Cyclops USA
An eye for lies and a tooth for truth
Editor: Lester
Earnest (les at cs.stanford.edu)
Liability Press, Los Altos Hills, California
Cyclops
USA is an irregular
journal of bicycle racing and governance. It attempts to advance the sport of
cycling by analyzing the forces that shape it and the inevitable corruption
that creeps into the governance process. It originated during the
editor’s tenure on the board of directors of the United States Cycling
Federation (USCF) and its committees (1977-1999) and has continued since his
successful lawsuits against its successor, USA Cycling, which unfortunately
remains rather corrupt. Cyclops is an aperiodical:
publication dates are determined on the same basis as our office cleaning:
we do it whenever enough dirt accumulates. Early articles were originally
published in printed form, facilitated by the editor’s invention of the
spelling checker in 1961, an advanced document compiler called PUB in 1971 and
by his1981 introduction of desktop publishing systems using laser printers
while serving as founding President of IMAGEN Corporation.
My wife and I got dragged into bicycle racing in the 1970s by our
two sons and when I saw that the U.S. Cycling Federation (USCF) Racing Rules
were poorly written I started submitting rule changes that were all adopted,
including one that allowed riders to wear shorts of any color, not just black.
However, as I later discovered while officiating at a race in the San Francisco
financial district, there was no rule requiring cyclists to wear any clothing,
so some rode naked.
Given that I had invented the spelling
checker and an advanced document formatting system, I was appointed USCF
Rulebook Editor in 1977 and in 1979 I completely rewrote the Racing Rules and
got them approved while concurrently being elected to the Board of Directors. I
then was put in charge of all U.S. bicycle racing for a time, which was rather
challenging.
Based on my observation that head injuries
were the most dangerous ones in cycling, I began advocating a strong helmet
rule but encountered fierce opposition from those who thought that cyclists
should be able to choose whatever kind of helmet they liked. Unfortunately,
most chose the traditional “leather hairnet” which consisted of thin leather
straps with padding inside, which gave almost no protection in a fall. The
result was that our insurance rates were soaring, so I kept pushing on that.
In 1984, I officiated at the Olympics in
Los Angeles and then discovered that the American team had indulged in blood
doping. After confirming that there was no rule against that, even though the
U.S. Olympic Committee pretended otherwise, I got one adopted, which soon
spread around the world and eventually nailed Lance Armstrong and his crooked
colleagues.
I eventually got a strong helmet rule
adopted effective 1/1/1986 but temporarily lost my seat on the National Board
because of my advocacy -- even my own bike club (San Jose BC) worked to defeat
me. Nevertheless, that rule also soon spread around the world, including
professional cycling and the Olympics, and recreational cyclists then adopted
it in much of the world. As a result, thousands of lives have been saved. I am
proud of that.
In 1992, I initiated a proposal to form a
new national cycling organization called USA Cycling (USAC) that would unite
various branches of the sport. Unfortunately, while I was on a two-month tour
of Europe some crooked businessmen managed to bribe staff members into letting
them amend the proposal so that a majority of the Board of Directors would be
elected by people with business interests, who made up less than 1% of the
participants in the sport. I fought hard to block that takeover but failed.
Once crooks take over an organization, it is very hard to bring about reforms
through democratic processes, so they are still in charge. I also learned that
the same thing had happened in some other sports and in the U.S. Olympic
Committee itself, so the whole thing is a mess.
In 1999, I helped organize a
countermovement called FIAC (Federation of Independent Associations for
cycling), which was focused on regional racing, and I became its Executive
Director for a number of years. However, the crooks running USAC then started
prohibiting anyone who raced in our events from participating in international
races, including the Olympics, so we sued them. Unfortunately, a stupid judge
in Colorado ruled that they could do that, which put us out of business and
encouraged more corruption in other international sports.
