Velo Podcast

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Fast Talk, ep. 57: Trail, rake, and flop — bike design with Lennard Zinn Oct 12, 2018

Show notes

So, you think you know bicycles? Well, think again. Today we’re sitting down with a legend of the cycling industry to talk about a variety of factors in frame design that most cyclists have never heard of. Yet these design elements — things like fork offset, trail, and head tube angle — have a bigger impact on a bike’s performance and ride quality than frame material, or any of the things we focus on when checking out what our friends are riding. Our guest today is longtime VeloNews contributor Lennard Zinn. Author of the definitive books on bicycle maintenance, Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance and Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance, among other titles, Zinn has spent the past 37 years building custom bikes and studying the physics of bicycle design. Incidentally, it all started with his college thesis on building an un-rideable bike.

Tech pod, ep. 9: The what and why of hookless rims with Alto Cycling's Bobby Sweeting Oct 11, 2018

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Remember when rims had hooks to hold on the tire beads? Well, that is changing. Hookless rim designs are everywhere in the world of mountain bikes and now they're coming to road wheels. The design is lighter and offers performance benefits. We talk to Alto Cycling's Bobby Sweeting about this evolving technology. He also expands on carbon rim technology, rim brakes, and why pro riders don't like disc brakes. Finally, Sweeting talks about the controversial test his company conducted to test rival companies' wheels under the stress of heavy rim braking.

VN pod, ep. 109: Previewing Il Lombardia, takeaways from Oz Trails Oct 10, 2018

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With Il Lombardia approaching, it's a great time for the VeloNews podcast to take a closer look at the final monument of the season. There's plenty to discuss: Newly crowned world champion Alejandro Valverde is hungry for his first win in the rainbow stripes, and riders like Thibaut Pinot and Mike Woods are eager to put their late-season form to good use. We pick a few favorites for Saturday's race. Plus, news director Spencer Powlison reports on his experience at the Oz Trails Off-Road. The final event in the Epic Rides series offered some great racing — and one heck of a prize purse — over the weekend. This episode is sponsored by Feedback Sports, which just unveiled its Range Torque Ratchet Combo wrench. This tool is all you need to correctly torque your bike's bolts and easily remove them without damaging the torque mechanism. Learn more: https://www.feedbacksports.com/shop/range-torque-ratchet-combo/

VN pod, ep. 109: Coryn Rivera on worlds, and the Valverde debate Oct 02, 2018

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Best worlds ever? The Innsbruck edition of the UCI World Road Championships certainly had tons of exciting action. We hear from Team USA rider Coryn Rivera on how the action played out and what it was like for her to make that bold breakaway in the elite women's race. Then, we discuss Alejandro Valverde. He won the rainbow jersey with magnificent cunning, but for some, he is a symbol of the bad-old-days of early 2000s doping. How do we feel about having a world champion who served a doping ban after Operacion Puerto? All that and much more on this podcast. This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Health IQ. To get a free quote and save money on life insurance, go to www.HealthIQ.com/velonews

Fast Talk, ep. 56: The Hour with world record holder Colby Pearce Sep 29, 2018

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The Hour. Those two words represent many things to many people. Some believe it to be the ultimate test of man and machine: out there on the track, with nowhere to hide, an athlete must come to terms with what they’re truly capable of. Others know it as a form of torture, a crucible for understanding one’s ability to cope with pain, suffering, or madness. If you’re lucky, the Hour is a hard way to reach a form of cycling-inspired, dizzying nirvana. Many of the greatest cyclists in history have made attempts or held the Hour record. Most of them then crawled off their bikes never to ride on a track again. With UCI rule changes several years ago came a resurgence in interest in the event. Eventually, Bradley Wiggins smashed the record, hitting 54.526 kilometers in June 2015. And the obsession lives on. There are few people in the world who know both the agony and ecstasy of the Hour as well as Colby Pearce, our main guest today and someone who has attempted more Hour records than anyone else I can think of. Just days ago he set a new master’s world record in the 45-49 age category, riding a remarkable 50.245 kilometers, 833 meters farther than the previous record held by Kent Bostick.

