$500 for first fixed
$500 for first geared
+ tons of Incase giveaways and free espressos by De La Paz coffee.

773 14th St
San Francisco, CA 94114
1PM Sunday May 1st.

Well, 6 days and 5 nights in Tokyo…it was really fun. It took me 4 days to come down from the trip. I feel like I have to wrap up the CMWC before it’s too late, but there is so much more from Tokyo that I have to share. So, what did I get from Tokyo? Let see: 2 pairs of Japanese natural indigo dyed denim pants, two Japanese chambray shirts, hundreds of new friends, and proof of true love. (Yes, I asked, and she said yes.)

Though I had been to Tokyo numerous times, this trip was the first time I traveled through the city by bicycle. Was it easy? Yes! Tokyo streets are perfect for city riding. I’m no city planner, but it was very easy to navigate around and change lanes and directions, even though they drive on the left. The roads are in top condition: smooth, not bumpy with potholes like San Francisco. Cars know how to share the road with bicycles. My lady had never ridden a bike in city traffic, but she had no problem splitting lanes between cars and trucks going 40 km/hr.

Oh I almost forgot—CMWC results!!! Well, the organizer only had a chance to announce the first 3 men’s and women’s finishers for the main race.

Here the breakdown: out of 380 racers that came for qualification, 60 men and 10 women were in the main race.

Main Race: Men’s

1. Juri (Tokyo)
2. Shino (Tokyo)
3. Stevie (Zurich)

Main Race: Women’s

1. JoJo (Stockholm)
2. Yuki (Tokyo)
3. Christina (Chicago)

Fixie King: Jumbo (Copenhagen)

Sprint: Men’s: Alex Forolettii (Canada?)

Sprint: Women’s: Alex’s girlfriend (forgot her name)

Skid: Men’s: Jumbo (Copenhagen)

Skid: Women’s: Sarah Murder (San Francisco)

Backwards Circle: Daz (149 ROUNDS!!!)

Track Stand: I don’t know. Someone needs to fill me in on this. I left when the organizer decided not to let both men and women compete at the same time.

How about the two people that I followed throughout the event? Both qualified for the final. Fergus came in 15th, and Mr. Chas was DQed because he can’t read the rules. Actually, he finished the race, but had 3 packages left in his bag, so he was disqualified. :(

But you know what? Everyone was a winner.

CMWC Tokyo was well organized, perhaps a little too well organized for my tastes. I thank them for taking the time to organize the event. Turnout at the race venue was in the thousands each day. Bottom line is, I had a hell of a lot of fun. Thank you to Incase for all the Japanese denim garments I bought, thank you to all the friends that let me take pictures of you doing nasty move and funny faces. Thank you to my lady Jassy for booking the room, helping carrying camera equipment and being the prettiest girl in the show. I love you.

Next year: CMWC 2010 Guatemala—I’m going!!!!

Check out the entire CMWC 2009 Flickr set.

Previous CMWC posts:

• Trick Comp and CMWC Qualifications
• CMWC Arrival and Registration
• Incase Sponsored Riders at CMWC Tokyo

On Sunday, there wasn’t much going on at CMWC, but around 6 pm, people were meeting up for an alley cat and trick competition at Meiji Park organized by the W-Base crew. I think about 200 people were there, including lots of kids with BMX style track bikes.

Day 1 (qualification day) of the CMWC race event was on Tuesday. The venue is by the Fuji TV building on a man-made island in Tokyo Bay. The race circuit is so big; I couldn’t count how many people were there, but I think it was in the thousands. There were lines of vendors selling almost everything bike-related.

Qualifications started around 10 am, with racers lining up and taking turns to ride the course. The racers were handed a set of 12 order forms and had to complete all orders accurately and efficiently. The racers had 2 hours to turn in all 12 order forms at the finish line and were judged on sales profit and time. The last racer came in about 5 pm.

There were also backwards circle and track stand competitions. The first day did not end until around 8:30 pm. The racers will find out f they qualify for the final day at the after party venue near Shibuya, where they will announce names and qualification rankings. I did not make it to the party; too tired.

Previous CMWC posts:

• CMWC Arrival and Registration
• Incase Sponsored Riders at CMWC Tokyo

Only this time it’s a bit different since the race will consist of three stages:

1. Drag Race
2. Alleycat
3. Goldsprints

Who will win the individual stages and who will be the overall winner?

Meet up at the Cyclocross parking lot at 9:30pm.

