I just spent a week in Ontario, where I spent my teenage years, visiting girls I had crushes on, old friends and even all my remaining siblings. It was a wonderful trip, even if I needed to go into detox afterwards. It was also a nice break from ‘work’, or anything to do with cycling…nearly.

On my last full day in Burlington I was having an awful lunch of Styrofoamed “Chinese” food, minding my own business, when a man approached me to openly admire my sweatshirt.

He knew who le Vieux Gaulois was, which immediately made me realize this was going to be an interesting encounter. His wife pulled up right after, I closed my Styrofoam, and we proceeded to talk non-stop for 20 minutes. We hovered around general cycling topics for about 5 seconds, then quickly dove into the meat of it, which was first, my business, then, their son, Carson Mattern.

Yes, world champion, Carson Mattern. You can forgive yourself if you’ve never heard the name (like me) because he won his 3 Worlds as a junior and on the track. He’s now living in Girona, where I’ll catch up with him I’m sure, and is one of hundreds or thousands of young riders looking for a World Tour contract. His parents told me that he was riding now for a Conti team run by Fast Freddie Rodriguez, which must be this one.

We are all friends on Instagram now and I’ve been in touch with Carson. And all this because I went to Burlington, Ontario of all places. I really should get out of the house more often.