FEEL THE ROAD

Alex STIEDA - PUBLIC SPEAKER

“Alex Stieda is an excellent speaker, commentator and facilitator. Alex expertly weaves together amazing stories of hardship, suffering, success and triumph, highlighting practical insights and a winning approach for athletes, entrepreneurs and executives - on and off the bike.”

Jared Smith,
Advisor | Entrepreneur | Investor |
Co-Founder: Tour of Alberta

Through a series of interactive experiences, Alex inspires his clients to achieve better business outcomes by describing the grit and sacrifice that he experienced growing up in a working class family, as an amateur athlete and as a professional cyclist...illustrating how the essence of success is built on an ethos of teamwork, dedication, sacrifice, strategic innovation and a searing focus on the ultimate goal – winning.

After Alex started his athletic career as an average hockey player, he discovered cycling at the age of 16. Moving up through the ranks of amateur cycling he became passionately obsessed with the sport. Along the way, he joined the famed 7-Eleven cycling team in 1982 and turned professional with the team in 1986, becoming the first North American to wear the Yellow Jersey at the Tour de France.

Leveraging his 15 years as an elite athlete and 30 years as a business professional, Alex shares personal anecdotes to illustrate the Art of Winning:

· Strength of a trusted team

· Reward of calculated risks

· Strategic ‘fluidity’

As a recent cancer survivor, Alex continuous to live life to its fullest sharing his passion for personal growth. In addition to co-founding the Tour of Alberta, a professional cycling race and producing cycling documentaries, Alex continues to ride all of his bikes as much as he can.

Cycling Career 1977-1992

Alex’s career in bike racing started in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1977. At the age of 16, he learned that he could apply the anaerobic power developed while playing ice hockey to racing on the track. Within two years, he had won every junior national track title and qualified for the junior world championships, where he finished 5th in the individual pursuit.

In 1982, he started racing for the 7-Eleven cycling team, traveling across North America where the team won 50% of the races that they entered, year after year.

Next, a bronze medal at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games in the individual pursuit proved to be a launching pad for qualification to the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles.

Turning professional in 1986, Alex and the 7-Eleven team raced the Tour de France for the first time. Finishing the 4km prologue time trial as the best rider on the team, Alex broke away on the following stage to claim enough time bonuses to win the yellow jersey, becoming the first North American to do so.

In addition, he won five jerseys in total including the polka dot as best climber, white as best rookie, red for intermediate points, and the combination. After losing the yellow, Alex held the polka dot jersey for an additional five days over the hills of northern France. Three weeks later, Alex was a proud finisher of the on the Champs-Élysées.

Alex continued to compete as a professional until 1992 winning many races throughout North America including Tour of Texas, Gastown Grand Prix, and stages of the Coors Classic.

Since retiring in 1992, Alex has continued his involvement in cycling, providing TV colour commentary for CBC, OLN, Sportsnet, GCN and FloBikes in addition to coaching with Juventus Cycling Club. He is the co-founder of the Tour of Alberta, a professional cycling stage race in his home province. Alex has raced the Cape Epic MTB stage race twice, finishing 4th in the Grand Masters with Tom Ritchey. He is an avid winter sport enthusiast racing the Birkibeiner Cross Country Ski Marathon 9 times and has started Skimo racing, a winter mountaineering event. Alex is also a regular cycling columnist and documentary filmmaker. Alex continues to share his passion for cycling by operating cycling retreats at various locations throughout the world.

Palmeres

1979 1st National Track Cycling Champion

1980 1st GC Tour de l’Abitibi (Junior)

1980 1st, Gastown GP

1982 3rd Commonwealth Games, Individual Pursuit

1982 1st, Coors Classic, stage 8

1982 2nd, Gastown GP

1984 1st, Tour of Texas, stage 3

1984 1st, Gastown Grand Prix

1985 1st, Coors Classic, stage 1

1985 1st, San Luis Obispo

1985 1st Paris-Rouen

1986 Yellow Jersey, Tour de France

1987 1st, Tour of Texas, stage 5

1988 1st, Tour of Texas, stage 1

1988 1st, GC Tour of Texas

1988 1st, Tour of Florida, stage 4

1988 3rd GC, Coors Classic

1989 1st, Tour of Britain, stage 3

1989 1st, Canadian Tire Series

1989 1st, Tour of Texas, stage 3

1989 1st GC Tour of Texas

1990 1st, Superweek, stage 17

1990 1st, Canadian Tire Series, Ottawa

1991 1st, Montreal Tour, stage 3

1991 1st GC Montreal Tour

1991 1st, Tour de White Rock, stage 2

1992 1st, Tour of Willamette, Stage 6

1992 1st, Visalia GP

“Cycling is such a special activity – it combines the social and the individual contexts so that you are continually challenging your personal limits”

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

1986 First North American to win the Tour de France Yellow Leader's Jersey

1984 Olympian, Los Angeles

1982 Commonwealth Games Bronze Medal for Individual Pursuit

Cycling teams

1982-1990 7-Eleven

1991 Evian-Miko

1992 Coors Light

Partnerships

Spokesman for Castelli, Shimano, Time Bicycles, Julbo eyewear, Lazer helmets, Skratch energy, Pedalhead Road Works and Wahoo Fitness.
Product Enthusiast for Fischer, Karpos and Swix

Charitable Activities

Project Rwanda (Global)
Kids with Cancer (Alberta)
CASA – Child, Adolescent & Family Mental Health (Alberta)
Canadian Mental Health Association – Wellness ride (Alberta)
Qhubeka Foundation/World Bicycle Relief