Hub Racing
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Chris Schmidt proved himself Washington DC's fastest bike messenger as he won his second straight DC St Valentines Day Alleycat completing the 14 checkpoints spread around the city in under 35 minutes, just seconds ahead of DC's Track Bike Messenger Champion Eric Roman. Third place was taken by Frank Peele, who rode a mountain bike, perhaps to prepare for the April 4th Mountain Bike Messenger Sprint Challenge. Laura Vogel demonstrated her consistency as one of the cities top messengers as she took first place honors for the women followed closely by her good friend Edra London.
All five of these racers represent the best of the hometown hopefuls in the 6th Annual Cycle Messenger World Championships, which will take place in Washington DC, September 4th-7th 1998.
Chris Schmidt, who as well as being an exceptionally fast bike messenger is also an up and coming traditional road racer, lead the race from the third checkpoint and by the 8th checkpoint, he never looked back. It wasn't an easy victory by any means, however, as the top ten riders all crossed the finish within 3 minutes of each other. Chris Schmidt won a trip to represent the DC Couriers in Toronto at the Human Powered Rollercoaster, a figure-8 bike messenger track. Other prizes were donated by Timbuk2 Designs, Swobo Clothing, local bike shop City Bikes, and local messenger company Bega Services.
The race helped 6th place finisher Barry McMenamin, along with his excellent finish in Minneapolis on January 24th, to move into 1st place in the Timbuk2 International Alleycat Series. This series, sponsored by cycling bag maker, Timbuk2 Designs, will decide the best all around alleycat racer in the world. Alleycats are mostly local messenger races that have been popping up in virtually every city that has bicycle messengers. They are ridden in live traffic and usually have 30-100 competitors. In contrast, the Cycle Messenger World Championships, also presented in part by Timbuk2, will have as many as 1000 competitors and will take place on a closed course designed to test all of the skills of a bike messenger.
As well as heading to Toronto for the Human Powered Rollercoaster in April, the DC Couriers will be sending teams to Boston for the March 7th Crazy 8 Alleycat, and Richmond for the the March 14th Ides of March. The District of Columbia Bicycle Courier Association currently sponsors a monthly Solidarity Ride, and, along with the Washington Area Bicycle Association, is conducting a contest to declare Washington DC's Most Bike Friendly Building. Needless to say, the DC Couriers have been extremely busy, spending their weeks working 9 hour days as bicycle messengers, their weekends racing in Alleycat races, and their nights preparing for the 1998 Cycle Messenger World Championships.
36 starters, 32 finishers
