my man steve pointed me to this:
andrewsullivan.com
it is something regarding the civil unrest in france.. as i gather my thoughts i wil have more to say about this... i will say that many french are racist xenophobes... and after living there, reading and talking to people i can say that i think that the french in power in occupied france werent too bummed out about the nazis which is something that you dont hear about in school...
50 comments:
EROK, I just found out it will cost 15k for d3 teams to do the new tour of cali?
WOW! that is big money for the smaller teams out there. how come the pro tour teams that are coming over and have 6 times the $ do NOT have to pay this entry $.??
T....
I think that it'll be funny if NONE of the D3 teams show. Just go do other stuff, support the local scene. One of the great things about TdG was getting to see all the guys. Well, all the guys on the D2 or D3 teams. The D1 teams were pretty elitist, except for CSC. Bobby Julich ponied up big time for our velodrome auction...
Anyway, the ToC folks will get bit on the ass for this. One of the things that makes the TdG fun is the speculation on which teams get invited. I don't think they have to pay anything...
Erik, WRT to the French thing, do you think it's a "You are not French" thing (because you don't have the accent), or is it a "person of color" thing. I know that I get the cold shoulder in Gay Paree... And I'm not as colorized as you.
Oh, the Contintental teams that raced TdG in 2005 had to pay their way. I was told $8K by one team owner/manager. That looks like a good deal compared to the Cali Tour.
But is that $8K for expenses, like hotel rooms, etc, or is that an entry fee? "T" made it sound like the $15k was some kind of entry fee, to be paid on top of expenses...
8k was the fee...but his past year they wanted more on top to grease your entry.. no.. i mean their entry.. it was big time pay to play... mcguire was told we had to pay 20k according to the manager.. we put it to our co-sponsor an they werent interested.. and they are a GA company with deep pockets...
CA will be the same...
not only do the big teams bot pay an entry fee.. the get paid to come.. where does that money come from?... probably the small teams who have to pay the juice to get in...
AND...
threshold hasnt paid up for philly week... i hear they plain aint got the money.. how is that for PRO?
McGuire could have been in TdGA much cheaper if they had got their act together earlier instead of waiting until the 11th hour. Such a shame with Langdale being a local GA company and all.
I heard that the Tour of Joe-jah pomoters cut the prize list so that they could pay Lance more to show and Horner lost his bald mind over it. This rumor true?
zamudio-
HAH ahhahahahhahahahahahahahaahahah
whew- that was a funny question.
The TofG had a special package where you forked out 15K and got your entry fees/cars/hotel packages...I am not remembering that it included airfare. everything is gonna be more expensive in California though. Here's the thing about the new UCI rules that I am not clear about though---for 2006, D1 guys are not supposed to be in races where D3's race. D2 can go either way, but D3's and D1's won't race together in 2006. I don't know if this will fly though in the US---I can't see Jitterey Joe's not doing Georgia. Anyone know what's up with that? The D1's don't want to race with D3's---it's like letting Cat 3's in the P1/2 race. I say guys like Horner is the same racer when he was a D3 as now. And now that they don't "grandpa" in the Cat 2's into D3 teams...a pro is a pro...and the difference between the 3 is mostly how much they get paid or if they get paid at all.
Or if they PAY to be pro- SUBWAY!!!
yay!!!
LAME!!!
Yeah. That's pretty weird. There's a guy out here in MN who races cross who rode for Subway and he was telling us about the pay-to-ride-Subway plan.
Sometimes doing the Elite Amateur team thing has better deals than doing the pro thing---cept' you can't do some of the coolest races.
"Diss" all you want about the Tour of California...this is gonna be one epic race! The fact that so many D3 teams in California folded this year is ironic---but if they wouldn't be able to ride in it anyway, I guess it's not such a big deal.
I think you had to bring in something like 4K in either sponsorship dough or dough of your own to ride for Subway (in 2004). This is what the racer/former rider told me at least...maybe it was 4.5K. That's a hunk of change for a racer.
we were invited to GA as far a i know... but the cost was too high...
it was unrealistic to think that our team would have gotten much out of that race... so i am not bummed to not have done it... and i wont be bummed to not do CA either...
that shit is hard and you dont make any money.. so why do i want to go there?...
mcguire is still in the sport.. so its not really that the team has folded.. they are doing a more grass roots thing which may end up being better...
McGuire isn't done...just the D3 team. Charlie has something great going on with the U23 thing. I just meant that the D3 team is no more---Webcor and McGuire are both still in the sport, they're just not sponsoring a pro men's team.
Great McGuire couldn't get it right with a pro team so lets screw up some u23 guys. Who ever was responsible for making sure there was a McGuire team at Downers should not have any thing to do with a team. Is it Charlie? I can't be alone on this.
