It was announced today that Filip Meirhaeghe not only tested positive for blood doping but has admitted to it. Filip has been leading the World Cup and was considered by most a sure bet for Gold in Athens. He has officially retired and will walk away from the sport in shame.

I’ve heard from a few of the riders in the racing community and as you can imagine, they are outraged. Not just at the deceitfulness of wearing the World Champion’s jersey and taking credit for win after win (and the money that comes with it) but at the lost opportunities for scores of people that filter deep into the cycling community. A lot of money, effort and support for Filip was spent in vain. Those wounds will not soon heal. Not to mention the dark cloud that is cast over the entire sport.

As the director of Off Road To Athens, I find myself (yet again) completely shocked at the turn of events. I cannot find words to type as I sit here - that can convey my feelings. I have not been turned down by Specialized as a rider looking for sponsorship, have not lost to Filip after trying with all my heart to win, have not been passed by him on the course, have not watched him take the podium time and time again… For those who have, I can only imagine sheer animosity towards the Belgian. I’ve been sitting here all morning wondering how this will be brought to light - ON TOP OF the women’s debate of Mary wins, no Sue wins, no Mary wins and Sue sue’s… What the hell am I supposed to do with all this? Like making a movie isn’t’ hard enough? Ken and I have been on the phone all morning discussing possible outcomes. None leave me happy.

Why is that?
Why do I care how each person is portrayed? Especially if they’ve just cheated the entire mountain bike industry and all its racers? If you’ve read any of these journals you know why. I’m now left to balance two sides.

One is hearing Todd Wells tell Ken about being cut from the Specialized roster to make way for Filip. Or much closer to home, how Specialized will have NOTHING to do with our movie now and we were discussing a substantial sponsorship package (ouch).

Two is having a guy help me when I was really down and be a nicer, friendlier, more helpful person that almost everyone I’ve met in 6 months of filming. Filip gave me a ride for 4 hours through the Scottish countryside to Ft. William. He took me to dinner and treated me as a friend, not as a journalist. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him as a person, not just a bike racer. He give me positive energy and encouragement after showing him the trailer of the film when one day earlier I had just been told by another racer, “It’s got no emotion. You’re running around just filming random things. You’re so disorganized. You’re movie is going to be lame. I don’t think you’re doing a good job…(on and on and on).”

Let me tell you, when you’re away from your friends and family for weeks, putting all your own money on the line, risking your job and all the security it brings to make a movie when you’re not a movie maker but just a rider who loves the sport and only wants the world to see how great it is - to have self doubt be your only companion day in and day out - to get the positive support and encouragement that Filip showed me, was worth my respect and admiration.

Now what do I do?
I feel like the bottom just fell out.
And it makes me sick.

http://www.velonews.com/race/mtn/articles/6697.0.html

We just got this in from Mary.

The last two weeks have been filled with a complete spectrum of emotions. Riding the Olympic nomination roller-coaster has certainly been tough; but, I have remained focused on my training and racing, while at the same time living in our mobile home-away-from-home — all of which has left me little ability or time to communicate with everyone to whom I wish to reply. For this last part, I apologize.

I’d like to begin by expressing my delight and gratitude for the opportunity to represent the United States in the women’s cross-country mountain bike race at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. Words fail to describe what an amazing honor this is for me.

The circumstances of my selection to the Olympics have been widely publicized, so I’ll be brief in addressing this. What I wish most to say about it is how sorry I am that Sue Haywood has had to bear the brunt of USA Cycling’s errors. She is a true champion, and it was with no malice that I pursued the right to have USA Cycling’s decision evaluated in an impartial review process. The main issue at hand was whether USA Cycling must communicate to all riders it’s plans to adjust the standard for making the Olympic team at a point in time when those riders still have a chance to change strategy–not when it is too late to do anything about it. I sought this with the desire that USA Cycling be held accountable to set clear expectations and stick by them, and that they be forced to look long and hard at their procedures in such a way that all competitive cyclists would ultimately benefit in the future. I wanted to help ensure that no one would ever again have to endure the confusion, exhaustion, and incredible disappointment that the Olympic selection process had become.

