Rob "PomPom" Jones responds..

[Eddie Arzouian]

Rob Jones has responded but with a few lies so I will correct them:

----- Original Message ----- From: Canadian Cyclist
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 12:31 PM
Subject: Re: Rob Jones' PomPoms



Hi All,

Normally I don't respond to Ed Arzouian's rants,
EA - This is completely untrue. In fact Rob Jones would leave his own Canadian Cyclist web site and go post on the Pedal Magazine forum under an anonymous name. I know because the Pedal Magazine forum webmaster Matt Hansen would email me to let me know who I was arguing with. Matt knew the IP address of Canadian Cyclist. Between us we could figure out by writing styles (or lack of them) if it was Rob or his wife Tracy. I can post the emails from Matt Hansen proving this.

but I wanted to thank all the people who have sent e-mails of support. I have become "lucky"enough to become the latest victim of Mr Arzouian's venom. For those of you who asked who he is, a brief bio:

- raced 25 years ago (roughly)
EA - I raced from 1974 to 1988, so I stopped 17 years ago to run the Evian Team. I that time I won QC provincial championships on road, track individually and by team. I was a member of QC Provincial Team from about 1984 to 1987 and the US Olympic Development Team in 1985, '86 & '87.


- ran a successful men's team in the 80 and early 90s
EA - (Evian Team, which I co-founded, co-owned and managed was the most succesful team in Canadian cycling history. We even had a bearer of the Tour de France's Yellow Jersey racing for us. I also managed the Shaklee Men's Team at GP Beauce in 1996 and was hired full-time, until I quit, as Shaklee Men's Team Manager in California in 1997. I worked in setting up and operating the MAVIC RACE SERVICE in 1996. Was Technical Director of a popular mass rally of 2000 riders for my municipality 1999. I even managed the CDN National Team on a US tour. I wrote about 300 race reprts for varous mainstream media publications, including, The Gazette, The Globe and Mail, VeloNews, Pedal Magazine, Bicycling, probably more than Mr. Jones has written)


- has since been fired from every cycling position he has held, including the 2003 World Championships

EA - Completely untrue I left as Director of the Montreal Women's World Cup on my own, wanting nothing more to do with Daniel Manibal. In fact, I had the CCA's blessing to try and remove Manibal's sanction from UCI for breach of contract. The CCA and I worked on this and had a good case until Stephane Lebeau, co-director of the race, decided to continue with Manibal. That undermined things with the UCI)

- took the Canadian Cycling Association to court over the firing and the judge threw it out

- Montreal Gazette had a restraining order issued against him for harassment of employees (Peace Bond actually, that we both AGREED to...)

- was charged by Montreal police for fire armpossession and other charges

EA- Yes, charged but they were dropped, weren't they Rob, when the Crown realized the police had chosen to ignored a valid permit This has been discussed ad nausem on all kinds of forums in cycling and in media. Rob know this but chooses to forget it).


- currently has a vendetta against the Canadian Cycling Association after not being hired for Marketing Director position

EA- Absolutely. The CCA hired a person who failed as Ticket Sales Director for the now bankrupt Ottawa Rough Riders, with mediocre results at Soccer Canada, they signed their biggest deal two years after she left. She has ZERO cycling experience. Knows nothing about the sport, just like CCA Chief Operating Officer Steve Lacelle, that's why we get 36-km National Criteirum Championships, an insult to the riders, the sponsors, the fans, the media and oen which Rob Jones and Canadian Cyclist choose to ignore. It is time for the professional in the sport to take it back from people who do not have a clue what they are doing.



- was banned from our discussion forum (and others) for constant attacks on others

EA- If one considers pointing out incompetence as an attack, you bet.


Rob Jones
Editor
Canadian Cyclist

You will note Mr. Jones does not mention, still, why he chooses not to mention the failure at the CDN Road Nationals. Surely, Mr. Jones does not believe a 36-kms Elite Men's Criterum Championship is proper? A Point Race on the track is longer.


Nor does Mr. Jones address his sudden change of opinion in 2003 regarding the World Road Championships, the change that occured at the same time he started getting paying work from them.


Ed Arzouian wrote:

Rob Jones' PomPoms





by Ed Arzouian

Have you noticed how Canadian Cyclist magazine has failed to explain to its readers why the National Criterium Championship for Elite Men and Women were so short? Pedal Magazine mentioned it and offer an explanation (it was a lame one but they tried).


It is because Editor Rob Jones isn't really a journalist but rather he's a cheerleader.

Rob really needs a nice set of pompoms and a short little shirt. I'd go for red & white if I were him.

That long, skinny neck of his is perfect for burying his head in the sand. In that way the Editor can see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil, just like those little monkeys

He can view the world through his rose-coloured glasses and tell you all is well in Canadian cycling, at least until his annual October editorial that admits everything is a mess, which he then forgets about for another season.

