Last Fridays on Paulista Blvd.

I had been looking forward to this event for sometime. Each last Friday of the month holds the largest known critical mass bicycle (Huge Bike Parade celebrating Bicycle respect) event in the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere. 100's came out supporting bike love in droves. When I met up with my new friends- I thought that we would join in the ride- but instead of joining the masses- I realized the FIXA SAMPA crew had other plans- and that's how I joined my first alleycat race in a city I barely knew.

It was fast and the traffic here doesn't let up. An alleycat is basically a bicycle race where riders, as quickly as possible, pedal to different points within the city, take a photo with your phone, go to the next check point, and try to finish in good time. Think scavenger hunt on bicycles.

The manifest: Go to a certain square in Vila Madelena- take the picture- go to another part of town -Roosevelt square- and locate the "theater"- take a picture- and then find the critical bike mass that is floating around the city- and find Alini- in the middle of all of that and take a photo with her. The first two: CHECK- only with the grace of being able to keep up- but could not for the life of me find where the bike parade had headed. After a few wrong turns on one-way streets, I headed back up to the main drag hoping to find a hint of a parade- I was met with cars and my first flat. Repaired the flat, regrouped, and was greeted with a loud, "Hey the Gringo made it" or something to that affect and a nice glass of cold beer. The night was good and kept going. Pictures will be posted hopefully by tomorrow night. Much love to my family and friends old and new. Video by André Seitsugo