On occasion the UCI will get one thing proper, and velocipedal traditionalists will probably be happy to study that they’re set to ban the turned-in brake levers which are so widespread with the children these days:

I’m already seeing biking followers complaining about this on the social medias, and so they’ll usually complain the UCI stifles “innovation” or no matter, however I’ve a classy mental response to that: professional sports activities have guidelines and in case you don’t like ’em robust shit. Hey, if you wish to trip round along with your brake levers turned in no one’s stopping you–the truth is, loads of folks had been unwittingly using round like that lengthy earlier than it was trendy. I’m sufficiently old to recollect when bent-in levers simply meant you’d dropped your bike however didn’t know easy methods to readjust them:

[I’m old. This is my lawn. Get off it.]

Anyway, I doubt biking goes to lose its few remaining followers due to this new rule. ”What?!? No turned-in brake levers!?!” [Turns off Tour de France in disgust] I imply actually, race bikes in the present day are ugly sufficient, and the final suppose we want is them wanting all knock-kneed on high of it:

Anyway, it’s a very good begin, and if they’ll now transfer on to banning the next we’ll actually be getting someplace:

• Digital shifting
• Disc brakes
• Carbon fiber
• Aero wheels
• Radios

Talking of professional biking and issues which are crooked, say what you’ll about this man however he’s no dummy:

I used to suppose that if he hadn’t tried his comeback then Floyd Landis wouldn’t have outed him, he wouldn’t have needed to go on Oprah, and he’d nonetheless be the seven-time Tour de France-winning most cancers hero he was when he stepped off the rostrum in 2005. Now nonetheless I perceive that the world would have lengthy grown bored with him by now, as a result of there’s nothing folks discover extra tedious than do-gooders who trip bikes, and there’s no method Invoice Maher could be sitting down with him in 2023 if he hasn’t reinvented himself as Doping Man:

Sarcastically although at the same time as an avowed cheater with no motive to make stuff up anymore he’s nonetheless making stuff up:

That is one thing that’s extensively recognized to be false:

I’m unsure why he’d conceal that, since in case you’re going to take a seat down with Invoice Maher and inform doping tales, what’s a extra bad-ass doping story than failing a drug check after which paying off the UCI by shopping for them a drug-testing machine?

That’s a a lot cooler story for a chat present than “I by no means handed a check,” although who is aware of what he nonetheless has on them and so they nonetheless have on him and all the remainder of it. I suppose in these conditions all of the attorneys hammer out some model of the “fact” that everybody can reside with and that’s that. The UCI will get to say they meted out justice by banning him and he will get to say he by no means failed a drug check. Then they transfer on to policing brake lever angle, he will get to dine out on the tales, and everyone wins.

Lastly, with regards to fact, you might have heard a couple of comic, Kenny DeForest, who lately died after a motorcycle crash:

It’s trite and pointless to say that is unhappy and tragic, however after all it’s unhappy and tragic; I didn’t know who he was, which doesn’t imply something as a result of I don’t know who anyone is, however after seeing the story I began watching his particular. After a couple of minutes I forgot I used to be watching the particular as a result of he had died and easily started to get pleasure from it, and I’d wish to suppose as a comic he would take a form of wry satisfaction in that.

I’m typically disinclined to handle these types of issues as of late–particularly on a Friday–however I can’t assist it, due to course when one thing like this occurs everybody needs to cross judgement and advance their agenda earlier than they even know what occurred:

And everyone will get offended:

And indignant:

However the mainstream media is giving it loads of consideration–definitely greater than it’s given to the 27 different victims this yr:

And in case you learn that mainstream media protection you’ll study the one that organized the GoFundMe marketing campaign for the sufferer says it was not a success and run in any case and the NYPD was not even referred to as to the scene:

This doesn’t imply drivers aren’t horrible, and given how horrible they’re it additionally doesn’t imply a hit-and-run is totally out of the query, because it might have been so swift that no one even noticed it. Nonetheless, it’s additionally attainable there wasn’t even a driver concerned in any respect. It looks as if the particular person with probably the most info at this level is the one that’s making the assertion, and he’s nonetheless attempting to study what occurred himself, so the one factor the remainder of us can say at this level is we don’t fucking know.

However that is 2023, and it’s merely unacceptable to exist in a state of not figuring out. As a substitute, it’s essential to immediately cross judgment and apportion blame. Each dying is a choose-your-own-adventure of self-righteousness. So what’ll or not it’s?

• Blame drivers
• Blame ebikes
• We’d like extra bike lanes
• Folks shouldn’t trip bikes in New York Metropolis
• Put on a helmet!!!

Go forward, take your decide. Till the details are available in it’s a complete free-for-all, and even after they do are available in it received’t matter anyway, as a result of the headlines may have already been written. (Streetsblog nonetheless stays he was “killed by driver” although that now appears to be in query.) I suppose that is why most cultures historically take time to mourn when somebody dies. It offer you time to mirror.

Sadly reflection is incompatible with trendy discourse.