New Expression

 Marla streb builds a bike hub in baltimore.

- Kim cross

THERE’S ONLY ONE THING MISSING HERE. THE HANDLEBAR Café, Baltimore’s new bar/café/bike shop, is abuzz: A celebrity chef spins pizza dough in the air near a wood-burning oven. A patron tips back an IPA, chatting over the concrete bar with the mechanic wrenching on his bike. Commuters roll in, hang their steeds on an indoor wall and order pour-over coffees. A bike messenger heads out to deliver burritos and beer.

The only thing missing from this scene? The boss.

Marla Streb is in Montezuma, Costa Rica, fixing up a house in the jungle with her two young daughters. Never mind that it’s her first summer in business. She and her husband, Mark Fitzgerald, have bet their life savings on opening a bike-centric community hub that promises to change Baltimore’s riding culture. But it’s summer, and for Marla that means glamping in Costa Rica–no car, no screens, sporadic electricity and occasional water outages. Most folks recall that Streb is a Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inductee who, in a 16- year pro racing career, racked up a litany of badass titles: X Games champion, UCI World Cup Downhill winner, Single speed World Champion (twice) and U.S. National Downhill Champion (thrice). They remember her nude-on-a-Yeti poster, somehow revealing little more than 50-horsepower quads and the requisite SS World Champ tattoo branded upon her right cheek. They might recall her suspended between ramp and water on the Downieville Classic river jump with a rag doll strapped to her chest.