• Condemnation:  WashCycle (http://washcycle.typepad.com/home/2007/06/terry_lynch_sav.html#comments) points to a City Paper article giving an assist to Terry Lynch, the Executive Director of Washington’s Downtown Cluster of Congregations, in the city’s attempt to steal bikes from downtown streets.  The self-righteous Terry Lynch is a contradiction: his opposition to what he deems “abandoned” bicycles on the city streets is all about his admirable goal to make downtown Washington more livable; yet his definition of “livable” is oft-times bizarre.  I recall his successful efforts several years ago to re-route the St. Paddy’s Day 10-K from the city streets of Washington – the real Washington – to the monumental core instead.  Why?  Because he felt the 10-K discouraged people from going to church because of a disruption of traffic patterns.  I still recall his statement that, because beer was to be served at the finish line (It’s a St. Patrick’s Day event, for crying out loud!), the event sent the message that, instead of going to church, people ought to go downtown and drink beer.  Nevermind people who don’t go to church.  Or people who go to church and would like to drink beer too.  Or people who are simply there to enjoy the running.  I shudder to think how Lynch would take to a bike race downtown.  Narrow-minded thinking doesn’t allow for imagining the possibilities, and Terry Lynch demonstrates that.  A bunch of people running on downtown streets, followed by an after-race party downtown strikes me as a great way of making the city streets come alive and more livable, but the Reverend Lynch apparently knows better – just as the Reverend Lynch apparently knows which bikes are abandoned which are not.

• Praise:  A special shout-out to www.GamJams.net.  Several of us Racing Unionistas have enjoyed for some time this newsworthy and notable blog single-handedly created by a member of Artemis who’s love and enthusiasm for the sport of cycling is clear and downright infectious, but its nice to see his acknowledgment (http://www.gamjams.net/2007/06/keeping_tempo_6_3.html#comments) for Racing Union’s efforts to advocate on behalf of all who toil on two wheels:  racers, commuters, and recreational cyclists.  Thanks for the kind words, and back at you, GamJams!

-- posted by Chris 

--posted by Bryan

i was fairly bummed out this morning.  i had one of those unusual commutes where nothing goes right.  my fellow commuters who were using four wheels instead of two seemed especially anxious and lacking in patience or compassion.  so i opted for a less direct but lower key route than usual.  given the poor start to the day, it was rather uplifting today to see this...

http://www.fabb-bikes.org/blog/2007/06/fairfax-county-gets-serious-about-on.html

and specifically, this:

http://www.fabb-bikes.org/blog/bikertltr1jun2007.pdf

i don't think there's any question at this point that progress is being made.  it's incremental, but it's being made.  i've posted a bunch of stuff here about groups like fabb.  i've gotten some supportive mail and some notes that question whether there's really a difference being made.  i think that what's especially valuable here is that there's a solid effort to work in conjunciton with county government to present a unified approach.  vdot is like any governmental agency: they have more work that they can reasonably accomplish, more stakeholders than they can ever satisfy, and all sorts of people with opposite ideas controlling their budget.  groups like fabb are taking advantage of this by building concensus and seeking incremental change.  and this will be simple to evaluate as well: either the work will be done or the work will not be done.  for every one of these projects that get's completed, especially if it's near you and you utilize it, consider a thank you to the county supervisors.

- posted by scott

I've commented here recently about how Che Guevara rode a bicycle.  Not too much of a surprise, as riding a bicycle IS a revolutionary act.  Che was also following in the footsteps of Lenin.

Writer Nadezhda K. Krupskaya published “Reminiscences of Lenin” in 1933, and recalls of Lenin’s time in Paris from 1909-1910:

“Studying in Paris was very inconvenient. The Bibliotheque Nationale was a long way off. Vladimir Ilyich usually cycled there, but riding a bicycle in Paris was not what it was in the suburbs of Geneva. It was a great strain. Those cycle rides tired him out. The library closed at lunch time. There was a lot of red-tape in the arrangements for ordering books, and Ilyich swore at the library, and while he was at it, at Paris in general. I wrote to a French professor who had been giving French lessons at the summer courses in Geneva, asking him to recommend some other good libraries. I received an immediate reply, giving me the necessary information. Ilyich made the round of all the libraries mentioned but none of them was suitable. In the end his bicycle was stolen. He used to leave it on the stairs of a house next door to the Bibliothetque Nationale and pay the concierge ten centimes a day for it. When he came for the bicycle and found it gone, the concierge declared that she had not been hired to look after the bicycle but only to let Ilyich keep it on the stairs.

Riding a bicycle in Paris and the suburbs required great care. Once, on his way to Juvisy, Ilyich was nearly run over by a motor-car. He barely managed to jump clear, and the bicycle was wrecked.”

Let’s repeat that last bit:  “Ilyich was nearly run over by a motor-car.  He barely managed to jump clear, and the bicycle was wrecked.”  Is there any wonder how and why the revolution occurred? 