The U.S. Congress could fix this by
amending the Olympic Sports Act but for some reason they like to create
business monopolies in sports, indicating that they too are corrupt. In recent
years, I have been managing an underground movement called ROSA (Reform the
Olympic Sports Act) with a number of current and former athletes participating
and looking for an opportunity to fix this mess. We will pounce when we see a
chance.
July
2014
L. Earnest, Postal Doping. Happily, an
increasing number of bike races are being conducted without USA Cycling (USAC)
permits though USAC is threatening to crack down on this. Meanwhile Inga
Thompson, a top level racer in the 1980s to 1993, is
speaking out on the corrupt attempts to force her into blood doping by the same
people who are still running USAC.
January
2013
L. Earnest, Doping is just part of the problem. The
fact that Lance Armstrong and his colleagues were able to engage in blood
doping for years without getting caught is a symptom of a more fundamental
problem, namely corruption at the highest levels of our national sports organizations.
December
2012
Maciek Romanowicz, Lance Armstrong: A Greedy Doper or an Innocent Victim?
2012 December. Those who have admired Lance Armstrong for his
accomplishments in overcoming medical adversity to achieve international fame
as a cyclist are dismayed by recent revelations.
Matt Smith, Tour de Farce, SFWeekly,
2005 Sept. 7. Lance Armstrong’s doping and his strong ties to San Francisco
investment banker Thom Weisel are actually old news,
as this 2005 article indicates.
January 2010
Joe
Papp, The Toll of Doping - was it worth it? Doping can ruin your life – and that’s the message I have for young
athletes who might face similar choices.
March
2009
Charles
Howe, An
Introduction to Bicycle Road Racing, Slide shows on racing
objectives, rules, tactics, hazards, physics, sociology and organizations: Parts
1
2
3
4
Charles
Howe, History and
Lore: Classic Races, Women led the Way , Contemporary
Challenges
February 2009
Charles
Howe, Nevada City Classic. Fans
of this great race have been treated to many spectacular and thrilling exploits
since 1961. The history of the Classic reads like a movie script sprung from
some Hollywood writer’s imagination, but it isn’t – it all really did happen,
and that makes its tradition one of the richest of all sports.
August
2004
L.
Earnest, Why was cycling not included in the ancient Olympics? The first proto-bicycle appeared at the
beginning of the 19th Century but should have been invented
thousands of years earlier. Had that happened, world history would have
been considerably different.
July 2004
Charles
Howe, Le Tour
Trilogy. Three articles
review events that led to the inaugural Tour de France and the pivotal races of
1964 and 1975.
Charles
Howe, “The Great Moral Crusade of Cycle-Sport” The inaugural Tour de France was
a byproduct of a feud between two French newspapers that started with a
political scandal.
Charles
Howe, The Greatest Bike Race – Ever With apologies to Mr. LeMond, this one
was even better than '89
Charles
Howe, The
Fall of King Eddy Merckx stood as tall in defeat as he ever did in victory
2002-2015
L. Earnest, Bylaws and Racing
Rules of the Federation of Independent Associations for Cycling (FIAC).
As founding Treasurer, then Director and now Executive Director, I drafted both
the bylaws and racing rules of the upstart FIAC.
2002
L. Earnest, amendment
to: Standard Specification for Helmets used in Recreational
Bicycling or Roller Skating, ASTM Standard F1447.
Revised the existing bicycle helmet standard to restrict its used to
recreational cycling and expand its use to cover recreational roller skating.
1998
U.S. Congress, Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, This
Federal Law charters and grants monopoly status to the United States Olympic
Committee and specifies requirements for its National Governing Bodies that
control access to international competition in all Olympic sports. It replaced
the 1978 Amateur Sports Act so as to accommodate the admission of professional
athletes to the Olympics that began in the 1990s.
1997
L. Earnest, amentment to: Standard Specifications for Helmets used in Skateboarding
and Trick Roller Skating, ASTM Standard F1492.
