CCA follows my lead again

Fausto Coppied said:

So once again the CCA is following my suggestions. After my earlier suggestions of finally selling national team jersey to raise funds and promote the sport, re-instating the National Crit Championships, getting rid of Hutsebaut and Kinash, the CCA is now splitting off Elite Men and Women National championships from Juniors and ParaOlympic categories. Granted this is only being done for Track National but it is a start.

The same thing should happen at Road Nationals.

Who knows, if the CCA keeps listening to me they could be back in shape in a few more years.

Next step, hire me, fire Kim Sebrango. She has failed to do anything in more thna a year.

Should I send a consulting fee to the CCA?

[center][font=times new roman][font=arial]Vélodrome Caise populaire Dieppe ready to host Tim Hortons Track National Championships[/font][/font]
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[font=times new roman][font=arial]August 30, 2006,[/font][font=arial] [/font][font=arial]Dieppe, NB[/font][font=arial] – The Tim Hortons Track National Championships will be hosted from September 7 to 10, 2006 by the Vélodrome Caisse populaire Dieppe, which has been totally revamped to welcome the cream of the crop of Canadian Elite cyclists.[/font][/font]

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[font=times new roman][font=arial]Elite Tim Hortons Track National Championships [/font][/font]

[font=times new roman][font=arial]The event, organized in a partnership with the Mike’s Bike Shop Cycling Club, will take place from September 7 to 10 and will run events from 10 am to 4 pm everyday. Most qualifiers will take place in the morning with the major finals later in the afternoon. Spectators will be more than welcome to witness these very spectacular events at a rate of $2 a day, or a small 5$ for the whole event. “Track racing is always very spectacular and fun to watch. Imagine Canada’s top riders coming to the finish line at over 60 km/h shoulder to shoulder: how much better can it get?” says National Cycling Centre – Atlantic Canada’s head coach, Luc Arseneau. “Spectators will also have the chance to witness local talent. Among them, Sacha Leblanc (Moncton, NB), Ryan Belliveau (Campbellton, NB), Dustin MacBurnie (Truro, NS) and Craig de Gier (Sackville, NS) will battle it out and represent our region very well.”[/font][/font]

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[font=times new roman][font=arial]This year’s Tim Hortons Championships are run under a new format. With increasing participation, a decision was recently taken by the Canadian Cycling Association to split the junior, master and paralympic categories up from the elite.This being the reason why the Dieppe event will showcase the elite men and women exclusively.[/font][/font]

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[font=times new roman][font=arial]Face-lift given to the Vélodrome Caisse populaire Dieppe[/font][/font]

[font=times new roman][font=arial]Thanks to the great contribution of the City of Dieppe, incredible support of the volunteers and the cycling community, the Vélodrome Caisse populaire Dieppe has been totally revamped during the summer. Local cyclists are now glad to hop on the 250 m track once again to do their final preparation for the event.[/font][font=arial] [/font][/font]

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[font=times new roman][font=arial]According to the organizing committee, this was a major need to ensure the success of the event: “The last couple of weeks have been a few stressful, but it’s now looking really great. We are ready to welcome the best elite riders in the country” says event organizer Andrew Scott. Among those riders, we can count on the presence of number one scratch rider in the world, Gina Grain (Victoria, BC). Commonwealth Games’ silver and bronze medalist Travis Smith (Calgary, AB) will also be present.[/font][/font]

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[font=times new roman][font=arial]For further information on the event and results, please visit the official web site at atlanticcyclingcentre.comtrack2006Open ↗.[/font][/font]

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Seriously Ed, go home to Albania and start an Olympic program. They have nothing and desperately need you. By the way, how can you be an authority at anything when you come from that country? Do they have bikes there? Until you can develop an elite program in your home country you have no authority anywhere else. Maybe it's that they won't let you back. Did grandpa get kicked out, forcing the move to the US? Then you outlasted your welcome there and were forced to find immigrate to a new country. It's the a generational sin flowing through the blood lines of the males, quickly annoying everyone around them, though it isn't their fault, and being forced to flee to a territory where they are not known. Leave Ed, you are only a leach on the vibrancy of society.

