Hello cycling fans,
Earlier this week, I met with my friend and neighbor, Dan Chabanov, one of my favorite people to talk all things cycling with. We worked together at Bicycling for about four years, where he was my commuting buddy, sounding board, and unofficial work husband. I miss working with him deeply, but luckily, we only live a few blocks away from each other.
These days, Dan is still writing and editing, thinking deeply about bikes and racing, and now doing all of that while being a dad to a 2.5-year-old girl and navigating winter in Philadelphia.
We met for breakfast in Manayunk on a brutally cold Wednesday morning and talked about cyclocross dads, hookless wheels, early-season racing, spoiler etiquette, Philly lore, and why Wout van Aert makes us feel things. What follows is a lightly edited Q&A, and I’ve also attached the audio version to test interest and give you an insider spot into our conversation.
Enjoy!
-Rosael
Q&A: Hookless Wheels, Hurt Feelings, and a Winter Breakfast With Dan Chabanov
Rosael: How are you, really? Where are you in your cycling life right now?
Dan: Right now, it’s very much winter mode. There’s about a foot of snow on the ground, it’s single digits in Philly, and the season is basically on pause. Even cargo e-bike season is on pause.
Most of the roads are plowed, but the paths and sidewalks aren’t, and since I ride with my kid to daycare, that makes things tricky. It’s just too cold to put her on the bike right now. So it’s a lot of Zwift. A lot of Zwift.
But I’m already mentally somewhere warmer. I’ve got a mountain bike trip to Tucson coming up, and Sea Otter is on the horizon. You just kind of fixate on warmth.
On cyclocross and cyclocross dads
Rosael: Have you been following cyclocross? Worlds is coming up.
Dan: Yeah. I mean… the men’s side has been pretty predictable.
But I do feel for guys like Thibau Nys. Having your dad—especially Sven Nys—publicly talk about your mistakes has to be tough. That interview where he was basically breaking down what Thibau did wrong… that’s a lot to deal with.
Because Thibau’s had some really good rides this season. And honestly, things could’ve gone very differently with just a couple of moments changing. There were flashes where it felt like, okay, maybe someone could actually beat Mathieu van der Poel.
It just… never quite happened.
Rosael: And then you’ve got Mathieu, whose dad is also famously intense. It almost makes me wonder if having a mean dad is, like, the secret ingredient.
Dan: [laughs] Yeah, maybe that’s the formula. You need a terrifying cyclocross dad.
I mean, Adrie van der Poel wasn’t exactly known for being warm and fuzzy either. There does seem to be a pattern there.
Rosael: Speaking of that generation: I’m starting to wonder if Wout van Aert is just… cursed?
Dan: I mean, he’s not Mathieu van der Poel—and that’s okay. That’s not a criticism.
Crashes are complicated. Some are bad luck, some are skill. When the rider in front of you rides through a corner cleanly, and you don’t, that’s at least partially a skill issue. And yes, it’s very easy for me to say that from a chair.
But honestly? The more Wout struggles, the more I root for him. There’s something deeply human there. People love an underdog. And I think setbacks sometimes help him peak later instead of burning out early.
If he won Flanders or Roubaix, I think he’d be genuinely, profoundly happy. And I want that for him.
On Heated Rivalry
Rosael: Okay, before we get into gear, I have to ask you this. If they ever made a screen adaptation of Heated Rivalry, who would you cast?
Dan: Oh my god. This would obviously happen during the Kerstperiode.
Rosael: Say more.
Dan: It’s kind of self-explanatory. It would basically be Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, but hot actors.
You need two people who are obviously very attractive, but also deeply annoying in a very specific way. It has to feel tense and competitive, but also… tender. Like, you’re mad at them, but you still care.
Rosael: You haven’t even watched it yet! It’s very sexy and sultry, but also weirdly heartwarming. Very Canadian. A happy ending. Things go the way you hope they would.
Dan: This interview brought to you by HBO, or whatever HBO is called now.
On what’s hot and what’s not
Rosael: Okay, gear time. What’s hot, what’s not?
Dan: Road hookless is pretty much on its way out. When Enve—one of the biggest proponents—introduces a hooked wheel, that’s the writing on the wall.
The promise of hookless was lighter, stronger, cheaper rims. But now we’re getting lighter, stronger, and cheaper with hooks. Plus, the compatibility charts, the high-profile race incidents—it’s just too much friction for consumers. I don’t think hookless disappears entirely, but it’s no longer “the future.”
What is interesting is progressive road geometry. Shorter cranks, zero-offset seatposts, saddles pushed forward—it’s all part of a system designed to move the rider forward over the bottom bracket for aero gains.
What’s new is brands designing bikes around that position, instead of asking riders to retrofit everything. Factor’s new bike is a good example. The question is whether consumers want to relearn their fit every time they buy a new bike.
What are you riding?
Rosael: What are you riding these days?
Dan: Personally? A Tarmac SL8, a Ritchey Road Logic, and an Epic EVO that I love.
Test bikes come and go: Factor Ostro, a titanium Stinner, a Propain trail bike, and an Aethos 2 coming soon. For commuting and life stuff, we’ve got an Aventon Abound e-cargo bike, a Specialized Haul, and… honestly, too many bikes. It never ends.
What is Mina riding?
Rosael: Important question: what’s your daughter Mina riding?
Dan: She’s on a Strider that I modified with bigger wheels and bigger tires. I kind of hacked it to make it roll better.
