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Raid Cycling - Alaskan Gravel Expedition with Brad Sauber Mar 07, 2023

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This week we sit down with cycling travel industry veteran, Brad Sauber to discuss the new Alaskan Gravel Expedition trip from Raid Cycling. This point to point trip brings gravel cyclists to some of the most remote terrain in the United States for an incredibly memorable ride. Episode Sponsor: Hammerhead Karoo 2 (use promo code: TheGravelRide for free HRM) Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the show. We welcome Brad. Sobber from raid cycling to the broadcast. Brad is a veteran of the cycling industry. Having worked for a number of cycling travel businesses over the last few decades. Raid cycling focuses on putting together the most memorable trips to the most memorable destinations. You can imagine. When we get into this Alaskan gravel expedition that we're talking about on today's episode, I encourage you to augment your listening by visiting the raid cycling.cc website. To see some of the pictures as most of us can imagine, Alaska is a vast, vast wilderness. At a scale. That's really hard to describe. In an audio podcast. So I encourage you to, to take a look at the pictures, listen to the description of this particular trip, because it's absolutely amazing. Nice. Dais point to point in the Alaskan wilderness. Culminating with a prop plane trip back to your original starting point, the trip sounds absolutely spectacular. And I think you'll see from Brad's description, his whole emo in this cycling travel world has been to create once in a lifetime bucket list trips for his clients. I'm super excited to introduce you to red cycling in this broadcast today. I'm super excited to introduce you to Brad and raid cycling today. Before we jump in, I need to thank this week. Sponsor hammerhead and the hammerhead crew to bicycle computer. As I've become accustomed to hammerhead just recently sent another update to my career, to computer. They do this, I think every two weeks so they can keep you. In the latest and greatest technology that their minds over there can come up with. I noted in this week's edition, they're adding e-bike battery monitoring to one of the screens that optional screen for you. I've got an E gravel bike, supposedly on the way for testing. So I'm excited to integrate that directly into my hammer, head, head unit. So I will know when the battery is about to die. As you guys probably know hammerhead crew too, is the most advanced GPS cycling computer available today. It's got industry leading mapping navigation and routing capabilities. That set it apart from other GPS options, it's got free global maps and points of interest included like cafes and campsites. So you can explore with confidence with on the go flexibility. I recall in my recent trip to Jarana Spain, that before I left, I downloaded the maps of Spain and I was able to use the computer. Just as if it was in my local terrain here in California. I recently ran into a cycling neighbor of mine who was telling me about a new route that he had developed. That was a mixed terrain route through some local trails that I hadn't. Really explored that much. So I went over to Strava, found the route on his profile, downloaded it and saved it. I'm going to put that directly onto my career too, so I can go out there and ride with confidence. You know, if you're like me, anytime you actually have to navigate, when think about the navigation, it really slows down the overall route. So having those cues preloaded into my career too, is going to make that ride a lot more enjoyable. Right now our listeners can get a free heart rate monitor with purchase of a hammerhead crew to just visit hammerhead.io right now and use the promo code, the gravel ride. At checkout today, this is an exclusive offer for our listeners. So don't forget the promo code, the gravel ride. You'll get that free heart rate monitor with purchase of your career. To go to hammerhead IO today, add both items to your cart and use that promo code. Without business behind us. Let's jump right into that conversation with Brad, from raid cycling. [00:04:26] Craig Dalton: Brad, welcome to the show. [00:04:27] Brad Sauber: Hey, thanks Craig. It's great. Uh, great to be here. Looking forward to the [00:04:30] Craig Dalton: chat. Yeah, good to see you again. I appreciate you reaching out and uh, I love what I'm seeing on this Alaska gravel trip. So, we'll, we'll get into that in a minute, but we always start out with learning a little bit about your background as a writer. Where'd you grow up and how'd you find the bike? [00:04:48] Brad Sauber: Oh, I've lost you there. It cut out. Um, [00:04:52] Craig Dalton: yeah, no worries. Let me, can you, can you hear me now? Yeah. That was [00:04:56] Brad Sauber: weird. Wonder why I did that? [00:04:58] Craig Dalton: Yeah, no worries. I'll just, uh, I'll just start off again and I can, it's easy to, it's easy to cut. Things like that. Hang on one second. Cool. All right, shall we? Yeah. Okay. [00:05:10] Brad Sauber: Brad, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks, Greg. This is, uh, exciting to be here. I'm looking forward to, uh, the conversation. [00:05:16] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it's good to see you. It's probably been a couple years since we first connected in, in Mill Valley or shared somewhat [00:05:23] Brad Sauber: hometowns for you backyard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a good day. We went out for a ride. I remember that. [00:05:27] Craig Dalton: Yeah. So I'm, I'm, uh, really excited to get into the Alaska gravel Expedit. Seeing it, reading the overview just looks spectacular. But before we go there, yeah, let's just get a little bit about your background. Brad. Where did you grow up and how did you discover the bike originally? [00:05:44] Brad Sauber: Yeah, so I'm from the northwest, uh, Seattle is where I would call home. Um, lived my first 30, 35 years, um, in the Seattle metro area. Um, started out in high school as a, uh, as a baseball and basketball player. I, I preferred, uh, being on the bike, so I picked up the road bike a little bit and then, uh, kind of that early, early nineties, late eighties, uh, when mountain biking was blowing up. Uh, I took to that quickly growing up as a kid, I was on BMX bikes all the time in the neighborhood and enjoyed a little bit of that, of, of racing, but then really got into the mountain biking quite hardcore. So, Early nineties, um, a lot of big adventures on the, on the mountain bikes. And, uh, a lot of the 24 hour races, a hundred mile endurance events and things like that really led to a love of cycling. Um, and then, yeah, once I went off into college, um, fell in love with, uh, more road riding, more crit racing. Most of that was just to kind of stay fit for you can do bigger mountain bike races and such. And then that led me into 1992, decided to take off to New Zealand, um, with a buddy of mine. We got a six month visa and we took our mountain bikes and pan years and, uh, went and did six months of riding on the gravel roads and craziness and dirt roads in, uh, in New Zealand and hiking all over that amazing country. And, and as a result of that, I thought, man, I've gotta figure out how to do this for a living. I just fell in love with being on the bike guiding. doing all sorts of wonderful adventures and came back and applied for a, uh, uh, a degree program at a small state college in Washington called Central Washington University. They had an outdoor rec program, um, and then also a travel and tourism, uh, degree program. So I jumped into both of those and they were, they basically allowed me to create my entire curriculum around cycling and cycling. So even my senior thesis at college for my bachelor's degree was, um, about international cycling and international cycling tour operations. And then that just led from there one amazing adventure after the next, um, at a cross-country trip that I guided, um, boy, it was a 2006 or so across the United States, uh, that was 60 days of a small. . And then that just led to, uh, starting another mountain bike travel company. We ran that for a couple years and sold it. And yeah, that just kind of led into more expeditionary type stuff through Asia. Um, spent, um, quite a few years working, uh, in India, Nepal, Tibet and the Himalaya for a number of years, back and forth. Uh, doing mountain bike trips, cycling tours through India and um, some more high altitude trekking and things like. You know, I'm going back quite a few years, but you know, we're, I've been in this business for about 30, 35 years at this point, but that then finally led to me starting another, um, a travel company called Brad. So destinations, which I ran for a couple years until 2001. When nine 11 happened and it kind of shut that whole destination and that whole region for me down, I was focused on India and Nepal and those kind of areas, but unfortunately with uh, nine 11, I had to, uh, shift and kind of reinvent myself. And that's when I found a small bike touring company at the time called Bicycle Adventures. They were founded in 1984. Just the year after, um, Tom Hale started Back Roads and, uh, they were hiring tour guides. So I went through their hiring weekend and was hired. You know, in 1999, uh, 2000 and started guiding for them. Um, and that led to my goodness, uh, about six or seven years of full-time guiding about 150 to 200 days a year on the road. Um, working with anywhere from 250 to 300 clients each season on, uh, multi-day, uh, bike tours and multi-sport tours all over the western us, Canada, Hawaii, New Zealand. And then finally in 2003, 2004, they asked me to come on and run the operations for the business. And that was a booming time, 2004, 2005. If you remember back then, that's when Lance was, uh, doing quite well. Cycling was huge. And um, our business then went up to about 170 departures with over 2000 clients. So we had a lot of trips, a lot of equipment, and I was running the whole operation back in for the owner at the time. Uh, who was, his name was Bob Clark. And I did that all the way up until about 2011, um, you know, building that business up. Uh, then they decided to, uh, sell the, the business. Um, and I kind of moved down. I did move down to California with my wife at the time. who, and I had met actually on a bicycle Adventures tour back in 2004 and she was based in the Bay Area. So I moved down there and, um, met, uh, Joah Cara, who was an ex-pro, uh, living in Mill Valley. And he and I started riding quite a bit, getting to know one another. And one night, um, on a napkin at Beer Works in town, I said, listen, we should start a bike tour company. And his experience was, uh, training in Kiati in. and, um, he said, look, I'm gonna take some buddies over there. Why don't you to come and we'll have a look at this experience. And so we spent six days with a few people, uh, riding the roads that he used to train on, and we came back. We both basically quit our jobs. He quit LinkedIn and I had just had resigned from my role at Bicycle Ventures and we started in gamba. So that would've been, oh, probably 2011 was when we basically started that business and it was self-funded. We had a third partner, but Joel and I, Joel and I were the ones that basically got that thing up and running. And that was an amazing experience. You know, it was basically a, um, you know, a fantasy camper cyclist. We had all these amazing pros that were around us on all these cool trips in, in Italy. And then I was branching out into, uh, in France as well, doing some things around the Tour de France, and then also bringing some of the tours back, the United States. And, um, he had a great time. Um, but it was hard to self-finance a business. It was hard bit of a, you know, hard road as a, as a partnership as well. And at that time in, um, you know, after founding in Gamba, I'd had, uh, reconnected with, uh, Simon Matram over at Rafa, and he and I first met back in like 2004, uh, 2005. He'd just launched the Rafa brand and I did a small private ride with him in California when he came over to look at one of their first, uh, retail spaces. Studio Velo actually actually was the bike shop that was one of their first companies that carried their brand. And we went to dinner that night in Mill Valley. He en slated Olson and I and a few others. And I remember looking at him and saying, Hey, listen, I think you're primed to do some sort of a, uh, lifestyle travel vertical, if you ever want to do that within the Roth of space. You know, keep me in mind. So that was literally 2004, 2005. And then crazy enough when um, you know, Joel and I founded in Gama there 2011, 2012, um, that's when Simon reached out and said, Hey listen, we're ready. We've got a bunch of capital we're taking on Team Sky as well that same year in 2012, and we want to break into more of a lifestyle concept. And he asked if I was interested in. Leaving my wife in Mill Valley and moving to London and starting a travel vertical for Rafa. And that's really where everything really came together for me in many ways. It was an, an amazing experience, um, to have that kind of a mentor working side by side of Simon and it really refined. I guess for me, all those years of working in the, uh, multi-sport travel space, it, we just wanted to create really inspirational, hard and unique cycling trips around the world, and that's what we did. Our first season at Rafa, we launched five trips and they sold out overnight. Which was quite a surprise to me. Usually it's a bit of a hustle to get people to travel with you, but overnight, uh, we launched the website and in the morning we, uh, woke up and they, the sales had literally shut down the site. So we had to think about, geez, how can we do this? So off we were running on that very first year with five trips sold out, and in our five seasons of running tours, we worked our way up to over a hundred departures. So it was quite a bit of growth. All in-house, running the whole show out of our London office and building it in just all inside with our own team, all our own resource. We didn't outsource anything and we didn't work with any other contractors or vendors. Uh, we did everything in-house, so I helped build an an assemble, an extraordinary team of people. uh, in-house all the way from, uh, accountants to, you know, assistants and, uh, office staff, all to all the staff and guides out in the field. And then we started branching out, uh, all over Europe, the us, uh, Asia Pac, running trips in Japan. Um, and then it just kind of kept going from there. So it was a busy, uh, few years for me. Uh, and then I finally moved back, um, about 2000, uh, 2000. late two thousands I guess. Um, and finally Simon ended up, uh, selling the, the business. And so that just kinda led to me, uh, thinking about what else I wanted to do. And we had all these incredible people that came out of the Rafa travel space and they said, look, can we keep this going? And I said, sure, let's do it. So we started raid cycling at that point. [00:14:39] Craig Dalton: Got it. There's a, there's a ton to unpack there, Brad. [00:14:42] Brad…

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Katya Morzhueva of Cool Cat Cycles - The "Why" of a Local Bike Shop. Feb 28, 2023