Prairie Boy said:

Seriously Ed, go home to Albania and start an Olympic program. They have nothing and desperately need you. By the way, how can you be an authority at anything when you come from that country? Do they have bikes there? Until you can develop an elite program in your home country you have no authority anywhere else. Maybe it's that they won't let you back. Did grandpa get kicked out, forcing the move to the US? Then you outlasted your welcome there and were forced to find immigrate to a new country. It's the a generational sin flowing through the blood lines of the males, quickly annoying everyone around them, though it isn't their fault, and being forced to flee to a territory where they are not known. Leave Ed, you are only a leach on the vibrancy of society.

Good God, man, you are an ignoramus aren't you!

Where to begin?

First, I may be a "leech" but I'm certainly not a "leach", I do not percolate to separate soluble components. Check it out, numbnuts.

Secondly, my family is from Armenia, you [censored], not Albania.

Third, they left because Turkish Muslims were hacking off their heads and using them atop poles to line the roads where are our women and children were being forced marched into the desert to die.

Fourth, what do you all day out there on the prairie, chase cute heifers around the field and screw them? Are you a proud product of the University of Saskatchewan? Do they instruct you on English grammar in that province? Or are you 12 years old and you jump on the computer when you mom is not looking?

Or are you Bill Kinash which would explain everything!

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Hello Ed,

I have taken the liberty of going through your job application. You will find the corrections in brackets, many, many brackets. I would think that someone with a journalism degree would write better, or at least edit his work. You obviously don't want the job, sending in [censored] like that.

And you are missing the point with my last note. You come from a country with no cycling, which, by your way of thinking, disqualifies you as a person able to put forth opinions about cycling. You come from a family that is continually on the move, unable to put down roots, why is that? You are unable to put forth a persuasive argument (name calling is not an argument). You are not wanted in Canada or in the CCA. You haven't been involved in a generation; you are out of touch and in capable of providing any sort of value added service. What happened 20 years ago does not translate to being an effective asset today. Just look at your inability to write a job application.

From: Ed Arzouian [mailto:edatarzouian.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 5:19 PM
To: 'blanchardatcanadian-cycling.com'; 'andrewatBicycle.ns.ca'; 'ahestlerataol.com'; 'hershoffatsympatico.ca'; 'kevanatthebikeshop.com'; 'Tolkampatcanfor.ca'; 'lestomlinsonataol.com'
Cc: 'steve.lacelleatcanadian-cycling.com'
Subject: CEO Selection Committee

August 23, 2006

To the Canadian Cycling Association,

Again, for the sixth time in three years (Hutsebaut, Mercier, Hutsebaut, Stewart & Lacelle, for those unaware of the background), the CCA finds itself in need of administrative leadership and looking for a new Executive Director or CEO/COO.

Again, I will offer my services to you, the sport and the country.

Again the CCA has the opportunity to do the right thing, to hire someone with the necessary experience in cycling, management and with a passion for the sport untainted by personal commercial interests or insider politics.

That being said, there is little reason to expect the CCA to make a good choice. (you may want to rewrite this sentence, unless you are a simple minded journalist) After all you allowed the biggest cycling event in the country in 29 years to be run by people without any cycling experience whatsoever (Braley, Lumsden & Co.). You elected a President for your association with a track record of leading the long-time worst cycling province in the nation. He, in turn, filled the two top positions in the governing body of the sport in the country with individuals who had no cycling experience either.

It is time for cyclists to take to back their sport.

It is time for radical change.

