Show #50 – The Golden Anniversary
Jan 9th, 2007 | By Fredcaster | Category: PodcastsListen now by clicking here: [audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/thefredcast/The_FredCast_50.mp3]
For The Week of January 7, 2006
In this show’s news: Ned Overend wins a cyclocross title; The UCI’s Pat McQuaid proclaims a culture clash; The UCI announces the 2007 ProTour team lineup; Jan Ullrich investigation on hold; Floyd Landis lashes out at Dick Pound; the Floyd Landis Fairness Fund; Specialized/Giant team up for MTB series in the UK; New York City cyclists in memorial ride for 14 dead comrades; ThrustPac cycling jet pack!
In this show’s features: Interview with Steve Fleury of Cambria Bicycle Outfitter; Sport Tracks PC logbook software; upcoming rides and events; shout outs.
Podsafe Cycling Music: Morning on Haleakala Highway by Kimo Watanabe.
Show Notes: Available HERE
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i’ve been using sport tracks for only 2 weeks now and i love it…way more organized than any other i seen and its free!
Good stab at pronouncing the Welsh “Gwydyr” forest..
It should be like this: G-w-id-ear
FYI it’s just North of Betws-Y-Coed and South-West of Llanrwst:
http://lyxus.net/flj
Very good off-road cycling.
David, regarding your comments on what Pat McQuaid said, I have to say that I agree with him to a point. Certainly, a person in his position should not have said what he did and should not be seen to have any bias against any one country. And his use of the word ‘mafia’ was extremely ill-advised and very much crossed the line. So he was wrong to say what he did. But this is not to say that what he said was wrong.
Lets look at whether what he said has any merit. As anyone who has spent time in Italy will have to admit (if they are honest enough to leave political correctness to one side for a minute) Italians have what we Irish would call a healthy disregard for the law. This shows itself in all aspects of life. You see it in everyday things like jaywalking, total lack of queueing discipline, fare evasion on public transport, disregard for red lights when driving, etc. In sport, you will see it in the ‘diving’ antics of Italian soccer players once they get within the penalty area. At the somewhat less healthy end of the scale, you see it in things like the huge amount of unapproved, illegal construction that takes place – particularly in the southern part of the country.
And in regard to more serious wrong-doing, most Italians have a frighteningly fatalistic attitude. Just look at the fact that they almost re-elected an outgoing prime minister who had blatantly used his government’s parliamentary majority to change laws in an effort to protect himself from criminal prosecution.
I suppose what I’m saying can probably be best summed up by what my friend has often said of his Italian-born mother and his maternal grandparents: “they’re Italian – they simply just don’t think the rules apply to them.”
It is this undeniable blind eye-turning “nod and wink” aspect to Italian culture that I believe McQuaid was getting at. He sees a culture that has failed spectacularly to reduce the influence of criminality and corruption on their society in general. So his understandable concern is for how this will translate into inaction when it comes to tackling the doping problem in something as unimportant as a minority sport. A point badly made by McQuaid perhaps, but not necessarily a bad point.
Anyway, that’s my brain dump over with. Keep up the good work!