Talk about peaking!

Eddie Arzouian

Boy, you want to talk about peaking for a race? How about two years training for two races?!?!?

This is another keeper for my archives. All you need to do is give the guy enough rope. Patrick Van de Wile explains his racing experience:

"For the record: two seasons of very light training and four races, one of them in a state of, uh... extreme aerodynamism (lol) (what Van de Wille means here is that he was racing drunk and naked in a parking lot in the Maritimes some place after a race he was covering for Pedal Magzine. Pedal is a very liberal publication since they allow some of their witers to represent them in this fashion: very professional. We are all laughing out loud now, aren't we...) and the other in the aforementioned bear suit. But the other two were legit races, " - Patrick Van de Wille Today, June 21, 10:21 AM (while this site says AM it was in fact PM)

Two seasons of training to do two races! Pretty hectic schedule.

Yup, there is your seasoned cycling pro, Patrick Van de Wille. He knows his stuff. I would pay very close attention to his valued, experienced opinion, which, of course, he is absolutely entitled to post anywhere, unlike some us who have only spent 33 years in the sport, coached a team of ten riders, five of whom went to the Olympics and won a few provincial titles and national medal of our own.

Listen to the guy in the bear suit. He knows his stuff.....

Wonder how he did in those two races? What level were they at?

I know what you are thinking, given Van de Wille's history of past statements can we believe this one from him above? Was it one race or maybe it was a hundred? Can we really be sure of the accuracy of the statement? I do not know. Judge for yourself.

Jimmy D

Pathetic... you really are Pathetic

Eddie Arzouian

Well, thank you very much for that deep and insightful comment. I had to figure out if you were referring to the two years of training for two races or not. I found that rather pathetic while amusing at the same time.


Obviously you put a great deal of time, effort and thought into what you post.

Thanks for reading. Keep up the good work.

Van de Wille

You only find it pathetic and amusing because you have a single-focus conception of what cycling is, as you've displayed countless times to mountain bikers, cyclo-tourists, veterans, etc. Cyclists who train and compete at a high level (ie: the only ones you give a sh!t about) are a minuscule portion of the sport.

So for the record, here goes: for a period of about 5 years I commuted to work downtown by bike, enjoying every moment of the, oh, 25ish km ride. Occasionnally, once a month or so, I would join some friends for their Saturday or Sunday training rides, performing reasonably well, but my schedule was really tight and I couldn't ride much more than that. Nonetheless, it occurred to me that at close to 50km a day I was doing a fair amount of riding, so when the winter of my third year was over I took out a senior 3 license and resumed my commuting/training. That turned out to be a very busy year for me work-wise - a breakout year, in fact - but I stuck to it best I could. I entered two races that summer, finishing one but getting ridiculously dropped in the other, a nasty 6-turn crit in the north end of Montreal. I quickly realized I simply couldn't race well based on my riding regimen, and simply didn't have the time to increase it (working full-time, freelancing and swinging a near full-time load at university), so I stopped racing but kept riding and focused on my soccer.

I'm only posting this because I'm dismayed every time I read someone - and you are the expert - comment about non-competitive cyclists being idiots who "can't cut it", and implying they know nothing about cycling as a result. Had I redeployed some of the 70+ hours a week I was spending on work and school to riding, I'm sure I could have cut it fine. I just wasn't willing to, and while one can't live a life without regrets I think, looking at where I am in work and life, that I made a good decision. Others made different decisions, and I respect that.

That being said, people know what my experience is commenting and writing about the sport, and generally respect that. And if it isn't good enough for you, well, tough bananas. At least my cycling resume isn't the only one I can point to with pride.

Eddie Arzouian

"That being said, people know what my experience is commenting and writing about the sport, and generally respect that. And if it isn't good enough for you, well, tough bananas. At least my cycling resume isn't the only one I can point to with pride." Patrick Van de Wille, the Lapped Canuk.


"Tough bananas"?

Are you twelve or has dementia set in early?

You want other aspects of my resume? OK, I taught at a collegiate level. I wrote a political column for three or four months for Quebec' largest weekly newspaper The Suburban, circulation 101, 00 homes. They just published a column by me a couple weeks ago, you can find it on-line.

I left that to be the Executive Director of the Chateauguay Valley English Speaking Peoples Association. You have belittled that 3000-member organization before, but we did things like assisting people to get their kids in English schools or assuring unilingual elderly Anglophones were getting health care in English. Unimportant thing like that to you Paddy.

I also spent three years developing products in R&D for Hardt Equipment Manufacturing of Lachine. We worked with little companies like KFC and Boston Market and Costco.

I hadn't bothered mention those since this is a cycling web forum and I thought cycling experience was most germane to the conversation/discussion.

Van de Wille

Uh, looks more like a letter to the editor to me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eddie Arzouian I left that to be the Executive Director of the Chateauguay Valley English Speaking Peoples Association. You have belittled that 3000-member organization before...

