Last weekend I went for a long training ride into the Santa Monica Mountains to not only get in some good hill climb miles, but escape the dirtiness of Los Angeles, the city I live in. On this ride I decided to go up Latigo as it is one of my favorites, as well as being a good nine mile slog.
One of the most annoying things with living in a big city like Los Angeles is all the trash just thrown on the streets. Walk down Robertson Blvd., just one block from my house and you would be amazed at the kind of litter that people threw out of their cars. Slurpee cups, fast food bags, used condoms, busted up cell phones, and even a used needle once.
So when I head to the hills I expect, and I am now demanding, that I get to escape the litter of the city. So on the ride mentioned above I was horrible let down. I hold us cyclists up to a higher standard than your beer drinking late night canyon racer type. Cyclists have no reason to litter, and I mean none.
So as I started to head up the Latigo climb I noticed a gel packet at the base of the climb. I stopped; I bent over, and picked it up and put it in my jersey pocket. No big deal, someone dropped it by accident I guessed. Once riding again I decided to see if that gel packet was a one off, or some kind of great cyclist screw up. Well, the latter turned out to be true.
I stopped twenty nine times to pick up a gel packet, twice for bar wrappers, and three times for CO2 cartridges. That is 34 pieces of trash that cyclists threw out onto the road and totally messed with my mind. I was completely pissed off. I mean I was PISSED OFF dam it. How in the hell can anyone just toss their trash onto my Santa Monica Mountain paradise?
I am sure that more screwed up in the brain bone heads have already started a new collection of discarded energy product packets and wrappers onto Latigo, and I can only hope that cycling karma kicks them to the asphalt and gives them really bad road rash they gets infected.
STOP TOSSING YOUR TRASH ONTO THE ROAD.
Your cycling jersey has those damned pockets for a reason. Want to know what they are for? So you can store your crap in them. And once you shove that crap into you pie hole, you can put the damned wrappers back in the pocket until you get home to throw it out. Got it? Then live it!
Even my 3 year old son knows not to litter.
4 Responses to “What Were You Thinking?”
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COMMENTS:4 Comments
POSTED BY:VeloGuy
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Agreed… I am also extremely irritated by this. If I witness someone tossing a wrapper, I usually make a big deal out of it, and ask them why they don’t just stick in their jersey and throw out later, etc.., and even suggest they go back and pick it up, but they usually ignore me. I don’t get it either. THat is pretty amazing you picked up 34 pieces of cycling trash on Latigo in one day. Very disturbing. I’m happy to put your post on the LaGrange website to make sure non of our club members are offenders…
Thanks for putting out the reminder to those of us who are not as thoughtful as they should be. It is gross and completely avoidable. We have jersey pockets so there is no excuse
In addition to all of the silliness the author and commenters have pointed out, we have to remember that cyclists, particularly gel-eating roadies in Malibu, have a bit of a PR problem here in LA. The danger to which we are exposed in traffic due to the clash of two- and four-wheeled cultures here is never acceptable, but drivers will continue to try to justify it using whatever ammunition we give them. Let’s not be the jerks.
I appreciate your observations and desire to do the right thing. We all need to take responsibilty for our actions. It is ashame that not enough people in this city, state, and country find the strength to do the right thing on a day to day basis. Thank goodness for people like you. In the future, may I also suggest you spell check and preread your text after you melow out following your rants. Best of love always and happy riding.