Robert Mackey

As described in his new york times column (http://theclimb.blogs.nytimes.com/), “Rob Mackey is a 41-year-old Web journalist and novice cyclist, who signed up to ride L'Etape du Tour, the single stage of the Tour de France open to amateurs, before he really thought it through.” El Snoberino blogged about said attempt, lamenting about the lack of due-paying by Mr. Mackey. See: http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2008/06/its-not-about-riding-cycling-blogging.html, among others. Basically, Mackey, like hipster fixters who decided one day to take up fixed gear riding, or bankers who drop thousands on top of the line bikes and coaching, represent the desire of certain people to get to the results without really having to go through a painful learning curve. Like the asshole who drives down the clear turn lane and cuts you off at the end of it in order to continue going straight without having to wait in line like everybody else. Or the person who refers to this blog instead of reading all past BSNYC posts.

I believe (and I may be wrong, as usual) that Snobby’s disapproval is not directed specifically at Mr. Mackey (he has said many times that as long as people are riding they’re ok), but rather uses Mackey as an example of a disturbing social trend. The man has turned into a symbol. He lives on forever in our insults of snob noobs.

SNOB NOOB