Alley Cats?

In an effort to act as I speak or at least put some up as I know I am unlikely to shut-up, I woke up early Sunday morning to join in a different kind of bike racing. Somehow I managed to remember that it was the time of year several of the bike messengers and some non-messengers take to the street to compete in "alley cat" races. The name is somewhat appropriate, it describes races over city streets with few rules and completely open to traffic and mayhem. Registration opened at 7am in some fine persons home and by 8am 86 riders had managed to surround the house with bikes and take in as much coffee and bananas as the host could supply. Most of these races are mass start events. Everyone on the line at once and the next one I do will be of that variety. This one was a nice way to get my feet wet. It was a time trial. Racers left every 30 seconds with their delivery manifest in hand. For the purpose of this race the manifest was an index card. There were two stops before returning to the start area. At each stop a signature was to be collect and then on to the next. The route between the stops was open to each rider to choose. The only rule really was that each rider was to work alone, not draft another racer to gain an advantage. The winning riders left one behind the other and finished together making several raise their eyebrows over their adherence to this understood rule, but the other understood rules are that there really aren't any rules. In the group of races were lots of nice bikes or all types. I choose to ride my old Pinerello turned into a fixie (no coasting) with hand brake though as I am not anywhere near skilled or crazy enough to hit the city streets without brakes. Fact is some cities are fining riders who don't have a brake. I want to say Seattle had some recent cases about that.... Anyway, I was happy enough with my routing and tried to dress in a way that showed I was there for fun and practicality so my obnoxious neon booties were the ticket. If someone hated them, no one was saying it. I actually got some honest compliments on the kit I threw out there so it's the one for the series. I managed to finish just above the middle of the field and that was more than good enuff for me. The activity got me riding on a Sunday morning I most likely would have stayed in bed on so I was happy with that. More on my alley cat exploits as I have them.
Cheers,
R