The FredCast Cycling Podcast - Bicycle Podcast for Endurance and Recreational Cyclists

As if yesterday’s story about the driver who laughed about killing a cyclist wasn’t enough, here’s today’s bit of unbelievable news: A Spanish driver is suing the family of a cyclist whom he hit and killed. To add insult to injury (literally), the driver said, “I’m also a victim in all of this, you can’t fix the lad’s problems, but you can fix mine.”

Lots of listeners sent me the same story today. It concerns Melissa Arrington, a woman convicted of negligent homicide in the death of cyclist Paul L’Ecuyer. In a jail house phone call, she can be heard laughing and joking about the death of the cyclist. As a result, she received a sentence of 10-1/2 years in jail. Good for the judge!

A video report of the story can be found here.

From listener Daniel, here is the response received to his complaints about the recent Matthew Parris article:

Dear Daniel

As you may know, the PCC received a large number of complaints about the Matthew Parris article about which you recently raised concerns.

The Commission has now assessed whether the article in question, headlined “What’s smug and deserves to be decapitated”, breached the terms of the Code of Practice (which can be seen on our website at www.pcc.org.uk). While it acknowledged the deep concerns that many readers had about the piece, the Commission’s decision was that there was no breach of the Code and a full explanation is enclosed. Please let me know if you would like further clarification of the reasons for the Commission’s decision.

Although the Commission has come to this view, we will be writing to the editor of the Times to let him know the scale of complaints we received about Mr Parris’ column.

If you are dissatisfied with the way in which your complaint has been handled – as opposed to the Commission’s decision itself – you should write within one month to the independent Charter Commissioner, whose details can be found on our website.

Thank you for taking this matter up with us.

Yours sincerely

Patrick Evenden
patrick.evenden@pcc.org.uk
Administration Manager

The full explanation mentioned above can be found here (Adobe Acrobat document).

So . . . what do you think?

Earlier today the Amgen Tour of California announced the teams that will be participating in this year’s event. The 650-mile, eight-day stage race, modeled after the Tour de France and considered to be the most important and popular race held on U.S. soil, will take the world’s top professional cycling teams from Palo Alto-Stanford University to Pasadena from February 17-24.

This year’s Tour of California teams are:

• Astana (LUX)
• Bissell Pro Cycling Team (USA)
• BMC Racing Team (USA)
• Bouygues Telecom (FRA)
• Crédit Agricole (FRA)
• Gerolsteiner (GER)
• Health Net Presented by Maxxis (USA)
• High Road Sports (GER)
• Jelly Belly Cycling Team (USA)
• Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast (USA)
• Quick Step (BEL)
• Rabobank Cycling Team (Netherlands)
• Rock Racing (USA)
• Saunier Duval-Scott (ESP)
• Team CSC (DEN)
• Team Slipstream Powered by Chipotle (USA)