“No time for omelettes Stevie, we’ve got to get going”
It’s Monday morning the day after Mont Sainte Anne World Cup round four in Canada and Gabe Fox (Devinci Team Manager, among other roles) is trying to prise a frying pan from the hungry hand of WC racer Steve Smith and shepherd him from the apartment to the van outside where team mate George Brannigan and mechanic Nigel are waiting for the off. While the rest of the World Cup circus migrates south in preparation for the Windham World Cup in the USA the following weekend, I’m pointing the hire car north from the mouth of the St Lawrence Seaway and following the Devinci Global Racing bubble trailer for the three hour drive up highway 175. Through the thick belt of conifer trees and wandering caribou of the Grands–Jardins national park and on to the industrial town of Chicoutimi, Quebec; home of Canada’s very own Devinci Cycles, for a whistle stop tour of the factory and possibly an omelette for Steve….
From Dirt Issue 118 – December 2011
Words by Billy Trailmix. Photos by Colin Meagher.
If ever there was a place in the world to make aluminium bike frames then that place would be have to be Aluminium Valley, Chicoutimi, Quebec. Think Silicon Valley but with more bauxite and less wafers. Alcan, Canada’s and maybe the world’s biggest aluminium producing plant, is situated here. Its energy hungry cookers soaking up the cheap hydro electric power generated from the vast amount of water flowing nearby. The raw material, bauxite, comes by boat from Brazil, but once that arrives and the alchemy begins, then there is more aluminium here than you can shake a stick at, which is rather handy for a company that likes to make bicycles. >>
