As a publicity stunt for the film, "Don Giovanni..." director Davey Davis organized Salt Lake's largest ever alleycat race. As producer of the film, I was definitely required to participate but I wasn't going to be caught with my pants down on my first alleycat.
Enter Stuart Ford, a very close friend of mine and the face of my film "Wastage." Stuart had very good luck one day when he found a vintage Schwinn race bike on the side of the road with a sign that said "free" taped to it. This bike is worth about a billion times more than free and sprints super fast despite being more than 25 years old. My bike was out of commission due to a broken brake so I phoned in a favor from Stuart. I raced on the Schwinn.
An alleycat works like a scavenger hunt on bikes. You're given a list of locations with specific tasks or puzzles for each one. It is up to the racer to decide the best path to take between locations as well as the order of the locations. Therefore the race is just as much about planning a good route than it is about how fast you ride.
I formed a riding group with my long time friends Lauren Wood and Nels Jorgensen. The three of us set off into the city and aside from one backtracking section we chose a great route. About halfway through the race we all decided that we weren't going to win the race so we may as well stop for a burrito on the way. After a short Barbacoa break we powered up a huge hill and finished the race in 28th place out of 67 total racers. Not bad considering our extra stop for food.
One of the stops along the way was a photo-op on your bike. These were snapped by the talented Tom Fleming.
All of us look pretty good despite having been riding for an hour. It was a super fun time, but Lauren and Nels definitely made it the highlight of April.
