At the beginning of September, the two young riders won rainbow jerseys at the junior track world championships in Cairo. Carson Mattern won gold in the scratch race and Dylan Bibic won the points race. They took home some other hardware, too. Mattern and Bibic got bronze in the madison and Bibic was in second place in the omnium.If you’ve been keeping an eye on junior and under-17 racing, you’ll know that Bibic has an unofficial under-17 world record in the 2-km individual pursuit. At the 2019 Canadian track championships, he won seven gold, two silver and bronze. He set Canadian records in the 200 metre time trial and the team sprint, too. Mattern is also no stranger to the podium. He’s been racing steadily from an early age and is a diligent and dedicated athlete.Bibic is 18 years old and from Mississauga, Ont., just west of Toronto. Mattern is 17, from Ancaster, Ont., close to Hamilton. They’ve both benefited from the legacies of major cycling events held in that province. Mattern has raced for NCCH, the National Cycling Centre Hamilton. That organization grew out of the world road cycling championships that were held in Hamilton in 2003. Both riders have honed their track riding skills on the velodrome in Milton, Ont., which was built for the 2015 Pan Am Games. Those events and their influence have had real positive effects on the cycling careers of these two riders.Mattern and Bibic discuss the challenges and successes of racing in Cairo, and its overall importance. Remember, junior racing has been hit harder with cancellations than elite level racing throughout the pandemic. The two very ambitious and talented riders also speak about their future goals.

Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast

Canada’s newest world champions

You know Jenn Jackson. She races cross country at the World Cup level, she digs cyclocross, she’s a bike mechanic, she sometimes bakes cookies and hands them out at events. And she’s all around into bikes.Canadian Cycling Magazine editor Matthew Pioro spoke with Jackson not long after she returned from her second trip to Europe this year where she had raced the cross country world championships and the Lenzerheide World Cup. She was at her home in Horseshoe Valley, near Barrie, Ont., for a bit. Now, as this episode is coming out, she’s getting ready for the final World Cup of the season in Snowshoe, W. Va., and then is on to cross country nationals. It’s been a long season for Jackson.Jackson has a lot of respect for Canada’s tradition and strength in the field of cross country mountain biking. But she’s concerned as things seem to be waning when it comes to results. She feels an internal pressure to carry on the legacy of riders, such as Catharine Pendrel, Marie-Hélène Prémont, Chrissy Redden and Alison Sydor.While there is deep reflection on the season’s ups and downs, Jackson is also still having fun. Remember the Hawaiian shirt she wore at cyclocross races? That comes up as well as possible sartorial options for this year’s CX season. So have a listen to the ever-insightful Jenn Jackson.

Jenn Jackson on World Cup mountain biking, the Hawaiian shirt, wrenching and cookies

Lately, on this podcast, the focus has been on athletes, on their successes, challenges and just what makes them tick. But this episode is a bit different. The discussion gets into just what makes bikes tick.A few days ago, bike component maker Shimano launched its updated version of both the Dura-Ace and Ultegra road groupsets. It’s a big deal. These are the brand’s top and second-from-the-top component lines. You see the pros riding Dura-Ace in the major races. Calling Ultegra “second-tier” doesn’t do the lineup justice. Ultegra parts are usually pretty much the same as Dura-Ace, just a bit heavier and often friendlier on the wallet.This episode's guests are Nick Legan and Dave Lawrence. Nick is the road brand manager at Shimano and Dave is the road product manager. (Nick says that they both love road and managing.) Dave is actually more involved in the nitty-gritty of making road components, while Nick’s priorities are letting people know about them. Dave cooks the steak, Nick sells the sizzle, if you will. They are both incredibly knowledgeable about bike components and their design.What does Dura-Ace mean to the world of road cycling? How much did road group developers steal from the mountain bike side? What were some of the ideas that led to some of the newest features like wireless shifters, wired derailleurs and updated braking dynamics? These are just some of the questions that come up in the discussion.Time to get techy.

