missed connections

MANY THEORIES EXIST ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN relationships. Malcolm Gladwell made some hay with his idea of “connectors.” Robert Zemeckis won an Oscar for his movie about one human’s involvement with every major historical event of the mid-20th century. And some jackass ruined Kevin Bacon’s life by providing a tangible example of the six degrees of separation. My theory is specific to British Columbia mountain biking and can be simply stated as this: Cory Leclerc knows everybody and is involved in everything. He’s a connector—Forrest Gump and Kevin Bacon rolled into one.

It started in the late 1990s, when freeride was blowing up B.C. Forests were thick with wheelie drops and haphazardly built wooden structures, and downtown Vancouver was overrun with knobby-tired stair-gappers. The spark was “Kranked,” where names were made and careers were launched. And Leclerc was there for it all.

“As with most things involving Cory Leclerc, my memory of when I