sniks

want to know how long ,in miles, some of the alley cats have been that you have raced or thrown.

thanks

curiousincident

100% depends on the city you're racing in. I think the longest I've gone around here is about 20 miles, while getting a little bit lost and going further than necessary. But I imagine it varies a lot.

Lenore

The shortest ones I've done are ~20 miles and the longest was last year's Rocky Race in Philly (~40 miles... but I got horribly lost).

crushkilldstroy

I honestly have no idea. Which sucks, considering that I used to organize them.

dijos

depending on a person's skill level, 8 miles on one, 12 on another, and 18-ish on the last of the 3 races I raced.

roadgator

ive done some as short as a few miles and others about 20. The longer ones seem to really sort the field out, more about endurance, less-so dumb luck.

VAwitt

damn, i wish i lived in yall's cities...

the allycat put on by some of the downtown messengers today was about 30miles

(richmond, VA)

too long IMO
but still fun

and there is an annual "no brakes" allowed alleycat here thats 40 miles i think.
then again, in norfolk they are throwing a 8 mile halloween race

Half-Impressive

we had one that was over 30 miles here, but it was good because the weaklings couldn't hang.

You did well if you were fast... isn't that kind of the point?

Other races are more short and full of gimmics which can be a lot of fun.
For example: the columbus bum shuffle

Tangsooyuk

These are in Chicago. I should note I only really do the harder ones:

Pumkin Smuggler Halloween '06 = 30 - 35 miles
Cuttin Crew classic '07 = 55 miles + (easily)
Today was The Headless Horseman = 24 miles (pretty much the shortest route)

TimArchy

I'm a big fan of races with a set order or even a partially set route. I've organized a few that were 30+ miles. Thats pretty long for Atlanta. I did one that was about 60miles but very few people showed up.

I didn't know the rocky race was 40miles. I knew it was long though It was the first time my team mate and I had been in philly so I took the long way a lot. It took us well over three hours.

veggiemafia

It's barely an alleycat, and I was out of town for it, but for BikeFest, we here in PGH did a race that I believe was called "Touch Ohio" where you had to ride and put one hand inside Ohio and come back. No set route and it was supposed to be 90-110 miles.

dmg

^^ I did that. My route was 105 miles (got lost around the PA /WV border. I did it fixed. It sucked, it kicked ass.

Longest traditional alleycat I know of was the Rallycat (which was around 40 miles, I think), and the Pittsburgh-Roubaix which was around 30 miles, but all the checkpoints involved riding cobblestone streets, most of which were going uphill... so it felt like a lot more than that.

kemmer

We did a benefit ride/alleycat for a cyclist who was intentionally hit and hospitalized for several months. There were a bunch of non cyclists and it was set up to be easy for them and was only about 3 miles or so. The harder ones were probably closer to 15 with some brutal climbs. I want to do a "suburb cat" for some real mileage.

babychris

I didnt even realize it was over 40 miles. goddamn. it took almost everyone over 3 hours. my team mate and I finished at like 3 hours and 15 minutes and we were 5th. I think ansel and eric were in at like 2 and a half hours.

andre nickatina

The longest one was prolly 15-20 miles, Portland.

veggiemafia

Ahhhh! I'm so bummed that I had to be out of town for BikeFest.

TimArchy

Didn't know you were there. Jes and I came up from atlanta and hoped to run into ya'll, but never saw anyone we knew. Had a good time staying with Daily and his crew though. We helped assemble the mailing tubes the night before. Quite a few had some beer in them and one was full of emptys.

Anyway, totally killer race and long as ****. At least it was flat.