Photo Courtesy of stromtrooper.com

Jefferson County Colorado is not the best place to be going for a bike ride these days. Several foreign objects, such as box cutters, broken glass, utility blades, and tacks, to name a few, have been routinely showing up on the County’s bike paths of late.

According to the local sheriff’s office, these prankster items are being put on bike trails, purposely, and the law enforcement officials have been unable to stop it. And it’s not just the bike paths, its roads popular with road cyclists too.

One might ponder what someone has against bicyclists, bike paths, and anything to do with biking in general? No one really can say for sure in Jefferson County. However, what they are sure of is countless riders have been blowing out tires for over a year, and somebody out there is doing all of this on purpose. Reports have specified that these foreign objects have been “strategically placed” in places where biking is popular, and that it is in no way random that so many incidents have been happening.

Tim Allen of Golden Bikes, a local County shop, was quoted as saying, “Every Sunday morning we open at 9 o’clock and we’ve had half a dozen people waiting outside our front door with flat tires.”

Mark Ruda is a local rider. He shared, “I didn’t realize it until I stopped and I was looking at my bike and I noticed a little silver thing.” Mark ran over several tacks while riding in the area last year, figured it was just bad luck, until he looked more closely at his bike and the surface he was riding.

Jefferson County is a popular spot for bicyclists in general, but on August 28th the USA Pro Cycling Challenge will be rolling through Golden. Based on what’s been happening in the County, many are obviously concerned. Some are downright frightened.

One cyclist who spoke on that matter shared, “For the cyclists at the Cycling Challenge, I mean those guys are going to be doing 30 to 35 mph in a big pack and their wheels are going to be inches from each other. So if somebody gets a tack in their tire, you can take down dozens of guys with one crash.”

The word in Jefferson County is a watchful eye will be out to ensure the road is in proper shape for the race, which is set to take place in ten days. According to local officials, if the perpetrators of this violence against bikers are found, charges ranging from assault, if someone got tossed from their bike due to the obstruction, to obstruction of a road would be filed.

Maybe they should just race in Tahoe instead? Sounds like we’re way more bike friendly than Jefferson County anyway, not to mention WAAAY better skiers.

 

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