You are comparing apples and oranges.....of course they don't know the streets as well, so they probalby wouldn't stand a chance if they were just suddenly introduced to an alley cat. But they definately have the handling skills and, given a particular route, could probably stomp the pants off of messengers even if they stopped for traffic lights. Obviously, if you gave the pros a chance to train in the proper environment, messengers would loose. Not to mention, they would probably have their support team scouting out traffic conditions during the race.