A Safety Issue to Officers, Poor Form to Cyclists

More than 700 cyclists were on the roads of Loudoun County over the weekend, some pedaling up to 150 miles, trying to raise money for a debilitating disease, multiple sclerosis.

According to cyclists and Loudoun authorities, several cyclists failed to come to complete stops at some intersections, and a county sheriff's deputy was waiting to pounce. Eight cyclists were ticketed for running stop signs that day in the Lovettsville and Purcellville areas, authorities said.

To several who took part in the annual event… the tickets were poor form, even if cyclists had rolled through the signs. To authorities, who said they received numerous complaints from motorists about cyclists crowding the roads and running stop signs, the citations were necessary to ensure safety on the roads.

Where do I begin… how about this: I participated in this ride but only rode on Saturday. Every single group/charity ride I've done (whether it be the Reston Century or Bike MS), there are the same ignorant people who don't respect the rules of the road. I'm not talking about stop signs — I'm guilty of doing a slow California Stop when I feel it's safe to do so. (Plus, half the time I end up putting myself in MORE danger by unclipping, stopping, starting, then attempting to clip in without falling over before that car gets to the intersection.)

However, and I've covered this topic before: I honestly don't blame the community for being upset with the bikers. As per usual, I saw too many people riding side-by-side (coincidentally, the majority of them were men on racing or tri bikes) when it wasn't appropriate. Riding abreast is OK if you're out in the middle of Montana on a 10 foot wide shoulder, the next town (pop: 24) is 30 miles away and the last time you saw a car was 2 hours ago. Riding in a pack on Halfway Road in Middleburg is NOT OK. Especially when there's a five ton UPS truck trying to get by you.

Jennings said he and another cyclist, a charity participant, slowed to about 1 mph before proceeding through a stop sign in Lovettsville, only to find a sheriff's deputy nearby, who flagged them down.

Um, yeah, it's physically impossible to ride 1 mph - trust me, I've tried (and promptly fell on my side). Maybe if you're track-standing, but normally the slowest speed someone can do while coasting through a stop sign is around 3-4 mph. Put it this way: if you were a driver and saw cops standing around at a seemingly innocent intersection, wouldn't you stop completely? Of course! Same goes for bikers. Duh.

"What was amazing to me was it seemed to me they were there because of the MS ride," Jennings said. "They've donated their time and all their money, and they've donated to a charity, and you've got the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office just sitting there waiting to hand them a ticket. It didn't seem right."

Bull. Sh**. Just because you've donated your time and money to a charity via a bike ride doesn't give you the excuse to ride like a jerk and not obey stop signs. If the police did this during the Reston Century (and I think they should, because most of it is on the W&OD and has even more intersections/stop signs than the MS Ride), you'd still complain.

So, really guys… I have no sympathy for those who blatantly disobeyed a stop sign and blasted through, because chances are you're the same person who thinks riding two abreast on a busy road is acceptable.

I was listening to NPR yesterday, and heard this story about bird strikes at airports in the U.S: Pinpointing Airports With High Rate Of Bird Strikes.

Bad News: Number of bird strikes is up. Good news: Damage done by birds is down.

Bad news of good news: they don't know why. The population of large birds, who do the most damage to planes, has increased, as has the amount of air traffic. Large birds, as in Canadian Geese.

Most aircraft, particularly large planes, are able to (for lack of a better term) "ingest" the bird and no harm is done… if the bird is small enough. A larger poop-spewing Canadian goose, on the other hand, will leave a bit more damage.

Needless to say, I've never liked Canadian geese. They honk loudly and make you depressed in the fall, because when you see them you know they're peace-ing out to a warmer climate while you're stuck in the frozen tundra. Also, if you've ever played on a grass field near a lake, then you probably understand my reasoning: GOOSE TURDS. Canadian geese leave these nasty slick green poops all over the place and consequently you come home and find your shoes covered in goose doo.

Additionally, they're MEAN mofos. Female geese have been known to attack humans, and I'm always afraid the ones at our barn might decide to challenge Cass to a game of chicken (or would it be goose?) when we walk by.

Now, according to this website, anti-goose techniques include scarecrows (yeah, sure, like those ever work), guard dogs (Stella the barn dog is not allowed to chase wild animals), propane exploders and pyrotechnics (which, as an added benefit, scare horses too!), toy water craft and helicopters (hmm…), and lasers.

I think a trip to Toys-R-Us might be in order!

Yesterday's ride — relatively uneventful. Nice scenery, short hills, good weather.

I ended up messing up my directions and going down Glen Mill instead of the subdivision to the east of it, so needless to say I probably won't make that mistake again… a bit too much traffic for my tastes, not to mention the road is pretty cut up in spots. Still, I ended up doing a bit over 17 miles (MMR mileage is wrong). Pretty good, although at this point in time I'd like to be hitting at least 20 regularly, but I'd rather keep them short and frequent rather than long and once a week.

All I've got to say is thank goodness the MS Ride is in June this year and not May… because if it was, I probably would have to relegate myself to doing the 30 mile route. Let's see, a little more than a month and a half to whip myself into shape to do the metric century — doable, I hope. It's not like I've been sedentary all winter, I've been riding Cass a lot, so my cardiovascular fitness should be a little higher than couch potato level.

So! First ride of the season was last (last) Sunday, as I was away in Utah visiting my parents for the past week. I'm having a bit of an issue plotting out routes that won't destroy my knees with steep hills, which means much of North Arlington, McLean, and Potomac (all which have great biking) are out for a few weeks. Similarly, I've decided that I need to be cautious of where in South Arlington I go, because the drivers there are generally not as mindful as the ones above Route 50 are. DC is limited to weekends, and I've found the risk of getting doored goes up by about 60%. Plus that whole biker getting run over by a garbage truck last year… yeah.

That being said, I think I'm going to actually have to relegate myself to using some of the bike trails until I'm strong enough to tackle the leg 'n lung burners near the barn in Potomac. (Probably might want to stay off River Road if I don't want to get humiliated by the local racers that train there, too. )

Anyway, I managed to plot out a route that worked pretty well — fairly low traffic, not too too many turns, and I only got lost disoriented once. Not a killer workout, but good enough to get the legs workin' again. (And remind me I need to clean my chain.) I think I got around 14-15 miles on my cyclometer thanks to some missed turns, but hey, who cares… I went biking!

(I know, I'm really bad at coming up with good blog post titles.)

Hopefully anyone reading this entry will do me a favor and bookmark this blog. My friend Nadine is campaigning for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Man & Woman of the Year, and I am really proud of her for stepping up to the challenge! If there is anyone more deserving of this title, it's Nadine, so please support her in her efforts to help the millions affected by leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, and Hodgkin's disease.

There are some great fundraising events coming up, so bookmark or add her blog to your RSS feed, and get involved!