Norrene, I have never met Mr. Bisceglia, and have no idea about him or his
passion for cycling. I am glad to hear he is supportive of your efforts, he
should be!!! You are doing something special that is helping the sport.
My comments are more from dealing with the mountain bike side of the sport.
Their attitudes and comments about racing in Oregon have not changed in the
last 6 months. These are people that are still causing more people to leave
USAC and since I see no change in the way they are dealing with things, it
is hard for me to believe things are changing. That does not mean that they
are not changing, only that I have not seen it!!! These people that we deal
with, have said very unkind things about Oregon racing in the past year.
Each person must judge these matters based on their own dealings with these
people, I am expressing my opinions based on actual contact with NORBA
people that work in Colorado and come out to the races. Sometimes I am
amazed at what these people have said.
Now, I know that most people have very little knowledge of trials, but since
observed trials is part of NORBA, I would hope that the people at NORBA,
(that I know have been dealing with trials for years) would at least try to
promote it a little bit. Here is what happened at the NORBA National
Championship Finals. A person from the NORBA home office was watching some
of the trials event with a big sponsor of cycling, This person asked for
some information about the trials. His answer was it is a small cultic
group that we allow to come here and do a national championship, we really
have nothing to do with it. Now he could have used this as a chance to
explain the details of trials and how it can be used in demos at schools and
other places to promote cycling. This might have even lead to this company
supporting trials.
It was this same person that also refused to look at the rule book at
another National Championship Final that caused Jeremy to lose his title.
It was only by going over his head that Jeremy got his title back, and then
it shows him as a co-champion because they did not want to take the title
away from the guy Jeremy had soundly beat. The point is I had tried to get
him to read the rule book (I had with me) and he refused, because Jeremy was
so new to the sport.
Now, I know Trials is not for everyone, but it sure could have been used to
attract people to cycling. And even more important, the national governing
body of a sport should be supportive to that sport in front of potential
sponsors.
You know, in a very real way this person was right!!! His policies have led
to the dropping of Trials from the National Championship Series. This
caused sponsors to drop trials riders, which leads to a smaller amount of
trials riders. Another fact was NORBA gave no monetary sport to trials at
nationals, in fact the top 3 PRO Trials riders at the NORBA National
Championship got zero money for winning!!!
As for my comment on some of the staff not having a passion for cycling. I
believe that is the truth, but I do not believe that about everyone there.
In fact, I am sure there are some great people at USAC.
Until, I see positive changes at the NORBA events that I go to, I will judge
them on their past actions. Once I see some actual positive changes at
events, then I will be happy to change my opinion of USAC!
As for me I love to ride my bike and race when I can. I like belonging to
an organization that makes this easy to do. I like the organization to
treat all member fairly and apply all the rules equally to each rider. And
since promoters and racers are the keys to putting on good races, I think
the organization should serve these people first.
Jim VanSchoonhoven
-----Original Message-----
From: Godfrey, Norrene [mailto:Norrene.-@nike.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 2:31 PM
To: Obra; 'vans-@budget.net'
Subject: RE: [OBRA Chat] Velo New-USA Cycling Article
I too read the article that was posed on velonews regarding USA Cycling and
the resignation of Voight and the dropping or selling of the BMX division.
This summer I had a chance to meet with Bisceglia, CEO of USA Cycling, and
he had nothing but good comments on OBRA and the program Candi and Mike have
put together. Bisceglia has a tough job ahead of him and so far from his
actions I have nothing but phrase for him. He has cut loose the dead weight
at the top of USA Cycling, which give USA Cycling more funds to put into
other areas.
I know for a fact that USAC supports more that just one team. Last month I
had to call USA Cycling to get a letter of recommendation. Bisceglia himself
contacted me and wanted to know what he could do to help, and if there was
anyone on my behalf that he could speak too.
Maybe dollar wise, a majority of the money goes to the US National Team, now
known as T-Mobile, but T-Mobile step up to provide the funds for riders like
our own Stacy Peters (you go girl!) to race over in Europe.
I know Bisceglia is meeting this weekend with the ATRA folks to see just
what they can do to reenergize track racing again, because as you know
outside of Alpenrose and T-town track is almost non-existent.
Bisceglia has a passion for cycling, at Master track nationals he was out
there helping the local officials with timing, lap cards and bring water to
the athletes. I think he really cares about cycling, and I for one would
like to give him a chance.
Jim since Bisceglia and other representative are going to be here in Oregon,
maybe you can write up a list of question and concerns you have and pass
them on to Candi and Mike and they could pass on to Bisceglia. I bet you he
gets back to you.
Cheers
Norrene
Norrene Godfrey
Senior CPA | Nike Women's Apparel
503.671.2178 | norrene.-@nike.com
----------
From: Jim VanSchoonhoven
Reply To: vans-@budget.net
Sent: Thursday, November 7, 2002 1:15 PM
To: eri-@fusium.com; Obra
Subject: RE: [OBRA Chat] Velo New-USA Cycling Article
Some of these people, consider this a job, they have never raced a day in
their lives. They do not think about the impact of their decisions on the
racers. In fact they are more concerned about how they look to the big
companies that are providing money to support their jobs. If the choice
comes down to the best interest of the racers or their supporting their
big
sponsors they chose the sponsors. One of the latest examples of this is
the
USAC's support of a single trade team.
There are people at USAC that have no passion for cycling at all, racers
are
just a commodity
-----Original Message-----
From: Erik Voldengen [mailto:eri-@fusium.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 11:20 AM
To: Obra
Subject: RE: [OBRA Chat] Velo New-USA Cycling Article
In my opinion, they just don't care about racers.
I'm not arguing if that's true or not, but why in the world
would they not care about racers? Isn't that the whole reason
for their existance?
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