The Business of Cycling

For more than five decades, Antonio Colombo shaped how the cycling world looks, rides, and dreams. He grew up in his father’s steel-tube factory in Milan, then turned Columbus into one of the most respected names in bicycle tubing and, in 1979, bought Cinelli. What came next included the Laser, the Rampichino, the fixed-gear revival, and collaborations with MASH and the Red Hook Crit.

In this conversation, Antonio talks about being a “reluctant entrepreneur,” his belief that you should always create excitement, and the hard lessons about focus, managers, and missed bets that came with chasing every idea. He also talks about selling Cinelli at the right moment, and why he still looks at every bike that rolls past him.


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Rapha's CEO Fran Miller is out after two years, and the brand that once rewrote the rules of cycling apparel is facing a hard reckoning. In this episode, we talk with two guests about how Rapha got here and whether it can turn things around.

First up is industry expert Juansi Vivo. He walks through the red flags: falling revenue, growing losses, CEO turnover and the £200M Walton acquisition. He argues that Rapha's real asset was never the product. It was the culture, and that culture faded as the company chased growth.

Then brand strategist Zach Heffner looks at it through a branding lens. He explains how Rapha became a true "love mark," balancing exclusivity with inclusivity, and why wider distribution and cost-cutting can turn brand love into a sense of betrayal.

We're rooting for Rapha. But the signals aren't good.


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Brett Sullivan is the VP of Merchandising at Backcountry and Competitive Cyclist, the largest cycling e-commerce business in the US. 

Brett started as a mechanic in their bike shop 14 years ago. We talk about what really drives demand today and why customers from paid ads are fragile. He explains how their Gearhead service turns first-time buyers into loyal ones, how they came through the post-COVID drop-off, and how the Amazon effect has changed what customers expect. We also discuss how he sees brands trying to break into the US, and what exactly what he looks for.


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Max Strandvitz became CEO of Mips just months before COVID hit — inheriting a company that had come close to bankruptcy multiple times before finding its footing. In this episode, he unpacks the philosophy that took Mips from survival mode to 11 consecutive quarters of growth in bike: structure, focus, and discipline. Max explains why Mips turns down far more opportunities than it pursues — including repeated offers to launch its own helmet brand — and draws a sharp line between real innovation and what he calls "renovation," arguing that consumers can always tell the difference. It's a candid look at what it actually takes to build a category-defining ingredient brand, one deliberate "no" at a time.


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Every time you snap a magnetic buckle on a bike helmet, a school backpack, or a water bottle cage, there's a good chance it's a Fidlock. What started as a teenager's scrapyard fix for a cello case has grown into a company with twelve hundred patents, a hundred and thirty employees, and products moving in the millions — from Nike gear to car interiors.

Joachim Fiedler joined me at Eurobike 2026 to talk about how Fidlock built one of the most quietly ubiquitous ingredient brands around: the patent-everything strategy, splitting the business between industrial components and consumer products like the Twist bottle line, and the deliberate "A surface, B surface" playbook for getting a brand noticed on someone else's product.

It's a conversation about betting everything on one core idea — and never quite letting go of it.


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In this special "best-of" episode, we revisit some of the most compelling conversations on branding from the past year. Featuring clips from Claire Deschamps (Assos), Hugo Davidson (Knog), Greg Shapleigh (Giro/Highbar), and Nikki Hawes (Whyte Bikes), this roundup dives into what actually makes a cycling brand resonate — from turning community into your most authentic storyteller, to standing out in a commoditized category through bold positioning, to the discipline of knowing whether an idea is a genuine strategy or just a fleeting opportunity. A recurring thread ties it all together: authenticity, focus, and staying true to your brand's core values are what separate brands that fade from brands that endure.


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I sat down with Chris Sugai, General Manager of Gates Corporation's Mobility Unit — and the founder of Niner Bikes, where he championed 29" wheels back when they were less than 1% of the market. Now he's doing it again, this time with belt drives.

We talked about:

• The uncanny parallel between the resistance he faced pushing 29ers in the early 2000s and the skepticism belt drives face today — almost all of it from people who've never actually ridden
• What it's like being an "ingredient brand" inside OEM partnerships, and why the real work happens in the trenches with frame and drivetrain manufacturers, not in front of the end consumer
• Selling Niner after 20 years, the capital strain of growing a company at double-digit rates, and what it taught him
• The transition from 40 years as an entrepreneur to being an employee at a 115-year-old, $3.5B public company — and why he actually prefers it

There's something great about hearing a founder talk candidly about giving up control, and what he gained in return.




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If you've ridden a mountain bike in the last 25 years, chances are you've rolled on Kenda — whether you knew it or not. The Taiwanese tire maker produces close to 70% of the aftermarket tubes sold in the US.

This week I'm joined by Eric Yang, VP of Business Development at Kenda USA and grandson of the company's founder. Born and raised in Ohio after his father moved to open Kenda's US headquarters, Eric spent five years in the family business before walking away for a decade — Silicon Valley startups, a Wharton MBA, and angel investing — until he decided it was time to come home.

We dig into Kenda's 64-year history, the humility baked into Taiwanese manufacturing culture, the tightrope walk between being a B2B powerhouse and a consumer brand, and what it really means to step into a company with nine board members, a global footprint, and a DNA rooted firmly in the factory floor.


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Nikki Hawyes is one of the most private-equity-experienced executives in cycling. Across three PE-backed businesses—Fisher, Zyro Fisher, and now Whyte Bikes—she's lived through every phase of the cycle: rapid growth, near-administration crisis, secondary buyouts, and exits. In this episode she shares a refreshingly candid view of what actually works when private equity meets the bike business: why realistic growth beats hockey-stick projections, how focus drives turnarounds, and why she set the terms before signing on.


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Joe Benedict, Vice President of Category Management at Quality Bicycle Products (QBP), pulls back the curtain on America's largest cycling distributor.

With 5,500 retailers served nationwide and over 45,000 products in their portfolio, QBP sits at the center of the US cycling supply chain — yet remains largely invisible to the outside world. 

Joe breaks down how QBP actually operates, from their category-based business model to their four-warehouse logistics network, and explains why landing a distribution deal with QBP is just the starting line, not the finish.

For European brands eyeing the US market, this one is essential listening. We also get into the current state of the aftermarket parts business, what the industry looks like post-pandemic inventory crisis, and why QBP sees 2026 as a year to take control and move forward.


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