Cycle crashes, carnage promised for N. American courier championships:
About 300 couriers will race course set out at U of A

by Jodie Sinnema
Edmonton Journal, July 7, 2001
 

They are bike couriers and they are wheeling their way into Edmonton this weekend for the North American Cycle Courier Championships.

``There will be lots of crashes, lots of carnage,'' says Calgary courier Jarvis Nicolas, 23, sporting a scab under his nose from a kiss with the concrete last week. He says he was left unconscious in the rain after a driver opened a car door in his path.

But he wouldn't exchange his baggy shorts for a suit and tie any day. ``It's like going out to play,'' he says. For him, it's all about freedom and adrenaline.

He and nearly 300 other couriers from as far away as Anchorage, Alaska and Houston, Tex., will be whizzing through the University of Alberta campus during a race that simulates a downtown speed zone.

Armed with office envelopes in dire need of speedy delivery, the cyclists will be squeezing through one-metre pathways, bouncing down stairs and over curbs and swooshing safely by pedestrians during a five-km qualifying race.

During the final event, they will make 114 stops and will have to guard against bad-boy biker bullies along the route who will steal bikes left without locks.

The couriers are a motley crew, some dressed in tight spandex and bright jerseys, others in loose khaki shorts with underwear peaking out the top.

``We love our job so much that we turn it into a sport,'' says Biker- Bill Thain, who runs an independent courier company in Edmonton. He says some take the championships extremely seriously, holding strategy meetings to plot a winning course towards the world championships in Budapest at the end of July. Winning the title can help launch a courier company, Thain says.

Other cyclists come primarily for fun. They participate in the more quirky events: the high-jump bunny hop, the longest and loudest skid contest, and an all-time favourite, the dispatch radio toss. During the bakery bike tour, cyclists fill up their gas tanks with donuts and croissants. And during a fast-pedalling stint on a stationary bike attached to a blender, cyclists can create their own fruit smoothies.

The fun offsets the stress of cycling along downtown streets.

``It is a fairly dangerous job,'' Thain says.
 

SATURDAY
9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free fruit smoothies blended with bicycle power at the Old Strathcona Farmers Market.
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Bakery bicycle tour: meet at Southgate Mall, southwest corner. Public welcome.
11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Qualifying races for the courier championships at the University of Alberta Quad, north of the administration building.

SUNDAY
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Qualifying races continue.
12 to 6 p.m. Free fruit smoothies at the U of A.
1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Skid contest, sprints, bunny hop contest and other special race events.
4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Final courier race

Or try a guided bike tour. Public welcome to join in.
One tour is of historical sites. The other is of bike-related sites.