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Friday's Mailbag: Motorsports and models for cycling; Armstrong movie; and the Tyler thing

Published: Jan. 20, 2006
Better than Damon to play Armstrong?
Better than Damon to play Armstrong?

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

NASCAR-style racing? Try cyclo-cross
Editor:
In Wednesday's Mailbag (see "NASCAR-style cycling might just work"), Doug Barnes suggested that cycling take place on short, highly visible courses in a tour of major cities, with "each a separate race with its own podium but with a points system that accrues over the course of the season (like pro golf or NASCAR)."

Great idea — let's call it the Mid Atlantic Cyclocross Championship Series.

During the 2005 season that just finished, the Verge MAC series held eight highly watchable races in or near Philadelphia, Wilmington, New York, Atlantic City and Washington, D.C. Likewise, the Verge New England Series held a six-race series in major municipalities throughout New England. Twelve of those races were UCI-sanctioned and every race featured a "Pro Double Header" format where spectators were treated to action-packed feature races for elite men and elite women. And, in both the Verge New England Series and the Verge Mid Atlantic Cyclocross Championship Series, the racers chased points NASCAR-style to determine the championship. Further south, the MABRA, North Carolina and Georga Cyclo-cross series are going from strength to strength using the same model.

Cyclo-cross is so far ahead of the rest of american cycling with respect to UCI sanctioning and organization, that it's almost scary. Next year, we invite you to check out a cyclocross and see what kick-butt, take-no-prisoners bike racing is really like.

Ken Getchell
Verge MAC Media Director
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania

No, try track
Editor:
Regarding Doug Barnes’s description of a NASCAR version of cycling with short courses so fans can watch the entire race, a tour of several major cities and stadium seating: Sounds like track racing to me!

Anne Barnes (no relation)
Chicago, Illinois

No, let’s not try track
Editor:
The NASCAR analogy must explain why bicycle track racing has become such a wildly popular spectator sport here in the U.S.

Matt Stein
Northfield, Minnesota

How about track plus other cool stuff?
Editor:
I'm not a NASCAR fan, but we have here in Portland a cycling event that is far more than just a race — the Alpenrose Challenge. Three days of all kinds of races, even a kiddie race. There are also other events, a pavilion for vendors, a beer garden, burritos, espresso, a band, good PA commentary and more.

True, it is track racing around a velodrome. A road race of any sort will be more spread out. But a creative promoter ought to be able to use that to his advantage. A downtown with the cooperation of shops could have real possibilities. A parking lot or park would offer opportunity for other activities the velodrome does not have space for.

Ben Jeffries
Portland, Oregon

Formula 1 is a better model than NASCAR
Editor:
Formula 1 is hardly perfect, but I believe it is a better model for cycling than NASCAR. Through the cars/sponsors, the rules, and the prominent Constructors' Championship, F1 is both a team sport and an individual sport — just like cycling — for the fans as well as the competitors. Take Michael Schumacher away, and you'd still have a boatload of Ferrari fans; take Lance Armstrong away, and just how many Discovery Channel fans are left?

This is where the ProTour could really excel. Turn it more into a team championship, than an individual one, and you just might get more meaningful races year round. No individual can possibly complete, at top form, a full global racing calendar, regardless of how many ProTour points are at stake. But a well-rounded team of riders certainly could. And no doubt the sponsors would love more focus placed on the names on the jerseys, rather than the names of the guys in the jerseys.

Besides thoroughly revising the points systems, perhaps the UCI could start by scrapping that ridiculous all-white ProTour leader's kit and instead outfit the leading team with, say, all-white leaders' helmets.

Pete Morris
Los Angeles, California

Use motorsports models and their courses
Editor:
Back when I used to vintage race British cars (and you thought you could throw money at bikes!) I always went to these wonderful road-racing courses with great road surfaces and facilities.

But the only big road bike race run on a road-racing course is Sea Otter at Laguna Seca. What about Road Atlanta in Georgia? Lime Rock Park in Conneticut? Mid-Ohio in (where else?) central Ohio? I got a "small" local track, Virginia International Raceway, with 3.27-mile laps, 12 turns, and 130 feet of elevation change per lap. All these locations have myriad locations to view racing.

While I don't necessarily think the sport can go through the total reinvention that NASCAR went through (which is as much a sponsorship change as anything else), we can definitely take advantage of their facilities more than we do. Who knows? Maybe some enterprising promoter could get a cycling series hooked up with one of the smaller auto- or motorcycle-racing series.

With public roads getting harder and harder to secure for events, locations like these need to be looked into before the industrial-park criterium is the only place to race your bike.

Keith Jackson
Silver Spring, Maryland

Way ahead of you, Keith
Editor:
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Hawkeye Bicycle Club puts on "a night at the oval" omnium race once a month on the half-mile oval racetrack in town. It’s a fast race and a great time.

Matt Brakeville
Burlington, Iowa

Here in Colorado, bike-race promoters have put a number of motorsports tracks to good use, including Bandimere in Morrison, Pikes Peak International Raceway south of Colorado Springs, and a smaller track near Mead whose name eludes us. The 'cross racing at the latter used to be spectacular back in the day.— Editor

How about some plain old solid bike racing?
Editor:
How about the Tour of Somerville as an example? Fifty miles around the town of Somerville, New Jersey. Our town comes out to support and celebrate the bicycle and Memorial Day every year.

The Kugler-Anderson race has a lot of history and a lot of followers. Ask any cyclist and they will tell you the Tour of Somerville is a crown jewel of American cycling. The people come more and more every year.

Dean Otto
Somerville, New Jersey

Or how about supporting existing races?
Editor:
In response to all the talk of NASCAR as a good model for cycling: How about supporting racing in your area? Sponsors see more people at the local races and give more money, other companies want to outdo them and see the benefit, so they put in money, and the next thing you know you have a big race with more money.

But I guess that's boring. So you can sit at home, watch lousy coverage (when it’s available) and complain about the status of the sport and how it's so much better "over there" — where, by the way, they stand in the middle of the countryside waiting for the race to come flying by.

Chad Nordwall
San Rafael, California

But meanwhile, back at Lance Armstrong . . .
Editor:
Every time I hear about Matt Damon playing Lance Armstrong, I cringe. I've enjoyed Damon's work, but I just think he's wrong for this part. The face isn't quite right, and then there's the fact that Damon was a heavy smoker for some 16 years, and it showed. Apparently he quit a couple of years ago, and if he's been able to stay off them, good for him, maybe those smoker's looks are fading, but I still don't like him for the part.

This movie would be an uphill battle anyway, what with Lance's own charismatic self being so well known. But if they insist on making it, I think they should take a look at Jason Wiles. The face is better, he's a little more anonymous, and he did that chip-on-the-shoulder thing reasonably well as Bosco on "Third Watch."

Julie Mattes
Sedgwick, Maine

But who gets to play Jan Ullrich? First person to say "David Hasselhoff" gets his or her subscription canceled. — Editor

And then there’s Tyler . . .
Editor:
What is the word with the long-awaited conclusion to the Tyler Hamilton doping case? I was dying to hear the conclusion of the hearing last Tuesday and then … no word. Nothing.

Jeremy Brees
Tucson, Arizona

We expect it will be a while yet, Jeremy. Sam Alito has yet to weigh in. And then there’s Oprah, Simon Cowell, Pope Benedict . . . . — Editor

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.