One Ride Can Have Many Tales

Ileft a few things out of my story about the Maratona dles Dolomites (p.100). Cuts and edits happen when a magazine gets put together. The information a writer gathers for any long story – such as Tara Nolan’s on big rides you can do this season (p.54) and Dean Campbell’s on Norco’s mountain bike squad (p.48) – always exceeds what makes it into print. It’s just how good stories are written.

In my case, I found my one-day 138-km ride with 4,230 m of elevation is a story that could easily exceed 1,000 words. Jordan Behan, the winner of last year’s contest by Canadiancyclingmagazine and Castelli to send a rider to the Maratona, wrote an excellent account of the ride. (You can read the great 1,870-word tale on our website.) But as you know, with any ride, the story isn’t just what happens while your bike computer is running. There’s the training beforehand, wrenching on your bike, possibly checking out parts of the route. All of that was part of our trip.

On the day before the Maratona, as I was out on a ride with Castelli, my back tire popped. Luckily, I had cut up some old race numbers and put them in my seat bag. The paper used for race numbers is durable enough to act a tire boot. The fix got me down Passo Campolongo and to my hotel in Corvara. It was crummy to have my ride shot, but at least the mechanical happened the day before the big event.

A really important part of my trip to the Dolomites, for me, was that my wife and then 15-month-old daughter were able to join me. It was one of those rare times when work, cycling and family could all combine. As many of you know, those are three facets of life that can be difficult to juggle. On the day of the Maratona, my wife and daughter were near the bottom of Campolongo as I came to it for the second time. My wife yelled, “There’s Daddy!” She told me later that after I had passed by, our daughter was still pointing to riders saying, “Daddy. Daddy.” It seems things can get a little confusing for a 15-monthold. Usually she only sees one guy in tight polyester on a bike. At the Maratona, there were thousands. At the end of the gran fondo, I was exhausted, but it was a rush to be able to meet up with my family and share the ride with them. Matthew Pioro

Editor

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