It's not often that politics and one of my other big hobbies, cycling, intersect. But they just did in Colorado.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are "converting Denver into a United Nations community." "This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed," Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial. Maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor's efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. Now he realizes "that's exactly the attitude they want you to have." "This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms," Maes said. He added: "These aren't just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor. These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to."

Maes may be a new name for you. He's a Sharron Angle-style teabagger running for governor. He had staked out the fringes, ignored, until establishment choice and former Rep. Scott McInnis imploded thanks to a plagiarism scandal. Suddenly, this kook is leading in the polls and has a pretty good chance of getting the GOP nod.

SUSA gives Hickenlooper a 22-point lead over Maes, while even Rasmussen can't spin this one away, giving the Denver mayor a 15-point lead over the Republican (McInnis doesn't fare any better). What was originally a top GOP pickup opportunity is now looking like an increasingly safe hold for Democrats.

But beyond the horserace aspect, Maes gives us yet another window into the psyche of the teabagger, one in which being environmentally responsible is suspect, in which the United Nations is code word for communist. It's a world in which "liberty" apparently means dealing with congestion-choked streets, noxious air quality, and unhealthy living.

We know this crowd hates brown people, non-Christians, single women, Hollywood, San Francisco, Massachusetts, gays, immigrants, New York, Chicago, anyone born in Hawaii, Muslims, urbanites, liberals, environmentalists, anyone who wears birkenstocks or drinks lattes, and any country outside of the United States.

I guess you can add cyclists to the list.