Milano

So, I almost managed a day off. After an early start for an airport run to pack an injured rider back off home fr surgery and recuperation, I begged for some free time. It took some discussion to overcome reluctance from the powers that be to convince them that some time away from the house was a good thing for me.

So on a sunny Saturday, I headed into Milano for the Private Alleycat. My old mate Strom from Basel, that I hadn’t seen since the Cycle Messenger World Champs in Sydney back in 2006 worded me up. I got in touch with the organiser Matteo Castronouvo to see if he could sort me out.

Matteo hooked me up with a loaner bike as I was a little reluctant to take the nice roadie on public transport into a foreign city. Met up with Strom and Matteo at the train station, those two rode to Matteo’s place while I found my way on the metro across town. Matteo put the loaner into my hands and fed us lunch, tops. The cost of lunch was folding boxes in preparation for the race in the afternoon. I’ve organised a few races over the years, but nothing compared to Strom’s list of events, so we were both old hands at knowing what help is needed.

After lunch we rolled out to the start and hung out with the Milano fixed crew. As there are only 3 messengers in Milano, it was pretty impressive to see over 100 racers get ready to rock. The hipster scene is certainly alive and well in Milano. I decided the best option for me was to roll around with Matteo over taking on the alleycat on a loaner bike. So I spent the afternoon talking messenger rubbish with my new mate, it made for a great day.

Strom and Matteo

There is still quite a challenge to break down the reluctance of businesses to use bicycle messengers as it is a hard sell to convince them that they are the quickest and most efficient form of delivery transport in the consolidated urban environment. With the popularity of motorcycles and vespas in Italy, Matteo has his work cut out for him.

But, back to the event, he had high hopes that the hipster kids might gain an appreciation of the difference between riding a fixie and the messenger spirit that exists around the globe, and that to be a fast messenger isn’t just about straight line speed. Talking malarkey like this made me reminisce about my old messenger days and realise that it wouldn’t be a bad thing to end up back on the streets again one day. You do have to be careful though, some things are best left alone, take the good memories and be satisfied.

The race was won by Giorgio, Matteo’s young protege, not bad for a young bloke. Strom tagged his wheel and came in second and first out of towner. This made Matteo pretty pleased, he would have been shaking his head at his young charge if he’d been beaten by a pack of hipster kids…

Post race beers and war stories were order of the day, no different to any other race or most of the days spent on the road. There was a group ride down to the bike shop “Dodici”, which was a cool shop in a nice little ‘hood and the party got started.

Dodici

Unfortunately for me, there was a race on the next day that I had to go to, the Circuito del Porto – Trofeo Arvedi. I had to bail from the party just as it was warming up because I had at least an hour on PT to get home, providing the train connections sorted out ok. Took a bit of a stroll to get to the metro instead of a bus, nice night for it. A bunch if young kids gibbered at me, but I just kept walking, who knows whether they were looking for trouble, wanted ciagrettes or were looking for their lost cat. Either way, I don’t think I was going to be much help.

As it turns out, we took 3 soignies to Porto. 3, for a day race? You mean I could have rocked out with a bunch of cool locals and spent a lazy Sunday checking out some touristy stuff around Milano instead of heading to a day race where I wasn’t needed. I bit my tongue, PFFT. My tourist visit to Milano will have to wait.