Last Saturday here in Portland was great - cool upper 60's and warming - perfect morning for a hard training ride - 65miles and 6k+ vertical with a few of the usual group of 'the Kids'. Got out on Skyline to the west and raced up and down enough of the regular climbs to deserve the post-ride-pint(s). So the plan was to head over to Amnesia Brewing on Mississippi Street; it could also double as a staging area for photographing happenings at the annual Cirque du Cycling bike street fair and crit.
We were just settling into the second pint when Chris bursts out "Ger, get out there!" I swiveled from my pint of Desolation IPA to a street full of naked people - ON BIKES! Awesome (I thought). I bolted into the street with camera in hand. Cirque du Cycling just lived up to the city's credo "Keep Portland Weird", or at least in this case barely weird. I love this city for it's version of 'normalcy' and it's embrace of most things, especially the bike. And nakedness, I'm cool with that too, until one of the participants rose, with exuberance from the saddle and... ya, not such a pretty sight.
That's when I decided naked and cycling are two things that just don't work together. Listen I know there are those, NCs and non, who might disagree, in fact my good friend Joni just yesterday thought it was worth giving a go (she's a newbie rider) at which Heidi (she's not a newbie - check out her site The Everyday Athlete) and I adamantly disagreed. We also thought naked bike riding was maybe not a great subject for Heidi's Oregonian column - why encourage this - maybe not a great idea!
PS - the rest of the CdC was very cool - check out the slide show for a few images
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