one final word...

thank you again to nico for providing us with great reports to keep all of us who could not go informed as to whats going on at the worlds...

part four:

so its sunday morning, and those of us who are still lingering in tokyo are starting to pack up our bikes and wares in preparation of the journey home. this has been one of the most amazing experiences of all of our lives. yesterday we were given the honor of racing at keiokaku tokyo oval. this is considered one of the most prestigious keirin tracks in all of japan. only professional keirin racers are usually allowed to even set foot on these tracks, but the tokyo bike messenger association once again was able to put together an event to be remembered. it was a full day of racing including a flying 200, match sprints, an 8000m scratch race, and keirin. chicago did really well, led by none other that mr. al urbanski (whose birthday is today btw!), christina, and molly. the day's events however were dominated by alex and hannah from los angeles... these two are both professional racers and INSANELY FAST! it was a pleaseure to watch them race. the final results were also posted for the main race and yours truly wound up taking 16th overall... thats chicago style! the track day was the perfect cap to a flawless week of events and parties. many new friendships were forged and i cannot wait until the next time we get to see all these great people... especially if we can bring them all home to chicago in 2012. the tkbma has found themselves in massive debt after throwing this event. literally millions and millions of yen (which is roughly hundreds of thousands of dollars) were spent so that we could all come out here. and this is coming from people who make very little money... anyone who messengers anywhere knows that we barely make enough to get by doing this work. these guys put their hearts into this and are now financially struggling. they will never ask for any help with their situation, so at the second open forum we as a community decided to come together to help these guys recoup some if not all of their expenses. by christmas, the city who raises the most money for these guys will recieve two free registrations to cmwc guatemala 2010. its not a crazy huge prize, but this isn't about us... its about the tkbma. we will be holding alleycats and parties back in the chi to raise money for these cats in the hope that their lives can return to normal. this is really important for them, but also for the community as a whole. its important that we recognize that this goes beyond any one city and is a global community. we are all in this together. october 12 will mark the first official effort towards fundraising in the form of a downtown alleycat. alleycat racing in chicago is coming back, and anyone whose been racing them the last two months knows how much fun it can be. so its time for us to come home to chicago and get this ball rolling. we are already getting things together for our bid in guatemala. the last of the crew will be leaving super early monday morning, but i know i will see you all back in the streets monday. i can't wait!

im sure chicago will do what they can to help tokyo out. it seems as if they put on a great event and i don't see why we wouldn't help them out a bit. i'll keep you cats posted as to what events will be planned. check out al's race report over at the cuttin'crew page. congratulations to all of chicago for rep'n the way we all know they would...peace.