Features

September 22, 2015

It was in 1974 that the celebrated artist from London, Ontario, Greg Curnoe came to our store, Bicyclesport in downtown Toronto. He was obviously very interested in cycling and very...

Riding on the Dirt

September 18, 2015

In the late 1990’s, when Michael and I were living in Boulder, Colorado, we began to ride on gravel roads and trails through the countryside and up into the mountains...

Randonneur Bike September 2015

September 8, 2015

In the Mariposa Workshop we recently built a Randonneur bike for an old friend and customer from the U.S. He asked for a fully equipped bike and left much of...

SHADOWS ON THE ROAD - Prologue

July 14, 2015

The phone rang at the arranged time. The caller ID matched the number on the email. This was the call I had anticipated for nine years. One I knew would...

How It Feels To Train For The Tour De France (Esquire)

May 22, 2014

Guilt sunk in. My stomach was still full from the previous night’s feast. Sunlight pierced the gap between the window and the blind and irritated my eyes as they worked...

Shadows on the Road

May 22, 2014

Faber and Faber interview here

April 21, 2014

We pulled up in the van mid-morning, as steel barriers were being put in place to close off the course. Some of us were half asleep, our necks kinked against the windows, while others punched away at Game Boys and paged through cycling magazines. Nervous excitement spun in each of our minds for the day of racing ahead. Men wearing low-slung jeans and grimy T’s, with rolled cigarettes hanging from their lower lips, unloaded hundreds of galvanized steel barriers from flatbed trucks. The barricades lined the curbs of the town...

Paris Roubaix.

April 10, 2014

Paris Roubaix is a race of unknowns. What the riders can’t control, what looms in their futures, haunts them until the pop of the starter’s pistol. In the days prior to the race, they’ll check the weather repeatedly. Some will hope for rain so that the peloton is tamer and thins out quickly, while others will pray for sun so that the cobbles will be dry. The race is one of attrition, position, and luck. It requires preparation, mental resilience, and physical strength. It will create champions. It will shred...

The Lead-Up

March 27, 2014

The protagonists who will animate the Tour of Flanders, Paris Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and the other Spring Classics will fine tune their fitness and test their legs in less prestigious races...

Building A Dream

March 21, 2014

A plate of half eaten nachos sat on the table, Doug leaned back and quoted W.P Kinsella’s book, Shoeless Joe, “If you build it, they will come.” It wasn’t the first time I had heard him repeat the line. Unlike the novel’s protagonist, Ray Kinsella, whose dream was to build a baseball diamond, Doug’s was to build a velodrome. For over a decade he’d looked for a field within riding distance of his hometown of Boulder, Colorado, where he could build a track. In his dreams, this wasn’t a fancy...

Rivals and Friends

March 14, 2014

Every winter, teams from all over the world travel to warmer climates to train for the coming races. For 10 to 14 days, the riders spend every hour of the day with their teammates: they eat together, ride together, and even share hotel rooms. In fact, there are few solitary moments when they aren’t with a teammate. For most teams, this is the only time of the year where the entire team will be together in one place. After the camp, the squad will be fractioned off into different parts...

Extremes

February 24, 2014

In much of North America, snow is continuing to fall. We ride indoors, ski, skate, run, and workout in the gym in order to maintain some level of fitness, while...