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Bicycle Retailer and Industry News: Fab 5, Five Companies to Watch

Seven Cycles
Watertown, Massachusetts
Years in Business: 8
Employees: 35

Seven Cycles doesn’t make a lot of noise about women’s issues and it hasn’t joined the fray of companies offering “women’s-specific” bikes, but women play an important role at the high-end frame builder.

Jennifer Miller co-founded, co-owns and co-runs the company. Of the four people who helped start Seven, half were women. A third of its employees and more than 20 percent of its customers are women.

Prior to joining Seven as director of marketing, Miller worked at Merlin in operations and supply chain management. Before that, the avid cyclist and former mountain bike racer worked in financial services.

Miller said her gender matters little when it comes to business. By the same token, Seven has steered clear of the trend to develop and market bikes and products designed specifically for women.

“Women want to be taken seriously. They want choices and access to the same state-of-the-art products and services available to men. Often, ‘women’s specific’ offerings don’t represent the best and most innovative products,” she said, adding that Seven’s approach to building only custom bikes is a better solution to fitting female cyclists.

“Our rider-specific approach to frame building is the most comprehensive way to address the needs of women. A woman can choose from any of our 20 models, and we will design and build a bike specifically for her. We address everything—fit, biomechanics, ergonomics, handling, ride characteristics, features, options and color,” she said, adding that it’s very difficult to generalize about women’s needs.

“We have found that female bodies tend to vary more from woman to woman than male bodies do from man to man. It isn’t enough to say women have shorter torsos and smaller hands, and design products around these generalizations and expect to serve the women’s market adequately.”

“I fear some of the efforts to market to women risk further marginalizing them, especially if retailers think women need special treatment and careful handling.”

“The way I see it, providing great customer service—attentive, respectful, knowledgeable and helpful staff—shouldn’t be a gender issue,” Miller added.

Down-To-Earth Olympian Encourages Others

What follows is a letter sent to a publication that recounts the author’s special encounter with Team Seven’s Mary McConneloug. It is reprinted here by permission of its author.

Editor,

At first I thought it was oxygen deprivation. In the middle of the “C” race at the Downeast Cyclocross in New Gloucester, Maine, I was struggling up a long hill towards what would eventually end in a mid-pack finish. To my right, a young woman in street clothes suddenly appeared along beside me, offering me a fresh bottle of water. “Strange,” I thought, “doesn’t she look like Mary McConneloug…”

Well, it turns out this was no apparition at all, but McConneloug herself. Despite the fact that her race was still hours and hours away, this Olympian took time in the early morning to cheer on a bunch of anonymous “C” racers and to offer us a drink and a few words of encouragement.

I hope McConneloug’s cyclocross sponsor, Seven Cycles, knows what a gem it has in her. In an age where elite athletes seem to occupy another world, McConneloug’s down-to-Earth nature is refreshing and admirable. I’ll be cheering her on all the way to the World Championships in St. Wendell, Germany.

Jack B., ME

cyclocrossworld.com: Interview with Mary McConneloug

Between nine months of mountain bike racing in Europe, an Olympic selection that ended up in court, and, finally, racing at the Athens Olympics in August, it’s been a busy year for Mary McConneloug. So it came as some surprise that the 33-year-old Californian decided to tackle this year’s Verge New England Cyclocross Series with all the gusto that has won her the past two series titles. But McConneloug has never been your typical bike racer.

After less than a month out of competition, but racing in the U.S. for the first time since last year’s Verge finale in New Hampshire, McConneloug won the series opener in Maine in dominant fashion. Cyclocrossworld caught up with the Seven Cycles rider following her win and asked why she’s spending her “off-season racing” ‘cross and how it works into her mountain bike career.

Cyclocrossworld: How hard is it getting used to racing a ‘cross event? Today’s race was only 35 minutes.

Mary McConneloug: It’s so different from mountain biking, it’s over like that. I think my fitness from the season is still up at the next notch. But I still need to train for ‘cross: shorter, harder stuff. I feel like I have the base from the mountain bike season.

CW: When did you start training for the ‘cross season?

MM: When I got back from Europe I spent two weeks just chilling out. Then I went for my first ‘cross ride right before Interbike, which was last week. I needed to feel what it was like to move with the bike and do transitions.

CW: Last year after the Northampton race you said you were done for the series, but then you came back and won the jersey.

MM: Well, the Rhode Island race got cancelled and that gave me the break I needed. It’s hard for me to sit still.

CW: How do you think racing ‘cross has helped you mountain biking?

MM: Bike handling skills for sure. It takes that to the next level. It’s really hard to control a ‘cross bike in the mud, it’s so different. Also, just to stay fit in the winter is good. Once you get out of shape it’s really hard to get it back.

CW: Are you considering ‘cross worlds this year?

MM: It’s too late in the season, I’ll be training for mountain bikes. But I am considering nationals. Last year I was so focused on getting ready for the big mountain bike season.

