On this date (April Fool’s Day) in 2007, the Cycling News website posted a story stating that Dubai had bought the rights to the Prologue of the 2009 Tour de France.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dubai-to-host-uphill-le-tour-prologue-in-2009-1/
And I bought it.
In my defense, this happened shortly after another city in the UAE, Abu Dhabi, had bought the first annex to the Louvre Museum that was outside of France, and the whole of the UAE was making noise like they were investing for a future when they no longer would have plenty of oil to sell.
That catch was that, beyond the physical implications of racing in 120°F/49°C heat, Dubai is far too hot for bicycle racing in July because the heat of the roadway would melt the glue used to mount the tubular tires, so their idea was to stage the Prologue in the climate-controlled comfort of Mall of the Emirates.
The Mall of the Emirates’ greatest claim to fame is that it houses the world’s largest indoor snow skiing slope. And the mall itself is quite large, the ground floor’s ‘promenade’ being 3.3 km around. So the story claimed they were going to ‘melt’ the ski slope and the race would take one lap of the promenade, then race UP the (dry) ski slope, a total length of 4.2 km with an elevation change of 85 meters. A bit short, as prologues often are, but the final 600 meters was to be a quite challenging winding 600 meters with an average slope of 14%.
The thing is, I had been to the Mall of the Emirates. I knew the place was gi-normous enough to make a prologue plausible. And I knew Abu Dhabi already had cajoled the French into turning loose of some of their most cherished art. So how hard could it be to bribe the ASO into letting Dubai ‘buy’ a TdF prologue. Conveniently forgetting about what the date was, and the implication of the 7 hour transfer from Dubai back to France, much less whether a bicycle tire could hold traction in the corners on a polished marble floor.
So I swallowed the story hook, line, and sinker.
At least until later in the day when I saw someone get April Fools pranked and realized what day it was.
I have destroyed too many helmets in shunts to be comfortable riding without one, however, I have seen one study concluding the net health effects of mandatory helmets is negative because it discourages more people from riding than the riders it waves from injury.
There's a law in my state that kids 14 and under have to wear a helmet, but there seems to be absolutely no effort made to enforce it.