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Convicted fraudster targets speeding “Tour de France guys” with megaphone in Central Park; When Cav and Wiggo met Lance and Jan; Priest apologises for leading Mass in cycling kit; Van Vleuten reconsiders retirement; Remco's home + more on the live blog

It’s Tuesday, the pound is falling faster than Geraint Thomas at a grand tour, and Ryan Mallon’s back in the hotseat for the second live blog of the week
Tue, Sep 27, 2022 10:06
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Convicted fraudster targets speeding “Tour de France guys” with megaphone in Central Park; When Cav and Wiggo met Lance and Jan; Priest apologises for leading Mass in cycling kit; Van Vleuten reconsiders retirement; Remco's home + more on the live blogNYC activist targets speeding cyclists with megaphone (Instagram, whatisnewyork)
27 September 2022, 17:00
27 September 2022, 08:03
NYC activist targets speeding cyclists with megaphone (Instagram, whatisnewyork)
Convicted fraudster and ‘activist’ targets speeding “Tour de France guys” with megaphone in Central Park

I know it’s early on a Tuesday morning, the weather’s miserable (at least where I am), and the pound is falling faster than Geraint Thomas at a grand tour… but don’t worry, because it’s anti-cycling bingo time again!

And boy, do I have a rather unusual one for you this morning…

Over the weekend, the New York Post (basically the American Sun) interviewed a so-called activist who spends an hour every weekday and three hours at the weekend tracking the speeds of cyclists at a Central Park junction with a radar gun – before shouting at them through a megaphone.

“An aggravated activist is calling bull on Central Park’s spandex-clad ‘Tour de France’ bicyclists,” reads the Post’s opening paragraph. Line!

71-year-old Jerome Dewald told the paper: “If you’re in the crosswalk and these Tour de France guys come flying through, they can call you an a–hole, but by the time you say it back, they’re already 40 feet down the road. The bullhorn solves that problem.

“I’ve had a few guys assault me. One guy threw a bottle at me. One guy slapped the horn out of my hand.”

A video of the dandily dressed self-styled entrepreneur (we’ll get to that later) putting his megaphone to use managed to garner over 32,000 likes on YouTube last month.

Dewald says his campaign was inspired by the tragic death in 2014 of Jill Tarlov, who was killed in a collision with a cyclist at the junction. The cyclist was reported to have reached 35.6mph earlier in the day in Central Park. However, Tarlov’s widower told the Post that he has not spoken with Dewald and does not want to relive his wife’s death.

> NYC controversy: Cyclist not charged in Central Park collision that put pedestrian on ventilator

Nevertheless, the 71-year-old claims that things have got worse since 2014 and that “kids are going to get hurt, if not killed” by speeding cyclists in the park, unless better enforcement and infrastructure are introduced soon.

He continued: “It is not uncommon for the Tour de France guys, the guys with the $3,000 bikes and the $500 plastic pants, to come flying through here at a speed of between 28 and 33 miles an hour when people are in the crosswalk, even when the light is red. And they yell at you, too.”

Your bingo card may be filling up fast, but there’s a twist coming up that not even the caller saw coming.

In 2005, Dewald was convicted of fraud and larceny charges in Michigan for his role in organising two political-action committees during the 2000 presidential election – one which raised money for Democrat Al Gore, and one backing Republican George W. Bush.

“Dewald simply used the 2000 presidential election to create an air of legitimacy for his illegitimate objective: to funnel money to his for-profit consulting firm under false pretences,” Sixth Circuit Justice Ronald Lee Gilman, responsible for reinstating Dewald’s conviction after a successful appeal, said in 2014.

A later campaign organised by Dewald – this time focusing on marijuana legalisation – also came under scrutiny after other activists questioned his motives.

At least he’s worrying about “$500 plastic pants” now…

27 September 2022, 16:21
Central Park megaphone man reaction

Responding to this morning’s story about the 71-year-old New Yorker who spends his days shouting at what he believes to be speeding cyclists in Central Park, road.cc reader SimoninSpalding said: “I am not sure that any of those people on bikes were wearing "$500 plastic pants" or were even close to being "Tour de France guys".

