Clueless in Rio de Janeiro & Ottawa



Fausto Coppied

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Aug 17, 2006
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Looks like the Canadian Cycling Association is once again clueless, this time in regard to the Pan Am Games.


This cluelessness now seems to extended even to High Performance Director Kris Westwood. I challenge anyone to read his explanation of things and translate what he means. Of course this stuff is WAY over the head of CCA Director General Lorraine Lafreniere. Lorraine what did Kris just explain??????

Oh, and by the way, the athletes going to the Games are also listed. The Canadian Cycling Association itself has not listed their own athletes going on their own web site….


Typical ! :


http://www.canadiancyclist.com/default2.html



June 20/07 10:00 am EDT - USA Cycling Announces Pan Am Games Team - CCA Responds to C1 Status for MTB

Posted by Editor on 6/20/07.





USA Cycling Announces Pan Am Games Team - CCA Responds to C1 Status for MTB

We had published last week a preliminary and unofficial list of Canadian athletes who will be attending the Pan Am Games (repeated below). The list did not contain any top mountain bikers because the event did not carry any UCI points ... or so we thought. USA Cycling then released its list of athletes for the Games, and stated that the mountain bike competition was a UCI event (C1), carrying ranking points. When we brought it to the attention of the CCA that there were UCI points available for mountain bike at the Games, we received an explanation from Kris Westwood, Director High Performance Programs. Below is the CCA response and the unofficial Canadian Games team.


CCA Response (Kris Westwood)

This came as a surprise as COPACI (Pan Am Games Association) had stated at last year's Pan Am congress that no UCI points would be awarded at the Games.

I checked with Peter van den Abeele at the UCI, and they used a completely different rationale to award points to Pan Am Games in mountain bike versus NOT awarding points to road and track.

The intent here is to give another points scoring opportunity to South American nations, as they have very few mountain bike events on the international calendar.

The argument for not giving points to road and track is that the Games have very limited participation through a restrictive qualification process, and there is also a Pan Am championship on the calendar so points couldn't be given to both events.

In the end, the former arguments won over the latter in mountain bike, and the opposite was the case in road and track.
(Kris, WTF are you saying????? Sounds like you had no clue before and still have no clue now. Apparently spending too much time at the CCA makes you into an idiot)





This will not affect Canada in any way. Pan Am Games are on the calendar as a C1 event, an athlete can count a maximum of five C1 events to his or her points total, and our athletes have access to a ton of C1 events. Bromont, Tremblant, Hardwood and Canmore are all C1s, as are Sea Otter, Fontana, Park City and Banner Elk on the US calendar. Sending our top athletes to Pan Ams - even if it fit in their calendar - would be unlikely to increase our points total.

I would point out that Catharine Pendrel is now the third Canadian on the UCI rankings, so she will potentially contribute to our points total, though we don't have much to worry about on the women's side with all the points Marie-Hélène is earning.



Unofficial Canadian Games Team

Men's Road Race
Dominique Rollin
Charles Dionne
Ryan McKenzie
Keven Lacombe

Men's ITT
Dominique Rollin
Eric Smith

Men's Track
Madison: Ryan McKenzie & Keven Lacombe
Individual Pursuit: Ryan McKenzie
Points: Eric Smith
Sprint: Cam Evans

No Canadian women on the track as none qualified

Women's Road Race
Anne Samplonius
Joelle Numainville

Women's ITT
Anne Samplonius
Joelle Numainville

Men's MTB
Mathieu Toulouse
Ricky Federau

Women's MTB
Catherine Pendrel


 
God, or Kris,


I'd still like to read a clearer explanation for your attempt at an excuse for being uninformed.
 
Oh, look another stupid decision by Kris Westwood, High Performance Director! There is no respect, say Euro Pros....

No respect indeed. That is what I have been telling you all along. That is what Bill Kinash has done to the sport. This is what people have been saying about Westwood.

July 4/07 8:30 pm EDT - Are Regulations Hurting Our Sport? - an Editorial
2. Alison Sydor and the Worlds. We wrote recently that Alison Sydor will be racing the Trans Alps multi-day race this month, and will therefore miss the Nationals. Now, the CCA - via the High Performance Committee - has a requirement that, with almost no exceptions, a rider must attend Nationals in order to be allowed to go to the Worlds.

In general, this is not a problem, and we agree that riders should not be skipping Nationals unless there are exceptional circumstances. Conversations with members of the HPC suggest that they are afraid of creating a precedent if they grant Alison Sydor a 'bye', and that it is therefore quite conceivable that Canada's most consistent Worlds finisher ever (14 consecutive top-5 finishes) will sit out the world championships this year - a critical year for Olympic points.

Leaving aside the fact that Canada could shoot itself in the foot by leaving a proven performer off the team, what sort of impression does this leave about loyalty?

I drove back from the St-Felicien World Cup to Montreal airport in convoy with Jose Hermida and Ralph Naef - the Multivan Merida pros. We stopped for lunch along the way, and Jose asked about what Alison is up to. I explained that she is doing some multi-day racing, and that there is a chance that she would not be allowed to go to the Worlds.

