Friday, September 08, 2006

We're all winners!

I did the MS 150 for the first time last weekend. You could also say I did the MS 150 for the last time. Overall, the experience was good. It was cool riding with Ozenpro and Morgan. It was not cool having some super choad roll his eyes at me and shake his head when I told him I didn't drink Gatorade. He was like, "But where do you get your calories from?" "Uh, not Gatorade." The eye rolling and head shaking really sent me over the edge. I was so pissed I had to drop everyone out there the rest of the day. So I cranked it up to 14MPH and put the hammer down. I dropped fat women and children first. Then dorks and tri-geeks spinning a cadence of 20rpms. Before that incident Ozenpro and I were waiting for Morgan at one of the stops on the side of the road. We were clearly off to the side and there was tons of room left in the lane. All of a sudden, some woman rides by and yells, "Don't just stop in the middle of the road!" She said it as if we had been riding in front of her and just threw on the brakes. But we had been sitting there for like two minutes. Luckily, my quick witted MS 150 poaching teammate, Ozenpro, says without missing a tick, "Screw you." It was so smooth. Like he was just waiting for her to say something. It was the pro move of the day and it stuck. She didn't want none of us.
Overall, I'd have to say I wish the MS 150 would go to another town. I think charity rides are great, but we're going to need some new charities for local racers who have been assulted by drivers when pissed off motorists take out on us their anger of how some of the MS 150 riders behave. The problem is that all these inexperienced riders come here from out of town and while most ride faily responsibily, some ride like they are immune to being hit by a car, or as if courtesy doesn't apply to you if you're on a charity ride. I saw a pair of guys make a left hand turn right in front of an oncoming car going about 50mph. So here in a couple of weeks I'll be out on that same road with that same guy driving his car. Do you think he'll be thinking, "Oh, that's not the guy who pissed me off and turned right in front of me a couple of weeks ago." Or do you think he'll be saying to himself, "I HATE CYCLISTS! ALL OF THEM!"
I'd have to say that the MS 150 is probably not good for local cycling or cyclists. I'm sure to the public the people who do the MS 150 represent "cycling" and "cyclists" as a whole. I don't think we want most of these people making the impression of cycling for us.
In a nutshell: Charity- good. Charity ride cyclists- not so good.