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Monday's Mailbag: The Wheat Thins series; playing Lance; and a successful race (and rant?)

Published: Jan. 23, 2006

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.

Remember the Wheat Thins series?
Editor:
The concept of cycling events on short, spectator-friendly courses in major cities is hardly new - anyone remember the Wheat Thins Mayors Cup Series? It had major corporate sponsorship (Nabisco) in big-city downtowns, short, fast circuits, and lots of prize money. Lasted about three years, I think, back in the mid-1980s.

As for NeckCAR's success, its popularity is brand- and personality-driven. Cycling in the U.S. has one true mass-market personality, and he's retired to become Sheryl's roadie. I just don't see a future where the rear windows of pickups and SUVs have stickers of Calvin peeing on a Trek logo. Now if we can get George Hincapie to ride Chris Horner into the wall, then get into a fight in the pits with Bobby Julich, well, then we've got something.

Michael Fox
Tallahassee, Florida

He remembers the Wheat Thins series
Editor:
Except for the few big events the promotion of bicycle racing is lackluster at best. One of the best ideas that got snuffed was the Wheat Thins series in the mid-1980s, a multiple city tour of crits. We have to realize this isn’t Europe — spectators and sponsors want action and visibility.

Promoters, promote your events — the rivalries, the competitors, the sponsors. Promote the action — high–speed, elbow-to-elbow, wheel-to-wheel action, testing the limits of tire adheshion at every turn. Racers, do the same — list your primary sponsor on the entry form, not just your club. If sponsors feel they are getting an advertising value, it will ease the sell.

If we can build the fan base through criteriums and city circuit races, then maybe there will be a real Tour of the USA.

Dean Lyons
Boone, North Carolina

And so does he (and for good reason)
Editor:
What your author has described actually existed in the mid-1980s. It was called The Mayor's Cup and took place weekend after weekend with 52 races in 37 cities, over three years, in front of the very crowds he used as examples.

But over time the sport in this country got hijacked by the focus on mountain-bike racing and the over-arching fantasy that the Tour de France format could set the country's interest aflame from the back-woods hinterlands of Virginia and Georgia, etc. Not.

By everyone's account the Mayors Cup was called a success. But repeating it will take a mind shift among those who control the sport today. Unfortunately they are still trying to live the fantasy.

David Pelletier
Salem, Massachusetts

Mr. Pelletier should bring a little credibility to the debate, having run the aforementioned series back in the day. And while we hate to blow our own horn, we mentioned the series all the way back in Wednesday's mailbag — Editor

Hooray for Hollywood: Who should play Lance?

We’ve received a ton of mail recommending actors other than Matt Damon to play Lance Armstrong in a movie of his life. We could run them all, word for breathless word — but that could take years and cost millions of lives. So we’re just going to run your choices and your names. Thanks for writing. You can stop now.— Editor

Matthew Fox — John Sneden, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Jamie Bamber — William McGlathery, Columbia, Missouri

Heath Ledger —Marcus Sturm, Allen, Texas

Adam Sandler — Douglas Ritter, Fort Worth, Texas

Woody Harrelson — Paula Laurent, Charlotte, North Carolina

And finally, the letter that writes finis to this topic:

How about Lance Armstrong? He's the right height. — Alex Duke, Santa Monica, California

O’Grady and ‘a successful bike race’
Editor:
Thank god for Patrick O'Grady (see Friday’s Foaming Rant: "A successful bike race"). His irreverent columns are just the antidote for the winter doldrums here in the southern New York/northern New Jersey area, where so far NASCAR has been trumped by Ba-da-Bing. We don't need NASCAR here - the daily commute on these roads is harrowing enough.

O'Grady's assessment - particularly the part about injecting Vegas "style" to attract Bobby and Bobbi Beernut was hilarious. Then I thought about the crowds on Mont Ventoux and realized all that's missing are the sequins and white tigers.

A while back I read a letter in your mailbag from someone whining that VeloNews should be a "serious cycling publication." That's when I cancel my subscription.

Susan Miller
Warwick, New York

When he’s not sitting on his cerebellum, he gets it right
Editor:
Damn! O’Grady finally got up off his brain and got it right! Well said.

Charles L. Garcia
Pico Rivera, California

O'Grady's right: Bring the racing home
Editor:
Pat's got it right. I've been racing bikes for five or six years. Last year I decided that I was sick of getting in my car in the suburbs north of Boston at 6am and driving two-and-a-half hours to a ski area in Vermont or New Hampshire to race against the same guys I train with and live next to back in Ipswich. So a racing pal and I put on a mountain-bike race at a local park. We had had 200 racers show up. We gave cash purses to the fastest man and fastest woman of the day and still managed to donate $3,000 to local charities. Every one had a great time — and we're doing it again this year. The only thing we did right (aside from not screwing up race day) was hold the race 30 minutes from Boston. Bike races (especially mountain-bike races) need to come home from the hills. They should be ubiquitous in metropolitan areas. Look at the course for the NORBA National race at Mt. Snow – sure, there's plenty of climbing, but you don't need to drive three hours to find that kind of climbing. I can put together a ride with nearly as much puke-and-keep-pedaling vertical in North Andover, Massachusetts, West Hartford, Connecticut, or any one of a half dozen parks and reservations around Boston. You don't need to conquer a mountain to have a great race.

