Happy Bike Messenger Appreciation Day (10/9)

Happy official Bicycle Messenger Appreciation Day! AKA 10-9 Day! Yesterday (10/8/09) we got some love from some very kind folks over at Active Transportation Alliance in association with Goose Island and Mother Hubbard's Bar. A big thank you for that.

This post is really about to be dedicated to our most senior messenger on the race team and that is Dr. Mike Morell. Mike is going into his 10th year in the service, a little known milestone amongst many, especially the vets. He has assumed many responsibilities as  head of the Windy City BMA (when it was around), original Messenger Prom organizer, co-founder of 4 Star Courier Collective, main organizer and goto for countless (seriously countless) fundraisers and races/parties, roommate to half the city, friend to industry leaders all around the world,  always the best dude for advice, and, of course, the self-proclaimed world's greatest dispatcher. Dude's got stories.

 

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 He's got a laundry list of accomplishments within and without the industry. For us that doesn't involve banquets and plaques, nor crappy little twists on words to polish up a desperate resume. It involves respect. Pure, genuine and highly credible dues that are only bestowed upon the select few that deserve them.

Here's to ya, Mike. And here's to the many others out there still giving it a go and making it through the tougher times of this silly game. Happy 10-9 Day!

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Much love and Respect.

Old News but Good News

Well. It's been tricky to find the official source for the results from Tokyo but it's time we all accept it as fact. We proudly present (with some delay) your 3rd place finisher in the women's classification for the Cycle Messenger World Championships...

 TEENERS!

Photo courtesy of htosaki

The best update around is actually courtesy of the fine folks over at the Chicago Couriers Union.

Al, Ben and Molly did it up right for their town as well. Thanks for the zillionth time to Tokyo.

Photo courtesy of Yogi

Don't miss many of the other great updates on the CCU blog. Including this gem:

Big thanks to Active Transportation Alliance

The bunny has a dollar for you

by Avi First things first. After our whirlwind, round-the-clock reporting on worlds in Tokyo, we dropped the ball on Elite Track Nationals. Al was out there, along with a couple other Northbrook locals, and while you could catch the action on live web video, we missed the boat in regards to timely reports.

Al had a great time, raced three events, and almost made the finals in his specialty, the points race. A brief recap:

11th in points. The dude sitting on my wheel when we were halfway to the break attacked me for the points and then bridged solo and hung me out to dry. Those dudes were all crazy fast. I worked my ass off to get 2 points. It was really good to be in a race like that. Even if there's a bunch of dudes faster than me at Kenosha or Northbrook, there's also a bunch of dudes slower than me. Not at nats. Everyone had to qualify.

5:09 pursuit. 10 seconds faster than last year, but I was hoping for 15. I went out too hard and should have used a 98" gear.

Dude going fast in my heat was Bobby Lea. He won the finals.

Best race was the points final. Phinney vs. Creed. Both had 2 laps and the points were 54 to 55, Creed up with the last sprint coming up. Phinney jumps out of turn 2, Creed on his wheel. Creed can't come around and takes 1 point to Phinney's 2, and loses the finishing order tiebreaker.

Giddeon Massey is my new favorite bike racer. Beat Phinney in the kilo for first (1:02 to 1:04! Phinney took silver at 08 worlds.), won the keirin with a huge gap, and lost the match sprint finals 2 to 1 on a relegation that could have gone either way.

Thanks to Marcus for the gear, Val for looking after the details, and of course, propers to Josh Ryan and David Moyer for their strong showings. With that said...consider the track season done. On to cyclocross, the devil's fancy!

Somewhere between road racing and mountain biking, between summer and winter, between a Sunday in the park and the rollers in the basement...there you find cyclocross. Whether by necessity or choice, some of us go the extra mile and single speed it. Maybe you don't need the other 19 anyway, or you have fewer parts to gum up and destroy, or you just run what you brung.

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Sometimes there's this notion that we're just jokers showing up with knives at a gunfight, but I like to think of it as a Samurai in a gunfight...you may not be the last man standing, but anything can happen. Out in Portland they have hundreds of single speeders at every race, enough to subcategorize them in the various A's, B's, Masters' races...but here at the Chicrosscup, the SS division has long since vanished. Enough of our swooning over the Northwest's 'cross scene...here, we have the "Officially Unofficial Illinois State Cyclocross Single Speed Championship (OUISCSSC) presented by Yojimbo's Garage." Quite a mouthful! Big thanks to Half Acre for manning the clipboards and making it happen!

