Shayne gets a Valentine's Day card

Shayne could not participate in the lovely annual Velo Vixens' Alley Cat fundraiser so aptly described by Mitch in the last post. Shayne claims he could not make it because of excessive horizontal gymnastics the previous night and on the day before the race. That of course, is a very lame excuse, but I suppose there are worse ones out there. However, some of us suspect that he was off fighting cougars again, which may or may not be exactly what he's talking about. Chevy had an illumination at the party after the race and went ahead and bought Shayne a very special Velotines valentine's card, to be specially delivered by the Velo Vixens themselves. This was a part of the Vixens' fund raising efforts and a fine idea at that. So all of us were waiting sort of anxiously on Saturday for the Vixens to show up. Once they did, there would be no disappointments. The store was exceptionally busy at the moment they arrived and even though Shayne looked a bit perplexed by the Vixens' wardrobe, (which was very stylish by the way) he did not realize they were there for him. I had to inform Shayne that these fine looking ladies were actually there to see him... What followed was an exciting dance routine by the Vixens and a professional delivery of the valentine card. In all the commotion I almost forgot to grab a camera and take a shot of the spectacle but I just managed to get of a shot before it was all over. You can see Shayne's rosy cheeks, if you look closely, and the crank set he's holding suggest that he was caught totally by surprise. An entertaining scene to say the least.

Odd Underpants, Excitable Vikings and Metalic Mammals...

The Velo Vixens Alley Cat race / Variety show went down last night on the streets of Victoria. The epicenter for all the bedlam was the Camus book store in Quadra st. village. The Race consisted of five checkpoints throughout the city. The checkpoints were spread out all the way from Recyclistas to Clover Point to the Delta hotel. At each checkpoint there was a Vixen or two ready with a fun game or challenge to be completed before you could leave for the next stop. After visiting each checkpoint, in any order you saw fit, we were to return to the bookstore/finishline for the afterparty show.

Our intrepid team of adventurers, consisting of Haldor (viking cat), Justin (steel wolf) and Mitch (magnanimous), left the start line with the rest of the riders at 7:30ish. Imediately there was mass confusion off the line as all the riders took off at full speed through an intersection. And since the checkpoints could be visited in any order, all the riders were going in different directions as fast as they could. I nearly careened in to two or three other riders within the first twelve feet of the race.

<-The Riders team... impressive.

Once we emerged from the initial melee, our trio rode incedent free for at least, oh, say a block, Until Viking Cat got confused and must have thought he was pillaging a small village 300 years ago. He charged into traffic with reckless abandon, hurling Norse insults at any driver who dared venture near him. "Eulalia!!" he kept screaming. "Eulalia!!"... if any one knows what that means, let me know. Steel Wolf and I were so taken back by Viking Cat's agressive style, that we became confused and imediately lost each other down side streets. the race had been on for two and a half minutes now and we had nearly had several collisions and had lost sight of each other completely. I was already delerious with joy. What fun. We rendezvoused at Recycalistas and continued on reunited from there.

Steel 'effin Wolf ->

There is perhaps too much detail for a short "Blog" story, but the rest of the night was filled with bike-joy, laughter, sore legs and Soda pops. Some highlights include; running around Clover point with bags on our heads trying to find Buns to accomodate our weiners, being wary of Haldor as we ride in close proximity down a steep hill because he is spinning his fixie so fast that I'm sure he'll explode at any second and kill all three of us in some horrible fixie death crash, hearing the name "Steel Wolf" spoken aloud, realizing that the 'velo-vixen' underpants I'd purchased for the race are actually 'womens XL', post race pasta and pops, etc. The list could go on.

After returning to the book store in a respectable 10'th place... outof,cougheleven,cough. We took in the atmosphere of the afterparty. In all seriousness, I must say that the energy surrounding bike folk is always excellent. A mix of joy and eccentricity.

I would say that the event was well organized, the Vixens are a great bunch of fun-loving girls and everyone who took part in the race or the post-race show had a great time. This was my first 'alley-cat' style race and i must say that it was sooo much fun. I can't wait for the upcoming 'Viking-Cat' race.

Two large thank-you's are in order: To the owner of Camus Bookstore for letting a bunch of weird bikers use the space. And to Chevy who carted around our, uh... rehydration liquid.

"Eulaila!!!" -Viking Cat