i have always thought that our comrade roy had a gift for sensing the gestalt that's out there.  that why when he sent me this message with a time date stamp of midnight on friday:

It's amazing what a motivated person can do starting at about 10:30 p.m (the slowest steps were stripping off the derailleurs and bar-end shifters and messing around with the camera).  I'm off into the night to try it out - cross your fingers that I don't slay myself.

and this photo:

i pretty much anticipated that something like this article would arrive before too long.  roy clearly has a gift like the seers of old.  people ask me to describe it from time to time.  our whole movement is, to a large extent, surfing the currents of popular opinions and beliefs, and be sure to check the featured article on wikipedia this morning for verification of my claim.  roy just seems to be a step ahead of the rest of us.  - - - posted by scott

incidentally, jay uhlfelder is my new best friend.  this post was brilliant and i would have thought he was typing with one hand and holding the manifesto in the other.  this post beuatifully captures much of the message we seek to propogate. 

oh, except for the math in this post.  yeah, that's not so good. 

For the sake of argument, let's assume an average field size of 50 per race, and an average of one crash per race with two riders seriously affected.

this reminds me of an old anecdote.  One day a farmer called on a mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer to fence off the largest possible area with the least amount of fence. The mathematician arranged the fence in a circle and proclaimed he had the most efficient design. The physicist made a long straight line and proclaimed, "We can assume the length is infinite...." and pointed out that fencing off half the earth was certainly more efficient. The engineer just laughed at them. He built a tiny fence around himself and said, "I declare myself on the outside!" 

you need to be careful with those simplifying assumptions

Under those assumptions, which I suspect are on the conservative side, the average rider's odds of being in a crash in each race are 1 in 25--not terrible but, given the possible severity of the consequences (pain, cost in dollars, opportunity costs), not great either.

i would suggest an alternative approach here.  if people are serious about modeling risk and return, they should start with actual accident statistics.  and even that is an issue as not all accidents end up being reported to the CR at the venue.  I think the estimate provided here is really high based on the percent of accident reports I have seen.  I would suspect the actual risk is somewhat closer to 1 incident / 200 racers / event as a long term average.  it's also complicated by the fact that one incident in one field can take down a large number of riders and the rest of the races can be accident free so you need to define whether you are talking about general population level risk or field specific risk.  you could also talk about risk at specific venues, specific types of racing (i.e. track vs. criterium vs. circuit vs. road), during specific times fo the year, under specific weather conditions, etc., etc., ad nauseum. 

comanies like geico have established brilliant business models by accurately estimating the relative risk certain people present and then only doing business with very low risk clients.  drivers have to have insurance.  what if you could offer really low rates to people who had spectacularly low risk?  there's a huge potential return.  one almost has to wonder why usac hasn't followed a similar type of experience rating in their insurance system: charging higher rates to venues that produce more frequent accidents and incidents and lower rates to those that consistently are accident free.  promoters could conceivably _earn_ lower insurance costs by demonstrating a history of incident free racing.  maybe the same concept would be applicable to racers themselves using the portable car insurance model.

this idea is hardly ready for prime time but you get the basic concept: it involves accurately assessing risk.  here's a classic example of people mis-understanding the concept.  let's say that you're looking at people who are driving on icy roads.  you find, after carefully analyzing your data, that if someone is driving 30mph on an icy road, they have a 22% higher number of accidents per minute on the road.  does it not then stand to reason that if you doubled your speed, you would be on the roads for half as long, allowing yourself only half as much time to have an accident, thereby making yourself twice as safe?  sure it does, and most of us practice this sound philosophy every day.  it's really easy to take general data and mis-apply it to a situation.

