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Quinn Simmons is the new Quinn Simmons

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I hope this is seen as a non political post, but rather as commentary on the responsibility of the team and the ath3.

First off, this incident shows that Simmons was not ready for the WT, not physically, but mentally.

Second, Trek bears a lot of responsibility that things have escalated to this point. It's like throwing your kid in a deep pool without teaching him how to swim, and then being surprised when he almost drowned.

Social media is a pit of quicksand. Trek should have sat him down, with his father and his agent, and said: "We want you to be yourself, have opinions, but keep them to yourself. We are a giant international bicycle company, we hired you to promote our bicycles and race them, and if you feel you must post on social media, we have professionals who can help you do that in a way that promotes Trek's values and image."

Clearly that never happened, so when a 19 year old kid jumps into a pool with sharks, this is what happens. Trek should NEVER have called him out publicly, either. That's wrong on so many levels and basically guaranteed this would not end well.

The Moscon case is a little different, in that it happened a few years ago, in Europe, and Sky is not trying to sell bicycles. I personally think Moscon should have been banished from the pro peloton, but the atmosphere in the US right now is so poisonous and polarized that suspension is probably warranted, even if I don't agree, and don't know how Simmons reacted.

My prediction is that they will part ways.. I hope I am wrong.
 
My opinion: They won't find peace. The question is whether he will find another WT-team.
I can even see him switching to another sport.

I put my money on Ineos. They have no problems with Moscon after all he did in the past seasons and they don't have any problem with being financed first by Murdoch and now by Ratcliffe.

And Simmons fits quite well with all the signings they have been doing.
 
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Actually I think Trek's initial response was, albeit perhaps not worded very well, entirely appropriate. Let's take Quinn to one side, have a talk with him about the responsibilities of a professional outside of just riding their bike etc., and try to defuse the whole situation before it got out of hand, showing other posters on social media that it is being handled to try to stop them from rebuking Quinn further and escalating the situation knowing he's likely to react. You can argue 'too late', but without knowing how he reacted to them doing that it's impossible to say. If he basically refused to handle himself in a more diplomatic way then they probably felt they had no option but to be seen to take action to sanction him. It's an indefinite suspension and so it could all blow over once emotions cool and he gets a rebuke, or, it could be an irreparable crack in the relationship that results in him having to find a spot elsewhere. At his talent level I'm sure somebody will want him. At worst, he'll be confined to a US domestic team for a couple of years because he's persona non grata elsewhere, until he matures enough (as a rider, as a person, or both) that his value to a team on-bike is more than the potential cost in drama and negative PR, and who knows, that may even be better for him in the long run than racing the likes of Roubaix as a 19-year-old, although being confined to the US domestic circuit is probably more of a handicap to Simmonds than it is for, say, Dygert, who is just beating up on the scene in the same way as Hall and Abbott before her and with the (Kristin) Armstrong patronage and her track pedigree doesn't yet feel the need to come over to Europe to race. Realistically, somebody will take a flyer on him as his cost will probably be lowered as a result of this episode.
 
Mod hat on:

This is a final warning. Continuing the political discussion will result in lengthy bans, please don't force our hand. We gave everyone involved in the previous discussion a pass as we didn't catch it at the time, but we're not going to keep doing it after posting a request that the discussion end.

Cheers,

KB.

Honest question: this final warning does it refer to the new posts made after you cleaned up the thread that are now still visible or were there new posts that already have been removed? Or is it just a general warning?

Because in the new posts that are still visible personally I don't really read any political discussion but a discussion about the way Trek-Segafredo handled this and what might happen with Simmons now. Can we continue these kind of discussions?
 
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Mod hat on:

This is a final warning. Continuing the political discussion will result in lengthy bans, please don't force our hand. We gave everyone involved in the previous discussion a pass as we didn't catch it at the time, but we're not going to keep doing it after posting a request that the discussion end.

Cheers,

KB.
Please tell us how exactly we can discuss recent events considering this pro cyclist his career without addressing the elephant in the room. Thanks.
 
Honest question: this final warning does it refer to the new posts made after you cleaned up the thread that are now still visible or were there new posts that already have been removed? Or is it just a general warning?

Because in the new posts that are still visible personally I don't really read any political discussion but a discussion about the way Trek-Segafredo handled this and what might happen with Simmons now. Can we continue these kind of discussions?

The ones that have remained are posts that we think don't cross the line. They don't discuss what Quinn Simmons actually did, what his, or anyone elses', views are or how they relate to politics in general. They just focus on the fact that the team has suspended him, how the teams should prepare any athlete for social media in general, and what the suspension might mean for his career going forward. We think that's ok, but clearly there's a fine line. Any mention of political figures or movements (and yes, unfortunately this may include movements that some users feel are not political and some do) are likely to cross the line.
 
Please tell us how exactly we can discuss recent events considering this pro cyclist his career without addressing the elephant in the room. Thanks.

There are plenty of platforms online and social media where you can discuss this. You won’t be able to on this one if you wish to discuss it fully.

Please refer to the KB post above for some guidelines.

Essentially there is no absolute right to discuss anything on the forum. As mods we are given a set of rules we are expected to enforce and our choice is to do that, or stop being mods. We don't think it's our position to pick and choose which ones we should and shouldn't enforce (whether we like the rules or not). If it is impossible to discuss something without it falling foul of the rules, then it can't be discussed.


That said, in this situation we think it is fine to say he has been suspended, just avoid discussing why (that information is readily available to anyone who wants it). It's fine to discuss how a team might help an athlete navigate social media, but it's not fine to discuss which views are acceptable to be expressed and which aren't. It's also generally going to be fine to discuss how this might affect his career going forward, but if you stray into why what he was specifically suspended for might have a certain impact on who would or wouldn't sign him, for example, that's likely to fall foul of the rules.


I'm afraid the best advice we can give is if you're not sure, don't post it.
 
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There are plenty of platforms online and social media where you can discuss this. You won’t be able to on this one if you wish to discuss it fully.

Please refer to the KB post above for some guidelines.
I just made another thread for this topic in another forum section but is that then also forbidden? I assumed you were trying to keep politics only out of the pro racing forum not the CN forum in general
 

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