The Explainer

A couple of weeks back I wrote a blog about Charles Pelkey, a former VeloNews staff member who was fired from his job the same day he got a cancer diagnosis (http://twowheeltransit.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-was-just-riding-along-and.html). Charles, as you may recall, is a multi-talented guy, who has a new website with live, minute-by-minute coverage of cycling events (liveupdateguy.com), but he is dearer in my heart for being a lawyer who rides a column called "The Explainer."

For those of you who noticed, the Explainer space on the VeloNews website had remained well after Charles' dismissal and I was beginning to think it extremely cheeky that VN had continued to trade on his good name and erudite explanations. Well, it turns out that the space was being reserved as negotiations were apparently going on behind the scenes to get Mr. Pelkey back penning this column as a freelancer. Not the same as employment, which tends to come with insurance, which one finds handy when one is battling cancer, but nonetheless.

But without further ado, here is a link to the latest Explainer entry about clenbuterol issues - http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/09/news/the-explainer-reaching-the-threshold-and-a-doping-explainer_193156. Charles does an excellent job of answering difficult legal and technical questions in the cycling world with accuracy, insight and in a very reader-friendly fashion. Please take a second to click on the link so that Charles and VeloNews notices that it is a needed and appreciated service.

If you want to catch up on prior Explainer columns, here is the link for that - http://velonews.competitor.com/category/explainer.

Charles touches on his cancer fight in his latest Explainer column and I heard from him recently that chemo is tough but he is doing okay. Please take a second to check out his column.