Racing Strategies For Alley Cat Races
Posted on September 9, 2010Racing strategies for alleycat races can be highly individualistic. An alleycat race is an informal bike race, likely made popular by bicycle messengers. Of course, informal racing has always existed, but the adjective “alleycat” is a fairly recent addition; the first official use was by a 1989 Toronto race. Messengers participating in that and subsequent alleycats helped spread the name and concept far and wide.
As individual as the strategies are the rules involved, for one characteristic of an alleycat race is its highly localized nature, with just about everything tailored to local conditions and practices. Team racing can be fairly rare, because the work of a bicycle messenger that these races reflect is solitary.
On the other hand, relay races are fun for the contestants precisely because it puts an interesting social twist on the otherwise singularly solitary nature of their work on the weekdays (alleycat races take place around major holidays so that messengers, who live paycheck-to-paycheck with little to no benefits, can be involved).
Alleycat races involve not only speed, but traffic handling skills and a rider’s intimate knowledge of local routes. As may be imagined, alleycat races heavily reflect the bicycle messenger subculture, not least of which is the fact that they’re of questionable legality in most jurisdictions.
Originally spontaneous, their growth has meant increasing organization, which in turn means working with local authorities, such as acquiring all necessary permits. But organization has also meant that alleycat races can be extremely creative and themed with social causes such as global warming and bicycle advocacy.
In keeping with its anti-establishment roots, many alleycat races resist formality, particularly in the form of obtaining permission. The right to free assembly is evoked to justify these generally spontaneous races. Unfortunately, motorized vehicles occupy such a venerable place in American culture that authorities curtail such rights in favor of maintaining automobile convenience.
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