In the words of the arbitrator’s decision, “… all athletes will benefit if this decision leads to USA Cycling and other national governing bodies issuing clearer, more transparent procedures that allow athletes to compete on a level and open playing field.� This was precisely my hope in pursuing the review.

I am focused on Athens now and have dedicated myself to preparing for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. My success in the World Cup this year has helped fuel my confidence in the strength of body and mind and my ability to earn an Olympic medal for the United States. I welcome and embrace this challenge and unique privilege.

Sincerely,
Mary McConneloug
Team Seven Cycles

We just got this letter today from Sue. It is incredible to see that she still has a good attitude after all that has gone on this year. I hope everyone who reads this can learn from her handling of this very difficult situation.

Susan Haywood’s Statement

On Friday July 16, 2004 I was chosen to represent the United States at the Olympic Games in Women’s Mountain Biking. I had earned the most UCI points (from the cycling world’s governing body) of any U.S. woman mountain biker and had won what many of us were calling the “crazy points chase�.

I made phone calls to people close to me, my parents, my coach, my good friends and teammates. It was a feeling of great pride knowing that my sole goal for the year was achieved.

No one has disputed that I earned the 15 points at the Sandpoint, Idaho UCI sanctioned E2 race. And I believe that the race promoters followed proper procedure. Yet due to a clerical error on both USACycling’s part as well as the UCI chief commissaire at that race, these points were never received by the UCI.

I repeatedly received assurances from USA Cycling’s Chief Operating Officer, Steve Johnson and the National Mountain Bike Coach, Matt Cramer as far back as April that these points would count toward my points total. I believed them and based my racing schedule around their word. If I had known those 15 points were not going to count, I could have adjusted my race schedule to make them up.

Even though I was named to the team and had gained the most points in one year with the deadline of July 12, 2004, my nomination was denied by a very last minute arbitration which “awarded� the spot to Mary McConneloug.

According to the decision of an independent arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association, “It is unfortunate that Ms. Haywood has to bear the burden of USA Cycling’s errors. While, Ms. Haywood sadly bears the brunt of this …she and all other athletes will benefit if this decision leads USA Cycling and other national governing bodies issuing clearer, more transparent procedures that allow athletes to compete on a level and open playing field.�

When I signed up for my racing license, I didn’t expect to have to ‘bear a burden of errors’, mistakes and poor leadership for an organization that receives $6 million dollars every four years to field Olympic cycling teams. I expect an organization with that responsibility to conduct itself professionally by doing its job and keeping its word.

All the athletes involved in this year’s bid for the Olympics have acted with courage and integrity. I don’t feel USA Cycling has done this. I trusted them and they violated that trust.

Certainly, to be denied my Olympic spot due to a clerical error is unfair.

This is not sour grapes towards Mary McConneloug. Mary and I have always and will continue to maintain the highest level of sportsmanlike behavior that is expected of Olympians. I applaud the U.S. Woman Mountain Bikers who, despite being ranked number one in the world with two in the top three and two more in the top 15, have received only one Olympic spot. But that’s another story.

Thanks go out to all who have supported me this year and throughout these stressful last weeks. Ride on!

Susan Haywood

July 21

Monday of this week, Mary and her team, Seven Cycles, appealed the USA Cycling decision to give the spot to Sue. USA Cycling’s CEO Gerard Bisceglia said that McConneloug’s case was presented to an official arbitrator in New York City on July 19th, with the decision expected July 20th. The suit charged that USA Cycling was wrong to add in other (namely, Sandpoint) points in its decision to give Haywood the Olympic berth, when the UCI itself did not record points for that race.

At 5pm yesterday word came down that the arbitration between Sue and Mary was over. The position that had been awarded Sue was revoked and given to Mary.

