IT'S UPON US...THE RICHEST PRO 1-2 CRIT IN THE SEATTLE AREA

That's right, it's Blackberry Crit. time in Bremerton. This Sunday, September 2.

$5000 paid out 20 deep for the Pro 1-2, with $1000 paid out to the winner.

As of now, we have close to $500 to pay out in cash primes throughout the day as well. Those of you who came last year remember the $300 gambler's prime?

We have it all, giant blackberry trophies for the winners of the Pro 1-2 and women's race, podium girls and champagne for the winners, the giant check, and don't forget the giant prize list.

They say maybe a chance of sprinkles on Sunday, so what? The course is wide open and only 4 corners and it is Seattle after all, so you should be used to it.

No excuses, from anybody. If you don't come, well, I just don't want to say....

Oh yeah, Amara from Wheels in Focus is going to be there.

PORTLAND TWILIGHT, or HOW TO PUT ON A BIKE RACE

Myself and 4 of my BRI companions journeyed down to the Portland Twilight this past Friday. From an athlete performance perspective, it sucked...for all of us. From all other perspectives, especially that of the job Brad Ross the promoter did, fantastic.

Brad Ross put on a great bike race. He hit it out of the park on almost all of the important points. He was able to get city support for road closures on an interesting city center circuit. The crowd was great, lining up all around the half mile circuit exclaiming their support for the riders with a wall of noise especially on the finish stretch.

The prize money was fantastic: $10k over 20 places and more importantly he only charged $25. Even when you added the $5 OBRA racing license it was only $30 which is more than fair for $10K in prize list. PNW race promoters take note, Brad obviously did his job securing sponsors. He had lights out on the course, great crowd control fencing and tape, podium presentation & a good announcer. All that costs money & he went out and got it. An added cool bonus was the bike parking for spectators where you could check your bike in, collect your bike check ticket and watch the race worry free. A nice touch.

All in all, Brad gets high marks from me for a great event and most of you know I don't give those out often.

Well done Brad Ross, well done.

The following is from Cyclingnews.com where some US team managers were complaining about USADA doing testing at Superweek and not Tour de Toona. Are you kidding me? Anyone who has been to Superweek (I have been there so many times I have lost count) knows that if you want to catch guys on the tackle, the best place to go in the month of July is Wisconsin and Superweek. Come on Beamon, get a clue.

No USADA testing at 'Toona raises questions
By Mark Zalewski, North American Editor

The International Tour de 'Toona, one of the two highest rated, non-championship races on USA Cycling's NRC calendar, had no US Antidoping Agency (USADA) testing for the entire seven stages. Instead, the USADA testers were on location at Superweek, though not for the NRC rated races the week before the Tour de 'Toona, but the non-NRC races the same week as 'Toona. This fact did not sit well with many of the team managers at the race in Pennsylvania, with the general consensus being that the top races deserve the most scrutiny -- particularly in light of what happened in the Tour de France.
"I was a bit shocked and surprised honestly," said Navigators Insurance director sportif Ed Beamon. "I thought it was a little odd that they would target a race that does not have near as much money at stake. That should be a cue to them, it makes sense to prioritise the events.
"I think the more testing they can do, to an extent, the better off we are," said Beamon. "It's obvious they need to pick and choose which events, so to me it makes more sense to target events with higher prize money. From my perspective, they are not as educated as to what is going on in the sport. They need to be more educated, and if they were they wouldn't come out with the comments they say, targeting our sport."
Jonas Carney, a former racer and now director of the Kelly Benefits/Medifast team was also frustrated. "I understand that it is not possible for USADA to be at all of the NRC races," he said. "I do believe however that USADA does not test nearly enough. They rarely show up at NRC events, never do any blood testing, and their out of competition testing covers only a very small pool of US cyclists."
"As someone who never doped, and someone who works very hard to have a clean team, it is frustrating. The doping problem is not isolated to ProTour racing in Europe and steps should be taken here in the states. I for one would be thrilled if USADA would offer no advance notice out of competition testing for pro teams in America. We would be the first to sign up."

