Mayor opposes nude cycling race on safety grounds
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The mayor of a New Zealand town wants a nude cycling race to be called off because the participants won’t be wearing helmets.
From the “Dude…WTF??” department comes this tale of a small-town mayor determined to protect his domain from the scourge of…wait for it…helmetless cyclists. ‘Course, the fact that these cyclists aren’t wearing ANYTHING would seem to make the no helmet issue a moot point…or so one might think.
Mayor John Hurley of the Tasman District said police would look like “fools” if they allowed the race to go on for the third straight year, despite the objections of local residents….
Hurley said police should enforce laws that require all cyclists to wear safety helmets.
“They have ridden bikes in the past down the road with no crash helmets, no nothing on, and people say that’s a double standard,” he said.
So what if local residents object? If cyclists want to race in their birthday suits and there are no laws against such behavior, who cares what the locals think? I’m not certain that I understand where the “double standard” comes into play, but there will always be folks afraid of living a little. Personally, I think the worst thing that Hurley has done is to provide the nude cylists with their 15 minutes of fame. Now he’s got a worldwide story on his hands, and he comes off looking like a narrow-minded fool. If the worst thing the good folks of the Tasman District have to worry about is nude cycling…well, life must be pretty good, eh?
Hey, is that a gear shift…or are you just glad to see me??