What's more, over time those risks really add up. If he or she races 25 times in a year, that average racer can expect to crash once each year. Over several years of bicycle racing, that rider's chances of suffering a serious injury and financial costs start to look pretty good (or bad, really).

this is gamblers fallacy.  if there's a fixed probability that you will have an accident, each application is theoretically independent and unique.**  if (and i'm just using the argument provided here) there truly is a 1 in 25 chance of crashing, that doesn't mean that if they do 25 races they can likely expect a crash.  it means that they will do 25 races, each with a 1 in 25 chance of crashing.  if they have a crash in a race on saturday, they'll go right back out and have a 1 in 25 chance of crashing again on sunday.  no argument over the potential long term and aggregate costs of crashing.

The math would be very different if most of the local races were challenging road courses, where the fields tend to stretch and split and so the risk of crashes falls.

i'm not sure that there is valid data to back this assertion up.  in statistics, we sometimes joke about the o-test, where o stands for obvious.  it relies on conventional wisdom and simple observation.  but it's subjective and based on perception (which is the source of the irony because it's a statistical test but i'm sure you all got that and didnt' find it amusing).  personally, i would be likely to say that crashes happen at the end of criteriums when the speed is not high enough to keep people strung out.  but again, i have no data to back this up either, just my own observations.  one could make a similar argument that low average speed keeps attrition low and that's the ultimate cause.  my general point is that many of these are impossible for promoters to control so even if you could definitively say that one thing or another increased the risk, you can't mandate the actions of others (on the fly).  in addition, you always have the option of dropping out if the risk/reward ratio does not appear favorable to you.  it's an option i've been exercising more frequently in the last few weeks.

Unfortunately for MABRA riders, virtually all of the local races are crits, and often on rather technical courses where the risks of crashing are at their highest. Of the few road races on the calendar, one (Poolesville) is a pretty risky endeavor for other reasons, and others often end with field sprints that produce crashes, too (I was in the men's 30/40+ finishing swarm at Walkersville this year, and that was downright ugly).

the finish at walkersville was ugly, but i think that illustrates my point that it's difficult to identify and then quantify all of the factors that present risk.  my commute this morning was also ugly, but it's the same route i ride almost every day.  why was it so much more dangerous this morning?  who knows.  it could likely be described as random chance alone.  which brings me to my final point.  this post contains a totally reasonable request.  if any tt promoters would like help with randomizing systems, drop me a line and i'll hook you up.

I've probably been way too picky in this post so let me reiterate the thing i said at the top.  i like jay's perspective on racing.  i like it a lot.  i like to try to remember that we all have families and jobs and other hobbies to go back to after our rides and races.  that's the important stuff.  you can be passionate about bicycle riding and racing while still keeping it in perspective.  and i do think that if everyone kept it in perspective, there might be less crashes.

- - - posted by scott

** there is an interesting caveat here.  if you support the thesis that some riders are more prone to accidents than others, a different approach is required.  this assumption makes some parts of the risk assessment tricky as you grapple with issues of whether you must move away from population level accident rates because you implicitly acknowledge that there is more variation by racer than by venue or field.  you'd need to construct elaborate systems to evaluate individual risk you present to others and they present to you.

a manifesto in every pocket!  bring the wisdom from the leaders of the glorious revolution in cycling to all you encounter. 

make your own graphic manifesto

page 1: mediumpubpageA.pdf (1.36 MB)

page 2: mediumpubpage2.pdf (881.86 KB)

print the first page.  flip that page over, feed it, and print again; front/back.  cut it out.  the top panel on the first page should be central image art the middle fo the book.  staple it in the middle and you are good to go.  this "kit" will produce one (1) graphic manifesto (7.5cm x 5.5cm) and hours of enjoyment.  throw a few in the car for the kids on long rides.  leave a few in the stacks at your local library.  hand them to drivers caught in traffic.  hand them to fellow diners at restaurants. 

join the valiant struggle against the tyranny and passive coercion of the status quo.  

- - - posted by scott

*** thanks to eric marshall for help in converting this to the people's format.  oh, and for the ride home from greenbelt the other day.  sorry i got nutella all over the inside of your volvo.

