The big news in cycling over the weekend was the end of the Tour de France. Other news is a personnel change at the Securities and Exchange Commission because of cycling.
Chris Froome and his Team Sky dominated the General Classification of the Tour de France. He finished more that four minutes ahead of his nearest rival. He took the yellow jersey and the initial time advantage in an unusual manner. He attacked at the top of a big climb while his rivals paused. He was gone before they realized what happened. In a later stage he gained more time in an unusual attack paired with Peter Sagan, the holder of the sprinters’ green jersey, and two teammates when crosswinds fractured the peloton. In the usual manner Froome gained time on his rivals in the time trials and held off their attacks in the mountains using his incredibly strong team.
For the SEC, the Chief Accountant, James V. Schnurr, was in a serious bicycle crash. Serious enough that the SEC appointed Wesley R. Bricker as the Interim Chief Accountant.
I was disappointed that the SEC chose to use the word “accident” in the press release. Accident applies that there was no fault and perhaps was not preventable. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a news story about the crash.
As someone who regularly bikes to work, I can tell you that there are few accidents. Of course there are cyclists breaking the law. (I still don’t understand why so many run red lights.) But a bike is going to little damage if it crashes into a car. A car will do tremendous damage if it crashes into a cyclist.
I see many, many distracted drivers while on my bike commute: watching videos, texting, emailing, facebooking, catching pokemons. They seem oblivious that they are directing 3000 pounds of metal with potentially deadly force.
It’s not an “accident” when the driver has chosen to be distracted. “I didn’t see him,” is more often because the driver chose to pay attention to some other distraction instead of the other cars, cyclists and pedestrians in and around the roadway.
I hope you are not one of those distracted drivers.
On a happy note, this is one of the great watercolors by Greig Leach for sale at The Art of Cycling. This one captures the battle of sprinters at the end of stage 3. But you’ll have to pick one of the other watercolors because this one is in my living room.
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