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.