Here's a picture from just before the start of the Men's 30+ race at Quicksilver on Saturday.  Spot the Racing Union comrades in their new uniforms:

And they're off!

--- posted by josh

a few thoughts from what turned out to be an interesting weekend.  saturday was the quicksilver race.  the union forces were out and beginning to race together as team.  working with our guys was by far the most rewarding part of the afternoon.  it was especially nice to see guys covering moves when I knew they didnt' really want to or feel like doing it.  they did it because they understood it would help the team effort and they knew it had to be done.  that, was great.  the last few laps of the 30+ race were a mixed bag.  the break of the day was well established.  we just wanted to ride near the front and keep the pace high enough that we would not get swarmed.  i was supposed to lead out aric and would have done so but he took a good opporunity and freelanced it.  his lanes ended up clogging and i managed to grab a good wheel coming up and into the last corner.  between aric and myself, i figured we would have a good finish.  after the race, we rode around for a while.  i eventually went to check on results.  and this is where the story turns somewhat sub-optimal.  when i rode up to the registraiton tent, bernard was there and thye were handing out checks.  he had done very well (congrats, b.) but mentioned to me that he had to protest the results because he was not listed.  guess what, i was not even listed in the results.  my number appears nowhere.  the guy with the checks kind of shrugged and said "the protest period is over".  i wasn't really upset.  i would have liked the place, but it's a hobby, and stuff happens.  and maybe my experience will serve as a reminder to others to be sure to check the results during the protest period.  i have told others before that it's their responsibility to do so.  this time it's my turn to be told.  yippee.  i was mostly happy i didn't crash anyway.  thank goodness for small things.

sunday was a real adventure.  aric and alec had arranged a ride out to the oasis winery, and a subsequent picnic, west of the plains.  i was not sure if my wife would make it but i had never been to that specific area and wanted to check it out.  i also really didn't want to drive.  aric's wife, colleen, our newest union member, offered to drive ben along with her kids.  the only trick was that she needed another car seat.  so early on sunday morning, we loaded up the trailer but good.  the car seat went in the back of the trailer, along with 1 leap pad, three books, eight little nascar replicas, some snacks, extra fluids, tools to fix bike and trailer, extra clothes and a map.  yup.  i couldn't even bring myself to weigh it but it was substantial. 

ben and i rode out to leesburg, into a headwind.  he would ask me why the other cyclists were passing us and never seemed happy with the answer.  he asked me how i can race if everyone is always passing me.  good point.   i was using the power tap and i'll spare you the details except to say that for the two hours of riding, I clocked in about 30 watts below lactate threshold and an average speed below 15mph.  ooofff.  still, it was fun and ben enjoyed it.

when we got to leesburg, we unhooked the trailer, set up ben and took off.  the ride to oasis was awesome.  there were two prolonged gravel sections but both were pretty clean and fairly rideable.  once you get out past marshall, the land really rolls and it is breathtaking.  we saw a lot of motorcylists out and it's no wonder, as the roads are tight and twisty and amazingly rolling.  we also saw some emt's on the scene of a motorcycle crash.  again, it's no wonder, as the roads are tight and twisty and amazingly rolling.  aric has the cue sheet for this route so i'll try to update this post later on our route details.

the winery was quite nice.  the others enjoyed a picnic near the pond.  ben worked on his photography.

i tried to hand out some manifestos but the customer base here seemed particularly resistant to the brand of economic populism i was preaching.  i just couldn't figure it out, but what the hey, another data point in planning for the revolution.  the trip wasn't a total waste.  i did scope out some nice sections of land that may be liberated for my purposes and returned to the people once things get going.  but i digress.  it was a very nice day.