This from the WADOT web-site:

Seattle/Bremerton Route Beginning Sunday, August 12, the 188-car MV Walla Walla will be replaced by the 144-car MV Kaleetan on this route. The Kaleetan carries 500 more passengers than the Walla Walla. We encourage our customers to walk on during the I-5 construction, parking on either the Bremerton or Seattle side to simplify the commute. We are also setting up temporary three person carpools to ease loading for our Bremerton commuters.

The ferry terminal is north of where I-5 north-bound is being worked on. Why would anyone who would take their car on the ferry (or need to drive on because presumably they would have to drive to their destination once in Seattle) decide to walk on to avoid the congestion on north bound I-5? This line of thinking from the ferry system is mind-boggling. They have already switched to a smaller ferry that does runs at 7:30 am and 5:30PM (you know, one of the main commuting runs) in the middle of the high-travel summer. Now they are switching out the second ferry to a smaller car ferry because they think it will encourage more people to walk on. If you need to drive, you need to drive. All a smaller ferry will do is clog the already congested terminals during the high travel summer season.

Genius WADOT, sheer genius.

THE END OF THE TAILWIND ERA

Tailwind Sports announces it is closing up shop at the end of 2007.

NOTE TO BOB: BIKE RIDERS PAY TAXES TOO...IDIOT

This fine letter was in today's Seattle Times.

Bicycle built for who?

Regarding "Cyclists ride for the right to bike lanes" [Local News, Aug. 2]: The demands of these nontaxpaying bicyclists to play on streets they don't pay for, without any kind of license to be there, with a total lack of respect for any law except for "me first and me only," should be met with a law that restricts bicycle use to individuals 12 years old and under. The rest of 'em need to grow up.

— Bob Humphrey, Seattle

STEP OFF P-DOG

Ok, so P-Dog might be bigger, and slower, and with more children as of late. But step off poor P-Dog. I have proof that he used to be fast, very fast in the not-so-distant past. Video proof is here:

http://www.discodreamride.com/1186685463-af1cb

Curse You 1.5 laps to go.

It has now happened twice in the last 3 weeks. First at Skagit Flats in the 1-2 race, then for the second time at the Volunteer Park Masters race over the weekend. I have been in a move off the front for a considerable period of time, a move that looks like it is going the entire distance, only to be caught by the field with 1.5 laps to go. Curse you, and all of you who chased me and my break-away companions down.

SUPER FREAK

This is too damn funny to pass by. Check this latest from Missing Saddle:

http://www.missingsaddle.com/2007/07/23/cold-blooded-super-freak/

SUNSCREEN BE DAMNED, HAND ME A DOPPIO AND MY BIKE!

New research indicates a combination of exercise and caffiene can combat skin cancer. Read about it here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070730/ap_on_he_me/fitness_anti_cancer_caffeine_2

TO PROTECT AND SERVE?

(a warning, the following is long, but I believe worth the read)

This past Saturday, myself and 2 of my KC riding companions (Peter and Bob) were riding through the small town of Port Orchard. We had just started up from a red light in a 25mph zone when I heard the tell tale sounds of an exchange between one of my companions and a motorist. Turns out the motorist was a Port Orchard police officer (Barney Fife) in a PO Police SUV pulling a boat on a trailer. As it turns out, Peter was passing Bob and coming up to where I was and Officer Fife was unhappy about this. The exchange went something like this:

Officer Fife: "Pull over"

Pete: "What?"

Fife: "Pull over"

Pete: "Why?"

Fife: "I said pull the f*#k over!!"

Pete: "No"

Now, even I, a self-avowed Johnny-Scoff-Law, know that you should never say no to an officer of the law, so my immediate thought was, perhaps this was not Pete's best response.

