Questions for the Road National Press Conference this week

Eddie Arzouian

Here are few questions that journalists* can ask at this week's press conference in Kamloops for the Canadian National Road Cycling Championship being held next weekend.



1. Representatives of Tim Horton's might be there. It would be a good time to ask them if they think $100,000 in sponsorship for all four national cycling championships and all four national teams, men and women, is really enough, especially since $100,000 would not even be enough for the title to ONE middle-sized CDN trade team.

2. Will Tim Horton's be renewing its sponsorship which ends this year? Will they offer the same pittance or will they be more realistic in their support?

3. Is it an insult to the professionals in the sport, the riders who have spent years training and racing, coaches who have decades of experience, Technical Directors who spent years learning the sport, business men and women who have built careers and the industry, media who have spent years covering the sport to saddle them all with national management who know nothing about the sport of cycling? (e.g. Steve Lacelle and Kim Sebrango, their only qualifications seem to be that they know less about cycling than CCA President Bill Kinash which is a comfort to Bill but not good for much else.)

4. Given Ms. Sebrango's mediocre results after ten years with Soccer Canada which has about 500,000 players nation-wide, how does she expect to get better results in cycling with 5000 participants competing nation-wide? Was it just a co-incidence that two years AFTER Ms. Sebrango left Soccer Canada they signed their biggest sponsorship deal ever?

5. Given that the Nationals are part of the "new" Canada Cup has the jersey for that series been unveiled yet? Given that the series has no title sponsor nor any kind of other sponsors at all, may we suggest a white Fruit of the Loom 100% cotton T-shirt with a CCA iron-on decal? That would compliment well the level of support being offered to the series.

6. Now that the CCA Legacy Foundation was able to do in 14 months what they said would take 4 weeks, what projects will the Foundation be supporting?

7. In those 14 months did the Foundation approach any new sponsors, donors, or partners as mandated by Bill Kinash in his 2003 Annual Report?

8. Will the Foundation ever submit its own Annual Report that Bill Kinash told us was due in December 2004?

9. Why is Pierre Hutsebaut still on a Foundation member when he was fired as Director General of the CCA and resigned from the Board of the Foundation? Why are Hutsebaut and Brian Jolly still on the committee to develop Canadian cycling when their stated objectives are to base our sport in Europe? How will that help the domestic scene having our best riders in foreign races with foreign races and almost never setting foot in Canada?

10. Who will win The Arzouian Cup, the name I like to give the re-instated Official National Criterium Championship?

Please post here any questions you would like to the CCA to answer at his week's press conference. I'll be mailing out a longer list to the sports media later today in time for the press conference.

On another note, as I mentioned elsewhere, I sent out my first newsletter yesterday to about 500 email adresses. About thirty came back as no longer valid or with full boxes. Only one person so far has asked to be removed from the list. They were immediately. One person, a former CCA employee, responded with a 2300-word letter of his own agreeing with most of the stuff I mentioned. I have suggested he post his letter on this forum. In the near future I will be adding about 400 road riders to the list. If you want to get on it just email me.

Ed Arzouian

*(Mr. Arzouian has covered about 10 national championships for various publications, including the only full CDN Road Nationals coverage to appear in The Globe and Mail (August 29, 1988, Page A13)

Eddie Arzouian

Oh yes! One more questions for the Road Nationals Press conference


11. Why bother holding the Master A National championships? Isn't it a meaningless event among guys who should be racing Elite in the first place if they want a National Title?

Also, the reply I got from my first newsletter was from Paul Lemay. As per my suggestion ,the former CCA employee has posted his 2300-word reply to my message on this forum under "A critique of Ontario racing". It is worth reading.

Eddie Arzouian

12. Why did CCA President Bill Kinash wait until Lesley Tomlinson of BC was out of the country to discuss the selection the new CCA Director of Marketing Operations when Ms. Tomlinson, a CCA Board of Directors member, had requested to be on the selection committee and had been pushing for two years to fill the vacant spot?

13. Is this type of subterfuge and backroom machination the manner in which Mr. Kinash plans to get elected at the Annual General Meeting next November of out sight and mind in Whitehorse, Yukon?

Write to your Provincial Presidents and the two other appointed delegates and hold them accountable. Otherwise they will be off to the meeting in Yukon and behind their closed doors the fate of the sport for another three years will be decided by 10 guys, most of whom you have never heard of looking after their own best interests, not yours.

Catabolic_Jones

I have to confess...I'm also curious as to why the racing isn't done by category, rather than age. As a Master A, there's no way I'm going to waste my time toeing the line against guys who should be in the Elite race.

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