“What I saw was a nice peaceful scene with no motor vehicles where cyclists and pedestrians were doing a decent job of sharing a space without conflict.

“Apart from the idiot in the hat with a megaphone.”

Awavey, however, urged caution to those condemning the megaphone wielding pensioner, writing: “From that scene alone yes, and not saying the crazy old guy is right at all, but I do know friends who have visited the park to ride, and it can apparently get a bit intense at times of the day, with lots of club style riding going on, and the NYPD/park enforcement officers are often very visible in their presence checking cyclists for speeding.

“So I'd be cautious to judge what's happening there off a 30sec clip from the other side of the Atlantic.”

Rendel Harris, meanwhile, questioned whether the Central Park ‘world’ on Zwift contributes to the sometimes-aggressive style of riding witnessed in the park, “with people seeing if they can match their virtual race times with real-world ones?”

In the end, Simon concluded by arguing: “If I was an ‘activist’ interested in improving road safety and could spare one hour a day to do it, I would probably focus my efforts where there was a problem to be solved rather than randomly abusing people riding bikes.”

27 September 2022, 15:39
Italian priest ordered to apologise... for celebrating Mass in cycling kit

It’s been quite the week for the Catholic Church’s relationship with cycling. Yep, you read that right.

First, the Vatican sent a rider to the world championships, purportedly to bless the passing of the rainbow jersey from Alaphilippe to Evenepoel (I may have made that bit up).

Now, an Italian priest has been forced to apologise for conducting Mass… in his cycling kit.

Father Fabio Corazzina was taking part in the Peace Walk, an annual pilgrimage where around 100 cyclists ride their bikes through Sicily in memory of those who stood against organised crime on the island.

However, Father Corazzina’s outdoor mass for the devout cyclists in Mazara del Vallo – an image of which was posted on social media – was heavily criticised by the Bishop of Brescia, Pierantonio Tremolada, who accused the bike riding priest of making a “joke” of the scared rituals of the Catholic Church, reports the Giornale di Brescia.

In a warning letter, Tremolada expressed his astonishment that Father Corazzina did not “think about the consequences of such an act, which was intentionally spread through social networks. How can one not realise the perplexity and pain that this would have caused, and has indeed caused, in so many people who deeply love the Eucharist and place it at the centre of their life of faith?”

Corazzina has since apologised for the impromptu Mass and has proposed fasting as a means of reconciliation (which should do wonders for his power-to-weight ratio… Sorry!).

27 September 2022, 14:57
Slightly uncomfortable cycling images

Maybe Tommeke was just giving Remco advice on how to deal with the pressures of being a young world champion?

At least there were no beans involved this time...

27 September 2022, 14:51
Party on, Remco!
27 September 2022, 13:55
Ah sure look, it’s all the lads: Wiggins and Cavendish join Armstrong, Hincapie and Ullrich for Mallorca podcast recording

Ah, Mallorca – a cycling paradise for everyone from winter training pros to ambling cyclo-tourists like myself… And it’s also the home of controversial podcasts, apparently.

This week, s̶e̶v̶e̶n̶-̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶T̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶d̶e̶ ̶F̶r̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶w̶i̶n̶n̶e̶r̶  Lance Armstrong’s The Move podcast has set up shop on the Balearic Island, where the former world champion (he gets to keep that one, right Travis?) is pretending to care about the well-heeled fans who have paid $50,000 to enjoy his famously affable and convivial company while trudging up the Sa Calobra.

As well as those super-keen amateurs with more money than sense, Big Tex has also been joined by a veritable who’s who of the mid-90s to early noughties peloton: Big George Hincapie, historically big but now quite lean Jan Ullrich, and even bigger Johan Bruyneel (sorry, I couldn’t resist) for a special live post-worlds edition of his long-running podcast.

Oh, and Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish are there, too. And the internet isn’t happy.

