Pictures of Critical Mass, plus some mad respect.

Due to the weather and everybody doing their holiday travel thing, the crowd at yesterday's Critical Mass ride was a bit smaller than usual, but the ride was no less excellent. We had a good number of the usual riders there, plus several people who had made it out for their first time. I always love meeting people who haven't experienced a group ride before, it's great to see their reaction. We even had 3 riders who came all the way from Louisiana! 2 were from Baton Rouge, and one guy who was in town for Thanksgiving made the trip from Lafayette. All of them help organize their local rides, and wanted to experience the Austin scene while they were in town. Great to meet everybody, sorry if I don't remember all y'alls names but things can get fuzzy after a few lone stars.

Unfortunately, the ride wasn't entirely uneventful. We had a pretty hardcore crash rather early on, and a ticketing about half-way through. Boone managed to get snagged for running a red light on his tall-bike, but for both the crash and the ticketing the entire crew managed to stop or circle back around, sticking together. At the capital stop there was even a collection taken up for Boone, and about 2/3 of his ticket got covered. It was pretty excellent, way to look out for each other y'all.

Just like the title says, there are already pictures of the event. Of course they come from Dougmc, and of course there are a whole plethora of photos, as he's consistently delivered from every single bike event he's attended. Check 'em out:

http://cycling.frenzied.us/2008-11-28-Critical_mass/

If that's not enough for you he also has gobble wobble and the most recent full moon cruise pics posted in his main gallery. 3rd place win and he still had time to take some great shots, nice!

Even though Doug wasn't able to stick around and photograph it, the ride eventually ended up at an east side party and a keg was involved. I took off early but I heard the party kept rocking until 4am or so, long after the keg was floated. Damn, you guys are animals!

Speaking of being impressed by madness, I wanted to highlight a great (relatively new) contingent to the group rides, races, and local bike community in general: The Fuckin' A Rodeo! Oli, Mo, Boone, and the rest of the Rodeo have been hosting events, building up a pixie bike stable for tunnel racing, and representing on the tall bikes everywhere they can. I'd been missing our towering brethren from the rides and these guys have more than stepped in to fill the void. Hell, I've already talked to Boone and as soon as I can get off my ass I'm going to make 2 spare frames I have laying around into one real big one. They seem like they're putting together a good, multi-talented crew, and I can't wait to see what they do next.

Actually, I already know what they're doing next...

2 words: BAD ASS. See y'all tonight!