They were both shocked.

"This is not right," exclaimed Jose. "What about everything she has done for Canada in the last 14, 15 years? There is no respect."

http://www.canadiancyclist.com/default2.html

Rob Jones of Canadian Cyclist asks, "Are regulations hurting our sport?".

Of course they are Rob, The CCA is hurting our sport but 99% of the time you do nothing about it . You support the CCA because you milk them for cash.
 
The Canadian Cycling Association policy is flawed. Remember how Kinash didn’t bother to call to congratulate Lori Ann Meunzer on her 2004 Olympic Gold Medal for two months or more.



These bureaucrats have forgotten that the sport is about the athletes not themselves and their flawed policies.
 
Looks like Kris Westwood won't be making anymore of those stupid decisions now!!!!

Bye, Kris. You had a chance to do the right thing.

You didn't.

Fausto Coppied said:
Oh, look another stupid decision by Kris Westwood, High Performance Director! There is no respect, say Euro Pros....

No respect indeed. That is what I have been telling you all along. That is what Bill Kinash has done to the sport. This is what people have been saying about Westwood.

July 4/07 8:30 pm EDT - Are Regulations Hurting Our Sport? - an Editorial
2. Alison Sydor and the Worlds. We wrote recently that Alison Sydor will be racing the Trans Alps multi-day race this month, and will therefore miss the Nationals. Now, the CCA - via the High Performance Committee - has a requirement that, with almost no exceptions, a rider must attend Nationals in order to be allowed to go to the Worlds.

In general, this is not a problem, and we agree that riders should not be skipping Nationals unless there are exceptional circumstances. Conversations with members of the HPC suggest that they are afraid of creating a precedent if they grant Alison Sydor a 'bye', and that it is therefore quite conceivable that Canada's most consistent Worlds finisher ever (14 consecutive top-5 finishes) will sit out the world championships this year - a critical year for Olympic points.

Leaving aside the fact that Canada could shoot itself in the foot by leaving a proven performer off the team, what sort of impression does this leave about loyalty?

I drove back from the St-Felicien World Cup to Montreal airport in convoy with Jose Hermida and Ralph Naef - the Multivan Merida pros. We stopped for lunch along the way, and Jose asked about what Alison is up to. I explained that she is doing some multi-day racing, and that there is a chance that she would not be allowed to go to the Worlds.

They were both shocked.

"This is not right," exclaimed Jose. "What about everything she has done for Canada in the last 14, 15 years? There is no respect."

http://www.canadiancyclist.com/default2.html

Rob Jones of Canadian Cyclist asks, "Are regulations hurting our sport?".

Of course they are Rob, The CCA is hurting our sport but 99% of the time you do nothing about it . You support the CCA because you milk them for cash.
 
Fausto Coppied said:
Looks like Kris Westwood won't be making anymore of those stupid decisions now!!!!

Bye, Kris. You had a chance to do the right thing.

You didn't.
ERm.. the HP committee made the stupid decision and the HP committee chair is

(drum roll)

Louis Barbeau

also on the committee are
Luc Arsenau
Denise Kelly
Brian Cowie

Westwood and O'Donnell are staff members and as such act in an advisory capacity only. So as such DO NOT MAKE DECISIONS..... it is the committee. This is the same committee that made sure that Team Symmetrics withdrew a full team contingent from the Pan Am games.

Come on M. Arzouian. If you are going to make statements at least get your facts correct.
 
Fausto Coppied said:
I was not being that specific.


I meant in general.
Uh yah. Good thing you did not get that CEO job then

You don't know how things work at the CCA

The board and the committees run the show (ie: make policy decisions, hire staff, etc)

Staff advise the board and enact board and committee decisions

As for the Pan Am Points thing.

The same UCI congress was attended by the CCA president, AND members if the HP committee who were in attendance at the 2006 Road worlds in Austria. THEY all missed it too.. so while M. Westwood dropped the ball ... the rest of them missed it too.

So while it would have been "nice" to have some other top ranked MTB riders there. None had planned on attending anyway. Mme Premont stated earlier in the season that Pan Am games was not on her schedule. Mme Bisaro was injured. M. Kabush also declined an invite.. He was sitting near the top on UCI points anyway. The women were needing the points and won a gold (and lots of points) with Mme. Pendrel.. so no big deal.
 
Jasmineminor said:
Uh yah. Good thing you did not get that CEO job then

You don't know how things work at the CCA

The board and the committees run the show (ie: make policy decisions, hire staff, etc)

Staff advise the board and enact board and committee decisions
Yes, that's working out well for them isn't it!!!

That's one of my points the WHOLE thing is broken. You have twits running the show.

Jasmineminor said:
As for the Pan Am Points thing.