Officer Fife really thought that because suddenly he flipped the lights on and proceeded to use his SUV and boat trailer to cut Pete off. Now during this time, Bob and I were slightly behind watching all of this with the boat on its trailer right next to us. I narrowly avoided getting creamed by the boat by maneuvering to the edge of the road while simultaneously cocking my head to the side (the edge of the boat missed me by less than a foot) as I came to an abrupt halt.

Officer Fife flew out of his vehicle and made a bee-line to Pete who asked Fife what his problem was to which Fife flew into some incoherent rant about how cyclists are required to ride as far to the right of the road as possible and Pete came out into the lane. Pete and I both responded that the law in fact gave us 3 feet from the edge of the road (this is actually not accurate as I had mixed up something in the Washington Driver's Handbook stating that motorists passing bicycles need to give 3 feet of buffer). Fife responded that we were wrong and that he could write a citation to which I replied, go ahead and make sure that you keep that court date free since we would be fighting it and told Pete to make sure that he got Fife's name and badge number. Fife then turned to Bob and I and told us to move along as this did not involve us and was none of our business. My response to this was that we weren't going anywhere and that he had made it our business when he almost hit us with his boat and trailer. Fife and Pete continued to go back and forth with the tensions and remarks continually escalating with Pete's responses to him ending up being "write the ticket, do it" (I think he said this about 4 or 5 times, it was fantastic). In the end, Fife did not write the ticket and continued to let his emotions control his behavior.

Eventually, Pete said if Fife was not going to write the ticket then he was out of there and started to ride away. Fife went to get back in his car and I told him I wanted to say something to which he replied "no". My response to this was that he was a public servant whose job was to protect and serve and that I had something to say to him. So, he came back over and I stated with all due respect, that he was wrong with his interpretation of the code and that we are allowed to ride out into the lane if we have to avoid road hazards, that we are not required to ride as close to the edge as possible at all times and that he had endangered us with his actions as his boat almost hit us. Bob and I then proceeded to ride away and Fife got back into his vehicle and speed around us in a right hand curve well over the speed limit while crossing a double yellow line into the left turn lane. Nice.

So, here is the Washington revised code:

RCW 46.61.770
Riding on roadways and bicycle paths.
(1) Every person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a rate of speed less than the normal flow of traffic at the particular time and place shall ride as near to the right side of the right through lane as is safe except as may be appropriate while preparing to make or while making turning movements, or while overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction. A person operating a bicycle upon a roadway or highway other than a limited-access highway, which roadway or highway carries traffic in one direction only and has two or more marked traffic lanes, may ride as near to the left side of the left through lane as is safe. A person operating a bicycle upon a roadway may use the shoulder of the roadway or any specially designated bicycle lane if such exists. (2) Persons riding bicycles upon a roadway shall not ride more than two abreast except on paths or parts of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.

So, it appears as if both Fife and we were correct, except that we were more correct than he was. Now, I am no lawyer, but I would argue that since Pete was overtaking another bicycle proceeding in the same direction than he was in the right. Also, there are a number of potholes, cracks in the road and sewer grates on that section of road (as well as the occasional glass) so the language stating "as is safe" means that it is subjective as to how far out we can ride and is up to the rider's judgement as to what is safe. Also, we were going 18-19 mph in a 25 mph zone so that we were not traveling that much slower than the normal flow of traffic especially since we were going around a curve just a few hundred meters past a stop light.

The California revised code states this:

(3) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, vehicles, bicycles,pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or substandard width lanes)that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge,subject to the provisions of Section 21656. For purposes of this section, a "substandard width lane" is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.

So I would infer that the language is similar enough to draw a comparison and even though the WA code does not specifically state "when - necessary to avoid conditions" the "as is safe" line could infer the same thing, thus meaning Fife did not know what the hell he was talking about.

My point in all of this? It is nice that in addition to all of the other moron drivers out there that we need to deal with that we can now add some officers of the law and it is nice to know that with all the meth use, domestic violence and probably 5 unregistered vehicles that passed us while we were at the side of the road, that Barney Fife had nothing better to do than hassle 3 guys minding their own business out for a bike ride. Idiot.