If we had any illusions of grandeur about the status of our "championship," they were dashed at the line, when the officials lined us up behind the cat 4 women AND the juniors. Ouch. 22 of us toed the line - not a huge field, but nobody could really be written off. OK, Tripps was donning an aero helmet and a hockey jersey, but still, he's got mad offroad skills, so you never know.

There were a couple of hoopties, but lots of tricked out carbon, titanium, some handmade steel, and plenty of tubies to go around. A few messengers, trackies, a couple of high-catted roadies, hardcore 'crossers, a couple of Killjoy guys that absolutely schooled me back in 2005, winning 1st and 2nd in every single SS race, and a few mountain bikers running discs...this last group scared me most of all. If there's one way a mountain bike can edge out a cross bike, it's this: the smaller wheels and tighter geometry could cut a bit tighter and get inside you on a corner. The officials asked our road categories all around to get an idea of lap times: 3s, 4s, 5s, with an Expert mountain biker on the front row. Eek.

We're off and after a couple of elbows, we settle in. One thing that can really ruin a cross race early is getting stuck in single file while gaps open up at the front. Fortunately, the brilliant course put up by NCC and Half Acre left plenty of wide open lanes after the first few corners. A group of four is off by a bit, with a couple of familiar faces from the bus laying down the pace. I bridge and latch on. Nice and easy through the four switchbacks on the hill, and I pick up a spot climbing out. Fourth wheel.

I can't tell what the plan is...are they pacing it out, waiting for someone to slip up, or is this really as hard as they can manage? I can't contain myself and attack between corners; I'm out front. Big dig, hold it steady, look back: mountain biker on my wheel. I don't know if the other three are still there, but it doesn't matter. Keep it up but don't slip up: no mistakes.

Two more laps of this and nothing changes. Should I go all out or pace myself and save a kick for the end? Is this guy waiting for the right corner to catch me napping? I shut the door on every corner and he never makes a move. Lapping ten-year-olds and women, it gets tricky, but we try to keep it honorable.

There are so many ways to lose: a single mistake, especially in the closing minutes, and kiss the win goodbye. I had mine: a mis-planted foot off the last barrier in the woods and I lost my spot. I tried to fight the panic and look for my opportunity. We turned onto the pavement, a slight fast climb. Straight and wide, maybe my last real chance to pass, but I see that he's pushing a steep gear. I thought I was done: all he had to do was stand and mash for a dozen strokes and I'd be spinning out on the pavement and never have a chance. But I noticed something else: the thirty-minutes-of-just-a-tad-too-steep-of-a-gear cadence (been there). He can't attack! I spin up, grab my spot back, and keep the last few corners covered up airtight.

Coming into the penultimate turn, a 180 left, I was really afraid he'd use his bike to get the tighter line and chop me, but we both tiptoe through and he's stuck outside for the last sweeper! I bury it, get a couple lengths and think about posting up? No! He's got that big gear turning over now, and he's making up ground fast. I hold him off by a length but throw for good measure. I finally get to throw the sweet scissors high! For the win, and the title!

Photo courtesy of Luke

So forgive the lack of brevity and excessive use of exclamation points, but it's not everyday I get to write a winning race report...thirty races this season, first win ever. As much as I love to double up, I was pre-pinned for the 1/2/3s race, but I opted to celebrate on the couch instead.

The rest of the crew had a strong showing, improving on Jackson Park's results across the boards. Mike finished 6th in the 4a's; if he'd gotten the fourth lap he was expecting, it would have been a few spots higher. Max shook off the mechanicals that plagued his second day at UCI MadCross to crack the top 20 21.

The ladies of the crew were also doing it in the dirt. Molly was a little tied up in Tokyo for the kickoff weekend of cross, so she got her first taste of the season, finishing strong in 13th, just behind Jamie in 11th. Not to undermine her ass-kicking on the bike, but check out Jamie's new ride if you get a chance: custom frame, 650c wheels, sparkly purple paint job. Like a glove.

