Risk
In some ways, the takeoff of alleycat style races has helped to validate the physically and mentally demanding work of bike messengers. At the same time, the mystique built up around alleycats likewise involves running red lights, riding against traffic, and heavy drinking. Some people hate alleycat racers for their devil-may-care notoriety; others fantasize about having the skills to carve a path through unpredictable traffic. As multimedia technology has grown more accessible and social media more inherent to everyday life, the apparent daredevil moves have enchanted a wider audience of novice cyclists bent on getting in on the action.
“I’d be in a few events where.a police car is chasing us…but they can’t really catch you,” says Squid. “You kind of just disappear into traffic.” Not everyone is so lucky though, and it’s not unheard of to get a ticket in the midst of all the excitement.
For the most part cops don’t bother with the races. The greater concern is safety for those involved, and others using the streets for regular travel—rather than as a race course. Most of the time, no one gets badly hurt and everyone has the best time ever. Someone has a brush with a car on occasion.
It was in Chicago in 2008 that everyone’s worst nightmare took place: “I was living in Texas but heard immediately about Matt Lynch’s death in the Tour da Chicago. I knew that intersection. I knew other people who were racing that day,” says Munson. “There was a definite reaction. People lashed out against alleycats, against people riding dangerously in traffic. Other races got cancelled, some were changed in format to minimize risk, but ultimately, it seemed like very little actually happened. For those of us who have long-ridden in traffic, especially in a place like Chicago that’s an endless freak show of bad drivers, it does underscore the real risk of riding. Not just in races, but in traffic on an everyday basis.”
“It’s super easy to fall into this cliché that it’s this ridiculous thrill-seeking, adrenaline junkie thing—the number one thing in mind when I go out to race is to keep myself as safe as possible,” Frane says. “People say there’s ‘hellions on the streets’—it’s so much more nuanced than that. People miss that because they see it as reckless behavior, but it’s not reckless behavior at all. It is the precise expression of this unique skill set. When you cut some beautiful lines through downtown traffic, it just feels great.”