Bikey love fest

The Twilight Crit was a crazy success by my reckoning. It was really fun to watch the racers blast through downtown.

I really hope this is a tradion that can be maintained and grow with SpokeFest.

Check out Councilman Snyder.

Click for big. Yes that's a pink Elephant.

Those who don't know Jon or who may be cynical about the motivations of all politicians might assume Jon would only race in a crit as for the purposes of seeking publicity. They would be wrong.

To be clear: Jon is one of those guys that jumps into bike races because he truly thinks it's fun. He can't believe that I'm not out there and more people aren't out there. He's raced cross and he's done the Wednesday Night Mountain Bike Race a few times. He's for real. He goes out and kills himself and smiles the whole time. I totally admire Jon for that. Hank too -- same attitude and same smile. Those guys rule.

Another guy I admire is Scott Proost -- who won the Cat 4 race last night. He's just a focused tough bastard and I'm looking forward to watching him at cross this year when he starts in Cat 3. And buddy Scott McSpadden. Scott raced the Cat 4, came in 2nd, puked ("unloaded," as Mr. Main put it), then raced in the Masters category. Solid work. Well, liquid too.

Anyway it was frigging awesome to hang out with buddies and run into every bikey nerd I know in town.

Which brings me to a couple notifications that I need to put up here.

Kids Bike Races
Michael and Marla Emde put on a bunch of bikey events all year long. My favorite is cross -- they do that and it's a bunch of work.

They're partnering with a bunch of organizations to put on some free kids bike races this month:
-- Sunday Sept 16th at Shadle Park
-- Sunday Sept 30 at Mirabeau Park Meadows

More here.

Mount Spokane Trail Plan
There's a dedicated group of mountain bike folks doing a ton of work -- and doing it well by partnering with a bunch of other strategically connected groups -- to formalize a huge network of trails on Mount Spokane.

They need input. There's two reasons they really need it. The first is obvious: they want to make sure what they're proposing is useful to other mountain bikers. But the second, and perhaps more important reason is to illustrate to various standers-in-the-way, partners, money-holders, allies, and foes -- that there is a significant and broad base of interested trail users that want to see the network come to life.

Go here. Spend a few moments reviewing the plan, and then click the "one-page survey" link to tell them what you think. This is one of those low-hanging things you can do to make a difference. So do it!