While Ullrich (the subject of Daniel Friebe’s recent excellent biography) was and remains a more popular figure among cycling fans than his American counterpart – despite both riders being mired in the same murky depths – most of the online reaction has questioned why Cav and Wiggo (the former still makes his living from riding bikes, while the other has a high-profile punditry gig with Eurosport-GCN) would want to be associated with He Who Must Not Be Named:

Of course, Cavendish has in the past defended Armstrong’s character – if not his doping – citing the Texan’s personal support for and encouragement of the Manxman when he was at the start of his pro career.

Meanwhile, Wiggins’ attitude towards the American has oscillated as wildly as his own jiffy bag-encased reputation in recent years, from praising Armstrong in his first autobiography to calling him a “lying bastard” in the wake of his 2013 doping confession, and back to defending his “human side” and including him in his book of ‘Icons’ in 2018.

In any case, the condemnation of Wiggins and Cavendish’s stint in Mallorca (and even Armstrong’s continued status as persona non grata in a sport filled with the remnants of its not-so-distant past) highlights cycling’s ongoing struggle – almost ten years on from Oprah – to reconcile the apparent need for black and white narratives with its extremely grey reality.

27 September 2022, 13:44
27 September 2022, 13:03
“Unfortunately I can’t turn back time”: Van der Poel returns home after Wollongong assault conviction

On the same morning that a grainy eight-second video popped up online, appearing to show – albeit briefly – the incident which led to him being charged with assault the night before the world road race championships, Mathieu van der Poel returned home from Australia and told waiting reporters at Brussels Airport that he was aiming to “put this behind me and look forward again”.

The Dutch rider had been initially due to appear at Sutherland Local Court today, but the hearing was brought forward to yesterday to facilitate his flight home. He was fined A$1,500 (£909) after admitting two counts of common assault.

According to New South Wales Police, the 27-year-old pushed two teenage girls during a confrontation at the Grand Parade Hotel in Brighton-Le-Sands on Saturday night.

> Video footage of Mathieu van der Poel hotel incident appears online

Faced with a plethora of television cameras when he stepped into the airport today, Van der Poel admitted to the assembled crowd of journalists that he had made a mistake.

“Of course I am sorry. I should have handled this differently, but unfortunately it happened,” he said.

When asked whether he should have contacted the hotel reception or his Dutch team prior to the incident, the Alpecin-Fenix rider said: “It was already late and I wanted to sleep. I thought I could solve it myself, but that turned out wrong. Unfortunately I can't change that now.

“There were stories about pushing and stuff, but none of that happened,” he continued. “I had one girl by the arm, certainly not with the intention of hurting her. Anyone who knows me knows I’ve never hurt anyone.

“I’m trying to put this behind me and look forward again. I’m happy to be back in the country. Now I’m looking for the peace of mind from home. It’s up to the team to handle it.”

27 September 2022, 12:23
Ouch…

 But, but, tunnels…

27 September 2022, 12:15
Football meets cycling: Virgil van Bike

I think it’s fair to say that Van Dijk seems a touch sharper on two wheels than on the football pitch so far this season…

27 September 2022, 11:33
Sagan retires… No, not that one (yet)
27 September 2022, 10:52
Remco Evenepoel wins 2022 World Championships in Wollongong (@cauldphoto/Specialized)
Remco’s return: Evenepoel set for first race in rainbow jersey at Binche-Chimay-Binche

Another story from the ‘What are the world champions going to do next?’ category for you…

While Remco Evenepoel told reporters in Wollongong that the only race on his schedule after winning the rainbow jersey on Sunday would be one “through the night clubs” (ah, to be 22 again), it now seems that the newly crowned world champion will make his debut in cycling’s second most famous garment on 4 October, at Binche-Chimay-Binche.

The rolling, sprinter-friendly semi-classic, also known as the Memorial Frank Vandenbroucke after one of Belgium’s most precocious and tragic cycling heroes, will mark round two of Remco’s glorious homecoming parade.

