News from the Cycling world has slowed to a crawl, meaning that this is the ideal time for this blog to turn to offseason essays and such. Inspiration pending...
- News story of the Day: the David Millar Cofidis trial. I really don't know what to make of this. Criminalizing possession of doping products certainly helps Cycling, ensuring that someone more competent than Dick Pound is available to dispense justice. But five years in prison?? Also if sporting fraud is a crime, how is any pro wrestler allowed to walk the streets?
- Cycling Revealed offers a really cool piece on why we shouldn't think of Walter Godefroot as a team manager. Graham Jones gives a firsthand retro look at a great career, plus a sidebar explaining why "flahute" is the highest compliment ever. Oh, and CBB VW's Quiz is running. That said, I have no idea if 12 is a good score.
Still hunting for news...
- Scroll down to the bottom of this thread and tell me if you don't think this is weird. CN is reporting on a minor accident in Missouri between some helmetless chunkhead and a car. The former still has his skull and body intact, lucky for him, so I'll skip my pro-helmet rant. But I guess my point is, I seem to get emailed or otherwise informed every time a cyclist has a fatal meeting with a car, seemingly anywhere in the world. Now CN is reporting minor accidents too?
There's a phenomenon out there called Ghost Bikes where, in certain cities (including Seattle, for a little while anyway) sites where a car-on-bike accident took place would be marked with a junked road bike painted ghostly white. A friend of mine earned Seattle Ghostbike #18 with his collarbone, for example.
I wasn't crazy about the program. Driver awareness is the El Dorado of Cycling, forever just around the next corner (at best). Making me constantly aware that my next bike ride could be my last, well... it's a killjoy. But I suppose something needs to be done, like more bike paths, or my proposal for shutting down all the gas stations until the cars disappear. And I certainly admire organizations that try.