...and here are the dissenting opinions.

Looks like not everyone loved what happened at last week's Critical Mass ride.

One of my racing co-workers clued me into this one. First and foremost have been the dissenting opinions of the ladies and gentlemen over at the TXBRA forums (local roadie/racer forum). They can be a bit of a headache to navigate (or to find the thread at all) but just change the number of displayed threads to 100 or so, and then scroll down until you see "Austin critical mass on I-35 upper deck" which was posted September 29th. The original post pretty much sets the tone for the majority of the responses:

http://www.vimeo.com/1835832

Hey a-holes, thanks for screwing up any legitimacy that cyclists may have had in Austin. Yeah you look real cool in your knickers and black rim glasses on your fixies, you're really gonna change the world.

In fact, you're just a bunch of loser attention wh0res and you're screwing things up for riders who have to get out in traffic every day and deal with the repercussions of you a-holes pissing off the motorists.

Cut it out, jacktards.

Another winner was this simple and succinct gem from someone who (I assume) rides a bike:

I don't cry when these riders get hit.

Of course I had to respond to that. I mean how could I not, flustered cyclists trying to be SERIOUS BUSINESS are just so adorable!

The second source of dissent has been from one of our local commuter cyclists/ATXBS posters, Joe D. He voiced his opinion over at the Livejournal Austin Community. He presents a much more reasoned argument for the problems inherent (according to him) in the way Critical Mass operates in general, and the issue of the interstate ride in particular. Of course the responses to him are all over the map, but I would expect nothing less from the Austin LJ community.

Thanks y'all, keep 'em coming!