Major Taylor deserves respect

Team Major Taylor deserves respect, despite anything that could be said to the contrary. No other team in the Little 500 field had to go through so much official red tape and so much unofficial hatred spread by some of the other riders. Major Taylor has dealt with disqualification, arbitration, controversy, paperwork, a competitor's walkout during practice and lawsuit filed just before the event to keep the team out of the race.\nYet Major Taylor kept riding, in the face of all of this obvious adversity. During the race, through crashes, pushes and a broken chain, its riders kept riding. From the beginning of the race, Major Taylor was a force in the head of the pack, and despite suffering from mechanical failures and the game of chance, it finished 9th. \nMajor Taylor has been through a lot of unnecessary stress, and I salute the team.\nBut, after some careful reading of other news publications, I have to ask: Who is really cheating here? Many of the other riders in both the men's and women's races admit to being competitive on the same level as Josh Weir, but they knowingly stay away from races that would increase their categorical status under USA cycling rules. Why punish Weir for being category one at one time, with or without his knowledge? Because it seems like no one around here knows the whole story, the governing body of the Little 500 would attempt to disqualify a rider who is being honest about his skills? \n If Weir is cheating, then all of the other riders who purposely stay away from high-level races just to compete in Little 5 are cheating too. That's like an NBA-caliber player holding off on the draft so he could play in the AAU, or like turning the Yankees into a minor league team. Either way, whether official or unofficial, that kind of dishonesty should not be tolerated. The Little 500 governing body is letting potential cycling stars stay and dominate all of the true amateurs in the race. If this is not a double standard, I may need new glasses, because I know what I saw quoted from some other riders. \nAlso, if the issue was that Weir was too good to ride, what were the rest of the semi-pros afraid of? If they purposely stay away from high level events to compete in Little 500, then they should have had no problem competing against someone else who is a good as they say they are. \nThere have been rumors of complaints that Major Taylor has been playing the race card throughout all of these events. I can't say whether it did or not, but Major Taylor fought its disqualification by the rules, participated in arbitration, won and raced a good race despite a number of uncontrollable problems. Race obviously doesn't matter to the team, so why must it be an issue with everyone else? I always thought integration was a good thing. Different people can learn from each other. Just because Major Taylor was distinctive in the field not just by its jersey color doesn't mean its riders think the world is out to get them. All they wanted was a chance to ride, and they took advantage of it.\nMajor Taylor said it would return to ride next year. I hope it does.