• to strengthen the relationship between all cyclists, regardless of their discipline of choice;
  
  
• to promote active transportation as a means of increased healthly outcomes for individuals, communities, and the environment;
  
  
• to advocate for the development of infrastructure, and programs to support such infrastructure, that enable safe cycling in communities;
  
  
• to collaboratively create opportunities which showcase efforts and milestones of individuals, groups, and communities;
  
  
• to promote the activities, events, and programs of all of the four provincial cycling associations, as well as other cycling centres in the Maritimes; and
  
  
• to be an evolving collective voice of Atlantic Canadian cyclists.

 
The idea of an online cycling magazine was one of a thousand thoughts I had when I was suffering through saddle sores in 2005. The idea to build a volunteer grassroots movement on the topic of cycling seemed to make a lot of sense. Cycling is occassionally viewed as sport after-thought although more people have likely been on a bike than involved in any other sport.

At the start of the 2005 summer, I made a few decisions that lead to the development of this online publication. One, and the most important, was made one year prior: the birth of our third child. With the birth of our third child and myself being easily 20 pounds overweight, I went on parental leave. That summer, 2004, I got back into cycling after 6 years and not putting one single kilometre on the saddle. I biked around 900 km last year.

The second decision I made was to form a Summerside (PEI) based cycling club in 2005. Our first season was a success with a total of 20 members, including an amazing now annual 278 km Biking for Breakfast Challenge.

A few months after I started gathering support for this online cycling magazine, I was elected to the Board of Directors of Cycling PEI as President.

As for my other life, I am married with four amazing children: all unique and all insanely wonderful. For myself, family is the number one priority in my life. I have been employed as Employment Counsellor, Executive Director, Director of Development, Manager, Child Protection Social Worker, Community Support Worker, and currently a Disability Support Social Worker.

I taught myself basic web site development and have developed this web site as well as the Biking for Breakfast and Summerside Cycling Club web sites.

AP was officially launced on December 4, 2006.  In one short sentence, It is about connecting four unique provinces in Canada with one common thread: our passion about the bicycle.

The original concept was one of a magazine (or e-zine) format where volunteer contributors submitted their work to myself and I uploaded the info.  After a short 6 months of internet publishing, it was clear a new and more interactive user-driven format was required  (read: people were submitting many items to me and I could not upload fast enough).  So, as the summer was in full swing, my workload made any updates to AP impossible.  Not only was I working full time but having three small children plus organizing weekly Summerside Cycling Club events, two major PEI bicycle events (Biking for Breakfast and P.E.I. Bike Fest), as well as being President of Cycling PEI.  (And, did I mention, I still tried to get on my bike every now and then.)

So, in late Fall, after only a few updates since the winner, I took AP offline for about two months; I had many emails about where did the site go.  I knew I needed to develop a site with high-end functionality; a site that required less of my time as Elizabeth and I were expecting our fourth child in June 2007.

I realized that in order for AP to grow I needed to develop a community web site where members could post their own articles and news as well as update their kilometers biked.  And, with the announcement that Elizabeth and I were expecting our fourth child in June 2007, I knew I'd have even less time in the summer of 2007.  I spent months learning code after code, trial and error, hair pulling out exercises that I only hoped one day would pay off . . . I think today is that day.

Of course, I view the new AP community site as only the beginning.  I am hoping to entice fellow cyclists who wish to be on the cutting edge of AP to join the AP CORE DEVELOPMENT TEAM. 

Ken Trenholm, Founder, Atlantic Pedaler