If you’ve ever wondered why your bicycle looks the way it does, has the features it has, or just generally why you’re riding a refined machine rather than an old European boneshaker, then Henning Schroeder is a guy to know. As Senior Director of Global Product Management for Cannondale, he oversees all departments — road, mountain, urban, women’s — steering the direction of the brand and working with everyone from engineers to the sales force to figure out what bikes to produce. German-born Schroeder also has a personal stake in the biz: he’s been racing bikes for 27 years. We sat down with him to talk about the SuperSix Evo, where he finds inspiration and why he has beef with Mount Ventoux.
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Q. What’s one thing every man should know?
A. How to respect others.
Q. What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
A. I could name a bunch of physical things and that would be rather impressive, none of that matters really. I think seeing people you love going through hard times is what really makes me suffer. Having to receive a call that my mum had a stroke and being far away and not being able to do anything has been the hardest on me ever.
Q. What are you working on right now?
A. The future of cycling. The product lines for the next years are so exciting to me that I sometimes feel like a kid in a candy store, and when it all gets a little stressful I just need to sit back and think about which of these amazing bikes, forks or products I want to try next and add to my collection, or which is my favorite color of next year’s bike line up — and my whole world is in balance again.
I will most likely not know that it is my last meal, so it will be a sip out of my water bottle and a bite from a energy bar at the top of some mountain pass.
Q. Name one thing you can’t live without.
A. Breakfast with my girlfriend, watching the pond come alive. My bike.