Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast: Recent Episodes
Matthew Pioro, Adam Killick, Terry McKall, Lily Hansen-Gillis ×
Cycling stories from across Canada and around the world. We talk to pros who ride on the road and the trails. We also talk about gear, riding and training. It's bikes, bikes and more bikes, eh.
In this episode, Canadian cycling legend Svein Tuft shares insights on staying fast and healthy approaching 50, his views on longevity and AI, and his latest adventures in FKTs and remote rides. He draws on his extensive experience in bikepacking and ultra-distance riding, offering insights into route planning and personal resilience. He also delves into his evolving relationship with technology and gear.
Plus, updates from the cycling world including concerns about bra doping at the Tour de France Femmes, highlights from Crankworx Whistler and a notable performance at the Commonwealth Games.
This episode is supported by Altitude Sports. [This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign managed by the agency Podpass for Altitude Sports.]
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CHAPTERS
10:21 Svein Tuft Introduction and his Jumbo Wild 600 Route
16:55 Tips for Planning Big Bikepacking Routes
23:55 Honing the Critical Skill of Responding to Life-Threatening Situations on the Trail
29:00 Staying Fast and Healthy as 50 Approaches
36:33 True Longevity vs. Longevity Bro Bio-hacks
44:33 Svein Tuft’s Relationship with Gear: Past and Present
52:31 Getting Started in Bikepacking: Equipment Tips
Meaghan Hackinen has a habit of breaking ultra-distance cycling records. Recently, the Kelowna, B.C., rider set the women’s fastest known time for the iconic Tour Divide route. On this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, Hackinen shares her journey to setting new records in ultra-cycling, training strategies, gear choices and the importance of sleep and sobriety in performance. Check out her insights into managing long-distance rides and preparing for unpredictable conditions.
Also, editors Matthew Pioro and Matt Hansen discuss cross country nationals and the Tour de l’Abitibi. There’s up-and-coming talent to look out for.
This episode is supported by Altitude Sports. [This collaboration is part of an advertising campaign managed by the agency Podpass for Altitude Sports.]
Save up to 20 per cent off on your first order with code CYCLINGMAGAZINE2026
Shop at Altitude Sports: https://bit.ly/altitude-cyclingmagazine2026
Valid on regular-priced items only. Limited-time offer. One use per customer. Cannot be combined with other promotions or membership discounts.
Chapters
13:39 Meaghan Hackinen: Training for an ultra-distance ride like the Tour Divide
16:56 Getting started in ultra cycling: Tips for beginners
21:37 The importance of sleep in ultra-racing
31:11 What happens when you give your bike a name
37:07 Where a beginner should start with ultra-cycling gear
39:26 The impact of sobriety on performance
44:20 Safety tips for solo female travellers
The big 32-inch wheels are coming. They’ve already rolled through multi-stage mountain bike races, XC World Cups, gravel competitions and DH runs. For some, they provoke eye-rolls as the bike industry pursues yet another standard whether you want it or not. But you'll see more of them soon.
Geoff Kabush, mountain bike legend, underbiking advocate and long-time gear-head, has seen all this before. He started mountain biking on 26-inch wheels and experienced the rise (and growing pains) of 29ers. With 32s, he’s already been experimenting. In May 2025, he rode a custom-built hardtail with 32”-wheels near Fox’s office in North Carolina to explore bike geometry on the big hoops. He’s also worked with Sam Whittingham of Naked Bicycles based on B.C.’s Quadra Island, where Whittingham made a 32-inch-wheel gravel bike that Kabush is riding.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast features a look at the nuances of the new wheel size. Kabush talks about how geometry is evolving. “Butt clearance,” the room a rider’s rear end needs when their weight is back over the rear wheel, comes up. He also reveals how he can feel a bit of guilt when pushing test equipment to failure, especially with an emerging technology in which spares are in short supply. And Kabush has practical tire tips, too. Have a listen.
July 5, 2026 is a special date. It will mark 40 years since a Canadian, Coquitlam, B.C.’s Alex Stieda, went on an audacious breakaway and secured the yellow jersey. For a brief moment, Stieda led the Tour de France. He was the first Canadian as well as the first male North American to do so.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast features a close look at Stieda’s historic ride. The discussion starts with his early years in cycling. (“What? Were you bad at hockey?”) In 1980, he won the Tour de l’Abitibi. He took the bronze medal in individual pursuit at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Australia. Then it was on to the 1984 L.A. Olympics for track cycling.
By 1986, he had turned pro. That year, his team, the groundbreaking U.S. outfit 7-Eleven, got an invitation to the Tour de France. For the first official stage of the event, Stieda cooked up a plan that he kept mostly to himself. Find out, from the Canadian Cycling Hall of Famer himself, how it all went down.
Sometimes, a gravel champion of multiple nations simply finds himself without a floor pump. A few weeks ago, Benjamin Perry was in need of such a tool at Unbound Gravel, the premier gravel race on the calendar. Perry, who’s based in Gerona, wasn’t able to pack a pump for his North American trip. “Then, I was going around the hotel waiting for somebody to come out of a room who looked like a cyclist,” he said. “In Emporia around Unbound week, it's pretty easy to find somebody who has a floor pump, so it's not the end of the world.” Still, having to search for a pump to set his tires for a big event is quite the contrast to his days as a professional road racer, when his teams would take care of all the logistics and maintenance.
Elite gravel—it requires a lot of hustle. For the past three seasons, Perry has been making his way as a privateer racing on mixed surfaces. He’s had successes, including his 2025 Canadian gravel championship title. (He’s set to defend in a few days. He faces serious competition.) This year, he competed in the Catalan championships, and won, putting him in the strange situation of being a non-Catalan with that community’s champion’s jersey. He’s also had multiple top-10 finishes at major races this season. Yet sometimes, Perry has to scramble for parts.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast features a deep dive into the world of elite gravel racing with Benjamin Perry. It's a lively chat as Perry brings his trademark humour to the topics of racing, equipment and fuelling. The pro also has top tips for anyone interested in racing the world’s toughest gravel events.
The former bassist of the Sex Pistols, long nails on race day and crosswinds all connect with Sidney Swierenga. Find out how in this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast.
In early May, Swierenga landed on the podium of the Grand Prix du Morbihan Femmes in France. While the second-place finish marked her first elite-level result, she’s no stranger to medals. In 2025, Swierenga was second overall at both the Redlands Bicycle Classic (one of her favourite races) and Tour of the Gila. She also won a stage and the GC of the Tour du Gévaudan Occitanie Femmes.
Those 2025 results caught the attention of the Liv AlUla Jayco Women's Continental Team, to which Swierenga signed for this season. In this episode, you can find out about what’s ahead for the rider and, you know, what Sid Vicious has to do with it.
Can you train mental durability?
“Yes, 100 per cent,” says Haley Smith.
The rider knows her stuff. She’s an Olympian who competed in cross country mountain biking. She’s a Commonwealth Games medallist and a two-time national marathon mountain bike champion. Smith won the first Life Time Grand Prix series. Recently, she was fifth at the Traka 360 gravel race in Spain.
While Smith is a top-level rider, she’s also a PhD student in sports psychology. In her studies, cycling is front and centre. One of her papers even examined the spirit of gravel. In the interview, Smith discusses racing, her academic work, as well as mental strategies that can help you to be a better rider.
This season, Smith is on tour. Not a multi-stage event in this case, but a speaking tour that also includes group rides. It’s all part of her Competere project. Competere is aimed at helping more girls and women grow into passionate cyclists. Here’s the schedule:
- May 14-15: Le Club, Montreal, chat and ride on the 15th
- May 21: Toronto, Etape 22, chat only
- June 18: Vancouver, Bici, chat only
- July 2-3: Cyclesmith, Halifax, chat and ride on the 3rd
- Oct. 17: Big Sugar Gravel, chat
In this special cross-over episode with our sibling podcast, The Shakeout over at Canadian Running, host John Gay speaks with sport science writer Alex Hutchinson about the high-carb fuelling revolution that endurance sports are experiencing. Hutchinson remarks that cycling has a notable role in the latest craze. Check out the discussion that applies to marathon runners, Tour de France riders, and even cyclists like you.
Also, editors Matthew Pioro, Matt Hansen and James Bunga, who is finishing up his time in northern Europe, look back on the Classics.
Nicole Bradbury’s World Cup short track race came down to the wire. Following terrible opening laps—where she dropped to the back of the field and then was taken down by a crash—the Hamilton rider got up to the front of the race. Not only had that event in Val di Sole this past June been a struggle, but the years leading up to that race were marked by setback after setback. A few times, she thought she would quit racing cross country.
As the race in Italy went on, Bradbury realized a top-15 place would be possible. Then, a top-10 came into view. “Then, it was like the last lap of the World Cup, and I was in fourth. This is so sick. The whole time I was just panicking. I was like, I got to hold this top-five,” she said.
Bradbury was in second position into the final corner. “I was behind Katharina Sadnik and I was, like, this is insane,” Bradbury said. “I thought I have to sprint because otherwise it's position one or two, and I don't want to be second. I started sprinting really, really hard. I still didn't think I was going to pass her. When I was passing her, I was, like, this is stupid. I can’t believe it.”
Not only was Bradbury surprised by the win, she was totally unprepared. She had no change of kit for the podium, so another racer hosed Bradbury down in the bike-wash area. The winner also needed some coaching on how to open a champagne bottle.
The rest of Bradbury’s 2025 season went pretty well. The World Cup in Lake Placid helped her to build more confidence. In the fall, she returned to Brevard College in North Carolina for her final year of school and collegiate racing. She won the U.S. Omnium Championship. Then, with the new year, it seemed the momentum of the previous one was faltering. Logistical and health issues hindered her preparation for the 2026 season, her first as an elite rider. While she has the support of Victoria-based Blue Bridge Racing, Bradbury is still operating like a privateer racer. Funds are tight.
In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, Bradbury goes into detail about her career to date, and the perspective she has on her uncertain future. Also, she discusses her art. Her recent exhibition of oil and gouache paintings has a strong connection with her cross country career.
Canadian cycling great Gord Fraser has many road race wins to his name. But how many exactly? A quick search online leads to the number 200. Two hundred race wins. Really? In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, Fraser discusses just where that figure might have come from and how many victories he may actually have. (Hint: it’s still a lot.)
Today, the former pro from Ottawa directs up-and-coming talent at Tag Cycling. With a seemingly clairvoyant ability to read races, Fraser has been helping emerging road riders improve and move up the ranks of the sport. He’s also a vintage bike collector. In this in-depth interview, he reveals how a story he wrote for Canadian Cycling Magazine led to a reunion with a special bike from his past.
Also in this episode, CCM photographer and writer James Bunga reports from Belgium, where he’s covering the Spring Classics. He and editors Matthew Pioro and Matt Hansen preview the Tour of Flanders.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine podcast is supported by MS Bike. In 2026, MS Bike is running 10 great rides in six provinces. Each event is fully supported with fuel, roadside assistance and first aid. These rides are welcoming. You only really need a bike, a helmet and the desire to keep pedalling. It is all for an important cause: raising money to help those with MS. Did you know that on average, 12 Canadians are diagnosed with MS each day? You can help. Register now and start your fundraising journey at msbike.ca.
In 2025, Squamish’s Elly Hoskin racked up a slew of successes: two Enduro World Cup wins, a victory at Crankworx Whistler, the world championship gold, as well as the national enduro title. Not bad for a rider in her first year as an elite rider who manages her own program, calling herself a pro privateer.
In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, Elly Hoskin looks back at her breakout 2025 season and ahead to new goals in 2026. She also discusses racing here at home compared with abroad, wrenching on her own bike, race prep and strategies, the ever-evolving health of enduro (of which she sees hope and optimism) and why she sometimes doesn’t know whether to say “beanie” or “tuque.” That feature interview starts at 20:00.
Also in this episode, a preview of Milan-San Remo and San Remo Donne, the first Monuments of the road cycling season.
MS Bike has lent its support to this episode. The organization is running 11 rides across the country this year. These are top-notch, fully supported events. The first ones are in June in Alberta. The last one is Waskesiu, Sask. There are also rides in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Nova Scotia. No matter which one you choose, there’s still plenty of time to prepare. If you need some training tips, there are two-month and three-month plans for you on the Canadian Cycling Magazine website.
Remember, through an MS Bike event, you raise funds, which go to help MS research and services. Head to msbike.ca. Register, and then start training and fundraising.
In February, Luke Valenti won two races in Spain. He took the general classification of the three-stage Memorial Manuel Sanroma Valencia. A week later, he won the one-day Circuito del Guadiana, putting him in the lead of the under-23 Spanish Cup. The season has gotten off to a strong start for the 21 year old chasing a pro contract.
In this episode, Valenti, who’s from Orangeville, Ont., talks about how he came to ride for Club Ciclista Padronés-Cortizo, an outfit based in Spain’s Galicia region. He also discusses why he gets teased about his Fortnite playing, and how the video game relates to his riding and recovery.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by MS Bike. Every MS Bike ride is a professional event: fully supported with fuel, roadside assistance and first aid. The rides are welcoming, too. You only really need a bike, a helmet and the desire to keep pedalling. It’s all for an important cause, raising money to help those with MS. Register now and start your fundraising journey at msbike.ca. Then, head to Canadian Cycling Magazine’s training plans to prepare for your big ride.
Why is it a good idea to sleep in a pit toilet in Alaska?
In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, world-record holder Ashleigh Myles explains the benefits of such grungy accommodation and other facets of pedalling from the top of the Western Hemisphere to the bottom.
This past December, the Halifax rider and cycling-event organizer travelled from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Ushuaia, Argentina, in 118 days, two hours and 30 minutes. That time marks the fastest trip on the Pan-American Highway by an unsupported female cyclist.
In this in-depth interview, Myles not only discusses northern outhouses, but the gear she took on her ride, dealing with illness and aggressive animals, and handling parts of the route that a cyclist simply can’t cover.
Now that Myles’s has set such an impressive record, what could the next goal be?
In 2012, at the “old” age of 21, Montrealer Jamie Piccoli decided to pursue a career in pro road cycling. In his new book, Tell Me I Can’t, Piccoli chronicles that moment and his struggles to make it. The work is not only a story of a young athlete facing challenges, but a snapshot of time in North American cycling that has passed.
The Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is back with two feature interviews. At the start of 2025, both Derek Gee-West and Michael Woods were teammates on Israel-Premier Tech. But by the end of August, Gee-West wasn’t riding because of a contract dispute with the team. Woods, who was suffering from illness and a serious hernia, announced his retirement.
Now, at the start of the 2026, both riders have big ambitions for the season ahead. Gee-West spoke from the recent Lidl-Trek team camp. He chatted about coming on the new team and the plans for the first part of the season, which will culminate in his return to the Giro d’Italia, where he finished in fourth-place overall this past year.
Woods is back on the bike, and skis, and is in the pool, all in pursuit of a year filled with a variety of endurance challenges. It’s part research project, part midlife crisis. Find out more about Woods’s plans that could even include the Winter Olympics (in 2030).
In this in-depth interview, world champion Magdeleine Vallières Mill not only looks back at the 2025 season and the lead-up to her historic win in Kigali, Rwanda, but also ahead to next year, and the events she’s targeting and how she plans to race them. The rider from Sherbrooke, Que., has seen a lot of change since September, and there’s more to come. Vallières Mill talks about the mad dash to get her rainbow bike, kit and helmet soon after Kigali. She also touches on a strange nickname created by one of her EF Education-Oatly teammates. Although Vallières Mill still seems to have trouble believing she’s won the world championships, she’s moving forward with the opportunities that such a success can offer.
https://www.maghalierochette.com/Maghalie Rochette is coming into the cyclocross season hot. She’s released a new book. Currently, her CX Fever Tour—with book signings, clinics and rides—is moving across North America. She’s about to start racing once again, too.
All this activity sits in sharp contrast to Rochette’s state in December 2024. Her European racing campaign came to an abrupt end as burnout and illness took hold. She stopped riding. She even thought she was done with racing. Instead, Rochette began to reset.
In this episode, Maghalie Rochette looks back at that period. After time to rest, really rest, the rider began some light training. With big gaps between her workouts, Rochette started a project she had had in the back of her mind for some time. “I had this idea of creating a book about cyclocross,” she says, “not necessarily about my full story, but about cyclocross and stories I’ve lived through it.” The writing began around the end of February and the whole work came together rather quickly as the regular newsletter writer had a bank of ideas.
Rochette, with her characteristic pep and enthusiasm, also discusses the state of her beloved cycling discipline. Despite declarations of its demise, cyclocross—Rochette argues—isn’t dead. While it may be tough to source a proper cyclocross bike these days, that’s no impediment to getting out and getting into the muddy art. Other topics that the rider/writer covers include the differences between North American and European cyclocross scenes, her misadventures within the latter and the rock ‘n’ roll nature of CX. Visit maghalierochette.com for more information about the tour and to order the book.
Editor Matthew Pioro and feature writer Jake Williams talk about the slew of Canadian successes at the mountain bike world championships. They also chat about the big road cycling events in this country, the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal, which are about to get underway. Make sure to tune in to the Canadian Cycling Magazine website and social media channels throughout the events to stay up to date on all the action.
Trek has just launched a versatile trail platform in its new Fuel. Riders here at CCM have been fans of the previous Fuel EX and the Slash enduro bikes. The new Fuel, which actually comes in three configurations, has elements of both of the preceding models as well as the 27.5” Remedy. In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, MTB editor Terry McKall speaks with three folks from Trek about the new Fuels. Ross Rushin, Trek mountain bike marketing manager, Dylan Howes, Trek mountain bike senior engineer and Trek marketing manager for Canada Taylor Cook get into the details about the expansive system for talking on all kinds of trails.