Didn't you subsequently sue them, and send a sp.. uh... unsolicited e-mail to about 100 MPs and members of the media demanding an investigation into their operations? I can't remember the reason.

Ah whatever. This is becoming crap again. I give up.

sub55

How long were you in those positions?

Just curious because I know when we're reviewing resumes and see that someone has been all over the place, not staying in one job very long it tends to raise a lot of little red flags. This may not be the case with yourself and I'm not implying that it does - but from an employers perspective it can be an issue - or a reason not to hire.

Eddie Arzouian

Oh, BTW, did I mentioned I worked for my regional muncipality MRC du Haut St. Laurent, organizating a mass bike rally through our local apple orchard in 1999?


Disproving this lie or dissinformation from Van de Wille:

"You only find it pathetic and amusing because you have a single-focus conception of what cycling is, as you've displayed countless times to mountain bikers, cyclo-tourists, veterans, etc. Cyclists who train and compete at a high level (ie: the only ones you give a sh!t about) are a minuscule portion of the sport."

The Cyclopomme (CyclingApple, for those with no French) had about 2000 participated from ages 5 to 85. We have five or six different courses with different lengths and difficulties. There was a little festival afterwards.

I coordinated things between a dozen different municpalities, sponsors, private and public, federal and provincial.

Those of you with access to La Presse files can find a picture of me in an orchard taken by a writer from La Presse whom I accompanied on a pre-event bike tour to show her the course (Aug. '99)

So, once again, I caution you about believing anything Patrick Van de Wile writes. Often, as in this case, it simply is not true.

Eddie Arzouian

"Ah whatever. This is becoming </FONT>crap again. I give up." Patrick Van de Wille a.k.a. Paddy the Lapped Canuk.

See, he gives up again, and again and again.

It is a habit with him.

I, on the other hand, do not give up. I will persist until I see the changes I want. I remain undaunted.

As to Sub 55's question. I was with Hardt for about four years. Interestingly, I left to go work for the distributor of Snapple , the same guys that distributed Evian. They gave me a short -term contract with the possibility of a Snapple cycling team. The team did not pan out and the contract finished. My superior at Hardt an Israeli guy with background in the Israeli air force and CAE (Canadian company that builds flight simulators) asked me to come back to Hardt when the Snapple thing ran out.

He and I are still friends and, in fact, in 2002 when I was arrested on those Gazette claims, he saw the newspaper clipping and called (on his own and without my knowledge) my best friend and told him that eventhough he had to leave town on a business meeting, he had left cash (a couple thousand ) at his place if I needed it for bail. I didn't.

So, contrary to what Patrick and others like him often insinuate, I'm on very good terms with many former employers.

Jimmy D

Ed you are right, there was not much thought put into my response. When something is so obvious, that word just comes naturally. The bottom line is the recent direction of this forum has been instigated by yourself (that means you Ed Arzouian, incase you missed it)

I understand now how you had a hard time trying to figure out what I was talking about.

but hey, it's not about me. It's about you

Cheers!!

Eddie Arzouian

Jimmy D.,


If the direction of this fourm is being set by me it is only because people like you are not creating your own threads.

As I always say, there is absolutely nothing preventing you from skipping my threads, they are all clearly marked, and nothing preventing you creating your own.

Go ahead, give us a topic of your choosing.

You can comment on something else if you liek. There is a positive thread about developments in Newfoundland, comment on that.

Commnet on the Jet Fuel boycott of GP de Beauce, lord knows nobody else has but me and it deserves to be addressed. The biggest team in Canada skips the biggest race in Canada and nobody cares?

Jimmy D

Ed

I suggest you re-read the Jet Fuel Boycott of Beauce thread, unless my computer is the only one that shows my post, I believe I did give you some information that you did not know. I did comment on it saying that I agreed with what Dave and Kevin said. I could not add more than they already did, so no use in repeating it.

You see that Jet fuel news was old news, I am shocked you were not on top of it

Uboat

There was quite a bit of talk in some of the french papers during Beauce, too, and the first day Butler announced it.

Eddie Arzouian

OK, Jimmy D. Sorry about that. I had not remember it was you. My apologies.


So, it looks like we collaborated on that thread. It was a topic you liked and comented on. Was I wrong to bring it up?

Uboat, of course there was talk in the French newspapers, they give a damn!

Where were CC and Pedal our "national" cycling publications? Where is the CCA in getting the info out. It looks like they will hire a Marketing and Communciation person after all the big events in the country are finsihed. good timing. They could have hired me and I would have had it done Day One.

Where was all the rest of the Engloish sports media?

They all had this info but preferred to do nothing.


The Gazette could not even be bothered to send a reporter or print a photo. All we had were briefs and boxscore results. The only international Men's Road race in the country, in Quebec and the Gazette couldnot cover it.

Did Presse Canadienne translate it to English and Canadian Press carry it? I don't know.