Timing

An open letter to Bob Stapleton, general manager Team High Road (formerly T-Mobile)

Dear Mr. Stapleton,

I recently had the good fortune of coming into a large sum of money through several internet related sources. While I certainly do not scoff at the prospect of such a windfall, I cannot dismiss the timing of my good fortune occurring so near your loss of title sponsorship from you team as being merely a coincidence. Because of my deep love for professional cycling, I can't help but think that I can turn my good fortune into something positive for you. Now, believe me, I do not make this offer selflessly. I am also motivated by the fact that once again, George Hincapie seems to be drawing the short end of the stick. Now, in the twilight of his career, George has signed with your team and now, that team seems to be in dire straits. I would like to see George finally pull off the big win, so we have to keep your team solvent enough to get through the spring classics. With all of this being said, my proposal is this: if you are interested in me giving you the $3 million that I have won from 2 separate foreign lotteries, as well as the 10% dividends that I will receive for helping a UK oil conglomerate extricate funds from the US, then I think that rather than giving these groups my financial information, you could just give them your team's information. If this idea is amenable to you, just contact me through the email link on this page.

We'll see if Mr. Stapleton takes me up on the offer. If I were him, I'd be in a scrambling panic right now, but he seems to be pretty calm about the whole implosion that he seems to be in the middle of. The damage to the sponsorship climate at the Pro Tour level can only be estimated at this point. Who knows what is going on behind the scenes of other top-level teams. The one thing that is certain is that now the war on drugs will get very heated. Given what is going on with Iban Mayo's doping case, things aren't going to get any better, though. Mayo's A sample was positive, but then his B sample was negative. So the UCI then has the B sample retested. It comes back negative again. So now, they want to take the B sample back to the lab that found the A sample positive and have them re-retest the B sample. I gotta say that that seems to be bordering on a witch hunt.

Jeff and I stayed at the shop late tonight unpacking and stocking the 11 boxes worth of Specialized stuff we got in today. We've got soooooooooo much new stuff in from Specialized it ain't even funny. Come check it out if you're down our way!