Alley Cat report from Oakland

Besides all the bad shit that is happening to cyclists here...Alleycat racing is alive and well and blowin up all over the map.

On June 24th was the Oakland Scrape

John (known as McBomb on flickr, filed this report:

photo page for Oakland Scape

100 riders wait to race...nice turnout.

Lesse, if you look in my Oakland Scrape set, there are placings for Fixed and non fixed, 1-5
first fixed was Gareth Spor (also 3rd overall), second fixed was Rainier, third fixed was Scott Banker, thrid and fourth were "donut king" and I can't remember the other guys name. First overall was Jeff on a roadbike, second overall was geared but I can't remember his name.

the race was about 30mi in a car if you took the most direct route, but I think most people took a route to avoid traffic and hills, I'm not sure what the logic was, but it came out to more like 35mi. This is supposedly the first Alleycat ever held in Oakland, I know it's the biggest. Possibly the biggest ever held in the Bay Area. We had a few people show up from way out of town. We gave away somewhere over $2000 in prizes and a bunch of freebes in the registration packets. Our sponsors are listed on oaklandscrape.com . First prize (first place fixed gear) was a Brass Knuckles track frame from Montano Velo (brass knuckles is the new aluminum frame from the company that makes Bare Knuckles) and an XL Messenger bag from Timbuk2, Second prize (second place fixed gear) was a pair of pink Phil Wood hubs and a Chrome Messenger bag. Third prize (third place fixed) was a large Timbuk2 messenger bag and a pair of Surly hubs. First place geared was a pair of Campagnolo Rims, second place geared was a pair of nice $50 road tires. there were more prizes but I can't remember all of them, and EVERYONE who placed got a ton of swag in the form of bike socks, t-shirts, pint glasses, flasks.... you name it. our sponsors sent tons of stuff.

the whole race was to raise money for charity, the charity was Cycles of Change, there's a link to them on oaklandscrape.com
Video of the race.