I have grown to know both riders fairly well and I cannot believe what has happened. I am still in shock, confused and I imagine those reading this are as well. I guess when so much is on the line, and when you’ve struggled so hard to get to Athens, you will do everything in your power to assure there was no stone left unturned in your efforts. I have a feeling there will be more to this story however the United States had until today at noon to turn in the roster for Olympians headed to the Games. Either way, I am sure both riders are sick with the turn of events. Both have experienced the feeling of thinking they held the position as well as having it taken away. I feel loss for them both. It’s never good when a story ends like this.

Stay tuned.

Olympics.
Defined as:
Olympic games, or Olympics (Greek Antiq.), the greatest of the national festivals of the ancient Greeks, consisting of athletic games and races, dedicated to Olympian Zeus, celebrated once in four years at Olympia, and continuing five days.

Figures. Perfectly fitting for the situation. It is of Olympic proportions. And it’s not looking too good. I wonder if Zues ever waited on the UCI for a final point tally?

For those who read this and don’t also read www.velonews.com (or the New York Times…) the women’s position is still in limbo. After Austria, when I was on a plane headed back to the States, it was announced that a single rider whose timing transponder (a chip attached to each bike to record time and prove a rider has completed the course) either fell off or stopped working finished between Sue and Mary. This pushed Mary back one position and took one point from her - breaking the tie between the two Americans and seemingly awarding Sue the Olympic slot. Woa. Dramatic. Could not have scripted that. Well it get’s crazier.

The rules were that on July 12, the female with the most UCI points would take the women’s slot but on July 12, the UCI had not yet updated their results. Nor had they awarded a crucial 15 points that Sue had earned at a race in 2003. Sue had specifically asked USA Cycling (back in Ecuador) whether or not those 15 points would be counted in the final tally and was told that they would. Days of waiting have ensued as all involved hold their breath. Think about it - you’re a pro cyclist on the verge of a career - and LIFE-LONG goal - and you have to WAIT for a phone call. Talk about ‘mean’ time…. Would UCI award the points USA Cycling assured Sue? Would UCI disqualify the rider who came across the line w/o a transponder?

After waiting for days, on Friday, July 16th Sue finally got the nod from USA Cycling. They awarded her the spot. She is headed to Athens. Well, not yet.

Mary’s team, Seven cycles has submitted an appeal stating that, “It’s disappointing if the chief objective of USA Cycling is to send the athlete with the best chance of success,â€? said Jennifer Miller, a spokeswoman for McConneloug’s Seven Cycles team. “The head-to-head results bear out overwhelmingly that Mary is our best chance.â€? Sue is, as of today, ranked 4th in the world. Mary is ranked 2nd.

While this log is not meant to be a source of news, I’ll try to post what happens as soon as I know for those who are interested. Ken and I are reeling in how we can possibly incorporate this into the film. I thought I had it wrapped in Austria with this beautiful shot of Sue posing a toast to Mary and thanking all at dinner for joining her on a wild ride. Guess the story goes on…

Here’s some links to keep up:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5445527/
https://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=1136
http://www.velonews.com/race/mtn/articles/6591.0.html
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/athens/cycling/2004-07-16-mtn-biking_x.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/16/sports/othersports/16cycling.html

Sunday
7.11
I woke up Sunday morning around 3am and couldn’t stop thinking about how the entire movie was just about to end. I could’t sleep after that as I stressed myself out wondering what I’ve missed and how the following day would go down. It was so important and I couldn’t make any mistakes. I got out of bed early and headed into town with Andrew. We had agreed to use one car to get between points on the race and at the time that sounded like a great idea. Turns out Andrew is into Rally Racing and while his rental was nothing more than a 3 cylinder, sub compact, Euro-commuter car, he drove it like it was a race-proven Indy-machine. I’m simply glad I did not have any breakfast.