Two days before the race, a public celebration will be held in Brussels’ Grand Place, in honour of the 22-year-old’s remarkable achievements this year: a dominant Worlds win, a first monument victory at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, and Belgium’s first grand tour triumph for 44 years, at the Vuelta a España. Not too shabby, eh?

While the crowds will gather in Brussels and on the lanes of Wallonia to sneak a glimpse of Belgium’s newest cycling hero, Binche-Chimay-Binche will also act as the farewell party for another of the country’s stars.

Philippe Gilbert – the last Belgian to win the worlds road race before Evenepoel, ten years ago – will hang up his wheels next week after what should be a rather fitting celebration of Belgium’s cycling past, present and future.

Now come on, Remco, stick around for Il Lombardia. You know you want to…

27 September 2022, 10:11
Just a couple of pommies enjoying a coldie at the end of the worlds…
27 September 2022, 09:30
Annemiek van Vleuten wins World Championships (Alex Broadway/SWpix.com)
Two more years! World champion Van Vleuten considers postponing retirement

On Saturday, when Annemiek van Vleuten launched an audacious late attack to win her second road race rainbow jersey – after a race spent working in the service of her Dutch teammates, just three days after fracturing her elbow during the mixed relay team time trial – the rest of the peloton must have been thinking: ‘Well, at least she’s retiring next year’.

That collective sigh of relief was stifled, however, when last night the 39-year-old superstar told Dutch talk show host Eva Jinek that she was reconsidering her plans to step away from the sport at the end of 2023.

The Movistar rider, who turns 40 in eleven days, admitted to the RTL 4 presenter that she believes that 2022 was her best season yet – backing up her high placing on road.cc's Cycling’s Greatest Seasons list (which reminds me, I should probably update that) – prompting her to “doubt” her decision to retire before the Paris Olympics.

When asked by Jinek whether she still had the desire and hunger to win, after accomplishing virtually everything there is to accomplish in cycling, Van Vleuten said: “Winning is not my drive, continuously improving myself is.”

If she continues to improve on her superlative 2022, the rest of the peloton are in for a rough year. Or two…

27 September 2022, 09:26
27 September 2022, 09:11
The future...
Ryan Mallon

After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.

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51 comments

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Hirsute replied to I love my bike | 2 years ago
2 likes

Firstly they would need to campaign for legislative change.

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OnYerBike replied to I love my bike | 2 years ago
0 likes

I get the impression most cars have a mechanical speedo needle - even when I've hired brand new cars it seem that many still do, let alone older cars. A GPS/phone on SatNav mode might display the speed, but those aren't covered by the regulations that cover the car's built in speedometer. 

By and large speed limits do not apply to cyclists anyway, so that part is a bit moot.

That said, I'm not entirely convinced not having a speedometer would inhibit the government from passing legislation to apply speed limits to cyclists anyway - there are plenty of other examples of legislation where an individual may break the law without necessarily realising it. One that often comes up is drink driving - we don't install breathalysers on all cars, and yet we set a numerical limit for the permitted alcohol level. 

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TheBillder replied to OnYerBike | 2 years ago
0 likes
OnYerBike wrote:

I get the impression most cars have a mechanical speedo needle - even when I've hired brand new cars it seem that many still do, let alone older cars. A GPS/phone on SatNav mode might display the speed, but those aren't covered by the regulations that cover the car's built in speedometer. 

I think the majority on new cars are now GPS. I recently rented a Hyundai abroad and found that the speedo read the same as my phone satnav app, and that everyone seemed to be driving very close to the speed limit. It's probably cheaper once you have the GPS in the car than the old mechanical cable to the gearbox, and many new cars seem to have them for all those features that you never knew you needed - and in fact you still don't.

Said Hyundai had a feature that the tailgate could not be opened at all if the key was in the ignition. I'm so glad they saved me from the horrific fate of doing that.