The same UCI congress was attended by the CCA president, AND members if the HP committee who were in attendance at the 2006 Road worlds in Austria. THEY all missed it too.. so while M. Westwood dropped the ball ... the rest of them missed it too.
Once again proving my point, not only was Westwood at fault, though people tried to argued that, but that entire CCA are a bunch of mediocre policy wanks.

Most of these people cannot get anything real done.

Their track record is proving that.

As long as real cyclists sit on their asses and refuse to take back their own sport, it will only sink lower, if that is still possible.

Here we go into an Olympic year and we have FEWER employees not more.

We get rid of people like Westwood who actually know somethign about the sport and keep useless deadwood like Lafreniere who is proving to be a complete bust. She will drag the sport down further.

She had accomplished nothing in almost a year except sign pick slips to fire people.

Where are those marketing skills she supposedly has? TYhere has not be one sponsor added.

Where are the contacts she claimed to have at Sport Canada and in Ottawa?????
 
Train Wreck rolls on: Westwood needs a job



The train wreck that is the Canadian Cycling Association (CCA) has dismissed its High Performance Director, Kris Westwood.



According to Canadian Cyclist, “The CCA has now seen the loss of three senior staff in the last 12 months - Chris Dodson (Director of Finance), Michel Leblanc (Mountain Bike Coach) and now Kris Westwood.” Rob Jones, the rose-colored, cheerleading Editor of CC seems to have forgotten the resignation of the Association’s last Chief Operating Officer Steve Lacelle less than a year ago and the firing/resignation of the Marketing Coordinator Kim Sebrango. And there was long-time coach Eric Van den Eynde just a few months before that.

http://www.canadiancyclist.com/default2.html



This latest cutback is amusing, ironic, sad and all too familiar.



The CCA is truly one phocked up organization. Before each important season it reduces its personnel, exactly what you do not want to be doing. This is similar to 2003 when the CCA lost its Marketing Coordinator at the time and left the post vacant for 18 months, all through the build up to the 2003 Road Worlds Championships in Hamilton and in its aftermath. Result: not one new sponsor.



Now we have the CCA getting rid of one of the few people who actually knows something about the sport in their organization. Director General Lorraine Lafreniere, like past President Bill Kinash, probably wants to get rid of anyone who knows more about cycling that she does. That’s means everybody at the CCA since Lafreniere knows nothing about the sport and may not have even seen a bike race before running the sport for the country. Only the CCA could pick such a person as its leader. Can you imagine Hockey Canada putting somebody in charge that had never been to a hockey game….? Lafreniere’s hiring is that stupid.



Here is Lafreniere trying to explain to Canadian Cyclist magazine her way out of this latest fiasco:

"It is yet another difficult decision that we have had to make." agreed Lafreniere "but the High Performance Director (position) is just not necessary to get us to Beijing. Kris was our technical expert, but that role is not needed at this point. We will be holding a full review after Beijing, and will determine our needs at that time."

"It is the coaches who will make or break us in Beijing, and you will see more technical involvement (from them)."

Lafreniere insists that this staff reduction is not about a shortage of funding, "it is not a budget consideration. Of course, it frees up some funds, but it is not about being able to afford the position."




Somebody please explain to me how canning a guy with 20 years or more experience in all facets of the sport and spreading his workload to three already busy coaches improves things for Beijing? Anybody??????



It is ridiculous!!!



Lorraine, do you think anybody is buying your ********?



All of this is amusing because only a month ago you had Westwood spewing about how on top of things the CCA is and how well things are going. He was a real team player! Now Lafreniere fires him.



You had a chance to do the right thing, Kris. You chose not to.



How long can this situation with the CCA continue?



How long can all the people with experience in the sport be sidelined while amateurs who know nothing about the sport continue to dismantle it?



Let’s hope Lorraine Lafreniere finds another job soon so she too can resign from the CCA as did her predecessor.



As for Kris Westwood, he has some training in journalism, can any of you newspaper guys find him a job…



Thanks.





08.17.07 - The CCA announced today the decision to remove the position of High Performance Director


Friday, August 17th, 2007 - The CCA announced today the decision to remove t he position of High Performance Director as part of a realignment of the High Performance sector prior to Beijing. Kris Westwood will therefore be leaving the association, effective September 30th, 2007.

“I am of course disappointed to be leaving the CCA, but I can look back with satisfaction on the progress we have made in building support systems for our elite athletes,” said Westwood. “A lot remains to be done, especially at the development level, but I’m confident that the coaches and staff in place will continue to progress in the right direction.”

The organization would like to recognize Kris for his contribution during the past few years and for his ongoing commitment to assist Canadian athletes to achieve international excellence.

His responsibilities will be transferred to the three national team coaches with the support of High Performance Manager, Sean O’Donnell. CCA’s coaches are Houshang Amiri, National Team Training Centre (West) in Victoria, BC; Vincent Jourdain, National Team Training Centre (East) in Bromont, Quebec; and, Tanya Dubnicoff, National BMX Coach, in Calgary, Alberta.



http://www.canadian-cycling.com/cca/media/news/2007/0817_hp_director.shtml