in Holland and Denmark which usually have 20 000-30 000 spectators. I'm planning to do one or two of these crits at the end of July again.


Small local races serve junior riders -> Some of the juniors will become big pros some day. You said it yourself that only few juniors even make it to national top. So more local races and local small programs for juniors, more "material" there is for future years. CCA's junior programs have been ridiculous before so if some no experience nice lady can change that then it's a good start. By ridiculous I mean leaving by far the best junior in Canada out of national team.

Sure massive races bring good publicity but in current market you need to organize nation wide crit series which have races in every bigger city and you need big sponsors to pay that as you won't get 20 000-30 000 specators who are willing to pay 10-15$ for the tickets for every race. Really big names won't come to Canada either if there's no big compensation in form of UCI points or start/price money.

Lots of off topic...

I need to go training now even if I'm not a big top notch pro and I just ride for fun.

__________________
Pain is just weakness leaving the body.

Fausto Coppied

What do you know about about "the current market".


When have you ever attended a crit where people paid to watch?

Do you think $20,000 or $30,000 is a lot of money to national sponsors? It is nothing. A national sponsor could have big criteriums in most major metropolitan Canadian cites with $20,000 or $30,000 prize money and the whole thing would cost them less than $500,000. One national ad campaign for a weekend in newspapers cost them less than that.

Have a nice ride.

holli

Cycling doesn't look like the best sport at the moment and definitely isn't too sexy sport. Last years Tour results aren't even ready yet. Plus you need to go big...very big, in whatever you do. Potential sponsors want more and more bang for their buck. These are just couple of things from top of my mind that are happening everywhere in the world, but maybe Canada is an exception.


See my previous post. Tickets are usually 10-15€ (15-20CAD) each and that's how they cover much of the price money that attracts bigger names.


No it's not big money for big companies. They just might ask that what they get in return and then that money isn't that little anymore. You need to get good TV coverage, local race organizers and local authorities who want to let you close downtown streets, guaranteed top pro racers in every race, plus you would need to convince potential sponsors to believe that there will be lots of spectators in every race. I'm sure this would work out in BC, Quebec and maybe in Ontario in some cities but for example in Alberta it might be pretty difficult.

If this would be easy or even possible to do, I'm sure someone would have at least tried to get something together. If someone wants to try to do it I'll volunteer to help.

__________________
Pain is just weakness leaving the body.

Fausto Coppied

This used to happen EVERY weekend throughtout the summer in Canada from 1989 to 1993. It was called the Canadian Tire Canada Cup and the Canadian Tire National Cycling Series. Hell, even Sean Kelly, one of the winning Euro pro isn the world, used to show up.

One sponsor is all it needs. Just one national sponsor. They shoul be paying $750,000 to $1,000,000 for a nationl series not the embarassing $100,00 or so Tim Horton's now pays. That is an embarassment. The CCA should give it back and wear black jerseys instead, rather than allow the sport to be raped by Tim Hortn's.

BTW there was the Cobbelstone Classic in Winnipeg, Gastown in Vancouver, Queen Park in Toronto, The Elgin Street Crit in Ottawa and two or three races in Montreal. There was evcen a race in downtown Calgary.

If you never knew what you had you have no idea what was lost, do you?

There has never really been any paid attendance at any kind of road races in North America, apart from some seating in grandstands at some start finish lines.

peeininnepean

Oh my god, Holli, don't even try. Don't even try. Ed's a loon, is only able to make a living through the grace of relatives, and everything he touches turns to crap. He lies awake at night rereading his 300 newspaper briefs and abusing himself with a cotton Evian team cap. Don't provoke him.

Fausto Coppied

Ahhh, the stalker has returned!

Right, you want to pay attention to this nut job who follows me from web forum to web fourm simply to harasss me as she has attested to herself. She even admits she knows nothing about cycling. As if it was not enough to harass me on web forums she emailed me directly.

Read it for yourself:

Original Message -----
From: peeinin nepean
To: ed@arzouian.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 1:55 PM
Subject: Re: Loser!


"You're completely right, I am harassing you anonymously for spite. As far as
posting these e-mails online or not, your double-standard is remarkable for
someone who always accuses others of spinning. My e-mails that make you look persecuted are good to post publicly, but the ones that expose you for the jerk you are don't get posted?

