Canadian Cycling Magazine December & January 2021 / Vol 11 Issue 6

This past summer I was speaking with an event organizer. His event had been cancelled for 2020. No surprise there. But what did surprise me was that he was planning something for 2021. My “oh!” at his news carried all my thoughts. The planning itself was pretty ambitious. It was almost naive. Who can even plan for two months from now, let alone more than a year? Is that borderline foolishness? In a way, a breakaway at a road race has much in common with new-normal planning. The odds of a breakaway making it to the finish usually aren’t good. And yet, breakaways go. Some with more conviction than others. But they go. They are acts of optimism mixed with some fatalism. Sometimes they even succeed. “I laughed because his words were…

Editor Matthew Pioro matthew@cyclingmagazine.ca Senior Editors Dan Dakin, Kevin Mackinnon, Dean Campbell Associate Editor Andre Cheuk Photo Editor Matt Stetson matt.stetson@gripped.com Copy Editors Amy Stupavsky, Rebecca Tucker Art Director Warren Wheeler layout@cyclingmagazine.ca [Roseander Main, roseandermain.com] Production Artist Warren Hardy MTB Web Editor Terry McKall terry@cyclingmagazine.ca Web Editor Lily Hansen-Gillis lily@cyclingmagazine.ca Podcast Producer Adam Killick Web Developer Sean Rasmussen Digital Operations Dmitry Beniaminov Publisher Sam Cohen sam@gripped.com Editorial Director David Smart dave@gripped.com Advertising & Sales Andre Cheuk andre@gripped.com Account Managers Joel Vosburg joel@gripped.com Lorena Jones lorena@gripped.com Circulation Manager Robyn Milburn robyn@gripped.com Social Media Nikita van Dijk nikita@gripped.com SUBSCRIBE Send $20.95 (1 year) or $38.95 (2 years) to Canadian Cycling Magazine, PO Box 819 Station Main, Markham, ON, Canada L3P 8L3 or call: 1.800.567.0444 SUBMIT Manuscripts, photographs and other correspondence are welcome. Please contact Canadian Cycling Magazine for contributors guidelines, or see them on the web at cyclingmagazine.ca. Unsolicited material should be accompanied by return mailing address and postage. Canadian Cycling Magazine Tel 416.927.0774 Fax 416.927.1491 cyclingmagazine.ca Gripped Publishing Inc. 75 Harbord St., Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 1G4 Copyright 2020 Gripped Publishing…

Catharine Pendrel on balancing motherhood and racing “I thought Zwfit was kicking my butt,” Catharine Pendrel said this past summer. The cross country rider was speaking about the fatigue she had felt during her first trimester. She found herself taking naps, and then sleeping through the night. (She’d never been a napper.) On-bike, Pendrel was mixing online riding with riding outside. On one occasion, she couldn’t even manage the outdoor ride and had to head home. The next day, the pedalling wasn’t a problem. As she learned more about her pregnancy, she knew it wasn’t the virtual riding that was wiping her out. “People don’t tell you how tired you get in the first trimester. I think they forget,” Pendrel mused. In mid-September, the rider announced that she and her husband, Keith…

In 1984, a long-haired, oil-stained mechanic Robin Thorn started running St John Street Cycles in Bridgwater, in England’s southwest, focusing on bikes and equipment for touring. In 1995, he started producing frames for long-haul and tandem riders. From 1996, Thorn models were available with both the newly minted Rohloff hub with internal gears and standard drivetrain. Soon, one model in particular, the Nomad Mk1, became the most in-demand expedition touring bike ever made. Why? “The bikes aren’t ‘blue sky’ concepts, aimed, by a committee of accountants, at a poorly market-researched demographic, where 90 per cent of design time is concerned with decals and paint colour,” says Andy Blance, the bike’s designer. “It enables you to fulfil your dream with the least possible chance of experiencing a mechanical failure.” This last…

Imagine arriving at your favourite trail centre, hopping up the steps in front of the ticket window to buy your pass, making a quick run to the bathroom, taking your bike down from a rack, gathering your gear and heading out onto the trails. Now imagine doing that in a wheelchair. In 2018, Mike Riediger was living in the B.C. Interior and was asked to produce a feasibility study on making the sport of mountain biking adaptive for those with different mobility requirements. That project led to the creation of the Kootenay Adaptive Sport Association (KASA). “Feasibility studies are all well and good, but we were just going to make it happen,” Riediger says. “Everything has come easy and hard at the same time.” Since then, he’s been able to secure funding to…

With every race on the 2020 B.C. mountain bike calendar cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, longtime Abbotsford rider Mike Rauch swooped in and saved – or at least salvaged – the season for his community. His superpower? The deed to Glenridge Acres – a 77-acre plot of steeply sloped agricultural land, which he purchased in 2017 and has since criss-crossed with a private labyrinth of trails – the product of two-and-a-half years of building. With a course already in place, it wasn’t a stretch for Rauch to collaborate with Cycling BC and start Throwdown Thursdays. Rauch was in the midst of organizing his second annual 12 Hours of Glenridge mountain bike event on the property when everything changed and he had to cancel. His pivot was a mountain bike time…