BIKE: following the law, a cautionary tale

[Jeff Thorne]

http://www.procycling.com/news_main.asp?newsId=5222

Bells equals hell for Petacchi's pilot 

 In years to come it will make a fine quiz question: Which professional
cyclist was fined, not for refusal to wear a helmet, not for getting caught on
a speed camera, not for non-regulation bib shorts – but for failure to fit
his race bike with a …safety bell? For once the answer is not serial
non-conformist Mario Cipollini. 

Until the first week of April Fassa Bortolo‘s Guido Trenti was looking
forward to confirming his status as provider of peloton’s best escort
service to top sprinters at the Giro d'Italia. Trenti is in fact best known as
the last man in Alessandro Petacchi's sprint "train". Fate, though, was about
to intervene in the unlikely form of a Renault Espace: training in Asolo, near
his home in north-east Italy, the 31-year-old Trenti collided with the vehicle
and saw all hopes of chaperoning Petacchi to Giro glory end in an emergency
ward along with fractures to his pelvis, jaw, tibia and elbow. For days after
the accident it was not only Trenti’s season which looked in jeopardy, but
perhaps also his career. 

But the punchline was about to arrive. And it was the ultimate in poor taste
and poor timing. Arriving on the scene, local traffic policemen inspected
Trenti’s mangled Pinarello bike and shook their heads disapprovingly. No
bell. That’ll be 39 euros, 'per favore'. 

"I can’t complain," Trenti, whose wired jaw made him unable to speak until
two days ago, reflected. "I looked up the Italian traffic laws on the internet
and they were perfectly entitled to fine me. The problem is that road bikes in
Italy don’t tend to come with bells…"