In the seventies, we had a good number of regular visitors to our shop on King Street in downtown Toronto. One of the regulars was a Frenchman, named Jean, who visited…
Gravel Racing: Its Origins and Its Evolution
By Michael Barry In the hotel restaurant, teammates sat quietly around the table as the rising sun sliced a shaft of light through the window. Some sipped coffee, others munched…
Roaring Crowds & Whirling Cyclists in Six Days of Track Racing
By Michael Barry In Ghent, Belgium, the low thunder of the cyclists racing into the wooden banking of the velodrome is unheard over the festivities in the track center. A…
Youth Rising
By Michael Barry Traditionally, the path to becoming a professional cyclist with a long and successful career followed a structured progression. Skipping steps in that process was thought to be…
Vintage Bicycle Feature: Praderio. Gallarate, Italy. 1950
Gino Bartali’s frustrations with the Italian back-peddling derailleurs encouraged him to approach the Vittoria Company, makers of the Margherita derailleur, and propose that he finance the production of a derailleur…
Summer Books: Cycling
A history of the machine’s evolution, a dive into the thrills of bicycle racing and a meditation on the two-wheeled life. By Michael Barry for the Wall Street Journal A…
Inspiring The Next Generation
(Photo of Ashlin Barry and current Australian Road Champion and Ineos Pro Luke Plapp) Sporting idols and the events that bring them into town are essential to the growth of…
Hell of the North
The gravel racing season wrapped up last weekend with one of Canada’s original gravel races, The Hell of the North. It was founded by Mike Barry Sr. in 1986 and…
Track Racing
The NCIM launched a new 12 race track series October 16 and the Canadian Junior National Track Championships will take place this weekend at the Mattamy Velodrome in Milton, Ontario. …
Cappellino, Cap, Casquette….
Rain tapped against the Team Sky bus window. The eight of us sat quietly in our chairs, some with their eyes closed and headphones on, others studying the race book…
INSIDE ROUBAIX
This Sunday, professional cyclists will compete in the 2021 Paris-Roubaix classic. With severe rain and wind in the forecast and kilometres of cobbles, it is bound to be a dramatic race.…
Shifting Gears: Life and Work in the Bike Lane
By Daniel Sandler Photography by Jody Wilson Last year, my annual physical revealed that I’m in the best shape of my life (since high school, anyway). Not bad, I thought,…