Show notes

What are the stories and motivations behind our local bike shops and those who run them? In this first of a series of conversations we'll be having on this topic, Katya Morzhueva joins Randall to share how she went from growing up in Siberia, to traveling the world (including an eventful stint in China), to founding Cool Cat Cycles and leading group rides in her chosen home of Katy, Texas. Katya's is a story of curiousity, compassion, resiliency, and service to others, and is exemplary of transformative energy that the best shops bring to their local communities. Visit Katya and Cool Cat Cycles at 22010 Westheimer Pkwy in Katy, TX. Episode Sponsor: Dynamic Cyclist (code THEGRAVELRIDE for 15% off) Web: www.coolcatcycles.com Instagram: @coolcatcycles Facebook: @coolcatcycles Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the broadcast, I'm going to hand the microphone over to my co-host Randall Jacobs. Who's got Katia Morris waver from cool cat cycles in Katy, Texas on the show to talk about the community she's building around the shop and leading group rides in her hometown. Before we jump in, I need to thank this week. Sponsor, dynamic cyclist. As you know, I've been working with a dynamic cyclist stretching routines for a couple of months now working on increasing my mobility and support of strengthening my lower back. Dynamic cyclist has hundreds of cycling, specific stretching routines for you to work through, including some very specific injury prevention routines. I myself am working on the low back injury prevention routine right now. The team at dynamic cyclists has a free trial for all their programs. So head on over to dynamic cyclists.com and check out what they have to offer. Additionally for podcast listeners using the code, the gravel ride. You'll get 15% off all programs. They have both a monthly membership model as well as an inexpensive annual model to cover all your stretching. And strength training needs again, that's dynamic cyclists.com and the coupon code, the gravel ride. Would that business behind us? Let's hand the microphone off to my co-host Randall Jacobs. [00:01:52] Randall: What are the stories behind our local bike shops and those who run them. In the first of a series of conversations we'll be having on this topic, Katia Morzhueva joins me to share how she went from growing up in Siberia, to traveling the world, including an eventful stint in China that we'll get into in a moment, to founding Cool Cat Cycles and leading group rides in your chosen home of Katy, Texas. Katia is a story of curiosity, compassion, resiliency, and service to others, and is exemplary of the transformative energy that the best shops bring to their local communities. We dive right in here. So I hope you enjoyed the conversation. And now we bring to you Katia Morzhueva. [00:02:28] Randall: Do you have like a meditation practice [00:02:30] katya: uh, you know, we can talk about this a little bit more if we start talking about my injury in China. Cuz when you are alone with a broken back, nobody to talk to because you don't speak the language. All you can do is meditate. You know, I, in a, in a irony, like black humor sort of way, a good way to lose weight and become a Buddhist is break a back in a foreign country. [00:03:00] Randall: I'm fortunate in that I had a somewhat parallel experience of breaking my neck in China, I was a bike touring through Hine Island in the South China Sea, but I had zero dislocation. I just ripped a process off a C3 through C five and I was in a neck brace, for a few days and then I saw a specialist and they're like, yeah, you're probably more likely to injure yourself due to muscle atrophy than, to aggravate the injury. And so I was back on my bike in two weeks, which is a very different thing. [00:03:29] katya: Yes, [00:03:29] Randall: so I had version of that Yeah. I'm seeing you shared this picture of your spine with a bunch of rods and pins holding what looks like some of your upper lumbar, [00:03:42] katya: Five vertebrae. Yeah, it's T 12 to T nine. [00:03:47] Randall: Yeah [00:03:48] katya: right. Um, yeah, so I have two plates and 10 screws they're holding five vertu bread together, but it's only one that shattered. So one, actually, the piece fell off and they went in to connect T 12 to 10 and to nine, but then, um, a T 11 to 10. But then the, he was not happy with the result of the surgery, my surgeon. he came back and he said, you want to be active in the future, we want to go back in, redo the surgery, but we will have to connect more vertebrae. And he gave me like half a day to think about it I just went ahead with it. So they went in again, um, you know, 12 hour surgery again, and now I'm like a myoni woman, [00:04:45] Randall: Uh, well, let's, so let's, let's take a step back and kind of talk about how we ended up having this conversation. So um, I think Craig and I had put out word in the ridership looking for, um, you know, recommendations from the community on a guest. And one of the members, uh, had reached out and be like, you have to talk to Kaia. She does, uh, a, you know, an outstanding job building community, uh, in your community out there in, uh, uh, what part of Texas is this? Remind me. [00:05:15] katya: Um, we are west of Houston. We're about 20 miles west of Houston and Katy. [00:05:21] Randall: Yeah. And I had seen, uh, some of the rides that you organize. You have a beautiful shop that you've started, um, you are of Russian descent. Spent some time in, uh, living in China. Uh, really just a fascinating story and a lot of kind of values and ethos, alignments around community and so on. So, where do we start? Where do we want to kick off? [00:05:44] katya: Whew. Um, well, I think we're wanna start in 2016 when we moved back to Houston from China, [00:05:57] Randall: Uhhuh [00:05:57] katya: because that was, um, that was a pivotal moment when decided to get into a business ownership and open a local bike shop, [00:06:08] Randall: this is you and, [00:06:10] katya: And it's me and my husband. Um, we traveled a lot with oil and gas. We both were in oil and gas. Uh, and when we moved back here, um, the community where we are has a lot of potential and there was no bike shop to work with that potential. Um, and I, you know, I would be riding my bike everywhere. Uh, we ended up, Even though we have a child who ended up having only one car, which is very unusual. Um, and as I was commuting everywhere by bike, uh, or I would be working and taking the car and Robert would be riding around everywhere and my son could ride to school. we found out that there's nowhere for us to go is bike commuters, just to get basic service, to get a rack and piners that would fit my bike. Um, and there was a little, you know, there are a couple of places that I thought wouldn't it be nice to have a bike shop right here? Cause I would bike pasted it all the time on my commune and yeah, just come to thousand 17, we opened a shop [00:07:15] Randall: That's, uh, so you, so have you always been avid cyclists, you and your husband? [00:07:21] katya: Uh, no. Uh, but I was, I was always. Not a human powered commuter. my first car, um, I got my first car, I was 30 years old. Uh, and before, before that I lived in about six countries as a resident with oil and gas. I was born in Russia. Um, you know, for my first 20 years of life, I spent as, as a pedestrian walking, using public transportation. Um, even though family had, we had one car, I never used it. Um, and then, you know, Australia, Dubai, New Zealand, uh, traveling all over Europe, never felt like I needed a car. And then we moved to Houston and the reality hits you here and it's just so shocking because I think Houston is epitome or Texas of car dependency in, in America. And it was such a shock to my system and I think largely, Um, that formed me as, as almost an American. I'm an American who doesn't have a car. [00:08:30] Randall: Yeah. It's, uh, all too common for the cities here to have been built. Uh, especially the further west you go around automobiles is the primary way of getting around you. Some places you can't even cross the street cuz it's lanes and there's a fence in the middle. a lot of cities were built, at a time when the automobile was already present versus older European Asian cities where, it's much more walking or horse path oriented. Uh, so, so yeah, it is, uh, something that fortunately cities are, a lot of cities are starting to. backfill, uh, human-centered, uh, transportation infrastructure, uh, and bike lanes and things like this. But, uh, my understanding is that Houston is tough for infrastructure and also for weather. [00:09:13] katya: hmm. Well, you know, in my firm belief, uh, I was born in Siberia, so Siberia is not too far from Polar Circle. Um, in, my opinion, you can ride all year around here. actually if you look, um, at professional cyclists in the US, quite a few of them come from Texas. Um, so Emily Newsom, um, she was raised in Tour de France this year. She's from Fort Worth, that's Dallas. Um, a bunch of people like Beon, MCCA, McCan, they are from, uh, hill country, like Austin area. So, um, I think. The heat of Texas is underestimated. I realized that when we actually moved here, cuz we came from Dubai in summer and we arrived in in August and the second day we went to Zoo and, and everybody was telling us that we were crazy to go to the Zoo Park in August. We're the only people there with a two year old and tow. But we came from the desert and this felt amazing. It actually cools off from a hundred degrees to 98 at night. , is relative. Uh, one thing that you learn when you travel and when you leave is anat in many countries. It all depends on your frame framework. [00:10:37] Randall: And so, uh, you mentioned some of the countries you've been an expat in this. Was this all working with [00:10:43] katya: With oil and gas, yes. In the same company. My husband and I, we met in Neighbors Drilling International. It was the biggest land drilling contractor in the world. I was their first Russian employee working for them in a Russian, in the territory of Russia. But I'm a linguist. I'm not AUM engineer. I have masters and linguistics. [00:11:01] Randall: Oh, interesting. So how many languages do you have? [00:11:04] katya: Uh, I studied a bunch of dead ones. [00:11:07] Randall: Okay [00:11:08] katya: like you have to, uh, ladin an old Greek old Russian old English. Um, I speak English and Russian. Russian is my native. Um, . I speak French a little bit if I, I studied it in college, but it's been such a long time since I actually spoke French. But I think I will pick up pretty fast. I said at Mandarin in China. [00:11:29] Randall: Uhhuh. [00:11:30] katya: Um, I found Mandarin and writing to be extremely interesting. and I would recommend everybody to go and look it up. find that it's like plain Lego where you have a couple of bricks, well, a lot of bricks, and you can build anything you want if you know how to combine those bricks together. It's so interesting. Um, great intellectual challenge. I could not speak Mandarin because I could not understand the tones. Even though I play piano and I have musical ear, I should be able to, I could not, I was never understood. I would go to the market in Dion and try to say that I, I want to buy this, or this is my name and nobody would understand what I'm saying. I know I'm saying it correctly if I was to write it in, transcribe it in in Pinine, [00:12:19] Randall: Yep. [00:12:20] katya: but nobody could understand what I'm saying. [00:12:22] Randall: Well, and there's a certain, um, certainly coming from an English background, there were a lot of sound. Oh, there were a few sounds that we don't have in English. . So getting those mastered was critical cuz the subtlety is, is a critical piece. And then you have the tones and then you have the way that the tones relative to each other. So um, you know, it's really easy to call out a non-native, native speaker because even if they get the tones right, generally they, we, um, you know, the, they won't have the musicality of a native speaker. Um, it was something I had to pay a lot of attention to, [00:12:54] katya: How did you, I know you, you speak Mandarin, right? Or Cantonese. [00:12:59] Randall: uh, I speak Mandarin, uh, fairly fluently and then enough Cantonese to, you know, convince uh, somebody that I speak Cantonese before I switch to Mandarin. [00:13:09] katya: Okay. How long did it take you to capture the tones? [00:13:13] Randall: Uh, I, Hmm. Um, I would say it was like my second trip. So I was, I taught there for a semester as an undergrad, and then I went and studied for a semester at a university, uh, junction University in Guang Jo, for one semester, and really paid attention to tones and got a, a, a firm foundation in grammar and so on at that time. Uh, and so, you know, that made me very aware and I would constantly ask if I got the tones right or check the tones. I had a I act actually let my little pocket dictionary over there, uh, that I would have with me at all times. And so I was, I had to be very intentional about it, but once I got the hang of it, I, it, it was very natural. So for the most part, you know, uh, my tones are pretty good. Like I can order, I can order food over the phone and then show up and they're looking for a Chinese person, [00:14:08] katya: Oh that's amazing Yes Congratulations Uh um my my dissertation and my specialty in college uh was to teach Russian as a foreign language to grad students and freshmen who come to college in Russia to get their degree in Russia but they would come from foreign countries um I have so much appreciation for anybody who can at adult age capture a foreign language you know acquire it to an extent that they can actually freely communicate [00:14:43] Randall: And yet so many people, uh, especially here in the us, uh, do that. There's, know, they don't get credit. It's more like, you know, why, why do you have an accent? Is kind of the response that is often, you know, that people often get and uh, I, having gone through that journey myself, I definitely have a lot of respect. And from what I hear, Russian is especially difficult to learn because of the number of tenses and things of this [00:15:12] katya: Yes Russian is pretty hard Um but I would recommend if you ever wanted to to just immerse yourself and um you'll get it It's hard to learn it on your own for sure uh I assume mentoring would be the same if you just try to use dual lingo [00:15:31] Randall: The uh, the, the grammar of Mandarin is really easy and that helps a lot. So I found it easier than Spanish. [00:15:38] katya: Oh yes But just being able to converse [00:15:40] Randall: Yeah. Yeah. Um, so, okay, so you had a background in linguistics and teaching, uh, Russian to foreigners. Um and then you went into the oil and gas industry, traveled around the world husband ended up in, outside of Houston, Texas, and you have this idea to start a bike shop. So let's what what, is that journey like? Like what w…

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Lu Lacka Wyco Hundo - Patrick Engleman Feb 21, 2023