I assume Bret Stewart will be given some consideration for this position (you need to add some punctuation, maybe a comma) as he should. Brett is a valuable asset to the CCA and does a good job. That being said, Brett was also on staff for the last 10 years or so and witnessed the decline of the CCA and either could do nothing about it or chose not to. It would be the status quo at best if he was (was/were, check the to make sure you use the proper vocabulary, you [censored] moron) to take charge. BTW, The same is true of Lister Farrar another likely candidate.

On the other hand, I would want to work with Brett. In fact, given that is it unlikely the CCA could afford to hire both a CEO/Executive Director and Events/Public Relations person, as I believe it eventually should, I would want to divide the current tasks and mandate of the CEO with Brett Stewart.

I have been proposing this change to the CCA for awhile. (I don’t know about Armenia, but in this country we use two words “a while”, you loser)

The current job of the CEO should be divided with both people reporting to the Board of Directors. There is the need for a person in the office who is familiar with the procedural work and who has well-established contacts with Sport Canada and the provinces. There should be some continuity, especially given how many changes there have been at the CCA in the last few years. Yet there has to be someone from the office to represent it at major events and to look after CCA interests. One person cannot do it all and the CCA lacks funds to hire two more people.

That would be the first change I would implement.

I would also fire Kim Sebrango. She has done nothing of consequence in more than a year on the job. She doesn’t know the sport and she cannot speak passionately about it so how can she sell it.

My focus would be to revive inner-city and point-to-point road racing. (now this is really simple, even you should understand it, look at the spacing between the words!) That is key to reviving the sport. That is not to say I would neglect MTB (I raced MTB in the past) or (again you have the spacing issue, what, are you stupid?) BMX but anybody that thinks those disciplines will save the sport cannot read the writing on the wall. They will only further marginalize the sport. Media, sponsors and the spectators want to see pro road racing.

Grassroots development is not the key either. Soccer Canada has 500,000 grassroots participants yet it is in worse shape here commercially than cycling and Canada is ranked worse in international competition in soccer than in cycling.

Show the youth pro racing and they will want to race. It really is that simple.

Another objective would be to have each province hold at least one major ( i.e. National or International sanctioned) event per year. If a province is not up to doing it on its own the CCA should assist until the province can.

As for experience, after 34 years of involvement at every level of the sport in every (spacing, spacing, spacing, this is getting real tedious) capacity (tourist, racer, mechanic, coach, manager, writer, photographer, organizer, sponsor, retail (stupid mistakes are what cost you the real jobs and keep you in that position of custodian) sales, wholesale, manufacturing and more, everything except commissaire), I am obviously qualified. The CCA’s new President has known me for more than 20 years, so he can vouch for my experience. As far as I know, I’m (you really are Dumb!) the only person in all of Canada (again, you repeat the same mistakes over and over) that has worked for a Road World Cup (1999) and a World Road Championships (2003).

I am fluently bilingual. I have years of experience in the not-for-profit sector and in dealing with all levels of government (Municipal, Provincial and Federal). In fact, I am currently working with all these three levels and obtaining their funding at my current employment.

So, once again the CCA has a chance to do the right thing and bring a cyclist to run cycling, or not. Either way I will continue to voice my opinion on how to improve the sport in Canada. I welcome discussion on any of these topics, either public or private

Sincerely,

Ed Arzouian

PS For the sake of transparency, something else currently lacking at the CCA, this letter has been posted on www.cyclingforums.com
(you may want to rewrite this sentence, unless you are a simple minded journalist)

Prairie Child, you are truly an idiot. I was born in the US and raised in Canada. I have never set foot in Armenian so far, neither did my father. I did live for 13 years at the same address in downtown Montreal. My French Canadian family arrived in Canada in 1648 and was one of the founding families of the town I grew up in. One of my distant ancestors, Pierre Cadillac de la Mothe, founded the city of Detroit (des Etroits) How's that for roots, you ignoramus!

Do you have a point anywhere?