The discussion turns to the project both McKall, and CCM photo editor and MTB tester Matt Stetson have been working on: a comparison between the Fuel LX model and EX one. McKall took the longer travel bike out on the trails of Vancouver Island, while Stetson played on routes in Ontario. You can check the video with McKall and Stetson’s insights, after you listen to the pod.
Trek offers three versions of the Fuel: EX, MX and LX. The Fuel EX and LX models both run 29” wheels. The former has a 150-mm fork and 145 mm of travel. On the LX, there’s 160 mm of travel working with a 170-mm fork. Finally, the MX is a mullet bike (29” front, 27.5” rear wheel) sporting a 160-mm fork and 150 mm of rear wheel travel. To add to the lineup, there’s also the new Fuel+ eMTB, which replaces the EXe. It is similarly available in EX, MX and LX versions with a new motor and battery. Find out more details about all those bikes.
McKall and his guests discuss how Trek came to develop the new Fuel system and what changes designers had to make to the frame so that it could work with such a wide range of forks and travel options. They give you more information about what’s required to convert from one platform to the other. Also, Howes and Rushin talk about how riding has evolved and how those changes have affected the design of the new Fuel system.
A run-in with a badger, a gentlemanly pee break, a spectacular sunset and some amazing competition—those were just a few of the features of Rob Britton’s record-breaking Unbound Gravel XL win. It set his rough gravel season right, even if after more than two weeks following the race, the Victoria rider was still not fully recovered.
Before the big event in Kansas, Britton’s season wasn’t going well. Bad luck, mostly, led to a series of results that left the Victoria rider frustrated. To change things up, he registered for the 350-mile version of Unbound. At 3 p.m. on May 30, he set off with a group of riders that included Ted King, Laurens ten Dam, Robin Gemperle and the rider Britton jokingly refers to as Gravel Jesus, Lachlan Morton. The next day, 17:49:51 after the race began, Britton crossed the finish line, winning Unbound XL with a record-setting time.
In this episode, recorded just before gravel nationals in Water Valley, Alta., (but with a short clip following that event), Britton gets into the details of the race, including gear, fuelling and some of the tactical decisions he made. He discusses his long-time relationship with Lachlan Morton, which goes back to some of the Australian’s earliest road races in North America. Today, there’s a “Morton effect” on gravel racing that even had an influence on Britton’s race beyond the one-on-one duelling on the rough roads of Kansas.
Back in 2017, when Britton was a pro roadie, he won the Tour of Utah stage race. How does the biggest win of his road career compare with his victory at gravel’s main event? How long does he think his Unbound XL record will last? And does his win in Emporia, Kansas, change anything or open any new doors for Britton? Find out.
Shimano has released the latest version of its long-running, iconic XTR group, the brand’s flagship mountain bike set. XTR Di2 M9200 finally brings Shimano into the age of wireless shifting for mountain bikes.
Anytime Shimano releases a new top-end group, it’s big news. But the Japanese brand’s mountain bike groups have, historically, foreshadowed what eventually shows up on dropbar and other bikes. Disc brakes? Clutch? 12-speed? 1-by? All started on trails before hitting tarmac.
So with XTR being the brand’s first fully wireless groupset (Dura-Ace is semi-wireless, with wires running from the main battery to the front and rear derailleurs), everyone at the CCM office is paying close attention.
In this episode of the podcast, you’ll hear how the group was developed and about some surprising, innovative and maybe mildly controversial (for Shimano, at least) design decisions. All these details come from Nick Murdick, Shimano’s North American product manager and a member of Shimano’s global product development team. Murdick has been driving the development of XTR Di2 M9200, all the way back to its origins in 2015 with XTR Di2 9050.
Murdick gives candid insights into some of the internal debates at Shimano, some changes to the team’s culture there and how they’re reflected in XTR M9200. He even addresses the elephant, or Eagle, in the room of why it took so long for Shimano to respond to its biggest competitor with a wireless mountain bike group.
It’s an interesting conversation, especially considering the details covered about gears, brakes and levers. Dive in, then check out mountain bike editor Terry McKall's full review of XTR Di2 M9200, as well as his thoughts on what this means for the future of Di2 across Shimano’s range and electronic shifting more broadly.
And, for even more good stuff, check out this interview from our archive with long-time Shimano rider Geoff Kabush.
You’ve seen Mara Roldan in the mix at some of the biggest races this year. She was in the breakaway at her first Amstel Gold Race and managed to finish in top 10. She recently completed her first Grand Tour, the Vuelta España Femenina. Despite a few crashes and injuries, Roldan not only made it to the end of the seven-stage event, she helped her teammates throughout. Yet, it wasn’t that long ago that the 21-year-old rider, born in Whitehorse, wasn’t really that into road racing.
Roldan and her family—parents, twin sister and younger sister—spent about 10 years travelling North America in an RV (a Blue Bird Wanderlodge to be exact). At 13, she entered her first mountain biking race. By 15, she was training seriously, even as her family moved around. The young rider was diligent, making sure to get the workouts done. “It was kind of up to me to find places to train, whether that was on rollers in the back of a Walmart parking lot one night or on a super nice trail system the next night,” she says. “We just tried to make it work where we were because we were obviously never in the same place. It was a challenge, but I think also a really fun part about travelling.”
In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, Roldan gets into her unique route to the WorldTour, the role of the development team Tag Cycling on her career, as well as the time Alison Jackson likely saved the young rider’s life.
Archive: Another Canadian has ridden on Roldan’s team. From 2016 to 2022, Leah Kirchmann was on the squad based in Sittard, the Netherlands. Check out the feature interview with the Giro stage winner and multi-time national champion.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by MS Bike. It is running 11 great rides this season in seven provinces. Each MS Bike ride is fully supported with fuel, roadside assistance and first aid. These events are very welcoming. You only really need a bike, a helmet and the desire to keep pedalling. It’s all for an important cause: raising money to help those with MS. Register now and start your fundraising journey at msbike.ca.
Recently, Andrew L’Esperance and Alexis Cartier kicked off their North American race season. At the Sea Otter Classic gravel race, L’Esperance finished 13th, making him the top Canadian at the first event in the Life Time Grand Prix series. Cartier had a tough race. “It was fun, but I didn't perform at all,” he says in this episode. “I kind of expected it, but I really got smashed.”
The pair of riders will find themselves at many of the same races this season, including other Life Time events, such as Unbound, and gravel nationals in Water Valley, Alta. They are both racing as privateers, responsible for their own logistics, sponsorships, maintenance, on top of all the training and competing. Each one has a unique plan and set of goals for the season, which they discuss in this episode. L’Esperance is mixing gravel, mountain bike and even road racing. Cartier is blending his training and transportation: he’s bikepacking to all six of the Life Time Grand Prix events.
Also on the pod, Canadian Cycling Magazine editors Matthew Pioro and Matt Hansen, as well as feature writer Jake Williams, discuss recent races, such as the men’s and women’s Amstel Gold and De Brabantse Pijl. Pioro reports back from Sea Otter. He says he knows a bunch about the 32” wheels that seem to be coming to mountain bikes, but what is he actually able to reveal?
Winspace Orange Seal is a Women’s Pro Team based in France. Yet, it has a rider from Alma, Que., one from Vancouver, one from Guelph, Ont., and a rider from Edmonton. They are Florence Normand, Nadia Gontova, Kiara Lylyk and Jenaya Francis. Currently, they are all based in Europe attending races, such as the Vuelta a Extremadura Femenina, Omloop Nieuwsblad, Danilith Nokere Koerse and Dwars door Vlaanderen.
The team, Winspace Orange Seal, has been around since 2013. In 2022, when the squad was at the continental level, and called Stade Rochelais Charente-Maritime, it got an invite to the Tour de France Femmes, where it got hammered. Of the six riders who started the race, only one finished. This year, the team has been invited back. It’s now moved up to ProTeam status. Also, its riders seem to be levelling up, as well. It will be exciting to see what they can do at the big event this July.
The team has only 11 riders. Four of them are Canucks. In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, you’ll find out all about them, and how they all got on this French ProTeam.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine podcast is supported by MS Bike. It has 11 rides across the country. These are top-notch, fully supported events. The first ones are in June in Alberta. The last one is Waskesiu, Sask. There are also rides in Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. No matter which one you choose, there’s still plenty of time to prepare. If you need some training tips, there are two-month and three-month plans for you on the Canadian Cycling Magazine website.
Remember, through an MS Bike event, you raise funds, which go to help MS research and services. Did you know that 60 per cent of those diagnosed with MS are between 20 and 49, with an average diagnosis age of 43? Give your riding some focus and some purpose. Head to msbike.ca. Register and start fundraising.
Two days before Emilly Johnston won the Argentario instalment of the Internazionali d'Italia Series, she chatted about all the new changes that have occurred in the past seven months. As the 2024 mountain bike world championships began at the end of this past August, Johnston signed with the team she’d race with in 2025, Scott-SRAM MTB Racing, the squad of Nino Schurter and Filippo Colombo. The two-year contract came just as the rider from Vancouver Island’s Comox Valley was nearing the end of her final under-23 season. Her first year in the elite level would truly be with the elites of the sport.
Johnston covers a wide range of topics In this in-depth interview. How had the geography of her home region shaped her as a rider? Why did she do a cool trick in a high-stakes race? Does she tie her own flies for fishing? Johnston talks about some of the people who’ve had a big effect on her career, including an innovative bike builder on Quadra Island. She shares her insights about the current state of Canadian women’s cross country mountain biking and how, in a sense, she has two lives: a European one and a Comox Valley one.
Also in this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, editor Matthew Pioro and writer Jake Williams chat about recent races. Milan-San Remo, men’s and women’s, were stunning events. XC racers had many successes in the UC Cup races in Fayetteville, Ark. Gent-Wevelgem is coming up. It’s a race that Williams, a Luca Paolini doppelganger, has a particular fondness for.
For more on one of Johnston’s cycling influences, head to the podcast’s back catalogue. In August 2020, two-time world champion Catharine Pendrel was featured. The episode, quite rightly, is titled “Catharine Pendrel is awesome.” Check it out.
Sprinting against Jasper Philipsen, navigating a slippery go-kart track, powering up a climb in Spain trying to put out more watts than three other finalists—those were some of the challenges Noah Ramsay faced this past December as he competed in Zwift Academy for its prize of a spot on the Alpecin-Deceuninck development team. In the end, Ramsay won.
The pro road contract marks a big switch in Ramsay’s cycling career. For the past few years, cross country has been the focus of the 22-year-old rider. This past fall, he was 11th at the Lake Placid World Cup XCO race and fifth in the short track event at the Mont-Sainte-Anne World Cup. Despite Ramsay’s promise on the singletrack, he didn’t have a team that could help him further his racing career. In August, a friend of Ramsay’s recommended he try out for the Zwift Academy, a talent-identification competition supported by the virtual training platform. Ramsay made it to the finals, which were held in Spain this past December.
In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, Ramsay tells the behind-the-scenes story of his Zwift Academy win. Also, Ramsay’s coach Peter Glassford of The Consummate Athlete gives an account of the rider’s talents that have gotten him to the Alpecin-Deceuninck development team. Ramsay looks ahead to his upcoming road season, discusses his hopes for the next few years and muses about where mountain biking might fit in with his new road career.
Also in this episode, editors Matthew Pioro and Matt Hansen, as well as feature writer Jake Williams, discuss the men’s and women’s Strade Bianche, and look to Trofeo Alfredo Binda and Milan-San Remo. For the Classicissima, the focus is more on the women’s race, which is back after a 20-year hiatus. What’s the right length for a race called “Milan-San Remo?”
Recently, on the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, another rider making a cycling-discipline switch was featured. This season, Mathias Guillemette is making the switch from track to the road. Give that episode a listen, too.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by MS Bike. Its first rides are in June. There are two in Alberta, Airdrie to Olds and another from Leduc to Camrose. The latest ride of the season is in Waskesiu, Sask., in September. And there are eight more—in B.C., another Alberta one, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. Whichever one you choose, you have plenty of time to check out our training and preparation advice for MS Bike events.
Every MS Bike ride is a professional event. It's fully supported with fuel, roadside assistance and first aid. These events are very welcoming. You only really need a bike, a helmet and the desire to keep pedalling.
Of course, this is all for an important cause, that is raising money to help those with MS. Did you know that on average, 12 Canadians are diagnosed with MS each day. You can help. Register now and start your fundraising journey at msbike.ca.
As a kid, Mathias Guillemette would get stuffed into the back seat of his parents car, wedged between a cooler and luggage, bikes all around, his older brother crammed in there too on their way to a Quebec race anywhere from three to seven hours away from their home in Trois-Rivières. There was also time on the velodromes in Bromont and Milton, Ont. During the past few years, Guillemette’s competed in some of the world’s top track cycling events, including the Track Champions League, where he’s won an elimination race, and the Paris Olympics.
This year, Guillemette’s cycling career is taking a new direction. He’s landed a spot on the Tudor Pro Cycling continental-level development team. At 23, he’s a senior rider with some teammates four years younger than him. In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, you’ll find out how Guillemette, with a little tip from another track cyclist turned roadie, got on to the Swiss team and how his skills on the track might translate to success on the road with the devo team and the ProTeam.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by MS Bike. Its first rides are in June. There are two in Alberta, Airdrie to Olds and another from Leduc to Camrose. The latest ride of the season is in Waskesiu, Sask., in September. And there are eight more—in B.C., another Alberta one, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. Whichever one you choose, you have plenty of time to check out our training and preparation advice for MS Bike events.
Every MS Bike ride is a professional event. It's fully supported with fuel, roadside assistance and first aid. These events are very welcoming. You only really need a bike, a helmet and the desire to keep pedalling.
Of course, this is all for an important cause, that is raising money to help those with MS. Did you know that on average, 12 Canadians are diagnosed with MS each day. You can help. Register now and start your fundraising journey at msbike.ca.
Recently, the country’s top cyclocross riders took on a slick, muddy course in Lévis, Que., site of the 2024 national cyclocross championships. Just past the finish line, Canadian Cycling Magazine was there to capture the reactions of six new champions.
Regular contributor Jake Williams was at the event, not only racing in the relay and the championships themselves, but taking in the action. In this episode, he shares his interviews and stories from Lévis with editors Matthew Pioro and Matt Hansen.
Emilien Belzile grabbed his first championship win in the junior men’s category. He faced a tough race and even went down on the course. In the end, he had to sprint hard against Evan Moore for the finish line. In early November, Belzile was third in the junior race at the Pan Am championships. This past June, the Fédération québécoise des sports cyclistes named him mountain bike athlete of the month for his podium placings in Canada and Quebec Cup events.
Nineteen-year-old Mika Comaniuk is no stranger to CX nationals or racing in Lévis. In 2023, he won the C2-level Cyclocross de Lévis. Back in 2022, he was second in the junior race at CX nationals in Victoria. This past weekend, he got a gap on his fellow racers in the under-23 men’s group that he was able to maintain until the end.
Marin Lowe took a break from her studies at the University of Victoria to jet across the country, borrow a bike and win the under-23 women’s race. Lowe already has a maple-leaf jersey in her collection: she is the 2023 junior cross country champ. Also that year, at the cross country world championships, she crossed the line in second place, behind her then-teammate Isabella Holmgren. In this episode, Lowe reveals the unique indicator she has that tells her when she’s really ready to race.
Like Comaniuk, Rafaelle Carrier won in Lévis in 2023. Actually, Carrier has won in a whole bunch of places the past two years, including Gullegem in Belgium and in Missoula, Mont., at the 2023 Pan Am championships. This year, Carrier was second in the junior category at the cross country world championships. In a way, it’s no surprise she defended her 2023 national junior CX title. Still, her competition was top-notch. In second was USCX overall winner Nico Knoll. Third was Aislin Hallahan, a regular on recent USCX podiums.
While Isabella Holmgren’s elite win wasn’t much of a surprise either, she also faced some serious competition, too, like multiple CX champ Maghalie Rochette and current Pan Am champ Sidney McGill. Ian Ackert continued his relatively compact but successful 'cross season by snagging his first elite title. You’ll learn how he celebrated that win and how those festivities didn’t really seem to hinder him on his next race day at the C2 event.
Throughout this episode, Jake, Matthew and Matt bring their analysis to the event, mixed with their signature humour.
A mother tells her son that he sucks. A pro, on his way to a race win, lobs a retort revealing local knowledge. A masters rider can’t stop thinking about a burn yelled at him across a field years ago. A course designer screams platitudes with the frightening intensity of a death metal singer. These are all part of the world of cyclocross heckles, which sting, amuse, elate and perplex. They’re supposed to be fun. But sometimes they go terribly wrong.
At a recent CX race in Toronto, editor Matthew Pioro looked into the cyclocross heckle. He spoke with Isabella Holmgren, the current elite Pan Am champion participating in one of her first 'cross races of the season. She revealed how family can unleash some pretty harsh words. Ian Ackert, the under-23 Pan Am champ racing in bleached blond hair, seemed to have corralled any disses around his locks. Sidney McGill, two-time under-23 national champion, has been followed by a squirrel-related heckle. The three pro riders not only spoke about course-side razzing, but their goals for the ’cross season ahead as well.
Pioro also went looking for a heckler who landed what the editor considers some of the harshest burns he’d ever received. The meeting and the conversation goes in a direction that Pioro didn’t expect. Could it be time to retire the heckle and replace it with something more positive?
In this episode, Pioro has help with CX heckle analysis from Canadian Cycling Magazine web editor Matt Hansen and feature writer Jake Williams, two guys who know all about unleashing trash talk.
How long will Michael Woods continue to race? What was it like for Michael Leonard in the breakaway in Montreal? Is Derek Gee giving up birding?
Each year, the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal bring the world’s best riders to Canada. In 2024, mixing it up with Tadej Pogačar, Biniam Girmay and Julian Alaphilippe, were most of the top Canadian athletes, as well as some of the nation’s notable up-and-comers.