Show notes

This week we sit down with Patrick Engleman founder of the Lu Lacko Wyco Hundo gravel event in Pennsylvania. In its 10th running this year, LLWH is a staple of the Pennsylvania gravel scene. Episode sponsor: Athletic Greens Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. [00:00:28] Craig Dalton: This week on the show. We welcome Patrick angle. Then from Lou LACO Waco. Hundo. It's a real tongue twister of an event. Out in Pennsylvania. That's been going on for 11 years. This is the 10th edition as Patrick will describe another one of those great events. That's been flying a little bit under the radar. Unless you lived in that Pennsylvania and mid Atlantic area where it's on everybody's to do list. I wanted to get you guys to know this event because it's another one of those great events. That's started by someone who just loves the community that they ride in. And wanted to highlight it and bring friends. Patrick's done a great job of growing the event and talk to anybody in that region. And they'll definitely reference some of the memorable experiences. They've had over the years with this event. Before we jump in, I need to thank this week. Sponsor athletic greens. Athletic greens and their product. AIG one has pioneered the category of functional health. Agg one replaces key health products. All in one simple scoop. As I've mentioned before, my daily routine is mixing a scoop of ag one with some ice. Shaking it up and taking it down. 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I know for me, it's just that nutritional guarantee. 81 tastes great and makes me feel even better. If you're interested in checking ag one out, go check out athletic greens.com/the gravel ride. They're going to give podcasts listeners a free one-year supply of vitamin D. As well as five free travel packs with your purchase. Remember that URL is athletic greens.com/the gravel ride. . Would that important business out of the way, let's jump right into my conversation with Patrick. [00:03:14] Craig Dalton: Patrick, welcome to the show. Oh, thanks for having me. I'm excited to have this conversation. I'm gonna make my attempt at pronouncing the event name first, and I'm just gonna take my best guess. Okay. Try it. Lulac Waco [00:03:28] Patrick Engleman: Hyundai. That's kill, you're killing it for, especially for a west coaster. Uh, that was perfect. [00:03:32] Craig Dalton: Um, I don't think I could do it fast. It took me, I like trained myself several times prior to hitting record to say that [00:03:39] Patrick Engleman: it's all part of the. Right is how many times you have to repeat it to say it. And also it has been shortened to lulac, uh, just because it's much easier for folks. But it's the lulac, uh, it's the Luzerne, Lakana and Wyoming counties and it's a hundred miles. Uh, so that's kind of where it started was the three counties that we ride through and I just kind of pulled from there. And started the name, and actually I started the, I got the name if you wanna know this a little bit. Um, I was resting at the top of a long climb and there happened to be carvings of Native Americans, like wood carvings of Native Americans on, I guess someone's driveway. And there were three of them. And part of the genesis of this was I, I looked out of the over the valley and said, what would they have? Of what I'm seeing right now and, and kind of thought about them as three separate people and them thinking about their account, like represented at that time and you know, all these other stuff. So that's kind of where the name came from and, you know, my little inspiration point, uh, out somewhere in the middle of nowhere right on the bike, . So. Nice, [00:04:37] Craig Dalton: nice. Well, we're gonna get into that a bit and it's, uh, is it the 10th year or the 11th year coming up? [00:04:42] Patrick Engleman: So it, because of Covid, I've obviously, we know it's the, this is the 11th year, it's the 10th ride. So we, we lost a ride. [00:04:49] Craig Dalton: We lost a ride in there. Gotcha. And from having Dave Pryor on the podcast and from previously listening to Celine talk on podcasts, I'd heard the name on our number of occasions in the context of like, oh, these are the ones we do every year in Pennsylvania. They're just part of what everybody does, and it's the kind of coming together of the community. So we'll get into that, but let's talk first. Where are you [00:05:18] Patrick Engleman: in the world? So I'm currently sitting, uh, in a town called WinCo, Pennsylvania, which is just in the, uh, suburbs of Philadelphia, the northeast suburbs of Philadelphia. [00:05:27] Craig Dalton: Okay. And where is [00:05:28] Patrick Engleman: the event? The event starts in Pittston, Pennsylvania, my hometown, uh, which is the northeast, which is the northeast corner of Pennsylvania. Uh, not, not just northeast, uh, suburbs of Philadelphia. So [00:05:40] Craig Dalton: you're drawing, if geographically you're drawing it sounds like. riders in New York, riders in Eastern and western pa riders in DC jersey maybe can all get you within two to four [00:05:52] Patrick Engleman: hours. Yep. Yeah, generally, um, we usually say the Megapoli, so like the Boston and DC uh, or Bo Boston and now Northern North Carolina seems to be where it's at. And then Western and then way some, some folks, our, uh, one of our folks, uh, is, comes in from Alaska every year. Uh, but he's a, he's a local, but he does come in from Alaska every year. It's like one of his trips. Yeah, [00:06:13] Craig Dalton: nice. Stepping back for a minute, let's just start, set the stage for kind of your background as a cyclist. Um, you mentioned where you grew up and, and some of the love that you found early on as a child. . [00:06:26] Patrick Engleman: Yeah, I mean, I, I grew up, you know, like riding like everybody, I'm, I'm the youngest of all my cousins, so I got the hand me downs of the hand me downs with the hand me downs. So I, I wrote anything there was, and that's kinda what we did in my neighborhood. Like, I was very lucky to have lots of friends in my neighborhood and we just rode and spent a lot of time in the woods. Uh, I grew up with just a ba My backyard is, It goes into, you know, so, so far when we were kids, it was so many miles of woods and, you know, there's just so much to explore. So I just grew up riding mount, you know, we were riding mountain bikes on our bmx, uh, when we were, you know, little kids. And also, yeah. Um, part of my riding background is, is my, my dad didn't drive, uh, for a lot of my life and he didn't, uh, for lots of reasons, but where I grew up, there's not a lot of mass transit. Um, so we had a little, we had like a bus, like every hour. Um, so. He rode. He rode or walked. So I rodee or walked because I, there's no other way to get around. My mom sometimes worked mid. Yeah. Uh, uh, second shift. So like we just rode all the time. Yeah. What, [00:07:22] Craig Dalton: what was, uh, you know, as you got a little bit older, was there a Pennsylvania cycling scene that started to draw you in? Or were you like many athletes you. You know, cycling as we think of it now, really wasn't part of your life until, you know, your twenties or what have you. [00:07:37] Patrick Engleman: I I, I was in it pretty young. I mean, I think because, because of where I grew up and there was a, a decent, um, mountain bike scene, uh, growing. I, I, I grew up you high school in the mid nineties, and I was very lucky to find, uh, a great, a great local bike shop that kind of took me in as like their like baby brother. Uh, they were all in their twenties and a little older and racing mountain bikes, but I was. The shop rat who wouldn't go home and, you know, could also kind of hang with them. And that's where it all, where it all kind of came from. So I was riding mountain bikes in high school and, you know, continued on. Uh, and then while once I went to college, uh, I became, I became a bike messenger. I went to Temple University in Philly and I became a bike messenger and kind of got in that world while still racing mountain bikes and riding mountain bikes and, um, have kind of stayed with it, worked in shops and did all the things. It's definitely been a part of my life for a long. [00:08:26] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it's something, you know, it's, you know, people on the West coast may not know this, but Pennsylvania in general has such a great cycling community. And to your point, I was in school in Washington, DC in that early nineties period in college and all the mountain bike racing. A lot of it we, what we did was go up to Pennsylvania at, to race mountain bikes. Mm-hmm. , it was great and so many. Just great like community style events where the terrain was awesome, but the community was even better. Mm-hmm. . Yeah, we had [00:08:58] Patrick Engleman: a lot, we had a lot of that. We were very lucky to have a lot of great events and great places to ride. I grew up not far from Jim Thorpe, which is, you know, any, any, any person of our vintage. Here's Jim Thorpe in the East Coast, knows how legendary it was. And, you know, uh, UCCI wasn't, is not far from where, from me and like, you know, just a bunch of really classic places. But also, like I said, my backyard is pretty amazing , so it still is. [00:09:20] Craig Dalton: And then as you, as you transitioned to your kind of professional career, were you. Kind of racing mountain bikes once a year. Do you define the road? What was your kind of transition in those, those later [00:09:30] Patrick Engleman: years? Uh, those later years? I was, so I was, uh, teaching actually in Northern Virginia, uh, like we were talking about. And I, um, I ride to work. I mean, and I, and I was working, I was working at a shop part-time. I'm a teacher, so I was like, make a couple bucks and I had the summer off and I'm just used to being a shop rat. So I was working at City Bikes in DC Nice. And kind of stuck, kind of stuck with it. I've raced cross for a, a little while there. Um, still once in a while I'll line up on a mountain bike, but I, a lot of my time now is just kind of riding with friends and, you know, checking out new places to go and, you know, traveling a bit. Um, I also mentioned, I, I helped found the Pennsylvania Inters Classic Cycling League, so it takes a lot of, uh, a lot of my time riding is kind of transitioned into bringing more kids in, in more, more adults. Uh, I was coaching, coaching the coaches for a long time, uh, so bringing a lot of the coaches into it and, you know, kind of instructing that. So stuck with it and, but I've done a bunch of different. Right on. [00:10:21] Craig Dalton: And by the way, just thank you for doing the work with Scholastic Mountain biking. I think it's great. I mean, obviously here in Northern California we've got this great Nike scene out here and yeah. Gosh, I wish it existed when, when I was growing up. Yeah. And I know that. Takes a lot of effort from a coaching perspective, from an infrastructure perspective, and it takes someone to just hold up their hand and be willing to put in the work. So thank you for doing that. [00:10:45] Patrick Engleman: Yeah, no problem. I'm, I'm, I'm, it's, it's, it's, it's, seriously, like I, I wrote a long time ago what my dream job would be, and it was teaching mountain biking. and I got to do it, you know, I got, I got to do it for, you know, a few thousand kids and a bunch of coaches. So I, I definitely got to live my dream. So I'm, now I step back a little bit to do some more work on this, but I'm still on the board of, uh, board of advisors for the Pennsylvania League, and I work a little bit with, with Nica as a whole and do some of that stuff. Cause I, I love it. You know, I love, I, I'm, I'm a teacher, so I love, I obviously love kids, but I love mountain biking too, and I get to do both, um, you know, [00:11:15] Craig Dalton: both passionate. Yeah. You know, it sounds like from, from your description and all the different types of bikes you were riding, having a cyclocross bike, you know, 20 years ago or whenever you did, did the emergence of gravel, as we talk about it today, was it just one of those things that you'd already been doing that effectively on those bikes? [00:11:34] Patrick Engleman: Uh, yeah, effectively, I mean, I was riding, um, I was riding, we got invited to a Rafa ride, uh, and we, we rode some of actually where, what an event Dave Pryor promotes now called Monkey Night Fight. Um, at the time he wasn't, he wasn't the promoter yet, but we rode some of those trails and some of those, uh, places in, in Lehigh Valley, uh, that were dirt roads. And we got to go up all these coal, these coal mountains and see all this cool stuff. And we're doing it on essentially road bikes, uh, road bikes with some those giant 25 CC tires. Do you remember those giant. Yeah, so I, I LULAC was actually founded on a, a gravel, or sorry, they can't, gravel. Yeah, they didn't exist yet. It was founded on a 25 CC touring bike. Uh, my indie fab touring bike is what I went out on because it had the most clearance, uh, to fit the biggest tires. And those tires, like I said at the time, were 25 c. And then of course, I, I had a cross, a cross bike and I'm like, oh, I could take this one out too. And, uh, and, and check it out on, on the cross bike. And that definitely helped, especially when disc brakes come in and, you know, a wide range of gearing and those sorts of things. But yeah, I've, I've done, I've done it all with the, the, the prospect. I'm like, this is the best thing ever. And now we and now we're out. Where, where we. [00:12:43] Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of what I was getting at. You know, thinking about starting the event 11 years ago, you know, the equipment obviously wasn't there. What was the motivation to create the event and what was the type of terrain that you took the riders on in that first year? [00:13:02] Patrick Engleman: Uh, . The first, so the first year, uh, the, the motivation, I'll ask the fir the first part of your questi…

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Ian Lopez de San Ramon - 19 year old Life Time Grand Prix competitor Feb 14, 2023

Show notes

This week we have gravel racer, Ian Lopez de San Roman in the studio to talk about his upcoming season. At 19 years old, Ian will be the youngest competitor in the Life Time Grand Prix. With early season results in the Grasshopper series and Rockcobbler, Ian is certainly an athlete to watch. Episode Sponsor: Logos Components Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the show. I want to introduce you to ian Lopez de Santa Ramon. A 19 year old from Sonoma county here in Northern California, who got accepted to participate as a professional athlete in the lifetime grand Prix series in 2023. As you'll see this young athlete found his way to the bike. Not super early and didn't see remarkable results as a junior in his own words. But yet over the last few years, he's really found his stride cutting his teeth, both on the grasshopper series. Here in Northern California, as well as impressing Michael Marks when participating in the Belgian waffle ride series. As we enter the 2023 grand Prix. I thought we'd take a chance and get to know Ian. I managed to catch the Inn on his way, home from a bike fit and Monterey. And so how did over in the studio for quick conversation? Before we jump in, I need to thank this week. Sponsor logos components. You may recall my episode with my co-host Randall Jacobs around the launch of logos components and the three new sets of carbon wheels that they're bringing to market. At the end of 2020. They're 29 or wheelset received . Bike packing dot comes gear of the year award, which is pretty amazing. We've talked about the many details you need to look through and think about when purchasing a carbon wheel set. And I encourage you to reference that episode, whether you're looking at the logos wheel sets or something else. Randall does an excellent job of breaking down from the rim to the hub, to the spokes, all the things you should be considering and looking at. As you match. Which wheel set is going to be right for the type of writing you do. If you're considering getting a new carbon wheelset this year, I encourage you to go check out logos components.com. I'll put that link in the show notes. Logos offers three different wheel sizes, 700 C six 50 B and 20 Niner. I personally am rocking the six 50 bees out of my garage. It's got an internal width of 28 millimeters. So you get that nice kind of C shape. When you're running larger volume tires. Again, check them out at logos components. Dot com when you have a second. With that said let's dive right into my conversation with Ian. [00:02:48] Craig Dalton: Ian, welcome to the studio. [00:02:50] Ian Lopez de San Roman: Thanks for making it happen. It was a little last minute. [00:02:53] Craig Dalton: Yeah. Studio is a euphemism for the shed office in my backyard, but I appreciate you coming over and it was actually pretty cool to see your bikes getting out of the car. [00:03:03] Ian Lopez de San Roman: Yeah. You got a, you got a sweet set up here. [00:03:05] Craig Dalton: It was a shed that held the bikes and then we hired a contractor to drywall and put it all together. So it's kind of a covid investment, so I could have an [00:03:12] Ian Lopez de San Roman: office at home. Nice. It looks, it looks legit. It looks well made, [00:03:16] Craig Dalton: and I got my bikes on the wall, so That's all right. [00:03:19] Ian Lopez de San Roman: Something to look at. [00:03:19] Craig Dalton: So, you're actually just coming off competing at low gap, right? In one of the grasshoppers. Yep. How'd that go yesterday? [00:03:27] Ian Lopez de San Roman: I made a lot of mistakes. Yeah, let's talk about it a little bit. Yeah. So I went into the race and I was like, , I kind of really wanna win this race. It's kind of like my home race and I know Pete's on good form and everybody there is like really fast. So I just decided like I, I'm not usually not nervous for races, but I was actually nervous for low gap, which is weird. So I slept kind of weird. Started the race, , it was like super hot on the first climb. And then I, I was thinking about what I did the night before the race. Mid race for some reason. And then I was like, dude, I didn't charge my shifting. And then I look back and I see the blinking red light on the axis and I'm like, dude, really? You forgot to charge your shifting. And so I think it was like halfway through the race I roll up to the aid station. So the shifting died on this like cement climb and then I roll into the aid station, I'm yelling, Blake, give me an access battery. Blake, which is like my friend. . Everyone from the shop I used to work for was there, and I was like, dude, I'm gonna get so roasted about this later. I'm gonna, yeah, people are gonna have, this is gonna be the story people are telling. And so they didn't have an access battery. Usually they have a pile of 'em and they just sell 'em out and give 'em to I see my old Nica coach, Mike, Mike Warren is there and he's I was like, Mike, Mike, I see you're here. Gimme your access battery. And he's no, man, no man. I have to ride outta here. Come on. Come on. And then I was like, I'm racing gimme your access battery. He's no, no, no, no, no. And so I got in, like I spent like a minute and a half like arguing him and finally I get his battery. And so I go in and he's dude, you're really stranded me out here. You owe me. And he is he was like really mad. And so I took his battery and then I'm still kind of working out a couple kinks on the new bike. And so I dropped my chain, lost some more time, but then, I think my fitness is pretty good right now. So then I caught up to Lance who is in. , which I guess was like fourth place. And then we caught up the Tyler, which was third place, and then we see Chris Blevins right down the road. And then I was all like, I was like, yeah, okay, maybe I'll sudden a little flyer at the end and try to get these two Legion Crisp printers. But I didn't really think I had a very good chance. And then half a mile from the finish, I flatted. , and I was like, like my rear tire was kind of bouncy and I could feel the rim. And I was like, really? This is so stupid. So then Tyler went, he did 1500 watts and he got third. And then I took Lance to the line. Like I, I made him fight for it, but I, I got fifth. So, not a bad [00:05:44] Craig Dalton: result. You would've thought with all that negotiating to try to get an access battery, you wouldn't even be part. [00:05:50] Ian Lopez de San Roman: The event. It wasn't a very, I didn't have very good luck that day. Like right after the race, me and like Stan and a couple other people went and rode around and then like we rode up the old low gap finish and then like my friend Taj was like next to me and then he like got too close and hit my rear brake going or my front brake going like 20 and then I crashed and flooded my other tire on the front. And then, It was always like lying on the ground with another flat tire, like after the race. And I was like, what am I doing? So then like a log a truck with some logs came by and then we put my bike in the back and I held onto the back like a garbage man and rode five miles down the road on the back of this truck. And then I was like, I was just like so bummed, but whatever. Not a, not a [00:06:32] Craig Dalton: terrible result. And best to get that bad [00:06:34] Ian Lopez de San Roman: luck out of the way. This part of the season. Yeah. Something to improve on. And so we'll go from there and see. [00:06:38] Craig Dalton: Let's start at, let's take a step back and just understand one, you're from Sonoma County in California, right? Yeah. And two, you've, you were the youngest person to get accepted in the Lifetime Grand PR pre for 2023. [00:06:54] Ian Lopez de San Roman: Yeah. Yeah. Super excited on that. And your age is? I'm 19. [00:06:59] Craig Dalton: Okay. So at 19, how did you find the bike? Like when did you find the bike originally, and what was your progression like? How does a 19 year old find the. with the capability and skill to race at a professional level on the gravel scene? [00:07:11] Ian Lopez de San Roman: Yeah. Honestly, I don't really know how I'm, how I'm here, , I started like actually kind of riding when I was like third or fourth grade. Like me and my mom would kind. Be like, yeah, yeah, we should, we used, started mountain biking. So my aunt is a pro. She went to the Olympics like twice I think. And so we always kind of, me and my sister kind of looked at it like, man, that's, that's kind of cool. And then we just we just had some like really crappy, like old bikes. And so we started kind of riding a little bit, and then there's like a local Wednesday night race called dirt C crits. And then we I had ridden like maybe like a total of like couple days like cumulatively like a one. Not like one week, but you know what I'm saying, like seven total days over a couple months. And I was like, my friend invited me to this local race. I went and I was like, man, that was pretty fun. And then like my sister came and showed up and watched and she's nah, never. I'm never riding a bike like that. I'm never riding a bike. And then like I kind of just kept riding from there. And now my sister's racing, cycling cross in Belgium. And I'm here in the Grand Prix . I don't know I honestly don't know, like in, I feel like we're missing a few [00:08:17] Craig Dalton: pieces there. So then you, you sort of, you discover it through the local dirt Cris series [00:08:22] Ian Lopez de San Roman: at Local Dirt Cris. And then I kind of slowly, I raised that whole series and it was just like every Wednesday night you go and it's just like juniors beat down. Like it's just like a fight with ev all the juniors. It was so fun. the bike pedler, like they didn't put like the winner got $150 gift card. It was like super cool. They, they cm c h at the time, right? Yeah. And they'd take these old like motorbike trophies and it was awesome. And so, yeah, I kind of just kept going through and then my sister and I got a coach. Did you get, did you get involved in the Nica scene? Yeah. So we got involved in the Nika scene when I was in like fifth or sixth. I want to say like I started riding with him and then like pretty quickly, like I was always kind of riding with the varsity group and so if you've been riding with a varsity group since you were in like fifth or sixth grade, once you're actually in the Nike varsity, it's a little bit weird. , but it must have been nice to [00:09:15] Craig Dalton: have those older student athletes just kind of teaching you the ropes a little bit and showing you like, Yeah, you're capable of riding a 35 mile mountain bike [00:09:24] Ian Lopez de San Roman: ride or whatever it was at the time. Yeah. Back in the day, we barely rode it all. 15 miles was like such a big day. , it was good. We didn't have, we had a pretty strong scene, but it was like the people who were like a year or two older than me that were good, the people that were like, Older that we were actually in were, were like, I feel like the level was a little different then. But yeah, it was super solid. We got the kind of ride like every Saturday. But from there I don't know, we just kind of rode a lot. And then as you were, as you were in [00:09:53] Craig Dalton: high school, competing in [00:09:55] Ian Lopez de San Roman: like a mountain bike races? Yeah. Actually now I remember. So the point where it actually got serious was like, I think it was like 2016. , we like worked, did like a couple cycle cross races, and then we met this kid Paul, and then his dad like coached people and then like his brother Gavin had been to like Europe as a pro and then was kind of on the way out. And so then he just kinda took us under his wing and was like, , I'm gonna coach you guys. And he was a super cool dude. He was like, well, I'm, he was like super religious and he was like, well, I don't charge you guys anything. We're coasting coaching. So I can say a prayer before the races. And he'd get you together. And he'd be like, God, what He was, he was an awesome guy, awesome guy. Love that guy. He got us pretty serious. He gave us psycho cross drills and then we just like kind of kept going from there.. It was weird. Like I wasn't a very good junior. Like I always followed exactly like exactly what the coach gave me, but , it like was not working. And so, it's really weird to say, but junior racing is a lot of who develops first? . And so I was like super late and so I was going to these Nire races and I was just getting likes like o obliterated. Yeah. In every single race. And I was like, I was getting like super done with it and I was like, I'm falling all this coaching, like nothing's working. And then, , it was covid, COVID year is when I think it, like when I really got serious, it was like three years ago. And then I, I think I like, back then I thought I had three months. of writing, and I was like, dude, I'm gonna be done in three months. And I never really thought like I actually had a future as a pro. Like I just thought, I wasn't you're not built for it. Yeah. And so, I was like, all right, like I had a really bad relationship with my previous coach. I don't really want to like, like talk trash or anything, but then I just like switched coaches and then I was like, it. A couple months later, I was like, whoa. I'm like actually getting like faster, like really quick. And then it's just been like a, like an up from there. And , it honestly might be a good thing because like it kind of kept me hungry and I had no success. Obviously sucks to lose races, but if you're, if you're out there every single weekend just getting your face kicked in, like I feel like at some. You're gonna, you're gonna win. And hopefully that's this year. Yeah. I think, I [00:12:14] Craig Dalton: mean, that's part of the process, right? Yeah. We all start out as this lowest person on the ride. And you, you know, you get to the top of a climb and you're the last person there and everybody's ready to leave. And you keep doing that, you keep plugging away and next thing you know, you're not the last person to arrive at the top of the climb. And I think that's, you know, the nature of developing as a cyclist. It's interesting in your case, like developing as a young cyclist and having to have that patience. , you know, ultimately discovering Hey, I actually am talented even though I've been getting my teeth kicked in for a few years. [00:12:45] Ian Lopez de San Roman: Yeah, yeah. And yeah, junior cycling is interesting. Like it's, it's funny how like a result as a as a good junior can like really land you on a team, but it's also like those kids like long term, might not be in the sport. And so, I've once I kind of figured out like you actually could do. I kind of had the mentality like maybe I'm not the most like naturall…

