So time for another story, My first alleycat race: Veterans Day Hustle
Names have been changed to protect identities
It is even possible other members of these forums participated in the event. If so please share you story of the event.
Anyways I was not certain I really wanted to go to the race, it started late (11:11pm), it was starting from Somerville (Porter Square to be exact) which was pretty far from where I live (The South End), and I get race anxiety. Well anyways for a few days one of my co-workers had been saying: "Hey! You should come to the race on Friday!" and then at 9:30pm he radios me and says: "You better come to the rice tonight!". So I relent and I put on some warm clothes and head out with my nice bike (Carbon Fiber Aerocat).
Well riding towards the meet up location, Velo Explosion, I meet up with my coworkers Brian and Jay. We ride along for a bit and chat it up as always and eventually we arrive at the start location, exchange typical greetings, beers, cigarettes and bongs with other couriers we know and go through the registration, route planning (Checkpoints were Aquarium, Design Center, and Coolidge Corner) and other necessities of the race (Spoke Cards!). Much to my excitement several friends I knew pretty well showed up, including a very fun/famous friend, Brucas Lunelle. THat is when I knew that the night was gonna be quite an adventure.
Well the start time eventually rolled around and the race organizer, Raz, told us to all head out to the middle of Porter Square. So we head out and, as our organizer directs, we place our bikes in the middle of the square and we take a seat at one of the tables. After the explanation of the rules and a little pep talk from Raz we are told to drum our hands on the table, and then we are off.
Just as soon as we grab our bikes Blue lights and a siren goes off and a police car flys into the middle of the square as we all scatter. I take off behind two guys with Brucas and another friend Matt behind me and a police car behind him. So that is my luck, out of the three major groups the police decided to follow it was mine. So I immediately take a hard right and head towards the residential streets, out of the major lights and I quickly turn off my lighting systems as I fly down these one lane streets, quickly sneaking down a one lane street the wrong way with a car idling on it. As I look back Brucas and Matt are still with me and we begin making our way towards harvard.
Well the evasive action had thrown off my original route planning and I found myself heading towards coolidge corner first. As we cross Mass Ave me and Brucas pull a bit of a swoop and speed past on oncoming SUV and Matt (Who was at the rear) needed to do an emergency stop to avoid it. So it is just down to me and Brucas riding now and we head off and start hitting the checkpoints.
Let me say that riding with this guy is a blast, he always rides his custom bike with bare Cosmic Carbones and let me just say I have never seen anyone handle a bike like Brucas (Save for the girls at the end of Sufferfest: Fight club, but I digress).
Well anyways as we find ourselves heading toward the Aquarium Brucas takes point and leads out. Well we find ourselves salmoning State Street at 20 mph (State street is pretty busy). One of the most hair raising and exhilarating experiences I have had (I would never recommend doing this).
Well long story short as we continue with the checkpoints we are in quieter neighborhoods and we basically just hammer like lunatics until we are heading towards the end of the race where Brucas skitches a cab and he yells at me to grab on so I end up skitching him by the pants....
Well we end up coming in as a tied 3rd about 2 minutes behind the winner (I say if my route hadn't been messed up we would have won
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Regardless it was a great race and a fun time. Can't wait for my next alleycat! (Should be next weekend
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