It was raining again and neither Mary or Sue looked happy about it. Thousands of spectators were filling the town. I jumped into the lead-out car as the women left the start/finish line. I have tried all year to get that done and finally just stepped up like I was supposed to be there and told the guy to let me in the back. I can’t believe I didn’t try that earlier. Sue charged ahead of Mary on the first climb out of town, riding solid. Mary separated herself from the pack in an attempt to keep from getting caught in any crashes. An hour later the men started with Jeremiah in the lead group of about 200 racers. None of the other racers (JHK, Todd, Adam, Allison, Shonny) came to Austria. JB did since he’s a great distance racer and the UCI points from World Championship races last for 2 years. After the men roared into the hills I got out of the lead-out car and jumped into Jeff Gordon’s compact nascar. Andrew was as wound up as I was and took it out on that poor car. We blazed to the far end of the valley and had already missed the women. The men flew through about 15 minutes after we arrived and I got some great shots of them passing a scenic waterfall and super-old village along the river. Then we bombed down the highway for the other end of the course about 20k away. The car was starting to smell like burnt brakes. We had a course-map and could see a good spot for shooting the riders climb a steep traverse. The map showed a road that we hoped would drop us off right by the course. Looked like all we would have to do was cross a stream. I figured Andrew would simply drive across and we’d be fine. I think he had the same thing in mind as he kept the gas to the floor after we turned off the highway, E-brake sliding from pavement to dirt along a steep, wooded mountainside. Andrew was just getting the feel of the car on 2 wheels when the road ended about 20 feet from what turned out to be a 200 ft. exposed cliff. Sure there was only a stream to cross and there was the trail but we figured the car just wouldn’t make the landing. We watched from 200 ft. up as the women rode by.

Next we careened through a series of tiny villages, fields and woods connected by 5′ wide roads (chuck-full of blind corners) to a place we figured was far enough ahead to catch the leaders. Andrew almost took out a small child who was part of what looked like Hansel and Gretal’s wedding procession in the middle of nowhere. Andrew swerved to miss the kid and explained, “It’s really, really bad to run over a child in a foreign country, there’s TONS of paperwork and I don’t have time for that today…”

To our complete dismay, the leaders of the women’s race had already gone by but we couldn’t extract from the local spectator’s how many there had been. Andrew’s German is much worse than mine. The extent of his communication consisted of flashing his media pass, yelling, “American’s coming through! Move-it or loose-it sister!” We did see Mary ride past. She looked tired and asked what place she was in. I couldn’t give her an answer but cheered her on while trying to film. Sue had opened a gap and if it was enough, would take the Olympic position.

It’s absurd that the deciding factor for the women’s slot was a Marathon race when the Olympic race will be a more typical, 2 hour cross-country race. It was now 3 hours in and they were only half done.

Back in the car and around the valley again. We missed Gun Rita who was leading the race by 20 minutes but finally got to see Sue for the first time since the start as she motored through Bad Ischel with a smile. Mary came through some 20 places later riding conservatively. Andrew looked at me and said, “The distance is taking it’s toll on Mary. Looks like she’s not even racing. If she slides back even just a few more spots, her Olympic dream will end today.” We took the car up one more mountain road and still missed the leader but caught both Sue and Mary riding. There was only 20k left and Sue had opened the gap to almost 30 places between the two. I wanted to set the camera down and push mary up the climb. She looked tired, cold and as tho she knew her chances were gone.

At the finish line Andrew and I waited. Gun Rita arrived to thousands of cheering Austrians who lined the streets from one end of town to the other. 10 minutes later the first of the men came in. A few more riders appeared then came Sue. She was fried and totally spent but she had given it her best shot - and secured 9th place. Just behind her was Jeremiah, sheeted in mud. He congratulated Sue and said, “I suffered like a dog out there. That was the toughest race I’ve ever done.” One by one, more of the women’s field came across the line. It was a long 20 minutes until Mary arrived. I had lost count but Andrew thought she was somewhere around 25th. We would have to check the official results and start doing the math. I dropped out of math class in 11th grade and never looked back so I went to interview Mary and Sue and left the math to Andrew.