Derek Gee discusses his development as a rider. He had his breakout in 2023 at the Giro d’Italia. This year, he won a stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné and finished third overall. At his Tour de France debut, he was ninth in the GC. The rider from Osgoode, Ont., seems to be able to approach his races with a relaxed, “let’s see how this goes” attitude. But as he’s progressing in the sport, is pressure starting to mount?
Michael Woods, 37, is in the latter stages of his cycling career. Earlier this year, as a yet-to-be-diagnosed bacterial infection troubled him, he was considering retiring sooner than later. But things seem to have turned around for the rider who came to the Montreal GP in his national champion’s jersey. For Woods, Montreal is one of the most important races on the calendar. Also, there’s an event coming to that city that might keep Woods in the pro ranks just a little bit longer. That same event is a big motivation for Woods’s teammates Hugo Houle and Guillaume Boivin, too.
A bunch of riders made their debuts at the GPCQM. Michael Leonard, from Oakville, Ont., was signed to Ineos Grenadiers in 2022 at the age of 18. The past two years have had some ups and downs, but Leonard feels he’s been making some significant progress since this past summer. In August, he won the prologue at the Tour de l’Avenir. In Montreal, he got into the breakaway. His 156-km ride was another breakthrough. In Quebec City, two other young Canadians did some serious time ahead of the bunch. In a special GPCQM episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, find out what it was like for Jonas Walton and Félix Hamel in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec breakaway.
This past August, the day after Micayla Gatto’s 36th birthday, the freerider, filmmaker and artist was at a boatyard in Squamish. She was there to fix up the family’s sailboat. Her goal is not only to get the craft seaworthy, but to use it to travel to new riding destinations—another chapter in the varied career of the rider-Renaissance woman.
In the 2000s, Gatto competed in downhill, earning national championship titles. After a bad crash in 2014, she stepped away from racing. In 2017, her video with IFHT, “Ferda Girls”—a parody of Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” that critiqued the sexism and the challenges women face in mountain biking—won Crankworx’s Dirt Diaries. The video remains a landmark in Gatto’s career. Today, Gatto, a YT Mob member, continues to ride big lines and is an alternate for this fall’s edition of Red Bull Rampage, which will include women riders for the first time.
Another first in 2024 is the FMBA Slopestyle World Championships for women. Can Gatto connect her riding and activism to progress in the sport such as that? She is maybe a bit humble, and mixes her analysis with humour. “I mean, I've had a couple of people name their babies after me,” she says in this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast. “So, I've got to be doing something right. (Or I just have a cool name.)”
Find out more in this wide ranging interview with Gatto that also looks at another one of her pursuits, the art of tattooing, and how it is connected with mountain biking.
Also in this episode is Derek Gee. The rider from Osgoode, Ont., won a stage at this year’s Critérium du Dauphiné, held the leader’s jersey for a stage and finished third overall. Later in the summer, he rode to an impressive ninth at the Tour France. He looks ahead to the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal. Editors Matthew Pioro and Matt Hansen look further at the WorldTour races set to run in a little more than a week. Big names are on their way to Canada.
Years ago, Armando Mastracci got a recumbent bike that could provide him with heart rate, cadence and power data. As Mastracci trained on the bike indoors throughout one winter, the graduate of engineering science at the University of Toronto recorded his training data on spreadsheets. He also started performing his own experiments. What happened if he maintained a certain cadence? Or power? He started noticing patterns in the data, patterns that led him to algorithms, which in turn led to the launch of a training platform called Xert that Mastracci continues to build and expand today.
From the beginning, Xert had AI-like features. It could look at a rider’s power data and make predictions. But, until this past December, the company didn’t really lean into the term artificial intelligence. Then, eight months ago, Xert began rolling about a beta version of a feature called Forecast AI. What was it about this feature that made it AI? Why wasn’t the previous predictive number crunching of the software AI? Mastracci not only discusses these questions, but explores larger ideas that affect cyclists looking to improve their performance, as well as the AI field as a whole. Can an AI model handle all the data that cyclists can now collect, such as heart-rate variability to blood-sugar levels? Some AI models have shown certain biases. Are there biases in training platforms? With AI training systems getting better and better, should traditional coaches be worried? Take a listen to this fascinating interview with Mastracci and get a glimpse of the future of training.
Also in this episode, an update from Paris. Canadian Cycling Magazine writer Tara Nolan is at the Summer Games. She checks in with behind-the-scenes news from the time trial and mountain bike races. Make sure to read Nolan’s stories about the races against the clock and the Holmgren siblings, who competed in their first Olympics in cross country mountain biking. How did the Holmgrens get to Paris? Well, that’s a good story, too. You can listen to it in a previous episode.
In March 1993, four men met in secret on a beach in Cuba. The topic of discussion was mountain biking. Could they take the still-young cycling discipline to the Olympic Games in Atlanta within three years? One of the men, the one who’d been helping to build the sport for years, figured it could be done, but they’d have to continue to operate without most of the UCI knowing what they were all up to.
The man behind this initiative was Marc Lemay. He’d got his start in cycling as a road rider, but soon realized he was better as an organizer. He worked at the club level in his hometown of Amos, Que. Later, he became the technical director of the Tour de l’Abitibi as that race got off the ground. From there, Lemay eventually progressed to the head of the Canadian Cycling Association. In 1991, he was elected to the International Amateur Cycling Federation. Today, he’s the president of the UCI’s arbitral board and member of the UCI’s disciplinary commission. Outside of cycling, Lemay is a lawyer. From 2004 to 2011, he served as a Bloc Québécois member of Parliament for the riding of Abitibi—Témiscamingue.
Throughout the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Lemay helped to develop mountain biking. He had the support of UCI president Hein Verbruggen. The Canadian figured mountain biking might make it to the Olympics by the 2000 Games. But in March 1993, there was the opportunity to get XC into Atlanta, if everything went right and as long as the wrong people didn’t find out what Lemay and his allies were up to.
In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, Marc Lemay tells the riveting story of how mountain biking became an Olympic sport. It is a great tale from the man who was at the centre of it all.
This past spring, Ashlin Barry won two junior national championship titles: one in the time trial and one in road race. The Toronto rider snagged the victories south of the 49th parallel, so he pulled on the stars and stripes each time he stood on the podium. Since the beginning of the year, Barry—son of Michael and Dede Barry—has been racing with a U.S. licence instead of a Canadian one. He has dual citizenship as his father is from Toronto and mom is from Milwaukee, Wisc. In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, Ashlin delves into this decision.
The 16-year-old rider also discusses some of his results abroad. In March, he won Tour du Bocage et de l'Ernée 53. It was his first UCI race, a 2.1, in Europe. Later, he came in seventh at Paris-Roubaix Juniors. It was an experience he enjoyed, even with the tough cobbles of the Hell of the North. In fact, he found it easier to race on the pavé than to ride over them in his race reconnaissance. Since the event is held on the same day as the elite and under-23 men’s events, the roads were lined with fans. In the final cobbled sectors, he was hit with sounds of the cheering crowds, which gave him a boost. He’s keen to return to that race next year.
Looking ahead, Barry has his sights on the world championships, both the TT and the road race. His U.S. titles qualified him for those races around Zurich, Switzerland. It’s the one-day races that have captured his imagination, such as worlds, Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, Milan-San Remo, and even the Olympics. With his talent, it seems he’ll be in the mix in those events in the years to come.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by MS Bike. Register and start fundraising at msbike.ca. Also, check out MS Bike-specific training advice and tips from Canadian Cycling Magazine experts: there are eight-week and four-week training plans to get you ready. Also, for your fundraising efforts, you can get some pretty cool kit. Register and start fundraising.
Recently, Environment and Climate Change Canada delivered its summer seasonal forecast. It looks like things will be hot, or at least most of the country will experience above average temperatures. These temperatures will mostly be seen in the North, across most of Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. While we don’t know things like how many heat waves we’ll face or how high those temperatures will be, it’s certain that it will all be more than normal. Even now, as summer begins officially, parts of the country are sweltering.
Stephen Cheung is a professor and senior research fellow in the department of kinesiology at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont. He has studied the effects of environmental stress (which includes heat) on human physiology and performance. For the 2016 world championships, he helped U.S. cyclist Amber Neben to adapt to the heat she’d face in Doha, Qatar. She won gold in the time trial that year.
Cheung is a rider, too, and has contributed to Canadian Cycling Magazine with various articles throughout the years. In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, he helps you understand heat and its effects on your rides, and what you can do about it. He discusses how your body can adapt, how much to drink, the role of sweat and what to wear. And don’t forget your sunscreen.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by MS Bike. Register and start fundraising at msbike.ca. Also, check out MS Bike-specific training advice and tips from Canadian Cycling Magazine experts.
At the recent cross country World Cup in Nové Město, Isabella Holmgren had her one shot to qualify for the Olympics. Her brother Gunnar also had to do well if he wanted to get the single spot Canada has for the men’s XC race in Paris. Isabella won the under-23 women’s XCO event, finishing 2:05 ahead of the second-place rider. Almost 24 hours later, Gunnar finished eighth in his race, one of the best results for an elite Canadian male in the past five years. Those performances make the siblings the most likely riders to represent their country in the races at Élancourt Hill this summer.
In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, hear from the two riders from Orillia, Ont. Learn how everything came together for the sister and brother on one weekend in May. Also find out why their places on the start lines at the Olympics aren’t assured just yet, and what they plan to do until the end of July and beyond.
Bike component maker Shimano has launched its new GRX Di2 groupset, which features 12-speed cassettes and semi-wireless shifting. On this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, Dave Lawrence and Nick Legan of Shimano talk about how the latest version of their gravel group came to be, its features and what still might lie ahead for GRX. Lawrence is a road and gravel product manager at Shimano and has been with the company for more than 30 years, overseeing the launch of numerous groupsets. Legan, a former WorldTour mechanic and current Shimano road and gravel brand manager, has been participating in gravel and chronicling its development since its early days. He not only provides context for GRX, but looks at the gravel scene as a whole.
Topics the duo cover are why there’s only a 2-by option of the groupset, the GRX’s compatibility with Di2 road groups and the new feature called Front Shift Next. Also, is there ever tension within Shimano between innovation, possibly pushing technology and keeping things ultra reliable, a feature which the brand is known for?
Canadian Cycling Magazine has something to say about the new gravel group, too. Recently, associate editor Andre Cheuk was at a Shimano media event for GRX in Carson City, Nev. He took the groupset on some serious rides, including Stetina's Paydirt gravel race. Cheuk, ever the gear geek, gets into the nitty-gritty details of how GRX performs on gravel, in sand and even after some stream crossings. You can read Cheuk's detailed look at the Shimano GRX Di2 on the Canadian Cycling Magazine website.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by MS Bike. Register and start fundraising at msbike.ca. Also, check out MS Bike-specific training advice and tips from Canadian Cycling Magazine experts.
This episode was just getting polished up as both Michael Woods and Riley Pickrell were involved in crashes in Stage 5 of the Giro d’Italia. Before the start of Stage 6, Woods presented symptoms of a mild concussion. The team made the decision that he should leave the race, head home and recover fully. Even though Pickrell was feeling well, he, too, didn't start Stage 6 in case of concussion. While the interviews in this episode were recorded at the start of the Giro, they will still give you insights into the riders we all care about, including what might be ahead for Woods this year as his career is winding down. Do have a listen. And, to keep on top of updates on Woods and Pickrell, visit cyclingmagazine.ca.
So, go behind the scenes of the Giro d’Italia with Michael Woods, Riley Pickrell and others at Israel-Premier Tech. Also, take a ride in the Israel-Premier Tech team car. Directeur sportif Oscar Guerrero offers support to Pickrell on his first Giro stage and shares his knowledge about riders and Grand Tour racing.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by Yoeleo Canada. Did you know that the brand, which is based in China, has an office in Montreal? That's where you'll find support for all of Yoeleo's carbon products including bike frames, handlebars and wheels, like the new Pro Next wheelset. If you head to yoeleocanada.com with the code UPGRADE2024 you can get 20 per cent off a pair of Pro Next wheels.
Stephen Roche has accomplished what only one other rider has done: won the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and the road world championships in one year. (The other is Eddy Merckx.) This season, it seems Tadej Pogačar could match the Irish rider’s feat from 1987.
In this episode, Roche looks back at the challenges he faced during that historic season: the tumultuous Giro with the split within his team and the Italian public seemingly out to get him; the Tour, which was not only a physical contest but a psychological one, too; and the world championships where the rider got himself into “a fine mess” in Villach, Austria. Roche is a great storyteller. He also brings his cycling insights and analysis to the current day. Ahead of this year’s Giro, which starts May 4, Pogačar is the favourite to take that Grand Tour. He’s won two Tours de France in his career and, at 25, is a top contender for the 2024 edition. The hilly worlds course in Zurich looks to be a puncheur’s playground—a place where the winner of Il Lombardia (three times), Liège-Bastogne-Liège (twice), the Tour of Flanders and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal could take the rainbow jersey. Roche breaks down just what has to happen for Pogačar to make history.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by MS Bike. Register and start fundraising at msbike.ca. Also, check out MS Bike-specific training advice and tips from Canadian Cycling Magazine experts.
With the final Nations Cup of the season nearing, Sarah Van Dam was in Milton, Ont., with the Canadian squad getting ready for the event. Since the Olympics are only a few months away, the Nations Cup is a key part of the qualification process for Paris. Van Dam and the other riders on the team pursuit squad are after a top-eight place at minimum. But they’re really expecting a better result. In 2023, the group took bronze in the event in Milton.
Van Dam uses road cycling to support the track, however, she finds the track work doesn’t actually add to her racing on tarmac. Still, she’s continuing to balance both disciplines this year as she did the previous season. Last year, she took on a serious block of road racing in Europe, which she found overwhelming at first. She didn’t even eat during a 140-km stage. In March, she was back on the narrow, twisty routes of that continent, making improvements. Following the Olympics, Van Dam is planning to mix it up once again on the roads of the one-day Egmont Cycling Race Women and seven-stage Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l'Ardèche.
From serious racing, and serious splinters from crashes on the track, the discussion in this podcast episode also moves to dancing. Van Dam and her teammate Maggie Coles-Lyster create dance numbers for social media. Van Dam discusses that process, and how they roped in a reluctant Champions League rider, one who’d go on to win the event, into one of their clips.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by the No. 22 Bicycle Company, makers of fine titanium bikes. Founders Mike Smith and Bryce Gracey check in to discuss their unique approach to bike construction, which is all done in North America, and their hands-on approach to getting you the best bike.
Mel Webb, who has taken on such challenges as the Atlas Mountain Race and the Alberta Rockies 700, can weave the zany and the serious tougher almost effortlessly. Take her snooze in an outhouse this past summer. It’s kind of gross and funny, but in this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, it also leads her to discuss ideas of safety and what roles a public amenity should play in a self-supported event. Throughout the interview, she tackles big topics, like the lack of gender parity within cycling and sharing personal struggles online, and more whimsical subjects, such as what to listen to during a multi-day cycling challenge. Webb is also the co-host of a podcast called Detours, which takes listeners on deep dives into all things ultra-cycling.
Recently, track cycling legend Gordon Singleton passed away. Editors Matthew Pioro and Matt Hansen remember and pay tribute to the world champion and world-record holder from Niagara Falls, Ont.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by the No. 22 Bicycle Company, makers of fine titanium bikes. Founders Mike Smith and Bryce Gracey check in to discuss their unique approach to bike construction, which is all done in North America.
Kevin Field is back on the pod. Longtime listeners will remember Field as Mr. Moneyball of Canadian Cycling. For years he’s been analyzing data to help riders perform at their best at the top levels of the sport. Today, he’s the chair of the board of directors at Bridge the Gap, an organization that works with riders as they progress toward their pro cycling careers. He’s also on the board of Team Ecoflo Chronos, an under-23 outfit that supports young racers.
Field looks at some commonly held ideas about road cycling in Canada, and then takes a look at the numbers. The data shows interesting, and sometimes startling, trends. Is road racing really dead in North America? With our nation’s pros winning Tour de France stages and a Monument, is Canada truly in a good spot within the pro circuits? Finally, is road cycling all about the young superstars? Junior to pro—it’s the only way to go? Find out what the ever-insightful Field has to say about these topics.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by the No. 22 Bicycle Company, makers of fine titanium bikes. Founders Mike Smith and Bryce Gracey check in to discuss their unique approach to bike construction, which is all done in North America.
Dirty Reiver, Migration Gravel Race, bikepacking in the mountains of Turkey and Across Andes—these are some of the big rides that Sami Sauri took on this past year. In this episode, Sauri goes in-depth into how she managed these events. She talks about her gear choices for gravel races, and how she’s adapted to the way gravel racing is evolving. Sauri is also an accomplished photographer who brings her camera along on her rides. Learn why there’s never a conflict between Sauri’s two passions—cycling and photography—except for one time.
Listen to this extended interview with Sauri, presented with the support of YT Industries. Recently, YT released a 30-minute documentary about Sauri’s Migration Gravel Race, “The Wildest Gravel Race in the World.” Check out the doc and her one-of-a-kind YT Szepter gravel bike that she received for the challenging ride in Kenya.
World championship wins in two disciplines, a repeat rainbow jersey on the track, World Cup wins in downhill and cross country, a Tour de France stage win and more—there were a lot of big performances by Canadian riders this past year. In this episode, Canadian Cycling Magazine‘s editors—Matthew Pioro, Matt Hansen and Terry McKall—present their top-five lists. You won’t believe what some of the editors cut, just to whittle their lists down to five top stories from 2023.