Last time I looked 2003 was only three years ago. I organized the CDN Road Nationals that year and wrote for VeloNews, the Women’s World Cup in 1999, managed the Shaklee Pro team in 1997, worked for MAVIC in 1996 & 1995, ran Evian & Club Cycliste de Montreal from 1988 to 1993, raced 1974 to 1988. I even managed a Canadian National Team project in 1989, I was 28 years old!

If you think about it I have never stop being involved in the sport since I have been 12 years old. I’m now 45.

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...ZZZ... ...ZZZ... ...drool...

God again said:

...ZZZ... ...ZZZ... ...drool...

You know they have medication that care take care of some of the mess. Does your drool sort of run out the corner of your mouth, down your chin and onto your shirt?

It must be very attractive.

Fausto Coppied said:

Prairie Child, you are truly an idiot. I was born in the US and raised in Canada. I have never set foot in Armenian so far, neither did my father. I did live for 13 years at the same address in downtown Montreal. My French Canadian family arrived in Canada in 1648 and was one of the founding families of the town I grew up in. One of my distant ancestors, Pierre Cadillac de la Mothe, founded the city of Detroit (des Etroits) How's that for roots, you ignoramus!

Do you have a point anywhere?

Last time I looked 2003 was only three years ago. I organized the CDN Road Nationals that year and wrote for VeloNews, the Women’s World Cup in 1999, managed the Shaklee Pro team in 1997, worked for MAVIC in 1996 & 1995, ran Evian & Club Cycliste de Montreal from 1988 to 1993, raced 1974 to 1988. I even managed a Canadian National Team project in 1989, I was 28 years old!

If you think about it I have never stop being involved in the sport since I have been 12 years old. I’m now 45.

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You’re the idiot who ties together two items that don't relate and in no way can be used to surmise an argument. That is the point of bringing up Armenia. The subtleties are lost on you. Your rules of arguments change depending on the day, where you live, what color your clothes are, etc. You want to attack people on a point, but are unable to defend. I make some spelling mistakes, but look at what you have to offer. It makes one think of the story of glass houses.

What your application proves is that you cannot work with people, you are offensive and you are not particularly smart. You do have some nice work history in cycling, but you have been fired for …? It is likely the personality that comes back to haunt you. You may have the ability, you probably had the ability if you did what you said, but then there is that abrasive personality.

And I would still like to know what the point is and why you think you should contact CCA sponsors in an attempt to persuade them from giving money to help cycling? Does that build the sport?

Fausto Coppied said:

Prairie Child, you are truly an idiot. I was born in the US and raised in Canada. I have never set foot in Armenian so far, neither did my father. I did live for 13 years at the same address in downtown Montreal. My French Canadian family arrived in Canada in 1648 and was one of the founding families of the town I grew up in. One of my distant ancestors, Pierre Cadillac de la Mothe, founded the city of Detroit (des Etroits) How's that for roots, you ignoramus!

Do you have a point anywhere?

Last time I looked 2003 was only three years ago. I organized the CDN Road Nationals that year and wrote for VeloNews, the Women’s World Cup in 1999, managed the Shaklee Pro team in 1997, worked for MAVIC in 1996 & 1995, ran Evian & Club Cycliste de Montreal from 1988 to 1993, raced 1974 to 1988. I even managed a Canadian National Team project in 1989, I was 28 years old!

If you think about it I have never stop being involved in the sport since I have been 12 years old. I’m now 45.

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Careful Edvain ... say too much and people start checking for the other side of the story. Like - how long exactly did you "manage" the Shaklee team (careful here or I may have to encourage some of the team to respond); wrote for VeloNews - was that the one piece you submitted that slammed Masters? How much did they pay you?

You really have to stop bragging about the Canadian Roads in Hamilton - seeing how you are taking credit for it ... it was a disaster from start to finish.

So claiming to be an Albino and then denying that you really are is what?

Shall we look at your deep roots or are you really hoping no one will actually separate out the fact from the fantasy?