You want the sport to grow? Start holding races where people live and train. The number of racers will grow, spectatorship will go up, awareness will grow, sponsorship will follow and the sport will grow. Mountain bikes, cyclo-cross, criteriums - these are all great spectator formats that can (and should) be held in town.

Matthew E. Juros
Boxford, Massachusetts

Yeah, what he said
Editor:
Pretty benign for a "foaming rant," but right on the money. The team I belong to, DICE, sponsors a variety of races every year. Another nearby team, Two Bee Racing, sponsors races virtually year-round. In Iowa, we now have a cyclo-cross series, a mountain-bike series, and a road-racing points series. And each one is all about the racing. It’s not about big money. It’s not about drawing big names. It’s not about drawing spectators. It’s all about a bunch of men and women getting together and racing their bikes.

And tell me, in what other sport might you toe the line at a local race with a pro like Chris Horner or Jason McCartney, or even Lance Armstrong?

So, no matter how much coverage OLN decides to give the grand tours or the classics or any race here in the U.S., I think we’re succeeding right now.

Scott B. Swanson
Silvis, Illinois

Still, a few good tours might put us on the domestic radar
Editor:
What is success for cycling, anyway? I think success for the U.S. would be to have a handful of very popular and internationally recognized tours like the one in Georgia and soon to be in California. At least this way cycling is on the sports radar a few times a year, and it would garner some respect (maybe) for those of us who define success as being able to get out twice a week for a 40-miler.

Steve Sontgerath
Saint Paul, Minnesota

We’re making strides
Editor:
I agree with your thoughts that cycling in the U.S. will probably never be on the same stage as the mainstream sports. However, amazing strides have been made in a short period of time on both regional and national levels.

The Tour De Georgia is in its fourth year and attracts about a million spectators. It is recognized as an "economic development tool" by the state of Georgia. Now California has arrived on the scene — with the big-money backing of AEG and Amgen (and a five-year commitment). The fact that ESPN will air one-hour coverage each night during this race is significant. It will be interesting to see what the crowds are like along the course.

On a local level, the Alabama Department of Tourism and Travel has selected an NRC criterium and a recreational ride (together) as a "Top 10 Event" in the state for 2006. Number nine on the list, the Sunny King Criterium and the Cheaha Challenge are being recognized as top "tourism events" — in Alabama! Of course, No. 1 on this top-10 list is the NASCAR race at the Talladega Superspeedway.

Take a look at the demographics of your readers and the demographics from a major recreational cycling magazine and you’ll see why sponsors are signing on to these local, regional, and national events. With average household incomes in the $90,000 to $100,000 range, the cycling community offers some real purchasing power. This community will only grow as more folks are exposed to the sport. Like it or not, it all boils down to money, right?

So how does one define a "successful race?" Two questions: Is it presented professionally so as to be respectful to the racers, the spectators, and the sport, while providing value to sponsors? And how many people did the event "touch" — i.e., how many attended, media coverage, advertising, etc.? If the answer to the first question is yes, and the answer to the second question is a number that is growing from year to year, then not only will the sport continue to gain respect in the U.S., but more important, the roads will become safer as Joe NFL gives us a few more feet while he passes in his pickup.

Mike Poe
Anniston, Alabama

Is more better? More riding, maybe
Editor:
I'm not sure if O’Grady's column is intended to provoke thought, or to just provoke. As people seem to either love him or hate him, the answer to that question is, probably a little of bit both. Personally, I admire Mr. O’Grady. Anyone who can lay it all out there like that, column after column, and seemingly not suffer from the slings and arrows of the predictably self-righteous, judgmental and offended, gets my vote. Don't let the bastards grind you down, Patrick!

And about those ideas to make our sport more "successful" — I think the problem with such thinking is that it keeps our sport pointed in the wrong direction. It presupposes that more is better, when it is, in fact, "more," that has gotten us, collectively, into this present state of disillusionment that we find ourselves in today.

Instead of finding ways to pimp cycling, e.g., the WCF, NASBIKE, NCL, etc., maybe we should be finding ways of bringing cycling back "to the garden." Maybe we should be trying to make cycling about what it is supposed to be about: betterment of the self. Isn't that why most of us are so outraged by drug use in our sport? Because it violates the sanctity that most of us express by virtue of our participation? Don't think "Dow," think "tao," or think dojo... Better yet, just go out and turn the pedals, alone or in a paceline, and for an hour or two, don't try to not think at all.

Ed Goulet
Aptos, California
P.S.: to all my riding "buddies." Love this or hate it, do me the favor of keeping your opinions to yourself. Better yet, take it out on Pat — at least he gets paid for it.

Bzz, bzz, bzz
Editor:
Unfortunately, everyone is missing the big difference between auto and bicycling racing - noise. A major part of the draw is the roar of the engines. To that end, I make the following recommendation for bicycle racing: Take a baseball card and a clothespin....

Richard Scott
Mesa, Arizona

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.