Champion without a Team

CEBU, Philippines - I believe its only in cycling where a current Grand Tour champion can't get a job. Chris Horner, who at 41, won the Vuelta a Espana, is currently without a team for next year.

Professional sports is strange animal. They would rather pay big money for potential than for experience. That's why the Atlanta Hawks and the Oakland Raiders overpaid John Koncac and JaMarcus Russell respectively, as rookies and we all know that they were busts.

In reality, Chris can get a job anytime and anywhere, its just that teams will not be willing to pay him the money that grand tour champions deserve. There are three reasons. One, his age. How far can he go with his body? Second is that he's too injury prone. Two weeks ago, he broke his ribs during the Worlds. Four months ago, he was also sideline for another injury. And finally, his association with Lance Armstrong. Despite the announcements that cycling is now getting clean, management people are still afraid of backlash from the media and sponsors for hiring somebody with a suspicious past.

Of course, Chris will be riding next season, but with a lesser contract than what he believed he's worth.

Cebu unsafe for the LBC Ronda?

Ric Rodriguez, the Race Director of the 2014 LBC Ronda Pilipinas has announced that 6-8 foreign teams are expected to join the biggest annual  bicycle road race in the country.  While this is most welcomed news, Rodriguez added that that the Mindanao and Visayas leg of the stage race has been cancelled. The reason? Safety of the foreign riders. He said that, "We just want to make sure that all foreign riders are safe."

I'd perfectly understand that the Mindanao leg be stricken off the stages especially with what's going on although in fairness to our brothers and sisters down south, majority of the island is as peaceful as the rest of the country.? I also understand that road racing, held in uncontrolled environment, is much more difficult to manage than say basketball, where the athletes are separated from the spectators.

But Cebu? Is Cebu so unsafe today that a very public sporting event like cycling has to be cancelled? Has Cebu today become a Colombia, where former ITT World Champion Santiago Botero, a native Colombian, had to train incognito, in unmarked jerseys, to escape the eyes of potential kidnappers?

I have met Ric a few times, and he is a very nice guy. He is a premier race organizer and he is passionate and knows cycling like the palm of his hand. But saying that Cebu and the Visayas area is unsafe for a bike race is just ignorant.

Just in case Ric missed it, the 5th Cobra Ironman 70.3 was assessed by the World Triathlon Corporation, Cobra Ironman 70.3 came in second after the Mont Tremblan 70.3 event in Canada, in terms of participant satisfaction. So how come it is so unsafe for regional riders, continental riders and national team riders to race here when two former World Ironman Champions, Chris McCormack (2007, 2010) and Pete Jacobs (2012), have been joining the events here and never said anything about their safety? 

If Ric doesn't want to bring the Ronda here for logistical reasons, then it's fine with me. I just don't want to hear that rider safety is the reason why. (FREEMAN)