... come to think of it, looking at that resume a red flag goes up - "Can't hold a job"

sub55 said:

Careful Edvain ... say too much and people start checking for the other side of the story. Like - how long exactly did you "manage" the Shaklee team (careful here or I may have to encourage some of the team to respond); wrote for VeloNews - was that the one piece you submitted that slammed Masters? How much did they pay you?

You really have to stop bragging about the Canadian Roads in Hamilton - seeing how you are taking credit for it ... it was a disaster from start to finish.

So claiming to be an Albino and then denying that you really are is what?

Shall we look at your deep roots or are you really hoping no one will actually separate out the fact from the fantasy?

... come to think of it, looking at that resume a red flag goes up - "Can't hold a job"

Ahh, another fool.

I managed Shaklee at GP Beauce in 1996 and then managed then for about five months in 1997 in California, North Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas and Georgia.

I wrote about six or seen weekly blogs for VeloNews, they are all on-line I think.

The Nationals in Hamilton went OK, especially in downtown Hamilton. If you had problems in outside of Hamilton that was not completely up to our organization but also Ste-Catharines Cycling Club. I thought they did a good job considering the circumstance.

You probably do not know but Hamilton was supposed to hold the Nationals in 2002 and they had to bail on them. At least we got them done and they drew over 10,000 spectators and excellent media coverage. You probably also do not know that those 2003 Nationals had to be held under different UCI rules and required Teams for Elite Men and Women and foreign riders unlike any other CDN nationals before or since.

I never claim to be Albanian you dolt, I am half-Armenian

You look as deep as you want into my credentials because actually the more the look the better the accomplishments are if you have any idea of the troubles behinds the scenes we always had to face.

As for the frequent turnover, that's the nature of the sport and the employment. Unless you're with an association or a bureaucrat there are no long term cycling jobs in Canada: none. Since the CCA had six Executive Directors in three years I guess that proves my case, even the CCA jobs are short-term.

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Prairie Boy said:

And I would still like to know what the point is and why you think you should contact CCA sponsors in an attempt to persuade them from giving money to help cycling? Does that build the sport?

The point is very simple, the CCA gave/gives away the sport for nothing.

I believe it is better to say “no” to a sponsor than sell all the sport for [censored].

Look at it this way, if I offered you $5 for your sister you'd probably tell me to [censored]. If I offered you $1,000,000 for your sister you'd probably give it some thought and at least check to see if she was amendable to the idea.

So, the moral of the story is, if you love and cherish the sport of cycling as much as your sister, then you should not sell it for peanuts, otherwise the sport becomes a cheap [censored], sort of like your sister....(you do love your sisters out there in SK, don’t you, since it gets awful lonely in the winter out there in those earthen hollows you live in).

Am I getting through yet, my little prairie dog?

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Oh, and in case you misssed the topic here, it is that the CCA has decided to split off Elite Men and Elite Women from the rest of the categories for Track Nationals. I have been advocating that for 5 years, especially with regard to getting the Masters away from the other categories for the Road Nationals.

It took the CCA five years but now they get it.

Do you?

Fausto Coppied said:

The point is very simple, the CCA gave/gives away the sport for nothing.

I believe it is better to say “no” to a sponsor than sell all the sport for [censored].

Look at it this way, if I offered you $5 for your sister you'd probably tell me to [censored]. If I offered you $1,000,000 for your sister you'd probably give it some thought and at least check to see if she was amendable to the idea.

So, the moral of the story is, if you love and cherish the sport of cycling as much as your sister, then you should not sell it for peanuts, otherwise the sport becomes a cheap [censored], sort of like your sister....(you do love your sisters out there in SK, don’t you, since it gets awful lonely in the winter out there in those earthen hollows you live in).

Am I getting through yet, my little prairie dog?

