Nic Ponsor knows the importance of stamina – but also of good training. An Iron Man competitor who won the 2021 Iceland Extreme Triathlon, Ponsor began working at Criterium Bikes in 2004 after moving from San Diego. He eventually bought the business in 2013 with the intention of continuing its community focus and helping forward the bike riding experience in the Springs.

Ponsor says his core industry, cycling, is inherently one where business owners interact with customers and their community consistently. When Ponsor bought Criterium from the previous owners in 2013, he couldn’t afford a bookkeeper, a janitorial service, or even a full-time buyer. He even had to set up health insurance for his employees. A lot of these things he admits were out of his purview.

But now that his business has grown significantly, it gives him the ability to do workshops in the community as well as be an advisor to those coming up. He sits on the board for Kids on Bikes locally as well as on the Retail Advisory Board for Specialized bicycles nationwide. He has lectured at District 11 as part of their bike tech program as well as educational sessions at Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort.

Observation is Key in the Cycling Business at Criterium Bikes

The key that Ponsor accentuates to becoming successful in the cycling business is “keeping your eyes and ears open and watching and listening at what’s going on inside the shop.” He says this is the primary way to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Ponsor admits with the mechanical elements, he was green when he first got into the industry back in the late ‘90s. “I would take every opportunity to pick the brains of the mechanics I worked with, and my own bike would be my test subject. I would never work on someone else’s bike initially until I learned all the tricks and the correct way of doing everything.”

Ponsor says he enjoyed being a sponge and absorbing as much knowledge as he could from everyone around him.  He says that is now why he likes teaching what he has learned to the local community. “For a while at the YMCA years ago, I would teach classes for beginner triathletes about triathlon, and triathlon training, coming up with a curriculum for that. I can make someone else’s journey to understanding their potential shorter because I made the mistakes for them earlier. I find a lot of gratification in that.”

Training for a Race and Running a Business Requires Similar Strategies

Ponsor is being modest in many respects since he has won several competitive triathlons including the Iceland Extreme competition in 2021 as well as finishing third in 2022 in the 18 Hours of Fruita bike race against racers less than half his age (which he likes to say “for an old guy is not terrible.”).

“I found in training for those, it’s not really all that different from the business in terms of when I sign up for a race. I lay out a plan to get myself ready to get to that race in good form. And then in the race, it’s planning and executing a strategy. Business is much the same. It is about seeing what works and what doesn’t.” He continues that, in racing, he’s had failures and successes. “And the measure of how well you do is how much you learn from both of those things and how you incorporate that in what you do in the future.”

Success, adds Ponsor, is the ultimate barometer but it comes in many forms. “The competitive mindset for me is sort of what fuels the fire. ” But, for Ponsor, it is also about finding the passion. He finds the adventure and the excitement in pushing personal limits (and not the preconceived notion of what those limits are for other people). “It is about finding your actual, ragged edge kind of thing. That’s what drew me to endurance racing to begin with.”

Ponsor likens this approach to signing up for a huge new job. “And that’s what helps me mentally push through because it’s always going to get hard regardless of what training you put in. At some point in those races, when you find that edge, it’s all mental at that point.”

On the reverse, as far as approaching Criterium, Ponsor says the passion that has kept him going in business isn’t actually business. “I happen to be in business, but I don’t think of myself as a businessman.”

Ponsor’s goal, he says, is simply to take care of his customers and his employees, “And to be able to say that I provided meaningful employment to some people and I contributed something to the community … that’s really what’s driving me on the business side of things.” He knows that in order to achieve both of those things, requires him to ensure that the business remains successful and profitable.

A City Connected by Cycling

Ponsor says that Colorado Springs is an amazing community that is connected by cycling. An example of that circle is when Ponsor first met Daniel Bird of Kids on Bikes when he (Ponsor) was working at the Urban Peak (now known as The Place), a youth homeless shelter. Ponsor went down to help and found that Bird was trying to start a bike program for kids to earn a bike to get to school or go to work.

When Bird became the executive director of Kids on Bikes, Ponsor was there to help whether it was enhancing the bike shop pedal station or providing charitable donations when Kids On Bike purchased MER, an outdoor consignment store to give their kids better access to outdoor equipment.

Another outreach Ponsor is involved with is Bike Clinic Downtown. Before he started working for Criterium, the former owners had helped support a free bike shop for the homeless and working poor who needed bikes for transportation. “And it still runs to this day. I think it’s going on 23 years now. We still fund it, pay the rent, and buy the consumable bits as well as take donated parts down there.”

Ponsor says the clinic was one of those needs in the community that had to be met. “And I feel like within our community a lot of people have stepped up and done things to help. The cycling community tends to be fairly selfless, which is kind of fun to work with.”

A Bicycle is a Universal

Ponsor says it all comes down to the bicycle being universal. “The bicycle, in general, can serve so many different purposes and so many different needs for people, whether it is something simple like utilitarian transportation or something that is for stress relief and recreation or even a means of competition for a living,” Ponsor says that is what makes the bicycle unique and fun. It has the full spectrum from the most basic bike that barely works to something that is ultra-high-tech.

This is also what keeps Ponsor and his staff at Criterium engaged from a tech interest standpoint. They never know what they’re going to see walk through the door or what problem they will need to address or fix for someone.

“We consistently learn more because technology keeps pushing the envelope.” He mentions wireless Bluetooth shifting, which wasn’t even a glimmer in the mid-‘90s. The same can be said of high-tech suspension and hydraulic disc brakes. The challenges can be anything from a really old bike that has a rare size bottom bracket, which can be really hard to source, to a brand-new prototype race bike that they build from the ground up with a racer. “That just makes our job at the shop interesting and constantly keeps us on our toes.”

Ponsor says it all comes down to the mission of getting people on bikes. “I tell our staff all the time that our job isn’t to sell things, it’s to get more people on bikes more often. That’s really our all-encompassing goal. And whatever it takes to do that, whether it is to go help build a trail or it’s educating people, or it’s helping fix someone’s bike so that they can ride it … whatever it is, that’s what we’re there to do.”

The Maverick Observer is an online free-thinking publication interested in the happenings in our region. We launched in February 2020 to hold our politicians and businesses accountable. We hope to educate, inform, entertain, and infuse you with a sense of community.