i'm hoping to get out to greenbelt on wednesday.  if anyone is interested in riding from dc or carpooling, please drop me a line or leave it in comments.  - - - posted by scott

updated in the comments

by design, we spend most of our time talking about cycling and the impending revolution.  however, it's probably worthwhile for a moment here to try to figure out what happened to the us team in the first round of the world cup.  the level of suckitude, on it's surface, defies categorization.  this is a semi-open thread to describe the train wreck.  you may use any format you believe helps.  possible options include miller analogy (i.e. the us teams : other teams in the world cup :: ________), personal anecdote, ancient mythology or third person accounts and reconstructions of terrible human tragedy.  bring it in the comments.

posted by scott

update: this post is reposted as originally posted.  it was removed by me in a post hoc piece of bad judgement.  i am reposting the post post-conflict and post haste.  -shg

from this message:

>>>-----Original Message-----

>>>From: Robb Hampton

>>>Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 12:17 PM

>>>To: uscf-district20@topica.com

>>> It's Georgetown U., they have more money than DC Velo!

tsk tsk.  this type of class warfare doesn't do anyone any good.  it inevitably leads to social unrest and that cannot help.  calling people out as bourgeois is just a simplistic, petulant response to a complex situation.   it's totally unconstructive.  let's elevate the debate.  imagine harleys and volvos, parked side by side. 

frankly, i find both modes of conveyance pretty bourgeois, but that's just me.

on a separate note, i found what i think is a much more favorable route for riding from dc to greenbelt.  I'll put up something next week.  if people are interested in riding out, drop a line.  I'll probably leave my office between 5:00 and 5:15.

- - - posted by scott

Several months ago (during the earliest stages of the great cycling revolution in which our beloved Racing Union was born in the bowels of the command bunker deep below the Plaza de la Revolucion), it was decided that comrades toiling and sacrificing for our cause should be properly outfitted for the forthcoming battle.  Under the guidance of the Racing Union’s Minister of Technical Apparel Design, a citizens committee worked day and night to create a uniform worthy of our epic struggle for right.  A design was chosen, and a sympathetic apparel producer in South Carolina was enlisted to help our new kits come to fruition. 

Through our agents in South Carolina, a Colombian spandex concern was contracted to produce the new uniforms.

Delivery of the uniforms commences, fittingly on two wheels.  Unfortunately, due to challenging road conditions similar to those found on the gravel stretch of the Poolesville Road Race, our couriers experience a few mechanicals.  Soon, however, our brave comrades resume delivery.

Despite the best efforts of the couriers, authorities unsympathetic to the revolution (and resistant to the change it represents) attempt to stall the delivery at Customs, further delaying the delivery of the uniforms:

As delays continue, a restless citizenry protests:

Interim measures for uniforms are considered by the Supreme Council for Wardrobe and Technical Apparel…

Rococo:

Teutonic:

Uhhhhh...?

And, in the truest spirit of the principles of the Racing Union, D.I.Y.:

While they all have their merits, as well as a certain sartorial splendor, none fulfill the Union’s exacting requirements for technical cycling apparel.  Patiently, the revolution waits for the arrival of the new Racing Union uniforms.

Meanwhile, despite the mounting delays, comrades throughout the heartland spruce up the public realm in preparation for the arrival of the new kits:

Finally, the uniforms arrive via special courier:

Citizens rejoice!

Now, a sneak preview of the new uniform, before final inspection by a representative from the Ministry of Quality Control for Technical Apparel:

Quality Control arrives on the scene and begins a thorough inspection, starting with a close examination of design elements and graphic image quality. 

Next, our inspector checks the antimicrobial integrity of the garment’s underarm section…

Despite the risk of further delays in delivery, the inspector takes a moment to get lost in the overall comfort of the new Racing Union jersey.  While this may not seem like an important part of the inspection process, the comfort of our comrades should not be overlooked.  In bringing on the revolution, we cannot risk potential distraction due to the scratchiness of inferior fabrics against comrades’ skin.  The Union requires nothing less than the most technically advanced space-age wonder fabrics.

