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 wo…

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…

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 champio…

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, w…

Trek does a Top Fuel switcharoo, Rocky Element hits the dirt, World Cup racing changes are kinda goofy, and buy some socks to help out...By John V

Starting out with all the new secret changes that are starting to leak, new Fox XC forks, SID changes, and a truly surprising shift-speed test between 7 different drivetrains, new modular rear derrailleur system, and some racing wrapups including one of my own local races that didn't go the way I was expecting...…

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 C…

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 t…

Oh no...drop bars on MTB has reared it's ugly head once again, World Champs coming up and you can guess who's going to win, Durango still rules, Canyon releases 3 cool bikes, patent stupidity, let's go!By John V

Of course the Olympics must be discussed, the let down of a US National Championships without the real best racers in attendance, why do I have so darn many new helmets? Old BMX/mtb legent Toby Henderson made how much cash back in the day?By John V

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 i…

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 withou…

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 nice tidy episode, including several interesting things about the upcoming Olympic mtb races, expensive brake pads, old bmx bikes, GCN paid subscriptions, mobile data centers for bike racing?By John V

Man, lots and lots have happened since the last episode. Sram updates, a "future of xc" type bike from Viral, Stan's wheels have fallen, mud tires, and 3D printed stuff for your body...and some tidbits and a short racing update. Worth a listen!By John V

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…

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,…

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. L…

Tons of little gear news I find interesting, including EEWings finishes, chain guides, Stans with new tweaks, some old school news from Dean and Brodie, Shimano patents go crazy, and tons more...By John V

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…

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:…

What can be said, the U.S. riders absolutely killed it in Brazil. 4 women in the top 10? Winning the mens elite? dominating U23? Really? Amazing work, and it happens again tomorrow in Brazil. And there are so many new tires announced for XC racing, and Time pedals, and Fox's crazy arch, and insanely high tech chainrings, what can I say. This is a b…