You can also listen back to interviews with the year’s biggest newsmakers:
- A deep dive into Michael Woods’s Tour de France stage win
- In-depth interview with Derek Gee on the Giro d’Italia and the seconds that count
Cyclocross nationals is just a few days away. The competition is returning to Victoria as are many of the athletes who competed at last year’s event. In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, six riders not only reflect on the significance of nationals, but also look back at their races so far this year, as well as what lies ahead.
There are former and current national champions—some of them multiple-time winners—Pan Am champions, champions in other disciplines and even a world champion. Two are actually not racing in Victoria, but their stories provide important context for nationals.
In all the interviews—with Michael van den Ham, Sidney McGill, Luke Valenti, Evan Russell, Rafaelle Carrier and Isabella Holmgren—the stars of CX reveal what it means to be Canadian cyclocross racers and discuss the challenges they face as they practise that muddy art.
In March 2023, Nick Khattar and five others embarked on a 1,340-km bikepacking trip from Terrace, B.C., to Haines, Alaska. The riders pedalled hardtails and pulled trailers with splitboards strapped to them. They planned to ride, snowboard and record their adventures for a film. Not far into the trek, the team faced harrowing close-passes by trucks on the narrow highway. There was also bad weather, mechanical issues and the fatigue that comes with riding hard with heavy loads in the cold. Then, a true crisis happened in Jade City, B.C., about the halfway point of the trip. Three team members wouldn’t go on to Alaska.
Listen to this extended interview with Khattar as he unpacks the trip. Also, find out what made the difficult journey completely worth it.
Derek Gee reveals a heartwarming story about how he came under the spell of the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal. Isabella and Ava Holmgren, two stars of cyclocross and cross country, find themselves with race duties in Montreal. Canadian Cycling Magazine’s photographer takes a hit. Plus, heartbreak for some Canadians at their home races. All these tales and more are mixed with tips about how you can plan your visit to Quebec’s largest cities to take in the races to their fullest next year.
Also, check out Nick Iwanyshyn’s photos from the races.
Plus, scandal! An Israel-Premier Tech rider had St-Hubert ribs in the lead-up to the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec.
Episode Highlights
6:39 13-year-old Derek Gee, a ride from Ottawa to Montreal and Thomas Voeckler’s gloves
14:16 Benjamin Perry on the significance of the GPCQM
29:41 Pan Am champ Pier-André Coté breaks down the Quebec City race soon after finishing
40:31 How the 2026 road world championships course in Montreal is shaping up.
46:51 A few laps in the Team Canada car at the GP Montreal. It’s not a car race!
1:01:17 Charlotte of the Ottawa Bicycle Club and her bottle basketball net.
1:02:49 An old friend of the pod, and former co-host, makes an appearance.
1:06:54 Success for Charlotte!
1:07:28 Ava and Isabella Holmgren have a job to do at the GP Montreal.
1:12:21 In this case, it was No. 1 that affected Derek Gee.
He did it. But man, was it close. Michael Woods won a stage at the Tour de France this past July in a dramatic fashion on the Puy de Dôme. In this extended interview with Woods, the rider from Ottawa gets into the details of how it all came together, and how it all nearly fell apart. Find out about his relationship with Matteo Jorgenson, the rider whom Woods denied a win on Stage 9. Learn why Woods went for a trail run shortly after the Tour. Finally, who is the guy known as Disco and why is he so important to Woods?
Also in this episode, the Matts, Pioro and Hansen, look ahead to the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal. The two one-day races return in about two weeks. The Canadian Cycling Magazine editors break down the routes and likely key riders at North America’s only WorldTour events.
When Devon Clarke lined up for the national gravel championship race this past April, most riders and fans didn’t really know how fast she was. Sure, she’d won the provincial road race the previous summer, but still, she wasn’t as well known as her competitors Maghalie Rochette and Ruby West. At the end of the 108-km event in Ancaster, Ont., Clarke became the country’s first national gravel champion, a year after she started racing bikes seriously. Since then, she’s won the Blue Mountains Gravel Fondo—which qualifies her for the gravel world championships in Italy this October—and the Reggie Ramble. She now has her sights set on bigger gravel events. Find out more about this rider from Collingwood, Ont.
Enduro rider Kasper Woolley has had a terrible run of luck in the past year. In August 2022, a rider going the wrong way on a pump track smashed into Woolley. This past February, he crashed on a trail and damaged his spleen. The injury was so severe that he faced a five-month recovery. Woolley, who’s been on YT Mob since the start of the year, is now planning his return to competition at the end of July at the Cranworx’s Canadian Open Enduro. Later in September, it’s off to France for the final events of the UCI Enduro World Cup. It’s a late start to the season, but one Woolley is looking forward to. As he’s done in the past, he’s sure to be on podiums once again.
Motorola, U.S. Postal and Garmin-Sharp are some of the teams that Geoff Brown has worked on, preparing and fixing bikes for the biggest road races, including the biggest of them all, the Tour de France. His first Tour was in 1994. Since then, he’s amassed many stories, some hilarious and others tragic. Find out why he doesn’t like time trials, but does like tubeless tires. Also learn how a mechanic is often more than just a person who tunes a bike. While Brown hasn’t been back to the Tour since 2018, he is making a return this year. In just a few weeks, he’ll be wrenching at the Tour de France Femmes with his current team, Human Powered Health.
Since 2018, Matt Kadey has been designing bikepacking routes. Some of his most popular tracks include the BT 700, the Grand Nith Ramble and No Winter Maintenance, all in Ontario. This past March, he launched the Great Northern Bikepacking Route, an adventurous way to get from Victoria to St. John’s, N.L. Kadey discusses why riders needed a new way to go west to east, why the route is not all in Canada and why—even though there are 16 Ride With GPS files that will help you to get from one coast to the other—there’s still work to be done on the route.
Recently, Kadey hosted the fifth grand depart for the first route he designed, the BT 700. He talks about the importance of such send-offs. Kadey not only builds routes, but community, too.
Also in this episode, the regular Matts (Pioro and Hansen) look back at recent races abroad and in Canada. One Matt competed against the other in a hill climb, using an ebike. It didn’t go exactly as planned.
How did Derek Gee do it? How did he get into breakaway after breakaway at the recent Giro d’Italia? And what’s next for the Ottawa rider who impressed and entertained throughout his first Grand Tour? In this in-depth interview, Gee analyzes his four second-place stage finishes. He also talks about the feisty young Israel-Premier Tech squad that made it to Rome, the state of his apartment following his arrival from the Giro, getting slapped in the face, telling Thibaut Pinot to cool it, his relationship with mountains and what type of rider he might be able to become.
At stage races this season, Olivia Baril has been in the mix. Recently, the rider from Rouyn-Noranda, Que., sprinted against Demi Vollering, Annemiek van Vleuten and Katarzyna Niewiadoma for a podium place on the final stage of Itzulia Women. Baril was third on the day and finished fourth overall. Her result at that race and at La Vuelta Femenina show that a Grand Tour win is a possibility. The rider herself has the confidence in her abilities for such a feat. She'll have a chance this summer as the team recently informed her that she'd be heading to the Tour de France Femmes as UAE Team ADQ's general classification rider. In this episode, Baril talks about the dynamics within the women’s pro peloton, living and racing in Spain and her goals for the rest of the season.
This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast is supported by MS Bike. Register and start fundraising at msbike.ca. Also, check out MS Bike specific training advice and tips from Canadian Cycling Magazine experts.
Mark Beaumont has the world record for circumnavigating the world by bike. He also documents his big rides—down a massive volcano or from Cairo to Cape Town—on GCN. His latest book, The Complete Guide to Cycling Psychology (written with Dr. Jim Taylor), draws on his adventures and his co-author’s expertise to provide you with ways to boost your mental game on the bike. This wide-ranging and inspiring conversation with Beaumont will help you to start training your mind. The rider also talks about bike design as he’s consulted on the new Argon 18 Krypton, the Montreal company’s all-road bike.
The two Matts chat about La Vuelta Femenina, prairie dogs and something you shouldn’t do with a cargo bike.
From within the infield at the recent Track Nations Cup in Milton, Ont., athletes snagged medals, joked, made vows out of frustration and looked ahead to the world championships and Paris 2024. Find out about the off-track competition team-sprint members Kelsey Mitchell and Lauriane Genest had the day they rode to silver along with Sarah Orban. Learn about the psychology and tactics that go into a team pursuit race. Sometimes you can use an opponent’s strengths against them, which is what the Canadian women’s squad did in the bronze-medal race.
Also, the two Matts talk Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Pan Am championships. Terry reports on the cool stuff he saw a Sea Otter, including carbon-fibre bottom bracket threads, new hubs and, yes, jean shorts.
On the eve of Geoff Kabush’s birthday, the mountain biker, gravel racer and underbiker covers a range of topics: the evolution of bike tech, the right amount of flare for handlebars, sarcasm, his relationship with cheaters from back in the day and even a plan for editor Matthew Pioro involving pushups. A word that pops up frequently during the wide-ranging discussion with the 15-time national champion from Courtenay, B.C., is balance, which seems to be a key to Kabush’s longevity. That, and fun.
Editors Matt and Matt discuss Paris-Roubaix and Alison Jackson’s historic win at the Hell of the North.
As the snow starts to melt at various rates across the country, and with the recent release of the ride guide in the April/May issue of Canadian Cycling Magazine, editors Matthew Pioro, Matt Hansen (a.k.a. ’90s Matt) and Terry McKall discuss some of the hard-won lessons they’ve learned from doing various cycling events: gravel races, gran fondos and mountain bike challenges. Learn from their mistakes before you head into your outdoor riding season.
Also, lots of talk about recent pro races abroad and a look ahead to the Tour of Flanders. Another lesson: always guess “Steve Bauer” for Canadian cycling trivia.
A rainbow jersey on the track, multiple downhill World Cup wins, a Tour de France stage win—there were a lot of big performances by Canadian riders this past year. Canadian Cycling Magazine's editors—Matthew Pioro, Terry McKall and Matt Hansen (a.k.a. '90s Matt)—break down the top stories of 2022.
You can also listen back to interviews with the year’s biggest newsmakers:
- The inside story of Hugo Houle’s Tour de France stage win
- Road and criterium national champion Maggie Coles-Lyster is on the podium a lot
As Hugo Houle crossed the line in Foix on July 19, he pointed to the sky. He had accomplished a goal he had had for close to 10 years: win a Tour de France stage for his brother, Pierrik, who died after being struck by a vehicle while he was out for a jog. In this episode, find out what went into that victory, the decisions made out on the road and how a rider can be transformed. Featuring Houle himself, Michael Woods, Steve Bauer and Antoine Duchesne.
In late September, it became official: 18-year-old Michael Leonard signed with Ineos Grenadiers for three years. About a month later, he returned home to Oakville, Ont., from his base in Italy. He was staring at his new team bike, but couldn’t ride it. In this episode, find out why Leonard wasn’t taking that sweet new Pinarello out, as well as how he landed on the pro cycling’s richest team.
Also, the Matts talk riding in Italy—where Hansen was recently to check out Campagnolo’s facility—and masters cyclocross. Pioro had a short CX season riding across fields, sliding in mud and running through sand. Do you know what drivetrain was on his bike? It’s Classified. No, really. It’s Classified. Find out more.
On Oct. 10, 2012, almost 10 years ago, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) released its reasoned decision, a comprehensive investigation into doping by Lance Armstrong and other members of the U.S. Postal Service and Discovery Channel cycling teams. The document brought charges against Armstrong and supported USADA’s call to strip Armstrong of his results, including his seven Tour de France wins. The reasoned decision sent reverberations up to this side of the U.S./Canada border. Michael Barry provided USADA with a signed affidavit detailing his doping practices during his career.
In this episode, former president of Cycling Canada John Tolkamp looks back at the volatility in cycling 10 years ago and how he struggled with the information that was coming to light, officially. He also speaks about his organization’s attempts to clean up the sport. Tolkamp is both an insider in the world of cycling, but also a cycling fan who was working his way through tough revelations about Barry and, later, Ryder Hesjedal.
This past August, Leah Kirchmann revealed that she’ll retire from professional road racing following the world championships in Wollongong, Australia. Kirchmann turned pro 12 years ago. In that time she’s ridden with Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies (now Human Powered Health) and Team DSM, the latter since 2016. In this episode, Kirchmann looks back at career highs, such as the team time trial at the 2017 world championships and her three maple-leaf jerseys from the 2014 national championships. She also hints at what might lie ahead.
Also in this episode, the Matts go on about testing gravel bikes—mostly how they feel post-ride. It seems their outing left them a bit spent.
JaBig, a.k.a. Jean-Aimé Bigirimana, is known for his huge rides, including a 15-month, 17,000 km trek on a fixie across Canada that took him to the Arctic Ocean. His most recent adventure was around the U.S., from the northwest, down the Pacific coast, east across southern states, north on the Atlantic side and then back west. In this episode, JaBig looks back on his big ride. He’s a great storyteller with tales about bike theft, serious attention to gear, harrowing rides through unwelcoming areas and the great generosity of the people he met. He has some eye-opening insights into differences between Canadians and Americans. Throughout the trip, he raised funds for World Bicycle Relief.
Also in this episode, the Matts—Pioro and Hansen—discuss the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal.
Tour de France Femmes, the Giro d’Italia Donne, Paris-Roubaix—those are just a few of the races Magdeleine Vallières Mill did during her first season on a WorldTeam. The 21-year-old rider from Sherbrooke, Que., had 40 days of racing, supporting her EF Education-TIBCO-SVB teammates. This year, Vallières Mill also opened a bike shop, called Qui Roule, in her hometown with her father and two business partners. In this episode, she looks back at the busy season, as well as important moments in her growth as a cyclist, including a 1,000-km bikepacking trip she did at the age of nine.
Also in this episode, the Matts—Pioro and Hansen—discuss the Vuelta a España and a not-uncommon bit of “advice” that really ticks off Pioro.
It’s Laurie Arseneault’s second season with Canyon MTB Racing. The squad was a total powerhouse at the national mountain bike championships in July, where she took the short track event and her teammate Emily Batty won the XCO title.
In August, the day after the World Cup at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Arseneault returned to her place in Bromont, Que. She had had a tough XCO competition as she faced a few mechanicals. Still, she was glad she could race in front of friends and family, and vowed to return to MSA stronger next year. In this episode, the rider from Terrebonne, Que., talks about racing, a superstition, the role of fishing in her life, the "fire in her heart" and what she’s most proud of this season. (Hint: It’s not a race result.) Arseneault still has two major events ahead of her for the 2022 season: the world championships in Les Gets, France, and the final World Cup of the season in Val di Sole, Italy.
Before the interview with Arseneault, the Matts (Matthew Pioro and Matt Hansen) talk Finn Iles’s win at Mont-Sainte-Anne, why Matthew should probably never interview Arseneault in French, swearing on a pod and at work and Matt’s continuing adventures in crit racing. Also, Matthew likes Matt’s humour piece. Matt treats it (too) seriously.
This past June, Maggie Coles-Lyster won the national championship road race and the national championship criterium. Of the two results, the crit win was possibly less of a surprise. Coles-Lyster has been on the podium at American Criterium Cup races regularly throughout the past two years. Still, she’s no stranger to longer road events, including the Joe Martin Stage Race where she took the young rider’s jersey in 2021. In this episode, Coles-Lyster looks at the significance of both her national championships titles.
The rider from Maple Ridge, B.C., has also had much success on the track. In fall 2021, she competed in the UCI Track Cycling Champions League, where she won the first scratch race of the series. In 2017, she won the points race at the junior track world championships. As this episode comes out, she’s racing on the track (and road) at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
In this conversation, Coles-Lyster also discusses the vibe in the U.S. crit scene, a competitive approach to yoga, dissecting salmon and the races she’ll take on later this year.
In 1997, Linda Jackson was third at the Tour Cycliste Féminin. The 12-day stage race, with two split stages, was the closest thing to a Tour de France for women at the time. In 2004, Jackson started a women’s team that has now become EF Education-TIBCO-SVB. That team will be at the new Tour de France Femmes, starting on July 24.
In this episode, Jackson discusses her career as a cyclist, the growth of her team and the new women’s Tour. What can that race do for women’s cycling and what can’t it do? Jackson also reveals the EF Education-TIBCO-SVB’s lineup for the Tour. Since the interview was taped, Magdeleine Vallières-Mill was added to the six-rider squad and Sara Poidevin was designated as a reserve rider. The rest of the lineup that Jackson reveals remains unchanged.
Oh, things move fast these days. Matthew Pioro and Matt Hansen are joined by former pro Michael Barry to preview the Tour de France. How many Canadians will be there exactly? Well, check out the discussion around Guillaume Boivin that was nicely prescient. And don’t forget Steve Bauer.
The trio discusses a bridge that could have a significant effect on the race, cobbles and the main contenders. Can Tadej Pogačar be beaten? Also, Euro Disney [?!] and Michael Woods’s chances of taking a stage or the polka dot jersey.
Since 2020, Dave Shellnutt, the Biking Lawyer, has been a legal force behind cyclists in southern Ontario. With his partner Joel Zanatta based in Vancouver, the pair cover a lot of ground advocating for riders.
At Canadian Cycling Magazine, editors often call on Shellnutt when they need an expert quote or insight about road safety and cyclists' rights. Shellnutt is quite active in the community. He not only commutes, but races gravel, too. He does workshops. He’s also behind the Bike Bridge, an initiative that gets food to communities in need.
Not long after Shellnutt spoke with Canadian Cycling Magazine’s Matthew Pioro, the lawyer called out the president of the Toronto Blue Jays. Mark Shapiro wanted an end to one of the city's active transportation arteries so ball fans could have an easier time driving their cars to games. You can imagine how Shellnutt felt about that idea. He’ll call baloney when he sees baloney.
The main goal for this conversation with Shellnutt is to bring you tips and advice for staying safe on the road and for what to do in a crash. Crashes are not a great subject. But we have to be ready if the worst happens. The Biking Lawyer can help.
