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Er, a bunch of industry journalists, including Carlton Reid, editor of BikeBiz.com.
"I approached every website with caution on the morning of April 1st," said Reid.
"But then April 4th I got an email from a well-respected journo telling me he had it on good authority that SRAM was acquiring Mavic. He asked what I knew. Nothing, so I emailed SRAM, asking about the rumour. It just shows you what Chinese whispers and the internet can do. At least I didn’t write a story about the rumour, I check facts first.
"But I consider myself ‘fooled’ anyway. Drat!"
DirtRag’s April 1st article – since removed – featured a ‘yes, it’s true’ quote from SRAMÂ’s Michael Zellman.
Mavic is part of the adidas-Salomon stable of brands.
DirtRag’s second spoof has not been removed from its site. This story also quotes Zellman.
He was meant to have said: "I’ve always thought it would be best to buy out the competition,but to be honest, we can’t afford Fox. As for the competition, we’ll probably just wait until the Italian mafia kills off the Californians at Marzanitou’s next press launch.”
Marzanitou is DirtRag’s spoof on the combination of Manitou and Marzocchi into one easily pronouncable brand.
However, the mag forgot to register the spoof website address. Ever vigilent, Brant Richards of On One of the UK registered the name and visitors to www.marzanitou.com get redirected to the On One site.
http://www.dirtragmag.com/…/article.php?ID=680&category=features
