🚴 Pelotons, pedals, and paths

We're hopping on our bicycles this week beacuse it's time for Tour de LinkedIn! I'm an avid cyclist, so this week is especially fun for me to discover what's going on in the world of cycling on LinkedIn. I can't believe I never really explored it before.

For the ocean crossing part, let's just imagine we're riding one of those pedal-powered paddle boats across the Atlantic.

Our first two stops both share an acronym: UCI. Both have a great deal to say about cycling, but with really different areas of focus. Mysterious!

Aigle, Switzerland

Leading off, we're visiting the Union Cycliste Internationale company page here on LinkedIn. For those not familiar, the UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland, and is the world's governing body for sport cycling, responsible for developing cycling in general. They promote and oversee "the eight disciplines of the sport of cycling: road, track, mountain bike, cyclo-cross, BMX, trials, indoor and para."

I think that many sport cyclists have a sort of love/hate relationship with the UCI (ask a pro road cyclist about illegal body positions, or a frame manufacturer about engineering requirements), and there have been many controversies in the sport over the years, especially with doping. That said, they are an important and very influential organization in the world of bicycles, and are worth a follow if you're into the sport.

Amsterdam, Holland

Turning away from the competitive aspect of cycling, the next leg on the tour takes us to the Urban Cycling Institute in one of the world capitals of cycling: Amsterdam, Holland. I've been following them on LinkedIn for some time now as I'm keenly interested in how we can promote cycling as a safe, efficient, and fun mode of transportation more in the United States in big cities and small towns.

Here's how they describe their mission:

"Take a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the intricate web of causes and effects of urban cycling. Balance a critical academic stance with a pragmatic practice-oriented approach of developing and disseminating knowledge. Provide a fertile ground for sharing knowledge and learning about urban cycling on all levels of the academic curriculum."

They post frequently on LinkedIn, and are a great entry point into building out your network of people and organizations doing work in this area. Highly recommended follow!

Morgan Hill, California

Keep those pedals spinning because we're headed over to Specialized Bicycle Components, headquartered in Morgan Hill, California. They actually just recently opened a small office where I live! They're local! Heck, I can ride my bike over to their building.

Founded in 1974, Specialized is a major player in the industry, designing and manufacturing a huge range of frames and components. They have a lot of followers on LinkedIn (almost 150,000!) and a lot of employees too. But what I want to highlight most are their jobs... they have a lot of open roles, about 280 at time of writing: https://lnkd.in/ggPM4uvC

Check out this note from a post from a couple months ago in which the team shared their work on battery recycling for e-bikes. You love to see it!

Long Beach, California

Pushing on for more miles and upping my cadence for another leg on the #exploringlinkedin Tour de LinkedIn. This time, we're heading indoors and spinning through Watopia. For those in the know, that means we're visiting Zwift!

The world of indoor cycling has seen tremendous growth over the last couple years, fueled in part by the pandemic as people turned to home gyms and equipment if they were working from home and they either paused going to gyms or were just looking to focus on fitness and ways to work on mental health.

Peloton Interactive, Wahoo Fitness, Garmin Tacx, and others have all gotten in on the indoor cycling game, providing both hardware and software that allows you to work up a major sweat and either train for the road and trails or just build fitness through spinning.

Launched in 2014 from Long Beach, California, Zwift brought the concepts of MMO video gaming and indoor training together in a really compelling and engaging way. I've been a Zwift user off an on over the years (largely depending on weather and training patterns), and it was indispensable for me last year for exercise as we lived through a terrible wildfire season in California.

Fuschl, Austria

Last stop is a sprint to the finish.

I had wanted to feature Whistler Blackcomb for this stop as they are a world-famous destination for mountain bikers during the summer months, drawing huge crowds to their bike park in British Columbia, Canada.

While they do have a company page, it doesn't have much happening there at the moment, though I did notice that they do seem to post some seasonal jobs, so their page might be a good follow if you're looking for a gig there!

Instead, I turned to Red Bull to close out the tour. Red Bull is famous for being one of the biggest sponsors in action sports, focused mostly on mountain biking, bmx, and trials in the cycling world. They sponsor numerous events and athletes, including two of the gnarliest events in mountain biking: Rampage and Hardline.

Here on LinkedIn, they have a vibrant and active company page, with over 860,000 followers, 16,400 employees, and 120 job openings at time of writing. This post featuring mountain bike legend Brandon Semenuk from a couple weeks ago is always an exhilarating way to start the week!

🏁 And we're across the finish line! Hope you enjoyed this week's Tour de LinkedIn.