Weekend Recap: Racing, Radios and Rages

First order of business today is to send out a big congratulations to our local boys and girls who competed and ran the Froze Toes race over the weekend.  It wasn't quite Belgium, but not far off with a little rain, a little sun, a little fog, a little mud, and a little blood.   Special mention is in order to the CBC race team and club who worked so hard to put on a great race and CBC cyclists Jason Wulff and Jason Ozenberger, who had top 10 finishes in the Pro I-III race and Gideon Bennett who won the Cat 3-4.

You can check out photos of the race taken by Elizabeth Rangel on facebook, here.  As ever, she did a great job with the photos despite having her jeep stuck axle deep in the mud all day.  Of all her photos, this one is my favorite.  I hope the Big Shark cyclist will forgive my addition of a caption.

In other cycling news, of course this past weekend was a big one in Belgium with the Omloop on Saturday and Kuurne on Sunday.  There was some speculation that a rider protest over the recent UCI radio ban might occur, but it never materialized.  I go back and forth on the radio ban issue myself, but think it has to ultimately be up to the racers.  They are the ones out there on the pavement and pave day after day, and if the majority wants them, it seems like Fat Pat should be listening.  I mean - Pat remembers what is was like to be a cyclist - right?

Dayammmm - check out my boy getting macked on back in the day!  This photo almost makes me respect him a little bit.  Ok - I'm over it now.

That said, how could anyone actually want this going on in their ear?

And lastly for today, I'm giving out a little bit of homework.  If you commute to work or school by bicycle, you may want to take a peek at a well-written article appearing in this month's Outside magazine:

Rage Against Your Machine

When did riding a bicycle become a political act?

The article has become particularly poignant in light of something that happened in Brazil over the weekend.  The driver of a black VW Golf intentionally plowed his car through a critical mass demonstration Friday night in the town of Porto Alegre, hitting 20 cyclists and putting 9 in the hospital.  Here's a screen grab from the video.

The video is viewable on youtube if you feel so inclined to find it, but it is not easy to watch - let me warn you. 

Granted - a critical mass demonstration is something political, and far different from simply riding to work in the morning, or God-forbid, training out on a less-traveled country road.  But the indifference that the motorist shows to life, regarless of the demonstration surrounding him, is near surreal.  The driver of the car has turned himself over to police and is claiming "self defense" for he and his passenger, his 15 year old son, who felt threatened when the cyclists "started hitting the car."  The cyclists he is accusing and hit included women and children.

"He felt cornered, he acted to protect his son who was in the car," his attorney said.

I am generally opposed to critical mass demonstrations, but am probably a little more opposed to one turning their Volkswagen into a snow-plow.  I also hate waiting in long lines at the airport trying to get through security while stupid people ahead of me cannot figure out in advance how to put their stinking liquids and gels into a separate baggy, but that doesn't mean I take a running start into the crowd and mow them all down to get to my gate.

I hate ending posts on a downer note so here's a random picture of Cavendouche playing nerf pistoleros with his girlfriend's son to hopefully raise your spirits back up....

Ride safe and don't critically mass yourself anywhere....