In addition to the aforementioned attributes, the inspector rigorously tests the new garments for structural integrity, compliance, and zipper functionality:

After a lengthy and grueling inspection, Quality Control delivers its final approval.

Da, Union!  Da!

--- posted by josh

you go away for a few days, and look what happens.  i come back from the beach where we been drinking beer and building sandcastles as big as volkswagon bugs, and the %$#@ hits the fan.  my mailbox is full of comments, the d20 list runneth over with drivel about this and that.  there's enough material there for a post every day for three weeks.  and we could do that but where's the challenge?  the posts write themselves.  i would single out bill luecke's post and pete lindeman's post as being interesting departure points and worthy of more consideraiton than they probably got in the roiling sea of ascii text that was that thread.

i got two additional messages that need some attention.  names have been withheld to protect the guilty, but i can assure all of our readers that their rations have been cut pre-emptively and a corrective work plan of hard labor has been proscribed until we determine their true motivation.

message 1: I heard your team clothing has come in. So why isn't there a photo-essay of the debut on the website yet? I see pictures of the masses following the heed of the much-awaited revolution, you bringing the manifesto to the very doorstep of the people most in need of it, but no snapshots of the puke-green team kit. I need my ride pimped. I need to know that the impending tsunami of revolution is more than just the vacuous words of bald, Russian dead guys.

where to begin?  the author of this message walks a fine line between flattery and sedition.  impending tsunami of revolution indeed!  however, future correspondence should be considerably more deferential to the vacuous words valuable wisdom of bald, russian dead guys of the glorious leaders of our glorious cause.  and all capitalization must stop, the sure sign of mind pre-disposed to classist distinctions and bourgeois proclivities.  the kits have arrived.  you were teased with glimpses of the green and black at CSC and on local roads.  this is a kit any hard working citizen would be proud to don.  while we eschew photo ops and the trappings of capitalist marketing, we will make images of the (exceedingly tight) new kit available to all shortly.

message 2: Scott - Thought you'd find this interesting ...

the manifesto goes international?

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/05/a_manifesto_for.php

http://www.thestar.com/static/PDF/060529_manifesto.pdf

indeed a good catch.  this vigilant reader has performed a valuable service and has received a commendation as a hero of the cause. 

 

 

many play at revolution but they are in over their heads.  the poseurs and pretenders are nothing to us: their materials not worth a second glance.  they can't bring it with style.  they can't bring it with ferocity.  they can't bring it.  period.  we've distributed a number of the authentic manifestos so people will have a chance to share the wisdom with friends, neighbors and family.  we've even put together a small graphic manifesto which has been distributed on group rides and at races. 

 

but to establish total dominance in the informaiton marketplace, and in order to maximize the exposure of all citizens to the wisdom of the racing union, we present a do-it-yourself manifesto.  regrettably, we can only produce these on proprietary software platforms at the current time, but alternative formats are in the works. 

 

medium pub page 2.doc (520 KB)

you are now, in the most socially democratic way possible, empowered to create one yourself.  download the materials.  print the first page.  flip that page over, feed it, and print again; front/back.  cut it out.  staple it in the middle and you are good to go.  this "kit" will produce one (1) graphic manifesto (7.5cm x 5.5cm) and hours of enjoyment.  throw a few in the car for the kids on long rides.  leave a few in the stacks at your local library.  the revolution proceeds apace. 

while some people were doing group rides, or hill repeats, or trying to down their last few cheese fries for lunch, the racing union remained vigilant: advancing it's principles, bringing the words of liberation to the streets.  the social order isn't going to invert itself after all.  it's hard work, but someone's got to do it. 

i had planned to meet brother michael at an undisclosed location.  he appears to be engrossed in reaping the wisdom of our new graphic manifesto, but he's really scoping out the bourgeois, gaining valuable intelligence on them in their natural habitat.  we're both off the bikes for a bit and decided to keep our tactical senses frosty with a game of chess.

after that, we took it to the streets, spreading the word, building the movement. 

