Stupor Bowl XII

That's right, Stupor Bowl, the annual alleycat bike race around Minneapolis on the day before the less well-known "Super Bowl", some kind of a TV ball game usually held in a warm place. This years' Stupor Bowl was held in rather congenial weather, maybe +35F, with a total of 23 stops, mostly at bars, where your paper manifest had to receive an ink stamp to authenticate your arrival. The winner made all the stops, a distance of about 25 miles or so in 2 1/2 hours. There were roughly 400 contestants, men and women. Reliable numbers aren't easy to come by because the bike social scene just isn't very, well, reliable. Imagine releasing a herd of hung-over bicyclists simultaneously from one location in a fairly good-sized city. And then they scatter in every direction, going down the middle of two-way streets, the wrong way on one-ways, through red lights, virtually everything you wish you could do with a car. The after race party and awards ceremony was held at the Nomad on Cedar Ave. I left as soon as it started because I didn't wish to get caught up in the tatoo exhibition and really wished to avoid the "Charles Manson look-alike contest. At least it looked like they were going to have one.