OnYerBike wrote:

That said, I'm not entirely convinced not having a speedometer would inhibit the government from passing legislation to apply speed limits to cyclists anyway - there are plenty of other examples of legislation where an individual may break the law without necessarily realising it. One that often comes up is drink driving - we don't install breathalysers on all cars, and yet we set a numerical limit for the permitted alcohol level. 

Please keep that under your hat or Lord Winston, whose gynaecological experience makes him an expert on active travel, will try to get it legislated...

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andystow replied to TheBillder | 2 years ago
4 likes

TheBillder wrote:

I think the majority on new cars are now GPS.

I doubt that any new cars are GPS. Does the speedometer still work in tunnels? Does it suddenly jump 5 MPH when driving between tall buildings?

It's not usually a mechanical cable any more, but the ECU probably already has an electronic sensor on the output shaft, and definitely has sensors on all four wheels for ABS and traction control. It processes this and tells the display where to put the needle.

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TheBillder replied to andystow | 2 years ago
0 likes

Good points all - but I suppose the important part is that speedometers seem to be far more accurate than in the past, and therefore may read lower at a given speed. Drivers have to learn that 10% over isn't going to save them from a ticket.

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The _Kaner replied to TheBillder | 2 years ago
0 likes

I've a 2019 Kia Proceed. At 80kph on the speedo (dial type), the GPS reads 76kph, and those road signs that flash up your speed as you enter lower speed limit areas (like 50kph/30kph in a shool zone), tend to agree with the speed displayed on my GPS and not with the actual speedo dial figures.

...the supplementary digital display on the cockpit info screen is aligned with the speedo dial figures.

So, as long as I keep within that speed, which is displayed on my speedo dial, I can (presumably) be confident that I am within the required limit. 

Testing this theory on a stretch of road (120kph) I sat at 118kph with cruise control on. This 11km stretch of motorway has a pair of average speed cameras - I've never been pulled for speeding there - and the calculations suggest that the actual speed is around 112/113kph which tallies with the displayed GPS speed.

So, it seems that even in this day of modern tech, there is still a degree of inaccuracy to the speedo set up. Now small anomalies like tyre size, inflation, etc., may have a small bearing here...but there is still arouind 5 to 8% inaccuracy from actual calculated speed (GPS speed) - rising as speed increases beyond those figures above...

If I was in my previous car (a 2011 Kia Ceed) - which relied on less 'sophisticated technological advancements', and was using a separate Garmin GPS unit, there was no discernible difference from the Garmin readout and the displayed speed on the speedo dial. 

The moral: keep below the posted limit, then go a bit slower...slow driver...slowwwwwer cyclist.

Avatar
wtjs replied to I love my bike | 2 years ago
3 likes

With a 15mph limit, what would the Police do about cyclists going over it?

In Lancashire, at least, the police refuse to accept that any cycling speedometer gives any indication about the speed of a cyclist- this is why they are deemed to always be travelling at less than 10 mph and it's always legal to cross single or double unbroken white lines in any position to overtake a cyclist- independent of whether there's a right hand bend just ahead and the overtaking driver can't see oncoming vehicles until he hits them. Therefore even the notoriously cyclist-phobic LC will have trouble nailing cyclists for exceeding speed limits specifically, although they could get them for furious cycling- presumably only if they hit someone.

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IanMK replied to wtjs | 2 years ago
1 like

A police officer (TVP) told me that GPS data was not accepted by the courts. So I don't think this is limited to Lancashire. I then suggested that given that I was doing 17mph (according to the Garmin) and the threshold would have been 10mph they could do some simple calculations and even allowing for error it would still be within a threshold that would be mathmatically conclusive. He said they didn't have the resources for that. So nobody is ever going to get done for that offence.

I would agree that the conclusion is that without being caught on a calibrated device then it's difficult to prosecute anybody against a specific number. Furious Cycling on the other hand.......

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Sriracha replied to IanMK | 2 years ago
2 likes

So if the law holds that motor vehicle speedometers can not accurately discern speeds below 15mph, how is the law abiding motorist supposed to navigate the 10mph/solid white line regulation?