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Truckee Tahoe Gravel - Carlos Perez Feb 07, 2023

Show notes

This week we sit down with Carlos Perez, founder of Bike Monkey to discuss the upcoming 2023 Truckee Tahoe Gravel event. We dig into why Truckee Tahoe is such an amazing area for gravel riding and Carlos' definition of influencers. Truckee Tahoe Gravel Episode Sponsor: Dynamic Cyclist (Code: TheGravelRide 15% off) Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the show, I'm thrilled to have Carlos Perez talking about Truckee Tahoe, gravel. Carlos is the founder of bike monkey. If you live in California or maybe in the surrounding area, undoubtedly, you've done a bike monkey event. Carlos and his team have produced Levi's Gran Fondo bogs fish rock hammer road, rally. Wente the list goes on and on of the events that Carlos has had a hand in producing. I've had a number of friends that have done the Truckee Tahoe gravel event in the past and had a great time. So I'm finally got around to pinning Carlos down and getting him on the podcast to talk about this year's event. They've made a couple changes to the event, which I wanted to have an opportunity for him to highlight, but all in all, it's just one of those events here in Northern California, that is well-regarded from an athlete's perspective. It's certainly taking place in a beautiful area. We'll get into why Tahoe is so special for cyclists and why it's a region that you can bring the whole family to. On that point, we did also dig into when Carlos and his team create events. They think about influencers, but not influencers. In terms of someone on Tik, TOK or Instagram, they think about influencers from the perspective of the family that might be joining you, whether it's your husband or your wife, joining you while you go out and ride, it's always great to have a location where the whole family can enjoy the event and have an event organizer. Who's thinking about that broader community. Versus just simply the athletes themselves. So I'm excited for you to hear about the Truckee Tahoe gravel event. But before we jump in, I want to thank this week sponsor. Dynamic cyclist. If you scroll back your feed to episode 1 54, you can hear my interview with Sarah from dynamic cyclist. Dynamic cyclist is a video based mobility, strength and injury prevention program designed specifically for cyclists. I am probably about 30, 35 episodes into my stretching routine and my low back injury prevention routine. My low back has been a big issue for me the last couple years, and probably the most gating feature of my body in terms of how long and how hard I can ride. So this winter, I was definitely determined to do the thing we all should be doing, which is stretching. I've struggled, even though I've known the stretches that I need to do. I frankly, struggled to fit it in and having dynamic cyclist in my life and the 15 to 20 minute long routines available for me each night. Has gotten me focused on something easy. That I can do. And I found it really easy to follow, and I've been impressed in terms of the different tweaks and orientations that they've encouraged me to do throughout the routines to get to different parts of my muscles. And I'm very excited about this being part of my daily routine, because I think we all know that stretching. Is the number one way in which we can prevent injuries and make sure we're taking care of our bodies. But anyway, I encourage you to check out dynamic cyclists. They have a seven day free trial. If it looks like a fit for you, use the code, the gravel ride, and you're going to get 15% off the already affordable rates. To check it out, just head on over to dynamics, cyclists.com. With that said, let's jump right into my interview with Carlos. [00:04:10] Craig Dalton: Carlos, welcome to the show. [00:04:12] Carlos Perez: Thanks, Craig. Happy to [00:04:13] Craig Dalton: Good. Yeah, good to see you. It took us a little while to get this scheduled, but I'm stoked to finally have you and, and get you on to talk about the Truckee Tahoe Gravel event. [00:04:22] Carlos Perez: Yeah, it can be a little hard to pin me down sometimes, so I'm glad that we made it work. [00:04:27] Craig Dalton: It sounds like it's especially hard to pin you down in the spring and summer months cuz with Bike Monkey you're producing events all over California and also outside of the. [00:04:38] Carlos Perez: Yeah. Yeah, our spring's very busy. [00:04:41] Craig Dalton: Let's take a step back before we kind of jump into Bike Monkey and into the gravel event up in Tahoe. How did you get into cycling originally? And then let's talk about how you got into event production. [00:04:54] Carlos Perez: Uh, well, it can be, I'll, I'll keep it as short as I can. . Um, we, I was working for a, a medical manufacturer company as a software developer. And, um, my boss at the time, Russell Briggs actually, uh, was like, yo, dude, let's go mountain biking. And I didn't really have a mountain bike at the time, so I went and I bought a mountain bike and he took me into Adel State Park and I was like 20 at the. And I was like, what the heck is this is amazing. Like, I want to do this and that. That was where I got the bug for, for riding bikes. And did that for several years. Uh, and then ultimately one day, uh, some friends of mine were around, you know, trying to do some fundraising for a cause that was important to us. And I kind of raised my hand and said, Hey, you know, like I'd like to actually organize a bike race. And so that's where it started. And we organized a small. Mountain bike race with, you know, like one truck full of supplies for about 80 people. And um, that's kind of where the spirit of Bike Monkey was born. And I, I got the bug. [00:06:04] Craig Dalton: And to set the stage a little bit for people. So you're, you're based in Northern California, right? [00:06:09] Carlos Perez: Yeah. We're based in Santa Rosa, which is in the middle. It's the biggest city in Sonoma County, uh, which actually has. roads more paved and gravel roads per capita than I think almost anywhere in the state. [00:06:26] Craig Dalton: Absolutely. And then that that first event was called Bogs, and where was that located? [00:06:32] Carlos Perez: uh, it was actually wasn't in Sonoma County, it was just outside of Sonoma County in little town of Cobb. In this demonstration state Forest called Boggs. and we'd gone mountain biking up there a bunch in the past, and so it's about an hour and 15 minutes outside of Santa Rosa. [00:06:51] Craig Dalton: It's such a great spot. I mean, you talk about a riding in Annadale, getting, getting you hooked. If you have the opportunity to ride in bogs, you'll also get hooked on mountain biking. It's just so good up there and I had the pleasure of doing that event. God, it was must have been eight or 10 years ago, I feel like. [00:07:08] Carlos Perez: Yeah, bogs. There's a, a lot of history with us and bogs, you know, we, uh, resurrected mountain bike racing there. When we first produced our eight hour event, there had been a multi-year hiatus of mountain bike racing in that space before we came along. And then that event ran for 10 or 11 years before the valley fire blew through that area and just decimated the entire forest. And so it was off limits. Probably three years, four years at least before we were able to actually go back and host the event again, which it returned last year for the first time in, in a long while. Actually, I take that back, I think it was closer to seven years that nobody had been riding or racing in bogs. So that was a big milestone for us to be able to go back and get back to our. [00:07:58] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I remember the word spreading amongst my local bike community that it was back and people were super stoked cuz I think everybody has great memories from racing at bogs. It's such a fun place to ride and doing an eight hour event, whether it's solo or where the teammate is. Always just something that's special. [00:08:15] Carlos Perez: Yeah, it really is. It's, there's so much camaraderie and hanging out and you know, taking it casually or taking it seriously. It is such a good mix of racing and fun. Um, there really, for me, there's no event that's more fun than our eight hour mountain bike races. [00:08:38] Craig Dalton: Yeah, there's just like, you know, it's, there's an interesting dynamic when you're doing one of these events with a partner. Because you can decide, you know, the laps are typically 45 minutes or an hour in length. You can decide to do two laps, one lap. If you're tired and your partner wants to keep going, you can do that. There's all kinds of strategy that just makes it fun. And there's rules around obviously, like how and when you cross the finish line within that eight hours that come into play. And so you have to have a little strategy in in your mind as you start to figure out your lap times. [00:09:10] Carlos Perez: Yeah, there's tons of strategy around it. It's really cool you see people coming through going, trying to ask us like, should they go back out for another lap? And we're trying to figure it out and you know, we've got it down to a science where like, you do need to go cuz somebody's like nipping at your heels and if you don't and they do, it's game over. You go from first to third pretty quick. [00:09:30] Craig Dalton: Yeah, exactly. So that's amazing. So from that or original sort of beginnings of like, Hey, I'm willing to throw my hands up because I think I can produce an event. I'm willing to do this as a fundraiser. What was the path towards you doing it again and, and then expanding to other events? [00:09:47] Carlos Perez: Well, I, I, after that first event, I definitely had to do some soul searching because, you know, I had a full-time job as a software developer and it paid. L. Um, but I was still young and I just, um, I saw an opportunity to do something that I was really passionate about and I had some close friends really pushing me to try and. achieve that, and they're like, basically, we're gonna disown you if you don't take a stab at this. And so I took a big risk and I kind of threw all my chips at race production because I just loved it. I loved what it did for the community. I loved that we were able to raise money for a good cause. It just had, uh, all the good stuff around it. it didn't feel like work. So it was that second year, after that second year that I decided, you know, I need to really take this seriously because if I don't, that opportunity's gonna pass me up. And so I took a risk. Uh, I quit my job, cold Turkey, and, you know, kind of lived, uh, hand to mouth for a while, uh, figuring it out. And then we just, it just grew, you know, what we were doing made a lot of sense. I brought on my first. . And then my second, and then, uh, Levi Leipheimer lived in the area. We were a super small production company at that time, and we were only doing some small mountain bike races and cross races, and he wanted to, he had this idea of putting on a Fondo because him and a friend of his, uh, you know, were on a ride and his friend being Italian was telling him about these amazing events that they have in Italy. And he's like, you know, Levi, you should do that. Uh, through, again, a mutual friend through Yuri. Uh, somehow Levi came to us, uh, and, um, we said, yeah, we're, we can do this. Nobody had ever done that in the United States actually before. We were the first big grand Fondo on US soil. And, uh, well, I guess technically the second. There was one in San Diego that had happened a year prior and no one really knew about it. It was, it was relatively. [00:12:06] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I feel like it, it's impossible not to know about the Levi's Grand Fondo if you ride a road ride road in California, but I imagine that statement probably holds for almost the entire US at this point. It's such a popular road, grand Fondo. [00:12:21] Carlos Perez: yeah, yeah. And it exploded. You know, we went the very first year we had 3,500 people, and it was in the heyday of Levi having, uh, he was heading into winning his third tour of California. So he was huge in California. and a very popular cyclist at the time. So it was the right timing. So there was, there was kind of that golden moment for us where we had to work really hard to do something really big and really outside of the box. And we grew really fast, uh, like from a production standpoint. It forced us to grow up really quick. [00:12:56] Craig Dalton: Yeah, what is, what does that look like? Just to explain to the listener and frankly myself as well, for event production, what type of organiz, what are, what are you doing at the event, and what type of equipment do you need to own in order to provide these services to something like Levi's Grand Fondo? [00:13:13] Carlos Perez: well, you've got some event organizers that maybe are purely volunteer based and they're kind of scrapping to pull together as much rental equipment as they can and outsourcing a lot of it to produce. And then you've got other nonprofits like the Santa Rosa Cycling Club, which own a ton of equipment that they've just amassed or built over the years. and multiple trailers that they'll use to move things out to produce stuff. every race organizer. And I, I always, I find this topic really interesting because as race organizers we do talk to each other and we share ideas, uh, on things like simple stuff like how are you calculating how much water you need to have at an aid station and what mechanism we're using to transport that water out there? Cuz it's heavy, right? And it takes time to fill up a lot of jugs versus it doesn't take as much time to fill up one big jug. You know, how are you getting it out? That kind of stuff. The, the logistics behind the scenes, I think people, they don't have enough information to really appreciate what goes into producing an event and setting up an aid station and marking a course. Um, but we have, I mean, we're, I'm in my office right now, which is adjacent to a, a warehouse full of equip. Ranging from course stakes to snow fencing, to stage material, to water jugs, to weight down tents, the tents, the tables, the chairs, the timing equipment, um, the arch to make stuff look fancy, and the list goes on. We've got a lot of equipment too that we use, electronic equipment that we use for radio communications and for R F I D timing tags. and it's just a lot of weird stuff too. It's not the kind of stuff that you would see in like a typical business. [00:15:06] Craig Dalton: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think it's important to note, I mean, everybody, when you go, it's easy to think of like, oh, I'm just putting it together, a group ride. And when you're doing that for 20 people, there's, there's next to no infrastructure that's involved in that. But anybody who's been to one of these events, you start to look around and you see like, oh,…