CW: Is nationals a race you’d like to win?

MM: I would, it would be a little dream come true again. We’ll see how it goes. We really need to focus on putting our team together again for next year. It’s a full-time job and this is the time of year to get it done. That takes a lot of energy and it takes a lot of energy to come and race ‘cross every weekend. So we’re just going to take it as it comes. I’d like to do the whole Verge series, but the priority is to be set for next year.

Bicycle Navi: Shifting Gears

VeloNews: Reaching for the Rings—McConneloug Closes in on Olympic Dream

Reaching for the Rings

It was just one moment among many in her season-long UCI points-chase battle with Sue Haywood and Alison Dunlap, but for Mary McConneloug it may have been the most important. Midway through the first of five laps in the Calgary cross-country, the Seven Cycles rider came up behind Dunlap and politely asked to pass.

“She was in her granny gear,” recalled McConneloug, who rolled by Dunlap on one of the short climbs on the 5.5km course. “I got around her, caught up to Annabella [Stropparo], and slowly pulled away.”

An hour and a half later McConneloug crossed the finish line at Canada Olympic Park, a mile-wide smile beaming from beneath her curly brown hair. She had just finished second, only 46 seconds behind Olympic favorite Gunn-Rita Dahle, to solidify her chances at grabbing America’s lone women’s start spot in Athens. Clearly it had been the race of her life.

“Basically this is a win for her.” said Michael Broderick, McConneloug’s boyfriend and travel partner for what has been a five-month mountain-bike racing odyssey that included events in at least a dozen countries. “I always thought she was the best all along, but I think this will finally shut up all the squawking from other people.”

At times McConneloug was accused of running scared, choosing to spend most of the year racing in Europe instead of facing her rivals on the NORBA circuit. But McConneloug brushed off the criticism, traveling around Europe in a rented RV and hitting as many high-value races as she could. Still, it clearly felt good to prove herself in a race with so much on the line, against a field that did include her chief Olympic rivals. The reigning U.S. national champion’s second-place equaled Dunlap’s best World Cup result of the season (although McConneloug’s effort came against a weaker field).

“Anyone who didn’t think I deserved to be in this position can see what I’m capable of,” said McConneloug. “Today I was out there thinking, ‘I can medal in Athens.'”

The End of the Road

On the other side of the spectrum was an emotionally spent Dunlap, who finished seventh, 4:25 behind Dahle. Though she had been mathematically eliminated the week before at the Mont-Ste-Anne World Cup, the race in Calgary truly brought things to an end for the former world champion and two-time Olympian.

“This has been a really long, hard haul,” said Dunlap, who was a longshot for Athens after losing so much ground in 2003 because of a separated shoulder. “I’m done. I’m out of it. Now I’m going to go home and go camping for a week. I just hope in four years [USA Cycling] can find a better way to pick the Olympic team because this was crazy.”

Asked if she might be around for one more shot at the Games, Dunlap answered with an emphatic “no.”

“I’ll be lucky if I’m at the races next year,” she added, hinting that her 15-year cycling career might be coming to an end. “There are other things I want to do. I want to start a family. I want to be with my family more. The decision isn’t made yet—[Luna] wants me to keep racing. But I’m definitely going to give it some serious thought.”

Then there was Haywood, who was a distant 15th in Calgary but still had one more shot at overtaking McConneloug in the UCI standings at the ensuing weekend’s marathon world championships in Austria. The Trek-Volkswagen pro trailed McConneloug by 56 points in the July 7 UCI rankings. But even with hope still alive, Haywood was ready for the Olympic qualifying ordeal to be over. “I’m just f-ing exhausted,” she said. “I want to go home and rest but I’ve still got another week to go. It’s an Olympic year and you’re not supposed to change that much, but everything’s been different.”

Unstoppable Dahle

The one thing that hasn’t changed this year is Dahle’s dominance. Week after week for the last two years, the Norwegian has been the best in the world. Her victory in Calgary gave her 10 World Cup wins in 10 starts (she sat out World Cup No.4 in Austria to take a midseason break in Colorado), and she’ll head into Athens as the overwhelming favorite. But Dahle (Multivan-Merida) discourages that tag.

“There were a lot of good riders missing today,” she said, after locking up her second straight overall World Cup title. “I know I have beaten them before, but I still must maintain my focus.”

As usual, that focus of Dahle’s was centered on a quick start in Calgary. After finishing the start loop in a comfortable third place, she proceeded to post the fastest three laps of the day, and was 1:10 up on McConneloug by the time she hit two laps to go. Not until the final turn on the course that ran below the base of the 90-meter Nordic ski jump used in the 1988 Olympic Winter Games did Dahle ease off the gas. And at least a few of those surrendered seconds were spent getting off her bike and raising it over her head for what has become her trademark victory salute. It’s an act that we could see again come the end of August.

“So far I have won everything I have been going for,” she admitted. “Why not again?”