Ahead of gravel racing’s biggest event, Unbound Gravel, two racers discuss the discipline of riding the bumpy stuff. Former pro-roadie and coach Andrew Randell will be racing Unbound for the first time. He talks about his preparation for the 200-mile event. Canadian cyclocross star Michael van den Ham, who started racing gravel in 2018, looks at how much the sport has changed in four years. He was second at his first gravel event, Mid South, after he finished his cyclocross season that year, took a short break and did a bit of training. This year, after CX wrapped up, van den Ham tried a similar strategy and says he was blown out the back of the pack at Mid South. Still, he’s not doing too badly this spring. He won Paris to Ancaster in April. Just recently, he took the win at Grinduro in California. Soon, he’ll be competing at Lost and Found instead of taking on Unbound.
This episode also features interviews with two up-and-coming endurance track riders. From the infield at the Milton velodrome during the most recent Nations Cup, Ngaire Barraclough and Sarah van Dam discuss their races. Barraclough competed in the scratch race. Later, during the omnium competition, she won the first event, which was another scratch race. Van Dam had a crash in the elimination race, but was able to get back on her bike and finish in an impressive sixth place.
Ottawa’s Alex Cataford checks in from the Giro d’Italia. No pizza for him during the stage in Naples, nor any wine after a winery visit. (Fantini is a major sponsor of Cataford’s Israel-Premier Tech team.) Grand Tour racing is truly hard.
In this episode, former pro Ryan Roth recounts his big win in northern France. In 2012, the rider from Kitchener, Ont., won Tro Bro Léon, a race that features gravel sectors called ribinoù. Its famous prize is a pig, however, Roth didn’t leave the podium with livestock. No, the pig goes to the best-placed rider from Brittany, the region within which Tro Bro is held.
Tro Bro can be a chaotic race. Riders, sport directors and race officials each often have only a partial picture of what’s going on at a given time. Remembering how a race played out after a space of 10 years can be tricky, especially with an event as tough as Tro Bro. For some extra perspective on the race, Kevin Field, Roth’s sport director on SpiderTech powered by C10, shares his recollections from 2012 as well.
The show starts with a current race: the Giro d’Italia. Alex Cataford of Israel-Premier Tech talks about the opening stages of this year's Italian Grand Tour and gives a few hints as to what might lie ahead for the Ottawa rider.
For more on Roth and his 2012 Tro Bro Léon—including video of the rider checking with the race moto to confirm that, in fact, he was about to win the race—read his story “No, I didn’t win a pig.”
You’re no doubt familiar with Kelsey Mitchell’s story. It’s not only been documented in the pages—both print and web—of Canadian Cycling Magazine, but it’s also retold at the start of a recent docu-series called Back on Track, which focuses on the athletes at the Champions League that ran in the fall of 2021. Mitchell got into track cycling a bit later than most elites. In 2017, at the age of 23, she attended an RBC Training Ground talent identification event. She churned out some serious watts on a bike, which, of course, caught the attention of Cycling Canada. About four years later, she won gold in the sprint at the Tokyo Olympics.
At this year’s first instalment of the Nations Cup series in Glasgow, Mitchell won gold in the sprint. She, along with Lauriane Genest and Sarah Orban, took silver in the team sprint. The next stop in the Nations Cup is in Milton, Ont., from May 12 to 15. Mitchell and her colleagues in the team sprint will be there.
So Mitchell has made it as a track cyclist, right? This is the top? Well, sort of. Mitchell is definitely not an up-and-comer. But she says she still has more to learn. Right now she seems to be beating people with her raw power. But imagine what happens when she matches that power with richer race tactics and experience.
In this interview, Mitchell not only talks about where she thinks she’s headed, but also where she’s been, starting at the Champions League, where a whole lot of cameras and microphones were aimed at the track star.
In March, Pier-André Côté won the one-day race Grand Prix Criquielion. He rides for Human Powered Health and is now in his fourth year with the U.S.-based ProTeam. The team’s race schedule has been bringing Côté to Europe pretty consistently since 2019. The sprinter is from Gaspé and he grew up in Levis, near Quebec City. His current home is Girona, which makes for a solid European base.
In this episode, Côté discusses connections between hockey and cycling and the nature of risk in bike racing. He knows a thing or two about financial risk, as he’s studying to be an actuary. He definitely has a numerical, analytical mind. Yet, he balances that with a certain wisdom that goes beyond number crunching. His discussion about power meters and his relationship with them and his training contains insights that many of us who are training with power should think about.
Michael Yakubowicz and Frank Gairdner are behind Bridge Bike Works, a new company that’s aiming to roll out a made-in-Toronto carbon-fibre bike this summer. Join the duo for a tour of their factory to learn more about how a modern bike is made. Also, find out why these two Canadian guys think it’s a good idea to work with composites right in their city.
This episode is brought to you by GCN+. Canadians can get 25 per cent off of a subscription to the service that streams races (including the Giro d’Italia) and cycling documentaries. Go to gcn.eu/canada25 and sign up.
You’re probably familiar with Svein Tuft’s legendary tales, such as the time he used a broken hockey stick to chase away a wolf that was menacing him and his dog, or how he had a hairy mountaineering descent in the rain. But what used to freak him out? Well, it’s not wolves or slippery heights.
Tuft retired from professional road cycling at the end of 2019. In November 2020, the Langley B.C., native moved back to his hometown with his family after living in Andorra for eight years. In this discussion, he gets into all the reasons and challenges of that move. He speaks about what he likes about being back in B.C. and what he misses about the small European country.
Things have been pretty busy for Tuft in his retirement. He talks about the tricky business of balancing his drive and passion of exploring on his bike with the importance of being home and raising children. Tuft has ideas about what can make older riders with day jobs faster. The discussion covers a lot of ground as Tuft has a lot of wisdom to share.
When the Premier Tech u23 Cycling Project debuted this past November, the team said it wanted to get some of its riders in the WorldTour by 2024. By 2026, the outfit—which includes Dylan Bibic, Carson Miles, Charles-Étienne Chrétien, as well as seven others—is hoping to have placed five or six riders into the top ranks of road cycling. It’s an ambitious plan. One of the people behind it is Kevin Field.
Field has been dubbed the Moneyball of Canadian Cycling because of his ability to crunch data to help achieve successes for this country’s athletes. He’s been involved with Symmetrics, Spidertech powered by C10 and Cycling Canada. He worked with the team that got Michael Woods and Simone Boilard on the podium at the 2018 road world championships.
Today, Field is working with a longtime figure in cycling, Pierre Hutsebaut, as well as former pro French cyclist Flavien Dassonville and pro roadie Hugo Houle to develop a group of young riders. In this episode, Field discusses just how he and the Premier Tech u23 Cycling Project can get these riders to reach their full potential.
As 2021 comes to a close, the editors of Canadian Cycling Magazine get together to discuss the biggest stories in Canadian cycling. Olympics, Paris-Roubaix, the downhill world championships and even the current cyclocross season—the team gets into the details of the top performances of this country's athletes, as well as some of the biggest developments in the sport. Also, is now the time Canadians should really embrace racing bikes on snow?
You can also listen back to interviews with the year's biggest newsmakers:
- Was this Guillaume Boivin’s best season ever?
- Canada’s newest world champions
- How is Carter Woods planning to win his next race?
If you’re on top of your Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast listening, you’ll recall that Guillaume Boivin was on this past summer. He was in the midst of his first Tour de France, while also looking forward to his first Olympic appearance. He was on track for a very good season. And then, things got really good. In mid-September, he won his second elite national road race championship. Later that month, he got a top-20 result at the world championships. Then, Boivin had a fantastic ride at Paris-Roubaix, finishing ninth, which is one of the best results by a Canadian ever at the Hell of the North. Could this have been his best season ever? In this episode, the Montreal rider on Israel Start-up Nation looks back at the highs, and heartbreak, from the 2021 road season.
At the beginning of September, the two young riders won rainbow jerseys at the junior track world championships in Cairo. Carson Mattern won gold in the scratch race and Dylan Bibic won the points race. They took home some other hardware, too. Mattern and Bibic got bronze in the madison and Bibic was in second place in the omnium.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on junior and under-17 racing, you’ll know that Bibic has an unofficial under-17 world record in the 2-km individual pursuit. At the 2019 Canadian track championships, he won seven gold, two silver and bronze. He set Canadian records in the 200 metre time trial and the team sprint, too. Mattern is also no stranger to the podium. He’s been racing steadily from an early age and is a diligent and dedicated athlete.
Bibic is 18 years old and from Mississauga, Ont., just west of Toronto. Mattern is 17, from Ancaster, Ont., close to Hamilton. They’ve both benefited from the legacies of major cycling events held in that province. Mattern has raced for NCCH, the National Cycling Centre Hamilton. That organization grew out of the world road cycling championships that were held in Hamilton in 2003. Both riders have honed their track riding skills on the velodrome in Milton, Ont., which was built for the 2015 Pan Am Games. Those events and their influence have had real positive effects on the cycling careers of these two riders.
Mattern and Bibic discuss the challenges and successes of racing in Cairo, and its overall importance. Remember, junior racing has been hit harder with cancellations than elite level racing throughout the pandemic. The two very ambitious and talented riders also speak about their future goals.
You know Jenn Jackson. She races cross country at the World Cup level, she digs cyclocross, she’s a bike mechanic, she sometimes bakes cookies and hands them out at events. And she’s all around into bikes.
Canadian Cycling Magazine editor Matthew Pioro spoke with Jackson not long after she returned from her second trip to Europe this year where she had raced the cross country world championships and the Lenzerheide World Cup. She was at her home in Horseshoe Valley, near Barrie, Ont., for a bit. Now, as this episode is coming out, she’s getting ready for the final World Cup of the season in Snowshoe, W. Va., and then is on to cross country nationals. It’s been a long season for Jackson.
Jackson has a lot of respect for Canada’s tradition and strength in the field of cross country mountain biking. But she’s concerned as things seem to be waning when it comes to results. She feels an internal pressure to carry on the legacy of riders, such as Catharine Pendrel, Marie-Hélène Prémont, Chrissy Redden and Alison Sydor.
While there is deep reflection on the season’s ups and downs, Jackson is also still having fun. Remember the Hawaiian shirt she wore at cyclocross races? That comes up as well as possible sartorial options for this year’s CX season. So have a listen to the ever-insightful Jenn Jackson.
Lately, on this podcast, the focus has been on athletes, on their successes, challenges and just what makes them tick. But this episode is a bit different. The discussion gets into just what makes bikes tick.
A few days ago, bike component maker Shimano launched its updated version of both the Dura-Ace and Ultegra road groupsets. It’s a big deal. These are the brand’s top and second-from-the-top component lines. You see the pros riding Dura-Ace in the major races. Calling Ultegra “second-tier” doesn’t do the lineup justice. Ultegra parts are usually pretty much the same as Dura-Ace, just a bit heavier and often friendlier on the wallet.
This episode's guests are Nick Legan and Dave Lawrence. Nick is the road brand manager at Shimano and Dave is the road product manager. (Nick says that they both love road and managing.) Dave is actually more involved in the nitty-gritty of making road components, while Nick’s priorities are letting people know about them. Dave cooks the steak, Nick sells the sizzle, if you will. They are both incredibly knowledgeable about bike components and their design.
What does Dura-Ace mean to the world of road cycling? How much did road group developers steal from the mountain bike side? What were some of the ideas that led to some of the newest features like wireless shifters, wired derailleurs and updated braking dynamics? These are just some of the questions that come up in the discussion.
Time to get techy.
Tristen Chernove is back at the Paralympics for a second time. He’ll be competing in all the cycling disciplines that he can—the road race, the time trial, and on the track, the pursuit and the kilo. In this episode he’ll preview a bit of what lies ahead at the Games.
In 2009, Chernove was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome. It’s a degenerative disease that affects the nervous system. The nerves start losing their ability to transmit signals. Chernove had been active all his life. He competed in whitewater paddling and even FireFit competitions for firefighters. Roughly six years after his diagnosis, his competitive nature had him riding the track and road as a paracyclist.
Chernove is classified as a C2 athlete. That means he rides a regular bike, as opposed to a tandem, tricycle or hand-cycle. The number in the classification indicates the level of limitations the riders have. C5 athletes, for example, have fewer limitations in their lower or upper limbs than C2 athletes. You’ll find out why Chernove might be reclassified in Tokyo.
Chernove is incredibly driven. He started a company that now manages the airport in Cranbrook, B.C. Juggling the duties of a CEO and a top athlete leads to late-night training sessions. But there’s a price for all that. In this interview, Chernove, quite candidly, delves into the strain all his commitments put on his family, that is, his wife and two girls, who are 14 and 11 years old.
The rider has 13 rainbow jerseys and he’s kind of lost track of which one goes with which win. Yet, his cycling ambitions go beyond his own victories, and they are centred on the roads and trails of Cranbrook. You find out what he hopes to accomplish while working with organizations like the Kootenay Adaptive Sport Association.
“Peter, how am I going to win this race tomorrow?”
It’s a question that Carter Woods occasionally asks his Norco Factory teammate, Peter Disera. It may seem a bit cheeky, but it leads to a discussion of race tactics and strategy. As Woods mentions in this interview, you can’t win World Cup races with sheer pedal power. Earlier this year, Woods nailed the race tactics on two notable occasions.
From about mid-April to July, Woods and his cross country team had a long European campaign, competing in a variety of events, including four World Cup races. Woods won the under-23 race in Albstadt, Germany—his first World Cup win and the first World Cup win by an elite Canadian man since Geoff Kabush won in Bromont in 2009. Then, just a week after Albstadt, Woods won another World Cup, Nové Město in the Czech Republic.
The Cumberland, B.C., native also speaks about the racing scene on Vancouver Island, which was important in his development as a rider. There’s some cyclocross talk, too. Remember, he’s the 2018 junior national champion.
The discussion starts with bikepacking. Before the interview, Woods had just gotten back from a tour on the island. It was a way to explore his home turf and prepare for the second part of his season.
Tristen Chernove is heading back to the Paralympics for a second time: he’s off to Tokyo later in August. He’ll be competing in all the cycling disciplines that he can—the road race, the time trial, and on the track, the pursuit and the kilo. In this episode he’ll preview a bit of what lies ahead at the Games.
In 2009, Chernove was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome. It’s a degenerative disease that affects the nervous system. The nerves start losing their ability to transmit signals. Chernove had been active all his life. He competed in whitewater paddling and even FireFit competitions for firefighters. Roughly six years after his diagnosis, his competitive nature had him riding the track and road as a paracyclist.
Chernove is classified as a C2 athlete. That means he rides a regular bike, as opposed to a tandem, tricycle or hand-cycle. The number in the classification indicates the level of limitations the riders have. C5 athletes, for example, have fewer limitations in their lower or upper limbs than C2 athletes. You’ll find out why Chernove might be reclassified in Tokyo.
Chernove is incredibly driven. He started a company that now manages the airport in Cranbrook, B.C. Juggling the duties of a CEO and a top athlete leads to late-night training sessions. But there’s a price for all that. In this interview, Chernove, quite candidly, delves into the strain all his commitments put on his family, that is, his wife and two girls, who are 14 and 11 years old.
The rider has 13 rainbow jerseys and he’s kind of lost track of which one goes with which win. Yet, his cycling ambitions go beyond his own victories, and they are centred on the roads and trails of Cranbrook. You find out what he hopes to accomplish while working with organizations like the Kootenay Adaptive Sport Association.
Guillaume Boivin is toughing it out now in the final stages of the Tour de France. He's faced crashes, heat, mountain climbs and a lack of vegetables. Listen to find out exactly what's going on with his diet.
Boivin also discusses the Olympics. Near the beginning of July, he was named as the third rider, after Michael Woods and Hugo Houle, who will be at the road race in Tokyo. While still in the midst of his first Tour, Boivin looks ahead to his next big objective. In a way, the two events are similar: Boivin's role is to help Woods cross the finish line first.
Boivin has been with the team Israel Start-Up Nation in its various forms since 2016. Before that he did a season with U.S. team Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies. There were also two years on the Cannondale WorldTour team with riders such as Peter Sagan, Matej Mohorič and Elia Viviani. Going way back, Boivin was on the influential Canadian pro continental squad SpiderTech. In 2010, he famously tied for third-place with Taylor Phinney at the under-23 world championship road race.
While Boivin loves to mix it up in a bunch sprint, throughout the past few years, he’s developed into a skilled support rider with a range of abilities. Take the current Tour de France, for example. Boivin’s first job has been to help a climber like Michael Woods with his goals of stage wins and the KOM jersey. Yet, Boivin can also help out a fast man like André Greipel.
The Tour de France is stressful for riders. But was Boivin dealing with an added stress at the start of the Tour? He’s a big hockey fan and his team is the Montreal Canadiens. (Also, make sure to listen to this story of Boivin's about catching a Habs game in Montreal with Sagan.) The Tour started just before the Stanley Cup finals got underway. With the time difference between France and North America, was Boivin losing precious sleep over his struggling Habs? That's where the conversation begins with this very Canadian rider.
Adam de Vos can throw a punch. Most cyclists, it seems, can’t. Every few years though, there’s a dust-up in the peloton. It’s always a bit shocking, while the riders’ technique is usually cringeworthy.
“That’s what I’m training for: that one time that it goes down in a race,” deadpans de Vos in his interview. “No. I’m just kidding,” he adds quickly.
The rider from Victoria has been a pro since 2015. His results have largely been at a simmer and occasionally bubble up. He won a 1.2 level one-day race in Austria in 2017. That year, he led an important race in the North American scene: the Joe Martin Stage Race. He was at the top of the GC for most of the event. In 2018, de Vos won a stage of the Tour of Langkawi and held the yellow jersey for two days. But, as with most riders, the results only tell part of the story.