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What you're getting through, you simple minded idiot, is that you are a simple minded idiot who has no insight, lacks intelligence, can't hold a job, spews lies, hires prostitutes, needs a gun for protection, sticks his nose in where it's not wanted, can't see the light, can't make an argument, is self loathing, feels sad because he was publicly fired, is hanging onto anything for publicity, wants people to remember his name because there will be no heritage to pass on. When you have something of consequence to say about the CCA or Canadian cycling say it. Your argumentative drivel does nothing for the sport many of us love. You add no value to cycling. Go home to Armenia; maybe some terrorists will welcome you.

Why does this thread exist? Oh - oh ya, Ed started it. And it has devolved into personal attacks and odd, half-fictional defenses. This is so tiring.

Prairie Boy, you seem to have a thin grasp of the ethnic dynamics of Ed in particular and southeastern Europe in general. I suggest that subject be dropped. Not a whole lot of Armenian terrorism going on, frankly. And Albania is a different place entirely. And Ed is separated from Armenia by as many generations as separate about 90% of Canadians from their places of ethnic origin. As a fellow pure-laine mix, I sympathize with Ed on this point.

As for Ed, your characterization of your work history in cycling as par for the course strikes me as sugar-coating it a fair bit, but that's a subject that's been explored ad nauseam. But there are people in cycling who, while they've gone from project to project, have not seen them end in bitterness, recriminations, and lawsuits.

Van de Wille said:

Why does this thread exist? Oh - oh ya, Ed started it. And it has devolved into personal attacks and odd, half-fictional defenses. This is so tiring.

Prairie Boy, you seem to have a thin grasp of the ethnic dynamics of Ed in particular and southeastern Europe in general. I suggest that subject be dropped. Not a whole lot of Armenian terrorism going on, frankly. And Albania is a different place entirely. And Ed is separated from Armenia by as many generations as separate about 90% of Canadians from their places of ethnic origin. As a fellow pure-laine mix, I sympathize with Ed on this point.

As for Ed, your characterization of your work history in cycling as par for the course strikes me as sugar-coating it a fair bit, but that's a subject that's been explored ad nauseam. But there are people in cycling who, while they've gone from project to project, have not seen them end in bitterness, recriminations, and lawsuits.

Ed you never said how much you got paid by VeloNews? How much?

... and while we're at it - why don't you get one of the Shaklee boys to post what a great manager you were - I double dare you. Hence the 5 month contract.

Yes he does like to engage in misdirection doesn't he.

Sure, ask Wolhberg about Shaklee, he knows what a ridiculous hellhole it was, the way Frank kept riders & management wondering if they would get paid and a masseuse thinking she knew the sport because she slept with rider!

I had a six month contract with Scoscia didn't honor.

I did the blogs for VeloNews as part of my job with Hamilton 2003. I thought them up, got them approved and sold the idea to VeloNews because Hamilton 2003 was doing such a [censored]-poor job with media relations.

Do you think any cycling publication in North America pays much! Pedal will give you about half a penny a word. Canadian Cyclist won't take anything Rob doesn't write. VeoNews gets most of its stuff for free to promote the races, riders, and races.

You really have almost no idea how the sport works here do you?

As for the little Prairie Dog, I must shake my head in sheer disbelief at his stupidity. Pul the hay out of your [censored], little fella and go east for awhile before it is too late.

Fausto Coppied said:

I had a six month contract with Scoscia didn't honor.

Eh? Habla ingles? Did Scoscia not honor it. or you not honor it? I can't make it out. And don't get on my case please: I'm just curious. I have no idea how Shaklee played out internally.

Fausto Coppied said:

I did the blogs for VeloNews as part of my job with Hamilton 2003. I thought them up, got them approved and sold the idea to VeloNews because Hamilton 2003 was doing such a [censored]-poor job with media relations.

Who approved them? Approving the idea of giving you carte blanche to write whatever you wanted as part of the organizing team was certainly one of those [censored]-poor decisions you refer to. I don't say this because it's you: as comms director for an event like that, I would insist on seeing every tidbit that leaves a computer with the press as a destination, and your VeloNews dust-up re: veterans would never have happened. Or did you misconstrue "approval" and kinda take the ball and run with it?