Heffy was driving the bus, manning the grill, and of course, finding a new way to keep the 4s entertained, this time with a large stuffed bunny offering a dollar prime on the climb. Lots of strong showings from friends and couch surfers, and if not, at least a dog and a beer as a consolation prize. If only all racing were this fun.

last man in Japan

Much of the Chicago contingent is back home shaking off the jet lag, but we've got one last live update: A couple days after the main event, there was one last competition: a quick set of events at the track. Al gives us the lowdown: keiokaku

Keiokaku is a huge keirin track in Chofu. They have the National Gran Prix races there. Andy White had a 12.4 and had me nervous. I put a 50/14 on and got the pole. I pushed him up track to the rail, he slowed, I slowed, he got out and pushed me up track (which boxed me in), I got below him again in turn 3, as he did a fake-out into me and turned back up track, I jumped hard and held a gap for the next 1 1/4 laps to the line. Then I had to race a Japanese guy who was pretty quick and had also advanced. I did pretty much the same thing. I jumped out of turn 2 and held a decent gap to the line. Time for the big guy.

Farioletti and me in the finals. He got the pole. He showed some experience and pushed me up track and slowed it way down. I was nervous I would fall on the banking. It was maybe 38 degrees but rubber so it had good traction. I bumped him a little and picked up the pace high on the track. He went low. I jumped in turn 3. He jumped and we were riding shoulder to shoulder. I got on his wheel in turn 2. We were going fast. I tried to come around between 3 and 4 but he got me by about a wheel. No one else came close to him.

In the scratch, no one would let anything get away and plenty of people were willing to close the gap to me. I didn't have time to change my cog to a 15 so I was stuck in a big gear and couldn't jump away. The sprint was started by Farioletti, I was 3rd wheel. I came around the guy getting dropped but couldn't quite close the gap and took 2nd, Fergus Tanaka 3rd. In my keirin heat, I closed the gap to the moto way faster than everyone else. No one challenged my spot. I was waiting for it, but no one tried to take it. The moto actually JUMPED to 40 mph and I was able to stay with it and jumped when it pulled off and got a good gap. I held it until 50 meters from the line when Farioletti comes blazing by and I was fading. Boo. In the final, he took the pole, and no one challenged him. No one tried to box him in, which was probably their only chance. I woulda given it a shot. Only the 1st place guys advanced, and there was no second chance/reparge. I only lost to him as many times as the other keirin racers. They could have at least had a heat for all the second places to make the final.

They only had a prize for 1st in all the races which he took. I wish I could have at least gotten some recognition on stage as 2nd overall, or the first placed messenger. Nonetheless, I was given beers and congratulations all night long. The world messenger champion wearing rainbow stripes bought me a beer!

Time for LA.

One of the louder and rowdier fan contingents

We'll have a rundown of Tokyo happenings soon enough, but a quick update: Christina won third place female! Yay! Molly threw her chain in a hard sprint and had a nasty crash. Boo! Both are soaking up their last couple days abroad, but we'll have them home soon enough. Unless they get offers to become pro Keirin racers. If you haven't done so already, pick up a copy of Thursday's Chicago Tribune. Everyone's favorite cyclo-journalist, Luke Seemann, took the better part of two full pages to write up the local 'cross scene. It's got lots of great shots of familiar faces and local teams. Buy the Trib to keep the place printing papers just a bit longer, but if you must, get the RedEye for free. Or be all digital, and click the link below to read it online.

(This photo has been shamelessly swiped from the Trib web site, and photo credit should go to Michael Tercha.)

cuttin couch

"One of the louder and rowdier fan contingents, the Chicago Cuttin' Crew brings couches and bullhorns to races."

Pardon the interruption...

We're waiting on post-finals and bid-vote updates but I just can't help but repost this one from Squid over at cyclehawk:

There are at least 6 recognizable faces from that group. I love Chicago. The man in the green on the front right, Mr. Nico (aka NACCC male master), has fed a coupla great updates to your boy julio over at dispatch101.blogspot.com.

TEENERS! Photos popping up. This is courtesy of pistbiker

day 4, on to qualifiers

tokyo cuttin crew Al: Ohaio gazimas!

Well, I was drinking sake in the park and these kids had sparklers but they were different from our sparklers in the USA. They shot sparks. So I was trying to get a closer look and they handed one to me, and they were chasing each other, so I chased them and shot them with sparkler sparks. Japanese people are super nice and friendly and excited that we are here. The women keep saying I am cute and taking my picture and everyone is totally pumped that the messenger world championships are here. This dude at the liquor store didnt speak more than a couple words of English but was totally stoked about something. Maybe he thought I was cool looking? Or he liked the beer I was getting? I was totally stoked that I finally found a good stout beer. We were both talking and saying things that the other didnt understand. Good moment. The beer is all Japanese. They dont really seem to import beer, and most of it is like MGD or something. And the beer companies make all beverages. Its like if Coca-Cola made beer, and there were 4 Coca-Cola vending machines on every block with Coke, Mellow Yellow, beer, and bottled water.