VN pod, ep. 108: Talking to the world's fastest cyclist; worlds preview Sep 25, 2018

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How fast have you gone on a bike? Denise Mueller-Korenek hit 184 miles per hour! We hear from her about her wild ride. But first, we have an in-depth preview of UCI World Road Championships. It's a climber's course, but will it suit a pure climber? We discuss the favorites of the men's and women's races and analyze the course. This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Health IQ. To get a free quote and save money on life insurance, go to www.HealthIQ.com/velonews Check out the bike that Mueller-Korenek rode to her world-record speed: https://www.velonews.com/2018/09/gallery/bike-gallery-denise-mueller-koreneks-record-breaking-khs_479137

VN pod, ep. 107: The importance of Yates's Vuelta victory Sep 18, 2018

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The 2018 grand tour season was a British invasion! Simon Yates made it a clean sweep by winning the Vuelta a España. Was it a good edition of the Vuelta? What does it mean for Yates? How do we rank this year's grand tours? We unpack the action from Spain. Then, Fred talks to Gregor Brown who followed the race on the ground and he speaks to Mitchelton-Scott team director Matt White via Skype after the team's first grand tour victory. Plus, Spencer talks about the story behind Breck Epic mountain bike race's decision not to sell to Ironman. This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Health IQ. To get a free quote and save money on life insurance, go to www.HealthIQ.com/velonews

Fast Talk pod, ep. 55: How to win with mind power, featuring Dr. Brian Butki Sep 14, 2018

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The best riders understand … mindset wins races. And controlling your thought patterns in races is one of the most powerful things you can do. Mindset in cycling is an important and frequently neglected side of our training and racing. It's avoided because it seems unclear, inconsistent, and, let's face it, can be too new-agey for the likes of us "tough guys." In reality, mindset is often all that separates the best from second best and can be the difference between reaching the podium or finishing a race. When Coach Connor managed Team Rio Grande, he offered to cover the costs for one of our riders for a few sessions with a top sports psychologist in Colorado. The rider refused and ultimately quit the team. But when Trevor told several high-level pros the story they all asked the same thing: "Can I get those appointments?!" Today, we'll delve into this concept of controlling your thoughts for performance. We'll touch on: 1. The concept of dominant thought and why it's so important, including whether we are funnels or buckets. 2. How athletes are either task- or ego-oriented, the pros and cons of each, and why it's important to know which one you are 3. Using trigger words to control your dominant thought 4. Why it may not actually be good to stay mentally focused for an entire race and how to pick your moments when you are on your mental game 5. And finally, how to control your thoughts when your body is screaming in pain and telling you to stop Our primary guest today is a professor of sports psychology and is a senior teaching professor at Colorado State University, Dr. Brian Butki. Dr. Butki has worked with athletes in almost every sport, both at the university level and on professional teams in the Colorado area. In addition to Dr. Butki we spoke with: Dean Golich, a head coach at Carmichael Training Systems. Over decades as a top coach, Dean has worked with athletes all the way from recreational amateur riders to Olympians and world champions. He is uniquely qualified to talk about the mindset of top athletes. You may be very surprised to hear what he has to say. Sepp Kuss, a WorldTour rider with LottoNL-Jumbo and winner of the 2018 Tour of Utah, talks with us briefly about his mindset and the danger of being too focused on the win. Finally, local top coach Colby Pearce gives us a variety of tips on controlling your mindset both in training and in racing situations. In our next episode, we'll talk with Colby and Chris about the hour record and their experience with it. But in the meantime, Colby is going for the master's world record from September 22-25. We're still waiting to hear if they are going to livestream it. If they do, we'll put a link up on the VeloNews page for this podcast along with our references. So let's get to the task at hand. Find your balance. Focus your mind. But don't get too focused … you need your breaks. Let's make you fast!

VN pod, ep. 106: Courtney talks about world championship win Sep 11, 2018

Show notes

Wow. Kate Courtney won world mountain bike championships, breaking a 17-year drought for the U.S. We call the champ to hear firsthand about the exciting race in Switzerland. But first, Andrew Hood catches us up on all the key storylines from the Vuelta a España — the budding Colombian rivalry, Simon Yates's chances of winning the overall, that terrible crash at the finish of stage 12, and whether Movistar can use its strong team to win in the race's final week. All that and more on this episode of the VeloNews podcast!

Tech podcast, ep. 8: Why all the bottom bracket standards? Sep 06, 2018

Show notes

What’s up with all the “standards” in bottom bracket technology? Tech editor Dan Cavallari talks to Jay Sycip from Chris King to find out why there are so many different bottom brackets today, what happened to threaded bottom brackets, and whether we’ll ever see the end of creaky press-fits.

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