Aside from the newspaper, rarely do I read letters sent in to websites by readers. I'm too busy posting my own drivel here. However, about a week ago, I clicked on a link to the 'Letters' section of a well known cycling website based in Australia. I quickly scanned the page to see if anything caught my eye and, sure enough, there was a letter from someone in St Louis.

My curiosity was piqued and I felt the need to see what my fellow citizen had to say. Seconds later I began to shudder and turn away from the monitor in sheer horror. In the words of Herbert Morrison, "Oh, the humanity!" This fine gentleman managed to combine such diverse topics as journalistic technique and Cadel Evans training into one whopper of a letter.

I was so moved by the letter, that I feel the need to share it... along with my editorial comments in bold for a little fun.

"Evans starts training for '08 Tour"

Where is the news? Where is the story?

Uhhh... the news is Cadel Evans began his training for the '08 Tour

A report/article from an Aussie journalist regarding an Aussie is convenient but at least make a news story out of it. If someone wants to make an interesting article, especially regarding a countryman, they should begin with a very different headline in December.

Evans late to start in training for '08 Tour.

A reporter's goal is not to stir up controversy or make a story "interesting". The goal is to report the facts.

Get in there, turn the screws! If you want your fellow countryman to represent the first Tour victory, get on his back and ask WHY he didn't start training the day after the Tour '07?

1) Nobody begins training for the next year's Tour the day after the Tour ends
2) Maybe you missed the fact that the cycling season doesn't end in late July.
3) Evans won the ProTour. Why? Because, unlike you, he realizes that the season doesn't end in late July and raced until Lombardia in October.

By December Cadel should know the '08 course He was at the '08 route announcement and knows the course and already have ridden some of the climbs. I know for a fact that he has ridden the Peyresourde, Aspin, Tourmalet, Galibier, Croix-de-Fer, Alpe d'Huez in past Tours. If you are a serious GC contender and been in Europe for several years, you have most likely ridden most of the mountains in a Tour at some point. Even a schmuck like me has been overr four of next year's mountains. That, my friend, is how to win the Tour. Because that is how you trained before winning your Tour de France Don't just follow, Cadel...LEAD! If you expect to win, and it is safe to assume this is the goal, then you can stop worrying about what others write, say, or whether you should be "superhuman". I promise he is not worried about what you wrote Know in your mind that you have trained harder & smarter than any other rider, after all, you are not the only one riding/training right now. That's right, everyone else has been training since the Tour ended

You want to be the best, then train more than anyone because when you are in the final 5km of the penultimate climb(s) in '08, you will know in YOUR mind that "there 'aint nobody out here but me that is going to win this thing", right before you dust the three favourites following your wheel.
How often do GC contenders ride away from their competitors on the penultimate climb of a stage? That sort of thing almost always happens on the final climb

Where is the story? Give us something to read, substance perhaps? Make something up, write about why Cadel is better than anyone else, take a stand!

Make something up? What the hell kind of reporting is that? That will get you fired just about everyplace but the Weekly World News.

I guarantee the '07 winner and the following top ten, aside from Cadel, has started thinking about '08 as soon as the bubbly settled in July. I guarantee Alberto Contador has already been to France, as busy as his schedule has been with Tour victor duties, and has ridden a few climbs. Following your logic, Contador will not be a factor in '08 because the wasn't training for the '08 Tour the day after he won on the Champs Elysees In fact, I personally spoke with him in September at the Tour of Missouri and he couldn't give specifics but he was on his way. (I worked the event).

Here is a story, "Evans training schedule: August - July 1". This would give readership something to think about, enjoy. It would also be false because Evans is not about to do something so stupid Equally, it would commit Cadel to paper. Once you write it down, it becomes reality. Bullshit I am cheering on the best riders, whomever, wherever they are from. Good for you. That surely brightens Cadel's day

Cadel already lost Tour '08 would be my prediction, because anything less than number 1 would be a loss at this point. At this point? Not counting Menchov and Pereiro's drug tainted victories, at what point has second place ever been anything but a loss Don't follow, LEAD! The same holds true for fellow countryman journalists. Entice us, dazzle us, prove to us why the time is NOW for Australia. Those are the most baffling two sentences I have read in a long time. Entice us? Dazzle us? You are talking about journalists, right? Who, in their right mind, looks to a journalists to prove that 'the time is NOW' for any country? What does that even mean?

Let's keep it simply Cyclingnews. Nothing before and nothing after. Huh?