The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside Communications, Inc.

---

Cycling needs a czar
Editor:
Follow the money — in that lies how to fix the current demise of cycling’s bickering, infighting, counterproductive organizations. None of the organizations that supposedly have an interest in helping cycling have anything close to the power to do so — not the rider’s union, not the ProTour team organization, not the UCI, not the organizers (ASO et. al.). The power in cycling comes from the sponsors who foot the bill for the teams/riders/race organizers.

So here’s the solution: Have the lead sponsor of each of the 18 ProTour teams send a corporate vice president (not a PR person!) to a meeting of 18, with invites to the organizers and teams, and racers as observers. At the meeting the group of 18 appoint the sharpest corporate lawyer they can find as the cycling czar, funded by them, with a small staff. The czar would have power to decide who gets licenses, who gets suspended, how TV rights are negotiated/distributed, sales of pro team kit on commercial market, which teams race which races, maybe even set up a pension fund for retired racers, etc.

And the observers have one choice — agree or get out of the sport, ‘cause without the sponsors there is no pro cycling. If the ASO objects they can invite 20 Continental teams to next year’s Tour de France.

So, ProTour team sponsors, start your search for the first cycling czar and start fixing the problems instead of enduring them.

Walt Mather
Atlanta, Georgia

Get educated
Editor:
I have to smile at those who still have their heads in the sand about doping in the pro peloton. For more than a decade, I used to be one of “you.” Yes, I too used to think that there were only a few rogue cheaters out there, and all of my heroes were still clean because they were never busted.

Wow, was I naïve!

If you are genuinely interested in knowing "the whole truth and nothing but the truth" about drugs and pro cycling, my advice is to educate yourselves by reading books dedicated to the subject. Paul Kimmage’s “Rough Ride” and Willy Voet’s “Breaking the Chain” are great places to start, and they will open your eyes to the truly ugly underbelly of European pro racing in the 1980s and 1990s.

After the cold water of reality washes the fog from your eyes, you should dare to move on to David Walsh’s “From Lance to Landis” where you’ll be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the sport is really no cleaner in 2007.

Despite the recent anti-doping rhetoric from racers, team directors, sponsors, governing bodies, commentators and magazine writers, the sad, rarely mentioned fact is that an incredibly small percentage of racers are tested in any given race, and it’s still remarkably easy to pass the tests despite having doped.

As Jorg Jaksche recently confessed, “There are still lots of possibilities to cheat, without anybody proving it….Right now you have to say: Only the dumb ones get caught. Or the poor ones, who can't afford the expensive doping.”

The bottom line is that as long as the likelihood of getting away with it far exceeds the likelihood of getting caught, doped pros, and duped fans, will continue to be the majority.

Sam Johnston
Bethesda, Maryland

Maybe USA Cycling needs a new home
Editor:
Having been involved in our sport for a mere decade, I am not familiar with the factors that originally placed American cycling’s “mother ship" in Colorado Springs. Don't get me wrong. I've got no issues with Colorado; in fact I'm quite fond of the place.

However, if the mission is to identify, nurture, and support future and present American talent in the various disciplines of cycling, doesn't it make more sense to have a more geographically centralized location? The reality is that there are some exceptional spots along the Mississippi River valley that have the suitable infrastructure and geographical topography to make a good home for USA Cycling administrative and training facilities. While I am guilty of a Midwestern bias, if I had to choose right now, my vote would be LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Someone should check it out.

David S. Hartig
Dubuque, Iowa

Use common sense during roadside repairs
Editor:
I’m an advocate for cyclists' rights on the road, but you’ve also got to use common sense when riding (see Bob Mionske's latest column). Equating a bike breakdown in the road to a car breakdown is really unfair. You can’t pick a car up and move it on to the sidewalk to change a flat. It’s quite easy to do with a bike.

Whether you have the right to fix your bike in the road really won’t matter if you get hit by the driver of a car or truck who is not paying attention.

I enjoy Bob’s column and appreciate knowing my rights as a cyclist on the road, but your personal safety should come first.

Pete Foran
Glastonbury, Connecticut

---

The Mailbag is a regular department on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have read in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to webletters@insideinc.com. Please include your full name, hometown and state or nation. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Writers are encouraged to limit their submissions to one letter per month. The letters published here contain the opinions of the submitting authors and should not be viewed as reflecting the opinions, policies or positions of VeloNews.com, VeloNews magazine or our parent company, Inside Communications, Inc.