The 5th Annual SLUG Cat Presented By The Gateway and New Belgium Brewing

On May 20, a sunny spring Saturday afternoon, urban cyclists and onlookers gathered at the fountain of The Gateway to sign up and line up for the 5th Annual SLUG Cat alleycat race. The courtyard was full of bikes and people ready to race. The format of the alleycat is for each individual rider to decode a manifest that had clues, several of which referenced SLUG‘s current May Bike Issue. The race started off at The Gateway, and the very first stop was down Rio Grande Street, where the dozens of riders received their manifest and a copy of SLUG to begin solving the clues.

For those Downtown that day, they may have noticed all the people speeding through the streets on bikes. This was part of the awesome fun of the SLUG Cat: Each contestant had to go stop to stop throughout Salt Lake, collecting points by completing challenges at each location. After making it through all of the stops, the riders made it back to The Gateway for pizza from The Pie Pizzeria and tunes from DJ Nix Beat as the judges tallied up the points and announced the winners.

Before they could declare the winners, the judges had to break the tie for 2nd Place in the men’s division by having one last race. The two riders, Dan Allister and Jesse Igomodu, lined up with GREENbikes to race to the end of Rio Grande Street before grabbing their own bikes to race back. Allister was the winner of the tie breaker and went on to receive 2nd Place.

At the end, the winners were announced. In the Women’s Division, the winners were Nkenna Onwuzuruoha (1st Place), Jori Schmalz (2nd Place) and Megan Dun (3rd Place). In the Men’s Division, the winners were Davey Davis (1st Place, and first contestant to complete the course), Dan Allister (2nd Place) and Jesse Igomodu (3rd Place). There was also an award for Dead Fucking Last that was split for three winners: Brett Barrett, Derek Ballard and Ligia Greminger.

SLUG Magazine sends enormous thanks to the 5th Annual SLUG Cat alleycat race’s Presenting Sponsors: The Gateway and New Belgium Brewing, and to all of our 2017 SLUG Cat sponsors: Beer Bar, Crank SLC, Fishers Cyclery, Freeheel Life, GREENbike, KRCL, Mountain West Hard Cider, Pig & A Jelly Jar, Porcupine Pub, Proper Brewing Co., Saturday Cycles, Trek Bicycle of Salt Lake and Velo City Bags.

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