An hour later, no one was sure what was going on with the points. No one had an official answer. I ran back to the media room and found Andrew in a state of shock. I turned the camera on and he looked up from his laptop, “Sue finished 9th and got 119 points, Mary finished 23rd and got 78 points - that means they’re tied!.”

Saturday
7.10
JB and I slept in a bit since it was pouring rain. I woke up wondering where the hell I was. Threw me off for a minute. Bishop needed to pre-ride some of the course and I needed to get some interviews done so we drove into town after some breakfast. Mary and Mike being the easiest to spot in the RV, ended up getting the most camera-time. Their rig was stuck in a muddy field but they were in a good location so as Mike said, “No worries, right?” I found Sue later at the Rock Shox tent. Her bike had just arrived and she was a bit less stressed and pretty happy. The rain let up and about mid-afternoon the sun was out. I could not believe how amazing the valley we were in truly was - surrounded by abrupt, impossibly steep rocky mountians. There was a helicopter in the school playground for the Swiss TV network and I was determined to get a ride. The only person I could talk into it was Andrew so as the racers were in the pre-race meeting held by UCI, we took one of the most scenic rides I’ve ever been on. The footage is a little shaky since I was shooting with the side door open (the helo didn’t have a gyro which keeps a camera steady). Holding my camera steady was like trying to keep a candle lit in a hurricane, but it should look ok in slow-motion. The sun was setting and the lighting was absolutely amazing. I finally got my helicopter shots.

Friday 7.10
On Friday I eventually got out of National after almost missing my flight because of more inept people at the check-in desk. It took a bit of arguing to keep from being charged extra for bringing my bike (which I hoped to sell in Austria since I’m scraping for money from all this travel).

Just over the boarder of Germany and Austria, slightly South of a town named Bad Ischel there is a stretch of valley that follows a stream towards a town named Bad Goisern. The mountains here are abrupt and dramatic which seemed appropriate since this is where the end of the film would play out. After 6 months of traveling almost every weekend to dozens of races, riding each like it was their last, the woman’s Olympic slot was going to be decided. There was only 41 points between Mary and Sue, Mary having the lead. First place for this race, the Marathon World Championships (Marathon is a distance race, and in this case it was going to be 106 km), is 200 points and a riders as far back as 70th place could score points. If both finished, Sue would have to break the top 10 and have Mary fall back into the 20’s to take the slot. But this is mountain bike racing and anything is possible. Either Sue or Mary could have a mechanical, suffer a crash or injury preventing them from finishing and the other would walk away with the slot as long as they finished the race.

The land is the most spectacular I have ever seen. The houses the most picturesque and the women, who seemed to outnumber the men 2 to 1 - the most stunning.

After scoring a nice mini-van at the Munich airport, I drove South and picked up Jeremiah Bishop at the Salzburg airport. He flew in with Sue who had a van waiting. Sue was told her bike was not on the flight but the airline would deliver it to her hotel at the race site - of all races to not need additional stress, this was it. One thing Sue did have locked up was a perfect place to stay - within walking distance to the venue. Just outside Sue’s window was Mary and Mikes RV parked in a field. JB and I checked the town for places to stay and ended up at a hotel about 20k away at the base of a small ski hill. The price included dinner and breakfast so it wasn’t a bad deal for €45 a night. At dinner we were joined by Andrew Juskaitis, a reporter/technical editor for Velo News magazine. I had never met Andrew but he had a dry sense of humor, tends to be pretty sarcastic and looks like a bleached-blonde cross between Dolph Lundgren and Sting. He chatted with us as we put our bikes together in the basement.

Thursday 7.9
I was supposed to fly out Wednesday night but storms delayed my plane from leaving DC. Luckily that meant I could simply go home and get some extra sleep.

Airports suck.