Joe Whittingham met me from the future over a virtual call. It was 9am for him in Xiamen, China, 9pm for me in Philadelphia, USA. He had a head start on the day, and in many ways, so do the brands he works with. Whittingham is the founder of Panda Podium, an English-language retail platform for Chinese cycling brands. A former teacher who moved to China 17 years ago, he stayed, learned Mandarin, and found himself living within driving distance of most of the factories he now sells for.
From those factories come bikes with lighter frames, better-value specifications and greater customisation options than comparable offerings from familiar Western brands. Chinese bike and component brands have crept from the corners of weight-weenie forums and AliExpress rabbit holes into World Tour races and the shopping lists of riders who, not long ago, would have sniffed at them.
