Le Cirque du Cyclisme, 2013

I brought my daughter, Eileen, with me to Leesburg, Va., May 18, 19 & 20, for a get-together of fans on classic hand-made bicycles, and Keeper-of-the-Flame (KOF) new bikes. Le Cirque du Cyclisme http://www.cirqueducyclisme.com/ is associated with the Classic Rendezvous Website and Google group, http://www.classicrendezvous.com/ which was started by Dale Brown of Cycles de Oro in Greensboro, NC in 1999.
Le Cirque started in 1998 in Greensboro, and was moved to Leesburg in 2008, and I have attended each of the Leesburg events.
The bicycles are amazing. The mix of classic and KOF bikes reinforced my opinion about steel bicycles: The best handmade steel bicycles ever made are being made in the United States right now. Steven  Bilenky, Chris Bishop, Brian Chapman, Johnny Coast and others had new steel bikes.
But I go to Cirque for the people. I have some old friends that I only vaguely keep in touch with during the year, and I catch up with them. I meet some new people. I get in some bike riding and for the weekend, just live biking.
For me, the highlight of the weekend was at dinner Friday night. I had told a story to a few people, and then 10 or 11 of us were in a room of our own at a Cajun restaurant in historic downtown Leesburg. Dale Brown told the same story, longer, with much more detail, and none of the people who had heard my version interrupted him. A number of people chimed in afterward to say how hearing the same story from two sources confirmed the truth of it.
Here the story as I know it with Dale's detail added:
In the 1960's, Peter Rich, owner of Velo Sport Bicycles in Berkeley and a huge figure in US road racing, started to import Masi bicycles from Italy. Peter ordered some and got them in, then put in an order for more, pre-paying so he could get what he wanted, including some custom orders.
Peter waited months for those bikes, and whenever he called Masi, he got excuses. Finally, a woman who had ordered a Masi from Peter came in his shop on a new Masi.
"Where did you get that bike," Peter asked.
"From Masi in Italy," the woman said.
Peter then booked the next available flight to Italy.
When he landed, he went straight to Masi's store, where there were some pro riders hanging around. Peter took his list of paid-for bikes, found one of his on display. The pros all bolted when Peter picked up a hammer from a work bench, grabbed the bike and started beating the top tube.
"This is my bike, and I will do whatever I want with it," Peter said.
Masi was aghast and probably frightened, but got the message. The remaining bikes from Peter's order were packed under Peter's direction and then shipped to California. It was the last shipment of Masi's that Peter ever ordered.