Full show notes at the publisher

Anne-Marije Rook - cycling journalist Jan 31, 2023

Show notes

This week, Randall connects with Anne-Marije Rook, North American Editor at Cycling Weekly with an exploration of how she got into cycling and from there into cycling journalism, with fun tangents into competitive cycling, exploding e-bikes, and a bit of gear nerdy. Episdoe Sponsor: Athletic Greens Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the broadcast, I'm handing the microphone off over to my co-host Randall Jacobs. Who's got an Mariah Rook on the broadcast. She's the north American editor at cycling weekly randall will take us on an exploration on how she got into cycling. And from there into cycling journalism, with fun tangents, into competitive cycling. Exploring e-bikes and a bit of the gear nerdery that Randall is famous for. Before we jump in and hand that microphone off to Randall. I do need to thank this week. Sponsor athletic greens. Athletic greens and AIG. One is a comprehensive daily nutrition made from simple, powerful ingredients. It's made up of 75 high quality, whole food sourced ingredients. Carefully curated to nourish all the body's systems holistically. As many of you know, I've been an athletic greens user for many, many years, predating the podcast. So I've been super stoked that athletic greens has been a big partner for what I do The key to ag one is that it replaces key health products in one simple scoop. AIG one combines nine health products working together as one, replacing your multivitamin. Multimineral. Pre and probiotics. Immunity support and more, that means ag one does more for your body and saves you time, money and confusion compared to taking multiple unique products. And that is a hundred percent key for me. I do one scoop in the morning, mixed up with a little bit of ice, and I feel like I've got some of my nutritional basis started before I've even begun the day. If you're interested in learning more about athletic greens, go to www.athleticgreens.com/the gravel ride. For podcast listeners, our friends at athletic greens have given us a free year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs. If you ordered today. Simply visit athletic greens.com/the gravel ride to get your age. The one on the way today. With that said i'm going to hand over the microphone to my co-host randall jacobs [00:02:35] Randall R. Jacobs: Let's talk about how you got into this particular field. How did you end up as a cycling journalist? [00:02:42] Anne-Marije Rook: Sure. Yeah. So I was actually, uh, a real journalist before, um, not that second journalist aren't real journalists, but, uh, I did a lot heavier topics, um, you know, worked at newspapers, just straight up outta college, became a newspaper journalist, and then, , uh, at some point, I think I was 22, I started racing bikes myself, and when I did, I, I was looking for content and I realized there wasn't a lot of women's seconding content coming out of the us. So I started kind of dabbling with that on the side. And, uh, then started riding for some different publications and eventually seconding tips reached out and were like, Let's do something. So we founded Ella Cycling Tips, which was the, the women's side of Cycling Tips. And then, um, yeah, just stayed in the field. I quit my day job and started doing cycling journalism while still racing, and I've been doing it ever since, going on 10, 11 years now. [00:03:39] Randall R. Jacobs: and was your educational background in writing in journalism specifically? [00:03:44] Anne-Marije Rook: Yeah, I did, uh, journalism, German and French. So interestingly enough I get to use all of that nowadays [00:03:51] Randall R. Jacobs: Are you native in any of those other languages? [00:03:53] Anne-Marije Rook: In Dutch. So I was born and raised in the Nets, the, the biking country, and then, uh, lived in Germany for three years and then ended up in the US uh, when I was almost 16. [00:04:04] Randall R. Jacobs: That's quite a skill to have, and makes me think of a joke about Americans. What do you call someone who's speaks three languages trilingual, two languages bilingual and one language. We have US Americans. [00:04:13] Anne-Marije Rook: I think a lot of people actually do, you know, they dabble in Spanish and some other languages. I think, uh, you shouldn't sell yourself so short. [00:04:22] Randall R. Jacobs: True, maybe I'm projecting a little bit. In my personal case, I studied six years of Spanish in middle school and high school and was able to get by during a month stint in Peru. But, it didn't seem immediately relevant at the time. And so later on in life, I moved to China and learned Mandarin and actually being present and having to use it in day-to-day life just makes such a, a world of difference. And for I think a lot of people who are born in the us and who don't grow up in a household or another, the language is spoken, there's just not. That impetus versus in Europe you have surrounding countries where with different languages or maybe even within one's own country there are different dialects or different languages being spoken. [00:05:04] Anne-Marije Rook: That's really good though. So you're a trilingual. [00:05:06] Randall R. Jacobs: I wouldn't go as far as to say trilingual, other than in the sense of trying , a little bit of Spanish and enough, what I call cab driver Cantonese in order to be able to fool somebody that I speak some Cantonese before switching over to Mandarin. [00:05:21] Anne-Marije Rook: That's, I mean, that's pretty impressive. Those are really difficult languages. I never studied, uh, Cantonese from Mandarin. I, I studied Japanese and just having to learn a whole new way of, of writing, uh, is, is, yeah, it's difficult to do. [00:05:34] Randall R. Jacobs: that's probably the hardest part. I would say that , Mandarin the scripts for sure. It's a very abstracted pictographic script. To be able to read a newspaper, you need, two, 3000 different characters and to have a higher level of sophistication, you need 5,000, 10,000 characters. And, even a native speaker. , especially in this day and age, we'll have difficulty remembering how to write a character. Cuz everything is being tight. [00:06:00] Anne-Marije Rook: Hmm. [00:06:01] Randall R. Jacobs: But on the other hand the grammar is really simple. So in English we say, yesterday I went to the store and we have to go and we conjugate it as went, which actually comes from an entirely different language family than to go. and in Chinese you just say, ah, yesterday, go store. [00:06:20] Anne-Marije Rook: Ah, yeah. [00:06:21] Randall R. Jacobs: Yeah. English also has way more synonyms because it's such a hodgepodge amalgamation of other languages, whereas Chinese also has external influences, but it's arguably more insular versus English. You have Germanic, you have Latin, you have Greek, you have various forms of cockney and so on that are all in there and the occasional Chinese phrases, very little that comes over for Chinese. Uh, one example being longtime nok, which is a direct translation from the Chinese [00:06:50] Anne-Marije Rook: Really, that's fun. Here's the thing I I discover with my language skills or lack thereof, is that, um, learning all the bike parts, for example, I had, like, I never learned those in my native tongues. So like suddenly I had to learn like, oh shit, what's the railer or what's, what's the railer hanger in Dutch or in German or whatever. And it's been fun learning those terms for the first time, even though, yeah, I grew up with that. [00:07:19] Randall R. Jacobs: that's actually a common phenomenon and one that I definitely resonate in my own experience too. I have friends who were born in China, but largely grew up here or even who came over to go to college. And, they're native speakers. I'm not at that level but I will have terms that I know that they don't because I am in this highly technical context of the bike industry of manufacturing, materials and production processes and so on. Um, and so it's kind of the same, same sort of phenomenon. [00:07:50] Anne-Marije Rook: Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of a fun thing where I was like, wow, I never learned any of these terms in those languages. Yeah, [00:07:55] Randall R. Jacobs: So you've been doing cycling journalism for, you said about 10, 11 years now. [00:08:00] Anne-Marije Rook: yeah, yeah. It's been a minute. [00:08:02] Randall R. Jacobs: I'm curious to hear more about the project at Cycling tips. How'd you get brought into that and, and how did that come about? [00:08:09] Anne-Marije Rook: So they, uh, I think they found me on Twitter. Uh, Twitter was really where. , um, women's cycling was, was living for quite a while cuz there was very little streaming and you can watch any of these races live, so you followed them online and Twitter had a really wonderful community of, of women's cycling fans and it still does to a certain extent, but yeah, that's where it used to. Live and I did a lot of, you know, uh, I would watch races and Life tweet and, you know, uh, was pretty active on, on Twitter and um, was writing for Podium Cafe, which is a nation site at the time, and they were looking to start a women's cycling component. Uh, and so they like reached out to various people and, you know, did a job interview and, you know, got going that way. [00:08:54] Randall R. Jacobs: And this was when? Who was there at the time? Kaylee and James and, [00:08:59] Anne-Marije Rook: No, this was before Kaylee. Um, this was, it was just, uh, Matt dif and, and Wade. [00:09:05] Randall R. Jacobs: Oh, okay. [00:09:06] Anne-Marije Rook: Um, Andy was there already, and then it was Jesse Braverman and myself who came on to do the women's cycling. [00:09:12] Randall R. Jacobs: Let's talk about women's cycling for a little bit. what are the areas in women's cycling that you find most interesting, most compelling, and that also you think that are maybe, under discussed underreported. [00:09:23] Anne-Marije Rook: Oh yeah. The nice thing about women's cycling is that it's been growing so much in the last 10 years or so, so that it's uh, people get to see it a bit more and I think what. , uh, intrigue me about women's second from the get-go is just how aggressive the racing is and how, um, while there was a definite period of like modern force dominating, and then we had and then we have anique. The nice thing about women's acting, I think is because it has grown so much is that you never really know who's gonna win. and it makes a racing very exciting. Cause it, it, like I said, it is so aggressive cuz the races are shorter, so you have fewer opportunities to make, you know, a break stick. So there tends to be more attacking and, uh, you, you don't really experience that unless you're watching it. I think the nice thing about. Where we are now, we can actually watch in the Tour de France Femme showed this, like watching women's cycling is actually very entertaining. And you know, in France alone, like millions of people tuned in every single day. So it is, it's different and I think that's, uh, something we should celebrate. rather than point out like, you know, women's cycling is, is men's cycling, but in shorter distances, and that's not at all true. I think women's cycling is a bit of its own sport in, in terms of tactics and the way the races play out. And, uh, in psycho cross especially, that's been very apparent. You know, people have shorter attention spans. So if you can sit down for a, you know, a 45, 50 minute bike race, you'll see basically what women's cycling is like on. On a heightened level, and it's extremely entertaining. You don't know who's gonna win. There's a lot of good candidates and, uh, it's, yeah, it's aggressive from the gun. [00:11:03] Randall R. Jacobs: At least in the us it seems that women's cyclocross racing was most prominent, most early. Mary McConnellogue is one example I remember from my racing days, I don't remember hearing as much reporting about women's road racing at the time. Maybe that was just what I was tuning into, but cyclocross. I remember getting similar billing to men's cyclocross [00:11:24] Anne-Marije Rook: yeah, I think the, the heyday of women's cycling really was the 1980s, early nineties. You know, we had the course classic and we had some, some really great names. Um, and. That has dwindled down. There were a lot of lack of races. Uh, we've had some great road racers in the US you know, with, with uh, Christian Armstrong and, uh, e Evelyn Stevens, and we've had some really Mara Abod and the Jro, like some really great road racers. You just don't hear about 'em as much . I do remember a particular race where I like looked to my right and it was like Kristen Armstrong and I looked to my left and it was Evelyn Stevens and I was like, ah. This is gonna suck today, It's gonna be a fast one. [00:12:04] Randall R. Jacobs: Let's talk about that, let's talk about you're racing background. So you mentioned that you got into cycling in your early twenties. How did that come about and what was that like for you? [00:12:13] Anne-Marije Rook: Yeah, so I've, uh, coming from the Netherlands, I've been a bike commuter since I was, I don't know, six. Uh, and so I just like grew up on the bike. It's just how I got around. And in college I just rode everywhere. And there were a couple times where people were like, Hey, you should maybe consider. Racing or, or doing like, you know, grand Fonds or something. And I was like, ah, this is just my vehicle. And then, uh, I moved to Seattle and did the Seattle, the Portland, which is uh, like a 220 mile bike ride between the two cities. And there were some teams that were doing it. And, uh, you know, again, people were like, have you considered racing? You're pretty strong. And I'd be like, no. I mean, it's kind of like, Hey, do you like driving? You should do nascar. You know, like it's, it was just such a foreign concept to me. Um, which is funny cuz I grew up in the Netherlands, but like, uh, and my grandpa was super into bike racing, but it wasn't, uh, ever like, exposed to me or con like, wasn't just like, oh, you like riding bikes, you should become a bike race. It just wasn't a thing. It wasn't really a, a sport I was exposed to, uh, in the northern part of the. . And so I was kind of intrigued and, and I had enjoyed training for the 200 mile event, so I, I went to the, the tryout, so to speak, and start racing and. as a Cat four. And I remember my first race weekend was a double header, so Saturday and Sunday and Saturday I, I think I got eighth and I got, I was like, oh, okay, this is cool. Top 10. And I was like, I wonder if I can get better. And the next day I got fifth. And, you know, that's, that's all it took for me to get super into it and trying to see where, where I could take it. And, uh, I think I was racing UCI like the next season. [00:13:54…

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Sarah Wallensteen - Dynamic Cyclist Stretching and Strength training Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

