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 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.)

"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

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!

*

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.

race report...

<-- Photo courtesy of Luke Seemann, chicagobikeracing.com

-by jeff-

I feel vain starting it like this but it was a good week for me. 3 wins for 3 races at the ending night of racing at Northbrook Velodrome. Getting a leadout from Al for the second win was one of the highlights of a well made season. It's a reminder how the enjoyment of having won pales in comparison to the moment when everything comes together amidst a race courtesy of great friends and teammates.

I was convinced it would be a good idea to bail on work Saturday to go do the Illinois State Road Race Championship. I literally got the road racer out of it's dusty hiding place, filled up the tires and put it together that morning to hop on it for the first time since June to join the majority of our cat 4 crew in one last hoorah for 2009 road racing.

Warming up we threw together a big plan for the race. Avi "The Ironman" Neurohr already did the morning masters with Mike "250+ miles last week" Morell so they had a good breakdown of the action.  They were doubling up, Andrew was fresh and scraped up, Max was feeling good and our new boy Al Pearson was just upgraded and ready to roll. Then, the icing came on the cake when Mr. Daryl "I have a new kid" Van Essen surprised us all and rolled up to the bus in his kit and all ready to race! This was gonna be amazing.

The plan was a big leadout. The order was Avi, Mike and Max up front and Daryl covering Andrew covering me covering Al. This was gonna be Al Pearson's coming out party. The man's got thighs as big as tree trunks and a killer spin. He hasn't been in any practiced leadouts but we just gave him the task of stay on my wheel and blow by when I pop.

The race was a 40 miler assembled by Tower Racing and it was a nice course with some limited room for movement. It could have been 20 or 70 miles and the majority of the racers wouldn't have noticed with it being so tight between the lines. I'm DEFINITELY not complaining. Up front alot of guys kept the pace honest and I was chilling in the middle with everyone else at the easiest 25-28 mph I think I've ever felt. The pack broke all the wind and it made it a game of jostling for positioning over anything. Upper hand dealt to the track kid.

The finish was strange. It was a winding, climbing series of turns followed by a false flat and a short descent before a bummer 300+ meter hill and the finish line was right beyond the peak of the hill. The move was to take advantage of the widening right before the turn into the first climb. Come the last lap we were all making moves to get things down right.

"And there you see team Cuttin' Crew moving up" was in my head as I imagined an overhead shot of the race and Phil Liggett calling it (come on, we all 'play pro' when we do this, besides wouldn't be the first time Phil did the shout out). Without knowing the action behind him, Max took the initiative to move up from 20-something to top 8 or so spots. Behind him was Mike, then Daryl, then Andrew then me, then Al Pearson. Another rush the joy that comes from perfect execution.

Around the corner, Max gunned it and Mike went left of him. Then Daryl made the move around Mike and it was Daryl, Andrew, me and Al with the road to the finish widening. Daryl springed forward and moved out around, the final bullet through the first hill and Andrew jumped. I jumped right on Andrew's wheel and felt a good wheel rub and a fall behind me. I turned back quick to look and saw someone rolling through the peloton and turned back to see Andrew with a rocket up his ass. I went right back up to his wheel and he floored it. We were the only two out front and there was no one in the peripheral.

Photo courtesy of Gavin

We pedaled hard through the descent and Andrew started to fade, I gave him a shout and he put everything he had into those legs right when we reach the bottom of the  final hill. Fuck. Time to commit. I pull to pass and just pedal my way hard into a jump. A fresh burst up and the matches start burning fast. I must be moving good cause there's nobody in sight by the time I reach about 10 meters from the peak. At that same moment, the flames grab a hold of everything and I'm hardly turning over the cranks. That yellow center line starts moving more side to side then it does forward. My good sense says shift but my body just wants to get it over with. And it finally does. First wheel across the line. I spied someone coming hard from under my right arm towards the end but thankfully he ran outta real estate. Dammit, Andrew. That boy had done it again.

Photo courtesy of DeeDee

The crash was Al Pearson. I'm gonna take this chance to introduce you to Al Pearson. He was pretty bummed to say the least and I can feel for him. The consolation is there is absolutely no doubt you're going to be seeing plenty of great results coming from Al Pearson in the future. I'm looking very forward to that.

The day closed in the best of ways. We waved farewell to 2009 with news of Christina getting 2nd in the 4's! Al Urbanski got a top 20 in a crazy 3's field. The Meshbergs had the foresight to bring beers, champagne and marinated chicken while we had the grill going at the bus well past sunset. Maybe Road Racing isn't so bad after all...

Allvoi Cup Pursuit Series Wrap-Up

A few of us marked off 3 days this summer in which we would absolutely need to be available to race in a great track racing series and the 3 of us that made it to every one of those days were very satisfied with how it turned out.

