Stark Raving...Cyclists?

Most of us who do endurance sports are considered crazy. Either by those outside of our "craziness" or by one another.

Sometimes, we love our idiosyncrasies so much, it drives us to do some very interesting things.

In 2006, when I was still living in Mexico City, I was sitting around in my apartment when someone texted me: it was my good friend, Miriam, a reporter for a local magazine. She told me to come quick to the Zocalo, the large central plaza of Mexico City and from where I lived only a scare two blocks away, because she was covering a cyclists "march". Protesting the scant traffic laws that protected the common biker, the local bike club, Cleto Sapiens, decided to do a protest march in the nude.  

Here are some of the images:

 The thing I love about this image is that the woman on the left looks really comfy in just her undies.

The moto-reporter, on the other hand, looks like he/she should be roasting.

All that skin on the left and absolutely no skin on the right.

The guy's back reads:
"El coche te mata, la bici te rescata."

"A car can kill you, a bike can save you."

 A reporter had just asked this woman a question and they ended up filming a short segment for a national tv station.

 This guy's sign reads:

"Respeto al ciclista.
Muevete en tu bici.
No contamines.
'Exonerate'
Cleto Sapiens"

"Respect for the cyclist.
Move around on your bike.
Don't pollute.
'Exonerate yourself.'
Cleto Sapiens"

There is a contemporary figure in Mexican culture named Subcomandante Marcos. He is a mysterious figure, intelligent, well-read, university educated, who was the voice of the indigenous of Chiapas when he started a movement unlike any other in the history of Mexico, in 1994. He is well known to smoke a pipe and always wear a ski mask to hide his identity, as did all those who followed the movement, known popularly as the Zapatistas.

This cyclist was wearing combat boots, a backpack, a ski mask and a cap, with a pipe in his mouth.

He had posed for this photo with one of the many groups of Aztec dancers that can be found in the plaza.

All I have to say is that sometimes, reality far outweighs anything that you can cook up in your imagination.