A deep dive into the new Shimano Dura-Ace and Ultegra groupsets

Tristen Chernove is back at the Paralympics for a second time. He’ll be competing in all the cycling disciplines that he can—the road race, the time trial, and on the track, the pursuit and the kilo. In this episode he’ll preview a bit of what lies ahead at the Games.In 2009, Chernove was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome. It’s a degenerative disease that affects the nervous system. The nerves start losing their ability to transmit signals. Chernove had been active all his life. He competed in whitewater paddling and even FireFit competitions for firefighters. Roughly six years after his diagnosis, his competitive nature had him riding the track and road as a paracyclist.Chernove is classified as a C2 athlete. That means he rides a regular bike, as opposed to a tandem, tricycle or hand-cycle. The number in the classification indicates the level of limitations the riders have. C5 athletes, for example, have fewer limitations in their lower or upper limbs than C2 athletes. You’ll find out why Chernove might be reclassified in Tokyo.Chernove is incredibly driven. He started a company that now manages the airport in Cranbrook, B.C. Juggling the duties of a CEO and a top athlete leads to late-night training sessions. But there’s a price for all that. In this interview, Chernove, quite candidly, delves into the strain all his commitments put on his family, that is, his wife and two girls, who are 14 and 11 years old.The rider has 13 rainbow jerseys and he’s kind of lost track of which one goes with which win. Yet, his cycling ambitions go beyond his own victories, and they are centred on the roads and trails of Cranbrook. You find out what he hopes to accomplish while working with organizations like the Kootenay Adaptive Sport Association.

Tristen Chernove, the rider with 13 rainbow jerseys and three Paralympic medals, on the Games [rebroadcast]

“Peter, how am I going to win this race tomorrow?”It’s a question that Carter Woods occasionally asks his Norco Factory teammate, Peter Disera. It may seem a bit cheeky, but it leads to a discussion of race tactics and strategy. As Woods mentions in this interview, you can’t win World Cup races with sheer pedal power. Earlier this year, Woods nailed the race tactics on two notable occasions.From about mid-April to July, Woods and his cross country team had a long European campaign, competing in a variety of events, including four World Cup races. Woods won the under-23 race in Albstadt, Germany—his first World Cup win and the first World Cup win by an elite Canadian man since Geoff Kabush won in Bromont in 2009. Then, just a week after Albstadt, Woods won another World Cup, Nové Město in the Czech Republic.The Cumberland, B.C., native also speaks about the racing scene on Vancouver Island, which was important in his development as a rider. There’s some cyclocross talk, too. Remember, he’s the 2018 junior national champion.The discussion starts with bikepacking. Before the interview, Woods had just gotten back from a tour on the island. It was a way to explore his home turf and prepare for the second part of his season. 

Carter Woods, just how will he win his next race?

Tristen Chernove is heading back to the Paralympics for a second time: he’s off to Tokyo later in August. He’ll be competing in all the cycling disciplines that he can—the road race, the time trial, and on the track, the pursuit and the kilo. In this episode he’ll preview a bit of what lies ahead at the Games.In 2009, Chernove was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome. It’s a degenerative disease that affects the nervous system. The nerves start losing their ability to transmit signals. Chernove had been active all his life. He competed in whitewater paddling and even FireFit competitions for firefighters. Roughly six years after his diagnosis, his competitive nature had him riding the track and road as a paracyclist.Chernove is classified as a C2 athlete. That means he rides a regular bike, as opposed to a tandem, tricycle or hand-cycle. The number in the classification indicates the level of limitations the riders have. C5 athletes, for example, have fewer limitations in their lower or upper limbs than C2 athletes. You’ll find out why Chernove might be reclassified in Tokyo.Chernove is incredibly driven. He started a company that now manages the airport in Cranbrook, B.C. Juggling the duties of a CEO and a top athlete leads to late-night training sessions. But there’s a price for all that. In this interview, Chernove, quite candidly, delves into the strain all his commitments put on his family, that is, his wife and two girls, who are 14 and 11 years old.The rider has 13 rainbow jerseys and he’s kind of lost track of which one goes with which win. Yet, his cycling ambitions go beyond his own victories, and they are centred on the roads and trails of Cranbrook. You find out what he hopes to accomplish while working with organizations like the Kootenay Adaptive Sport Association.

Tristen Chernove, the rider with 13 rainbow jerseys and three Paralympic medals, looks ahead to the Games