--posted by Chris 

Saturday's Quicksilver race made for a nice outing with four of us in the 30+ race.  Below are some snaps from that one.  I have no pictures from the Cat. 5 race (in which Kevin placed fourth and I got a seventh place), because I was busy ... er ... racing.

- posted by Chris

We have a Bike to Work Day, just concluded, in the Washington area.  But, as I heard on CBC radio this morning, in one of my favorite cities – Halifax, Nova Scotia – they have a whole week devoted to bicycles - “Bike Week” is happening right now (http://www.halifax.ca/bikeweek/). 

Halifax is truly a civilized place – that’s not only because it home to one of the best museums around, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mma/index.html), and the part-time home of the Bluenose II (http://museum.gov.ns.ca/bluenose/index.html) - a replica of the famous racing schooner which appears on the Canadian dime, and a grand tribute to the common man (http://www.currencymuseum.ca/eng/learning/coins_dime.php). 

I’ve been to Halifax on several occasions, and each time I’ve gone, I’ve been amazed at the behavior of motorists towards pedestrians and cyclists:  cars often literally screech to a stop if you so much as lift your foot over the curb to cross at an intersection.  The municipality is also a green – not only do they require residents to recycle, they have a “green can” municipal composting program (http://www.halifax.ca/wrms/greencart.html).  Truly, Halifax is smaller then Washington, but it is the unofficial capital of Atlantic Canada, and it’s a place from which we here in Washington can learn a great deal.

-- posted by Chris

I've just started reading Jon Lee Anderson's 1998 biography of Che Guevara, "Che Guevara:  A Revolutionary Life."  (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&endeca=1&isbn=0802135587&itm=4)  It's a good read thus far, though I'm early on in the book - he's in Guatemala right now, witness to the US government/United Fruit Company-sponsored coup against the democratically-elected Arbenz government there (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobo_Arbenz_Guzm%C3%A1n).  His dislike of the United States is just developing - when you read some of details of US policy in that part of the world (though this book doesn't get into too many details), there's little wonder how that could happen!

What does any of this have to do with bicycles?  Well, check out the photo.  Lots of people know all about the popular movie from back in 2004, Motorcylce Diaries (http://libcom.org/news/article.php/review-motorcycle-diaries-che-guevara), which was about a trip Guevara made through Latin America by motorcycle with a friend.  That's in the book too.  But, prior to that trip, in 1948, he ventured off to remote Northern Argentina from the city on a bicycle equipped with a motor - the one he's sitting on in the photo.  Not quite a bicycle, but certainly not a motorcycle.  He put in a lot of pedaling on this thing, apparently - and a lot of road-side repairs.

- posted by Chris

Attention Commrades! The following message is being brought to you by the Supreme Council for Propogation of Message and Truth!

Begin transmission:

"In an attempt to broaden the reach of the Racing Union’s message throughout all facets of the two wheeled revolution and to truly realize the organization’s potential, we will be branching out our repertoire to include a few mountain bike races this season. We will plan to get out for at least a couple of Greenbelt-esq. Wednesday’s at Wakefield rides and also plan on competing in the Cranky Monkey Series which includes two races at Wakefield, one at Fountainhead and one at the Quantico Marine Corps Base.

If anyone would like to join us for any of these races please feel free to do so. The Union will be present at many if not all of the these races and will look to continue the growth of the revolutionary army by digging deeper in to the world of cycling. The chasm that is found between the different sectors of cycling is no longer acceptable and the Union must work to eliminate it. The time for partisan bicycling politics is over; let’s reach out to our brother’s and sister’s on two wheels, no matter how fat those wheels may be and revolutionize the cycling world from all angles!

Revolutionary points WILL be awarded to alternative forms of transportation including but not limited to: public transportation, riding of bikes to the race and car pooling (the more people in the car the more points awarded). The driving of an SUV with one passenger and bike will result in a large net loss of revolutionary points."

End transmission.

This Message has been cross-posted by Comrade Kmax aka Max aka Blud aka Maxblud aka Kevin

when i first read this, my thought was: did kay mean "decompensation" as in a business man who has lost his meal ticket?  that would have been remarkably crass, though in this case, it would also be a brilliant freudian slip. 

i was wrong and that was made clear to me here.  i still think that "destruction" would be more appropriate on many levels.  also in the running are demolition, devastation, dissolution, disaster, downfall, debacle, disintegration, decay, and diminution.

-sg

http://freewheelingspirit.blogspot.com/2007/05/dear-dr-gridlock.html

it's a shame that the irony is likely lost on most of them...

-sg

The May 14^th issue of VeloNews just arrived in my mailbox.  On the cover is Danilo Di Luca celebrating his victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege - an emotional finish surpassed only by Stuart O’Grady at Paris-Roubaix (in my book, this is saying a lot, as I suspect that O’Grady’s performance will go down as one of the most exciting this season).