Find out more about the long-reigning national champ Adam de Vos as he talks boxing, wine and especially cycling.
National road race champion Karol-Ann Canuel has held the maple-leaf jersey since 2019 – thanks to the pandemic. In this episode, she speaks about why it’s somewhat just that she still has the jersey that she’s so proud to wear.
Canuel has been competing since she was 11. She came up through the influential Club cycliste d’Amos. She was fifth at the junior world championship road race in 2006. She has seen women’s road cycling evolve from the final days of races such as le Tour de Grand Montreal and le Tour de PEI to where it is today, a much more professional discipline. Still, there are things Canuel feels are missing in the Women’s WorldTour
In late May, Canuel had just helped her teammate Anna van der Breggen take a stage win and the race overall at the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas. Soon after, Canuel left for altitude to train for the Tokyo Olympics. Find out what’s ahead for this rider who has stood on the podium here in Canada and on the world stage. Will Canuel continue to race beyond 2021?
Five years ago, on June 3, 2016, Jocelyn Lovell died. During his heyday in the 1970s, he was a supreme bike handler and race tactician. His skills got him more than 35 national titles in various events on the road and the track. He won gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and Pan Am Games and silver in the kilo at the track world championships in Munich in 1978. Lovell was smart, funny, feisty and often mean. He got busted for stealing cookies, and was dealt a six-month sanction. He also swiped an assault rifle as a prank during the 1977 road world championships in Venezuela and got away with it.
On Aug. 4, 1983, Lovell was out on a training ride northwest of Toronto, when a driver of a dump truck hit him. The star cyclist then became a quadriplegic. In the following years, he dedicated himself to the cause of finding a cure for spinal-cord injuries.
In this episode, which comes out on the anniversary of Lovell’s death, three top Canadian cyclists who were influenced by Lovell—Gordon Singleton, Steve Bauer and Michael Barry—remember the complicated figure who is the first modern hero of Canadian cycling.
How much coffee does Gunnar Holmgren travel with for a two-month stint of racing cross country in Europe? A lot. In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, the under-23 rider from Orillia, Ont., who’s with the Quebec-based Pivot Cycles-OTE, not only discusses coffee, but World Cup mountain biking, ambitious cooking exploits, ambitious cyclocross projects and figure skating. Yes. Figure skating. Before Holmgren started to really focus on mountain biking and cyclocross at around age 13, he was a serious figure skater. Since totally switching to bikes, he’s won the Canada Cup overall as a junior. He’s also been a national cyclocross champion three times: twice in under-23 and once as a junior. So tune in for a conversation with barista, cook, coach, but most of all, racer—Gunnar Holmgren.
Lucas Cruz races for the Norco Factory Downhill team. As a junior, he was national champion in 2018. In 2019, he was third overall in the junior World Cup series and just 0.01 seconds off the podium at the Mont-Sainte-Anne world championships. He joined the elite downhill ranks in 2020. At last year’s Crankworx Summer Series, he won the Kicking Horse Dual Slalom.
Cruz seems like someone who’s always on the go. He not only races DH, but he skis, snowmobiles, hunts and rides dirt bikes. That list might only scratch the surface of his pursuits. Cruz discusses these many activities, as well as his days racing BMX, a highly influential kids program run out of Whistler and the legacy of Steve Smith.
He also talks about the importance of having fun, which he really seems to take to heart.
You’re probably familiar with Svein Tuft’s legendary tales, such as the time he used a broken hockey stick to chase away a wolf that was menacing him and his dog, or how he had a hairy mountaineering descent in the rain. But what used to freak him out? Well, it’s not wolves or slippery heights.
Tuft retired from professional road cycling at the end of 2019. In November 2020, the Langley B.C., native moved back to his hometown with his family after living in Andorra for eight years. In this discussion, he gets into all the reasons and challenges of that move. He speaks about what he likes about being back in B.C. and what he misses about the small European country.
Things have been pretty busy for Tuft in his retirement. Near the beginning of April, he featured in a short video. He has a new podcast with his recently retired teammate Ryan Anderson. Their pod is called Back on the Bus. In March, Tuft and his wife Justine welcomed their second child, Heidi, who is the little sister to their son Gunnar. Tuft talks about the tricky business of balancing his drive and passion of exploring on his bike with the importance of being home and raising children. He also discusses why a job as a sport director with his old WorldTour team wasn’t for him. He has ideas about what can make older riders with day jobs faster. And he tells a bit about a forthcoming book. The discussion covers a lot of ground. Tuft has a lot of wisdom to share.
Like many Canadian cross country riders, Haley Smith has been doing a lot riding on the trails around Victoria. The Ontario mountain biker and her husband, who is also her Norco Factory teammate, Andrew L’Esperance, have been on the West Coast since early January. It’s the place to train for the season ahead because international travel is not an easy option right now.
Smith is heading abroad soon, however. In about mid-April, she and L’Esperance will go to Europe to start racing. The big targets are the World Cup races in Germany and the Czech Republic. Results at those events could affect selection for the Olympics. While the chances of Smith representing Canada in Tokyo this summer are good, partly because of her third-place finish at the World Cup in Nové Město in 2019, nothing is totally certain.
In January, Smith published a story about her struggles with mental health. In the past, she’s spoken about the problems she faced as a teenager and how, for the most part, she overcame them. But in 2020, her struggles grew more and more serious. Smith is always incredibly articulate when she discusses mental health. She’s honest and insightful, even when she’s overwhelmed with emotion, which you will hear in this interview. So get ready to tackle some big topics, as well as some big jumps, with mountain biker Haley Smith.
At 6 p.m. on March 12, Lucy Hempstead climbed onto her bike, which was connected to her trainer, and started pedalling. She kept pedalling for 24 hours. At 6 p.m. the following day, she set a distance record, which is currently in the process of being ratified by Guinness World Records.
Hempstead is from Ottawa and is a former runner. She’s faced anxiety, depression, an eating disorder, burnout and broken bones. Now, things are looking more positive. Her discovery of cycling is part of that complex change. She may have broken a world record on her bike, but the machine has played a more significant role in putting things back together for the rider. In 2019, Hempstead’s mother signed her up for a talent identification program that aims to steer young athletes toward Olympic goals. That bit of parental initiative has Hempstead on a path to the Games in 2024 for cycling.
So listen to this conversation with Hempstead to find out more about this 20-year-old rider with big potential. And find out just what type of pizza she crushed after setting a world record.
In February, Ryan Atkins took on his Seven Summits challenge. For seven days, he climbed, virtually that is, the highest peaks on each of the world’s continents. The place where he actually gained all that elevation was in and around his home in Sutton, Que., a little more than 100 km east of Montreal. The way he climbed was on a fat bike one day, on a virtual riding platform another and on a gravel bike as well. He also ran and skied his way to the high elevations he needed to reach.
You might remember hearing Atkins on this podcast more than a year ago. He and two other riders took on the Wapusk Trail, the world’s longest winter road that runs from Northern Ontario to Manitoba. He’s also been part of bike-based expeditions along James Bay and in Northern Quebec.
About 10 years ago, Atkins raced mountain bikes in Canada Cups and a few World Cups, such as Bromont and Mont-Sainte-Anne. He was a world unicycle trials champion, in 2006 and 2008. More recently, he’s been focused on obstacle course racing. He’s been the World's Toughest Mudder six times, the Spartan Ultra world champion twice and the OCR world champion. He likes to push and challenge himself.
Atkins’s Seven Summits challenge is, well, bonkers, especially the day he gained 6,961 m on a treadmill. That’s the height of Argentina’s Aconcagua. What attracted Atkins to this challenge with its jaw-dropping difficulty, both physically and mentally? The athlete seems to have a superhuman enthusiasm for daunting, repetitive tasks. Still, he found very cool moments throughout the challenge. They were more than just silver linings, but insights he would have never gotten otherwise. He also ate a lot of cookies and gummy bears.
If you think you might want to try climbing Seven Summits yourself, you’ll hear some tips that will help you with your own bonkers challenge.
In early February, Chris Froome posted a photo on social media. It reads, “Can’t tell if @paulopowerwatts is happy with my numbers.” @paulopowerwatts is Paulo Saldanha, the head of performance at Israel Start-Up Nation. He’s been working to get the four-time Tour de France winner back to the level he was at before his serious accident in June 2019. Saldanha has also been working closely with Michael Woods for roughly eight years. In this episode, Saldanha discusses training those two riders. He also gets into some big questions. What role does failure play in the development of a successful athlete? Will the algorithm, the robo-coach, ever replace the human coach? Is cycling a fallback sport for athletes who don’t succeed in other disciplines? He even looks ahead to possible training innovations that might be coming to more humble riders, like those of us who aren’t pros.
The Spring Classics are starting. Do you have trouble pronouncing race names, such as Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Scheldeprijs and Brabantse Pijl. Host Matthew Pioro gets some coaching on the proper pronunciation of these races. Listen in so you, too, can talk Spring Classics like a pro.
For more on Saldanha and Israel Start-Up Nation's co-owner Sylvan Adams, check out this Canadian Cycling Magazine story on the pair from Montreal who are making big changes within the WorldTour.
Benjamin Perry from St. Catharines, Ont., is entering his first season on a WorldTour team, Astana - Premier Tech, after years in continental and pro continental outfits. If you look him up on ProCyclingStats, the site might lead you to believe that Perry came up through the North American road scene. Sure, he spent 2015 and 2016 on the influential continental team Silber Pro, and then went on to Israel Cycling Academy. But before Silber, Perry toughed it out in Europe, doing what he could to get on Belgian development outfits. His route to the WorldTour was by no means direct or close to a sure thing.
Perry’s a good talker and very self-aware of his strengths as a cyclist and where he thinks he can go at the top levels of the sport. In this interview, he speaks about the strangeness of his team camp, because of COVID-19 precautions, and also some of the zaniness there. It sounds like he made a few very smart decisions at training camp. One involved a certain bit of costume makeup that he got as part of an initiation outfit. It seems there’s nothing that went on at this camp that will ever come back to haunt Perry should he, say, ever become prime minister.
Have a listen to this chat with Perry and get to know a first-year WorldTour rider who's put in a lot of time on the road.
Batty is a two-time Olympian. She's won the national cross country championships at the elite level five times and claimed bronze in two world championship competitions. Last year, Batty announced her departure from Trek Factory Racing. She had been with that organization for 12 years. In this interview, editor Matthew Pioro tries to find out more about the support she'll have this year. The conversation took place not too long after Batty revealed that she is now riding Canyon Bicycles. She could stop trying to keep her bikes from getting spotted when out on the trails near Victoria, where she and her partner Adam Morka have been based since mid-January.
The cross country rider also talks about a gruesome ride she took on in 2020. You'll also hear more about what she learned doing stage races, about the tough, and still ongoing process for making the Olympic team and about taking time for self discovery.
Did you have a goal in 2020 that fell apart? Maybe an event you wanted to do well at? Maybe it was a riding-related goal that went out the window when you had to self-isolate or start managing your kid’s online classes.
While there are reasons to have a bit of optimism for 2021, planning for the year ahead is still tricky. If you set a goal race, will it actually run, for example? Given the high probability that you’ll face some more curveballs next year, how do you plan to get better and fitter on the bike?
Molly Hurford is a contributor to the magazine and the podcast. She has a great story in the current issue, and now online, about why you should ditch traditional training goals or resolutions for 2021. She proposes setting intentions for what she calls #theseUncertainTimes.
Molly and her partner Peter Glassford host the Consummate Athlete podcast and have a new book called Becoming a Consummate Athlete. Some of the discussion in this episode picks up on ideas from that book. Some other things that came up are cross country rider Haley Smith’s 2018 bronze medal ride at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, bathtub crayons, Marie Kondo and cycling gear, and the book Forever Fit by pop legend Cher. But most important, there’s lots of great training advice for the year ahead.
Was the 2020 road season Michael Woods's best season to date? That's something debated here at Canadian Cycling Magazine so it's an idea editor Matthew Pioro wanted to explore with Woods himself.
Despite breaking his leg in March, Woods had some great results when racing resumed in August. There was his stage win and two days in the leader's jersey at Tirreno-Adriatico, a stage win at the Vuelta a España and even a win at a virtual race. Woods and Pioro get into comparisons with his 2018 season, which was the previous high-water mark for the Ottawa rider.
There's also discussion of Woods’s evolving relationship with Alejandro Valverde, his new team for 2021, Israel Start-Up Nation and all the people who will be familiar to him at that outfit. And there’s his busted-leg buddy who’s quite an accomplished cyclist.
The interview took place in mid-November. Woods was at home recovering from an operation that saw the removal of four screws from his leg. Remember, he broke his femur badly at Paris-Nice. How badly? It was so bad, that he was seriously considering ending his cycling career. But it's good he didn't. Instead, he had a road season that right now really could be his best ever.
Recently, Ryan Anderson announced his retirement from pro cycling. He’s been at it since 2008. In that time, he might not have risen to the same heights as say his frequent teammate Svein Tuft or some of his contemporaries, such as David Veilleux or Hugo Houle. But Anderson is the last of a certain generation of pro road cyclist. He’s been on all the influential Canadian road outfits of the past 15 years including Symmetrics, SpiderTech and Rally Cycling. Technically, Rally is registered in Minneapolis, but there’s always so many Canadians on that team, both on the racing side and on the management side, that it gets honorary citizenship.
Anderson got his start daydreaming his way through mountain bike races in his home province of Alberta. Then he moved to banging bars on the road. Later he worked as hard as he could to get to Europe to race against the sport’s best.
He’s seen a lot during the past 13 years. Teams and races have come and gone. As Anderson takes his leave from racing, he looks back at people and events that shaped him and that continue to shape road cycling today.
Maghalie Rochette, the Canadian and Pan Am cyclocross champion, has been in Europe for more than a month racing. In the past two weeks, things have gotten tougher for her. Cases of Covid-19 are growing in Europe. Countries have entered lockdowns. Some races are getting cancelled. But, oddly, others are forging ahead.
On the Monday following Koppenberg Cross, which Rochette had raced, she was in her camper van that carries her entire support crew: David Gagnon, Rochette’s partner, coach, mechanic and it’s probably fair to say general manager of Team Rochette, and their dog Mia. It’s a small, nimble operation, but they are wrestling with some big questions. They had come to Europe to race for months, which is a challenge for North American riders in the best of times. Now they are wondering how safe it will be for them if they continue on. What if one of them should fall ill? How long will the racing continue? From a distance, it might be easy to say, “Well, if you don’t feel comfortable, you should just leave Europe.” But, cyclocross is Rochette’s job. Now, there’s not enough high-level racing on this side of the globe. If racing continues in Europe, and if she doesn’t participate, it will have a negative effect on the next season. Rochette gets into these and other dilemmas.
Rochette also talks about racing at the mountain bike world championships in early October, her creative projects and even board games.
In June, Michael Barry discussed the UCI’s plan for a compressed 2020 road season. Recently, Canadian Cycling Magazine editor Matthew Pioro wanted to look back at some of Barry’s predictions from late spring. There is something unfair about looking back at predictions. In the best of times, guesses about the future are usually wrong. During this pandemic, it’s extremely hard to find any certainty. But, Pioro thought the review would be useful. You don’t know the significance of moves in a race until the race is over. So we wouldn’t fully understand the season until the end. We’re close to the end now, so let’s see what we’ve learned.
Michael Barry did get a pretty significant prediction totally wrong. And you're probably glad he did.
This past summer, Tim Johnson went on his first bikepacking trip. As trips go, this one was big: seven days, roughly 700 km on the Trans-Taiga, which is roughly 1,300 km north of Montreal. Johnson knew Quebec pretty well beforehand. Sure, he’s a six time U.S. cyclocross champion and currently a director of development at USA Cycling. His Strava profile puts him in Topsfield, Mass., but he spends much of the year in Sutton, Que. Remember, he’s married to a member of the Canadian parliament. His wife of almost 16 years is Lyne Bessette. She’s a Canadian cycling champion and the Liberal MP for Brome-Missisquoi. So, yes, Tim Johnson knows Quebec. And as of this past summer, he’s been to a part of the province that few Quebeckers even see.
In his episode, Johnson speaks about bear encounters, riding gravel, bugs, fishing and his new perspectives on his adopted province.
Throughout the Tour, Hugo Houle of Astana Pro team checked in with Canadian Cycling Magazine. Listen to his insights from inside the race. He talks about echelons, spreadsheets and crashes.
Also this month, Michael Woods won a stage at Tirreno-Adriatico and held the leader’s jersey for two days.
Both riders are slated to represent Canada at the road world championships on Sunday. They’ll tell us what we might see on the circuit in Imola, Italy and of their hopes on how the road race might play out for them.
From jerseys won by young Canadians to Euro pros sipping Caesars to taking in a Montreal Canadiens game with a future world champion, the influence of the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal is significant. This episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast honours those races by looking at moments, both big and small, connected with the Grands Prix. There’s discussion of poutine, too.
This is usually a busy time of year for Catharine Pendrel. She’s usually competing in cross country World Cups or preparing for the world championships or even in full Olympics mode. Her list of wins is long, but here’s a short version: two cross country world championship titles, one in 2011, the other in 2014; winner of the World Cup overall three times, once in 2010 and 2012 and 2016; six national cross country championship titles; two national cyclocross championship titles; three appearances at the Summer Olympics; one bronze medal from Rio in 2016.
Pendrel is a very generous and active supporter of the mountain bike scene in Canada. About two years ago, she and her husband Keith Wilson started Pendrel Racing, a development team for young riders. This past summer, they’ve had an up-and-coming Canadian rider staying at their place and riding in the Kamloops, B.C. area. (Listen to find out who.)
Pendrel also discusses how she reacted after a crash in one of the biggest races of her career and who she thinks will be going strong when this year’s shortened mountain bike World Cup starts in September. She gives some insights into the selection process for mountain bikers for the 2021 Olympics. Pendrel speaks on some advice she had for a rider on her development team on how to ride in this extended off-season that athletes face. That advice could help you, too.
