THE MAN WHO LIVED ON HIS BIKE from Guillaume Blanchet on Vimeo.
According to Adventure Journal, Guillaume Blanchet spent 382 days in Montreal filming himself living life from the seat of his bike. The result is a fun, playful short film centered on the joy of riding a bicycle. Blanchet made the film in honor of his father, an avid cyclist who’s logged more than 120,000 KMs in his life.
Colin on the run-up at Gloucester. Picture from Colin’s blog, where it was no doubt stolen from someone else.
Colin Reuter loves cyclocross. At a glance, it’s the all-consuming type of relationship that might inspire questions from concerned friends and family. Not only did he create crossresults.com, which has grown to be a central site in American cyclocross. And not only did he spend four years running the site for free in the evenings after his real job (crossresults now is his real job). He also promotes two races in New England every year, runs a cyclocross team, and races elite cross every fall. As you’d probably guess, we talked about cyclocross. More specifically, Colin’s introduction to the sport, the birth and evolution of crossresults, New England’s propensity for producing really-fast pros, and more.
Posted in Bike Industry, Cyclocross, Interviews, Racing, Uncategorized
Tagged bikereg, colin reuter, cross results, crossresults, Cyclocross, NECX, new england cyclocross
Photo by Jean-Pierre Praderes for Jan Heine’s The Competition Bicycle.Â
As the title plainly states, Jacquie Phelan is the Godmother. Or perhaps the Queen. At the very least, she’s one of mountain biking’s early pioneers and helped carved a path into the sport for women. She helped found the National Off Road Bicycle Association along with other mountain bike luminaries of the day like Jack Ingram and her husband Charlie Cunningham; won NORBA championships and many other mountain bike races throughout the 80s and 90s; founded the first women’s mountain bike club and continues today to promote women’s mountain biking through it. Jacquie and I spoke about her introduction to mountain biking, her early days of racing in a “man’s†sport, the foundation of the WOMBATS and more.
The last weeks of December are a time for reflection, introspection, and a flood of Best-of and Top-10 lists across the Internet. I don’t have a top 10 list to share with you (instead I encourage you to go back and read all of the interviews on The Bicycle Story and pick YOUR 10 favorites to share with everyone you know). But, I do have one fantastic article to share with you; hands down the best piece of cycling-related writing I read this year.
Philip Gourevitch’s July 2011 New Yorker story, “Climbers” explores the history of the Rwandan national cycling team, its rising stars, and its founders to tell a smart, informative story about tragedy and redemption in Rwanda.
At over 13,000 words, Gourevitch’s complex narrative is difficult to summarize in a few lines. The stars of Team Rwanda were mostly young boys at the time of the 1994 genocide. A mix of Hutu and Tutsi, the team offers its riders both an escape from poverty and an outlet that helps them deal with the horrors of their pasts. The team’s success and the riders’ status as national figures also brings with it new found pressure and expectations from family, fans, and friends.
The head of Team Rwanda Jonathan “Jock” Boyer is a former pro-cyclist who had success as one of the first American’s to race the Tour de France and later as the winner of the 1985 Race Across America. His life fell apart in the decades following his professional cycling career as his business crumbled, his marriage ended, and he spent a year in prison for “lewd acts with a minor.” Mountain bike legend Tom Ritchey (Boyer’s childhood friend) reached out to him to help found the Rwandan cycling team, which has in-turn marked the start of Boyer’s own redemption.
If “Climbers” was just an article about the history and relative-success of Team Rwanda it would be fascinating and enjoyable. That Gourevitch uses it as a catalyst to discuss the devastating genocide and the country’s progress towards reconciliation and recovery makes it a valuable piece of long-form journalism.
Now you should take the time to go read it yourself.
Posted in Cycling Media, Everything Else, History, Racing
Tagged jack boyer, new yorker, phillip gourevitch, rwanda cycling, team rwanda
Adam and his mandolin in Japan. Photo via flickr.
Like the majority of American’s in their early 20s, Adam McGrath is making big transitions in his life as he finds his path. Granted, his transition is from pro cyclocross racer to rural homesteader, but it’s a transition just the same. More focused on sustainable living than podiums and prize money, Adam’s chosen to settle down on a small piece of land on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula rather than continue traveling the country and world to race cyclocross. In Part one of the interview, we talked about Adam’s rise to the ranks of pro cycling and his formative years of nearly-constant world travel. Part two picks up with Adam’s disenfranchisement with professional racing, the balance he finds living on a farm, and his future as a professional cyclist.
Posted in Cyclocross, Interviews, Mechanics, Racing
Tagged adam mcgrath, adam newt mcgrath, Cyclocross, farming, homesteading, port townsend, professional cycling, sustainable living