CMWC Toronto

1st Shino [sic] Japan
2nd Porno Steve Swiss?
3rd Jumbo Copenhagen
4th Austin NYC
5th ???
6th Furgus SF
7th Dan C. NYC
8th Craig Boston
9th Bruce DC
10th Peter B. Boston

Flicker images
http://www.flickr.com/groups/786892@N21/pool/

From Moving Target
http://www.movingtargetzine.com/article/anyone-got-any-sleep
http://www.movingtargetzine.com/article/cycle-messenger-world-champion-m...
Tokyo Messenger
http://www.tokyomessenger.com/ (Japanese only)

sydbma roving reporter doddsy
http://www.sydbma.org/bikes/node/237
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By SARAH HOOD
The Globe and Mail, June 14, 2008

You would think the last thing a bike courier would want to do on holiday is deliver things.

But this weekend, about 600 messengers from about 20 countries will converge on Hanlan's Point on the Toronto Islands to do precisely that as the 16th annual Cycle Messenger World Championships replicates their daily working conditions, complete with waybills, bike locks, receptionists and rush deliveries.

"It's been touted by some as the most complicated bike race in the world, and as such it's an odd spectacle, because what you're watching is people picking up and dropping off packages," says Toronto courier Mark Hayward, who is co-ordinating Toronto's two-day main race.

Toronto is the first city to host the race a second time - a testament to the respect accorded its couriers by the international messenger community.

Today, competitors will race in staggered groups to make 32 pickups and 32 drop-offs at 13 checkpoints. Speedy racers will be able to complete the list in less than an hour.

"We've got some funny checkpoints; they have to run onto the nude beach. And most checkpoints are in the main area with the vending and the beer."

Fifteen to 20 per cent of the field, or about 100 racers, will advance to the finals tomorrow, when they will compete for bragging rights and cycling prizes worth anywhere from $5 to $1,500.

\The unique and complex nature of the event reflects the character of the profession. "You get people who can't work in Tim Hortons for 10 minutes who do this job for 50 hours a week, and they risk their lives, and they thrive. It's also a wonderfully irreverent community with an absolutely bizarre machismo: A bunch of guys who are incredibly proud about riding around on bikes with their pants rolled up," Mr. Hayward says.

Following established tradition, previous race organizers are arriving to help out. First in town was Copenhagen 's Martin Larsen, who has attended, competed in or helped organized seven Cycle Messenger World Championships. "I missed Edmonton because I had a child. I missed Budapest because my leg was in four pieces. I try not to keep count of them," he says.

Although his company team, De Gronne Bude, came first in 1995, the last year the race was held in Toronto , Mr. Larsen says he isn't planning to compete. "I'll be racing the cargo race. That's the only place I'll be active on that side of the counter. Other than that I'll be the obnoxious guy running around shouting, 'Clear the course' and stuff like that."

Mr. Larsen says attending his first messenger competition "changed my idea of what I was doing. I thought I was just riding my bike, and then I went to Zurich in '99. That was the first time I met the wonderful brotherhood of the global messengers."

The race was created in Berlin in 1993, and Toronto became the first North American host in 1995.

"The Tour de France has survived for over 100 years, and that's very impressive," Mr. Larsen says. "But if my gut feeling about this race is right, then it will survive over 300 years."
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Hundreds of bike messengers converge in Toronto for world championships

Canadian Press, June 15, 2008

TORONTO - Low pay, no benefits, stiff competition and constant threats posed by aggressive traffic and car doors - being a bike courier is a tough job, and they've got the battle scars to prove it.

But as hundreds of bike couriers from around the globe descended on Toronto over the weekend, many of them said they'd never trade it in for a more traditional job.

John Campo was one of the approximately 400 participants from 20 countries in the annual Cycle Messenger World Championships, held on the Toronto Islands this weekend.

He has been working in downtown Toronto - an area he describes as a "war zone," where bike courier companies are in tight competition for clients - for three months.