Fausto Coppied said:

Do you think any cycling publication in North America pays much! Pedal will give you about half a penny a word. Canadian Cyclist won't take anything Rob doesn't write. VeoNews gets most of its stuff for free to promote the races, riders, and races.

I beg to differ on this one. Of course nobody pays a lot, and I have no idea about Canadian Cyclist, but every time I wrote for any other publication, including VeloNews and Pedal, I was paid in real dollars and the checks didn't bounce. Then again, I wasn't working for any organizations at the time. As you know, I firmly believe that journalists shouldn't do that kinda stuff, and that cycling would be further along if everyone involved - everyone - stuck to the job they're best at doing and left other stuff to other people. Would feel more professional. I don't think VeloNews gets most of its stuff for free, although their policy might have prevented them from paying someone who was part of an organization (which I would understand and respect).

Fausto Coppied said:

Sure, ask Wolhberg about Shaklee, he knows what a ridiculous hellhole it was, the way Frank kept riders & management wondering if they would get paid and a masseuse thinking she knew the sport because she slept with rider!

I had a six month contract with Scoscia didn't honor.

I did the blogs for VeloNews as part of my job with Hamilton 2003. I thought them up, got them approved and sold the idea to VeloNews because Hamilton 2003 was doing such a [censored]-poor job with media relations.

Do you think any cycling publication in North America pays much! Pedal will give you about half a penny a word. Canadian Cyclist won't take anything Rob doesn't write. VeoNews gets most of its stuff for free to promote the races, riders, and races.

You really have almost no idea how the sport works here do you?

As for the little Prairie Dog, I must shake my head in sheer disbelief at his stupidity. Pul the hay out of your [censored], little fella and go east for awhile before it is too late.

This is fun Ed. Do I have to talk about your spelling again? What school did you go to?

I'll let Patrick deal with the cycling specific arguments because he knows his stuff, but I'd like to address your inability to think clearly. How do you suppose that the east is a better place? Again, you are making ridicules statements. Is that because of your Armenian terrorist background? If we take you as an example of the ills of the east and, say, myself, as an example of the west, which side do you think comes out on top? Here is just a hint: East - trouble with the law; West - no trouble with the law; East - requires the service of paid women; West - married with a family; East - can't hold a job, fired many times; West - great employment history, never fired. Should I go on?

The fact that you make the absurd statements brings doubt to the cycling specific statements. Trusted in little, trusted in big. Use that noggin old man, or at least use the spell check.

Van de Wille said:

Eh? Habla ingles? Did Scoscia not honor it. or you not honor it? I can't make it out. And don't get on my case please: I'm just curious. I have no idea how Shaklee played out internally.

Who approved them? Approving the idea of giving you carte blanche to write whatever you wanted as part of the organizing team was certainly one of those [censored]-poor decisions you refer to. I don't say this because it's you: as comms director for an event like that, I would insist on seeing every tidbit that leaves a computer with the press as a destination, and your VeloNews dust-up re: veterans would never have happened. Or did you misconstrue "approval" and kinda take the ball and run with it?

I beg to differ on this one. Of course nobody pays a lot, and I have no idea about Canadian Cyclist, but every time I wrote for any other publication, including VeloNews and Pedal, I was paid in real dollars and the checks didn't bounce. Then again, I wasn't working for any organizations at the time. As you know, I firmly believe that journalists shouldn't do that kinda stuff, and that cycling would be further along if everyone involved - everyone - stuck to the job they're best at doing and left other stuff to other people. Would feel more professional. I don't think VeloNews gets most of its stuff for free, although their policy might have prevented them from paying someone who was part of an organization (which I would understand and respect).

Patrick, with regard to Shaklee, Scoscia was constantly breaking deals or re-evaluating them in mid course. For instance, Frank, who is lawyer, has his own interpretation of a daily stipend.

