You probably haven’t heard of Jax Dierckx, but he knows more about betrayal than most people—both the kind that happens on pavé and the kind that pays his rent. This is about a time he decided to stop watching and start trusting again, if only in one simple thing.
Richard Sachs stands as an icon. He also breaks conventions as an iconoclast. He likes to say, “I didn’t want to be a framebuilder. I became one.” This phrase neatly captures the serendipity that shaped his career: a young man who intended to become a writer ended up becoming one of America’s most revered builders of the most finely wrought handmade bicycles in America.
There was a time when American gravel cycling felt like coming home to a family reunion you’d been looking forward to all year. It was farm roads and cow gates, a thermos of coffee, and an annual gathering built on trust, shared suffering, and the quiet understanding that some things in this world could remain beautifully imperfect.
In 1975, Bernard Thévenet—a farmer’s son from a village literally named “The Handlebar”—ended Eddy Merckx’s reign as cycling’s most dominant champion. On the melting Alpine asphalt to Pra-Loup, Thévenet watched the seemingly invincible “Cannibal” collapse into mortality, trapped tire-deep in liquified tar. This is the story of how a patient dreamer fed cycling’s greatest predator his final meal, proving that even the most ravenous appetites must eventually be satisfied.
I wonder if the State of Utah will ever update the traffic code to reflect the reality of driving a car here. For example, traffic lights: Green means stop, look both ways a minimum of three (3) times each, then prepare to go on yellow. Yellow means go. Red means FLOOR IT GO GO GO GO GO!
A detective’s prized custom steel bicycle is stolen from his garage. When the streets stay silent, he uses his badge and fists to hunt for the truth.
From the Gospel of Pedalion 12:1-12
And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from the mayor of the cycling city of Velocipolis, that all should be registered. Each citizen was to journey unto their hometown, there to be recorded, along with their beloved bicycles.
59’31” is a word and visual art piece, that originally appeared in the Early Spring 2023 issue of Cycling West Magazine. It’s a puzzle too. Can you solve it? Check out the Spring 2023 issue of Cycling West Magazine for the answer.
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), in association with the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), shocked the world this morning by announcing the launch of a new Formula 1 Cycling Series for bicycle racing, set to begin in 2024. The announcement was made during a press conference in Aigle, Switzerland, where UCI President David Lappartient revealed that Lance Armstrong had been named as the Series Race Director.
As a fan of handmade steel bicycle frames, especially those of English design, one of my favorite framebuilders was a gentleman named Ron Cooper. Ron got his start working at A.S. Gillott as a teenager in 1947, before branching out on his own in the late 1960s. The British bicycle industry was robust during this time, but also very close-knit, with some individual builders working for a variety of different companies throughout their career.
