Let’s start with a report of man killed in an ebike crash in Camarillo around 2 am Saturday morning.
According to a paywalled story in the Ventura County Star, the victim appeared to have struck a tree, while riding without a helmet. However, there’s no word on whether the victim was riding a legal ped-assist bicycle, an electric motorcycle, or an illegal e-motorbike or dirt bike.
Any of which is equally tragic, but only the first would concern us here.
I’m hoping we’ll learn more today, so we may have more later.
Unfortunately, though, this will continue to be a problem until we can get law enforcement to stop lumping every two-wheeled device with an electric engine under the term ebike.
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Just call it murder.
The feds have become fond of the term “weaponization,” lately. As in “The suspect weaponized their vehicle” by driving at or near an agent.
However, a road raging Texas driver provided a textbook example by accelerating his vehicle in reverse to murder boxer Hannah Rapp as she was riding her bicycle in Brazos County Saturday morning.
According to Facebook post from the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office (below),
On Saturday, July 18, 2026, just before 10:00 a.m., deputies with the Brazos County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to the 23000 block of FM 159 in reference to a major crash involving a vehicle and a bicyclist.
Initial reports indicated that a vehicle had struck a bicyclist, leaving an adult female lying in the roadway. First responders arrived on scene and provided emergency medical care before the victim was transported to a local hospital. Despite lifesaving efforts, she later passed away at the hospital.
The victim has been identified as 26-year-old Hannah Rapp.
During the course of the investigation, investigators learned that the driver of the vehicle, identified as 31-year-old Charles Medina, had passed two bicyclists traveling along FM 159. After passing the bicyclists, Mr. Medina stopped his vehicle, reversed, and struck one of the cyclists.
At this time, investigators believe this was an isolated incident. The investigation remains active and ongoing as detectives continue to gather evidence and review all available information.
Charles Medina was arrested and charged with Manslaughter. He was transported to the Brazos County Detention Center without incident.
The Brazos County Sheriff’s Office extends its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Hannah Rapp during this difficult time.
According to NBC News,
Rapp’s boyfriend “threw his arms up and hollered towards the defendant,” Deputy Sheriff Mike Stumpf said in the statement. “The defendant slammed on his brakes and skidded to a stop before putting his vehicle into reverse.”
Medina then “rapidly accelerated in reverse and struck Rapp with his vehicle, knocking her backwards into the roadway,” Stumpf said.
Rapp’s boyfriend told an investigator that Medina had driven at a high rate of speed within about a foot of them, prompting him to throw his hands up and yell.
He said Rapp’s head struck the car’s rear window when Medina backed into her.
So Medina allegedly passed the two bicyclists at high speed, slammed on his brakes in front of them, then deliberately reverse into Rapp — again at high speed — killing her. And the best they can do is manslaughter, which carries a penalty of just 2 to 20 years? If he had stopped his car, got out with a gun and shot Rapp to death, it could be first degree murder; if he had fired from a moving vehicle, it would likely be second degree murder.
The former carries a penalty of 5 years to life, with the possibility of the death penalty, while the latter is also 2 to 20.
But either way, it would be murder, not manslaughter.
Maybe someone can make that make sense, because I sure as hell can’t.
On the other hand, Medina told investigators he just thought the bike riders were trying to flag him down, and the brakes on his Honda just happened to lock as he skidded to a stop. And he was only doing a mere 15 mph when he bumped into Rapp.
Uh, sure. Let’s go with that.
Never mind that the rear of his car showed significant damage, and there were skid marks from both where he stopped and burned rubber going backwards.
Rapp fought for the WBC women’s featherweight title just last month, losing to Tiara Brown in a unanimous decision. She was living in College Station, Texas, after moving there two years ago to begin her boxing career while working at Texas A&M University.
She was just 26.
According to a fundraising campaign to help pay funeral and medical expenses, she had been riding with her boyfriend and partner Will when she was murdered.
This is how Rapp’s family described her.
Hannah was resilient. She was brave and insightful, always pushing others to do their best. She loved her family so incredibly much, and moving from Indiana to Texas meant distance for her friends and family. Hannah was an inspiration. Even on her hardest days, she continued to bring love, laughter, and light into the lives of others.Thank you for helping us honor Hannah’s beautiful life. She will be deeply missed, forever loved, and never forgotten. As Hannah would say, “commit to the bit”, and sweet friend, we are committed to fighting for you.
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It looks like the driver who was towing surfing scion Kolby Kekoa Aipa when Aipa was killed last year will face charges, after all.
The 20-year old grandson of legendary surfboard shaper Ben Aipa of Aipa Surfboards, Kolby Aipa was skitching on his ebike, holding on to a truck driven by 21-year old Brandon Scott Soleau at speeds up to 50 mph last August when he fell off his bike on PCH in Huntington Beach, and was killed.
Soleau has been charged with vehicular manslaughter, which carries a penalty of up to six years behind bars.
He is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
An alleged Albuquerque DUI driver reportedly revved his engine and swerved across the roadway between two bike riders before slamming into the front rider, and gunning his engine to finish rolling over the victim, like he was “four-wheeling on top of him,” according to the other rider.
