not to be a harsh critic, but that relay race had 30-40+ laps involved with a 10 mile loop of long straight rides to the check points; fixed-gears couldnt stand a chance to that kind of long distance trek race which relied less of mapping out (except initially) and more on pure efficiency which you noted.

NOT A CHANCE IN HELL!

love,
*TC

I'd like to see how fast they would race if they didn't close off the roads in the next Tour.

neutral territory. shark vs. polar bear. thoughts?

Is the shark in a blood frenzy and has the polar bear been starving on a shrinking ice flow?

I did an alleycat with my dads gf, she's a roadie and does 100ks on the weekends, and 20 miles a day to work. She called it a recovery ride, she just had problems finding her away around and dealing with traffic. My dad on the other hand blew through redlights and what not not giving a **** about the traffic was totally wiped out at the end.

i think dealing with traffic would be the only real issue keeping pros from totally destroying everyone. i'm not positive, but i'd venture to guess that most pros don't take the risk of cycling regularly through heavy traffic. just not worth the risk for them. this would only really be an issue though in cities like SF, NYC, DC. an alleycat in tallahassee or richmond or something - no problem. if you had some pro who decided he didn't care about his well-being anymore or who had a lot of experience riding in heavy traffic, of course they'd destroy everyone.

i've never encountered such a big pile of pubescent ***********y crap in my life. honestly, reading this thread is giving me teenage acne. i shudder to think of the state of your sheets, you frickin DWEEBS

edit: not you triplebuck

When is "Take a Roadie To Work Day" ?
I don't see why your getting all steamed, it would seem we all agree that being used to racing along in traffic would be the only factor that might give a messenger a leg up in an alleycat. Going balls out in traffic is not the easiest thing in the world to do well. I'll bow to the Pro Gods of Cycling, as well respect the messers' skills, I can do both.

not Monstertrack, but Tour da Chicago:

Nick Frey, US U23 National Team (from Des Moines, IA)
picture: Vengeance is Love, flickr

Josh I miss you!

I like that manifest on the sleeve idea. Might have to try that sometime.

oh - Nick placed Second, also.

another good tool is a route cue sheet on your sleeve

A pro would realize they are doing an alleycat and get on some ridiculous training regime that would allow them to learn the streets, get used to all sorts of traffic, build the propper muscles for the situation, find the right equiptment, etc. and then destroy everyone. That's why they are pros, not because they can ride bikes real fast.

Unless you mean they just magically pop up at an alleycat with no planning whatsoever, in which case they probobly would still crush. But this just wouldn't happen, or they arn't a profesional.

Who won? I saw those pictures earlier, but didn't stop long enough to realize that he was a pro.

Is the pro Nelson Vails? Cuz if it is, he'd clobber everyone.

I usually just put the order that I want to hit the stops right on the manifest, so it would kind of do both... But thanks for the tip!

lots of alleycats start without a manifest, or split and multiple manifests, or give one stop at a time as you go along, or sometimes even make you figure out hints to what the next stop is, or hand you the manifest like 2 seconds before you take the start, best practice is being there and doing it all the time........having the stops ahead of time is a luxury, dont count on it being that way often

I was in one once and one of the stops was simply listed as "frogtown", unless you were local and in a small group of people that knew what that was, you were screwed. The field had been split into 3 groups with different manifests which separated all the strong riders too, so the big pack running together never happened.

an awful lot of people out there have like zero navigational skills too, even with a map I know lots of couriers and messengers like that, they learn it by rote instead of by reason, there is a system to how addresses are created, works the same everywhere in every city, about the only difference is occasionally you see somewhere flip the odd and even numbers from one side to the other side of the streets plus the occasional odd address that doesnt fit cause the post office never fixed something or folded some addresses across some others due to development(it happens)

this is true, you dont have to know **** about the streets if you are strong enough to follow the rider who takes the best route and pull around him once the finish is in sight.

now picking the one to follow is a crap shoot, but i dont think any one on here should dilute them self into thinking they could drop a pro.

EDIT: and no one thinks riding in a peleton setting up a sprint is nerve racking...

There are messengers who road race here and do quite well at it. I know several who have made it to the senior 1 level of road racing. A few of these guys win races on a regular basis. So if you take 1 guy from the senior 1 field who has never messed...and one of the senior 1 guys who works as a messer...I think its safe to say the messer guy wins hands down. Familiarity/comfort counts a whole lot. Guys who road race get comfortable with closed courses and a pack who for the most part know the rules/etiquette of road racing. What are the rules/etiquette of an alleycat race? Prolly just that the guy you cut off is waiting at the after party for you to show up. Being fast is good. Knowing how to ride in traffic and knowledge of the city is good. The best balance of the 2 will win alleycats every time.
For the record you can have your racing license taken away from you for doing non-sanctioned events. Many guys dont do alleycats for this reason.
At the H.P.R. in Vancouver a few years back a couple of guys from the Canadian National Track team showed up to try their legs out on the figure 8. I was doing staging for practice at the time. Both these guys were waiting for their turn to do some practice laps and looked really nervous. I asked them why they were so sketched out seeing as they have had more track experience than any one else there. The answer? "We never turn right!" 2 national class track riders bowed out in the first round of qualifying because of this simple fact.

that race really wasn't alleycat style. it was a set course which was published beforehand. All the roadies needed to do was learn how to blow lights (something i never saw them have a problem with) and not get drunk.