Driver tries to kill cyclists in Critical Mass - Porto Alegre, Brazil

On Friday February 25th a driver plowed through the peaceful Critical Mass ride in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Of the 130 riders 20 were hit and 9 went to the hospital.
Despite how it looks (you see the incident unfold in the video) all the injured riders were released from the hospital after treatment.

This serves as a tragic reminder that this could happen in any city at any Critical Mass.

The story that I got this video footage from can be found here or just Google Critical Mass Brazil and there are many links about what happened.


Not for the faint of heart...

NEW LAWRENCE RACE DATE CONFIRMED!!!

Dearest Lawrence,

KC Sprints is set to be in your town on Friday April 22nd, of the queen's year 2011 at the Replay Lounge. You are cordially invited to attend aforementioned event and partake in many fine ales, frivolity and the occasional swashbuckling.

Come out to race your friends, enemies, teammates, spouses, mistresses, boss, employees, co-workers, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters.

Hell come out and challenge that drunk asshole at the end of the bar that hates it when cyclists invade "his" bar.

Come cheer!

Come heckle!

Come drink!

Come puke!

*Attention Tournament Racers!*
Bragging rights & fabulous prizes are yours for the winning!
You can't win if you don't play

Save the date and tell your friends!
We've invited all of our friends but since we need more than Jones' parents to show up to have the race invite yours too!

MORE INFO TO COME!!!!

sincerly yours
uNKy jOIns , OE ZEEEEK!, kc jev jev

2k Race at Tour Da Cowtown....

Tooling around the tubes and came across this photo (there's a video as well but I can't seem to download it). We'll call it Exhibit A...

Pre-baby & Pre-marriage the duo collectively known as "KeanAsm". Love and miss you guys.

awkward handshake
uNKy jOIns

Stupor Bowl

If you know or hang out with Jones (AKA uNkY jOIns) at all you might have heard him grumbling a week or two ago about something called the Stupor Bowl. Grumbling because he had planned to attend only to discover at the last minute that the finances just weren't there to make the trip.
We made the trip up last year and had a blast. It was by far one of the best weekends I've had in Minneapolis.
I was supposed to go along this year too.
I was already wondering if I could afford to go so his decision to bail, although a let down, was also a relief.
It just wasn't in the cards for either of us this year.
Not that the weekend its self cost all that much, we have a free place to stay, all we would need is food and beer. Its the fuel costs for 14+ hours (round trip) of driving that is the kicker. Gas aint cheap.
Needless to say we didn't go. We found other ways to spend our weekend.

Back to the point.

The Stupor Bowl.
What is it?
The Stupor Bowl is the biggest and longest running Alley Cat bike race in North America.
An Alley Cat race is bicycle messenger style race where you have a number of destinations you must hit to get checked off you manifest. The fastest person to hit all the stops & get to the finish is the winner.
However, the Stupor Bowl also has another race with in the race.
The Stupor Race, where racers hit drinking stops and must do the drink for each stop. The fastest to hit all the drinking stops, have all the drinks and get to the finish first wins.
2 races, roughly 20-ish stops, approximatively 300 racers & one big party.
Simple enough eh?
Maybe not.
You have to keep in mind that this race happens in Minneapolis, Minnesota the first weekend of February. The weather conditions can range anywhere form 30 degrees and sunny to -2 and snowy..
The weather plays a factor. Icy and snowy streets play a big factor.
More so for the large number of racers that attend from out of town. Some from places where it never even snows.
Sounds fun eh?

Jones and I attended Stupor Bowl 13 last year and had a blast. And we didn't even do the race!
We cruised around town all day hitting some of the bar stops, spectating and generally have a good time.
You can see our photos from the weekend here (Jones) and here (mine).

Once again back to the point.

I was doing my normal web surfing and checking out some sites I like and came across this video.
Its called Down By the Weep Hole and was made during Stupor Bowl 12.
Its pretty good and gives you an idea of what the event is all about. It features many of the colorful characters of the MPLS cycling scene and has some good Stupor Bowl history in it.

Its about 25 minutes long so pop some pop corn, open a beer, kick back and watch it.
Odds are you are at work so its not like you have anything else to do.


DOWN BY THE WEEP HOLE: The story of the Stupor Bowl from Nathaniel H. Freeman on Vimeo.

There is a great recap of the event on the All-City Blog. Check it out.

The Secret to Changing the World

ridiculous....

via Stephen M. Johnson

Photos from the Buzzard Beach

Sorry it took awhile but here are the photos we got from our unpaid intern....

You can find the rest of the photo set on my Flickr page. Thanks again to everyone who came out and we'll be seeing you again on March 25th at the Beach!

hugs and pinches
uNKy jOIns

UMKC article

This may or may not have been published yet:

Slow and steady may win the race, but you’d be surprised how far drunk and desperate can get you.

On Friday the 28th, Buzzard Beach held a bicycle tournament to find out who has the best inebriated cycling skills in Westport.

The event was sponsored by KC sprints 2011, which is a group of enthusiasts around KC who put on simulated bike races.

The seedy atmosphere of Buzzard helped to create a laid-back, contented feeling during the contest. Bar patrons were amused by the antics. Many were cheering riders on vehemently and drunkenly spewing swear words even more fervently.

Two riders face off. Each mounts their bike, one facing the other. The front wheel of each is gone, and the whole bike frame is held in place, fastened by bolts. The rear wheel of each bike rests between two stainless steel cylinders. The cyclist’s pedaling turns the bike’s wheel, which, in turn, spins the cylinders. The whole apparatus is hooked up to a machine that calculates the riders’ speeds and distances.

The competition was fierce, but it came down, as all races do, to the last two riders. They were known only by their aliases. TWA and Black.
Each rider, drenched in sweat, threw off his shirt, exposing a healthy grouping of muscles beneath.

TWA looked ready for anything. His eyes remained calm as a lake on a windless day while his back tattoo seemed to beg for freedom from the skin that held it captive.
But Black just sat as if a stoic God. His legs were all the strength he need command. Like tree-trunks, they were rooted fast to his bike’s stirrups. No sooner had the race begun than was its glorious victor shaking TWA’s hand, commending him for putting up as much of a fight as he had.

As the tournament slowed to a stop, hands were placed on the bare back of TWA, consolingly patting away. Then, promptly, those hands were whisked back and wiped clean of the rider’s slimy sweat on everything from tee shirts to skin-tight jeans.
After Black was announced the winner, friends rushed up to congratulate him. Fist bumping took place between sips of delicious yellow nectar housed within aluminum Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) cans.

During the competition, free PBR Stuff We All Get (SWAG) was being handed out. Most popular among the SWAG was a hand-cranked bicycle bell, the kind that goes ka-ching, ka-ching, with the PBR logo emblazoned on it by way of sticker. Ringing could be heard throughout the dive bar, and certainly throughout all of Westport that Friday night.

More than anything the event at Buzzard on Friday promoted bicycling in general.
A great deal of Kansas-Citians rely on their 2-wheeled machines on a daily basis to make it to school or work on time. The more places like Buzzard Beach can feature bicycle-related events, the more Kansas City can move towards a more bike-friendly future. And I’ll drink to that.
-Sam Towns

It also has been confirmed that our next Kansas City race will be March 25th at the Buzzard Beach (yes again, god bless the Buzzard Beach). If you missed the last one be sure you make out this time. Again on Critical Mass night. See you ladies there...

Hugs and Pinches
uNKy jOIns