Mar
16
“F L” at the National Bike Summit?
By Rich Kelly, Filed Under Advocacy, Cycling, Industry News, Interbike, Racing
Just a few quick comments and notes about this year’s National Bike Summit which is wrapping up in Washington, DC. By all accounts, it seems to have been another successful effort for the cycling community and a great experience for all in attendance. I know I’ve said this before, but the Summit really is an awesome event to attend on a personal level. You really feel like you’re on the front lines of the advocacy effort and helping to move things forward. Congratulations to the League of American Bicyclists and all of the other advocacy groups and individuals who work so hard on our behalf. I also want to send a shout out to all our bike industry brothers and sisters who made the trek to DC to lend their weight to the cause. For those that couldn’t make it, keep it in mind when you’re preparing your 2008 budgets!
I’ve been enjoying following the Summit proceedings from afar through the words and lens of Jonathan Maus of BikePortland.org. He’s had some great coverage and photos of his first trip to the Summit. Check it out to see what you’ve been missing (and to learn what a ‘Tikit’ is). Nice work, Jonathan!
While I couldn’t make it to DC this year, Interbike sent two able-bodied representatives in Lance, IB’s show director, and Andria, IB’s sales manager. Lance is an old pro (figuratively, of course) at the bike advocacy game and this was Andria’s first time. Unfortunately, all the great intentions they had were dashed as Lance’s flu that he’s been battling for a few weeks now came back with a vengeance. After valiantly trying to be present at the proceedings, it got more and more difficult and he had to take an early flight back and miss a good chunk of the Summit activities.
Earlier this week, while looking for Summit news, I checked out the attendee list at the League’s website. While looking through the names, I noticed two or three people from the “Floyd Fairness Fund”. While I have my own opinions about Floyd, I thought it curious that this group would be participating in one of the premier advocacy events. What were their motives and intentions? Then I noticed another interesting entry in the attendee list sandwiched between advocates from the East Coast Greenway Alliance and Williamsburg Area Bicyclists:
Now who do you suppose “F L” could be? Very stealth, with no group affiliation or hometown listed. My suspicions were confirmed when I heard that, yes indeed, Mr. Floyd Landis was in attendance in DC. I guess he gave a presentation and answered questions of the Summit participants. I don’t have any details yet of what he spoke about. I’ll have to get the scoop from Lance when he’s feeling better and back in the office. I’m sure Tim Jackson will have a thing or two to offer on this since he was in DC this week.
That’s all for now.
Comments
2 Responses to ““F L” at the National Bike Summit?”
Regarding FL from an email I received from a friend at the Bike Summit:
“One highlight from today was Floyd Landis’ surprise appearance during lunch. He has a lot of charisma and a good sense of humor. Floyd spoke of his childhood memories of his first bike and about dodging horse and wagon as he rode everywhere. He said that for him as a youngster, riding his bike was more fun than fishing (with apologies made to Kozo Shimano who was in the audience.) Shimano is a manufacturer of both bicycle components and fishing reels. Floyd received a standing ovation.”
Too bad about Lance — I’m home sick with something flu-like too, and the weather outside is absolutely gorgeous.
Jonathan’s doing an outstanding job reporting on the Bike Summit.
[...] Well, I got the bug to race again, recently, and went to the USA Cycling website and entered my info. To my shock, they still had all my info in there. Even had the last four [pitiful - all double digit placings, while Julie was busy winning points for her upgrade to cat 2] results from my earlier career. I updated my info and signed up for email race alerts. You can even print out a temporary license on the spot and race the next day. You gotta love the web. I remember frequently paying for rush shipping to get my new license back in time to race the first Spring races. A recent USAC (I still want to call it USCF, don’t you?) email of upcoming races in my area listed a race in Dana Point about a ten-minute ride from our office. I checked out the website for the Dana Point Grand Prix for info and saw an interesting tid-bit buried near the bottom of the race flyer. Sort of like the stealth Landis appearance at the National Bike Summit a few months back. Check out the flyer that I highlighted here. [...]