Cycle Messenger World Championships
The Cycle Messenger World Championships, or CMWCs, are an annual urban cycling competition whereby cycle messengers and cycling enthusiasts showcase their skills in an array of events, many of which simulate everyday tasks for a cycle messenger. Each year, the CMWCs are held in a different city around the world, with each host city designing its own unique course. The highlight of the CMWCs is the main race in which cyclists are given manifests and must pickup and deliver items to various locations around the host city as quickly and efficiently as possible. The total number of pickups and deliveries, or "drop offs" is unknown to the messengers before the race, but has been known to reach up to 100 stops and usually takes between 3–4 hours to complete. The cyclist who completes all of the assigned deliveries in the least amount of time wins the race. In addition to the main race there are also several side events which have become increasingly popular over the past few years. These events change yearly depending on the discretion of the host city but usually include backward circles, bike polo, bunnyhop, cargo race, longest skid, sprints, and trackstand.
Image:CWMC Budapest spokecard.jpg|thumb|A racer's spoke card from the Cycle Messenger World Championships, Budapest, Hungary, 2001
History
The idea for the Cycle Messenger World Championships, or Cycle Messenger Championships as it was initially called, was first conceived in 1992 by Achim Beier and his assistant, Stefan Klessman. Both worked for messenger Berlin, a Berlin-based messenger service, and were inspired to have a gathering of the world's bicycle messengers after talking with co-worker and ex-Washington D.C. bicycle messenger Michael "Ozone" Odom. Beier then took a trip to New York City where he visited Washington Square Park and talked with local bicycle messengers including James "The General" Moore about the proposed idea. The idea was received well by the local messengers and thus Beier and Klessman began planning the logistics of the first Cycle Messenger Championships.Since no competition of this type had ever taken place, there were many challenges to overcome before the first CMC be completed. Most notably, the host city, Berlin, needed to approve the proposal of such an event. This, in itself, was an enormous task since many streets had to be shut down for an entire weekend, the duration of the event, including Straße des 17. Juni, the main thoroughfare for East-West traffic through Berlin, and the area around Brandenburg Gate. In the end, the city of Berlin approved the event with only minor changes to Beier's requests and in 1993 the first Cycle Messenger Championships took place. In all, around 500 messengers participated in the inaugural event.
Though the 1993 CMC was declared a success, it lost a substantial amount of money. As a result, Beier and Klessman decided to transfer ownership of the event to a sports marketing company which had expressed interest in organizing it. Beier and Klessman stayed with the project, acting as consultants, to ensure that the competition retained its authenticity.
The marketing company, though based in Berlin, had a partner in London and thus it was decided that the 1994 CMWC would be located there. Unfortunately though, months before the scheduled date of the CMWC the marketing company pulled its sponsorship of the event and left Beier and Klessman alone on the project.
After much deliberation, it was decided that the 1994 CMWC would still take place in London, though now it would be organized solely by cycle messengers. Against all odds, the event took place and attracted around 500 participants. Once again, the CMWC was deemed a success.
With the sting of the marketing company's withdrawal still fresh, several cycle messengers at the 1994 event decided to form a committee dedicated to the successful realization of the CMWC. Largely self-appointed and without any real power the committee floundered. The need for such an organization, however, was being realized by more and more cyclists.
The 1995 CMWC took place in Toronto, and in 1996 it was hosted in San Francisco. It was here that the International Federation of Bike Messengers Association, or IFBMA, was created for the purpose of guaranteeing that the CMWC would take place each year. This committee, unlike the previous one, was open to all who wished to attend and thus had the potential of being a legitimate organization.
Cycle Messenger World Championships
Since the inception of the IFBMA the CMWCs have taken place each year in different locations around the world. The following is a list of host cities along with the year they hosted the CMWCs and the champions from each year.Categories
From the very first CMWC, the main race had two gender categories that participants could compete in, Men and Women.At the 2017 championship in Montreal, the name of the women's category was changed to the more inclusive "WTNB", which meant that the category was open to women, trans people, and non-binary people.
The year after, at the 2018 championship in Riga, the WTNB category was again renamed to WTF while the men's category was renamed "Open" allowing people of any gender to compete in this category.
At the same championship, thanks to the work of the Star Bike Messenger Association, official guidelines about gender categories at CMWC's were voted in as an amendment to the IFBMA by-laws. This meant that all future CMWC's must have two categories named Open and WTNB.
In 2022 at the championship in New York City the organizers chose to divide the WTNB category into two separate categories named "WT", which was open for women and trans people and "NB", which was only open for non-binary people.