giro d’italia

El primer gran triunfo de Gino Bartali lo alcanzó a los veintidós años, a tan solo meses de su debut profesional. A partir de ese momento, su fama se extendió por todo el país. Cuando el ciclista estaba por demostrar la plenitud de sus destrezas físicas, la ii Guerra Mundial empezó a cubrir de sangre el continente. El ciclismo era ajeno a las carreteras, transitadas por tanques y maquinarias bélicas. Los giros de la vida convirtieron a Bartali en un héroe.

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How did Derek Gee do it? How did he get into breakaway after breakaway at the recent Giro d’Italia? And what’s next for the Ottawa rider who impressed and entertained throughout his first Grand Tour? In this in-depth interview, Gee analyzes his four second-place stage finishes. He also talks about the feisty young Israel-Premier Tech squad that made it to Rome, the state of his apartment following his arrival from the Giro, getting slapped in the face, telling Thibaut Pinot to cool it, his relationship with mountains and what type of rider he might be able to become.

Ahead of gravel racing’s biggest event, Unbound Gravel, two racers discuss the discipline of riding the bumpy stuff. Former pro-roadie and coach Andrew Randell will be racing Unbound for the first time. He talks about his preparation for the 200-mile event. Canadian cyclocross star Michael van den Ham, who started racing gravel in 2018, looks at how much the sport has changed in four years. He was second at his first gravel event, Mid South, after he finished his cyclocross season that year, took a short break and did a bit of training. This year, after CX wrapped up, van den Ham tried a similar strategy and says he was blown out the back of the pack at Mid South. Still, he’s not doing too badly this spring. He won Paris to Ancaster in April. Just recently, he took the win at Grinduro in California. Soon, he’ll be competing at Lost and Found instead of taking on Unbound.

This episode also features interviews with two up-and-coming endurance track riders. From the infield at the Milton velodrome during the most recent Nations Cup, Ngaire Barraclough and Sarah van Dam discuss their races. Barraclough competed in the scratch race. Later, during the omnium competition, she won the first event, which was another scratch race. Van Dam had a crash in the elimination race, but was able to get back on her bike and finish in an impressive sixth place.

Ottawa’s Alex Cataford checks in from the Giro d’Italia. No pizza for him during the stage in Naples, nor any wine after a winery visit. (Fantini is a major sponsor of Cataford’s Israel-Premier Tech team.) Grand Tour racing is truly hard.

In this episode, former pro Ryan Roth recounts his big win in northern France. In 2012, the rider from Kitchener, Ont., won Tro Bro Léon, a race that features gravel sectors called ribinoù. Its famous prize is a pig, however, Roth didn’t leave the podium with livestock. No, the pig goes to the best-placed rider from Brittany, the region within which Tro Bro is held.

Tro Bro can be a chaotic race. Riders, sport directors and race officials each often have only a partial picture of what’s going on at a given time. Remembering how a race played out after a space of 10 years can be tricky, especially with an event as tough as Tro Bro. For some extra perspective on the race, Kevin Field, Roth’s sport director on SpiderTech powered by C10, shares his recollections from 2012 as well.

The show starts with a current race: the Giro d’Italia. Alex Cataford of Israel-Premier Tech talks about the opening stages of this year's Italian Grand Tour and gives a few hints as to what might lie ahead for the Ottawa rider.

For more on Roth and his 2012 Tro Bro Léon—including video of the rider checking with the race moto to confirm that, in fact, he was about to win the race—read his story “No, I didn’t win a pig.”

In June, Michael Barry discussed the UCI’s plan for a compressed 2020 road season. Recently, Canadian Cycling Magazine editor Matthew Pioro wanted to look back at some of Barry’s predictions from late spring. There is something unfair about looking back at predictions. In the best of times, guesses about the future are usually wrong. During this pandemic, it’s extremely hard to find any certainty. But, Pioro thought the review would be useful. You don’t know the significance of moves in a race until the race is over. So we wouldn’t fully understand the season until the end. We’re close to the end now, so let’s see what we’ve learned.

Michael Barry did get a pretty significant prediction totally wrong. And you're probably glad he did.

Leah Kirchmann, Team Sunweb athlete and this country’s time trial champion, is expecting to start racing once again in August. Still, she’s not sure what exactly the UCI safety protocols—with their team bubbles and peloton bubbles—will mean for her events. Also, with international travel now more difficult, she might be faced with some tough choices. Will she be able to race the inaugural women’s Paris-Roubaix, if it happens, or will she make a return to the Tour of Chongming Island? Can she defend her national time trial title and attend the Giro Rosa, too?

The rider, who has studied public health and nutrition and is a passionate cook, also talked sourdough and salmon. Check out her popular banana oat pancakes as well as the recipes she’s developed for her team’s Food Friday. 

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At the beginning of May, the UCI announced the new road calendar for 2020. One Canadian Cycling Magazine writer has dubbed it 100 crazy days. The racing runs from the beginning of August to early November, which is when cyclocross usually wraps up in most of Canada.

Michael Barry, who runs Mariposa Bicycles with his wife Dede, raced from 1995 to 2012. When he looks at the compressed road calendar, he sees a lot of challenges and unknowns that could derail racing. But, according to the former pro, there are sure signs of hope for cycling.

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On this day, eight years ago, Ryder Hesjedal was in the midst of the final rest day of the Giro d’Italia. He had worn the pink leader’s jersey for three days, lost it, got it again and lost it once more before that rest day. Hesjedal was still in a good position overall, but could he really win the Italian Grand Tour against the explosive Joaquim Rodríguez? Listen to this interview with Hesjedal as he discusses the race in detail, the composition of his Garmin-Barracuda team and the complexity of the penultimate stage in which a new rival appeared and all the others seemed to leave the outcome of the race solely in the hands of the Canadian.

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