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Alleycat: the birth of bicycle
messenger racing:
An underground, not totally legal, small (anywhere from 25 to 100 racers)
mostly local race, commonly run in live traffic with little or no publicity.
These races are said to have begun in Toronto in the mid 1980's, and now
take place in virtually every city that has bike messengers. Racers usually
have several checkpoints that they have to visit around the city, frequently
deciding their own order. Alleycat checkpoints have included bike tosses
where competitors must throw a bike for distance and dominatrix checkpoints
where racers get whipped. These are fun, creative races, mostly designed
to end in a great party.
Cycle Messenger World
Championships (CMWC)
The big one started in Berlin in 1993 and is held annually at the end
of the summer. Close to one-tenth of the bicycle messengers in the world
come to this event. It is a fully legitimate event, taking place over 3
days of racing on closed streets with constructed checkpoints. The course
is set up like a mini-city and requires racers to complete many of the
tasks they perform daily such as carrying boxes and locking up their bike
and riding through mud and over rail road tracks. We expect close to 1000
bike messengers to compete this year in Washington DC, all for the glory
of being named the world's fastest bike messenger.
The Human Powered Rollercoaster.
(HPR)
A wooden figure-8 velodrome style bike track. This monster was created
by Johnny Jetfuel and first built in Vancouver in 1996. It is rebuilt twice
a year in Toronto and Vancouver. Approximately 150 bike messengers travel
from all over the world to try their wheels on the HPR. Many crash on its
steep sloping turns.