Courtesy of BMoreFixed
Stu Louder is the fastest bike messenger in the country. He’s got the trophy to prove it. The Richmond-based messenger won the 2010 North American Cycling Courier Championship, held in a park adjacent to the Atlanta Zoo. The race, which simulated a bike courier work environment, attracted messengers from all over the country to see who could pedal the course the fastest. Messengers have been gathering on a smaller scale in their home cities for decades, organizing underground races for fun, cash purses, and bragging rights. These small “alley cat” races are fly-by-night events on open streets, no permits, and very few rules.
“With an alley cat, you never know what to expect. It’s a lot like a day on the job,” Louder says. “Are you going to get hit by a car? Are you going to have a drinking day? Are you going to have to deal with some jerk? You have to be prepared for anything. I like that.”
Alley cat racers show up at a predetermined location to start the race, but that’s all they know before hand. Once at the starting line, they’re given the location of the first checkpoint a few miles away. At that checkpoint, they’re given the location of the next checkpoint, and so on. First person to the finish wins. How you get from one checkpoint to the next is entirely up to you. You can even take the bus if it’s fastest.
“Other than the notion of checkpoints, there’s a complete lack of rules,” says Sam Hanson, one of the founders of BMoreFixed, a loose-knit group of bikers dedicated to promoting cycling in Baltimore. Hanson and BMoreFixed produce a popular Halloween alley cat within the Charm City. “You can take shortcuts, hang on to cars…anything goes. It’s like the Wild West, totally wide open.”
While alley cats began as bike messenger bouts, they’ve recently been co-opted by the biking community at large, with races popping up in cities big and small all over the country.
“We sponsor a race in Oshkosh, Wisconsin,” says Hanson, who also works for suspension company Hold Fast. “There aren’t a lot of messengers in Oshkosh, but the race is well attended. Alley cats are everywhere right now.”
There’s at least one informal alley cat in Asheville, a dedicated scene in Charlottesville, and an entire alley cat season in Atlanta. Richmond claims the longest-running alley cat in the East: The Ides of March. For 2011, Greenville has a brand new monthly alley cat series during the summer. The series follows the guiding principles of alley cats, but cuts out the messenger hipster vibe.
“I’d never done an alley cat before, but they seemed so cool,” says Jeff Pappenfus, the promoter of the Greenville alley cat series. “I wanted to give everyone a chance to get out and ride their bike, and the alley cat format is so accessible. At our races, you’ve got guys in the front of the race that are hammering, then you’ve got guys in the back taking it easy. People came out on cruisers, mountain bikes, whatever.”
As with any hip trend that gets adopted by mainstream America, there’s some nostalgia among messengers for when the alley cat was an courier-only event, but most messengers are stoked so many bikers are enjoying their favorite pastime.
“You could say the alley cat has lost its roots and no longer is a way to find the fastest messenger. But so what,” Hanson says. “Nobody owns the alley cat. The more people involved, the better. Why not spread the thing you love?”
Stu Louder, current King of the Bike Messengers, agrees. “Everybody likes to have fun, so of course the alley cat is gonna grow beyond couriers. It’s inevitable. I’m proud of being a courier, but alley cat racing is bigger than just us, and I think that’s cool.”