"MagillaGorilla" wrote in message
...

So unless Shelley can do a 3:25 pursuit or better, she'll be watching the
London Games at home.

The Olympics are poison.


Thanks,

Magilla

Shelley is in the progression years. Although she is taking a assistant
coaching position, she's a long way from the top herself. Without doing a
lot of checking, she is have a decent year, all things considered. I see
she's got three years of results posted on her website, but she has 4
actually, perhaps more. She is progressing some, better then nothing. Even
Leontien said it was very lonely at the top. Shelley has a long lonely road
ahead, punctuated by moments of ecstasy, sheer terror and great excitement
at times.



You can read what a lot of pros write about the highs and lows of winning,
tremendous rush of joy and excitement followed by tanking, days or months of
depression. It all depends on how you handle it, Leontien had help dealing
with it. Pantani obviously didn't seek enough help, or he might still be
alive today. Cycling at the bottom is a long lonely season, year in and year
out. If you don't progress, you need to get out, unless you just ride as
nature, and just love the bike without any regard for progressing or
accomplishments.



If you look at Anke Wichmann, she rode for 20 years and never won anything.
Yet she was perfectly stable and happy it seems. Well, she never looked
happy, but she was stable, and did manage to finally get on T-Mobile without
any accomplishments. She wasn't even a super domo, but for Anke, probably
she just loved to race in the pro ranks, all these years, without any big
accomplishments.



Its true that the Olympics is like the Holy Grail for women. That's because
its the only big ticket to success and fame, life in the fast lane, greatly
increasing their market value. Well, at least it used to be. It's worth
shooting for, if you are good. It all depends on if cycling remains part of
the Olympics. Otherwise for women, success comes only after many lonely hard
painful years on the road winning classics and big stage races, although the
Worlds is another nifty ticket to increase you market value and success.
Wearing the fabled rainbow jersey all year is the dream of all the riders.
Winning the Worlds is like winning the lottery, and winning the Olympics is
the grand prize lottery! Also, former past winners can wear rainbow stripes
or rings on their jerseys. Although its not the same thing like the big
stripes on the current holder, it still increases their market value a tad.



Luperini never won the Worlds or the Olympics, in fact she never rode in a
single Olympic race all these years since 1992. However, she made a
excellent career for herself winning stage races, and she never won the UCI
rankings or the World cup rankings, not even close. Yet she made a career
out of winning classics and stage races. In 2004, I believe she was getting
paid $50,000 Euros to ride for Let's Go Finland, and that's pretty good for
women, although MB racers get paid more, the top ones that is. Since 2004,
she won many more big events, so I think she was getting paid pretty good,
all things considered compared to other top women.



50,000 Euros equals about $66,000 US, and you won't find anyone in America
making that kind of money. Only Armstrong and Neben in the road ranks would
make anywhere near that amount of more. Armstrong and Neben should be
reaping the fruits of their endorsements, and milking them for all they are
worth. Why not, they deserve it! Those two women, put in a lot of hard
lonely painful years! They were the only two full time fully dedicated
professional American women, and they worked the ropes on pro UCI teams too.



I wonder if those old gold medals from the past have more gold in them, then
the new ones? Gold is worth a ton of money per ounce now. I wonder how many
champions from the past are considering melting down their gold medals for
cash?



Nicolas