The Allvoi Cup Pursuit Series presented by Allvoi/WDT was an incredible series of events by any track racing standard. Great food, good volunteers and equipment, fine swag, good competition, great races, great weather, huge prize list and they even had a great cause. All of the money garnered at registration was collected and promised to be doubled by World Discount Telecommunications (WDT) for the sake of donating to a Foster Care program in Poland. Bravo.

You might remember our last update courtesy of Molly. Day 3's events list was quite a bit different. It was made up of races most of us have never participated in nor would need to for a long, long time. BUT! Being able to handle adversity is part of being a good racer so we all obliged our hosts and accepted the challenge. After all, it was the organizer's show and we're just happy to have such a top notch event at our disposal.

Molly was pretty much a lock for the overall win but there was drama in the race for the top 2-4 spots for Jeff and Al to work out in the men's 3-4-5 overall. Jeff was 2nd with an 8 point cushion over 3rd place xXxer, Matt Moran. To add to it, Al was 4th by a 9 point deficit to Matt.

The 2k TT was a trip. Molly got the 2nd best time of her field while Jeff and Al got 3rd and 4th in their field, respectively. Molly pulled another 2nd in the 500 while Jeff got 4th and Al got 11th. By now, Al had a 1 point difference to make up and we only had one more race that would count in order for him to bump into 3rd for the overall standings. Unfortunately for Al it was one of his most feared races, the Miss-n-Out.

Fortunately he had some time to get it together seeing as we had the Jesse White Tumblers for intermission entertainment and an exhibition Keirin. The Tumblers were fantastic and the Keirin exhibition race was a brilliant addition to the schedule. Jeff was in the 1st qualifying heat and got 3rd to Matt Fox and Josh Ryan. Pretty predictable but a bummer considering the top two from each heat race the final. The final was by far the most intense Keirin any of us have seen in person. Jason Garner and Jon Fraley went from bumping elbows to full on leaning against each other for a lap and a half. Pretty badass considering they were directly behind a motorcycle that was accelerating from 20 to 30 mph while a field of ravenous sprinters sat mere inches off their wheels. Fox pulled off the over the top win while Garner kept 2nd and Fraley overcame horrible final positioning for 3rd.

By now the Category 3-4-5 men were up for the Miss-N-Out and it was going to be the deciding race of the whole series for Al. He took off from the get go and pulled everyone through the first 8 or so picks. About the 3rd wheel pulled from the race was Matt. That sealed it but Al couldn't be certain. Jeff dropped out at about 6th or 7th place. A few attacks for Al's spot were made and he fought madly to keep up front until he was had. And he was by the time the last pick was made. Al locked down 4th place in the race and sealed his fate in the overall.

Molly must have felt inspired for her Miss-N-Out because she also went out from the gun and pulled her field for the whole race. She was strong until the final lap when she was outdone by her lone left competitor and she ended up pulling herself through for 2nd.

Jeff got 3rd place on the day and Molly was 2nd to our MPLS guest, Gwen Steel. For the overall, Jeff seized the second step on the podium and Al got the 3rd in the Cat 3-4-5 Men's field. Both got pretty nice paychecks for it and some lovely hardware to take home. Molly took Queen of the Cup status with a point total that towered over everyone else. She went home with some hardware, some new laundry, an even beefier paycheck and a big smile of pride for being the only one to actually smooch the podium girls. Twice. Aside from Matt Fox's $700 cash prize for Pro-1-2 1st overall, those kisses had to be everyone else's highlight of the event.

Thanks as always to Yojimbo's garage for the equipment and guidance. BIG thanks to WDT and Allvoi for providing us with such a premier event. We can all look forward to next year and doing what we can to help get word out. Without a doubt, this thing will grow even more into the national scale event it so rightfully deserves.

Pictures taken from Allvoicup.com galleries, Voytek Glinkowski, Ed White, and Jeff Holland. Thanks!

Wow. All there is to say is Wow.

So enough of this serene, pretty sun setting over the velodrome bullshit. Rumor has it Al and Jeff missed out on the best Messenger Prom to date. The chicagomessengerprom.com photo gallery is providing irrefutable evidence. Aside from growing ever so envious wasting away hours looking through awesome photos, you can gather 4 facts of life from this gallery. 1) Chicago is no bullshit when it comes to an amazing party. This man can rest assured knowing his labors were very fruitful.

2) If you put 3 really cool monkeys in a room for a few months, something brilliant will come of it. Emphasis on them being really cool monkeys.

3) The people have chosen. Ben and Liz have passed the torch. Queen Molly and King Josh it is...

4) Sometimes things happen that just make you feel like the world is getting right back to the way it belongs...