Beer Bike rescheduled for Sunday

By Seth Brown     3/25/10 7:00pm

The biggest player at this year's Beer Bike was not a college, a biker or even one of the coordinators - rather, nature has dominated this year's parade and races. Thanks to Saturday's inclement weather, all of the races but the alumni race have been rescheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday.Beer Bike Coordinator Brian Henderson said he and the other Beer Bike coordinators made the decision to postpone the student races because of concerns about safety and how enjoyable the event would be.

"At the first Beer Run, Emergency Medical Services treated people for hypothermia, and it wasn't fun for the teams or the spectators," Henderson, a Jones College senior, said. "We had no real good reason for trying to hold the races [Saturday]."

Although the Beer Bike coordinators had designated April 10 as the original contingency date for the races, Henderson said there were too many conflicts on this date among the various bike and chug teams. This Sunday will feature reduced team sizes, with four to five bikers and chuggers per team instead of the usual 10, because of team conflicts.

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"Teams were having problems fielding full teams, and every weekend after this gets worse," Beer Bike Coordinator Nazish Malik said.

Sunday's races will still include an exhibition race between Duncan College and McMurtry College, with the races between the other colleges possibly divided into two separate heats, depending on the number of volunteer judges. The colleges in each heat have not been determined yet and the overall ranking will depend only on the final times for each college, not on their rankings within their heat.

Wiess College junior Hari Athreya said although he thinks postponing the race should make it more enjoyable for spectators, he hopes that heats are not necessary.

"Heats would take away from some of the excitement of it," Athreya said.

Henderson and Malik are asking for those faculty, staff or associates interested in judging to contact them at beerbike [at] rice.edu.

Because of budget restrictions, Henderson said food will likely not be provided on Sunday, though the coordinators said they intend to contact their sponsors. Saturday's events cost Beer Bike $28,000, and Beer Bike receives only $16,500 a year from blanket taxes. Beer Bike assessed $5,700 this year from fines, down from $7,000 collected last year. Colleges have until April 9 to pay these fines.

Assistant Dean of Students Boyd Beckwith said expenses due to Sunday's races, including renting an ambulance and having Rice University Police Department officers present, means that Beer Bike is $5,700 over budget this year -- costs which will be covered out of Beer Bike's capital reserves and by auctioning off courses from The Princeton Review. However, the reserve fund will also be necessary to help pay for track renovations next year.

"Our budget is pretty well exhausted," Henderson said. "At this point, we're making sure we have everything essential -- at this point, we just want to have a race."

In order to deflect a portion of the additional costs incurred by the rescheduled race, RPC will sell Beer Bike belt buckles and Willy Week T-shirts during Sunday's races.

"We've had Beer Bike; the only thing left is the race," Malik said. "That's what we're trying to provide.

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