You probably didn’t know this – and I sometimes forget it myself – but this blog earned its title after an elite cycling team. Alright, not that elite, but not a bunch of slouches either.

It all started back in 2012, when I, along with my step-brother, Rob, decided to ride Haute Route Alps 2013 – at the time an unknown and expensive week-long cycling event that had only two versions (Alps and Pyrenees). It’s now an international series (Europe, North America and Middle East) with 13 week-long and 3-day races scattered all over the place, from Alpe d’Huez to Oman and San Francisco to Mexico.

We landed on the name Vicious Cycle after much backs and forths and I don’t even remember whose idea it was. It doesn’t matter; it explains cycling perfectly and I wanted it for my blog, which I thank the author for to this day.

That first version of Team Vicious Cycle was also an international affair, with riders from Scotland, Ireland, a huge contingent from the U.S., Canada and France. Here are a few of us on the last day of the 2013 event, waiting for our motorcycle escort into Nice. Notice the leanness of the guy 2nd from right. He is not wearing that jersey anymore…

Team VC was only ever meant to be a one-off,  pop-up team, but the guy on the right, looking aggressively at the Mavic wheels beside him, had other plans. Brad wanted a little revenge on Haute Route because, well, he really didn’t know what he was getting into the first time around. In 2015 he created a Pyrenean version of Team Vicious Cycle and brought a few Canucks over to Europe with him, finishing in the top 70 in the process.

I also got into the act in 2015, patching together a 9-person team from my (vicious cycle) blog and having a great time in the process. This was for the Alps event and we had Canadians, Swedes, Swiss, Ireland (again), French and English. I wasn’t actually planning on doing this event but my loud mouth got in the way and a very kind South Carolinian offered me a free place in the race. The results were less than stellar, but Team Vicious Cycle represented well in the Alps and the Pyrenees in 2015, I would say.

Skip ahead two more years to 2017 and Team Vicious Cycle has returned, again thanks to Brad from Calgary, who just can’t get enough. He put together a team of past riders and newbies that ended up (unbeknownst to them) riding the last 7-day Dolomites event.

They look happy in any event.

Which brings us to today. I’ve just heard from a reliable source that there are a couple of Canadians who would consider one more shot at the Pyrenees in 2019 (yes, you have two seasons to train) and since it’s just about the best place to race a bike, I’m finding it hard to resist. I’m so far from HR fitness it’s laughable, but I find consolation in the knowledge that there will be plenty of you who want to do this mad event again and therefore scare me into shape.

Team Vicious Cycle taking registrations now.