This week we sit down with Sarah Wallensteen from Dynamic Cyclist to learn more about stretching and injury prevention. Dynamic Cyclist offers a comprehensive video based stretching program designed specifically for cyclists by cyclists. Each session is designed to be completed in under 20 minutes to easily fit into our lives. Dynamic Cyclist (THEGRAVELRIDE for 15% off) Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the show, we're welcoming Sarah Wallenstein from dynamic cyclist, from British Columbia to talk to us about stretching and strength training and how important it is for us as gravel cyclist. Dynamic cyclist has been around for five years, providing a video based stretching and strength training program for cyclists. It was developed specifically because the founders. Saw the need in their lives for stretching and strength training. To support their cycling endeavors. I had a super fun conversation with sarah and i can't wait to get into it Hey, Sarah, welcome to the show. Hi. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to dig into all things stretching. I feel like every winter period I start thinking about stretching and then forget about it in the summer period, but it's super poignant for me every winter as I'm like, What can I do to really make sure I'm gonna have a fun and productive cycling season? [00:01:31] Sarah Wallensteen: Yeah, that's funny how that works though. As soon as we're back on our bike, we, uh, we let it go. [00:01:37] Craig Dalton: and everybody else, everybody I've spoken to in terms of recovery, PT, performance, like they always say stretching or yoga, like it has to be part of your program and mm-hmm. , I've certainly been hung up on this as a, an aging. Just of how to keep my performances high, and it is so often not about riding my bike more or, you know, doing intervals or anything like that. It's just about creating a, a body that can, you know, just be, have the flexibility and have the resilience. To handle gravel cycling. [00:02:17] Sarah Wallensteen: Absolutely. Yeah. [00:02:18] Craig Dalton: Yeah. We all start off by the show by learning a little bit more about you. So Sarah, can you tell us where, where you're located, um, and maybe just a little bit about your background as a cyclist and maybe something you're excited for this cycling season. [00:02:32] Sarah Wallensteen: Sure. Um, my name is Sarah Wallenstein and, um, I live in Cologna, bc so beautiful cycling here. Pretty much any kind. I have, you know, the classic road gravel mountain bike shed. Um, I grew up cycling. It's very much a part of my family's culture. Um, my parents for their honeymoon rode across both islands in New Zealand. Um, my aunt and uncle toured most of Europe. Um, so it's just, it's something that has always been a part of our family. And then as we grew up kind of seeing that, uh, in the adults in our lives, it was just natural that we would also hop on bikes and go places, and um, uh, explore that way. So it's, yeah. Biking has always been such an important part of my. [00:03:20] Craig Dalton: Amazing. And was it, um, when did gravel cycling come into your cycling worldview and what's the gravel cycling near you like? Yeah, [00:03:29] Sarah Wallensteen: it definitely, it came in last. Um, so I started off on road, um, and doing triathlon when I was, I did my first triathlon when I was 12. And then I morphed into mountain biking cuz that was the fun adrenaline while I was a teenager and I raced, um, cross country, mountain biking all through high school. Uh, gravel has definitely been, it's within the last couple years. I mean, it's exploded in popularity within the last couple years. Um, and just as roads have become more and more busy, I still love my road bike, but I love the quiet that you can, can, you can get on gravel and just go. you know, for six hours and not see anyone else. . I love, I love that part of it. Um, cause I also come from, I did some ultra running as well and I've loved that. Just getting lost in the woods and you can achieve that on a gravel. Um, and in the Okanagan we are so blessed. We have the K V R, which is just such a nice intro to grapple of riding. Cause you can go, um, You can go for days and you're just on railroad grade, uh, cuz it's the old railroad, uh, track. So it's no more than 2% incline . So it's just an amazing way to explore our valley. So that's the main, um, the main kind of route that I do a lot on my gravel riding on. Cuz it's just, it's e it's easy, it's beautiful. It's fun. We. You know these amazing wood trestles that you get to go across in canyons and it's stunning and it's 10 minutes from my house, so can't really beat [00:05:02] Craig Dalton: it. Amazing. And given the prevalence of mountain bike trails, do you in that area as well, do you tend to. Kind of under bike and explore those trails on your gravel bike? Or is it kind of more that rails to trail type riding that you like to enjoy? No, [00:05:18] Sarah Wallensteen: I've definitely, I've definitely pushed my gravel bike on onto single track and trying to test out how that feels. Um, I am signed up for the BC Epic this year, and that does include some single track. So I've been wanting to kind of test my , tell us how that feels. Um, And it just, it opens up where you can go too in exploring, you know, discontinued, uh, logging roads that are a lot rock, but, uh, can get you to some cool places. [00:05:46] Craig Dalton: What is the [00:05:47] Sarah Wallensteen: BC epic? Um, so it's a thousand kilometer ride that takes you from merit to Furney. Uh, and it's all, they have a breakdown of what it is, but I think it's, it's 80% gravel, 10% single track, and then 10% road. Um, So you basically have however long it's going to take you, and you start out as a group. It's not a paid race, it's just an event that you just start with a group of like-minded people and then. Spread out over the days to come . So I, it's amazing. [00:06:19] Craig Dalton: Is it, is it a bike packing style race where you have a grand depar and however you wanna handle it, you handle it? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Super cool. Yeah. Is your vision that you'll, you'll, um, bike pack it in the context, like you'll be camping every night or are you gonna credit card toward, is that even possible? Um, [00:06:38] Sarah Wallensteen: you can, quite a few people especially, um, Last year it was, there was like a heat dome during the race time, which was really unfortunate. Um, so a quite a few riders did get a couple hotels along the ridges to cool down, which is totally fair. Uh, I'm hoping it'll be a lot cooler, uh, and I wanna do it all camping. Um, okay. There's only two nights that you could possibly spend in a town. Yes. And [00:07:04] Craig Dalton: do you have a vision for how long that'll take you? [00:07:08] Sarah Wallensteen: Days, um, yeah, I'm thinking seven days. I'd like to do it in a week. Uh, the course record. Is free in a bit, so very fast. But I like my sleeve way too much. So [00:07:19] Craig Dalton: sleep , I hear you on that. Well, it sounds like we could do a whole episode on that endeavor cause that sounds super exciting and I, I hope you'll keep me posted on how it goes cuz it's will do. Fascinated by that kind of thing. But we're here to talk about dynamic cyclists. Yes. So why don't, why don't we start by what is dynamic cyclist? When was it founded? And we can go from. [00:07:42] Sarah Wallensteen: Sure. Uh, dynamic Cyclist is, um, an online video-based program that provides stretching and strength training specifically designed for cyclists. That's the sales pitch. That's what we are. Um, we started back in 2018 and it kind of came about in a random way. So myself and the two co-founders, um, they actually hired me on as a blog writer, um, for a site called I love bicycling.com. And I'd just come out of a newsroom I'd, I'd kind of tested the waters of journalism. It wasn't what I wanted it to be. I was looking for an out, so this writing job came up to ride about bikes and I, uh, jumped on that. And from there, the blog. , it was kind of hard cuz it's like the end of when blogging could make money. So , they were just kind of paying me out of pocket and just, okay, we'll eventually do something. We'll figure something out. Um, and we were just sitting around one day and just talking about cycling and what is missing in the cycling world. And it came down to both Lee and I, one of the co-founders were both cyclists and he said, I know I should be stretching. I never do, but what can we offer? In that world, can we create something that we ourselves want to use that will help us, therefore it will help other cyclists. And that's kind of how dynamic Cyclists was born. So I took that idea and built the website and worked with a physiotherapist and sports therapist to put together the programming and record the videos and we went from there. That's [00:09:20] Craig Dalton: super interesting. I mean, obviously like the best entrepreneurial stories. Much very similar to that. Right. It was just like, what is missing from the world? And I think many cyclists can own up to the fact that we've been aware of cycling our, or sorry, stretching our entire lives. Mm-hmm. , but not doing enough of it. Mm-hmm. . I also find it interesting that you, you know, you started from a content perspective because I've been aware of the brand for many years, and it's always been sort of in that context of like, you're, you've been putting good content in front of me. Clearly, like as I mentioned earlier, I think about stretching hardcore every winter and click through and you know, obviously you were chasing me around the internet with your ads for forever, and I'm, I'm glad I finally clicked through and in fact, I'll mention this and we'll come back to it. It couldn't be easier because you offer seven day free trials. So if you're curious what it's all about, just jump in and try it. Mm-hmm. . But to put a point, a fine point on. What is the type of programming you offer specifically? It's a video, right? [00:10:25] Sarah Wallensteen: Yes. Yeah, we, we designed it with ourselves in mind, which sounds weird, but as cyclists, you know, I've tried yoga and no offense, yoga is amazing and works for so many people, but I would get bored, and I think a lot of cyclists are the same. We're a certain type of people that have to be on the move. Right? So doing an hour long class just isn't appealing. I'm gonna go once and then I'm not gonna go again. , what we were aiming to do and what the website is, is trying to keep that video, that routine to 15 to 20 minutes tops. Um, , it's bite size. That's, that's doable. You know, it's funny, human nature, anything above 20 minutes and we're like, ah, I don't have 20 minutes. But , you do. I promise. You do. Um, and we wanted it to just be you. Click play, you follow along. You don't have to think about it. You know, you're targeting the right areas for you as a cyclist. and then you're done. Then you can, you know, get on with your day, hop on your bike, whatever else you [00:11:27] Craig Dalton: wanna do. Yeah. Yeah. I think those two points landed very well with me. Just this a, this idea that yes, yoga would be a great thing, and if I had a yoga routine, That would be amazing, but it is an hour long and I struggle with finding enough workout time for my cycling passion, let alone adding something like that in and 20 minutes is available to me. Mm-hmm. , hopefully it's available to all of us. You can, I, I've found a little time, like if my son's watching tv, I just have it up on my phone and I do stretches where normally I might just be cuddling with him and watching a show that has no interest to an adult. Right. [00:12:05] Sarah Wallensteen: Yeah. . Um, yeah, no, that's perfect. [00:12:09] Craig Dalton: And the, what type of equipment is typically involved? Like what do I have to have in my home in order to successfully complete the program? Yeah, [00:12:18] Sarah Wallensteen: we've tried to keep it as minimal as possible or things you can use that are around the house. The list has grown over the years as we've added more content, cuz you know, the more we add, the more we're trying to find new ways, new exciting ways to stretch your hamstrings. You know, get creative. Uh, but for the stretching program, all you'll. Is just a mat or a space to do it. Um, blocks you can use books, um, a strap, use a belt, it works. Um, and then a broomstick, believe it or not, we use it as like a pole that you can do some upper mobility stuff with. Um, and that's all you need. To get started and then a foam roller, if you wanna include the, we do include some foam rolling and, uh, release stuff, [00:13:00] Craig Dalton: so, yep. Yeah. Yeah. I think when I, when I think about starting the program each night, I'm thinking about foam roller block and a strap. Like those are my, those are my, those are the main days. Yeah. I do like, and I have done a little bit of broom work and it is interesting how it adds, um, just a little something, uh, additional to your twisting. [00:13:21] Sarah Wallensteen: Activities. Absolutely. Yeah. [00:13:23] Craig Dalton: Yeah. So it, it's, it's such an interesting concept and we talk about stretching, but why is stretching important for cyclists? [00:13:33] Sarah Wallensteen: Yeah. This is, this is the big thing. It's, it's important for cyclists of course, but it really is important for everyone. But why cyclists specifically? Um, when you think about when you're on the bike and the pedaling motion, you're taking your muscles through a linear range of motion for one. So you're moving in one direction. You're not going out to either side. and you're also never taking the hip, the knee, or the ankle joint to its fullest range of motion. So we're never straightening out those joints. There's always a little bend, which can c just put a lot of pressure on those muscles and those joints cuz they're not fully extending. Um, so just what this can do, you're also taking it through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of repetitions on the bike, right? So it's, of course cycling is so good for you and it's amazing for your joints cuz it's low impact. , but you are taking it through the exact same range of motion over and over. Um, and we're bent over, which doesn't help us, uh, especially with our modern lifestyles, which we spend a lot of time at desks driving, sitting on the couch. And then it's just more time spent with our hips crunched, our back, hunched. Um, so all that kind of accumulates to. Muscle imbalance or posture. Uh, we all know , you know, we all hunt forward, uh, slowly over time. And it also just, it turns our quads into powerhouses and then our weak little hamstrings can't handle it…

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Bruce Dunn - Highlands Gravel Classic (UCI Gravel Worlds Qualifier) Jan 18, 2023