And these guys in the park were just hanging out by the pond, they didnt bike or know anything about messengers, they were just there and hanging out but were totally party animals and there were like 1000 hugs and exclaimations of appretiation for each others cultures.

You can tell English is really hard for everyone but everyone knows some and all the signs have English on them which must be a huge effort. Paying for stuff is a big deal. They give you a plate, you present your money to them on it, they say something complicated, maybe thanking you for it, they present you with your change, count it, and say something else.

Ben:

Yesterday was pretty laid back and mostly uneventful. We attended the open forum and presented our bid. I think it went pretty well.The voting is on Thursday so keep your fingers crossed. Today is race day! Time to qualify. We will keep you updated as to who will make the cut.

Al:

Biking Tokyo is awesome. Everyone does it and you can do whatever you fucking want. The lanes are super narrow. Cars pass you with little room but I don't really mind because everyone is a really good, attentive driver. It confuses me when people ride on the wrong side of the road and I freak out and think I am on the wrong side of the road but I am on the left side which is the right side. People are super excited I am here and really friendly. People take my picture. Women keep saying I am cute, but I don't think they are hitting on me. I am not going to remember much of what you told me. I forgot not everyone looks weird, just some people. People have really nice bikes. Like, everyone under 30 has a really nice road bike or fixed gear.

Tommy Lee Jones is on a million billboards. And the billboards say BOSS. It's kind of weird.

This was a total cross course, other than the fact that it was all paved. Several 180 degree turns and tight chicanes. You could pull some Bart Wellens jackass cross shit, taking a tighter line in and cutting someone off, bumping them, etc. except most dudes would try to skid through the corners and their wheel would kick out towards you. I had a freewheel and could really lean it into the corners. Dudes were getting pissed I was bumping them out.

My routing sucked as usual though. I took the wrong turn on my last pickup/2nd to last dropoff, forgot to dropoff once I got there, so I did 2 extra laps. I think I barely missed the cut. How do you train a brain?

Sino (reigning world champ, from Tokyo) apparently broke both his legs like 3 months ago and had to keep his bike in the small ring and spin at like 140 rpm. He still got 4th because he is a total badass.

Ben:

Yesterday was the day of the qualifier race. We rolled out of the hostel in the morning to meet up with the main group ride out to the course in Odaiba. It was a pretty cool sight to see when the main group of over 100 bikers came around the corner. We jumped into the group and it was sort of like being in critical mass in Tokyo. The scenery was beautiful as we rode along. I hadn't been to this side of Tokyo yet.

When we arrived at the racecourse, I was amazed at the scope of what the Tokyo Bike Messenger Association had pulled off. The course is huge! There are huge vendor areas and they brought in a bunch of trucks selling food right on the site. The CMWC site is bigger than the Chicago Criterium was this year. The course consists of a couple of big parking lots with a street in between them. The course is laid out like a cyclocross course on pavement, with caution tape, cones, and traffic barriers marking it out. It is very intricate, and well thought out. There are four checkpoints in each section and two on the road that connects both sections. When coming into a section, you have to choose your route very carefully. The whole course is one-way, so if you miss your turn, you have to go a really long way to get back on track. Each racer was given a folder with a stack of ten tickets with jobs and times on them. You could pick and drop packages in any order you wanted, but you had to complete each delivery on time to get credit for it. There were several 30-minute jobs, several 15-minute jobs, and one 5-minute super rush. That one was a bitch.

I felt like I did the race pretty well. I could have routed myself better, but I made all of my deliveries on time. It doesn't look like I made the cut, though. It should be fun to watch the final. I'll be cheering for Molly, Christina, and Nico.

Tokyo update number 3

by Ben

Day 3: We began the day by meeting up with Chazz and some of the SF kids. We were sitting on the railing at about 9am, drinking coffee and talking. Everyone was real excited to see each other. We may have been too excited, though because someone called the hostel an complained about us and we had to move the party inside. After a while we rolled out to Yoyogi park, where there was a big festival going on. We wandered around in the park for a while. The funniest thing that I saw was this section of the park where all these rockabilly guys and girls set up sound systems and do these elaborate choreographed dances in competition with each other.

After a while we rolled over to Shibuya and just bombed around the streets for a while with the SF kids. Riding here is still crazy, but I am getting used to it. At one point we were at this huge intersection in this shopping area near Shibuya Station. It was like Michigan and Chicago ave times 1000. The light changed and cars were coming into the intersection from every direction and thousands of pedestrians were crossing at the same time we were trying to get through on our bikes. It was nuts.

