A Real Twist on Velodrome Racing
by Alan Cote
Bicycling, March 1998
Despite the tattoos, body piercings and the pounding music of bandssuch as the Muscle Bitches, Toronto’s annual Alley Cat Scramble smacksof the good old days of indoor cycling: the 1930s when gruelling six-daytrack races drew more crowds than off-track betting. The modern races don'tlast as long, but the atmosphere is the same: air clogged with smoke (someof it even from tobacco), beer flowing, spectators screaming, riders bruisedand battered.
The Scramble is absolutely not an ordinary bike race. It’s held on theHuman-Powered Roller Coaster,a portable figure-eight track constructed in vacant warehouses and otherroomy venues. The origin of this alternative form of cycling comes notsurprisingly from the sport’s maverick stepchildren, city bike messengers.
Illegal renegade races known as alley cats, which recklessly careenthrough busy city streets, have been a favorite form of courier entertainmentfor years.
Looking for a less lawless option, some Toronto area messengers setup a figure-eight track on the frozen surface of Lake Ontario during long,frigid Canadian winters. While the inevitable collisions between riderswas said to be part of the fun, they sparked an idea in the mind of localcycling mensch and coffee house owner Johnny Jet Fuel Engler for a newbreed of alley cat.
The unofficial leader of Toronto’s messenger scene, Engler (a caffeine-wired33-year-old) convinced Dunhill cigarettes to cough up $100,000 for theHuman Powered Roller Coaster in 1996. Designed by landscape architect JohnConsolati, the lumber-framed track is floored with four-by-eight-footsheets of 5/8-inch thick plywood, which are cut into pie shaped piecesto form the turns.
It takes seven days for a crew of eight to unstuff the track from its48-foot shipping container and assemble it in whatever warehouse has beencommandeered. The current schedule has the track built twice a year, fora fall Vancouver event and a spring edition in Toronto. The winner of lastNovember’s Scramble in Vancouver earned a free trip to the Cycle MessengerWorld Championships.
Whipping around the 38-degree bankings, a lap on the track covers ascant 125 meters (410 feet) so small and tight it’s like riding aroundinside a hot tub. The over/under design includes a 10- floor-high bridgethat eliminates the T-boning inherent with the original ice version.
With endless undulations and ultra-tight turns, racers are just as concernedwith staying on the track as they are with pure speed. If you lose yourline, you're dead, said competitor Laura Hopcroft. You don't slide on plywoodlike you do on ice.
Riders can choose their own weapon at any time, resulting in a bizarremix of road, mountain and fixed-gear bikes all racing together. The 150entrants are split into small groups and winners advance to the four-person,50-lap final.
Vague rules also mean race action quite unlike anything else. If youwant to take a guy out, for example, you can, but then you'll have to dealwith him later, says Engler, who also acts as chief referee. This may bethe next best thing Canada has brought to spectator sports since ice hockey.
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