Photo Boise Weekly
“…….because when everybody’s weird, no one is“.
-from New Belgium’s fourth commandment of the Tour de Fat.
Before I start let me say that I have nothing against the idea of raising money for good, bike oriented non-profits. Boise Bike Project, South West Idaho Mountain Bike Association and Treasure Valley Cycling Alliance are fantastic organizations. I know the people involved in those groups and I have great respect for what they do.
But here are my questions:
If, as the New Belgium site says, this event is supposed to make the host cities better places to ride bicycles then how does the Tour de Fat promote the bicycle as a real, viable, mainstream form of transportation? How does this “ballyhoo of bikes and beer” get more people to consider riding a bike to work? How does a group comprised of a few thousand “freaks” on freaky bicycles, many of them in the wrong traffic lane, going the wrong way, on non-closed public roads, convince somebody driving a motor vehicle that they should share the road with bicyclers? Is there another more sort of inclusive type of event to promote cycling and raise money? Or am I just a cynical grouchy hermit?
