Beer Bike canceled due to weather concerns

By Viola Hsia     4/8/25 11:42pm

Despite talk of rain and a possible ‘Beer Run,’ the Beer Bike races seemed like they were proceeding as normal on Saturday. Alumni races were well underway at noon. At 1:30 p.m., the women’s teams were teeing up for their second heat when, under sunny skies, the races abruptly stopped.

Throngs of bewildered students poured out from the stands, ushered into the stadium concourse to wait out the lightning warning. In the meantime, the Marching Owl Band put on an impromptu performance. Half an hour later, students got the call: For the first time since 2020, the remaining Beer Bike races would be canceled. A campus-wide alert cited “inclement weather” and lightning warnings nearby.

The announcement to all students came at 2:03 p.m. via a Rice Alert text message.

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“Beer Bike is canceled for the day due to weather,” the message read. “Stay under cover. Shuttles at Gate 4 will take attendees to colleges and lots. More info to come.”

At 2:32 p.m., a new alert came through canceling Beer Bike for the day despite giving the all clear on the weather.

According to Jerusha Kasch, director of institutional crisis management, the decision to cancel the remainder of races was due to the weather. 

“We received a weather alert that lightning strikes were occurring close to the Beer Bike track, which put the event participants at risk,” Kasch wrote in an email to the Thresher. “As a result, a predefined contingency plan was activated to move event attendees immediately into the stadium concourse until the weather moved out of the area.”

Kacsh said that upon reviewing the weather information, student planners and response personnel decided to cancel the event.

“No one wants to cancel a fun event like Beer Bike, and the student planners did an excellent job making a difficult decision,” Kasch wrote. 

While the remaining races have not been canceled altogether, they did not continue on Saturday. However, all events leading up to the races happened as scheduled, including Martel College’s morning party, the color war, the water balloon fight and the float parade.

“The morning was very successful,” said Liza Jacob, one of the Brown College Beer Bike coordinators. “Even though the end kind of fell through, I think people had a really nice time.”

Student Association President Trevor Tobey put out a statement on Instagram Monday evening that said the SA was working with administration and Rice Program Council as “they explore all possibilities to reschedule the remaining races.” 

Tobey, a Hanszen College senior, said that the campuswide coordinators are doing everything they can to reschedule the remaining races.

“I promise you, [the campuswide Beer Bike coordinators] are doing everything they can, and the Student Association is trying to help them in whatever way possible,” Tobey said. “All the Beer Bike captains are too, and all the students are together on trying to get this done. But still, I don’t want to give anybody false hope.”

RPC’s campuswide Beer Bike coordinators Wiley Liou and America Salas wrote in an email to the Thresher that continuation plans have not been confirmed and they are still in communications over logistics.

“Right now, we’re working to hear directly from bikers and better understand where everyone stands,” wrote Liou, a Baker College senior. “While we would love to make Beer Bike happen again this year, we also want to be realistic about our personal capacity and the logistical resources available. We’re doing our best to get answers out as soon as possible, but we want to avoid making any promises we can’t keep.”

Abel Limachi, one Brown’s Beer Bike coordinators, said the circumstances behind the cancellation were upsetting because of their unpredictability.

“It’s one of those things that I feel like you put in a lot of work, and the fact that it just ended up being canceled because of weather is probably the worst type of reason,” said Limachi, a senior. “It’s just the one thing you can’t control.”

At the time of the announcement, both heats of the alumni race had been completed. The first heat of the women’s race — including teams from Baker, Lovett, McMurtry, Wiess and Martel Colleges and the Graduate Student Association — had been completed, following crashes and injuries that caused the heat to be paused twice. 

Jacob, a senior, said that while the end result was disappointing, the decision to cancel the rest of the events made sense from a logistical point of view.

“It’s very fair for people to be upset about it,” Jacob said. “Obviously people put in so much effort trying to train for this race, and obviously it’s a big tradition that is really exciting. But [thinking] about it logically, if the university had continued with the event after what had happened this morning, it would reflect even worse on them.”

Grey Beaubien, a member of Lovett’s men’s bike team, said that he was disappointed about the cancellations.

“I had been preparing to bike for over a month, training and that stuff,” said Beaubien, a junior. “It’s definitely a big letdown to get to that moment, get to the big day and you feel the energy on the track. During the weather delay, you’re like, ‘Oh, maybe it’ll be just delayed.’ And then finally, when it’s canceled, it’s like you’re especially disappointed because you’ve been holding out hope.”

Certain colleges have responded to the events. Lovett magister Nancy Niedzielski sent out an email to the college on Sunday, announcing she had made cakes to make up for Saturday’s cancellation.

“I think people were a little deflated, because everybody has their little traditions about what they’re going to do during the race and after the race, and I think [the cancellation] just threw such a monkey wrench into everything,” Niedzielski said. “I was just sitting in my house, and I thought, ‘I’ll make some cakes.’”

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