And the reason I took it offline is because you insist on saying that every
reply to your assinine postings is a win, that it proves people are
listening. Wrong, I'm the only one listening, and only for a short while,
and only because you really bugged some people I worked with and respect and continue to post all sorts of trash about them."

You can read a lot more of this nutjob here. Note she never discusses the sport, only me. Can you say obsession!:
http://www.cyclingforums.com/showth...378#post2479378

peeininnepean

Nice of you to refer to that thread, which is a two-page litany of insanity, discussion of police charges, details of your unending harrassment of Canadian media (you're still the only person I've ever know that CanWest had to get a restraining order again, and the day it was over you started spamming). Then the thread degenerates into a discussion of your current employment, which spawned another thread that revealed that you were farting away at a cushy job as a "building manager," feeding off the public trough while working as a republican party operative in lovely Binghamton. Which is illegal, but that's okay, right? After all, it's the CCA that isn't transparent enough, not the political organization of Naima Kradjian, right? You were hired by her bumboy, with no experience in building management, out of the blue, after you'd worked in her political campaign. Nice. And did I mention her campaign tanked, despite outspending her opponent 2 to 1? Because everything you touch turns to crap, Eddie. Everything.

So the CCA gets rid of Kinash, which you see as a win, right? And then Pierre Blanchard gets elected President. And you drop a little knowing hint-post saying that you and him talked, and no not about the past but the future, a future where Pierre will lean on your 80 years of experience in cycling to guide the ship right. And his first step is to hire Lorraine, who in your mind is mainly distinguished by the fact that she is not you. And you start slagging her here, just like all the other CCA staffers who were hired and were not you. Sebrango. Lacelle. Probably Kris Westwood. Certainly the communications lady. And now Lorraine. All of them hired for jobs at the CCA. All of them not you, despite all the heavy hinting over the last 4-5 years that your golden contacts were going to come home, that your rantings were vindicated and that you'd be welcomed back to the fold.

But Ed, you won't be welcomed back. Because you've burned all your bridges. You're a laughing stock now, even among the people you hint are close friends, whose names you drop, but who soil themselves laughing when your application hits their desk. So keep that Evian cap, which must be worn to the threads at this point, because using it to slap your monkey is about as close to the upper echelon of cycling as you're ever going to get.

Fausto Coppied

As I say, this anonymous coward is a stalker. She/he knows more about me and my personal history than I do. She/he knows my salary from eight years ago. I do not even remember it.

Imagine stalking someone in hiding like that for eight years without having the courage to show your face? How embarrassing. How frustrating it must be sitting there anonymously being so angry and annoyed but not even being able to say who you are. I much prefer going face-to-face but then that takes courage.

Back to cycling which this person knows nothing about, like Lorraine Lafreniere and Bill Kinash.



Evaluating my analysis of the CCA proves me correct at every turn.



Yes, Blanchard ultimately did hire Lorraine Lafreniere, who will prove to be a failure just like her predecessor, Steve Lacelle, exactly as I predicted. Just like Kim Sebrango was, she's goen too. All hired by Bill Kinash. However, if you look at the selection committee it included Bill Kinash and one other person.



So Blanchard was probably led in error by Kinash and no doubt liked having a Quebecois in the position.



The CCA lost $1,00,000 in revenue laat year.



As far as I'm concerned they can laugh about me all day long, I will still get the last laugh because they are leading the sport right down the toilet, as I said they would. It is a farcical disgrace.



So, this anonymous coward can say whatever he/she likes, they are impotent and have to hide. Spend all the time you like following me from one web forum to another, I'm flattered, you nutjob.



If you ever decide to grow a set contact me in person using your real name, coward.



Until then it's hard to take you seriously.



Time just proves me right. So let it take all the time it needs.

peeininnepean

Yeah, but you also predicted that Blanchard would set things right, didn't you? Oh, he knows about cycling, you said, he's not like Kinash. We go way back. In fact he called me up for advice! Yeah, that's it! And we talked about the future.

Ah Arzouian, as you would say, "lies, lies, lies!"

So let me get this straight, you write your repeptitive cut/paste drivel under the Fausto Coppied, and you accuse me of anonymity? You hand deliver semi-threatening pastcards to media editors and you accuse me of stalking? Ed, at least I've never had a restraining order slapped on me. You're the stalker, Ed, and everyone who's said their real name and gotten on your wrong side (is there a right side?) has gotten ample evidence of your obsessive stalking, your silly lawsuit threats, your relentless e-mails. As far as your old salaries, your silly web of shit-lies from your crappy life, the sordid details of your shameless patronage appointment to the theatre, all I can say is 30 minutes of research does not a stalker make.

