Mike Murray

Fortunately there were actually few flats. I believe only 6. Also

fortunately sabotage of this type is rare... I have only seen it 3 previous

times since I started bike racing almost 30 years ago. Once was at the Jack

Frost TT when it was held on a nearby road. Another time was at a criterium

in Eugene where there were several other actions done to make the road less

usable (oil poured on the road, road closure signs removed and concrete

"speed bumps" constructed). In the Eugene episode the number of flats was

huge and the police motorcycle that was driving pace was pulling tacks by

the handful out of his tires.



I don't think that there is really much that can be done about this sort of

thing. The people that do it rarely raise their heads enough to be

identified. They never make their objections, if they have any, known

through normal channels. After the Eugene episode I wrote a letter to the

editor of the Eugene newspaper. I received a response from a women who said

that too many roads were closed for running races in Eugene making it

difficult for her to drive to church and that somehow that justified the

acts of sabotage against a bicycle event. Go figure. I think that most of

the time The people that do this are just common vandals although it is

difficult to understand why they would go to so much work. It really is a

buyer's market for idiots.



Mike Murray



-----Original Message-----

From: sandy kenny [mailto:sasha-@aol.com]

Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2000 2:21 PM

To: ob-@topica.com

Subject: [OBRA Chat] District tt course, tacks, impressions?