So how do a bunch of bike messengers and their friends unwind on a weekend afternoon? With a bike man's holiday - a grueling race that substituted the claustrophobic corridors of Manhattan with the wide, steep boulevards of Staten Island.

Shortly before 3:30 p.m. Saturday, about 40 men and women on bicycles pedaled through the parking lot of the Staten Island Ferry terminal, having just received the day's orders from two long-haired men drinking from tall cans of Budweiser.

The competitors had a deadline and a mission: Get their manifests signed or stamped at various spots around the island. "Real bike racing is a rich man's sport," said Mike Dee, a messenger and an organizer of the race, called the Staten Island Invasion. "This is like the bike race for the rest of us - people who like to drink a beer in the mornings."

It was the kind of race for which Pete Lang, a 25-year-old messenger, warmed up by smoking a cigarette. There was no set course, just a starting place, a finish line and about 20 checkpoints in between.