From: les@sail.stanford.edu (Les Earnest)
Subject: U.S. cycling governance: Swan dive into a cesspool [part 5 of 10]
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 08:42:57 GMT

There was a short-lived bicycle boom in the early 1970s that was
apparently a response to the gasoline shortage initiated by OPEC.
A seondary effect was much wider participation in bicycle racing than
had been seen for awhile, but by the late 1970s registration was
again going downhill fast.

A number of reform candidates in the Central and West Sections ran for
the USCF board in 1979 and were elected.  I was among them, having
become outraged at gross misconduct by the board, which had suspended
a Northern California rider for a year based on third hand hearsay
about alleged misconduct.  The board hadn't bothered to investigate the
charge on which the suspension was based and even after the allegations
were shown to be false the board refused to back down.  The rider, a
five-time national junior champion who had often beaten Greg Lemond,
left the sport at that point.  Meanwhile, I got sucked into cycling
politics.

Not only did I get elected to the board but I also managed to take the
job of the person who had initiated the bogus suspension.  With new
blood on the board, changes started to happen.  For one, the board
approved a change in the appeals process such that the chief
prosecutor no longer appointed the jury.  For another, they approved
the first systematic rewrite of the racing rules since 1921, which
brought these rules much closer to those used in international
competition.

There was also an important structural change in 1979: USCF hired its
first full time staff member and set up a small headquarters.  Up to
that point the work of the organization had been done by volunteers
with a few part time employees in various parts of the country.  In
typical fashion, the decision to set up a headquarters was not a
formal act of the board of directors.

What happened was that the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) had been
recently been forced to reorganize after one of their periodic
scandals.  About the same time, thr North American Air Defense Command
(NORAD) had just finished building their new command center in the
center of Cheyanne Mountain and no longer needed their former home,
Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.  It was given to USOC, which
then moved there from New York and offered office space to the
national governing bodies in what had been the satellite tracking
center.

Mary Cappy decided that she would like to move to Colorado and open an
office.  She mentioned this to some of her fellow board members during
a coffee break at one of their meetings.  By the time the meeting
resumed the matter was settled without having undergone any formal
discussion or approval.

The bikie film "Breaking Away" appeared that year and, for whatever reason,
USCF membership began to grow again, from a low of 7,500 in 1979 to today's
55,000+ counting NORBA.

I talked the Board into initiating professional audits of financial
records in 1980, something that had never been done before.  As
expected, they were a disaster, but the auditor eventually got things
under control.

Piece by piece, the board agreed to liberalize the silly clothing
regulations that had been copied from the Europeans.  (It was a
curious fact that the U.S. had been following the archaic clothing
regulations of the Europeans but not their racing rules.)
Unrestricted jersey advertising was approved in 1984, shorts of any
color in 1989, and the absurd ``white socks'' rule was finally deleted
in 1990.

The first comprehensive anti-doping regulations were adopted in 1985,
after some embarrassing doping and blood boosting incidents at the
1984 Olympics.  A strong helmet rule was adopted beginning in 1986
after a furious political battle that cost me my seat on the board for
two years.  The use of spoke covers as a substitute for disk wheels
was approved for 1989.

On the whole, good things were happening.

[Next part (next week): Alternative bikes and free spirits]
--
Les Earnest           Phone:  415 941-3984    Fax: 415 941-3934
Internet: Les@cs.Stanford.edu              USMail: 12769 Dianne Drive
UUCP: . . . decwrl!cs.Stanford.edu!Les         Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.racing