Guillaume Boivin is toughing it out now in the final stages of the Tour de France. He's faced crashes, heat, mountain climbs and a lack of vegetables. Listen to find out exactly what's going on with his diet.Boivin also discusses the Olympics. Near the beginning of July, he was named as the third rider, after Michael Woods and Hugo Houle, who will be at the road race in Tokyo. While still in the midst of his first Tour, Boivin looks ahead to his next big objective. In a way, the two events are similar: Boivin's role is to help Woods cross the finish line first.Boivin has been with the team Israel Start-Up Nation in its various forms since 2016. Before that he did a season with U.S. team Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies. There were also two years on the Cannondale WorldTour team with riders such as Peter Sagan, Matej Mohorič and Elia Viviani. Going way back, Boivin was on the influential Canadian pro continental squad SpiderTech. In 2010, he famously tied for third-place with Taylor Phinney at the under-23 world championship road race.While Boivin loves to mix it up in a bunch sprint, throughout the past few years, he’s developed into a skilled support rider with a range of abilities. Take the current Tour de France, for example. Boivin’s first job has been to help a climber like Michael Woods with his goals of stage wins and the KOM jersey. Yet, Boivin can also help out a fast man like André Greipel.The Tour de France is stressful for riders. But was Boivin dealing with an added stress at the start of the Tour? He’s a big hockey fan and his team is the Montreal Canadiens. (Also, make sure to listen to this story of Boivin's about catching a Habs game in Montreal with Sagan.) The Tour started just before the Stanley Cup finals got underway. With the time difference between France and North America, was Boivin losing precious sleep over his struggling Habs? That's where the conversation begins with this very Canadian rider.

It’s the third week of the Tour de France, and Guillaume Boivin just wants a salad

Adam de Vos can throw a punch. Most cyclists, it seems, can’t. Every few years though, there’s a dust-up in the peloton. It’s always a bit shocking, while the riders’ technique is usually cringeworthy.“That’s what I’m training for: that one time that it goes down in a race,” deadpans de Vos in his interview. “No. I’m just kidding,” he adds quickly.The rider from Victoria has been a pro since 2015. His results have largely been at a simmer and occasionally bubble up. He won a 1.2 level one-day race in Austria in 2017. That year, he led an important race in the North American scene: the Joe Martin Stage Race. He was at the top of the GC for most of the event. In 2018, de Vos won a stage of the Tour of Langkawi and held the yellow jersey for two days. But, as with most riders, the results only tell part of the story.Find out more about the long-reigning national champ Adam de Vos as he talks boxing, wine and especially cycling.

Talking cycling, boxing and wine with Canadian champ Adam de Vos

National road race champion Karol-Ann Canuel has held the maple-leaf jersey since 2019  – thanks to the pandemic. In this episode, she speaks about why it’s somewhat just that she still has the jersey that she’s so proud to wear.Canuel has been competing since she was 11. She came up through the influential Club cycliste d’Amos. She was fifth at the junior world championship road race in 2006. She has seen women’s road cycling evolve from the final days of races such as  le Tour de Grand Montreal  and le Tour de PEI to where it is today, a much more professional discipline. Still, there are things Canuel feels are missing in the Women’s WorldTourIn late May, Canuel had just helped her teammate Anna van der Breggen take a stage win and the race overall at the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas. Soon after, Canuel left for altitude to train for the Tokyo Olympics. Find out what’s ahead for this rider who has stood on the podium here in Canada and on the world stage. Will Canuel continue to race beyond 2021?

After the Olympics, will national champion Karol-Ann Canuel retire?

Five years ago, on June 3, 2016, Jocelyn Lovell died. During his heyday in the 1970s, he was a supreme bike handler and race tactician. His skills got him more than 35 national titles in various events on the road and the track. He won gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and Pan Am Games and silver in the kilo at the track world championships in Munich in 1978. Lovell was smart, funny, feisty and often mean. He got busted for stealing cookies, and was dealt a six-month sanction. He also swiped an assault rifle as a prank during the 1977 road world championships in Venezuela and got away with it.On Aug. 4, 1983, Lovell was out on a training ride northwest of Toronto, when a driver of a dump truck hit him. The star cyclist then became a quadriplegic. In the following years, he dedicated himself to the cause of finding a cure for spinal-cord injuries.In this episode, which comes out on the anniversary of Lovell’s death, three top Canadian cyclists who were influenced by Lovell—Gordon Singleton, Steve Bauer and Michael Barry—remember the complicated figure who is the first modern hero of Canadian cycling. 

Remembering Jocelyn Lovell, the first modern hero of Canadian cycling

How much coffee does Gunnar Holmgren travel with for a two-month stint of racing cross country in Europe? A lot. In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, the under-23 rider from Orillia, Ont., who’s with the Quebec-based Pivot Cycles-OTE, not only discusses coffee, but World Cup mountain biking, ambitious cooking exploits, ambitious cyclocross projects and figure skating. Yes. Figure skating. Before Holmgren started to really focus on mountain biking and cyclocross at around age 13, he was a serious figure skater. Since totally switching to bikes, he’s won the Canada Cup overall as a junior. He’s also been a national cyclocross champion three times: twice in under-23 and once as a junior. So tune in for a conversation with barista, cook, coach, but most of all, racer—Gunnar Holmgren.

