An open letter to [censored] Pound

bobke said:

From a Cat 4 Canadian cyclist

good reading

http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=9901

Hmm, seemed to go something like this:

"Dear Mr. Pound,

Blah, blah, blah, there were some leaks, and leaks are so much worse than the fact that the entire professional peloton is cheating. It is much more important that you wrote an article I disagree with for a newspaper than the fact that nearly every leading cyclist has now been tied to doping either by testing or through a crooked doctor. THe bottom line is this, Mr. Pound: It's time to get our priorities straight: we need to critisize the people who are trying to keep the sport clean and stop critisizing the cheaters.

Hopefully, after we have called into question every test, tarred every laboratory, and intimidated every truth-teller, my favorite athletes can get back to doing what they do best: cheating, illegally buying dangerous chemicals, injecting themselves hundreds of times a year, lying to us, and setting a terrible example to young cyclists everywhere.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
A guy who doesn't care about doping."

I hate "open letters". Write a real letter to the real person. Why write a pretend letter with the pretend hope that the guy will read it? It's a no-balls way to address one audience while pretending you're writing to another.

If you believe [censored] Pound is the one to clean up doping in sports, you're even more naive than those who think Tyler Hamilton is innocent. [censored] Pound is a [censored] spokesperson for an international regulatory agency. That is what WADA should be, a regulatory agency. Regulatory agencies are, by nature, boring, predictable, rigorous, unbiased and subject to intense public scrutiny so they can better reflect the public trust given them. WADA as led by [censored] Pound is none of these things. He answers to no one and continually undermines its credibility. If it were an agency any government really cared about he would have been gone long ago.

So go ahead and keep whining about the whiners but know that not holding WADA to a higher standard is a major part of the problem and denying this just makes the problems worse.

tcklyde said:

Hmm, seemed to go something like this:

"Dear Mr. Pound,

Blah, blah, blah, there were some leaks, and leaks are so much worse than the fact that the entire professional peloton is cheating. It is much more important that you wrote an article I disagree with for a newspaper than the fact that nearly every leading cyclist has now been tied to doping either by testing or through a crooked doctor. THe bottom line is this, Mr. Pound: It's time to get our priorities straight: we need to critisize the people who are trying to keep the sport clean and stop critisizing the cheaters.

Hopefully, after we have called into question every test, tarred every laboratory, and intimidated every truth-teller, my favorite athletes can get back to doing what they do best: cheating, illegally buying dangerous chemicals, injecting themselves hundreds of times a year, lying to us, and setting a terrible example to young cyclists everywhere.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
A guy who doesn't care about doping."

allegroman said:

If you believe [censored] Pound is the one to clean up doping in sports, you're even more naive than those who think Tyler Hamilton is innocent. [censored] Pound is a [censored] spokesperson for an international regulatory agency. That is what WADA should be, a regulatory agency. Regulatory agencies are, by nature, boring, predictable, rigorous, unbiased and subject to intense public scrutiny so they can better reflect the public trust given them. WADA as led by [censored] Pound is none of these things. He answers to no one and continually undermines its credibility. If it were an agency any government really cared about he would have been gone long ago.

So go ahead and keep whining about the whiners but know that not holding WADA to a higher standard is a major part of the problem and denying this just makes the problems worse.

Hey, I never said I think that [censored] Pound is good at what he does. The fact that we are even debating it proves that he isn't doing a good enough job. But though Pound may be flawed, trying to change the debate from doping to Pound is a diversionary tactic. And it's giving too many people the blinders they need to ignore the much more important issue: that it's time to stop ignoring doping and stop defending riders that cheat and lie.

What Pound writes in a newspaper or who leaked what to the press is small ball compared to the wholesale outsourcing of the professional peloton's circulatory system to a coven of corrupt witch doctors. Let's get our priorities straight.

Did anybody already wrotean open letter to the UCI (about corruption, leaking etc.)😉

No not an open letter to the UCI but I have emailed Pat McQuaid asking how he as President and head of the UCI will resolve this affair. Over 50 riders have been in limbo for over 53 days and this is not good for the riders sanity and the sport. This affair needs to be sorted out quickly, preferably,before the start of next season for everyone's sake, riders,fans,teams, sponsors, race organisors, press, and tv companies. Otherwise the sport we all love will become a farce.

I would urge all on this forum to put your points to him at [email hidden] or ICU, 1860 Aigle, Switzerland.

tcklyde said:

But though Pound may be flawed, trying to change the debate from doping to Pound is a diversionary tactic. And it's giving too many people the blinders they need to ignore the much more important issue: that it's time to stop ignoring doping and stop defending riders that cheat and lie.

Actually, I think the OP (and the Cat 4 rider) is right on the money. Open letters may be annoying to some but often it's the only way to try to state your opinion to a wider audience - oh wait, there are forums too.

The only way to solve the problem is from the top down! If WADA can't maintain the highest professional standard, there will never be a doping free (relatively) pro cycling community. How can Wada and the UCI expect to solve the problems and build a community (team owners, directors sportif, fans, riders, race directors, etc.) that embraces drug free sport if they can't solve their own problems? Don't you feel that they (UCI, WADA, ASO) should be accountable for setting an example?

padawan said:

Actually, I think the OP (and the Cat 4 rider) is right on the money. Open letters may be annoying to some but often it's the only way to try to state your opinion to a wider audience - oh wait, there are forums too.

WADA has their own open letter to anyone who thinks doping ought to be allowed and medically monitored. This is different though, because it's a letter to "anybody", as opposed to a letter ostensibly to a particular person.

http://www.wada-ama.org/rtecontent/document/open_letter_garnier.pdf