Tuesday, February 19, 2013

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - How my fixie and I accidently ended up part of an organized bike ride

In full disguise and passing on the left.
One day back in November 2012, I packed up all my camera equipment, threw a loaf of vegan banana bread into the backpack with them, and jumped on "Kropotkin," my fixie that I use for everyday trips.

I was headed for the weekly Food Not Bombs Las Vegas picnic to share the banana bread with hungry people and I had the t-shirt to prove it. Plus, since it was winter at the time, I had a stuffed sheep on my head, and my fake "tattoo" sleeves to keep me warm as I roared down Boulder Hwy. toward Baker Park, where the picnic is held.

A funny thing happened on the way to the picnic, though.

Food Not Bombs Las Vegas takes the lead.

I began to pass other cyclists, even more so than I usually do. At first, it was one or two at a time then they started appearing in groups. It didn't take long before I noticed that most of them were wearing numbers on their back and it became obvious that I had inadvertently become part of an organized ride, namely the MS "Bike-a-thon."

The part that makes this even cooler than the simple fact that I accidentally stumbled into a bike ride is that, in spite of carrying at least 20 lbs. worth of camera equipment and food inside my backpack, wearing jeans and regular clothing, having a fake animal strapped to my head, and riding on a fixie uphill with 7 lbs worth of bike locks hanging off, i was actually doing pretty well.
All in all, I think I passed about twenty riders that were actually in the ride and I even have the pictures to prove it, thanks to one of the official photographers stopping to take pictures of the crazy looking guy with a fake lamb on his head. Which, I of course later tracked down on and included in this post.

So, the moral to this story is: always ride hard because you never know when you might suddenly find yourself in the middle of a race.
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BTW, speaking of organized bike rides, I'll be doing the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure ride to fund diabetes research. You can help me by donating towards my fundraising goal through this link: My Fundraising Donation Page. I thank you very much!

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