Racers gathering, discussing routes, and trackstanding at Washington Square Park.

I've been a "serious" cyclist for about five years now. By serious, I mean I've learned to refrain from flapping my arms and cackling maniacally as I pedal, but I also mean biking with some degree of regularity and frequency. Yet in all that time, I hadn't done a single alleycat... until this past weekend.

The Works: Vol 1 was a great deal of fun. It was also very wet. My clothes were soaked through in the hour and a half or so of riding, and though it was alarming to feel my rear wheel constantly sliding around on the slick pavement, I managed to avoid falling. I felt like I didn't know exactly what I was doing, but I enjoyed hitting each checkpoint, getting my manifest stamped, and doing some of the cute tasks to earn points.

Out of roughly 90 people who raced, I placed 18th. Now, that sounds impressive, and at the time, pumped full of adrenaline, I felt pretty proud about finishing so well for my first race. But like I said, I didn't know exactly what I was doing. That became clear as I observed an interesting pattern. Everyone who placed above me had skipped the points tasks and went for pure speed. Everyone who came in after me had racked up lots of points from doing various challenges.

What this means is I actually sucked at both categories. I was too slow to compete with the fast people and I wasn't clever enough to get a substantial amount of points. Plus a bunch of folks bailed and went to the bar when it started raining. Apparently, I wasn't smart enough to do that, either.

Oh well.

At least it was fun. Have I mentioned it was for the kids?

Danger Danger Gallery.

At the afterparty, veggie dogs and Kenzinger eased the sting as I gazed longingly at the sweet prizes others had won.

It was no surprise that Mike T came in first, since he reportedly wins all these kinds of races. The upset of the day was second place, a guy named Kevin who's only been in West Philly for a few months. I heard he was seconds behind Mike! Say hi if you run into him, he's a beast.

Kevin, second place winner. Dreads make you faster.

The only thing that sucked was hearing that Tim collided with a car head-on at the Art Museum circle. He got taken to the trauma ward. Miraculously, he just suffered broken ribs and a bruised lung. The doctors wanted to keep him overnight, but he had a race to finish and a party to go to. And indeed, he made it:

Cars, man--WHY?

We're all happy he isn't dead.

And that's the race in a nutshell. I've heard that the pic Kyler and I did together at the Girl.Bike.Dog checkpoint is amazing, and almost got us a prize, but I haven't actually seen it yet. Hopefully it will magically appear on the interwebs soon.

So much other stuff has been happening, I'm feeling overwhelmed...

» The Commuter Challenge

My company's team is dominating. I've done 100% of my commutes by bike so far. We will crush you all.

» The Ride of Silence

I didn't make it, but I bet many cyclists rode around the city very, very quietly. They "let the silence roar." Um, hooray? SHHHH.

» Bike to Work Day

Tomorrow, Friday May 20th. Do it.

» Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby

It's this Saturday. Don't miss it.

So....

Saturday night some small and moral-free person broke into CPGF's* house and stole a tandem. It looked basically like this. 

(Except with canti brakes. And it says "Melbourne Express" in yellow)

What really made me livid was that is was INSIDE a kinetic sculpture derby sculpture. The thief carefully undid all hose clamps and left the sculpture tandemless. Jerk. 

Needless to say, if you see a black Melbourne Express tandem with 26" wheels and cantis, throw your lock on it and contact me and the cops in that order. (The cop who we filed a report with was skeptical. "Who steals a double bike?" he asked. "I don't know!" I said.) 

In better news, we found another similar though much jankier tandem and the awesomeness of the kinetic sculptures remains unimpaired. You should come!

Also, the alleycat last weekend was fabulous. Jeff did well in the race and I DOMINATED the goldsprints (though I think that had to do with my relative sobriety rather than any particular speediness). Jeff was gonna write it up....Right Jeff?

And a hundred thanks to Sean and James for organizing something wonderful.

So EYES OPEN for that tandem! And if you sock the thief over the head with your u-lock before double locking the bike, I won't tell.

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

*Charming and Patient Gentleman Friend

The Bicycle Coalition released a new report yesterday on the latest cycling trends in Philly. The news and radio programs have been covering it, as there's some pretty shocking stuff in there. For example, did you know that a lot more people are biking these days? It's true! The report also found that if a bike lane exists, cyclists will tend to ride in it instead of on the sidewalk! And, wonder of wonders: cyclists will actually choose bike-friendly streets over others that aren't. 

Advocacy speaks in the language of hard numbers, so I suppose I'm glad someone is counting bikes, crunching the data, and writing sentences in bold fonts for city bureaucrats to read.

Personally, my favorite parts are the graphs and charts and the stories they tell. Plus I like the pretty colors.

• In 2010, they counted 241 bikes per peak hour at the Walnut St bridge. That's 4 bikes a minute! Not too shabby.
• There's a large rebel army of bike commuters tucked away in Mount Airy. Look for it on the map.
• What the hell is going on in Chester County?!

Since I started bike commuting, I've actually met several co-workers who ride in to South Philly from Mount Airy, so reading about them in the report didn't surprise me. The Commuter Challenge website has finally gone up, by the way. The mountain rebels at my company are logging ridiculous numbers of miles.

My own commute, I've discovered to my great dismay, is only 3 miles, and not 4, as I'd originally thought. 

6 miles is average length. IT IS.

Mileage envy aside, all that really matters is that my team beats the Quaker Commuters.

Suck it, Quakers.

Finally, here are two items well worth your goofing-off-at-work time:

The Lovely Bicycle! blog had an interesting post last week about visiting a Central Pennsylvania town that should have been a great place for bicycles. Yet there were none around. Read "Why Not Here? Pondering the Ingredients of a Cycling Town."

And last but not least, check out Rides a Bike, a blog featuring photographs of movie stars on bikes, such as this one:

I've known about the blog for a while, but didn't realize it it was run by Philly's own Steven Rea, a columnist for the Inquirer, until he emailed recently and told us about it. He's found and posted 117 photos so far since kicking off the website in November, an impressive feat of archival research. But really, who's counting?

In an appalling blow to the cycling community, Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt died in a high speed crash today. He seems to have caught a pedal in a stone wall and fractured his skull. He was riding in the third stage of the Giro d'Italia. 

(He won the third stage this time last year)

It's a tragic reminder that even now, with advanced technology for preventing and treating injuries, cycling can be deadly. This isn't a reason to avoid it, of course, but to honor the bravery of those who ride every day, from commuters on the street to professionals in the grand tours. 

I'm not the biggest Leopard-Trek fan, but I hope Weylandt's team wins this year. 

(He is survived by his girlfriend and an unborn child)

Sad.

Do you like prizes? Because there's going to be some awesome ones at the alleycat race next weekend. Mark your calendars, kids!

This morning I ran into Sean, who has been working tirelessly the past few months on setting up the race and afterparty for The Works: Vol 1. I learned that the sponsor list is huge, and they've collected an enormous pile of booty--good stuff, too, not silly crap. I won't repeat some of the items he mentioned to me, but needless to say, I wiped drool off my chin as we talked. This means even if you are a slow-ass fool like me, you could still walk away with a decent prize. Sean and James have masterminded some really fun checkpoints too.

And not least of all, the race is benefiting Neighborhood Bike Works. Remember: it's for the kids.

Already there's some talk about making this a yearly event. You'll definitely want to say you were there at the first one, so be sure to make it out to both the race and the party.