"but D3's and D1's won't race together in 2006."
uhhh, bullshit. You are wrong.
the sponsors have little to do with how a team runs in these small teams... they give their money to an LLC that then runs the teams and contracts the riders...
yeah, a chick team and you could have hot college sorority cheerleaders. i'd be your assistant manager.
Charlie had nothing to do with the Downers thing. All he does is throw down cash. The Team's DS paid for a full team to head to the race. The fact that one of the guys failed to get on the plane, let anyone know he wasn't going so that someone else could take his place was a cowardly and rude thing to do...and the whole team suffered. However, the manager of the team and the guy throwin' down cash had nothing to do with it.
I just "heard" about the D1/D3 thing...I never said I was right. In fact, I was asking about it. Not saying that this is how it is.
Don't kid yourself Joni, that remaining McGuire team is just Charlie's plaything with cat 2s and 3s. Those in the know realize what crap went down with McGuire-Langdale this year. It was run like a total clusterf*ck. It all comes down to the Director and his passion or lack of. Durso did more with small cash than anyone in the game, he put Ofoto on the map (but that's another story for another day).
You mean a Pro master team!!! That's were it's at. Train 2 hours a day and get free stuff! And race Socal all year, kick ass!!!!!!Hey Erik, We got a spot on our team for you...And you can even be our manager,director,team coach and our DADDY.......
he's your daddy for sure. SAY IT! who's your daddy!?!
Trust me...I'm not kidding myself about McGuire. And I'm a huge fan of Durso's and Mike and he were together from the early Kiwi/Avocet days and so I'm not talking like a guy with a paper rear end who can't even post with out being anonymous. I've done my time on the backend as well as far as working for the teams and junk, including getting funding so my husband can have a team to race with. I love the sport. I love supporting Taylor racing, training, etc. I also think I *do* know about alot of the crap that goes down -- In fact I remember working a bunch of races for Lombardi/Ofoto and everyone was just dissing on Durso too. Durso always did Mike (and therefore me) right and so I never understood all the bitching and moaning. But it was there then too.
it comes down to the passion of the riders... and i think that we did a good team... i had a lot of fun and i was always looking forward to racing with these guys...
we had some good trips...
me and bahati and allen and vigus got it together pretty good out there at superweek...
BRING BACK DURSO
Jackie
Durso was the "most pro" road manager/DS! Plus, when Durso was "on" he was one of the coolest guys to watch in a sprint for the win. I agree---bring back JDD!! The sport needs him back.
Erik, It is easier said than done to satisfy everyones expectations. Even worse when like resources are limited. The bottomline is if you want to be a PRO you must act like a PRO.
RVD
To be a D3 DS you better have the passion because there is scant cash available. There aren't many guys like that floating around going into debt to run a fledgling pro team. Without it your riders are virtually on their own, just a bunch of guys in like colored kits.
Good luck Erok, you'll get something lined up. If not, I hear the Home Depot in Winston gives good employee discounts (plus a good stock purchase plan).
again with the "PRO"?...
come on...
biking is for fun and games...
Erik (and his readers),
I don't think your readers care about racial strife or rioting in France. I think they want to talk some trash. Not that it matters, but even when people post with a name, I have no idea who most of these people are. Does anyone know whether everyone on every PT team is using drugs? No one knows that, but one of you managed to slander the names of hundreds of riders in one sentence.
Is glory proving that you were a stronger bike rider than someone else on a certain day or slandering someone's name? Is that something to be proud of? I think suffering to stay on a wheel a finish mid-pack is something to be proud of. Think about who you respect as a rider. Y'all love Erik. That's fine, but you don't love Erik, because he's a great bike racer. He's not. He's is a bike racer. He's better than me, but you love him for his character, whatever that is. I don't think much of his decision to slam the promoters and officials at most every race he attends, but I'll say this: I don't think I've ever heard him put down another rider's abilities. That's probably something he's more proud of than having beaten up on some kids racing their bikes as hard as they can.
Anyway, focus: People are rioting in the streets of Paris!
-Geoff Rapoport
Geoff Rappadork,
You are a pompous arrogant ass and you look like Napoleon Dynamite except for everyone hates you and you can't dance.
Well, anonymous...
I would say just the opposite about Geoff. I'm just a lowly 2 and he's one of the more down to earth pro's I've ridden with. Not pompous, not arrogant, and everyone seemed to like him.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
dude... cut out the analysis and postulation on my site...
we all know that this site is for people who like to read what they type... thats got nothing to do with me at all...
