Cycling Courier

In my ongoing, strenuous effort to provide content that can only be found in many places, I offer the following, along with a report of the Jimmy move. Also, I did not participate in the roving ride today.  Any ride that requires me to begin my drive during an hour beginning with the number 6, is a hard drive for me to start.  First, what follows is a letter to the editor in a Solvang, CA newspaper.  Solvang is where a Tour of California time trial takes place and is a popular destination for tour groups, pro cycling training camps, etc.. The woman needs counseling.

Cyclists provoke inner rage

Normally I would consider myself a friendly, empathetic person who is tolerant of all types of people. Unfortunately, there is one exception, and it’s reserved exclusively for cyclists.

In their presence, I transform into an unforgiving misanthrope. I’ve been struggling with my hatred of bicycle enthusiasts for years now, often trying to stifle my deep-seated resentment by pretending they don’t exist. However, there is one problem with that strategy: they do exist and often do a lot of their existing in the middle of the road when you’re trying to drive.

So recently, I accepted my feelings and have decided to bring it out into the open. For too long I’ve been silent, and now is the time for me to say it: I hate cyclists.

All too frequently in the Santa Ynez Valley, I see major highways shut down or blocked off because a parade of bike riders are rolling into town. Do they forget that other people not riding bikes live here, too? That some folks are trying to make their way to work, school, or simply the other side of the road?

The city shouldn’t be expected to pause just for the sake of a few wheel-spinners, but perhaps they are too busy making over-zealous hand signals to notice anything else.

As I am writing this, I am particularly enraged by the display of cyclists I saw just this morning. While returning from Santa Maria, I noticed a trail of bright red bike riders lining the side of the 154. Just great, I thought. But it didn’t occur to me until I was in striking distance that they weren’t the usual clan of havoc-wreckers.

Today they were also cross-dressers. That’s when I said enough is enough. Seeing Armstrong in spandex is one thing, but seeing a middle-aged potbelly in red fishnets — that’s something else. Men of all misshapes and sizes in tight, red dresses and pink feather boas were distracting me from the road ahead.

Not only was it a blaringly obvious safety hazard, it was also just indecent. I thought I’d have to travel to Vegas to endure that kind of trauma, but apparently my eyes can suffer in my own backyard.

When this reaches the public and my discontent becomes well-known, I’m sure I’ll be receiving plenty of criticism for my beliefs. And unless the event I just witnessed was an extension of the Special Olympics, I won’t feel badly.

I can’t imagine, though, that I’m the only one who feels this way. To all the closet cyclist-haters out there, this is the time for us to take a stand. We might not be able to reclaim the roads, but at least we can provide support for one another.

Before an “innocent” cyclist gets claimed by a driver with repressed emotions, I propose we form ACHES, the Alliance for Cyclist-Hating Emotion-Stuffers. Together, we can fight this battle (or at least complain in good company).

Katie Ryan, Los Olivos


This is a sad and interesting story of a woman who struck 3 cyclists in Tulsa and stopped by other motorists.

Two bicyclists killed on highway  
 SAND SPRINGS — Alcohol apparently played a part in a crash that claimed the lives of two bicyclists and seriously injured a third Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

The cyclists were riding east on the shoulder of Oklahoma 51 near 161st West Avenue when a woman in a sport utility vehicle veered off the busy highway and crashed into them from behind about 4 p.m., Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Brian Warren said.

A woman and a man, both in their early 30s, died from traumatic injuries. Medics took a third man, also in his early 30s, to St. John Medical Center in serious condition, EMSA spokeswoman Tina Wells said.

Warren said the driver tried to leave the scene but was eventually stopped by other motorists. Authorities found an open container of alcohol in the SUV and detained the woman while they took a blood sample for a toxicology test. She likely would then be arrested, Warren said.

The OHP did not release the names of the victims or the driver Tuesday evening.

Sherrie Catron was one of about 20 people who stopped to help the victims. The driver who hit them was already several hundred yards down the road when she came upon the accident, she said.

"I didn't think anything of it until I got to the intersection and realized that something major had happened," she said. "There was just chaos and devastation down the highway, and people were scrambling everywhere." 

bicycle parts and protective gear littered the road as investigators blocked both eastbound lanes of traffic. The highway's eastbound lanes were closed until about 8:15 p.m., the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported.

The highway is particularly dangerous for cyclists, Warren said. "We have problems with bicyclists on this road all the time being struck," he said.

Bike riders often ride along Oklahoma 51 west of Oklahoma 97 in Sand Springs and then along a road that takes them across the Keystone Dam.

Even though all three riders who were hit Tuesday were wearing helmets, the collision was the worst Warren has seen in his several years as a trooper, he said.

After striking the bicyclists, the SUV swerved off the roadway and into a ditch, knocking over a stop sign before eventually coming back onto the highway, Warren said.

A passing motorist managed to get the woman to stop, but she tried to drive away again and was stopped a second time by another driver, he said.

Warren said it was lucky that the people were able to get her to pull over.

The driver was very disoriented and said she had swerved to miss some debris in the road, Catron said. She told troopers that she didn't realize she had struck the bicyclists.

"It churns your stomach," Catron said. "She had no idea what she'd done."

The collision weighed heavily on many members of Tulsa's cycling community, who contend with aggressive drivers on almost every ride, said Carolyn Fairless, a member of the Tulsa Bicycle Club.

Fairless said she lives in Sand Springs and has pedaled along the road where Tuesday's collision took place. The crash will be in the back of her mind the next time she rides, she said.

"We're very much aware of how vulnerable we are as bicyclists," she said. "I'm all about bicyclists' rights to share the road, but we're no match for a vehicle."

Many people showed up to help move Jimmy Richardson's belongings, including Mark V, Fkying Tuna, Eve and hubby, Steve Houck and a few others.  We had a snack break and I was a bit too slow to capture a classic scene of Cindy, with head buried in bag of snacks.  So furious was the motion of hands to mouth with pretzels and chips that it reminded me of a ravenous raccoon, attacking an uncovered trash can.  In this image, Raccoon is making a hasty exit but I caught her just before she could leave.

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That's Jimmy in the background, confined in a wheelchair and a little medicated.  In the foreground is Mark V, looking a lot medicated.

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