A stipend is for $X PER DAY regardless of how much you spend or do not spend. Expenses are different. Well, Scoscia originally agreed to pay a daily stipend, something like $25 per day EVERY day, didn't matter if you spent 5 cents or $50 per day for food & drink. Well, when it came time to pay 30 days on the road or so, about $750, US Frank wanted receipts and would only pay receipts, not the $25/day.

Frank was big on billeting riders, putting his pro riders into private homes rather than a hotel/motel. What a pain in the ass that was. In Santa Rosa, CA it took at least an hour each morning and afternoon to pick everybody up for an event because they were spread all over town. So was the equipment so the mechanic could not check it out. [censored]' chaos. Bush league.

Redlands Stage Race Frank and his mechanic do not have one spare bike for a team of eight guys and five days of racing or so. I had to borrow bikes from locals to cover the team. Wohlberg probably lost Redlands overall because of a mechanical in an early road race and no spare bike his size.

Chaos.

Furthermore, there was not one week Scoscia paid on time, not one.

As for the VeloNews blogs, Norm Miller the unilingual Communications director for the 2003 Road World Cycling championships (official UCI languages French and English) in bilingual Canada APPROVED EVERY BLOG THAT WENT OUT. Often Hutsebaut, Miller and Lumsden reviewed them. NOT ONE PIECE WAS SENT OUT WITHOUT APPROVAL.

To make matters more interesting the VeloNews editor, Charles Pelkey, kept threatening to cancel the pieces if they did not deliver more dirt on the problems of the organization, so I had to walk a fine line between writing what Hamilton 2003 wanted to see and what VeloNews wanted to published.

Do not question my journalistic ethics when I was working the capacity of media relations at that point for Hamilton 2003. If I had not taken the initiative Hamilton 2003 would have gotten only bad PR. Their idea of media coverage was getting a piece in The Hamilton Spectator. They did not care about anywhere else!

Then when I did deliver the dirt that Pelkey and VeloNews wanted they didn't use it.

Few people can comment on the 2003 Road World because you cannot imagine how screwed up everything was unless you were inside. Why do you think the Event Coordinator and her two staffers ALL QUIT just a month before the event? It was near impossible to work for Neil Lumsden, David Braley and Dana Cunningham. Remember not one of these people HAD EVER WORKED ON A CYCLING RACE BEFORE and they were entrusted with the world championships!!!!

Well, regarding Shaklee I have no context whatsoever. I will say that you do have a tendency to label anything less than two fully-decked out upscale team cars, a plethora of spare equipment, and money out the wazoo as "bush league". By that standard, much of North American racing over the past 50 years has been bush-league. You should realize your own experience with Evian was not representative of how things are normally done (as evidence, when your lead sponsor dropped it couldn't be sustained). So even though you got fine press and good results there obviously wasn't what a sponsor would define as value in it. I think you should stop thinking of everything as "bush-league" and "unprofessional" and Evian as "normal," and expecting another Evian (or a handful) to materialize. I seem to remember that your team lasted 3 years under Evian, at the height of Canadian Tire's investment, and survived less than 2 years once Evian pulled out. Is that correct? It speaks to how tough these things are to put together, and how difficult to sustain they are. That a team like Symmetrics can do now what they're doing, with the Canadian calendar looking like it does, is I think even more remarkable. But cycling has always been hand-to-mouth: I remember Karl Maxon driving to Sag-Lac-St-Jean in his beat-up white station wagon, pulling his bike out from it, wearing a plain white jersey to race, and pounding everyone's butt like pemmican.

There also seems to be a discrepency between "my stuff was approved" and "I had to toe a line between what Hamilton 03 wanted and what VeloNews wanted." My reaction would have been screw VeloNews, given that their eventual coverage of the event itself would have been a gimme come crunch time. You think they wouldn't cover the event? The Worlds? In Hamilton? This is an example of a time when more was definitely not better.