The opening party was last night at Club Asia. It was a blast. My ears are still ringing the morning after. This amazing Japanese rock band played. Then they had dance music and everyone was going nuts. The only weird thing was they shut down the party at 21:00. In true global messenger style, about 150 of us grabbed some beers from 7-11 and rode over to Yoyogi park to drink, catch up with old friends, and make new ones. Somebody told me before we left that it isn't socially acceptable to hug in public here. This doesn't seem to be true, though. I was hugging Japanese people left and right last night. The messengers here are really cool. The language barrier is there, but most of our conversations last night wound up being me yelling "I love Tokyo!", them yelling "I love Chicago!" and then we would hug and both yell "yeah!"

 

We went back to the hostel, I curled up in my box, and slept like a log.

Tokyo update numero 2.

Well. I'm amazed they're even thinking of us back home. I've come to think of it damn near as a compliment. Can't say I blame 'em if they get busy with the next coupla days of festivities. Get 'em in while you can. Without further ado, here's the latest update from Ben and Al: -------------

by Ben

Day 2 recap: I started out the day with a walk to try to find a bikeshop, buy a map with English street names, and find an ATM that would take my card. I got a cup of coffee at a breakfast place, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Japanese people love eating hot dogs for breakfast. When in Rome... I ended up getting completely lost, not finding a bike shop, and every store I went to had maps that were only in Japanese. Tokyo is an incredibly confusing city. After about two hours of being totally lost, I ran into Al, Molly, Christina, and the rest of the Chicago crew who were also out trying to find maps and an ATM. Within an hour we found a big book store which had english maps and we even found a bike shop which sold qr squwers. I could finally put my wheels on my bike.

We ended up riding as a big group to registration, which was a blast! I am having a tough time with the traffic being reversed. Every right turn is an adventure. Registration was laid-back and cool. People from all over the world would roll up in small groups and hang out. Chicago definately had the biggest crew. We hung out on a corner for a while drinking beer and eating rice balls while a monkey screeched at us and flipped us off.

After that we rode around for a while hitting up bike shops so Molly could get a brake for her Fuji. After we accomplished that, we got some beers and went to a park to drink them. It was very peaceful and nice.

-------------

by Al

We had a traffic cop who seemed to be assigned to the alley we were registering at jsut because we were there and made sure to blow his whistle at anyone standing in the middle of the alley. I met a pro keirin racer there and tried to find out if I could do any track racing while I was here, but they don't have any amateur races.

 

The food scares me.

TO-KEE-YO! YO-O OH!

marcusrensho.jpg*

Thanks to some big help from supporters, a certain sponsor and our community (that includes you), the Chicago Cuttin' Crew will be represented by 4 great ambassadors. Teeners is attending as reigning overall NACCC champion, Al Urbanski & Molly are there courtesy of their VeloCity wins and Ben is there as a seasoned NACCC organizer and CMWC coordinator. They all got them some pretty little tickets to Tokyo and into the Cycle Messenger World Championships. Chicago will be represented big by, like, a dozen or so people. It should help with the work being done to catch the bid for 2011. (click on the "chicago info" link and you'll see how serious this is)

They left Thursday and the action begins tomorrow. Or today. Whatever the hell day it is over there...stupid Prime Meridian!

Anyway, Good luck guys! We miss you already!

*Naz, I totally stole your photo. Thanks.

 EDIT:

We're already getting dispatches from the far east. We'll try to keep you posted. This one's from Ben:

We made it! I am settling into the hostel for the night. It was a crazy day of traveling. The flight was long, but uneventful. We waited around at the airport for the rest of the Chicago contingent to arrive. We ended up missing them, so we took a couple of train rides from the airport into the city. Getting seven people with huge messenger bags and bike boxes onto the crowded Tokyo subway was interesting. We finally got off the train in some big crazy mall in the Tokyo Times-Square and started to assemble our bikes on the sidewalk. This was really funny because tons of Japanese people were stopping and talking to us and taking pictures of us. I realized that I had forgotten to put my quick-release skewers into the box with my wheels, so I ended up locking my bike up at the mall and waking to the hostel. Right now I am sipping on a 6-oz can of Suntory Old whisky that I got from the 7-11 across the street. Now it is time to sleep in a box, and get up in the morning to try to find a pair of skewers.