Australia: 6, Canada: ZERO

Fausto Coppied

Sitting here in New York watching the 2007 Tour de France on the Versus cable television channel is proving to be a bittersweet experience.



The TV coverage is excellent, three or four hours a day, first live and then taped replayed at mid-day and in the evening. Some of the stages are shown without any ads for the last hour.



No more scenic fluff spot or unnecessary graphic, just racing, like in Europe.



How has the TV coverage been back in Canada? Probably not so good, huh? Can you imagine what it must have been like to read The Toronto Star back when Ernest Hemmingway was covering the Tour de France for them as a correspondent!



It becomes bittersweet because one of the major sponsors of the show is Cérvelo, the bike manufacturer doing so well in the pro peloton formerly of Quebec, now of Ontario. Cérvelo is a hug success story that most Canadians have probably never heard of.



Today during Stage 8 two or three on six Australians were either forced to quit or didn’t make the time gap. That still gives the Australians three or four more guys in the race than Canada.



How sad for Canadian cycling that Australia can enter six guys in the Tour de France and Canada does not have one rider in the event. They have not had a rider for years. In fact, somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but in all of Canadian cycling history we have had only three riders compete in the Tour de France, two in Yellow, Alex Stieda, Steve Bauer and Gord Fraser. Geoff Brown of Ottawa was in it for years as a mechanic.



How can Australia field so many riders and Canada so few?



I’ll tell you how, because Australia spends far more than Canada does, both from their government and from the private sector and Australia has people in place who know what they are doing.



The Canadian Cycling Association and its past President and current Board Member-at- Large, Bill Kinash are to blame. Canada has people like Lorraine Lafrenière running their cycling program who never saw a bike race before taking over the sport.



How stupid is that?



How does this happen.



What will we do about it?



Prepare to be very disappointed in China for the 2008 Olympics.

melslur

I will add a few comments, although I wish the Kinash bashing would stop (whether or not you have a point, we have heard it ad nauseum). To the extent that it goes on and on and on with the same post but different words, people just tune out and thereby ignore this site.

First, I think the TV coverage is the same in Canada as in the US. I don't know why though Bob and Al do commentary in the evening, but Phil and Paul do it in the morning. I wonder if the tought is that Yanks don't want to hear "proper" English?? (haha)

Second, and maybe you can comment, does Australia have more tracks and track cycling than Canada? That would be a source of quality riders for sure.

I'm guessing that Australians are more outdoor oriented than here in Canada. Looking at cycling forums, there definitely seems to be more Aussies and Canucks. I would also think that some of our best atheletes are pulled to hockey, and beef up for it as opposed to sliming down for cycling.

Fausto Coppied

Yes, Australia has may more tracks than Canda. I believe they have upwards of 25 or so.

They also spend aboUt thrEe time more than Canada does on Olympic sports.

And they hire knowledgable cycling people with cycling experience to run the sport there. We hire people who hvae never been to a bike race to run cycling for the country.

As for Kinash, I disagree, the message has not been understood since he is still a Board Member-at-Large and since he was on the hiring committee that hired Lorriane Lafreniere. It is Kinash who keeps pushing through these candidates who have zero cycling experience to run the cycling in Canada. Just a plain stupid policy.

melslur

I think you will agree with me on this point: As you repeat your beef about "Kinash", people get tired of the same message and feel that you "hijacked" the forum. I'm not saying that you will agree that you did "hijack" the forum, but you will agree that that is what people say. See "BC Riders" as an example.

So, the question then becomes whether you want to repeat that message over and over, and have your other points ignored by many. Ultimately that is your choice.

Fausto Coppied

Claims of highjacking a forum are a lark.

This fourm had very few Canadians on it before I came. Just like Pedal forum. Nobody went there before I did. I brought it thousands and thousands of views and hundreds of posts from others. When I was banned the Pedal forum died exactly as I predicited it would. It is now a joke, They get maybe one post a month and no responses to it. Look at Canadian cyclsit forum. I have not been there for years and it almost dead, nowhere near as active and certain not interesting as when I posted there.

Those are facts, numerically quantifiable. Go see, compare views and posts.

As for Kinash, when he returns to his hole in Regina and leaves the national cycling scene alone, I will stop pointing out his tremendous failures and utter stupidity.

melslur

Promise?

Yojimbo_

I come here to look for interesting posts from fellow Canadians.

Of course this forum has been hijacked. Look at the number of threads from Ed / Fausto, and look who and how many are responding to those threads.

Make your point, but make it once and keep it to a single thread. No wonder hardly anyone comes here.

Fausto Coppied

Don't let the facts get in the way of your erroneous opinion!

You want to look at threads and responses? Go ahead.

Go back about 9 or 10 pages and look what the posts were about and look at the replies, most have 0 or 1. The threads themselves are about nothing but equipment for sale. There is much more to cycling than equipment.

The FACT is that since I have begun posting here there are many more threads and more replies.

Yojimbo, if you don't like it, go start your own threads. You have done that only 10 times so far in two years, 5 times about equipment, 3 times about training and once even about me. So obviously, if you are starting threads about me you want to hear from me! What friggin' dumb ass. You complain about me posting too much and then when I don't you want to know why!

30-09.-2005, 11:31 AM #1 Yojimbo_ vbmenu_register("postmenu_2278475", true);
Registered User

Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Toronto Canada
Posts: 181


What Happened to Arzouzian
Or whatever his name was.....he was posting here at world record pace earlier in the summer months and he's gone all quiet

Yojimbo_

You deny that you have hijacked this forum? Pluuuuueeeese.

Go and do some searches on total number of posts since you started coming here, and then tell us the percentage that are yours.

Then go and sort out how many different posters there are. Maybe 10 if that, with everyone complaining about the rhetoric used in your posts.

I've tryto give you the benefit of the doubt - it seems to me that you have some good points to make if the reader wants to take the time to sort through the bs that comes with it. On the other hand, no-one starts a thread calling me a douchebag.

Fausto Coppied

nor wondering where you went.

Nobody cares what you have to say.

Yojimbo_

Guess what Ed?

Nobody cares what you have to say either. The thing is, I don't get all worked up about it like you do.

But seriously, I think it's time you gave it a rest, or at least tried to come up with some more reasonable posts. Like I said before, make your point, make it once, and move on.

You might find people take you more seriously that way. They sure aren't paying any attention now.

Fausto Coppied

Yojimbo, once again I can easily disprove your theory. People are definitely reading and paying attention, very close attention.

Many people here can quote me better than I can quote myself.

Here is but one recent example. I can send you a dozen more tomorrow:

Yojimbo_

Wow.

I was just telling my friend the other day that we pay too much taxes, and guess what? Within the month, the government announced a lower tax rate. I guess they were listening to me as well.

How about showing some real data? Specifically, how many letters / e-mails have you sent out to leaders in the cycling industry, and how many responses have you got. Note that responses telling you to buzz off don't count.

Still, I come back to my main premise. You seem to have good points to make, but no-one will ever listen if you can't separate the facts from the personal attacks. Haven't you learned this in your life experiences yet? I mean, how old are you now Ed - I gather that you're somewhat older than 12.

melslur

I saw today at the library an article in the French magazine L'Actualité. There was a statistic that I think 44% of Quebec adults had taken 6 or more bike rides of at least 5 km in the past year, compared to 16% for North America (that's what I recall anyway). Quebec is obviously a stone's throw from Ontario and the US, so why the difference? I don't know, but I think we all agree the cycling is more part of the culture than in Ontario. Why AUS 6, CAN 0? I would say we are generally lazy and cycling is not part of our culture.