No bias here. Alberta, Canada has created a Bike Lane Portal asks residents to report any bike lanes that cause congestion, slow emergency responses, hurt a business, inconvenience a senior, or raise a safety concern, promising to put Albertans first. Which sounds very much like a promise from a certain American leader. And it’s not as is any Albertans ride bikes, or care if they get home safely.
A road-raging English driver was convicted in absentia for assaulting a bike rider, but has so-far gotten away with it because the cops can’t find him for sentencing.
Irish cycling legend Joe Barr, who just made headlines for completing a record-setting ride along the legendary Route 66, was assaulted while riding alone in his home country when someone dumped a bucket of water on him from a passing car.
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Local
CicLAvia held its 67th open streets event in Hollywood and West Hollywood yesterday after the route was shortened due to last week’s water main break on Sunset Blvd; we’ll have more on that tomorrow.
A Palos Verdes man is alive today thanks to a nearby neighbor and several police officers who performed CPR for several minutes after he had a heart attack, before paramedics arrived, and he was taken to the hospital.
State
Waymo says their driverless cars are safer, but San Francisco bicyclists just want them out of the bike lanes.
National
A new double-looped bike lock is designed to secure your entire bike at once.
Trump’s executive order to reduce Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments to about a tenth of their previous size could affect riders using a pair of popular trails, although it’s not clear if the president has legal authority to reduce National Monuments, and opponents say it runs afoul of the Property Clause of the The Constitution (Article IV, Section 3), which grants Congress, not the president, exclusive power to dispose of or reduce federal property.
A group of about 100 Wisconsin “nutters” meet annually to ride antique three-speed bikes along the Mississippi, with the only rule being no lycra in your clothes, no derailleurs on your bike. Although they appear to get there in much more modern automobiles.
Chicago Streetsblog says the bike crash deaths of transportation planners Riley O’Neil in Chicago and Louisa Gag in Boston should be a turning point for Safe Streets. “Should” being the operative term.
Two men now face charges in the Ohio hit-and-run that killed a man riding a bicycle last month; the 24-year old driver has been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicular manslaughter and failure to stop after an accident, while the 22-year old passenger in the truck has been charged with failing to report the crime.
A North Carolina cop is free on $2,500 bond after he was arrested for simple assault for pushing a bike rider off a moving bicycle on Friday, leaving the victim with minor injuries, including abrasions.
International
A 23-year old English man has completed a 39-day, 3,100-mile fundraising ride from Estadio Azteca in Mexico City to the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, completing the journey between the first kick of the World Cup and the final whistle of the championship game, raising money for a suicide prevention nonprofit en route.
An Irish advocacy group says there’s no need for performative lawmaking, when existing laws can deal with the problem of illegal ebike and e-scooter use.
Some of the UK’s greatest rugby players are riding 750 miles from Scotland to Dublin in four days to raise funds for motor neurone disease (MND) research. Although let’s hope they’ve got waterproof chain lube for the last leg.
Bike helmets are becoming more common in the Netherlands, where they had been virtually unheard of, driven by older riders and ebike users.
Competitive Cycling
Tadej Pogačar’s road to winning this year’s Tour de France got a lot easier Sunday after two-time champ Jonas Vingegaard, his main competitor for the title, crashed out of the race with a broken collarbone. It will also make my job easier, as I’ll now only have to worry about spelling “Evenepoel” correctly.
Remco Evenepoel outsprinted race leader Tadej Pogačar to win a mountainous stage 15 at the top of Plateau de Solaison on Sunday; Pogačar now holds a five-minute lead over Evenepoel, with Mexico’s Isaac Del Toro nearly a minute back in third.
Pogačar may hail from Slovenia, but his wheels come from Utah.
Bike Radar names the top ten all-time Tour de France champs without even naming America’s seven-time ex-Tour de France champ. Because as we all know, He Who Must Not Be Named never officially existed. And apparently, neither did Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali.
More tragic news, as Japanese former Olympic silver medalist Toshiaki Fushimi was killed Saturday while racing in a keirin tournament in Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture, when he crashed into a safety barrier trying to avoid a crash ahead of him, suffering skull and neck fractures; the two-time KEIRIN Grand Prix champ was 50 years old.
An Indian website traces the rise of Harshveer Singh Sekhon from competing on borrowed bicycle to becoming India’s highest-ranked track cyclist, with ambitions for LA28.
That feeling when your Chicago stage race is delayed by the smoke from a distant fire. Or rather, a hundred or so fires.
L39ION of Los Angeles cyclist Jim Brown won the 90 minute Men’s Pro race in the recent Manhattan Beach Grand Prix, while Chloe Patrick won the 55-minute Women’s Pro riding for Caldera Medical.Aurea; the victories also came with titles as this year’s California State Criterium Champions.
Finally…
That feeling when you set a new world record for the most ebikes in a single ride. When you’re a convicted felon riding a Class 3 ebike with a loaded .357 Magnum revolver, live ammunition in a speed-loader, suspected fentanyl, and unprescribed Xanax pills, put a damn helmet on, already.
And barefoot-shaped pedals for riding, uh, barefoot.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