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This week we sit down with Bruce Dunn of All Sports Productions. Bruce is the event organizer of the Highlands Gravel Classic, the only UCI World Gravel Championship Qualifier in the United States for 2023 in Fayetteville, AR. Highland Gravel Classic Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the broadcast. We welcome Bruce Dunn from all sports productions out of Fayetteville, Arkansas, Bruce and his company had been around the cycling production business for many decades. But recently have come into frame, putting on several gravel events in the Fayetteville area. Specifically, I invited Bruce on the show to talk about the Highlands gravel classic. While it's well, trod territory that fant veil in Bentonville and Arkansas in general have great gravel riding opportunities. What's interesting about the Highlands gravel classic. Is that it's the only United States world qualifier for the UCI gravel worlds. They held this similar position last year, and many in the gravel community were scratching their heads about what's UCI doing in gravel. Why the hell are they putting the world championships? Over in Italy. But one thing's for sure. The UCI world gravel championships offer opportunity. Not only for the professional athletes we follow. But also for age group athletes. And that was a super interesting part of the discussion was Bruce. It was just as an age group athlete. What does it look like? What's the experience for going to a world championships? And why should it be on your radar? I found the conversation. Super interesting. . I think it's worth exploring and having a conversation about this there's room for all styles of racing. In gravel? So I'm hopeful will come out of this conversation, understanding a little bit more about the Highlands, gravel classic, and what kind of experience you can have that day, but also what that journey looks like to the UCI world gravel championships and what that might mean for you as an age group athlete. In addition to what the professional athletes might experience this year. Would that said let's jump right into my conversation with bruce Bruce, welcome to the show. Oh, it's great to [00:02:27] Bruce Dunn: be here and thanks for [00:02:27] Craig Dalton: having me. Yeah, I'm excited to have this conversation about the Highlands Gravel Classic, but we always like to start off by getting a little bit about your background, and I think it's so interesting. Why don't you let us know sort of where you're located in the US and then we have to jump in and talk about just your your company and the productions you've been doing for the last couple decades. So let's dive right. [00:02:51] Bruce Dunn: Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, all sports productions, uh, we just celebrated 20 years and at the end of 2022, uh, started in the road scene. Joe Martin, stage race, uh, it's actually the oldest, uh, road stage race in the country, uh, 45 years last year. So some big enterprise countries and and so yeah, we do, we promote triathlons, running events, uh, gravel events, grand Fondo road rides. and we're, we're a little all over the place. Cycling certainly is personally at my heart. I've been on a bike most of my life. It's been really unique ride, no pun intended. And we're excited about 2023, getting on the back, getting on this side of the pandemic. . And seeing again what we're talking about today where the Highlands Gravel Classic takes us, which, you know, I, I think is a kind of a new, uh, a new statement in the gravel world. [00:03:46] Craig Dalton: I thought you, you told me an interesting story offline about the Joe Martin stage race and really how you got into production. Do you wanna kind of relay, cause I think it just underscores kind of your passion to just roll up your sleeves and get out there and do something for the. Yeah. [00:03:59] Bruce Dunn: I had a great job at the University of Arkansas doing fundraising raising millions of dollars for one of the colleges, and it was a, and it was an amazing couple years there. But I've, I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I, I self-employed before that, and I'd been promoting the Joe Martin stage race as president of one of the local cycling teams and. Anyway, flew out to U S A cycling, uh, I'm not sure I even scheduled an appointment. I just flew out and said I wanna put the Joe Martin on the national race calendar. I believe they said, where's Arkansas? By the way, you asked where I am of where In Fayetteville, Arkansas. And and thankfully they, they took my $75, which I think that's what it cost back then to be on the calendar. And you know, we celebrate 20 years. [00:04:46] Craig Dalton: That's amazing. Amazing. And then, and across that journey, obviously you've, you've mentioned that you've picked up multiple sports. What has kind of that journey been like and what sports have you added on along the way? And are there any other, uh, events that you're super proud of that you would name drop in each of those categories? [00:05:03] Bruce Dunn: Yeah, well, Ozark Valley Triathlon was my first, uh, other event that year. And I had done triathlons with my wife who was a, been a longtime triathlete. And, and we actually met on the bike during the, the as members of the cycling team, but, triathlon is near and dear to my heart just because of the uniqueness of the sport. But you know, why be mediocre with ? Why be good at one when you can be mediocre? Three is what I like to say in triathlon . Now, my triathletes may get a little upset with me, but that, you know, that those are valley, it'll celebrate, it's celebrated 20 years. So that was one that it's still around. And we have the national championships, by the way, in gravel triathlon. And mountain bike triathlon for U S A triathlon. So that event has grown to the point that we got, uh, we were able to secure the national championships for those two disciplines. Gravel triathlon, first year, last year were in national championship. [00:06:02] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it's, you know, event production's such a, such a challenging logistical operation. There's so much equipment needed and so much knowledge that you've learned across, along the way. You know, as someone who's put on very, very tiny events, it was pretty clear right from the get-go that to scale any of these things, the complexity involved just to get permits or make sure everybody's safe. They're, they're pretty huge. What, what was it like, kind of that learning curve to figure all that stuff? [00:06:33] Bruce Dunn: You know, it's interesting you say that. I've probably been doing events all my life. I just didn't realize it. I'd always volunteered to be on some committee. I, I loved being part of events. If I'd go to event, I was looking at the details and not the show, if you will, but the early days were much, were much different back then than they are today. And so, uh, but what I didn't know, I didn't. Until I had to literally go through it and I probably didn't understand event production until probably 10 plus years into the, into it. Tom Spiegel, you know, big Bear Productions he, he, he made a comment that I don't think people understand until they're, you know, 15 to 20 years into race production. And I would agree it's, there's a lot going on. It really. [00:07:21] Craig Dalton: Yeah, for sure, for sure. I'm curious, along the way, being in Fayetteville, just as, as a personal cyclist, were you riding off road all this time or was, did you start out on the road? Where were your passions lying? [00:07:34] Bruce Dunn: Roadie, a hundred percent . I had a c lacrosse bike and I had a mountain bike to do adventure racing, but I was pretty much all road. In fact, I didn't understand people that liked to get dirty on their mountain, on their mountain bikes. But you know, something definitely changed a few years ago in the trail systems. , know, they lowered the barriers to entry and and in the northwest Arkansas especially, it is a v it was very technical 20 years ago, even 10 years ago. And so, uh, that's one of the really interesting changes is that you know, mountain biking's become a much more inclusive sport. It's, it's that green, blue, black. Way of building trails today and it's certainly helped me. Uh, my, my roadie mountain bike. Friends would just laugh, laugh at me cuz it's like, oh my God, you're gonna kill yourself on the mountain bike. And then, you know, I told you the story about gravel that I grew up in a really small town and I hated gravel roads, . So we're now talking about the Highlands Gravel Classic. I love that. . [00:08:35] Craig Dalton: I love it. Well, your reasoning back then was that it was destroying everybody's cars and it was a pain in the ass to drive on. So I think we could separate that from the sport of gravel cycling. [00:08:45] Bruce Dunn: Abso, I mean, you know, it's fun now. I love gravel and and it's fun just to go out. It was like it was 20, 25 years ago. Here in Fayetteville, we have one of the most road friendly areas, and we have, even with the population that's grown, our road system is really good. The pro, the pro road cycling Peloton tells us. Good it is to ride here. But it's become busier and so now I can go back to what I used to do 20 plus years ago on my gravel bike and just go out on my own and, you know, shut the world out. It's fun. [00:09:18] Craig Dalton: Yeah. It's such, such a, such a great region from my limited experience there visiting Bentonville. Yep. The other thing I wanted to come back to, just because I think it's gonna be germane to later parts of this conversation. You know, you mentioned your entire career in event, event production, you've been interacting with the governing bodies of cycling. Can you just talk about sort of the, maybe some of the requirements that putting on these races that are sanctioned, uh, puts forth for you? [00:09:46] Bruce Dunn: Yeah. You know, I've I've served on you know, pro road sport committees or the race director committee at USA Triathlon and, and I was kind of surprised that What was required of someone to put on a. And the barriers that, or the hoops or the bar you would have to step over seemed very low, in my opinion, given the complexity or the danger of doing an event. And I've always been a big advocate for a. Professional development. But to be fair, this is what I do for a living. But I also believe no matter if you're doing it part-time or full-time, you need to have a level of expectation, safety, uh, protocols in place. And so for me, whatever. Whatever permitting or whatever requirements in the sanctioning process, I, I just felt that was a good professional development. It was a good checklist to make me a better promoter. And so I've I've been one that, I've been pretty, you know, I've been pretty vocal about we need those checks and balances in place. . Let's be real clear. I can get very upset if my costs rise one penny . But but the, you know, going through those checks and balances I think is very important for any promoter no matter what the, uh, what type of event you're promoting. [00:11:08] Craig Dalton: When did gravel cycling events start to come into view for you? [00:11:13] Bruce Dunn: You know, that's very interesting. Some I had, I had some really good friends that I'd bike racers. They had done a little bit of promotion. You've got to get into gravel, you've got to get into gravel. And I'm hearing this probably 2014 maybe. And, and when Unbound, those first three or four years, it was just red Clay. and people from northwest Arkansas were coming back going, I had to quit after 30 miles cuz I'd been pushing my bike who, uh, weighed 30, uh, 40 pounds I couldn't go anymore. And I'm thinking that didn't sound fun at all. . So I, that was my, that was my kind of experience. Besides what we would do locally is we would get on a mountain bike and ride on a Forest Service Road, but I didn't consider that, but I'm, I'm starting to hear this, but immediately I kind of tuned it out because of that just one experience I kept hearing, and it happened two or three years in a row. But then some more events started happening, obviously, and the bigger and bigger became And so, you know, BS on the radar, but then again you hear, eh, it's more roady oriented. It's just some rough pavement. Rouge Rebe was my first experience and I'd say a gravel event, but we were all roadies going down to, you know, Louisiana and you'd get on some rough pavement. But certainly everybody was on a road bike back then. , but I, I kept resisting it. I just couldn't find the new reason to have another event. And and so yeah, 2 15, 2 20 16, that's when it really started to register. [00:12:50] Craig Dalton: I think you mentioned you, you put a little bit of a dirt section into a Grand Fondo in 2016. Mm-hmm. , but your first kind of standalone gravel event wasn't until 2018. [00:12:59] Bruce Dunn: Yes, exactly. And it was a one mile single track at the end. , [00:13:06] Craig Dalton: just to make the roadies a little bit nervous before they got there. After, after event beer. [00:13:11] Bruce Dunn: Yes, exactly. We I mean, I mean, most people, about half the group walked it. I mean they could, it was, it was a true single track mountain bike trail that was rough. And I thought, you know, here's something unique, right? And I don't know. It may have been too much . [00:13:27] Craig Dalton: Firstly, Bruce, I like it. I think a little adversity. That's, that's, you remember that you're gonna tell stories for years about that Grand Fondo you did on your road bike that had single track at the. Yeah, [00:13:37] Bruce Dunn: exactly. . Exactly right. I love it. [00:13:40] Craig Dalton: Well, let's fast forward a little bit to the Highlands Gravel Classic, I think. Started in 2022. Yeah. And made a name for itself because it was a U c i Gravel World's Series qualifier. In fact, the only one in the United States. Yes. Si signing up for that. At that moment in time in 2022, you must have known you were, we would take a bunch of heat from the, just the gravel cycling community. Just talk about the process of, you know, how you got involved why you thought that you were excited to, to bring this UCI event to the United States. [00:14:18] Bruce Dunn: Yeah. Well, that had been my eighth year of promoting a UCI men's and women's stage. And so I'm very familiar with the uci. Spoke to U S a cycling at the World Championships in January. They said, Bruce, we're gonna have this gravel World series that's gonna come online. We're, uh, we want to be involved, and we think, uh, you know, you're the, you've got the perfect organization to put on this, uh, gravel, uh, race. And, and I, and I love the fact. This was something new because you know, the, as you well know,…

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Amy Davison - Trek Travel Gravel 2023 Jan 10, 2023

Show notes

This week we sit down with Amy Davison from Trek Travel to discuss the explosion of gravel travel trips in the 2023 line up. With three North American trips (Bentonville, Vermont and Virginia) and three European trips (Girona, Tuscany and Swiss Alps), Trek Travel has some amazing gravel trips planned using the local knowledge of their experienced guides. Trek Travel Website Episode Sponsor: Athletic Greens Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the broadcast. We welcome Amy Davison from track travel. Trek travel is literally having an explosion of gravel trips for 2023. They've been in the gravel game for a few years with their gerona gravel trip, which I took at the end of 22, but they're back for 23 with an expanded roster of six trips, three in north America and three in Europe. I'm excited to sit down with Amy and go over all the details. Before we jump in i need to thank this week sponsor athletic. athletic greens I feel like everybody's been talking about athletic greens recently. I was just listening to Ted King's podcast and he was talking about his daily athletic greens routine. Like me, he takes athletic greens every day. My personal routine is mix it with a cup of ice. I love it. Cold. guess the big question is why, why do I take athletic greens? As you may recall, I've been taking athletic greens for going on five years. I was looking for something that would replace my desire to have a multivitamin in my life. I knew I wasn't getting all the nutrients I needed in any given day in a simple powdered format. Athletic greens contains 75 vitamins minerals and whole food sourced ingredients, including a multivitamin. Multi-mineral probiotic green superfood blend and more, it all works together to fill those nutritional gaps in my diet, it helps increase energy and focus aids with digestion and supports a healthy immune system. All without the need for a counter full of pills. Let's start your 2023 with a simple, sustainable nutritional habit. So, whether you're looking for peak performance, better health, we're just covering your bases. Athletic green makes it easy to invest in your energy immunity and gut health. Every day in a simple fashion, simply visit athletic greens.com/the gravel ride and join health experts, athletes, and health conscious go getters around the world who make a daily commitment to their health. Athletic green to the special offer for podcast listeners, simply visit athletic greens.com/the gravel ride. And you'll get a free year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs today. Again, that's athletic greens.com/the gravel ride. Without business behind us let's jump right in to my interview with Amy Davison from Trek travel Amy, welcome to the show. [00:02:52] Amy Davison: Thank you for having me. [00:02:55] Craig Dalton: I'm excited. I just learned about the massive expansion of gravel travel trips the Trek is gonna be offering in 2023. After my wonderful experience in Gerona, I had to get you on the line and talk about everything that's going on before we dig into some of those trips. Let's just start by, uh, let the listener know where you're from, who you work for, how long you've been working at Track Travel. [00:03:20] Amy Davison: Sure. I live in Spearfish, South Dakota at the North Edge of the, the Black Hills, the great place to ride. I work for Trek Travel and I I'm a trip designer for trip travel, but I started back in 2005 as a. So, had a couple different roles here. I absolutely love working in the cycling industry, so it's, uh, led to [00:03:44] Craig Dalton: a long career. Yeah. I imagine all that time guiding yourself has left you with a pretty good sense of what it takes to design a trip. As a trip designer, what does that really mean? [00:03:58] Amy Davison: Hmm. Well, trip designers are the ones who build the structure. We book the hotels, we design the routes and build the routes in the software and book all the restaurants and basically just put the shell together. And then we convey it. We're sort of the, the hub of the wheel. We convey it to every team within trick travel. Explain it to sales. And then we hand it over to the guides when it's time to run. And when they're running the trip, it's really their baby. And then we work very closely with them to sort of tweak it and modify it. But we then sort of take it back at the end of the season and massage out anything we wanna change and then get it ready for the next year. So we're actually planning, we're working in about three years. at once. So it's very different than being a guide when you're, when you're out there guiding, you are laser focused on each day of each trip and really the hospitality end of taking care of the guests. So it's, uh, it was incredibly beneficial for me to be a guide and then turn into a trip designer. And that's how most of our trip design teams won. They were. and they then sort of wore both hats. And then some of us just moved into the trip design world and some of us continue to [00:05:18] Craig Dalton: wear both hats. That makes sense. How long has truck travel been in business? [00:05:24] Amy Davison: This our 21st year. [00:05:27] Craig Dalton: Wow. And, yeah. Has historically, have the trips always been on the road or were there off-road c. [00:05:33] Amy Davison: Mostly on the road. We did have mountain bike trips for a while, but this is our first foray into gravel, aside from Giana gravel that's been around for a couple of years. But, uh, yeah, primarily [00:05:46] Craig Dalton: road far. Interesting. So, you know, obviously I've got personal experience on that Jer Gravel tour. What was it that was sort of suggesting that an expansion would be, uh, you know, greeted with enthusiasm from your, from your. Well, just the growth [00:06:03] Amy Davison: of gravel in general. I mean, it's just exploded over the last several years. And all of our well met a big contingent of our guides and our team loves to ride gravel, and that's what they're doing in their free time, whether they're bike packing, they're just out riding the gravel. And so we've been talking about it for, for a few years because it's just, become such a big industry and the, the pandemic probably delayed this launch by, by a bit, but because of the scarcity of bikes and the uncertainty of everything basically. But [00:06:40] Craig Dalton: When you, as you introduced J, the Gerona gravel trip originally, were there, what kind of things were going through your mind in terms of bringing some of these, a newer athletes to gravel offroad? Like how do you think about trip design to make sure that everybody joining the trip is comfortable with the progression of technicality or amount of climbing or what have you? Mm-hmm. . [00:07:04] Amy Davison: We have what we call rider levels and we rate every trip and we, so we are going for a variety of trips. And then we rate each trip going to the rider level and we spell out on our, on our website how difficult it is. And that includes distance, terrain so how hilly is it? And also surface type because, you know, gravel. Very broad, and we do our best to sort of, put them into a matrix so people can see the range of trips that we offer, and then select what might be the best for them. And then we, I spend a lot of time with our trip consultants sort of explaining all this in detail so they can help steer people in the right direction. So we do try to offer a a, a breadth. Of options for people who may have more experience or less experience. And then we also, when we're designing the trip on each day of the trip, we have multiple ride options. So we try to allow, uh, for different rider levels, like on any given day, the guides will help steer people toward what option might be best for them any day of the week. Because as you experience sun, Each day's ride is quite different as well. And Jerome, I know they, the rides kind of build in technicality throughout the week and other trips like Shenandoah Valley, they build to a big climb at the end of the week. Uh, but the, the climb is an epic ride in their area, but it's actually paved the climb and the sun paved. It's just part of a, a larger loop and much of the loop is gravel. So each trip is different. And really the goal is you identify an area that is desirable, would be a, would be a great place for the trip, and has of course wonderful gravel riding. And then I like to say, you see what the area offers you and then you take advantage of it. So I don't go in with a preconceived notion of, I'm gonna design this trip in this way and it's gonna be for these people. I go in with a, let me learn about this region. Let's see what the best, you know, what it has to offer, and then we'll design accordingly. And then we'll describe accordingly. Because, you know, we, our, our, even our regular trips there's a, there's a wide variety of types of trips. So we don't try to force anything, we just try to call it what it is and, [00:09:38] Craig Dalton: uh, make it shine. . Yeah, it was, it was definitely interesting, and I noted it in those, the first day of the J travel, the, the gravel tour was just that assessing of the rider's abilities. Mm-hmm. , and it was pretty easy, you know, it was casual. It wasn't like anybody was testing mm-hmm. , you know, can you break, can you skid, can you go over a log or what have you. Yeah. But you could tell that the guides were being conscious of like, okay, what's the, what's the dynamic of this group? What are people's eagerness? Do people wanna ride? All day long, do they wanna not ride some days? And it became surprisingly easy to strike that balance in our group. Mm-hmm. , you know, the few, few guys from California that I went over with, we were eager, eager to ride as much as humanly possible, so mm-hmm. , you know, on occasion we'd come home and say, we, Hey Mickey, we wanna ride some more. And he would give us a GPS route and we would just go out there. Pedal to our heart's content while others were electing to take days off. And to your point, like there definitely was a progression in, in skills, in elevation and everything along the way. I don't think anything would've you know, been out of reach of, you know, most gravel cyclists, but there definitely would've been days that if you were a beginner, and one of the guys in my crew was a little bit more of a beginner that mm-hmm. a couple of the. made him think a little bit more. You don't really get that. Yeah. On a road bike, you put on the brakes, and even if you're descending aldus, you just keep the bike in control and it's, you know, it's no harder than your local mountain. But with the gravel, I think with everything, you know, all the natural terrain in front of you, it's often a little bit challenging and your eyes get wide and you think, can these bikes really withstand this treatment? Yeah. [00:11:22] Amy Davison: Yeah. It's. , it's definitely some, like you said, you have to, you have to think more and gravel and really watch your speed on this descent. And the guides are incredible. They, their wheels are turning before you meet them. They, they get a little intel on everybody and, uh, their wheels are turning immediately cuz they always wanna make it the best trip and. For every single person on the trip. And that first day is critical in sort of getting to know people a little bit during the bike event, and then sort of, you know, as assessing how everyone's doing during the ride because they're, they're already planning the next day, the next day and the next day. So yeah, it's. It's, it's quite a feat, but they're, they're really good at it. And when they know the terrain like Nikki, you know, it's local and j it's uh, it's pretty special what they can do, even with a larger group of people. Like, like you said, they, they're more than happy to give you some extra routes or, you know, go on another ride with you after everyone else is done and having close ride beers. . So it's, yeah, it's really, it's [00:12:39] Craig Dalton: really a fun time. You mentioned the bike fit element of it, and this was my first trip where I've ever ridden a bike provided by the organization. Mm-hmm. , obviously I was excited them being truck bicycles. In Jer in 2022, it was the, the Dnet, but I believe for, for 2023, you're moving over to the checkpoint. Mm-hmm. . [00:13:00] Amy Davison: We are, yeah. Very exciting. Checkpoint SR seven. Top of the line, electronic shifting. It's, uh, shaman, it's, and it's a two by, so a two by 11 speed. Uh, we'll set it up to bliss and we're gonna bump the wheels to 40 fives instead of the stock forties that come on them. And, uh, yeah, it's gonna be a great ride. And I think that the rationale is we really want these trips to be accessible. Everyone and we thought this is the bike that provides the most comfort and the most stability and can handle the widest variety of terrain, cuz we also have to select a single bike for all of these trips. [00:13:44] Craig Dalton: That we all thought would work. I, I think you're spot on there. I think, you know, it's, it actually to me it has two benefits. One, for newer riders, having the fatter tire is gonna make 'em more comfortable. It's gonna make it roll over stuff easier. A little sp smoother ride. But for more experienced riders, those 40 fives are gonna allow you to really tear it up and get after things and have a lot of fun. Mm-hmm. ? [00:14:06] Amy Davison: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. I have a, have the same bike here at home, so I've been really enjoying. Trying it out and it's just, and it actually rolls great on pavement too, so, it's, they're just so, there's such versatile bites [00:14:21] Craig Dalton: there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I have to say I was a little bit jealous cuz Mickey was already on a checkpoint and I was eyeing his big tires that from time to time as we got in the roof for terrain, cuz that's what I typically ride at home. Yeah. [00:14:34] Amy Davison: Yeah. The. All, I would say, all the guides who could get their hands on a checkpoint in the last couple years, uh, who ride gravel have, have absolutely [00:14:42] Craig Dalton: taken advantage of that. Yeah. So we, we we're moving from one gravel trip in 2022, all the way to six gravel trips, both in North America and in Europe. I'd love to just kind of talk to you about a, let's first get on the table, where are we going in 2023, and then B, let's just talk a little bit about each. [00:15:04] Amy Davison: Sure. Yeah. Yeah, it's very exciting. This has been the, the better part of the second half of 2022, and my world has been spent putting these together in collaboration with, uh, a lot of our guides and other tDCS. So we have three North America and three in Europe. In the North American trips in, in order are Batonville and Vermont and Shenandoah Valley, and. , the European trips are post J w…

