Sunday 2nd May saw the first alleycat take place through the streets of Cardiff.

Spoke card

The day started out to be pretty grim, with a fair amount of rain and a 22mph wind so naturally the thought was that there’d be a few less entrants than had been expected. However, come midday, the clouds broke and the rain relented (same can’t be said for the wind unfortunately) and by registration time, the sun was out and the racers started to arrive at the start and end point, Cardiff City Hall.

By 2.45 there was an awesome turnout of 23 registrants coming from London, Bristol, Swansea and of course Cardiff – all armed with a bike, a takeaway menu (or piece of paper) and the notion that they were bound to get lost tracking down the 5 restaurant-based checkpoints.

It was a traditional Le Mans start with all bikes lined up against the curb and the riders with a short dash to get to them. On the dot of 3 the race was on.

Most people went for the clockwise route, taking in Newport Road, Cardiff Bay, Penarth, Canton and Gabalfa but a few of the locals seemed to be onto something and headed for the Bay first – the final results would see if their maverick move would pay off.

Once everyone was off and pedalling it was time to sit back, crack open a can of Brains and wait an hour or so to see who would either limp back or return victorious.

After just a couple of minutes, Dave ran back desperately searching for a spanner as his pedal was about to fall off. Soon after he was back out on the tail of the rest of the pack. About half an hour after that a dirty-handed Sion also returned after fixing a puncture at the first checkpoint and decided he’d “never catch them up”. Our one and only DNF.

A couple of beers later and about 52 minutes after the start, we caught sight of a couple of riders just coming in off the North Road – it was the leading pack. First in was Al from Bristol, followed by Action from London and hot on their tails, Owen from Swansea. Just behind them was one of Cardiff’s own, Paul, the hot favourite who had put together the route, but decided it was a good idea to stay out drinking until 4am that morning.

Rumour has it that had Owen not been hit by a bus, Swansea would have taken the top spot – some say the Swansea boys are still reeling from the whooping they got at the Scenic Sprint not too long ago!

Soon after, the rest of the riders made it back in. Results as follows:

  1. Alistair
  2. Action
  3. Owen
  4. Paul D
  5. Steve
  6. Paul B
  7. Jeff
  8. Ben
  9. Osian
  10. Tyron
  11. Evs
  12. Si
  13. Spesh
  14. Craig
  15. Dave
  16. Matt
  17. Pip
  18. Julian
  19. Benjamin
  20. Corbin
  21. Jake
  22. Garry
  23. Sion (DNF)

During the course of the race, we had two riders down (Owen – see above, and Spesh who stacked it at the first set of lights – probably due to the weight of the satnav he’d gaffer taped to his bars!), a couple of our checkpoints “moved on” and a few people getting lost. All in all though it was agreed by everyone that Paul had set up a blinding race and the top 3 were even more grateful that he led them round the route just so they could take advantage of his hangover and nail him at the end.

Next up, the trackstand and skid comps.

The trackstand was won by Jake from Bristol after a sterling 2 or so minutes, seeing off the competition with a deft grab of the seat post after a no-handed stint.

And finally, Cardiff salvaged some pride with Matt winning the skid comp with a distance that no one else came close to touching – SPDs people, the future!

At the end, prizes were distributed from our sponsors (in no particular order):

and very few people left empty handed – thanks to all those that donated for your generosity.

A special mention has to go out to the Swansea boys and girls, the Bristolians that made it (the rest of the trackdropouts lot were obviously too scared to come!) and the brothers Maloney from London . Cheers for making the journey.

There’s already talk of another event before the end of the summer, even threats of a 55 mile route from Brecon back to the city. Stay posted for details…

More photos can be found here and here, and a video here (thanks Dave and Jeff).