When Rob Britton got into bikepacking, he really went for it. In 2018, the Tour of Utah winner set off from Calgary to Port Renfrew, B.C., on a nine-day adventure. The saddle time seemed to prepare him nicely for spending the day in the breakaway at the world championship road race soon after. Since then, Britton has continued to have some long adventures on his bike, including a big trip to Japan in November 2019 and a gravel epic earlier this year.
In this episode, Britton covers all kinds of topics related to bikepacking. He talks about how he sometimes pushes himself and his friends. He’s very safety conscious, and even has some good advice about when and how to take risks. There’s discussion about gear, including his go-to equipment list. He puts a lot of thought into every gram including what goes in his flask.
After you hear this interview with Rob Britton, you’ll want to plan a big cycling adventure.
This episode is a rebroadcast of our look at the 1980 Olympic boycott. It happened 40 years ago, but contains some lessons for what athletes are facing today. On this day, BMX competition was originally scheduled to begin in Tokyo. But in March, as rising COVID-19 cases sent nations scrambling, the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee announced that Canadians would not go to the 2020 Games. Two days later, the IOC said it would postpone the 2020 Olympics for a year.
Recently, as we passed the one-year-to-go-until-the-rescheduled-Olympics date, talk of cancelling the 2021 Games started up. On July 22, the president of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee Yoshiro Mori said to Japanese media that if the pandemic continued has it had been so far, the Games could not go ahead in 2021. A few days before that, the Kyodo news agency released the results of a poll that showed that only 23.9 per cent of the people surveyed throughout Japan thought the Olympics should be held. A segment as large as 36.4 per cent thought the Games should be postponed again. From the survey, 33.7 per cent said the Games should be cancelled.
With the threat of Olympic cancellation creeping in once again, let’s listen to track cyclists Gordon Singleton and Steve Bauer, and road cyclist Louis Garneau as they discuss the time, 40 years ago, that the Olympics didn’t happen for Canadian athletes.
This year marks three big anniversaries for Steve Bauer. The Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast has covered his oh-so-close second-place finish in the 1990 Paris-Roubaix and the 1980 Olympic boycott that affected him and other Canadian athletes. Thirty years ago this summer, Bauer got into the leader's jersey at the Tour de France, just like he had in 1988. It's a feat that we haven’t seen since. Also, he did it in a way that you just can't duplicate anymore.
RELATED Steve Bauer remembers the 1988 Tour de France
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Leah Kirchmann, Team Sunweb athlete and this country’s time trial champion, is expecting to start racing once again in August. Still, she’s not sure what exactly the UCI safety protocols—with their team bubbles and peloton bubbles—will mean for her events. Also, with international travel now more difficult, she might be faced with some tough choices. Will she be able to race the inaugural women’s Paris-Roubaix, if it happens, or will she make a return to the Tour of Chongming Island? Can she defend her national time trial title and attend the Giro Rosa, too?
The rider, who has studied public health and nutrition and is a passionate cook, also talked sourdough and salmon. Check out her popular banana oat pancakes as well as the recipes she’s developed for her team’s Food Friday.
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At the beginning of May, the UCI announced the new road calendar for 2020. One Canadian Cycling Magazine writer has dubbed it 100 crazy days. The racing runs from the beginning of August to early November, which is when cyclocross usually wraps up in most of Canada.
Michael Barry, who runs Mariposa Bicycles with his wife Dede, raced from 1995 to 2012. When he looks at the compressed road calendar, he sees a lot of challenges and unknowns that could derail racing. But, according to the former pro, there are sure signs of hope for cycling.
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In mid-May, Cory Wallace, the three-time 24-hour mountain bike champion and Annapurna circuit record holder from Jasper, Alta., was living a simple life in the Solukhumbu region of Nepal, which is where he’s been since the country went into lockdown in late March. He's had lots of time to think and even cook up a wild escape route from Nepal that he's mentioned on his website. It's only something he'd use if, as he says, "it does go sideways." In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, Wallace discusses solo riding. Are you born a solo rider or can you become one? He mentions the mental fortitude you need in cycling. He's got that in spades, but it seems even the mountain bike marathon specialist can work on boosting his abilities. He's been improving his mediation skills while staying put in Nepal. In normal times, top riders often live monk-like existences, but for Wallace, his life has become even more like that of an ascetic. Have a listen to Wallace’s insights from 2,500 m above sea level.
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On this day, eight years ago, Ryder Hesjedal was in the midst of the final rest day of the Giro d’Italia. He had worn the pink leader’s jersey for three days, lost it, got it again and lost it once more before that rest day. Hesjedal was still in a good position overall, but could he really win the Italian Grand Tour against the explosive Joaquim Rodríguez? Listen to this interview with Hesjedal as he discusses the race in detail, the composition of his Garmin-Barracuda team and the complexity of the penultimate stage in which a new rival appeared and all the others seemed to leave the outcome of the race solely in the hands of the Canadian.
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International events kept Gordon Singleton, Louis Garneau and Steve Bauer from the Moscow Games. What they experienced can offer guidance to cyclists waiting and wondering about Tokyo 2020.
Also, an interview brought to you by Structure Cycleworks. Loni Hull, founder of the Calgary-based mountain bike company, discusses his unique front linkage system. It is literally, WTF: without telescoping fork.
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In March, Buck Miller, Eric Batty and Ryan Atkins covered all 721 km of the Wapusk trail by fat bike. The trail is the world’s longest winter road, which runs between Peawanuck, Ont., and Gillam, Man. Sections of the trail are close to Hudson Bay.
Last year, they rode along James Bay, a trip they called the James Bay Descent. The Wapusk trail trip was longer and more remote.
RELATED Lessons from the James Bay Descent
This year’s trip is not only a fascinating adventure but it speaks to the challenges we are facing today. It’s also about challenges—both environmental and societal—that we'll face in the near future. When Miller, Batty and Atkins went into the woods, the world was one way. When they got out, it was completely different.
To learn more about the expedition’s charitable component at True North Aid.
RELATED Waiting for it to get cold enough for a fat-bike expedition in Ontario and Manitoba’s Far North
RELATED Listen: Stories from a 600-km winter fat bike ride in Northern Ontario, Svein Tuft: from bike bum to the WorldTour
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Do remember what race was supposed to run this Sunday? It was supposed to be Paris-Roubaix. But more important, do you remember who won Paris-Roubaix on April 8, 1990? Well, when Belgian Eddy Planckaert and Canadian Steve Bauer crossed the line on the Roubaix velodrome 30 years ago, neither of them was sure. After a lot of deliberation by race officials, the win went to Plankaert. After 265.5 km of hard racing, Planckaert beat Bauer by millimetres.
In March, Canadian Cycling Magazine editor Matthew Pioro spoke with Bauer. The CCC Pro Team sports director had recently returned home to St. Catharines, Ont., from Europe and was in self-isolation. We discussed the Monument that almost, almost went to a Canadian.
This Sunday, as you face absence of Spring Classics in 2020, do re-watch A Sunday in Hell, Jorgen Leth’s documentary of the 1976 Paris-Roubaix. Also, highly recommended is William Fotheringham’s book about the making of the documentary called Sunday in Hell. Wouldn’t that be just hellacious? In the good way. Enjoy both Hells!
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Two weeks after Michael Woods crashed out of Paris-Nice, he was in Girona, Spain, his broken right femur on the mend. “I’ve been crutching outside to get my blood checked,” he said. The EF Pro Cycling rider was taking blood thinners following his surgery. “I go about 1.5 km from my place. It’s a good workout.” Because of the COVID-19 outbreak in Spain, the country had been on lockdown since March 14. Woods found the empty streets of Girona eerie.
After the crash, Woods was taken to a hospital in Lyon, France. He didn’t remember much from his time there as he was on strong painkillers. He figured he came in just ahead of any coronavirus-related surge in that area of France as the building seemed quiet. Woods didn’t stay in the hospital for long. His parents came to hurry him to Spain – where he trains in the colder months – before the border was to close.
After the stress of the crash and the hasty departure from France, Woods could relax. In late March, he was avoiding the Internet, reading and enjoying time with his daughter who wasn’t yet two months old. His snuggle buddy Max, short for Maxine, was a perfect lockdown partner as she was too young to walk and was just starting to smile.
“In the leadup to Paris-Nice, I’d been putting in big training hours and I was not as present at home as I would have liked to have been,” Woods said. “So, this has been a nice opportunity to hit the reset button. From a health perspective, that means gaining a bit of weight, just kind of fattening up a bit. I want to get a big recovery block in, and then be mentally fresh for whatever is left in the season and for 2021.”
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From drunk fans to a course that's muddy even when it’s dry, listen to tales of the Hoogerheide cyclocross course and its atmosphere during the World Cup. This Sunday, Canadian champions Maghalie Rochette and Michael van den Ham will compete in the final event of the CX World Cup series. Ruby West, the under-23 Pan Am champ, will also be there. Hear what they have to say about the Dutch race. Also, CX veteran Aaron Schooler has a story about how hard it can be simply getting from the team tent to the course.
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Top riders from the Canadian cyclocross championships speak about what some of their wins and disappointments mean, and about the event itself and some things we can look forward to next year. If you missed our coverage of CX nats, check out our reports and galleries.
Jake Williams, from frenemy podcast The Lantern Rouge, checks in from the Pan Am championships. You can see all the muddy action in our galleries from the event.
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Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn
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Canadian star ’crossers Maghalie Rochette, Michael van den Ham, Jenn Jackson and Ruby West look ahead to two of the most important cyclocross races in Canada: the national championships and the Pan Am championships.
Coach Peter Glassford has advice for transitioning to trainer season. He shares great tips for riding on the spot throughout the winter.
Hamilton rider Ed Veal recently spent 24 hours riding on a trainer. He was chasing a distance record within the Zwfit platform. Listen to the ups and downs of riding for a day, set up on a stage in a Las Vegas hotel.
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Photo by Bruce Buckley
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During the cross country mountain bike season, Sandra Walter can rip up the course. For late October cyclocross races, she dresses up. Her costumes have included a cave woman, a monster, Pippi Longstocking, Minnie Mouse, a cow and some sort of sea creature. Walter offers tips on how you can get in costume and race this Halloween.
This past Thanksgiving weekend, editor Matthew Pioro and producer Adam Killick raced an Eastern Ontario Cyclocross Series event in Ottawa. Pioro spoke with organizer Vince Caceres about the significance of the race held within the national capital’s city limits.
Coach Peter Glassford discusses the post-ride beer. Is it really the thing you should be drinking after a big effort on the bike?
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Photo: Peter Whalen
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Two top Canadian mountain bike riders teamed up recently to race Epic Israel. Catharine Pendrel of Cliff Pro Team and Haley Smith of Norco Factory Team took on the four-day stage race in the north of Israel. Pendrel, who has won the cross country World Cup series three times and the world championships twice, kept an audio throughout the event.
Coach Peter Glassford has tips that will help you run better when you have to get off your bike in a cyclocross race.
Cyclocross racers Maghalie Rochette, Jenn Jackson, Michael van den Ham and Ruby West took time out of their busy schedules at the Waterloo World Cup to talk about their early successes and challenges as well as the rest of the season ahead.
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Podcast art by Maxine Gravina.
Photo courtesy Epic Israel.
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Behind the scenes throughout the past 15 years, Kevin Field has been using data to improve Canada’s cyclists. He helped orchestrate this country’s success at the 2018 road world championships. In this episode, he discusses numbers and previews the 2019 road cycling world championships in Yorkshire, England.
Full Send/No Send on the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal, Team Canada’s efforts at those one-day races, Nick Zukowsky’s KOM and Maghalie Rochette’s cyclocross World Cup win. Also, a Full Send/No Send question. Why is it full send on dropping out of a road race, but full send on toughing out a gravel race?
“You just need to taste blood.” Coach Peter Glassford explains openers and how they can help you with your cyclocross races, time trials and mountain bike events.
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Photo by Brian Hodes.
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Michael Matthews looks back on five appearances at both the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Québec and Montréal, especially his wins at the two events in 2018. He gets into the tactics of the races he says are real thinking games. For Matthews and other pros, the GPs are exciting because there’s always something going on.
Many pro and amateur cyclocross racers target CX weekends with competitions on both Saturdays and Sundays. Such events are athletic and logistical challenges. Coach Peter Glassford has advice that will help you prepare, perform and recover from a ’cross double-header.
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Photo by Oran Kelly.
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Catharine Pendrel talks about her springer spaniel Mingus, the Lenzerheide World Cup – where she was on the podium with her fifth-place finish – and the upcoming mountain bike world championships at Mont-Sainte-Anne. In 2018, Pendrel and Haley Smith rode together and won the Swiss Epic. In this interview, Pendrel reveals what race she and Smith will be tackling together after worlds.
“It really reminded me that being a racer is not just what I do; it’s who I am,” Pendrel says. “I love that. Just to experience that joy of racing, no matter what kind of racing I’m doing, kind of fired me up to find my best in World Cups again.”
On Full Send/No Send, editors Matthew Pioro and Dan Walker discuss the new name of Maghalie Rochette’s cyclocross team. Also, should a 40-to-60 per cent chance of rain derail a ride? What’s the call if the time it will take to clean your bike might equal the time it takes to do the ride itself?
Peter Glassford is back with his Ask A Coach segment. What do you in fall if you’re just not that into racing cyclocross?
Canadian MTB editor Terry McKall speaks with Vaea Verbeeck right after she was crowned the Queen of Crankworx in Whistler, B.C.
Related: How you should treat your bike mechanic
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This past July, some of gravel cycling’s top minds and practitioners gathered in Peterborough, Ont., to ride and discuss gear. Matthew Pioro spoke with members of the Shimano Gravel Alliance, a group that the Canadian Cycling Magazine editor believes is the “Gravel Avengers.” He wants to know who their Thanos is.
Related: The Canadian influence on Shimano’s new gravel groupset
Leah Kirchmann of Team Sunweb took second place at La Course by Le Tour de France. It was a thrilling race that featured the Winnipeg rider’s best finish in her sixth appearance at the event. Kirchmann analyses her race, the role La Course has in the women’s road calendar and what seems to be the next necessary step in its evolution.
Two days after Michael Woods finished riding the world’s biggest bike race, he looked back on his Tour de France. His broken ribs were still sore, maybe even more troublesome with the racing over. He reflected on his team and some of the Canadian fans that cheered him along the roads of France.
Related: Full transcript of the Michael Woods interview
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Canadian Cycling Magazine heads to Blue Mountain, Ont., for the Sea Otter Canada cycling festival. Editors Matthew Pioro and Dan Walker, and photo editor Matt Stetson, bring you the vibes from the event. They are impressed that on the first day, the first Friday of July, that there are a good amount of people at the expo. Walker figures they had read ‘12 excuses you can use to sneak out of work early.’ Pioro and Walker take on the 120-km gran fondo. Stetson, a longtime mountain biker, rides his first enduro.
“I have been riding quite a long time on dirt and mountain bikes. It certainly was my first gravity event, which, to me, sounds weird, as I’ve ridden lots of times in pads and downhill, but never on the clock,” Stetson says. “But cross country, I’ve done dozens of times. The enduro was a different feel. I couldn’t believe how tired I was at the end of such a short amount of riding.
In Full Send/No Send, Pioro admits Walker was right about something. Is “Alien” a good nickname or an accusation? Should you take a swim in your bib shorts?
Canadian MTB editor Terry McKall interviews the CEO and founder of Structure Cycleworks. Loni Hull discusses the WTF (Without Telescoping Fork) linkage system that his company has designed. He also gets into the significance of keeping his company in Alberta.
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When you think of this country’s pioneering riders in the Tour de France, you probably think of Steve Bauer and Alex Stieda. But 35 years ago, six Canadians—Marilyn Trout (née Wells), Kelly-Ann Way, Suzanne Lemieux, Hilary Brown (née Matte), Senta Bauermeister and Jacqueline Shaw—not only rode the Tour de France Féminin but distinguished themselves in that event. Trout, the group’s historian, looks back at the group’s accomplishments.
Read the Canadian Cycling Magazine feature on the six Canadian women who completed in the 1984 Tour de France Feminin.
In Full Send/No Send, editor Matthew Pioro and social media editor Dan Walker preview the 2019 Tour de France and the Giro Rosa (full name: Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile). Walker has a beef with the Giro Rosa.
Send in your ideas for Full Send/No Send and Ask a Coach to podcast@cyclingmagazine.ca
Image courtesy of Marilyn Trout
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Contributor Molly Hurford has tips that will help you go up hills a little quicker. She talks about training, body positioning and the muscles you want to engage when climbing. She also has some inside information on the climbing competitions at Sea Otter Canada: the Grind Uphill Challenge and the Hill Climbing Championships.
"When you see a corner coming up and it looks like it's the end of the climb, it absolutely is not," she says.
In Full Send/No Send, Matthew Pioro and Dan Walker discuss 650b versus 700c wheels. Also, if Michael Woods goes to the Tour de France, should he go for stage wins or general classification?
Finally, an interview with Jeff Webb, the CEO of Fara Cycling . He’s originally from Huntsville, Ont. About four years ago, he and his partners (who now include Thor Hushovd) started the cycling company based in Oslo, Norway. At Blacksmith Cycle in Toronto, Webb talks about Fara, as well as the long rides he does. He’ll ride from Oslo to Stockholm, about 530 km, on a whim.
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At the Nové Město World Cup, Haley Smith crossed the line in third place. It marks her best result at mountain bike World Cup. She reflects on race at one of her favourite courses. “When you feel good on a course, you find that flow zone a lot easier,” she says. “At Nové Město, it feels like mountain biking in Victoria. It’s physical and technical, but it’s also fun.” She also talks about her struggles with mental health. Smith looks ahead to the rest of the season, and the wedding she and fiancé Andrew L’Esperance, also of the Norco Factory Team, are planning.
