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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Ha, ha, very funny ... NOT! Tacks flatten tires at RAGBRAI

Some slackers desperate for laughs decided it would be really hilarious to throw tacks on a country road near Nevada, Iowa.

Well, dozens -- if not hundreds -- of participants on RAGBRAI, the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, aren't laughing. And neither am I.

Scores of RAGBRAI bicyclists had to detour to repair trailers Wednesday morning after pranksters spread tacks across Story County Road E41 -- an old alignment of the historic Lincoln Highway -- outside Nevada, the Des Moines Register reported. Nevada is about eight miles east of Ames, the home of Iowa State University.

"We changed 100 easily, and we didn't even do them all," bike shop owner Tom Letsche told the Register while pointing to a pile of inner tubes next to his equipment van.

Officials eventually managed to clear the tacks, but not before cyclists spent hundreds of dollars to buy new tubes at $5 a pop. The Register story did not mention whether there were any suspects.

Here's links to Des Moines TV station's coverage of the flat tire debacle:
Story
Video
Labels: Iowa, tours

Roger 2 comments 11:11 AM

Comments:

This sort of terrorism was once used on off road motorcyclists during organized events unpopular with various environmental groups. Barbed wire in dark tunnels was more extreme but both actions are beyond mere pranks.

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:38 PM

"cyclists spent hundreds of dollars to buy new tubes at $5 a pop" -- could whoever is selling the tubes be a suspect?

Seriously, though, I wonder if the same anti-terror laws used to charge pranksters who stopped traffic in Boston would also be used against whoever these Iowa bad boys are?

# posted by

Yokota Fritz : 6:29 PM