TheWashCycle: Rep. Eric Cantor says he regrets guilty plea in cycling incident

The following was an April Fool's Day post.

Eric Cantor, who has never been known to be a friend of cycling (or the truth) is involved in a bit of an embarrassing scandal thanks to Street Smarts increased enforcement.

Rep. Eric Cantor said Wednesday that he regretted his guilty plea in connection with a bicycle riding incident, and he accused a Virginia newspaper of hounding him about it.

“I do not bike; I never have biked,” Mr. Cantor, a Virginia Republican, said at a brief appearance outside the Capitol.

After walking slowly to the microphone, holding the hand of his wife, Diane, Mr. Cantor, 48, apologized for “the cloud placed over Virginia” by his ticketing and guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of riding a bike on the sidewalk.

His deepest regret, he said, is that he pleaded guilty when he had done nothing wrong.

The senator said he had chosen to plead guilty without consulting a lawyer and before telling his family, in the hope that the case would just “go away.”

“That was a mistake, and I deeply regret it,” he said.

The House leadership is deciding what to do in light of news that not only is one of their own secretly a cyclist, but apparently one of the scofflaw variety.

At his appearance here, Mr. Cantor said he and his family had been “relentlessly and viciously harassed” for months by The Virginia Statesman, a daily newspaper here.

The Statesman has been pursuing rumors about Mr. Cantor’s personal life. Rumors that he owns and wears several spandex outfits, that he occasionally partakes in night rides with strangers (so as not to draw attention), and that he has even dabbled in mountain biking.

"I do not know how to Bunny Hop," he proclaimed.

He said the stress created by the newspaper’s efforts “and the rumors it has fueled all around Virginia” had clouded his judgment.

He would not answer reporters’ questions, and he offered no detailed explanation for the events that began with a particularly nice weather day in Washington, DC.

According to the police report, first obtained by Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper that disclosed the episode and the guilty plea on Monday, the incident began with Mr. Cantor’s checking out a Capital Bikeshare bicycle. Records show he is a member.

Then, Mr. Cantor reportedly took off down Pennsylvania Avenue, riding back and forth in the bike lanes where he was reported to take up a great deal of space. "I have a wide stance", he said later. He was heard calling out "yeehaw" and "this is stimulus I can believe in" to other cyclists who passed by.

When he was turning, Mr. Cantor stuck out his left hand in a signal used by people wishing to engage in turning conduct, the report said.

Later Cantor was seen riding on the sidewalk downtown at high speed. This is when a police officer pulled him over and wrote him a ticket.

After his ticketing, the representative denied any fun intent. Requests for him to pull up his pants leg to look for grease, chainring tattoos or suspciously low tan lines were denied.

"I was just holding the bike for someone. It was all a misunderstanding. I do not use bike sharing."

Wow, that is quite a scandal and one we'll have to follow closely.