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OnYerBike replied to Sriracha | 2 years ago
0 likes

Sriracha wrote:

So if the law holds that motor vehicle speedometers can not accurately discern speeds below 15mph, how is the law abiding motorist supposed to navigate the 10mph/solid white line regulation?

I would be interested to know if anyone has ever been prosecuted specifically for that offence (rather than general careless/dangerous driving). I seem to recall a NMotD on here a few months ago where the police response effectively suggested that motorists can't be prosecuted (although I think the actual statement was along the lines of the cyclist isn't required to have a speedometer, which raises a whole lot of other questions!) 

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wtjs replied to OnYerBike | 2 years ago
1 like

I would be interested to know if anyone has ever been prosecuted specifically for that offence 

In Lancashire nobody has ever been prosecuted for crossing single or double white lines while overtaking a cyclist- they police have never issued warning letters or the joke driving course for this offence either. Neither has anyone ever been prosecuted in Lancashire for close passing a cyclist.

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Bungle_52 replied to IanMSpencer | 2 years ago
0 likes

From the article " The lowered threshold only applies to London, while Lancashire Police have also brought in similar rules. Other forces have kept the '10% + 3mph' formula."

Just waiting for wtjs.

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SimoninSpalding | 2 years ago
10 likes

I am not sure that any of those people on bikes were wearing "$500 plastic pants" or were even close to being "Tour de France guys". What I saw was a nice peaceful scene with no motor vehicles where cyclists and pedestrians were doing a decent job of sharing a space without conflict. Apart from the idiot in the hat with a megaphone.

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SimoninSpalding replied to SimoninSpalding | 2 years ago
7 likes

For the sake of clarity, I need to correct myself. When I said idiot, what I meant to say was convicted fraudster obviously.

I apologise wholeheartedly for any confusion caused.

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Awavey replied to SimoninSpalding | 2 years ago
2 likes

From that scene alone yes, and not saying the crazy old guy is right at all, but I do know friends who have visited the park to ride, and it can apparently get a bit intense at times of the day, with lots of club style riding going on, and the NYPD/park enforcement officers are often very visible in their presence checking cyclists for speeding.

So I'd be cautious to judge what's happening there off a 30sec clip from the other side of the atlantic.

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Rendel Harris replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
1 like

Awavey wrote:

From that scene alone yes, and not saying the crazy old guy is right at all, but I do know friends who have visited the park to ride, and it can apparently get a bit intense at times of the day, with lots of club style riding going on

I wonder if the fact that there is a Central Park "world" on Zwift contributes to that, with people seeing if they can match their virtual race times with real-world ones?

Avatar
SimoninSpalding replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
2 likes

I have no way of knowing what might happen there at other times, but if I was an "activist" interested in improving road safety and could spare 1 hour a day to do it I would probably focus my efforts when there was a problem to be solved rather than randomly abusing people riding bikes. The signals aren't particularly clear in the clip, but there are a couple occasions where the lights appear to be against the pedestrians but he is still abusing cyclists.

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Awavey replied to SimoninSpalding | 2 years ago
1 like

Totally, I just feel it's too easy to bracket the guy as another anti cycling idiot, which he may well be still, carrying out something that looks frankly ludicrous to us, without knowing the full context of what does happen there.

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chrisonabike replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
3 likes

If you and SimoninSpalding want some context (conscientiousness which I applaud) then you could do worse than browse the back pages of BikeSnobNYC - he lives there, spent many years as a roadie (Fred) taking part in early morning circuits of said park in moving up the categories - and also supplying vigorous critique of the same.  Including a fair few with attitude trying to bully the pedestrians out of the way.  Some samples:

After a pedestrian died.

Central park now available on Zwift!

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TheBillder replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
1 like
Awavey wrote:

... lots of club style riding going on

Is that with hand under opposite armpit, as demonstrated by Vic Reeves?

Avatar
chrisonabike replied to TheBillder | 2 years ago
0 likes

It's like normal riding but you can't make out the words...

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