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Paige Onweller - Lifetime Grand Prix Gravel Racer Jan 03, 2023

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This week we sit down with Michigan based, professional gravel racer, Paige Onweller. Paige, a former runner, had her ups and downs throughout the 2022 season, but ended it with a bang with a victory at Big Sugar Gravel in October. She is looking forward to doubling down on her efforts for the 2023 season. Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the broadcast. We welcome page on Weller. Uh, gravel racer from grand rapids, Michigan. Paige participated in the inaugural lifetime grand Prix in 2022. And has been selected for the grand Prix. Again in 2023, she finished the season with a big victory at big sugar gravel in Bentonville, Arkansas this year, and is really excited to be able to dedicate more time to the sport. Pages and other one of those amazing female athletes who discovered the sport after a career, as a runner. Only a few years ago, she was riding a trainer and figuring out how to ride a bike outdoors. Pedro we'll get into how she got into the sport of cycling, what our journey's been over the last couple of years. And what our experience has been joining the lifetime grand Prix and racing throughout the year with all the best female athletes in the gravel cycling world. With that said let's jump right into my conversation with Paige. Paige, welcome to the show. [00:01:26] Paige Onweller: Thanks, Craig. Glad I'm here [00:01:28] Craig Dalton: Good to see you. Yeah, it sounded like you had a busy day in the er, so I'm pleased you're making time for us this evening, [00:01:34] Paige Onweller: Yeah. Yeah. I was a little, a little late to this meeting, so thank you for being flexible. The ER is a little busy these days. [00:01:40] Craig Dalton: Yeah, no, of course. My pleasure. Hey, I always love to start off Paige by getting to know you a little bit about your background, like where did you grow up? [00:01:48] Paige Onweller: So I grew up in kind of a smaller town called Lapeer. Uh, it's in Michigan, kind of in the thumb area. Uh, maybe like an hour north of Ann Arbor, uh, if people know that as a reference point. Um, yeah. And then I went to undergrad at Fair State University up in Big Rapids, also in Michigan, and then, uh, grad school in Grand Rapids. And I've been settled in Grand Rapids for the last, about 10. [00:02:11] Craig Dalton: Got it. And were you a, were you a sporty young lady? [00:02:14] Paige Onweller: Uh, kind of, my parents kind of made us get into sports. Like I think they wanted to keep us out of trouble and keep us busy. And so, um, yeah, I did like, uh, swimming and diving and softball, volleyball track, cross country. Um, I was a big runner. Uh, I actually got a scholarship to, to run at Ferris and that's, you know, cross country and track. So I did running. Many years of my life and was a very dedicated runner, even after college on some post collegiate elite teams. Um, that's kind of where most of my athletic background was. [00:02:46] Craig Dalton: what was that journey like as a, as a runner would, did you sort of materialize in high school that you had a good endurance endurance engine or. Wear of a sprinter at that point. [00:02:55] Paige Onweller: I was more middle distance. To be honest. I never really, I kind of wasn't all around her. Like I, I definitely wasn't a sprinter, but I kind of excelled at. 400 meters and anything up to two mile, uh, at least in high school. Uh, but more focused on like the mile and 800. And then in college was similar. I was more middle distance, uh, 1500 meter, um, was kind of my specialty in, in track. And then in cross country it's just a six K for uh, ncaa. Um, so that was kind of my specialty overall. Um, but I got injured a lot and. , I think, you know, I could have done much better, like in the 10 K or 5k, I think would've suited me more. Um, but I think I was just always injured that we kind of kept doing the middle distance, shorter volume, you know, or, or less volume. Uh, but then after college is kind of when I started to hit my stride a bit in the endurance events, um, like I did at Ultra-Marathon in Grand Canyon. and that was like 55 miles, um, like rim to rim, to rim it's called. Um, and started doing like more half marathons and those longer distance events. And that's when I, like, I was beating all of my college times and just really excelling. So I think after college, once I was healthy and not getting injured as much, I was able to kind of, you know, consistency really helps with endurance . So if you're not getting injured and you can keep running, then you're gonna do. [00:04:15] Craig Dalton: That's quite a huge journey from where you started out as a runner to doing ultra-marathons, as you progressively grabbed hold of longer distance events. Was that, did it feel sort of more comfortable and more what you were built for? [00:04:30] Paige Onweller: I don't know. I, I mean, I was still running similar mileage throughout the week, but a lot of it was like power hiking up hills and like getting used to like the vertical gain because in running, like. Ultra-marathons are very, um, there's a lot more climbing and descending, and you have to get your quads ready for like that descending load, um, and the, the EENT changes that occur. And so I feel like. It was similar but yet very different. The volume was similar, but the intensity was much lower. Um, and I think that probably helped. Um, but honestly, like I just love being outside and being outdoors and I just like working out . And so, um, yeah, I mean, I think the little longer stuff was. Was fun to me and obviously more challenging just in a different way though, like, you know, a half marathon and 10 miles, like what I loved. And those are like, you know, hour, hour and 20 minute all out efforts, um, relative to like an endurance ultra marathon, which is like the whole day. So just kind of a different type of pain, I guess, , but I enjoyed the process for both and, and how you train for. [00:05:38] Craig Dalton: Yeah. They're so distinctly different as running disciplines. I've done a little bit of ultra marathoning myself and I I hear you like it's this descending that really adds up. But for me, the interesting thing was it was a complete mentality shift, right? Because you'll, you're running in the woods, you come up to a big hill and the 10 K in, you wants to run hard over everything. But every ultra-marathon and coach or colleague or friend is gonna tell. Just shift into another gear and walk up this hill. Yeah, to power hike up the [00:06:08] Paige Onweller: yeah, no, for sure. And it's, it's funny you say that, like the, the mental change is, you know, more than anything, and I've been a coach for many years and when I was coaching ultra marathoners, like one of the primary focus, you know, in, in the season was focusing and developing why they wanted to do that race. And cuz there was studies and research to show. Having an emotional bond to those longer events gets you through it versus like, you know, an hour and a half. So that's like a whole different way to train and it's like more mental training than the shorter distances. And I always thought that was fun. And you know, my medical background kind of makes me a little bit more intrigued into that as well. [00:06:45] Craig Dalton: Yeah, a hundred percent. Like you just have to believe and you have to always put a foot forward. And I think, I'm sure we'll get into this later, just how the, the parallels with gravel racing, particularly the long stuff, you just, you gotta keep going and know that your body's capable of much more than you probably think it is capable of. [00:07:02] Paige Onweller: Yeah, for sure. [00:07:03] Craig Dalton: So did you discover cycling at any point in that journey so far? [00:07:08] Paige Onweller: Um, I mean, you know, I would hop on a spin bike when I was injured, right? But it was always dreadful. I'm like, oh, I'd rather be running and I'm here in spin class. This is lame. Um, but you know, it was like, I didn't know any of the numbers meant, and it was always kind of a punishment for me. So, I had no idea what, you know, it was always like, What I had to do to stay in shape for running. Every time I was injured, I'd go on the bike. Um, and it was usually a stationary bike or a spin bike, but it wasn't until the pandemic, uh, so about two years ago is when I started biking outside. Um, and that was terrifying, like the clipping in for the first time. And I was like, what am I doing? You know, I'm like, this is horrendous. I'm gonna a crash. Um, let's see my, see my colleagues at the medical clinic. Um, but yeah, I think. For me, that's kind of when I first started, but it was still because I wanted to get better at running. So what I was doing is I was running like 40 to 50 miles a week, and then I would be trying to hit like, five to six hours on the bike a week as well. Um, and then I started biking more and realizing like, well, this is actually a lot of fun. And I started, you know, getting Strava kms and I was like, oh, well I'm beating these cyclists like maybe I'm, you know, pretty good at it. And I just think I started to enjoy it. But it wasn't a competitive, um, component for me. It was like just simply to get in more of. Aerobic training and cardiovascular training did benefit my running. And I did the ultra-marathon that fall. Um, and that was, so that would've been 2020 and did the ultra-marathon. So I kind of stopped biking for a little while to help with the legs. And then that, that winter I was like, okay, I'm gonna get whiffed and I'm gonna have an indoor setup because I liked biking this summer and I can do that throughout the winter. So I signed up for Zift and then, you know, a couple of local friends were like, you should do this with Community League. And I was like, oh, that sounds fun. do the community races. So I do started doing those first. When I signed up, it was like all out from the gate, um, swift, I think I dropped hard, like finished near the back and I was like, well, this is hard Um, and I was like, what am I doing? And eventually I just kept showing up and learning, you know, the tactics within thew world and then started winning the community events and that, that's kind of how I got recruited to my first pro team, um, was for eSports on Zift because of you. Essentially my raw power. Um, yeah. And that's when I first started to realize like, I'm just a competitive person and so you put me in a situation where I have the potential to win. I'm like, oh yeah, I wanna do that again, . So, uh, that's when I was like, oh, maybe I should race bikes, you know, like that, that could be fun. Um, so that's when that transition. Transition started, um, and I actually did sign up for a triathlon. I did, um, St. George, uh, 70.3 as my first, uh, triathlon. And then that was the last one I ever did, , cuz I realized biking is way better, [00:10:00] Craig Dalton: I don't wanna glance over something that I think every athlete goes through. You were also building a, another career in the background post-college. So do you wanna talk about what you've been doing professionally that has been effectively financing some of your racing endeavors in the running world, at least to date? [00:10:17] Paige Onweller: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I end up finding a lot of my cycling stuff too. Um, which, you know, I don't, we, it's a whole nother topic right there, but I don't think people understand that as much, you know, when you race pro, like they assume you have all the support. Uh, but we can get into that later. But yeah, so I work as a physician assistant. Uh, I've been a PA now eight years, and I've. Worked and practice all in acute care. Uh, so either urgent care or emergency medicine. Um, and I work for an emergency medicine group right now. Um, and I've had various roles, uh, very career driven, you know, I'm just an eager, motivated person, and so I've had. department lead roles where I'm help managing and more of an administrative role in the department. Um, so yeah, I've been a PA eight years and just a very busy person. Um, and it's, it's a great job, but medicine has changed a lot. If you talk to any medical provider, particularly some, someone that works in the ER or the urgent care, um, they will say medicine has definitely changed over the last few, few years, and part of that is covid, but we live in a very, Demanding world. And that floats over to medicine as well where patients are, uh, coming in and it's, it's not like they're always asking for medical advice, which is what we're trained to give, um, and use evidence-based medicine. It's more like demands and that can sometimes be a little exhausting. Um, cuz you know, we're there to help people and use science and, um, you know, there's a lot of stuff on the internet that patients come in and. you know, talk to us about. Um, but it's a, it's a hard job. Uh, it's very rewarding. But, you know, I've had to tell patients they have, you know, a new mask that's likely cancer. Um, you know, just today I had to tell a woman she's mis discouraging and telling her what I saw on her exam and. , you know, just helping patients process and essentially my job is if someone comes in, they have a problem and I'm supposed to fix it and make sure they're not dying. So, uh, it's rewarding, but it's also very mentally exhausting and it is, it's a hard job. [00:12:17] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I wanted to make sure to highlight that. Cause I know like many athletes as you, as you said before, like there's this aura that your name is inve and you must be having a full ride with your sponsors and all you do is train. But I think you'll probably attest that, you know, probably 90% of the pro Peloton has other jobs behind them allowing them to do these things. [00:12:40] Paige Onweller: Yeah. And you know, it's best. And I also, um, you know, I own a coaching business and I coach, um, and that has allowed me to have work that's more mobile and, you know, a little bit more relaxing work, I should say. Not as mentally demanding or physically demanding too. Cuz right now, like, I don't know if people understand, like this last year, like I still had to work my weekend requirement, which is every other weekend. or every third weekend depending on which job I was at. And so, you know, basically I would like stack my hours in the ER and urgent care work, crazy amount of hours, like 56, 50, 60 hours, you know, in a week or a little over a week. And then I'd fly to a race, race bikes for a week, come back, work in the er, urgent care. So it was like this constant yo-yo of two lives. And I knew it wasn't sustainable for too long, but I knew I could do it for one year. Like anything's tolerable. Like if you have an end. Um, and I also knew, like I had so much potential in cycling, I just hadn't had the opportunity to get the support that I needed. Um, and you have to earn that. Like, there, I never e…

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