Campo said he has been "doored" three times and hit by cars twice already, pointing out scars on his hands from someone's rear-view mirror.

But he's not deterred.

"It's a load of fun," Campo said. "You can't ask for a better job than riding a bike outside."

The downsides, however, are numerous, said Leah Hollinsworth, one of the organizers of the event.

One of the main focuses of the weekend event was an annual general meeting of the International Federation of Bicycle Messenger Associations, which works to improve conditions for bike couriers.

"We're not designated as employees so we're not granted the benefits of paid vacations, sick days, any sort of benefits, like no dental or medical benefits," said Hollinsworth.

"If you get injured on the job, chances are you'll just lose your job because you're not able to perform it and the companies don't care. There's not really the sort of loyalty or job security and we're working to change that."

She said a typical bike messenger might make between $70 to $90 a day, and those earning the most might get around $150 per day.

Robert Melnyk has worked as a bike messenger in Toronto for 24 years. Melnyk said he's been hit by cars 12 or 15 times, having once spent a year in a neck brace after a car made a right turn in front of him and he ended up going through the windshield before being thrown onto the curb.

He couldn't speak properly for two years after the accident but he said he still loves his job. Riding 50 to 100 kilometres a day, doing between 20 and 60 deliveries in "rain, snow, hail, sleet, sweltering heat, whatever they throw at you," is worth the freedom, he said.

"You get to be out on your own, you're on the road," said Melnyk, relaxing on a picnic table with his daughter, Norah. "You have your boss, your dispatcher on the radio, but that's not someone looking over your shoulder."

At the bike polo courts, some of the three-person teams donned masks and face paint and tore over the pavement, swinging mallets and shouting.

Quinn Shamlian came from New York City to compete in bike polo, a sport she picked up six to eight months ago, she said.

"Bike polo is polo because we're riding something and we have mallets, but it's much more like hockey, just because of the skidding and the blocking," said Shamlian.

Arik Jelonnek, from Berlin , Germany said he heard about the competition about a month ago and scraped together all the money he could to get to Toronto where he's had a "great time."

"I always ask myself what is it I am searching for in this kind of work," said Jelonnek.

"I think all the people are searching for something in it, something they don't get in their normal life.

"Because it's such bad pay, why don't I (find) a job that's better paid, and not so hard and dangerous? I don't want to, because everyday I see people in their ties in their offices ... No."
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Bike couriers say they now enjoy higher wages, health benefits

Toronto Sun, June 15, 2008

By Kwok Wong,

Toronto 's bike couriers have ganged up to give themselves a smoother ride on the job.

You might've seen Cheryl Douglas, 57, weaving in and out of the city's busy intersections before, but she's doing it with health benefits and better wages now that she's a part of Courier Co-op Toronto.

"We did the math and said 'this is ridiculous,' these guys work hard for just a few dollars," Douglas said yesterday while at the Cycle Messengers World Championships on Toronto Island 's Hanlan's Point.

Officials with the co-op, with just five members and in its seventh week, were busy promoting themselves yesterday amidst other bike messengers competing in races and bike polo competitions.

"(Bike couriers) make under minimum wage as it is and we wanted to change that," said Shane Murphy, 39, a courier for the last 16 years.

"We want the courier to feel he's making what he's worth."

Along with a stronger network of couriers and health benefits, the members of the new co-op are also making more than three times as much as they did working for downtown Toronto 's 150 other courier companies, according to Murphy.

"All these other companies are out to make money for themselves, but we're here to make money for the courier that's working for us," Murphy said.

The benefits and wages won't be entirely new for Douglas, who was the head of finance and administration for Parks Canada in Calgary in 1998.

But even with the onslaught of arthritis and their co-op still pending provincial approval -- to allow them to issue shares -- she likely won't be quitting anytime soon.

"It's outdoors, it's physical, it's living on the edge."

more to come...