Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast

This episode is a rebroadcast of our look at the 1980 Olympic boycott. It happened 40 years ago, but contains some lessons for what athletes are facing today. On this day, BMX competition was originally scheduled to begin in Tokyo. But in March, as rising COVID-19 cases sent nations scrambling, the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee announced that Canadians would not go to the 2020 Games. Two days later, the IOC said it would postpone the 2020 Olympics for a year.

Recently, as we passed the one-year-to-go-until-the-rescheduled-Olympics date, talk of cancelling the 2021 Games started up. On July 22, the president of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee Yoshiro Mori said to Japanese media that if the pandemic continued has it had been so far, the Games could not go ahead in 2021. A few days before that, the Kyodo news agency released the results of a poll that showed that only 23.9 per cent of the people surveyed throughout Japan thought the Olympics should be held. A segment as large as 36.4 per cent thought the Games should be postponed again. From the survey, 33.7 per cent said the Games should be cancelled.

With the threat of Olympic cancellation creeping in once again, let’s listen to track cyclists Gordon Singleton and Steve Bauer, and road cyclist Louis Garneau as they discuss the time, 40 years ago, that the Olympics didn’t happen for Canadian athletes.

This year marks three big anniversaries for Steve Bauer. The Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast has covered his oh-so-close second-place finish in the 1990 Paris-Roubaix and the 1980 Olympic boycott that affected him and other Canadian athletes. Thirty years ago this summer, Bauer got into the leader's jersey at the Tour de France, just like he had in 1988. It's a feat that we haven’t seen since. Also, he did it in a way that you just can't duplicate anymore.

RELATED Steve Bauer remembers the 1988 Tour de France

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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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In mid-May, Cory Wallace, the three-time 24-hour mountain bike champion and Annapurna circuit record holder from Jasper, Alta., was living a simple life in the Solukhumbu region of Nepal, which is where he’s been since the country went into lockdown in late March. He's had lots of time to think and even cook up a wild escape route from Nepal that he's mentioned on his website. It's only something he'd use if, as he says, "it does go sideways." In this episode of the Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast, Wallace discusses solo riding. Are you born a solo rider or can you become one? He mentions the mental fortitude you need in cycling. He's got that in spades, but it seems even the mountain bike marathon specialist can work on boosting his abilities. He's been improving his mediation skills while staying put in Nepal. In normal times, top riders often live monk-like existences, but for Wallace, his life has become even more like that of an ascetic. Have a listen to Wallace’s insights from 2,500 m above sea level.

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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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International events kept Gordon Singleton, Louis Garneau and Steve Bauer from the Moscow Games. What they experienced can offer guidance to cyclists waiting and wondering about Tokyo 2020.

Also, an interview brought to you by Structure Cycleworks. Loni Hull, founder of the Calgary-based mountain bike company, discusses his unique front linkage system. It is literally, WTF: without telescoping fork.

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In March, Buck Miller, Eric Batty and Ryan Atkins covered all 721 km of the Wapusk trail by fat bike. The trail is the world’s longest winter road, which runs between Peawanuck, Ont., and Gillam, Man. Sections of the trail are close to Hudson Bay.

Last year, they rode along James Bay, a trip they called the James Bay Descent. The Wapusk trail trip was longer and more remote.

RELATED Lessons from the James Bay Descent

This year’s trip is not only a fascinating adventure but it speaks to the challenges we are facing today. It’s also about challenges—both environmental and societal—that we'll face in the near future. When Miller, Batty and Atkins went into the woods, the world was one way. When they got out, it was completely different.

To learn more about the expedition’s charitable component at True North Aid.

RELATED Waiting for it to get cold enough for a fat-bike expedition in Ontario and Manitoba’s Far North

RELATED Listen: Stories from a 600-km winter fat bike ride in Northern Ontario, Svein Tuft: from bike bum to the WorldTour

The Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast thanks Ontario Creates for its support.

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Do remember what race was supposed to run this Sunday? It was supposed to be Paris-Roubaix. But more important, do you remember who won Paris-Roubaix on April 8, 1990? Well, when Belgian Eddy Planckaert and Canadian Steve Bauer crossed the line on the Roubaix velodrome 30 years ago, neither of them was sure. After a lot of deliberation by race officials, the win went to Plankaert. After 265.5 km of hard racing, Planckaert beat Bauer by millimetres.

In March, Canadian Cycling Magazine editor Matthew Pioro spoke with Bauer. The CCC Pro Team sports director had recently returned home to St. Catharines, Ont., from Europe and was in self-isolation. We discussed the Monument that almost, almost went to a Canadian.

This Sunday, as you face absence of Spring Classics in 2020, do re-watch A Sunday in Hell, Jorgen Leth’s documentary of the 1976 Paris-Roubaix. Also, highly recommended is William Fotheringham’s book about the making of the documentary called Sunday in Hell. Wouldn’t that be just hellacious? In the good way. Enjoy both Hells!

Thanks to Ontario Creates for its support.

Two weeks after Michael Woods crashed out of Paris-Nice, he was in Girona, Spain, his broken right femur on the mend. “I’ve been crutching outside to get my blood checked,” he said. The EF Pro Cycling rider was taking blood thinners following his surgery. “I go about 1.5 km from my place. It’s a good workout.” Because of the COVID-19 outbreak in Spain, the country had been on lockdown since March 14. Woods found the empty streets of Girona eerie.

After the crash, Woods was taken to a hospital in Lyon, France. He didn’t remember much from his time there as he was on strong painkillers. He figured he came in just ahead of any coronavirus-related surge in that area of France as the building seemed quiet. Woods didn’t stay in the hospital for long. His parents came to hurry him to Spain – where he trains in the colder months – before the border was to close.

After the stress of the crash and the hasty departure from France, Woods could relax. In late March, he was avoiding the Internet, reading and enjoying time with his daughter who wasn’t yet two months old. His snuggle buddy Max, short for Maxine, was a perfect lockdown partner as she was too young to walk and was just starting to smile.

“In the leadup to Paris-Nice, I’d been putting in big training hours and I was not as present at home as I would have liked to have been,” Woods said. “So, this has been a nice opportunity to hit the reset button. From a health perspective, that means gaining a bit of weight, just kind of fattening up a bit. I want to get a big recovery block in, and then be mentally fresh for whatever is left in the season and for 2021.”

The Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast thanks Ontario Creates for its support.

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