shenanigans squared

today was the tour de fat in fort collins. the objective of this years event (besides having fun and celebrating life on two wheels) was to set the record for "worlds largest bicycle parade", as certified by the guiness book of world records. by all accounts it was pulled off. the un-official tally was 4800 people. which, if it holds, put the event well beyond the 1901+1 participants required to beat the previous record held by the city of taipei, taiwan, as a matter of discussion. anyway.

the tour de fat is an event that started in fort collins almost a decade ago and has spread elsewhere - perhaps some of you have partaken in other communities. sponsored by our very own new belgium brewery, it is one of the largest events to take place in the fort every year. pure celebration of bikes, crazies, beer, and the good life that that all adds up to. it really doesnt' get much better than that in my view.

all proceeds of the event stay in the community and every penny ends up supporting our grassroots bicycle advocacy organizations - $5 dollar suggested donation with the parade registration goes to the Friends of the Fort Collins Bicycle Plan and Program. the Diamond Peaks Mountain Bike Patrol gets all the proceeds from beer sales. and there is a lot of beer being sold.

for a town of only about 130,000 people, a lot of them sure like to ride bikes.

anyway, here are some pics i snapped in between sip's of fifteenfiftyfour, pedaling my cruiser, and trying to keep my clown shoes out of the front spokes. i love my community.

look for a follow up post from the local media and a press release from the guiness folks. uh-huh.

a little laura ingalls wilder action.

regrouping at the csu oval.

one of the many freak bikes. i was inspired to make one for next year.

a scary flying monkey, a la the wizard of oz.

c3po with r2d2 in tow. i snapped this for cvo.

crowd assembling for the departure from the brewery.

random folks.

more of the crowd.

my friend andrew, the evangelizing cyclist. the other side of the pennant read: "oil+cars+pollution, we can't keep it up".

more crowd assembling.

one of the funniest freaking costumes of the day. check out the chihuahua in the basket. and yes, thats a dude. awesome.

this tykes mom made him a little fascist. which was pretty funny actually.

those wheels all turn while riding. kind of cool.

david "dk" kemp, the father of tour de fat (conceived of this event when he was a new belgium employee) who is now employed as the city's bicycle coordinator. one of the best things i ever did working for the city of fort collins was to hire this guy. pure enthusiasm.

just thought i'd share this one. i don't know why.

red bull doesn't give you wings, beer does.

rick price (in the yellow) of bikefortcollins.org as well as his company, experience plus!