The Pinkbike Podcast

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Episode 233 - Tara Llanes on Reinventing Herself As a Wheelchair Basketball Paralympian Mar 27, 2024

Show notes

Tara Llanes has been wildly accomplished at the high levels of multiple sports - BMX, MTB, and wheelchair basketball, not to mention wheelchair tennis - and she also has a whole lot more life experience to share. In 2007, in what she thought was her second-to-last race before retiring from her career as a mountain biker, a devastating crash changed things for her.

She spent the next several years going through intense processing, a move to Canada, some serious mental low points, a growing interest in tennis, and much more before she found herself on the basketball court to improve her speed as a wheelchair tennis player. Wheelchair basketball stuck. Tara clearly knows how to train hard, and that continues to take her far. She's now preparing for her second Paralympics, this one in Paris, and plans to then step away from high-level competition - retiring the right way this time.

Brian and I sat down with Tara in Vancouver, where she lives, to talk about that whole process. While we imagined this episode would end up the same length as most of our podcast episodes, we just kept finding more conversation. Tara is clearly smart, capable, an incredible athlete, and seriously strong as a person, and we were glad for every minute she spent with us.

Episode 232 - The Emergency Response Side Mar 21, 2024

Show notes

Amy Ertel and Steve Vanderhoek are two people who bring a lot to our sport: both in terms of their excellent riding and when it comes to their jobs and risk preparedness. Amy is a nurse, Steve is a firefighter, and both are extraordinary riders.

Episode 231 - Secrets of the 2024 Taipei Cycle Show Mar 14, 2024

Show notes

Dario and Brian are joined by Alvin from our sister publication Velo to discuss the products we saw, the factories we toured, and the food we ate at this year's Taipei Cycle Show.

Episode 230 - Gracey Hemstreet on Redbull Hardline, Growing up in a Bike Park and Graduating to Elites Mar 08, 2024

Show notes

Episode 229 - What Makes Your Bike YOURS Mar 07, 2024

Show notes

Could you choose your bike out of a lineup? If so, how? Whether it's strange suspension setups, cockpit changes or just particular tires, we all have things that make our bikes our own.

Episode 228 - Eliot Jackson on the Early Days of Pinkbike, Grow Cycling’s 2024 Plans, & More Feb 29, 2024

Show notes

Eliot Jackson has been a busy guy after retiring from World Cup DH racing. He's a Red Bull commentator, an ambassador for various cycling brands, the founder of Grow Cycling Foundation, and the organizer of a brand new event called Aspire. As you can imagine from listening to him on live broadcasts, he's a really fun guy to chat with and Alicia, Brian and I were lucky to catch up with him earlier this month before he headed to Australia to commentate at Red Bull Hardline.

Our free flowing conversation ranges from his early days as a racer and how Pinkbike founder Karl Burkat mentored him on the business aspects of the bike industry, to diversity in the bike industry and the opening of Grow Cycling Foundation's Inglewood Pump Track in Los Angeles County in California.

Episode 227 - Getting to Know Sarah Moore Feb 22, 2024

Show notes

Sarah Moore is incredibly important to the Pinkbike, cross-synergized ecosystem of symbiotic workflow, not least because she guides so much content and new coverage. Here, she and Henry talk about her racing World Cups, "what's good", women in the industry, and the slightly more light-hearted side of breaking both arms.

Episode 226 - Aaron Gwin Will Ride Crestline, Plus His Commentary and Racing Plans for 2024 Feb 16, 2024

Show notes

When the UCI team list was released for the upcoming season, there were many answers to be found about who will be riding what. One inclusion that didn't shed too much like, however, was Aaron Gwin's name under his eponymous racing team. What bikes were they riding? What would this team look like? And will Aaron himself be lining up at World Cups this year or being confined to the commentary box as he rehabilitates from an arm injury sustained early last season?

In short, the bikes will be from Crestline, but don't go thinking this is a standard sponsorship deal. It seems to run far deeper, with Aaron taking part ownership in the brand that was founded a mere couple of years ago. Although not their first outing at World Cups, the RS 205 VHP frame was raced under Sam Blenkinsop last year, this does feel like a big step up for a brand that is still so relatively young.

Aaron made time for us during a very busy team camp. While it might sometimes seem to be all glitz and glamour in mountain biking, I love the fact that we're still raw enough to sometimes be about propping up a laptop in short-term accommodation as you pack in as much preparation and planning as you can, and answering questions honestly that fans of the sport will likely want to know about. I'm thankful that even as mountain biking becomes more pro the level of access athletes and team owners are prepared to grant media is so great, and it personally only makes me love mountain biking and World Cup racing even more.

Episode 225 - Yoann Barelli on Finding His Place in MTB, the Grim Donut and Where Freeride's At Feb 08, 2024

Show notes

Yoann Barelli has done a bit of everything in his time. Whether it's slogging out World Cups as a privateer, moving to BC, or turning pro slightly later than others, his contribution to the sport of mountain biking is undeniable.

Editor's Note - Our audio file corrupted, so for the first part of the interview we're using backup audio. If you wish to skip this part go to 40 minutes. Thank you for your understanding.

Episode 224 - Rónán Dunne on Signing for Mondraker, His Secret Broken Scaphoid & Getting Fired Up To Race Feb 05, 2024

Show notes

We talk about signing for one of his dream brands, how he kept his broken scaphoid a secret until he'd signed a contract for 2024 on the dotted line, what riding a bike with telemetry for the first time was like, how many Red Bulls he drinks on race day, being mates with Jackson Goldstone, what he does when his competitors start to complain, and more.

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