Well done CCA!

Uboat

Great to hear that CCA and Westwood are so on the ball, and even better to see Canada's pro team getting such a large budget! Rumor is they are at half a mill in cash!!! That means everyone gets paid, from riders to staff, paid well, and they can do lots of races all over the world. Hopefully they can keep doing lots of great races, scoring lots of UCI points and trying to lead the America Tour. Symmetrics is great news for everyone and it's good to see the CCA supporting them!

http://www.symmetricscycling.com/ra..._06_report.aspx

Jon Jonson

i'm far from an expert on this stuff, but maybe the cca should consider hiring symmmetric's marketing guy/girl.
"support" is great, buy who's taking the initiative?
not trying to provoke; i'm just asking a question.

Jon Jonson

and for what it's worth, i heard lori-ann meunzner (sorry for the misspelling) on cbc's inside track today and she basically confirmed what ea has been saying all along: she had zero support at the olympics.
not only did she ride a bike that was one kilogram heavier than her competitors, she had to rely on the australian coach to provide her a disc wheel, record her training times and pump her fucking tires.
what a disgrace.

Catabolic_Jones

Can't comment on the CCA but I do think Symmetrics is excellent for Canadian cycling. It really gives the young guys incentive; there's really something there for them if they excel. Congrats to Symmetrics!

I hope to see them out again at Bastion Square. Maybe Roland Green won't show up this time.

__________________
It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.

6002

It's been this way since I can remember, and that is from the mid 70's.

Eddie Arzouian

Explain to me what the CCA and Westwood have done to make Symmetrics a success??????

It has been almost an entirley private show, as have all the other successes in CDN cycling in the past.

If anything the CCA is an impediment.

While you're at it, tell us what Kim Sebrango has done for the CCA as Marketing Director after almost a year????

CCA members get a disocunt on their HR Block tax returns and can get a measly disocunt at Delta Hotels which none of the CCA members use anyway.

One year on the job and that is the shit she has delivered.

What is the prize money for the Canada Cup Series???? Anybody?? Where are the new events?

The CDN cycling scene is a pathetic mess thanks to the legacy of Bill Kinash which inlcudes hiring non-cycling people like Steve Lacelle and Sebrango to run a sport they know nothing about.

Uboat

What is your doctor's name? I'd suggest upping or changing your meds, Ed.
My post was simply stating that Kris W on behalf of the CCA was very on the ball, helping out the team and going above and beyond the call of duty. Sounds like the Symmetrics guys were pretty impressed with him too, if you read the story.

Good day sir.

Eddie Arzouian

Yes, Symmetrics is do so well they have no place left to race in Canada worthy of the team. That's what the CCA has done. The racing scene is pathetic in Canada, probably the worst it has been in 40 years.


It is a disgrace.


Anybody that doesn't realize that is probably on meds.

Catabolic_Jones

More great news from the Symmetrics camp:



http://www.canadiancyclist.com/dailynews/May/5.26.067.25AM58.shtml

Symmetrics Cycling Hits the Track
Courtesy www.symmetricscycling.com

Canada's First UCI Track Squad

Look for the familiar yellow-and-black colours attacking velodromes around
the world! Canada's number one Pro team, Symmetrics Cycling, has expanded
its program with the news that it becomes the country's first UCI Track
Team.

With an already successful spring behind the road teams - with victories all
over the Americas, and top results at the commonwealth games - the expansion
to the track was natural. Case in point - Symmetrics already has one of
Canada's top trackies on the squad, points and scratch racer extraordinaire
Mandy Poitras (a former silver medallist at the Track Worlds, no less.)
Svein Tuft, on a whim, decided to try his hand at the 4km pursuit this past
spring at the Commonwealth Games. Riding an individual test against the
clock on the track was a natural extension for Canada's top time triallist,
and despite virtually no training for it, riding a bike for the first time
and with an abysmal start - the Langley rider still managed a respectable
time of 4:36! That time was just over the former National pursuit record
held by 1996 Olympic points race silver medallist Brian Walton - which was
broken by Tuft's compatriot Zach Bell in the same event.

