Good news, New Yorkers! Your police department finally rid the city of serious crime this week (although most of the thanks should go to Spiderman, if the Broom Wagon knows anything about anything).

Having ticked off that item on their to-do list, the NYPD turned to less pressing matters and fined local man Casey Neistat for not riding his bike in a bike lane.

Neistat's penalty followed the NYPD's recent announcement that they were cracking down on traffic infringements by cyclists. This seems fairly reasonable when you put yourself in the mind of a driver or pedestrian and spend a few minutes watching this.

Neistat's offence, however, is hardly the sort to be striking terror into New York hearts. In fact, it's surprising to learn it actually is an offence. New York's traffic rules call on cyclists to use bike lanes "whenever a usable path or lane for bicycles has been provided ... except under any of the following situations:

(i) When preparing for a turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.
(ii) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, pushcarts, animals, surface hazards) that make it unsafe to continue within such bicycle path or lane."

Fines range from $10-130 and in Neistat's case it was $50.

Having failed to convince New York's finest to let him off, he then rode around the Big Apple, helpfully demonstrating why the bylaw possibly doesn't have cyclists' interests at heart.

It's very, very funny stuff. The vid is going viral to the point where Neistat is turning up on CBS, NBC and the New York Post, so it may even be the sort of thing that results in a change for the good. That, or a vicious slanging match between cyclists and non-cyclists in the YouTube comments field.

Who can say?



Vino: a day in the life

Having once been dragged by its art-loving better half to a gallery featuring nothing but 18th-century portraits of Flemish noblemen (and being disappointed not to find a single one resembling Tom Boonen), the Broom Wagon has learned that not all pictures are worth 1000 words.

Some are worth 10 or 15 words, tops. This is why, for every shot taken from a hairpin above the Colle delle Finestre or of a shirtless John Gadret, there are dozens of photos from the sports wire which never see the light of day.

For example, take a look at this week's series from the Critérium du Dauphiné on Alexander Vinokourov, and see if you can think of a single instance when an editor looking for a pic to accompany an article might think: 'That would be perfect!'.

Here is Vino at the Dauphiné, possibly having a Greg LeMond moment. Here is Vino eating a banana. Here is Vino locked in mental combat with his rain jacket. And here is Vino either contemplating a lost love or praying the banana kicks in, and soon.

Where's the beef?

Five Mexico football players have been withdrawn from the Concacaf Gold Cup in the United States after testing positive for clenbuterol.

That's not the news angle so far as we are concerned, although the Broom Wagon did enjoy the fact that clenbuterol is a weight loss agent and one of the players involved is Christian 'El Hobbit' Bermudez.

The point of interest for us is that the Mexican Football Federation immediately blamed the positives on ... not beef, but chicken.

"An investigation will be made with the food suppliers," said Decio De Maria, general secretary of the Mexican federation, and clearly a man who likes to make excuses first and look into the specifics later. "Everything points to it being an accident, very unfortunate."

Reckon we'll be hearing plenty more about this one before a certain court hearing in August?

Dispatches from the Twitterverse

At massage! Mr. Ryan Adams loud in the room! (I'm scared to be misunderstood! Ryan! Not Bryan) - @manuelquinziato

Got caught with me pants down today, fortunately my Team rocks and nothing was inserted into the hole of death - @bradwiggins

Insult to injury is sneezing while nursing freshly broken ribs. Oh my Lord, OWWW! - @iamtedking

Struggling to keep my fish alive in my Tropical fish tank tweeps , any tips??? -@allandavis27