I got into Tokyo on Saturday evening. The flight from SF was amazing. Japan Airlines is my favorite airline; they did not hassle me about the large bike cases I had with me, no question about what was in the cases, no large baggage fees. I think it is because I packed the box and did not go over the 50 lb. weight limit. I brought an Alex Moulton road bike and a Colnago track bike (Alex Moulton for my girlfriend and the track bike for myself). I am quite happy that I brought the road bike because in the CMWC race, track bikes must have brakes. The Colnago track bike doesn’t have brake holes.

We checked in at Westin hotel in Ebisu. Sunday, we got up real early to build up the bikes and hit the road.

We went to W-Base to meet Yohei. W-Base is a well-known track bike shop. Yohei used to be a messenger in San Francisco; he moved back to Tokyo last year and is now W-Base’s store manager. Of course, many people that were in town for CMWC showed up one after another while we were at W-Base. W-base is off Meiji Dori near Shibuya.

After that, I went to register for the race at B1 Building, also in Shibuya. The CMWC Tokyo registration team is very well organized. It’s located in the basement of the building. You walk down and come to the first table, where they check your name and accept your registration fees. They gave me a package that included a wristband for foot down competition, a race number sign to attach to my bag (my number was 69). Along the line, they took my picture to make my ID card, which I used to gain entry to various events every night.

Lots of people showed up at the registration office and flocked the whole street with messengers, boys and girls and their bikes, their bags and even their sleeping bags, sleeping on the street.

After the registrations we went to Club Asia to see the Goldsprint race. Club Asia is also in Shibuya. The party started at 3pm. Again, tons of people showed up and flocked the whole single lane street. By about 9pm, the whole street got even crazier because people would come out of the nearby bar.

Some other messenger groups, the San Francisco crew, were down the street hanging out in front of 7-Eleven. I thought that was funny: drunk messengers decided to pick 7-Eleven as their drinking base.

Lots of people from around the world showed up for the event. We got to meet Irish, Scottish, Finnish, Taiwanese, Swedes, French, Germans, and even Australians. Everyone was happy to be in Tokyo, share their stories, exchange cultures and, best of all, make new friends.

Previous: Incase Sponsored Riders at CMWC Tokyo

Name: Chas Christiansen
Age: 24 years old
Location: I live in San Francisco
Hometown: Olympia, Washington
Day Job: I am a bike messenger for Special T Delivery
Race History: I have lately been to the ECMC and NACC (3rd overall and 1st in sprints) and the worlds last year in Toronto and NACC in Chicago (17th overall)
Most memorable messenger experience: My best messenger memory is when I had a rush job… turned out it was fresh breast milk that I was picking from a law firm and taking to the kid at his rich ass house up in the hills. Really had to get hot on that one.
Favorite bike blog: I check CycleZine.

Name: Fergus Liam Tanaka
Age: Old enough
Location: San Franfuckingcisco
Hometown: Dixon, CA
Day Job: Bike Messenger
Race History: win some, lose some.
Most memorable messenger experience: The day I was hired as a messenger… probably one of the happiest days of my life.
Favorite bike blog: what’s a “blog?”

Name: Puck Ananta
Age: 32
Location: San Francisco
Hometown: Bangkok, Thailand
Day Job: Mechanical Engineer, Photo Journalist, Blogger, Fakesenger and International jet-set!
Race History: NACCC San Francisco 2007, Registered to race CMWC2009Tokyo
Most memorable fakesenger experience: being let into building in downtown as courier…
Favorite bike blog: CycleZine, MASHSF, Prolly Is Not Probably and trackosaurus rex.

Good luck guys!

1. Chas
2. Rainier Schaefer, congrats on winning the Skate Messenger Bag!
3. Julian Stranger

(via MASH SF)

Tomorrow, Sunday May 17th, MASH SF present: Breakers to Bay Race

Start: 10am at Java Beach Cafe 1396 La Playa Street.

30 minute route.

$1600 in prizes for the top 5 racers.
Cinelli, Vittoria, Dodici, The North face and a Skate Messenger Bag.

The tenth annual Monster Track Race theme this year was A Day in the Life of a NYC Messenger. Riders came from all over the US, Europe, and Japan to experience the exhilarating ride in NYC traffic. The checkpoints were all based on real life stops of a NYC messenger.

My favorite stop was Continuum Cycles because it is what I call the default location for the messengers I know. That’s where I know I can find the messengers who aren’t busy making deliveries. I love that the only rule is No Brakes and I love that the snow waited on the race to end!

More photos in this Flickr set.