First note that it was the first alley cat ever held in Hamburg. We don't have the long lasting tradition of racing as you know it. There's just a very few who have what I call SPIRIT. Most are just doing their job and don't care about the rest. So it's always a group of 5 people who get something done (actually the ECMC organization team had an 8 person line-up). Whatever, they're not used to racing just for fun, organizing parties or whatever. They're not even interested in coming.
BUT this time, when we heared that the winner might win a free ticket to TO we just said ok, let's just do it. We realized that it's not too much stress organizing it. Start was Hein Koellisch Platz (just around the Reeperbahn).
We had six checkpoints: 3 subway stations, where the racers had to buy a ticket that allows you to use the platform which costs you 50 Pfennig (about the same in CAN$), 2 bars where two girls were waiting for them stamping their race sheets (you could ride right into one of them) and the finish. Well, the finish was a dirty trick. When the first people (totally out of breath) arrived at the "finish" they got one last checkpoint which was a bit difficult to get to. It was laid on the other side of the river Elbe, where you can get through a tunnel. So they went down with the elevator, through the tunnel and up on the other side. But they all found their way and when they left the tunnel they headed on to the party where we were waiting to welcome them.
58 min 43 seconds after leaving the start line, Bjorn (Fupi 431) and Sven (Deku 455) came riding up the Schanzenstr. holding hands. Bjorn nearly crashed into a pedestrian on his last few meters but we were lucky and we had our winner of the 1. HAMBURGER ALLEY CAT RACE. It's a shame but we have no photo of the winner, don't ask me why. By the way, the shortest way through the chaos was 26,5 kilometers, and 18 people participated.