She’s figured out gliding, which is the big milestone. That’s the thing you’re waiting for. She can push, lift her feet, and actually coast now. She can also slow herself down with her feet, which is huge.
Her cycling vocabulary is currently “bike” and “wheel.” That’s it.
What’s the point of early-season races?
Rosael: Let’s talk early-season racing. What’s the point of Tour Down Under, UAE Tour, all of that?
Dan: From a team perspective, they matter a lot. They’re WorldTour races. Riders can build careers on them.
As a fan? They’re harder to connect with. Time zones don’t help, and I’m not sitting down to watch full stage replays in January. You catch highlights. You’re content-starved. You walk into a bike shop, and they’re watching the Australian national road race on replay, and you’re like, “Okay, it’s that time of year.”
On bike-race-watching etiquette
Rosael: Cycling etiquette. Spoilers. Let’s go.
Dan: The internet doesn’t owe you a spoiler-free experience. If you go online and ruin a race for yourself, that’s on you.
But friends texting you specifics when they know you’re not watching live? That hurts. Everyone knows I’ve got a kid. Sunday mornings are playground time, not bike race time.
A simple “Did you catch that finish?” is fine. A detailed question that gives away the result is not. That’s the line.
On Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift
Rosael: Okay. Before we wrap this up, I want to put you on the spot. Give me either a hot take or some early predictions for the Tour de France and the Tour de France Femmes.
Dan: It’s hard to come up with a hot take for the men’s race just because of Tadej Pogačar’s dominance. I mean, a real hot take would be that he gets completely burned out, or decides not to start, or retires early—but that feels extremely unlikely. He’s making too much money, and he’s just too good.
For the women, though, I think it’s going to be really interesting. Especially now that we finally have a proper time trial again.
Rosael: Yeah, the time trial feels important. We haven’t had one like this in a while.
Dan: Exactly. And that’s what makes it fascinating. We’ve had years where riders could optimize almost entirely for summit finishes, and you saw that pay off massively, especially last year.
But now the question is: who focuses on the time trial and takes the most time there without losing too much in the mountains, and who goes all-in on the climbing again?
In the men’s race, it’s just assumed you have to be good at both. You can’t really fake it. In the women’s peloton, we haven’t had enough long stage races with meaningful time trials for that balance to be fully tested yet.
Rosael: Someone like Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, for example—she’s extremely disciplined.
Dan: Yeah. She’s on a strong team, with a lot of time trial expertise. She’ll be as optimized as she possibly can be.
Last year, she optimized the hell out of the summit finishes and just dominated. This year, it’ll be interesting to see how riders adjust their focus. The time trial adds a totally different pressure.
Rosael: And then there’s Demi Vollering, who’s solid at both.
Dan: She is. But the thing is, the sport around her has changed.
She signed a very big deal a few years ago, and it’s not that she’s gotten worse; it’s that everyone else has gotten better. The peloton is deeper now. Teams are stronger. Riders have better support.
She’s no longer the big fish in a small pond. There are a lot more fish now.
Rosael: It does feel like we might be on the verge of something new.
Dan: Yeah. Honestly, my hot take for the women’s Tour is that it might be someone we don’t expect.
It could be another dominant win, but I kind of hope it isn’t. I think the racing has gotten more competitive every year. More riders are able to contest the front of races. Teams are better built. The depth is real now.
And that, to me, feels like the next big step forward for the women’s peloton.
On pizza & coffee
Rosael: Rapid-fire Philly questions. Best pizza?
Dan: That’s tough. Coming from New York, where good pizza is easy to find and world-class pizza is everywhere, this was an adjustment.
There is good pizza in Philly. Pizzeria Beddia is great if you want a sit-down pizza experience. You can have a few pies, maybe a salad, dessert, and good drinks—it’s excellent.
For, like, a quick run-in, grab-a-slice situation, Founded Coffee & Pizza on Wissahickon Avenue is solid. It’s very New York–style thin crust. I say “great,” but really it’s on par with an average corner pizza joint in Brooklyn, which is still a compliment.
That’s the thing, in New York City, it’s genuinely hard to find bad pizza. Even dollar slices on Eighth Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen, when I was a bike courier, were still edible. In Philly, you can find pizza that’s just… inedible.
When I first moved here, I went up the street to a place called Manayunk Pizza, bought a whole pie, and literally had to throw it out. I couldn’t eat it.
Rosael: Are you usually a cheese slice person or pepperoni?
Dan: Plain cheese, almost always. I love a Grandma pie with a sesame crust—that’s great.
If I’m getting toppings, I go fully weird. Like buffalo chicken. At that point, I’m already committing to chaos.
Rosael: Best coffee shop?
Dan: Herman’s is great. Café Roasters is excellent for food and fun drinks. Pilgrim has… dirty coffee, in a good way. Philly’s coffee scene is quietly very strong.
Rosael: Final question. Philly Cycling Classic is coming back. Should people care?
Dan: Absolutely. It’s the closest thing the U.S. has to a real classic. The Manayunk Wall is iconic. There’s history here. Lore matters.
I don’t think anyone is sad this race is coming back. If anything, we need more of this—not less.
If you miss smart, slightly opinionated cycling conversations that wander into pizza, parenting, and existential despair about winter, same. I’m grateful Dan sat down with me, and selfishly, I’m grateful I still get to talk bikes with my old work husband.
Thank you for reading.