Revised the existing skateboarding helmet standard to make it applicable also
to trick roller skating.
1996
L. Earnest, Standard
Specification for Helmets used in Recreational Roller Skating, ASTM
Standard F1751. Provided the first helmet standard for roller
skaters. Superseded in 2002 by revised ASTM Standard F1447 (see above).
1994-1999
L. Earnest, Bylaws of USA
Cycling. Prior to
becoming a founding Director and Secretary of USA Cycling, I drafted the
original bylaws, which were then surreptitiously amended before presentation to
the approving body. As a result, commercial cycling interests gained
control of this “charitable nonprofit corporation” and have run it to suit
their financial interests ever since.
1989-1999
L. Earnest, Bylaws of the National
Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA).
Drafted the NORBA bylaws after this organization was purchased by USCF in 1989
and drafted new ones prior to the formation of USA Cycling in 1994.
September
1989
In 1986 the
U.S. Cycling Federation became the first national or international bicycle
racing organization to adopt a strong helmet rule. This happened in spite of
cycling traditions, rider apathy, and political chicanery by officers and
directors. It was made possible by a timely mishap.
L. Earnest, Skirmishes Tradition usually takes
precedence over common sense.
L. Earnest, The Brain Bucket
Bash: 1985 report There are many reasons for not wearing a safe
helmet.
Bigg Byrd,
Numbers count. The lessons
of Sesame Street are yet to be learned.
January
1989
L. Earnest, Growing richer blood. Advocates
investigation of EPO as an alternative to other blood boosting schemes.
L. Earnest, Book Review: Dave Prouty’s In
spite of us. Cycling's old guard takes a licking
but keeps on ticking.
October
1988
L. Earnest, Paper Tigers. The United States
Cycling Federation has a longer history of voting fraud than most Third World
countries.
August
1988
L. Earnest, What makes cycling grow? The
number of cyclists is cyclic. The reasons are enigmatic.
L. Earnest, Who will control cycling in 2001?
USCF has held power for 47 years. Will there be a successor soon?
L. Earnest, Officer Rupp, Living Legend.
Protecting the roads against cyclists is a tough job, but Rupp does it.
L. Earnest, Coors is safer than tea. Alexi
Grewal won a gold medal in cycling at the Los Angeles Olympic Games shortly
after admitting that he took ephedrine during an international stage race. This
was facilitated by U.S. Olympic Committee and cycling officials who had a
conflict of interest that would not be fixed for another 16 years. A number of
other political machinations were also involved.
L. Earnest, Blood dopes of the 1984 Olympic Games.
Blood transfusions that were unethically administered to U.S. cyclists during
the Olympics probably didn’t improve their performance but might have serious
medical consequences later.
April
1985
L. Earnest, Stoned. Rolling Stone magazine and
others publicly denounced blood doping that occurred during the 1984 Olympics.
However, the Stone’s claims were mostly fabricated in spite of the fact that
they had accurate inside information.
L. Earnest, Please be polite! U.S. cycling
coach defends blood doping.
January
1985
L. Earnest, About Cyclops USA. How Cyclops USA
began as an aperiodical muckraking journal.
L. Earnest, Cardiovascular capers. How the
threat of terrorism was used to justify illicit blood testing during the 1984
Olympic Games.
L. Earnest, Blood bath. How blood boosting
became established in the United States Tiddlywinks Federation.
October 1979
L. Earnest, Racing
Rules of the United States Cycling Federation (USCF). I completely
rewrote the bicycle Racing Rules and got them adopted by the Board of
Directors.
January
1979
L. Earnest, Springer bounces back. Chris
Springer was a four time national champion as a Junior
when he came to the starting line at the 1978 National Road Race Championships
in Milwaukee to defend his title. He was a contemporary of Greg Lemond and used to beat him often with his superior sprint.
However he was barred from racing by the chief
official for unstated reasons. This led to turning points for both Chris and
the author.