Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Crashing, from the NY Times

Focusing on Jens Voigt, this timely piece published a day after a crash-ridden rainy Tour of California stage, is well worth reading. The writer, I feel sure, confuses kilometers per hour with miles per hour, suggesting that bicycle racers reach 70 on descents. Seventy's fast, huh?

1 comment:

James Thurber said...

Welcome to the world of misleading, bad reporting. 70 km's is nothing compared to 110 km per hour (which relates to approximately 70 mph).

People get hurt crashing at 10 mph, too. Do those accidents make the paper? Nope, they're not "spectacular" enough.

It helps that, when you speak to reporters, that you NEVER, ever tell the truth. "Yes Sir," said the biker who had crashed on Old La Honda Road. "I had been going up the hill at my regular pace of approximately 40 mph when I slipped on a banana slug and WHAM . . . down I went."

And those idiots would print it!