But I didn't bring this up to talk about Danilo Di Luca or Stuart O'Grady, for there's something else in this issue of VeloNews I want to talk about.  If I can blow my own horn for a bit, the May 14^th issue also has a letter to the editor written by your’s truly.  The subject?  An article published in the April 16^th issue of the very same publication.  Unfortunately, none of this stuff is reproduced online, but all you really need to read is my letter: 

While I appreciate rebellious misfits as much as the next guy, I couldn’t contain my disgust when I read about Michael Ball and his Rock Racing team (“Revolution Rock,” April 16).  I’d never heard of Rock Racing prior to reading this article, but if Ball’s team reflects his attitude, then like his denim company, it’s all show and no substance.  It’s the corporate establishment disguised as rebellion.

 

Changing team kit colors for each race or driving Escalades as team cars doesn’t challeng cycling’s status quo.  A true rebel would try to shake the whole notion of corporate sponsorship or encourage alternative forms of transportation.  After all, some of us buck “the system” by actually commuting to work on our bikes!

 

It is perhaps unrealistic to expect a cycling team at this level to eschew corporate sponsorship altogether.  But to seek out and celebrate the sponsorship of a company that actively encourages America’s addiction to gas guzzlers is the kind of mindless consumerism that represents much of what is wrong with pro sports.  It doesn’t, as Ball so eloquently puts it, give cycling ‘a nice kick in the ass to make it fucking cool.’ 

It’s worth mention that, although I’d never heard of Rock Racing prior to reading this article, I did hear of the team after Stage 6 of the Tour of Virginia.  That’s the day which featured a criterium down in Harrisonburg where the first to cross the finish, Kayle Leogrande of Rock Racing, was relegated for not holding his line in the final sprint.  You can see some real nice photographic evidence here:  http://love2ride.smugmug.com/gallery/2788646#148675413; and check out the photographer's narrative of the event in the May 2^nd post here:  http://love2ridephotoszzz.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html).

I don't mean to pick on Leogrande here.  I have nothing against him in particular, and he's clearly very talented.  My beef isn't even about his team so much as it's about the presentation -- passing off something as revolutionary and rebellious when in reality it's about selling an image.  And besides, cycling doesn't need a nice kick in the ass to be fucking cool.  It already IS.

-- posted by Chris

i have a number of friends who follow pro cycling a lot less closely than they used to.  this is a generalization, but i think it's true that for many of them, the prevalence of doping has taken some of the enthusiasm away.  it's not so much that people dope.  in an odd way, this is not only understandable, but expected.  for many fo these guys, they are paid huge amounts of money to win races.  if they didn't do everything humanly possible to win, their employer would be unhappy.  it's sort of obvious really when you're talking about teams with 10 million euro budgets. 

look, it's not that we expect sports to be some sort of temple which cannot be fouled by dastardly cheats.  it's more the facade that's irritating.  the inevitable song and dance involved when someone wins or doesn't win, and someone tests positive or doesn't test positive.  press releases, investigations, police crack downs, publicity, rinse, lather, repeat.

but the latest developments are so stomach churning and revolting that i'm not even sure what to say.  if anything could kill people's appetite for consuming pro cycling as a sport, this might qualify.  (aside: then again, i think most people would have said that the slow motion train wreck / career trajectory of britney spears, lindsay lohan and paris hilton would have had them augering in months ago and that surely wasn't the case).  maybe our standards have slipped.  maybe we just don't care and want to watch them ride their bikes.

for me, i basically don't follow pro cycling any more.  i always found their exploits sort of super human and unapproachable.  i never had the feeling that i could aspire to that.  i appreciate it, and i love to watch people riding combatively and risking everything for a huge win.  it's really insiring.  i just think there's so much going on below the surface that it's hard to appreciate even the things that i like. 

i may not be describing this well.  let me take another swing at it.  i grew up north of baltimore, very close to the state fairgrounds.  i had some friends who used to hang around the track (horse track) and many of them ended up getting jobs working there.  I didn't work with the horses but i loved to go down and hang out and watch them run.  and in season, i used to watch the races a lot.  but as i got older, i learned about stuff that goes on in horse racing.  and then it just seemed kind of silly.  like a charade.  once you know that the fix might be in, the whole event seems like a staged farce, sort of like a set piece or illusion that penn and teller might try to pull off.  all the people up in the stands are watching, but they aren't seeing what's really happening.  there's a whole series of layers of things going on beneath the surface that are actually driving the outcome that are tranparent to them.  so i still like to watch horses run but i don't really care to watch horses race.  and it's the same with bikes.  i love to ride, and maybe even race locally.  and i thought i had a reasonable idea of the stuff going on behind the scenes in cycling as well, but this new landis stuff is just so bad.  maybe i'll regain an appetite for it later on, but i don't feel like i'm missing anything right now.

-sg