Gosh, I hope the pros will be able to race in Paris next year, otherwise what would I have to watch after I race at Superweek with my very tall socks?
And once again fstrblly knocks one outta the park...
Eirk, did you ever experience any racial tension personally in Europe, or is it more subtle than in the US?
Racism is some scary stuff. Even though I was born in Texas and lived for a while in Alabama, where things were pretty segregated, I lived most of my life in the very diverse SF Bay Area. Now we're in Minnesota and it never occurred to me to even consider "race" as a concern---so I was very surprised to find myself living in a pretty racist place. When Mike showed me his company picture for the first time, we both looked at each other kinda funny...it was like 450 white people! It isn't obvious here (granted, we're not in a metro area), but I was pretty naive to the racism that is alive and well in our own country. People are just scared. Racism is fear in it's ugliest form. But in such a religious area it is very surprising to me to have such hate. What's happening in Europe is happening here in our own backyards...we just like to close our eyes to it.
I'm friggin' white and this crap is too scary for me to joke about. If it wasn't so damn windy out (40MPH! today)I'd be riding my bike instead of surfin' the web...Saunders site is cool though...the only race talk I'm down with is bike-race talk...I hate race-ism though and now I'm surrounded by alot of white religious racists'. In the South there was a clear (albeit UGLY) line. But here in the North I just didn't expect it. (Soap box off--sorry guys!)
I think Joni's on to something...
Comming from a pretty staunch southern family I had a chip on my shoulder thinking that moving to MA would be like entering the racism-free promised land, but the truth is (and I often make ironic jokes about it) that this place is even more homogenous and judgemental.
It just so happens that it's somehwat a liberal bent, but there's alot of classicism (which can be tied to race) and elitism percolating just beneath the surface.
I kind of wonder if that's also at play in France - a "progressive" but completely obtuse and judgemental majority completely (if somewhat unwittingly) marganlising the outlyers.
What's worse is that we rarely recognize our elitism because we so rarely come in contact to differing situations that we can maintian this self-dellusion that, if we were to ever encounter the "others, we would treat everyone the same.
"but c'est non possible, we are leeberal air-you-dyte europeans"
That kind of mentality can certainly create a pressure cooker just waiting to boil over.
But this is ERIK's blog and post...
Any thoughts yet?
i can only speak to the east coast but the big difference between the norht and the south is that the southerners are more vocal about their racism. you know where you stand. it also feels less segregated. conversely you are more likely to get harassed or stole on. if you can suspend your disbelief, the north is a much easier place to get along, no one threatens you but they might be thinking it. regardless they still follow you in the stores. rioting helps no one but it might make you feel better for a minute.
Here's the truth... People are the same all over!!
For real,
RB
Northerners are far more racist than southerners, although they don't show it. Now a company of 400 plus white people in Minnesnowta isn't necesarily racist, just that their ain't many brothas wanting to relo there! Most racial issues are more about class anyway. Anyway, how bout those Redskins?!
I wouldn't generalize that "Northerners are far more racist than Southerners". I just posit that in the Republic of Cambridge we are very isolated by our PhD's and elite lifestyle, and so are unaware of a strong classicist undercurrent.
I won't deny that classicism and racism are often intertwined, but I also wouldn't begin to be able to encapsulate and address that apropriately. That's like a PhD thesis right there.
I understood the comment though about the Northerner's vs. Southerner's. It's bad to generalize in the first place (like...isn't that the big problem?) The thing is that in the South it's far more obvious and in the North it isn't. I just never expected it. And it's at least as bad if not worse here as a result. Even my neighbor kids say things that are so racist (ha! they think cause I'm white I'm one of them!) that my folks would have locked me up in room for a year! My folks were kinda of that ("hippie-era...love everyone, peace baby, Berkeley PhD crowd") Around here, there's not much room for this girl who's seen the ocean---let alone anything else. Mike and I are the only fruitcakes riding our bikes all over the place....sigh.
woul would end up being cool as hel would be to get motorcycle dudes in the road rage...
You could've bought Eric's C-Dale Synapse off e-bay. Custom set up, number, etc. With the dvd's you have to check the updated version of "Faster". Older GP stuff but still freakin' sweet!
-N
I can tell you how to get from yur Tivo to DVD, depending on what year you bought your Tivo and whether you have a computer w/ a DVD burner.
This is all theoretical, of course, as doing such a thing is highly illegal.
Ha, ha, ha. That was some funny shit. Back when they first came out with thier new dirt bike I was at a magazine test... both bikes broke down before they could even get the test going. Bad days to work for c-dale. They do much better with bicycles.
- N
I know nothing about what you're saying, and I will not email you instructions shortly...
?
Post a Comment