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The Explainer – Employed to ride a bike?
Dear Explainer,
A good friend of mine recently got a contract offer from a bike team. While I am happy for her, I was floored when I learned that she would only get about $5000 a year for her efforts. Five thousand dollars a year? How can they sign someone up for what has to be less than the minimum wage? Even though she’s just happy for the chance to ride, how can that even be legal?
Marianne J
Westchester, New York
A year at the Mothership
Editor's Note: At the serious risk of self-indulgence, VeloNews' web editor Steve Frothingham has decided to share some memories of his first year with the Web site.
Legally Speaking with Bob Mionske – The 1-mile solution
What if there was something you could do to improve your health and fitness, save money, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, improve air quality, and reduce your carbon footprint, all at the same time—would you do it?
Wednesday’s Wound-up: A year’s worth of O’Grady cartoons
It's not always easy to be VeloNews' editorial cartoonist. I've been on the job for nearly 20 years — my first contribution, starring the Old Guy Who Gets Fat in Winter, appeared in the March 1989 issue — and it often seems as though the same old problems keep popping up issue after issue, year after year, immortal pests in an eternal "Groundhog Day" game of Whac-A-Mole. How many different ways can a guy say, "Doping sucks?"
2008: The year in cycling
History was made, new talents were revealed as drugs cheats and one of sport's biggest names, Lance Armstrong, decided to emerge from retirement to show rivals ten years his junior a trick or two. In all, 2008 was another topsy-turvy year for cycling but for fans drama was abundant from the spring one-day classics through the Olympics and the three grand tours to the end-of-season world championships. For better or for worse, cancer survivor Armstrong decided to end a three-year hiatus from the sport and return to competition in a bid to promote the global fight against cancer.
The Explainer – Whether weather makes a difference
Dear Explainer,
Our morning group ride got cancelled this morning due to the blast of Arctic wind and snow that hit our part of the country this week. Fair enough. But as the guys who showed up for the ride hunkered down at our local coffee shop, the discussion turned to weather’s impact on the big races. Have there been cancellations due to crappy conditions? What triggers such a decision?
Robert L. Morgan
Chicago, Illinois
Dear Robert,
The Coach(ed) Corner: A Christmas wish list
With serious training on the back burner for a few weeks (and ski season in full effect) I decided to use today’s column as a letter to Santa of sorts. Not sure if the red-faced, plump one is a VeloNews reader, but hopefully he’ll get wind of my little Christmas list. Here goes: