My World Cup Mariposa

by Dede Barry

After having raced my bicycle for twelve years, I decided to retire from my professional team, Saturn, and go back to school at the University of Colorado - Boulder. I was excited for the stimulation of learning new things each day and I was unsure whether I would continue riding my bike regularly or ever race again; but, I never stopped riding each day, as a matter of fact, I think I was perhaps riding more than I ever had before. I rode my city bike to school and back each day. It was a blue Jeunet that Mike Barry rescued from a neighbour's garbage. He stripped it, painted it and built it up beautifully for me with racks and panniers for my books. This little city bike served me well and is still my mode of transportation in Boulder today. After school, I would often take it to one of the trailheads where I would go for a run or hike. But, if I had a big enough window of time left before sundown, I would race home, jump on my road bike and head up into the mountains for three or four hours.

In going back to school, I found my passion for the bike was stronger than ever. I was able to enjoy riding my bike without the pressure to do any specific training or to be fit or strong for the races. But, as I was riding, hiking or running in the mountains each day, I ended up becoming fitter and stronger than ever before and I got an urge to test my legs in a few races in the summer of 2002. I started out in a couple of local races and had fun, so I decided to fly out to the World Cup in Montreal. Team Talgo had offered me a position on their team for the race, but my race bike was in rough shape and I mentioned this to Mike. He had already had me on his list for a bike that year, but he offered to expedite me a new custom race bike. I was flattered that he would be willing to do this for me and excited to design a bike with him.

I wanted a steel bike, for durability and strength, with the vintage Mariposa lugs. He ordered the lightest steel available, pieced it together with the lugs, placed a lightweight, stiff carbon fork on it and painted the whole bike, including the stem and fork, light and royal blue. We chose Campagnolo components and he had it all built up for me in two weeks, just in time to get dialed in on it before the race.

I flew to Toronto and was very excited for my first ride. To my amazement, everything was perfect on the bike, even my position. As a professional cyclist, I had received new bikes every year that I have raced, but getting my Mariposa was different for me, as it was the first bike I had received that was 100 percent custom, from the materials, to the frame angles to the components. I was so excited that I felt like a little kid going out for my first ride.

I rode the bike quite a bit in Toronto those next few days and even did a short race on the Niagara Escarpment southwest of the city. Everything was fine tuned on the bike and I was ready to head off to Montreal. The only thing I was missing were some fast wheels, which my good friend Dave Cathcart, from Power Tap, provided me with the day of the race. He had a Power Tap built in to the hub of some carbon fiber Lew wheels, the lightest wheels available. The new wheels were fitted to the bike at the start and I was ready to roll.

Although I was feeling quite fit, my expectations were not all that high at the start of the race in Montreal, as I had been out of international competition for nearly two years and I did not know how I would fair. But, I was pedaling on a Canadian bike, made with love and feeling quite motivated to do the best I could. The crowd lining the course was encouraging and the laps flew by. I felt as if I was floating up the climb each lap. Before I knew it, we had one lap to go, I had been slightly gapped off the front group on the ascent up Mont Royal and I was chasing to regain contact with the leaders, I caught them on the short descent and immediately attacked at the same time as Anna Wilson, my Australian friend. We sped away together and hammered to the base of Mont Royal for the final ascent. I put every ounce of energy into climbing that hill and found myself celebrating victory at the top. It was a surreal experience, totally unexpected and totally gratifying, as I won on my father-in-law's hand made machine.

I fielded several questions in the press conferences after the race regarding my bike. I believe I am the last rider to have won a World Cup race on a steel bike and perhaps the only rider in the world to win a World Cup on a bike made within the family.

Dede Barry

Dede races for the T-Mobile Professional Cycling Team.
For more from Dede check out her site at www.dedebarry.com