Fausto Coppied

Hand delivering a Christmas card to a guy I golfed with? You take that as a threat?

See, I said you were a coward.

Anyway, we know that was almost six years ago.

We all know those charges were dropped. No self-respecting journalist would ever have filed them in the first place.

The three journalists who signed the complaint have not faired very well. They were laughed out of the business or chastised by their employer.

Peter Hadekel, former Editorial Page Editor of The Gazette was fired ONE MONTH LATER by the new publisher Larry Smith, exactly as I said he would be.

Sue Montgomery was suspended The Gazette for shoddy work. Exactly what I sad she does.

Janet Bagnall was reprimanded for plagiarizing 17 paragraphs of her column from a NY Times article.

Peter Stockland, the young, former Editor-in-Chief, who didn’t sign the complaint but orchestrated it, was bounced from the newspaper industry completely and was working at Reader's Digest. That must have been difficult for the hypocrite who told me during our round of golf in St. Anicet in August of 2001 that, "Newspapers have been my life since he was 12 and had a paper route. I never wanted to do anything else" Now he isn't doing it.

While Stockland was bounced out of newspapers, Hadekel fired and Montgomery was suspended I was hired at the 2003 Road World Championships.

These are all verifiable FACTS.

You seem to remember only my Evian fame but I was a good rider in my own right, with a number of provincial championships to my credit on road and track. I earned a living on bike in the summer and not many guys from Canada can say that going back to 1985 & 1986 .After Evian I was hired (twice) by Shaklee, directed the first and only Women’s Road World Cup in North America and was Competition Coordinator for a National championships and a World championships. Then there is 15 years of writing about the sport. You can read some of that with VeloNews online. Even if I never do anything in cycling again, which is unlikely, I have done more than most people ever will.

Anyway, back to the Canadian cycling Association. All the mistakes and failures the CCA has committed have resulted in the disaster we now have. It was all foreseeable and I pointed it out years ago. Blanchard has been a disappointment but I'm attritbuting it to Kinash's influence. That will wane. Perhaps things will improve.

We’ll wait and see.


You remain an anonymous, meaningless, impotent, lieing coward, choking on a six-year grudge. That’s got to sting!

Fausto Coppied

BTW, with regard to Blanchard, here is the email he sent me looking for the best time to call me and my contact numbers. Note the date, about two weeks after he was elected. He did indeed call.

You are the liar Peein'....

If you don't believe this I can post the header that accompanied it for verification. Or call him and ask.


From: Pierre Blanchard [mailto: pierre.blanchard1@sympatico.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 11:39 AM
To: Ed Arzouian; earzouianhotmail.com
Subject: Te parler de divers sujets


Bonjour Ed,


j'aimerais discuter avec toi de différents sujets concernant le cyclisme en général mais surtout de l'état du cyclisme au Canada.

Quand est-ce un bon temps pour toi et à quel numéro je peux te joindre?


au plaisir de se parler


Pierre

peeininnepean

Well, apparently he did. I wonder why he would do that?


They were dropped in exchange for a restraining order, which you violated a few times by using a different e-mail alias ("Uno Who" or something like that). Their hope was that the restraining order would make you go away, forget about it, choose a different target. Little did they know that you'd circled the date on your chicks-on-motorcycles calendar, because the very day the restraining order ended you spammed the whole lot of them, saying "I'm back!!" Freak show.

Like you haven't been bounced from the entire planet of journalism. Even Pedal and VeloNews won't take your stuff any more. In fact, you're even banned from public forums under Ed Arzouian. Damn, even the Media in Montreal Yahoo discussion group wants you to go away, but you won't because you insist on maintaining this "I am a media person" fantasy. You're a media groupie.


And fired within six months? Four months? What was it? The only job you ever left of your own accord, without sueing the former employer, was at some food equipment business.

Ed, the whole world laughs at you now. You keep talking about how great things were with you in the late 80's, 20 years ago, like you did anything to create it. But you were just doing what all of Canadian cycling was doing, riding the wave created by Steve Bauer and Canadian Tire. You were just an opportunist, Ed, not a visionary. You sucked at that trough as long as you could, and you've been sucking at smaller and smaller ones ever since. You're a charity case, and the only reason you're not anonymous is because you keep going on these public forums and making an ass of yourself.