World Cup cross country rider Gunnar Holmgren packs a lot of coffee

Lucas Cruz races for the Norco Factory Downhill team. As a junior, he was national champion in 2018. In 2019, he was third overall in the junior World Cup series and just 0.01 seconds off the podium at the Mont-Sainte-Anne world championships. He joined the elite downhill ranks in 2020. At last year’s Crankworx Summer Series, he won the Kicking Horse Dual Slalom. Cruz seems like someone who’s always on the go. He not only races DH, but he skis, snowmobiles, hunts and rides dirt bikes. That list might only scratch the surface of his pursuits. Cruz discusses these many activities, as well as his days racing BMX, a highly influential kids program run out of Whistler and the legacy of Steve Smith. He also talks about the importance of having fun, which he really seems to take to heart.

Downhill rider Lucas Cruz digs most things with handlebars, and then some

You’re probably familiar with Svein Tuft’s legendary tales, such as the time he used a broken hockey stick to chase away a wolf that was menacing him and his dog, or how he had a hairy mountaineering descent in the rain. But what used to freak him out? Well, it’s not wolves or slippery heights.Tuft retired from professional road cycling at the end of 2019. In November 2020, the Langley B.C., native moved back to his hometown with his family after living in Andorra for eight years. In this discussion, he gets into all the reasons and challenges of that move. He speaks about what he likes about being back in B.C. and what he misses about the small European country.Things have been pretty busy for Tuft in his retirement. Near the beginning of April, he featured in a short video. He has a new podcast with his recently retired teammate Ryan Anderson. Their pod is called Back on the Bus. In March, Tuft and his wife Justine welcomed their second child, Heidi, who is the little sister to their son Gunnar. Tuft talks about the tricky business of balancing his drive and passion of exploring on his bike with the importance of being home and raising children. He also discusses why a job as a sport director with his old WorldTour team wasn’t for him. He has ideas about what can make older riders with day jobs faster. And he tells a bit about a forthcoming book. The discussion covers a lot of ground. Tuft has a lot of wisdom to share. 

What could freak out Svein Tuft?

Like many Canadian cross country riders, Haley Smith has been doing a lot riding on the trails around Victoria. The Ontario mountain biker and her husband, who is also her Norco Factory teammate, Andrew L’Esperance, have been on the West Coast since early January. It’s the place to train for the season ahead because international travel is not an easy option right now.Smith is heading abroad soon, however. In about mid-April, she and L’Esperance will go to Europe to start racing. The big targets are the World Cup races in Germany and the Czech Republic. Results at those events could affect selection for the Olympics. While the chances of Smith representing Canada in Tokyo this summer are good, partly because of her third-place finish at the World Cup in Nové Město in 2019,  nothing is totally certain.In January, Smith published a story about her struggles with mental health. In the past, she’s spoken about the problems she faced as a teenager and how, for the most part, she overcame them. But in 2020, her struggles grew more and more serious. Smith is always incredibly articulate when she discusses mental health. She’s honest and insightful, even when she’s overwhelmed with emotion, which you will hear in this interview. So get ready to tackle some big topics, as well as some big jumps, with mountain biker Haley Smith.

Haley Smith knows real toughness

At 6 p.m. on March 12, Lucy Hempstead climbed onto her bike, which was connected to her trainer, and started pedalling. She kept pedalling for 24 hours. At 6 p.m. the following day, she set a distance record, which is currently in the process of being ratified by Guinness World Records.Hempstead is from Ottawa and is a former runner. She’s faced anxiety, depression, an eating disorder, burnout and broken bones. Now, things are looking more positive. Her discovery of cycling is part of that complex change. She may have broken a world record on her bike, but the machine has played a more significant role in putting things back together for the rider. In 2019, Hempstead’s mother signed her up for a talent identification program that aims to steer young athletes toward Olympic goals. That bit of parental initiative has Hempstead on a path to the Games in 2024 for cycling.So listen to this conversation with Hempstead to find out more about this 20-year-old rider with big potential. And find out just what type of pizza she crushed after setting a world record.

It’s about more than setting a world record for Lucy Hempstead

Cycling stories from across Canada and around the world. We talk to pros who ride on the road and the trails. We also talk about gear, riding and training. It's bikes, bikes and more bikes, eh.

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Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast

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