a mere 14 messengers had gathered at NIRIFAK for the 2nd chapter of the Amsterdam alleycat series set up by Vis and last races winner Jur. if id hadn't been for those brave Germans who came all the way from Freiburg to race in the freezing cold we would have found ourselves (again) outnumbered by the checkpoints to come. the start was to be behind the central station were we were instructed to take the boat to Amsterdam-noord and then back to rush off into the night lit streets as soon as the doors would open again on the Amsterdam-side of the ij. Some ten minutes later the whole bunch of us was spotted to leave the ferry like rats abandoning a sinking ship.

the pack stayed more or less together till the 2nd checkpoint were we got our next manifest. then Kees decided to do the next 5 checkpoints counterclockwise - which turned out to cost him some 10 minutes - while everybody else headed towards hekelveld. at checkpoint no 7 where we got our next manifest the field was torn into small groups with Xander in the lead. checkpoint 8 (brand's bikes) revealed some diverging approaches among the riders: some just skipped it (quote Xander: "how fucking stupid are you to live in this town not knowing that all shops are closed on Monday mornings") while those who knew the shops whereabouts went there to find out that there were no opening times displayed. those who didn't know the shop at all found themselves in front of an apartment where someone who shared the shop-owners last name lived - a fact that also didn't help to answer the question. (Vis later admitted that he had just picked the first person named brand with a javastraat adress he found in the phone book and by doing so ended up putting a totally different address on the flyer). after some more beers to be picked up, some prostitutes and stairs to be counted and some more racing it was Xander (who later admitted that he had only come to Amsterdam because he couldn't cope with the temperatures in Toronto) to reach the finish first, with Phillip from Freiburg and Amsterdam's own Jacco coming in second and third.




1. xander(totonto) - 2hrs.17min
2. phillip (freiburg)
3. jacco (de versnelling)
4. misha
5. kees (de verselling)
6. pieter (de versnelling)
7. mike (komeet)
8. mookie (all ride)
9. menno
10. paul (komeet)
11. daniel (freiburg)
12. frans

dnf.peter, bren.