Firstly, you are looking at the new Brompton World Champion:
This is because I just registered for the race, which takes place on Sunday, June 18th, and obviously I'm going to win:
The Brompton World Championship returns to North America this summer, and it's coming to New York City!
The uniquely competitive and singularly sartorial event will be held during this year's Harlem Skycraper Cycling Classic.
The race will begin at 2:15 pm sharp. Donning their finest formalwear, competitors will take off with a Le Mans-style start, running, unfolding and mounting their Bromptons, before racing ten laps around Manhattan's Marcus Garvey Park.
The winner of this race (who will be me) is then flown to London for the finals, which of course I'll also win.
This means the BSNYC Gran Fondon't, which will be held on [DATE TBD], is now merely a training ride for my inevitable win...unless I decide to hold the Fondon't after the World Championship, in which case it will be a victory ride during which I can showcase my rainbow pant cuff retainer or whatever honorific vestments the reigning champion gets to wear.
And between now and race day I must contemplate the big question:
Flat pedals or clipless on the Brommie?
It's not a question of performance, mind you, it's just that the former will allow me to wear my Vittoria shoes, which they sent me way back in 2009:
And which I typically break out for special occasions, such as L'Eroica:
Now to figure out how to fit a Gruber Assist into a Brompon.
Secondly, turning to world bicycling news, this happened:
PALERMO, Italy — A mafia boss was gunned down while riding his bicycle in Sicily on Monday, judicial sources said, in what appeared to have been the sort of mob killing that has become rarer in recent years as dangerous figures have been locked up.
Giuseppe Dainotti, 67, had served more than two decades in jail for murder and robbery, as a member of the Cosa Nostra mafia, before being released in 2014.
Investigators believe at least two hit men, probably on a motorbike, approached Dainetti and shot him in the neck, a few hundred meters from the scene of another mafia murder in 2014.
Living in New York it's not unusual to see these sorts of people in the wild, though the idea of one of them riding a bicycle is almost unthinkable. Naturally my first thought was "So what kind of bike was it?" I mean was he cruising around down, or was he off on a full-blown Lycra-clad Fredo ride? Of course consulting a popular search engine quickly yielded an answer:
I guess if you're a Sicilian mob boss your choice of transport is a tough call. Motor vehicles might hide you from view, but are susceptible to car bombs:
Whereas bicycles are harder to sabotage yet leave the rider vulnerable to point-blank shootings, as was the case here.
Still, two things are certain: 1) Had the mob boss been wearing a helmet this wouldn't have happened, since nothing bad happens to people who wear helmets; 2) The mafia in America should take to riding bicycles, since then they'd be free to kill each other on a daily basis without law enforcement so much as lifting a finger to investigate.
And finally, there's a City Council candidate in Brooklyn who basically wants to legalize parking in bike lanes, and you can read all about it in the Bike Forecast:
Wow, what a putz.
Okay, now time for some Brompton training. See you tomorrow.
Love,
--Wildcat Rock Machine
from Bike Snob NYC http://ift.tt/2qfQCcI
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