Rob relies on access and contracts from the Canadian Cycling Association, so he is not about to criticize their numerous, continual and obvious errors. (Pedal Magazine gets much les form the CCA, and, surprise, they tend to be more critical) Mr. Jones did the same thing for the World Championship in 2003. You can review the change for yourself. Before February 2003 Rob was very critical of Hamilton 2003, the Worlds organizing committee, with just cause. Rob gave them a failing grade in communications and poor marks across the board. At that time Rob was angry because Hamilton 2003 had not given him a contract for their web site (it went to the same people who did the CFL site, another big surprise, huh...and it was poorly done), they weren't using many (if any) of his photos, nor allowing his to sell promotional merchandise on his CC web site.

Then lo and behold, Rob was given work for Hamilton 2003, he got to work on a CH TV (or local cable) show and almost overnight his assessment of Hamilton 2003 improved. His opinion improved so much that he even overlooked a mass resignation of the entire Event department of the organization in August, only five weeks before the event.

Don't believe me, pull out you back copies or hit the archives on your own and check it out.

You would think after all the races Rob has attended he would know, like everybody else, that a 36-km. criterium for an Elite Men's National Championship is an insulting joke to riders, fans, sponsors and the media. Hell, Les Mardis Lachine have longer races every week.

But Mr. Jones and his lovely wife Tracy, they won't tell you that.

So, take your happy pills, look at the pretty pictures of races you will never see anywhere else, read the race results that will not get posted anywhere else in the country and certainly not in the mainstream media and be happy. Tell yourselves everything is fine. Pay $50 to register in races where you can win $100 for first place. Cheer on our best Canadian riders as they ride for foreign teams in foreign races. Watch more events get cancelled. Everything is fine.

Rob, is it difficult to get the sand out of your nose when you pull your head out for air?








​

 

[Eddie Arzouian]

PS. I must thank Rob Jones, Editor of Canadian Cyclist magazine for sending out my piece entitled, "Rob Jones' PomPoms", attached to his list of undisclosed recipients". This will no doubt have increased its circulation.


Since Rob has no way of knowing who is on my list of about 430 email addresses and I have no way of knowing who is on his list (I hope it is much bigger) , I would assume while there is some crossover there are also many people on Rob's list that I never contacted in the first place.

So, Rob, thanks for getting out my message.

For those on Rob's list but not on mine, you will know who you are if you didn't get my comments when they were first sent, you can email me at [email protected] to get on my mailing list.

 

[on_eds_list]

what do we have to do to get off of your list?

 

[Eddie Arzouian]

You just have to ask to be removed.

Of about 450 email addresses about 15 people have requested to be removed and they have been immediately. About the same number have written words of encouragement including a national team member who wrote,

"Hi Ed
You are right in all your comments. Thanks for shaking up the CCA board. Hopefully it's a step in the good direction."

As you may have seen on this site a former CCA employee wrote a 2300-word response agreeing with most of my points.

Why are you only asking now about being removed for the list? I saw you were surfing this site last week?

You could have asked then.

Did you happen to notice how Rob Jones of Canadian Cyclist did not address any points raise in my comments he only posted personal criticism of me.

Do you agree that a 36kms National Elite Men's Criterium Championship is joke, an insult to the sport, the riders, the fans, the sponsors, and the media (the latter two being very few to take notice)?

Do you agree with the top two people at the Canadian CYCLING Association having NO CYCLING experience?

I really do not care at all if Rob Jones or anybody wants to attack me, it just proves they cannot argue the issues. Ignore the message go after the messenger. It changes nothing, the problems all remain.

The CCA and the sport of cycling in Canada are in very bad shape. It is getting worse. It will continue to get worse unless the professionals in the sport wake up and take it back from the amateur and neophytes.

How long must we endure the mistakes of Steve Lacelle and Kim Sebrango while they learn the complex sport? A year? Two years? And then they will fail.

We will be back to square one.

 

[BillyBlass]

Eddie, you surprised me here. You undersold yourself. A new reader my think that this is the only reason, I think of it as more fuel for the fire.

May I point out for anyone new here that you had a "vendetta" long before any marketing position at the CCA came available. That you were pointing out the deficiencies in performance from the CCA for at least two years.

- currently has a vendetta against the Canadian Cycling Association after not being hired for Marketing Director position

EA- Absolutely.

 

[Eddie Arzouian]

You are correct Billy B.


I thought of mentioning that but I decided only to address Rob's specific points.

I could also have pointed out Rob has known me for about 20 years. I mentioned to somebody else that asked that it was 25 years but it is only about 20 years. Rob and I both worked for Pedal Magazine together before he had CC. In my case I worked for Pedal before Benjamin Sadavoy even bought it from Jim Couper. I do not remember if Rob was there that early. I do not recall Rob Jones working for any mainstream newspapers and covering cycling prior to 2000, as I did.

I could have mentioned all this and more but I was trying to stay on Rob topics.

I should have pointed out, as I did in a later post, that Rob Jones only attacked the messenger. He did not address one factual point in my message.