many people showed initial reluctance to take time out on a very hot day for a detailed discussion of the tenets of the revolution and the nature of the glorious cause.  the few who did, however, came to see the wisdom in the principles that the racing union advocates.

eventually the heat even got to your humble correspondents.  we deposited a considerable number of graphic manifestos into special racing union propaganda dispensers.  these have been deployed strategically throughout urbanized areas of the dc metro area.  as you can see, they were very popular and sold out almost immediately.

a closer look...

in fact, on a different corner, the demand was so intense, the need to attain wisdom from these basic principles was so vigorous, that they literally ripped the door off the hinges to get at the bounty that was inside.  bon appetit, citizens and cyclists.

the unprecendented demand for these publications has staggered us.  the central minstry for message has upped production quotas to the maximum achievable level.  all citizens in the print, pulp and paper industries have volunteered to be mobilized for additional duty.  look for these publications in the very near future.

- - - posted by scott

The action in the C race started out very squirrelly, lots of unnecessary braking and swerving. I started at the back this time and did a little fighting for position in the first couple of laps. There was a prime at 4 laps to go, and I jumped on the front for that lap in order to pick up the pace. Probably a mistake, but I was feeling pretty strong. I had two guys slip past me for the prime, and then a break-away formed around myself and three other riders, one of whom had been off the front earlier. A more-experienced rider from snow valley was in the group and pulled us together; he coached our rotation which put us into the last lap with at least ten seconds on the main body and probably significantly more. We fought each other only at the very end, where my lack of sprinting skills caused me to end the race in third. The break was the cleanest thing I've seen in the Greenbelt C race to date.

-Joe

this is an outake from extemporaneous remarks delivered during an event celebrating an upward revision in planning targets for agricultural production.  the full speech had a duration of 3 hours, 27 minutes and was delivered from the people's podium on the plaza de la revolucion. 

- - - begin exerpt

progressive cyclists the world over are wiser than the complacent and corrupt bourgeoisie, they understand the laws governing the existence and development of things, they understand dialectics and they can see farther. the bourgeoisie does not welcome this basic truth because it does not want to be overthrown.  as everyone knows, the racing union has passed through this first tumultuous year not in peace but amid hardships, for we had to fight enemies, both foreign and domestic, both inside and outside the glorious cause. we acknowledge our predecessors in social thought and cycling, for giving us a weapon. this weapon is not a machine gun but the glorious knowledge that the revolution is cycling and social order will put us on the shining path to a bright new future.

the russians made the october revolution and created the world's first socialist state. under the leadership of lenin, the revolutionary energy of the great proletariat and labouring people of russia, hitherto latent and unseen by foreigners, suddenly erupted like a volcano, and the chinese and all mankind began to see the russians in a new light. then, and only then, did the chinese enter an entirely new era in their thinking and their life. they found marxism leninism, the universally applicable truth, and the face of china began to change as well.

there are bourgeois republics in foreign lands, but mabra cannot have a bourgeois republic because she is an entity suffering under imperialist oppression. the only way is through a collective and cooperative, not-for-profit structure led by the working class cyclists themselves.  several years have passed since mabra’s creation, and the glorious revolution, led by the racing union, has made tremendous advances both in theory and practice and has radically changed the face of riding and racing in the mid-atlantic. up to now the principal and fundamental experience the cyclists have gained is twofold:

internally, we arouse the masses of the people. that is, unite the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie, form a domestic united front under the leadership of the working class, and advance from this to the establishment of a state which is a people's democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants.

externally, we work to unite in a common struggle with those cycling and social entities of the world which treat us as equals and unite the peoples of all countries in our common cause.  that is, ally ourselves with the people's democracies and with the proletariat and the broad masses of the people in all other countries, and form an international united front.

