LETTER: This year's Beer-Bike stresses fun with safety

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by Christy Hard and Caroline Schaeffer

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To the editor:

Saturday marks the 213th annual Rice Beer-Bike Festival, to take place on the newly-refurbished Hacker-mann Field Velodrome ("The Track" to its admirers).

Beer-Bike '96 kicks off at 10:30 a.m. with the towing of all cars parked on the Inner Loop. At 11:30 a.m., the annual Beer-Bike Parade of Champions commences. This year's grand marshall is Bob Newhart.

The requisite water balloon war will once again be a highlight of this year's parade.

However, the parade sponsors remind you that no artificial ingredients are permitted in the balloons and no alcoholic beverage consumption is allowed during the event.

At 12:30 p.m., the Alumni race kicks off the Beer-Bike undercard.

Please do not cross the track during this race or any other race. The women's race follows at 1:30 p.m. and the men's at 2:30 p.m.

Only authentic Beer-Bike teams are allowed in the pit. Emergency medical technicians with an ambulance will be on hand throughout the event to deal with violators of these rules.

Despite reports to the contrary, the graduate student team will be allowed to race this year. The faculty will not.

To add excitement to this year's festival, free St. Arnold's beer will be provided throughout the day for those with valid Texas ID cards or with out-of-state IDs validated by the campus police.

True, it's not Bud Light, but it is free. Free Dr Pepper and popcorn will be available. Bruegger's Bagels and Papa John's Pizza will provide food on a cash-and-carry basis.

Concealed handguns will not be permitted at any time during Beer-Bike. Be safe!

Christy Hard

WRC '96

Caroline Schaeffer

SRC '96

Beer-Bike Coordinators

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the March 29, 1996 issue.

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