Maybe the questions need to be asked again.

Rob, do you believe a 36-km Elite Men's National Criterium Championship is acceptable?

Do you think the top two posts at the Canadian CYCLING Association should be held by people with ZERO CYCLING EXPERIENCE? Maybe one such post being filled by somebody with ZERO CYCLING EXPERIENCE could have passed but the top two spots?

Rob has been around the sport for almost as long as I have, he must know these things to be undesirable, yet he prefers to say nothing or worse approves them in a silly, vindictive and futile attempt only to contradict me.

That is not doing any good for the sport.

 

[Higgins]

Hi Ed!

I've been coming here on and off over the past few years but have not
taken the time to post or register (call me a voyeur!) and I don't
really know who's right or who's wrong half the time because facts are always changed or intrepreted differently, but I did think Rob Jones was in cycling way before 2000 because I met him at some races in the eighties when I raced more. He even had a women's team, if I remember correctly...I think Alison Sydor and Clare Hughes raced under him but can't remember.

I don't believe in saying "one person is better than the other" in any way in life or business because it's such a loaded statement and there is no "best" person for anything, but saying he has such little cycling experience is not at all fair to him especially given the success of Canadian Cyclist. I emailed him today about what you said about his involvement in cycling, and here's what he wrote me back;

Actually, I was writing for Pedal before BAS bought it, and for
Velonews starting in 1988. I wrote before that for Explorer (they used
to do a lot more cycling stuff) in the mid-80s. I was thinking about
it and I have written for pretty much every English language magazine
in North America, Australia and the UK (except some of the new ones
that have come out in the last couple of years). I've also written for
CP, Reuters (covered the Montreal pro men World Cup in the early 90s),
Globe, Gazette, Victoria and Vancouver newspapers, Calgary Herald,
Ottawa Citizen, Hamilton Spec, Star and some others I can't
remember...

On radio CBC across the country, and on TV for CBC, Global and CTV
networks. I think I've got Ed well beat there.



This is not to start a fight or anything and I don't want some big
yelling match now, I just wanted to let you know sometimes we don't
always know what others do, and I know for a fact that Rob's been in
cycling for many years, and we've been good friends, mostly by email,
and he's a good lot.

Higgy

 

[Eddie Arzouian]

You are not reading very well Higgins, as I pointed out I have been in cycling for 33 years. I have known Rob Jones, in the sport, for about 20 years. So that certainly means he was involved prior to 2000, that co-incides with what you were saying. Read more carefully.

What I said was I do not recall Rob writing for the mainstream press (newspapers, not cycling publications) much before 2000. If he wrote for The Montreal Gazette I would love to know what year and which event.

Certainly he didn't cover the Montreal Men's World Cups for them because I did. I covered the first one in 1988 before it was a World Cup. In fact, I interviewed Greg Lemond there and later rode around the course with Greg who I had raced against in the US. He remembered me. We went around the course with Mike Belcourt, two-time CDN Olympian, who rode for me.

Rob was in the GTA but it was I who covered the '88 Road Nationals for The Globe and Mail, and as far as I know that is the ONLY time they have carried a full report on the event. Rob can correct me if I'm wrong.

Rob may have done more TV work, certainly more lately but I was on Montreal AM Live three times discussing the sport and did dozens of interviews, live and taped, TV and radio, across the country from 1989 to 1999.


I saw Rob Jones at the Toronto Bike Show in February 2003. His booth was beside the Hamilton 2003 booth I manned. The first thing Rob did when he saw me was run over and show me he had given Hamilton 2003 a failing grade in communication, all proud of that. It was BEFORE Rob started getting work form them.

Rob later took great pleasure in writing that Hamilton 2003 had no sponsors in late March 2003. So I called him up on behalf of the organization and asked who he had spoken to. I asked if he spoken to Norm Miller, Communications Director? No. I asked if he had spoke to Dana Cunningham, Director of Operations? No. I asked if he had spoken to Giuseppe Ferrara or Mike McKenna in Sales? No. I asked if he spoken to Pierre Hutsebaut, Sports Director? No. I asked if he spoken to Neil Lumsden Chief Operating Officer? No. I asked if he had spoken to me, Competition Coordinator?

So I asked how he could claim to know what was going on if he not spoken to anybody firsthand. He said he had spoken to third parties. Some journalism!

Shortly after Rob was invited down to speak to Norm Miller and Dana Cunningham. He was given some work and all of a sudden his reports on the Worlds started becoming real favourable.

I know what Rob has done. I also know that he has to know what is happening now is very poor.

Against I will ask the questions:

Rob, do you believe a 36-km Elite Men's National Criterium Championship is acceptable?

Do you think the top two posts at the Canadian CYCLING Association should be held by people with ZERO CYCLING EXPERIENCE? Maybe one such post being filled by somebody with ZERO CYCLING EXPERIENCE could have passed but the top two spots?