Video: Tales of Adventure in Cuba with Hans Rey - Visual Podcast Ep.8

 Hey man - i would never in a million years guessed people thought of Fidel Castro / Che Guevara that way - thanks for writing this!

 It was barely 3 days ago that PB said they weren't ok with the status quo and now they're posting photos of communist butchers. I guess we know where they stand.

 As noted from the other editorial, pointing out anything other than #blacklivesmatter is just thinly veiled racism. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

 My good friend (in my wedding as a groomsman, MTB'er and gay) is Cuban, his family escaped the regime but lost a few of their family members to Castro. Che would have jailed or possibly killed him just for being gay.
Most Cuban people are fantastic, kind and welcoming. I would like to see Cuba one day. That said, F*ck Castro and F*ck Che. Ride on and rubber side down folks!

 You seem to not understand how armed revolutions work, which is really weird considering your history. I would suggest you inform yourself on the Cuban revolution. Things like what lead to it happening, and what changed after it. It would make you think twice before spreading misinformation online.

 Robbing Hans Rey's train to promote a hate agenda is low blow and disrespectful to our sport....erase...delete...
Being a Jamaica tour guide in season I can say that Cuba sent 100 nurses and as many doctors to help Jamaica get through this pandemic in March and the USA stopped the shipping of ventilators and ppe and has offered zero help as the USA stands alone and Jamaica falls further into collapse.

Hans you are the MOUNTAIN BIKE AMBASSADOR I have respected for 20+ YEARS trashing trails and ripping berms all over this amazing world. You have spread the idea of 2wheels1love like the champion you have been. respect.

Now downvote my Canadian ass.

 @madmon: Hans Rey is a fantastic human and I would bet 99% of Pinkbike members would agree. Not one statement above is 'promoting a hate agenda'. In fact, myself and @konrad1972 are speaking AGAINST a hateful regime. Your statement is hyperbole, misleading and false. What we are voicing is a dislike of an image of the brutal communist dictator Castro and his murderous (killing political dissenters, gays, etc. ) sidekick. I have 20+ close Cuba friends that would love to debate the merits of the Castro /Che regime with you if you like. NOTHING negative was mentioned regarding the Cuban people, those wonderful nurses you mention or promotion of hate. Nice attempt to flip the truth which can easily be seen in the comments.

I wish your 'Canadian ass' well and great trial rides.

 @bman33:

Orwellian language seems to be prevalent on PB these days. Apparently Calling a murderous regime murderous is hateful.

Hans pointed out in the video that the Cuban people were living under physical and electronic surveillance, the infrastructure was abysmal, and the people had seen no progress since the 50s.

For some reason Hans still gave a shout out to Che at the end of the video. I'm willing to give Hans a bit a pass because of how successfuly Che's image has been sold to the hip crowd, but that is exactly why we should be calling it out when we see it.

 @bman33: Have you ever heard of Fulgencio Batista and the situation in pre-revolutionary Cuba? Probably not. May have to do with the excellent american education system. Anyway, you can google it. History can be so exciting. HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!

 @koelschejung: 100% aware of Fulgencio Batista. I lived in South Florida for a few years and well tuned to Caribbean and Cuba details. In addition, I am a bit of a Western Civilization historian nerd and would gladly discuss Cuba or even Western European history with you. Batista's was a repulsive military dictator. That said, please let me know if somehow that negates Castro/Che's atrocities? Please let us know if you are excusing Castro /Che or are you just trying to to be contrarian.

 Dang - triggered much? .

There's multiple sides to all stories, and there are images of Che all over Cuba as well as on T shirts of Trustafarians everywhere. That is why it makes an immediately recognizable backdrop.

Che was a revolutionary and that tends to involve killing. Washington owned slaves and was a general in a revolution - if the Washington monument was a backdrop it would be as offensive?

I lived in Cuba during the 90s as a teen so I have my own perspective on it. The country was dysfunctional to a fault but I'm not convinced pre revolutionary Cuba was better (it seems to be much worse). I do think the US screwed Cuba over pre revolution and post revolution to make a point.


I keyed in more on the 26" wheels than anything in that image. Now those things are truly despicable.

 @dcreek: If many modern Americans lived around the time of the American Revolution they would probably think it was unnecessary and that revolution shouldn't mean violence.

 @Ajorda As a reminder, the majority of that violence was aimed at/came down upon the British Government, their troops and their supporters.

 lol, you should try actually listening to/watching the content of the podcast