Washington Post discovers the joys of Seattle’s Colonnade Mountain Bike Skills Park, where they built trails under a freeway.

Colonnade run / Photo courtesy the MudBlog

We’ve said it before and, regrettably, will say it again: If you have to go, mountain biking is the best exit you can pick.

Former president Bush ran the country into the ground and for all his considerable authority did nothing for the sport of mountain biking, but we cannot quarrel with anyone being out on the trails.

A while back we interviewed the legendary Joe Breeze. EcoVelo talked to Joe as well, with a very different and enjoyable take.

Many thanks to Mark Davidson and the great folks at Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz for the new trail head sign at Wilder Ranch State Park, one of Santa Cruz’s prime singletrack retreats.

We were on the road and missed the Tour de Fat rolling through Seattle. Fortunately, BikeJuju was on the case.

Cascade Bicycle Club has issued its endorsements for Seattle’s Aug. 17 primary. It hardly seems possible, thinking back a year ago, that Cascade failed to endorse bike commuter and club supporter Mike McGinn — but hey, it all worked out.

Belated congratulations to Jonathan Maus and BikePortland.org on its fifth anniversary. Note comments queue.

Lance Armstrong is bringing stage racing back to Colorado (remember the Red Zinger Classic? The Coors Classic?) next year with the Quiznos Pro Challenge. Cycling Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, he of broken ribs fame, is 100 percent behind the idea.

Fresh off the best Tour de France showing by a Canadian in more than two decades, Ryder Hesjedal is a rock star in Canada! Everyone’s saying so.

Thoughtful piece from Michael Snyder at SeattleLikesBikes on Seattle’s Bicycle Master Plan. The city already is moving past the plan in many ways, and to the extent that it provides a blueprint for progress, it needs updating.

In our continuing poetic coverage of the aftermath of Gov. Bill Ritter’s bicycling accident, wherein he cracked 6 ribs and then cracked wise, the latest update is that the good guv returned to work after only a week of rehab.

Anyone who has had the distinct misfortune to suffer broken or even bruised ribs knows that the road ahead is paved with sharp jolts of excruciating pain. Although it is remarkable indeed that Gov. Ritter is back on task, there should be no congratulatory slaps on the back, vigorous shaking of hands or even an attempt at, er, rib-tickling humor.

Nevertheless we feel obliged to mark the occasion with another modest verse.

There once was a Governor Ritter
Who showed to the world he’s no quitter
Despite ribs wracked with pain
He is at work again
On Facebook, his blog, and @Twitter

There once was a cyclist Bill Ritter
Who could not have proved himself fitter
With ribs broke in half
He managed to laugh
At every joke and side-splitter

Get well soon Governor!

Wow. Who better to have testifying before legislators on bike safety than an Olympic gold medalist named Kristin Armstrong. Her observations about riding in Idaho are well-taken.

As we suspected, Gov. Bill Ritter is in worse shape than his well-intentioned aide made it out to be (i.e., laughing it up) after Ritter crashed while riding Tuesday. He’s expected to spend at least a fourth day in the hospital, and while we wish him a speedy recovery, we won’t be feeding him any one-liners.

Remember John Cook, the Fairfax County supervisor who observed that a bicycle is not a transportation device? Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling has countered with a detailed, reasoned, fact-laden response.

DrunkCyclist: Another rider mowed down by a garbage truck. What is it about garbage trucks and cyclists in Arizona? Remember the Flagstaff kid who got cut down last November?

Our guy Andy Schleck has kicked off his season a bit late due to a nagging knee injury. He said after racing his knee only began to twinge after about 160k. The good part is the 160k. The bad part: The pain came back at all. We wish Andy the best of luck and really want to see him rip it up in the Tour. But knee complaints seldom disappear entirely, and Andy can’t ride 100 percent until they do.

Yes he was wearing a helmet. Yes Lance the Man Himself tweeted the guv to get well soon.

But you can carry things a bit too far.

“He is joking and laughing,” spokesman Evan Dreyer said, according to the Denver Post.

Really? Laughing it up? On broken ribs?

Anyone who has had the distinct misfortune of breaking, or even bruising, just one rib, let alone a whole rack of ‘em, knows the piercing, the excruciating, the feel like I’m fixin’ to DIE pain that encases one’s entire body like King Kong squishing a grape when even the tiniest little chuckle begins to form somewhere in the depths of one’s diaphragm.

THIS SHIT HURTS! YOU CAN’T LAUGH WHEN YOUR RIBS ARE BROKEN!

I suppose it’s possible that ill Bill is so doped up on pain killers he can actually … well, laugh still seems like too strong a word. Or maybe they’ve got him under nitrous oxide and he really can’t help himself. Perhaps, too, he’s so giddy over the fact he’s still alive despite the crash that he’s just on some kind of silly self-flagellational high. Maybe when he laughs, it’s like Hannibal the Cannibal in “Silence of the Lambs.” It’s a quiet little stone-faced, motionless kind of laugh.

But we doubt all of the above. We think the gov’s aide is just winging it to let the breathless electorate know Ritter’s no quitter, and he’ll fight through any adversity to serve his adoring public.

Still, if we’d been interviewing the good Mr. Dreyer and he fed us that line, we would’ve sought a bit of clarification, if only out of respect to the many Americans who have suffered rib injuries in their sorry existences. We wish Gov. Ritter the best, but we won’t be telling him any knee-slappers any time soon.