Pursuiting is a discipline where Symmetrics Cycling will shine when it comes
to track racing. By having a bevy of the country's top time triallists, it
means having several riders who would excel nationally, and internationally,
in the 4-km test. With 4-5 potential individual pursuiters, that also means
assembling a team pursuit squad with a real chance of Olympic
qualification - something Canada has desperately lacked for several years.
Team pursuit is the ultimate statement of teamwork, organization and speed:
Three things the S-Team prides itself in. Shortly, team management will be
considering other Canadian athletes that can round out the team in order to
attain its pursuiting goals.

Symmetrics welcomes top track Anne-Brit Ericksen to the team, and be sure to
look for more news on this front in the coming months.

For more information about Symmetrics Cycling and to view complete race
schedules, visit www.symmetricscycling.com.


This will no doubt be another boon to Canadian cycling.

__________________
It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.

Haemoglobin

Symmetrics is great for Canadian Cycling , but it has nothing to do with the CCA. Riders succeed here in Canada despite the CCA not because of it.

Congrats to the Cunningham brothers for their work with Symmetrics and their support of the Special Olympics.

I'm off to H and R Block for my discount.....

Haemoglobin

One more thing. We just had Symmetrics here in Victoria for the Bastion Square race. Symmetrics finished 1st through 6th - Svien and Cam lapped the field twice, and the other 3 lapped the field once. This is against our Pacific Sport 'development athletes' and our local talent.

There is some sour grapes here in Victoria about what Symmetrics did, but I agree with how they raced - they raced TO WIN. There was no doubt about who was the strongest in the race. People know now who Symmetrics is and the follow up article in the Times/Colonist was further advertising for the team. The team stayed around after the race to answer questions and 6 of them rode with the kids in the Timbit Challenge. It was a real classy show.

You have to worry, though, about the lack of development riders when a team can come in and decimate the field.

Catabolic_Jones

Symmetrics were dominant, and I agree, that's how they should ride. Ride to win. I think by excelling they will only offer encouragement to young riders; they can see a future now in the sport. Other teams, such as local outfit Giga Bike / La-Z-Boy will develop into feeder teams. I also believe, perhaps naively, that Symmetrics will only encourage the formation of other trade teams which can challenge. Total Restoration out of Kelowna, and Masi Adobe in Vancouver are not bad, and on the way up.

__________________
It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.

Catabolic_Jones

I wasn't congratulating the CCA.

__________________
It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.

Eddie Arzouian

With regard to the Symmetrics Cycling Team success, it will be meaningless for Canadian cycling unless they win big, well-publicized events in CANADA, very few of which exist.



The Canadian Cycling Association has its head up its ass. It has for the last five years at least.



A year ago they hired two people, Steve Lacelle and Kim Sebrango in key positions, Exec. Director and Marketing Director, WHO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT CYCLING.



What has Kim Sebrango done in a year?????



She renewed a piss-poor agreement with Tim Horton's, an agreement so bad neither side will divulge the dollar amount.



She signed a deal for discounts at a hotel chain nobody will ever use because there are no races in downtown major cities. It is a deal for CCA board members and directors to attend meetings.



She signed a meaningless deal, again without releasing the monetary value, for discounts on tax returns.



Absolutely friggin' ridiculous.



The Canada Cup doesn't have more money than last year, it has less.



There are not more events, there are fewer.



They are not better event, there are worse events.



All this new staff in Ottawa and the sport is markedly WORSE!!!!



Sebrango should be fired immediately. Lacelle should be shuffled to a lesser position and a new Executive Director also hired.



The state of the sport of cycling in Canada is dismal at best, probably the worse it has been in 30 years. That’s the legacy of Bill Kinash, Brian Jolly and Pierre Hutsebaut.



Disaster