In Full Send/No Send, Dan Walker and Matthew Pioro discuss Geoff Kabush's social media shots at the men’s podium finishers at Dirty Kanza. They wrap up the Giro d’Italia and look at tire choice. Can you have too much of a good thing?
Coach Peter Glassford has tips for getting the most out of your local roads and paths for your training rides.
Send in your ideas for Full Send/No Send and Ask a Coach to podcast@cyclingmagazine.ca
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If you’ve been watching the Giro d’Italia, you’ve seen the Emilia-Romagna region. Stage 9 passed through it. Editor Matthew Pioro rode in the area a week before the pros got there. After you hear about Pioro’s experience, you’ll want to head there, too.
Social media editor Dan Walker and Matthew Pioro debate Giro smack talk, bad bike-maintenance karma and the no-look right turn in Full Send/No Send.
Canadian MTB web editor Terry McKall starts a new series that focuses on Canadians who are influencing the discipline of mountain biking. In this episode, McKall speaks with Noel Buckley, the founder of Knolly Bikes in Burnaby, B.C.
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Sea Otter Canada co-founder Simon Williams chats with editor Matthew Pioro and social media editor Dan Walker about the new cycling festival coming to Canada. Sea Otter Canada can bring the whole cycling community together, whether you wear spandex, baggies or a tweed suit while riding your folding bike. Williams discusses the Hub and Spoke rides that allow you to venture into the region and explore the local breweries, cideries and wineries. If you want to watch some of the enduro, downhill or cross country action, you can. There’s an XC short track relay right through the expo area.
Those with curly bars can ride the gran fondo. There are also other races for competitive types. Into gear? Williams says 200 brands will be at the festival with tons of demo bikes, including the new-to-North-America-brand Canyon. Bring the kids to the Joyride 150 area. You have to mark July 4–7 on your calendars.
Also, if you need some advice for taking on the hill-climbing challenge at Sea Otter, check out "How to crush a KOM challenge with these 5 climbing tips."
Coach Peter Glassford makes the case for keeping the trainer accessible, and ready to go, even throughout the spring and summer. Think of it as a batting cage for your legs.
Dan Walker has created a new game with a long, ever-changing name: What Does That Sponsor of the Italian Pro Conti Team in the Giro d’Italia Do? Find out how well editor Matthew Pioro does.
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“Women are so badass as well,” says Sarah Holmes, part of the Toronto Hustle and one of the members behind the outfit’s new women’s project. The team recently hosted its launch party for the 2019 season. Listen in to scenes from that event and hear about some of the innovative things the Hustle is up to.
Social media editor Dan Walker and editor Matthew Pioro get Full Send/No Send on the Full Gazz versus the Astana Rap, Mathieu van der Poel and Boels-Dolmans kit.
Coach Peter Glassford talks about early-season burnout. It’s definitely something to watch out for, especially if you’ve been smashing it on virtual rides throughout the winter. Peter has great tips to keep your motivation high and your fitness levels improving.
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From lake jump bikes to the riff-heavy rock of Blue Cheese to emergency bus repairs, Partymaster Tour organizer Michel Plonka talks about the rolling party, with dirt, street and park riding, that hit parts of Ontario and Quebec this past summer. If you are not familiar with the Partymaster Tour, get started with videos from the event.
Social media editor Dan Walker and editor Matthew Pioro get Full Send/No Send on the Tour of Flanders, champagne-induced bronchitis, hitting the trails early and who should claim ebikes.
Coach Peter Glassford has great equipment tips and training strategies that will help you get on the roads as they clear and let you take advantage of the trainer you still have set up in your pain cave. Sorry, it’s not time to put the trainer way, just yet.
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Podcast photography by Julien Grimard
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Contributor Molly Hurford has been to three training camps so far in 2019 for a total of seven weeks of endurance training. So, she knows a thing or two about getting the most out of an early-season endurance camp. Guess what? It’s not about crushing it on the climbs. Molly shares her great advice with you.
Social media editor Dan Walker is back and so is Full Send/No Send. He and editor Matthew Pioro take on petrochemical companies in the peloton and the use of bar bags on road rides—all weighty topics!
Finally, Canadian MTB web editor Terry McKall gets a preview of the Bear Mountain Bike Festival from race director Jon Watkin. The event, running March 30 to 31, features Canada Cup cross country races, the Rocky Mountain Enduro, a kids bike day and more.
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The Butter Tart 700 is a bikepacking route in Southern Ontario. Route designer Matt Kadey speaks about what went into the creation of this loop. He wanted to ensure an interesting mix of surfaces and to keep it remote without being remote. One look at the route on the Ride with GPS page shows the level of detail Kadey has put into the creation of the BT 700. He’s marked places to stay, eat, drink and even borrow books.
https://cyclingmagazine.ca/sections/ridesevents/bt-700-charts-path-for-a-new-southwestern-ontario-bikepacking-event/
Jaden Chipman, the national BMX freestyle champion, speaks about the significance of his podium spot at the recent Toronto X-Jam. X-Jam is not only an important event for Chipman, but BMX freestyle as a whole in the run-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Finally, coach Peter Glassford discusses junk miles. What are junk miles, exactly? How can you avoid them?
You can send in your Ask a Coach questions for Glassford to podcast@cyclingmagazine.ca
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The James Bay Descent crew, Buck Miller, Ryan Atkins, Ted King and Eric Batty, recorded their adventure in Northern Ontario. Listen to scenes from their journey from Attawapiskat First Nation to Moosonee, before they went on to Smooth Rock Falls, a trip of about 600 km on fully loaded fat bikes in winter.
To hear more about the trip, listen back to the James Bay Descent preview in Episode 9.
https://cyclingmagazine.ca/cycling-magazine-podcast/podcast-ted-king-james-bay-rally-uhc/
For Full Send/No Send, Dan Walker and Matthew Pioro talk about virtual championships jerseys, if it’s OK to like Astana and the track cycling world championships.
Coburn and Doug Brown speak about the lessons they learned doing a cross-Canada tandem bike trip. The tandem can challenge any relationship, but the pair persevered. Their stories combine with tips and advice for anyone planning a big two-wheeled adventure.
Svein Tuft, the Canadian champion who is riding for Rally UHC Cycling this season, looks back on his long road cycling career and how the sport has changed. As interviewer Molly Hurford says, “You’re just an OG bike bum.”
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Near the end of January, B’yauling Toni, an 18-year-old from Saskatoon rolled into his hometown. He had ridden for 206 days, through 16 countries and a total of 30,804 km. Upon completing his ride, he has become the youngest person to bike around the world unsupported. Canadian Cycling Magazine web editor Philippe Tremblay spoke with Toni a little more than a week after he had finished his trip. The rider speaks about equipment choices and tells stories of falling ill, herding sheep from a motor bike and eating fresh goat tongue.
For Full Send/No Send, Dan Walker and Matthew Pioro try to decide what level of disrepair is OK for a winter bike. They also talk about Peter Sagan’s book and Oleg Tinkov.
Peter Glassford is back with Ask a Coach. He discusses strength training for cyclists. Check out his Anywhere Core routine.
This past September, the Development Team Sunweb announced some new signings, which included Ben Katerberg from Courtenay, B.C. He’s the current junior road and time trial champion. At the start of this year, the 18-year-old rider moved to the Netherlands. One thing he learned early on is that he’s been saying his surname wrong.
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On Feb. 4, Ted King, Buck Miller, Ryan Atkins and Eric Batty plan to head out from Attawapiskat First Nation in Northern Ontario for Nunavut. They’ll aim their fat bikes into James Bay and ride to Akamiski Island, about 20 km from the mainland and part of the northern territory. From Akamiski, the four will go toward Moosonee and Moose Factory. The ultimate destination is Smooth Rock Falls, Ont., roughly 600 km south of their starting point. The trip is called the James Bay Descent.
King discusses his preparation for the trip and his concerns, which include polar bears. Then expedition organizer Buck Miller talks about more of the trip’s details. (He’ll be riding with a 12-gauge shotgun, in case of bear trouble.) Miller is a former member of the Canadian national team. He also lived on James Bay for five years. He tells about the ride’s charitable component: fundraising for the Moosonee office of the Timmins Native Friendship Centre.
For Full Send/No Send, Dan Walker brings up what is possibly his most outrageous topic for debate to date. Can he and Matthew Pioro get through this segment within the allotted five minutes? They haven’t done so for the past two episodes.
Peter Glassford is back with Ask a Coach. He talks about the types of training he recommends for these cold, snowy days.
Contributor Molly Hurford spent some time at the Rally UHC camp in early January. She’s sent back a few interviews from the team that is just chock full of Canadians. In this episode, Sara Bergen from Vancouver and Sara Poidevin from Calgary speak about how they got into the sport and their seasons ahead. They also have tips for new cyclists.
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Podcast artwork by Maxine Gravina
The Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast thanks the Ontario Media Development Corp. for its support.
Rider Ed Veal plans to ride for 24 hours starting Feb. 2 at 11:11 a.m. on the track at the Forest City Velodrome. Constructed in 1955, the building that houses the track is in need of some upgrades. Veal’s ride is part of a fundraiser to help keep the facility going. The track itself is in an old hockey rink, and at 138 m, is considered by many to be the smallest permanent track in the world. Veal will face banks as steep as 51 degrees and serious G forces every six to 10 seconds. To help out with the fundraising efforts, head to the Forest City Velodrome’s Real Deal 24-Hour Track Attack page.
Full Send/No Send is back. Matthew Pioro and Dan Walker discuss the new kit that EF Education First Pro Cycling will be sporting in 2019. Is January too early get excited about road racing? And, how cold is too cold for a ride?
From Dec. 23 to Jan. 1, a group of athletes participated in Cycling Canada’s Christmas ’Cross Camp. It’s a project that brings Canadians to the mud of Belgium to ride in some of the discipline’s biggest races against some of its biggest stars. Throughout the Kerstperiode, national champions Michael van den Ham and Ruby West, as well as Jenn Jackson, kept audio diaries. Their words will draw you into the highs and lows of racing abroad when most are at home with family.
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Podcast artwork by Maxine Gravina
The Christmas ’cross dispatches feature “Like Music (cdk Mix)” by Analog By Nature featuring Phasenwandler. Copyright 2015. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0) licence.
The Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast thanks the Ontario Media Development Corp. for its support.
In this episode, we look back at some big rides of the past year. In September, to prepare for the road world championships, Rob Britton went on a nine-day bikepacking trip with two friends. He had this idea earlier in the year and got advice from a rider whose big rides are legendary: Svein Tuft. Both Britton and Tuft discuss the joys and training benefits of going for fully loaded, long rides.
Social media editor Dan Walker and editor Matthew Pioro try to cover their top-five moments in cycling for 2018 in five minutes.
Coach Peter Glassford of the Consummate Athlete podcast offers advice for making it through the holidays without totally zapping your fitness and without forgoing a nice glass of scotch.
Finally, regular contributor to Canadian Cycling Magazine Melanie Chambers got a last-minute invitation to the Taiwan KOM Challenge this past October. In a short documentary, follow Chambers up 3,275 m in 105 km after only three-weeks of preparation. Chambers was against the clock. She wanted to finish in less than the six-and-a-half hours to earn a finisher’s medal.
Artwork by Maxine Gravina
This episode features music by Chris Zabriskie, licensed through CC 4.0.
Rate us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts. Send in your ideas for Full Send/No Send or your questions for coach Peter Glassford to podcast@cyclingmagazine.ca
The Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast thanks the Ontario Media Development Corp. for its support.
Raphaële Lemieux, who retired from speed skating and road riding roughly 11 years ago, picked up racing fixed-gear bikes a few years ago. She’s been doing pretty well at that discipline. This year, she won the Red Hook Crit in Brooklyn and the Red Hook series overall. She discusses the fun of racing fixed, the speed-skating skills that transfer over to her cycling endeavours and what it’s like balancing a 40-hour workweek and racing at a high level.
In this episode’s Full Send/No Send segment, Dan Walker and Matthew Pioro wrestle with UCI regulations about sock height, holiday cycling challenges and clothing made specifically for indoor cycling. (Find out who tries to get away with a shrug on a podcast.) They give a final big full send to Paul Sherwen, who recently passed.
Finally, writer Tom Babin talks Spikes on Bikes. In the most recent issue of Canadian Cycling Magazine, Babin has a feature about the harm-reduction program based in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The program comprises “peers” who head out into the neighbourhood on bikes. They do everything from saving people from overdosing to offering advice on getting off the streets. Often, the peers themselves have experience with addiction and homelessness. It’s a story of hope and community building amid the opioid crisis.
Rate us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts. Send in your ideas for Full Send/No Send to podcast@cyclingmagazine.ca
Artwork by Maxine Gravina
The Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast thanks the Ontario Media Development Corp. for its support.
The chainsaw is often called into action to motivate mountain bikers. But the machine made a recent appearance at the cyclocross national championships in Peterborough, Ont. Jasmin Duehring also came out to that snow-covered CX course. Right after competing in the elite women’s race, the rider, who’s known for winning medals in velodromes, spoke about 'cross and the importance of trying different cycling disciplines.
In 2013, Jack Burke failed a doping test. He was later cleared, but his story doesn’t end there. In the years following, his adverse analytical finding continues to plague him, while his case has set precedence in other sporting disciplines. Dan Dakin, senior editor, wrote a feature on Jack Burke. Dakin discusses the fascinating story.
The Full Send/No Send segment returns! Dan Walker and Matthew Pioro wrestle with important subjects, such as Strava purity, pro roadies swinging at T-balls and Mathieu van der Poel ruining cyclocross (and somehow Walker thinks that’s connected to Pioro). But Walker has a made-in-Manitoba solution in mind.
Rate us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts. Send in your ideas for Full Send/No Send to podcast@cyclingmagazine.ca
Artwork by Maxine Gravina
The Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast thanks the Ontario Media Development Corp. for its support.
Recently, the Pan Am cyclocross championships came to Midland, Ont. Many of Canada’s top CXers were there vying for the intercontinental honours. Hours before Michael van den Ham lined up in the elite men’s race, he met with producer Adam Killick for a crash course on riding in the sand.
For more on the Pan Am CX champs, check out video from within the elite men’s race. Web editor Terry McKall hangs on for as long as he can, trying to avoid the 80 per cent rule, which clears off riders before the race leaders might lap the slower CXers.
This fall, Ted Glenn released his book, Riding into Battle, which focuses on the combat cyclists of the Canadian Corps and what they faced in during the First World War. The fighting was fierce and the bikes were heavy.
Finally, David Jack, coach and derny driver at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre, speaks about the art of managing a keirin race and how a wrong turn led him deeper into the Japanese keirin scene.
Rate us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at podcast@cyclingmagazine.ca
Artwork by Maxine Gravina
The Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast thanks the Ontario Media Development Corp. for its support.
Rachel McKinnon, the transgender athlete who won the women's masters track cycling world title in the sprint competition for ages 35-44, speaks about the turbulent days following her victory. McKinnon is from Victoria. She did her PhD in Kitchener, Ont., and post doc in Calgary. Currently, she's an assistant professor in the department of philosophy at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
From Nov. 3 to 4, the Pan Am cyclocross championships will run in Midland, Ont., a town roughly 150 km north of Toronto. Since 2014, that community has been the site of the Silver Goose. It's grown in stature throughout the past four years hosing the provincial championships in 2016 and UCI C2-level competitions in 2017. Last year, Ruby West, the under-23 national champ, won the C2 races at the Goose. Also that year, national champ Michael van den Ham came third at the Pan Am champs. Maghalie "#CXFever" Rochette, the 2014 under-23 Pan Am champ, recently finished sixth at the World Cup CX event in Bern, Switzerland. All three Canadians preview the Pan Am champs/Silver Goose.
Rate us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at podcast@cyclingmagazine.ca
Artwork by Maxine Gravina
The Cycling Magazine Podcast thanks the Ontario Media Development Corp. for its support.
Cycling Magazine Podcast is back for its second episode and, as with the first, we speak with Michael Woods. This time, he reflects on his bronze medal at the road world championships in Innsbruck, Austria. We also chat with another Canadian bronze medallist, Simone Boilard, the national junior time trial and criterium champion from Quebec City .
Editors Dan Walker and Matthew Pioro go full send/no send on burning hot topics, such as the recent announcement of Floyd Landis' sponsorship of a Canadian team, riding to a nice round number so the distance looks good on Strava, the correct pronunciation of "Deceuninck" and, the most contentious, socks over or under tights or leg warmers.
Phil Gaimon speaks about his Worst Retirement Ever and Best Retirement Ever series, which took him to Vancouver in September. Not everyone was pleased with his performances on the climbs of the Triple Crown.
Rate us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at podcast@cyclingmagazine.ca
Artwork by Maxine Gravina
Thank you to the Ontario Media Development Corp. for its support.
In this first episode of the Cycling Magazine Podcast, we have an extended conversation with Michael Woods. The EF Education First Drapac rider goes in-depth on his emotional Stage 17 Vuelta a España win and discusses its effects.
Editors Matthew Pioro and Dan Walker look back at the recent cyclocross World Cup in Waterloo, Wis., sick tailwhips and all. You can also read more on Canadian riders’ thoughts from the race on our site.
We ride with James Piccoli, member of team Elevate-KHS and Montreal native, up his hometown climb, Camillien Houde into Mount Royal Park. The stretch of road means a lot to the young climber.
Throughout, international WorldTour riders share their thoughts on Canada. (A certain sweet substance from our national tree seems to come up a lot.)
Get in touch with us at podcast@cyclingmagazine.ca
Artwork by Maxine Gravina
Thank you to the Ontario Media Development Corp. for its support.