some cyclists complain that our methods and actions are too irritating.  we are talking about how to deal with domestic and foreign bourgeois reactionaries, the imperialists and their running dogs, not about how to deal with anyone else. with regard to such reactionaries, the question of irritating them or not does not arise. irritated or not irritated, they will remain the same because they are reactionaries. only if we draw a clear line between reactionaries and revolutionaries, expose the intrigues and plots of the reactionaries, arouse the vigilance and attention of the revolutionary ranks, heighten our will to fight and crush the enemy's arrogance can we isolate the reactionaries, vanquish them or supersede them. we must not show the slightest timidity before this wild beast.

still others object that "we need financial help from sponsors and usa cycling." this, too, is a naive idea in these times. would the present overlords of cycling administration, who are imperialists, help a revolutionary people's state? why do these business interests and sanctioning bodies engage in commerce with us?  because their capitalists want to make money and their bankers want to earn interest to extricate themselves from their own crisis-it is not a matter of helping the cyclists and citizens of the mid-atlantic region.

i have recently shut down several media outlets which claimed that our glorious cause is dictatorial in its methods.  however, i take just a moment to respond to the charges.  the experience that cyclists and citizens have accumulated through several decades teaches us to enforce the people's democratic dictatorship, that is, to deprive the reactionaries of the right to speak and let the people alone have that right.  we will allow the people only to behave themselves and not to be unruly in word or deed. if they speak or act in an unruly way, they will be promptly stopped and punished.  democracy is practised within the ranks of the people, who enjoy the rights of freedom of speech, assembly, association and so on. the right to vote belongs only to the people, not to the reactionaries. the combination of these two aspects, democracy for the people and dictatorship over the reactionaries, is the people's democratic dictatorship.   why must things be done this way?  the reason is quite clear to everybody. if things were not done this way, the revolution would fail, the people would suffer, the cause would be conquered and the vile forces of corruption and moral turpitude would have won.

people ask if we wish to abolish mabra.   yes, we do, but not right now; we cannot do it yet because imperialism still exists, because domestic reaction still exists, because classes still exist among cyclists and citizens. our present task is to strengthen the people's state apparatus-mainly the internal secret security details, the people’s armed forces, the people's police and the people's courts; in order to consolidate and protect the interests of the glorious cause and shining path.

given this condition, mabra can develop steadily, under the leadership of the working class and the racing union.  we can abolish classes and realize the great harmony. the current mabra apparatus, including the bar, sponsorship and the hierarchical racing apparatus, is the instrument by which one class oppresses another.

as for the members of the reactionary classes and individual reactionaries, so long as they do not rebel, sabotage or create trouble after their political power has been overthrown, land and work will be given to them as well in order to allow them to live and remould themselves through labour into new people. if they are not willing to work, the racing union will compel them to work. 

such remoulding of members of the reactionary classes can be accomplished only by a state of the people's democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the racign union.  when it is well done, mabra’s major exploiting classes will be eliminated for good. there remain the national bourgeoisie; at the present stage, we can already do a good deal of suitable educational work with many of them. when the time comes to realize true collectivism, that is, to collectivize all cycling property, we shall carry the work of educating and remoulding them a step further. the racing union has a powerful state apparatus in their hands-there is no need to fear rebellion by the cycling bourgeoisie.

the people's democratic dictatorship needs the leadership of the racing union. for it is only the racing union that is most farsighted, most selfless and most thoroughly revolutionary.  the entire history of revolution proves that only through the leadership of the racing union, can revolution triumph.  this is clearly proved by the fact that the many revolutions led by mabra’s petty bourgeoisie and usac splinter groups have all failed....

to sum up our experience and concentrate it into one point, it is: the people's democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the racing union and based upon the alliance of cycling and citizens.  this dictatorship must unite as one with the international revolutionary forces. this is our formula, our principal experience, our main program.  the situation both at home and abroad is in our favour.  we can rely fully on the weapon of the people's democratic dictatorship, unite the people throughout the country, the reactionaries excepted, and advance steadily to our goals

- - - end exerpt