[font=Tahoma]From:[/font][font=Tahoma] Ed Arzouian [mailto:edarzouian.com]
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 3:36 PM
To: ....
Cc: [email hidden]'
Subject: Fraser retires. CCA ignores.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]So Gord Fraser, probably Canada’s winningest cyclist* with over 200 career wins retires from the sport and the Canadian Cycling Association and Canadian Cyclist Magazine snub his Ottawa homecoming. [/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Gord Fraser who now lives in Tucson, AZ (another great Canadian cyclist who will not return to the sport in Canada) and his family flew in to attend a benefit in his honor and to raise funds for John Large’s “Echelon Project” for young bike riders in the Ottawa area. Over three hundred people attended the event. Some of us drove ten hours there and back to attend. One of Fraser’s teammates flew in from California.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]The Canadian Cycling Association, based in Ottawa, had nobody officially representing the association for the dinner in Gatineau Park about 15 minutes from downtown Ottawa.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Kris Westwood and Chris Dodson who work for the CCA attended on their own. Westwood was a former Fraser teammate and Dodson raced against him.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]A 12-year old who rode 230-kms. from Hull to Montreal last summer as part of the Echelon Project was in attendance with his grandfather who twice won the Hull- Montreal race when it was held in the 1950s.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]At least a dozen Canadian National champions attended the event.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Numerous Olympians attended the event.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]The CCA’s new Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Lorraine Lafrenière, was nowhere to be seen. Not surprising since she knows nothing about the sport of cycling and has no experience in it. But you might think she would want to begin getting familiar with the people involved, especially those in the immediate Ottawa area.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]CCA Marketing Coordinator, Kim Sebragno did not attend either. She knows nothing about the sport and has no experience in it either. Her interest in the sport probably ends at 4PM each business day.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]There were items being auctioned and raffled. You would think the CCA could have contributed something. It did not.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Canadian Cyclist and its owner/editor Editor Rob Jones chose to ignore the event as well. Pedal Magazine did carry an interview with Fraser. Neither Canadian cycling publication mentioned the “Echelon Project”.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]From the Canadian Cyclist web forum despite there not being a word of it in CC news. [/font]
[font=Verdana]escalador viejo[/font][font=Verdana]Yesterday, 07:48 PM[/font]
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[center][font=Verdana]Johnny Large et al put on an awesome evening last night up at Camp Fortune in the Gatineau Park, home of the area's race circuit. [/center]
Primarily it was organized to celebrate Gordie Fraser's retirement, but some big bucks were raised for John's Echelon Project designed to encourage youngsters to become the next generation of Gord Frasers by taking up the sport and competing to be the best. Steve Bauer, and Gord's team mate at HealthNet, Mike Sayers were in attendance along with 300 from the local racing community. Eon D'Ornellas was there too and pulled out his chequebook to write a big one, to, as he said, "return something to the sport that gave him so much". [/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Here is what John Large had to say about the event:[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]“[/font][font=Arial]The announced retirement of Gord Fraser was just what was needed to re-ignite the Biker Banquet.[/font]
[font=Arial]After a lay off of a few years the banquet is on for Saturday December 2, once again at Camp Fortune's main lodge.[/font]
[font=Arial]Certain themes from previous banquets will carry on. The racing community will be inviting those who helped promote the racing events to be our guest for an evening of great food, fun and cycling talk. The bar opens at 6:00pm and dinner is to follow.[/font]
[font=Arial]We are flying Gord Fraser and his son Angus home to be our guests of honour and keynote presenter.[/font]
[font=Arial]Gord comes home from a career the rest of us only dreamt of. He is the winningest professional in Canadian cycling history*, if not North American, he road the Tour de France, a 3 time Olympian, National Champion, Commonwealth Games and world championship rider, the list goes on and on.[/font]
[font=Arial]Cyclists are coming from all over to help us celebrate with Gord and his family, this is his official retirement party and should be a great night.[/font]
[font=Arial]The evening will mark the end of an era in Ottawa cycling and the start of the next as we launch the Echelon Project and next year's Espoir Team.[/font]
[font=Arial]An earlier Biker Banquet winner of Cyclist of the Year - professional mechanic Geoff (Ian) Brown is also retiring from the Euro Protour circuit and may well be home for the evening too. 12 Tour de Frances is enough. Let's hope Geoff is home in time.[/font]
[font=Arial]This is shaping up to be quite the night.[/font]
[font=Arial]There are now 16 clubs and teams in the region and we are limited in tickets.[/font]
[font=Arial]Tickets will be out in blocks by the end of next week.[/font]
[font=Arial]Banquet Tickets are 60$ or 75$ for dinner and the hockey game.[/font]
[font=Arial]Please let me know of your interest.[/font]
[font=Arial]John Large
www.bridgethegap.ca[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]A word about John Large, he and I began racing together in 1975 or so. He has devoted 31 years or more to the sport. John’s father was a legend in the Ottawa cycling community. He was a former pro racer from England. Mr. Large and his friends built the sport almost from scratch in the Ottawa area and Ontario. Mr. Large passed away a couple years ago. John continues the family tradition of promoting the sport of cycling every way he can. John is concentrating his effort on youth in the sport. That is what real riders do when they retire unlike the wannabes who race Masters events and clog the race schedules with their egotism.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]The sport in Canada needs more people like John Large in charge and fewer people like Ms. Lafrenière and Ms. Sebrango.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]*I will have to go to my archives and check this but I think Torchy Peden from the 1930s and 40s might still be the winningest Canadian cycling ever.[/font]
[font=Times New Roman]Cyclist in Canada, take back your sport before it is too late.[/font]