Silver Lake Cyclists Outrun Jet Blue Plane

Every Monday night the Wolfpack Hustle cyclists meet at Tang's Donuts at the mini-mall at Fountain and Sunset for a bike ride.

The rides take them through Los Angeles back streets and big roads at hours when their 30 to 50 mile a night pace is easily maintained.

On Saturday the most elite of those riders faced off with a Jet Blue plane and came out the winner.

In an hour and 34 minutes, they travelled from an intersection near the Burbank Airport to the Lighthouse at Long Beach's Shoreline Aquatic Park.

The Jet Blue flight from Burbank to Long Beach was barely airborne.

The flight carried fellow cycle enthusiast Joe Anthony.

He had gotten Jet Blue to donate a seat on a $4 flight special it was offering to commemorate Carmageddon.

For much of the time the riders travelled along the Los Angeles River bikepath.

The event gained national attention--for its politics and the fact it was organized entirely through social media.

Nick Richert who hosts the local show Bike Talk on KillRadio.org had this to say about the event and its impact in an email:

"The Wolfpack is leading the way by proving what we know: bikes are the world's most efficient transportation. I think they got the world's attention with this race.

"This is the type of idea that would come out of the Wolfpack and the L.A. biking community--people like Roadblock [of Wolfpack Hustle], who founded the Midnight Ridazz with a bunch of friends and keeps going strong years later.

"I hope this is the start of races with MTA transit, cars at rush hour, Metrolink. We're thinking of having a Bike Bus, a group ride at rush hour that stops at pre-determined intersections at set times, that riders can join as if it were a bus."

Meantime, the 405 Closure continues, though the light traffic has some calling Carmageddon the next "Y2k."

Here's a link to North Hollywood-Toluca Lake's video piece about the race.

Here's a link to LAStreetsBlog's Twitter highlights of the race.