[YellowBike] Bicycles of all sorts

[Dan M. Cooper]

Since the list has already recieved one misguided email from me I will send out
another one which I hope will be both clarifying and confounding.

As the sun settles and casts long shadows on our days making the time from dusk
till dawn feel like on intolerably long and relatively depressing sunset there
are people riding in the woods trying to stave off the winter months.  How ever
do they take on such a seemingly ubiquitous problem?  They ride their bikes
hard, sometimes harder, and sometimes to hard.  In order to find some kind of
athletic fraternas sometimes these desperate folk begin their rides by running
to their bike or setting out from start gates equipped with less than efficient
or accurate timing systems.  Yes, these people race bikes.

This weekend, our neighbor to the North will be hosting the Eastern Collegiate
Cycyling Conference races on campus at UMASS and at Jimminy Peak which is to
the east of us.  Racing this weekend will be a mix of people who have never
raced and people who never wanted to race but find themselves drawn to the
overthetopness that racing draws out of people.  This weekend several forms of
woods based riding will take place.  Dowhnhill racing and Dual slalom will take
place on the mountain and Cross Country and short track will presumably be at
UMASS.

Will is the only person on campus who I know who rides bikes in the woods. He is
the only avenue for me to connect with bicyclists who ride in the woods and so
it is to he that I wrote.  I would however, like to invite anyone who would
like to get out into the woods on a bicycle to the races this weekend.  A lot
of the people from the Alley Cats race and it is a good chance to meet kids who
ride bikes of all sorts from the colleges in the Northeast.  UVM and
Northeastern all show up and then there is Middlebury, Mt.Holyoke, and any
number of more or less depressed liberal arts colleges which represent.

At this point, I am expectin to go to the races in a recommisioned prison van
with a novelty horn.  I am working on getting body bags and meed which, for
those who don't know, are intricle to bicycle racing.  I imagine also reading
some incindiary literature before each race run.

I hope that anyone who is interested in racing or riding in the woods on a
bicycle of their own or one that is borrowed will be in touch with me.

-dan