Velonews Podcasts

This episode features two controversial guests. First, we have Thomas Dekker, a retired pro who recently wrote a book that gave an in-depth look at the rampant doping in the early 2000s. We hear from him on why an honest look at that era is important to him and whether other ex-dopers should be involved in the sport. Then, we talk to Dr. Rachel McKinnon who just became the first transgender rider to win a world championship. She won the masters 35-44 sprint event on the track over the weekend. McKinnon explains some of the issues and misconceptions about transgender athletes. Off the top, we discuss the action at Il Lombardia and much more. This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Mavic and Fezzari. Learn more about Mavic's Allroad wheels and tires here: https://www.velonews.com/2018/07/gravel/first-look-mavic-allroad-pro-ust-disc-wheels-and-yksion-allroad-xl-tires_472526 ... and check out the Fezzari Signal Peak that Spencer's been riding all season at the Epic Rides mountain bike races: https

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.

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.

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/

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

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. J

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

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

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 a

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!

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.

It has been a big week for American cyclists — Ben King won two stages at the Vuelta. Sepp Kuss, in his debut Vuelta, has been tearing up the climbs. And Ashton Lambie set a new world record in the individual pursuit, winning Pan-American Games gold. We talk to all three of those riders, plus we hear from European correspondent Andrew Hood who has been following the Vuelta. Spencer also has a quick rundown of what Rebecca's Private Idaho is all about. This gravel race put on by the "Queen of Pain" Rebecca Rusch is just as fun as it is hard. This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Roka. Spencer wore the superlight GP-1 sunglasses at Rebecca's Private Idaho and loved their comfortable fit and clear optics. Learn more: https://www.roka.com/collections/apex-sunglasses/products/gp-1-sunglasses

We received so many questions after we published episode 51, "Polarizing your training, with Dr. Stephen Seiler," we decided to take an even closer look at the polarized model of endurance training, to help listeners execute such a model in their training. Our discussion includes: - Why cycling is an aerobic sport - What is meant by the two thresholds — LT1 and LT2 — and how to determine yours, both in terms of power and heart rate. Dr. Seiler provides a test protocol to determine LT2, which may sound very similar to Neal Henderson's test that was described in episode 33, “Is FTP dead?” - Why it's important not to over-estimate LT1 or LT2, and how to use them to determine your zones in a three-zone model. - The specifics of zone 1 training: how long, how much, how easy? We take a deep dive into what zone 1 training is all about, why it's important to keep those rides easy, and the value of long rides. - Finally, we discuss the 80-20 principle of the polarized model and how to put it into practice to ma

Did you just tear up your list of Vuelta GC favorites? We did. Vincenzo Nibali, Richie Porte, and others are already off the back. We discuss how the race has unfolded so far and look back on the first mountaintop finish won by American Ben King. Also, there is sad news out of Ireland as yet another team is folding. Aqua Blue Sport made the unusual decision to cease operations immediately, putting an end to a weird saga that began with a premature announcement that they'd merge with Wout Van Aert's team. And finally, Megan Guarnier announced she's retiring at the end of the season, we remember some of our favorite moments from her decorated career.

Your drivetrain does a lot of work, and in order to do it well, a bike has to be designed with chain line in mind. What's that, you ask? That's exactly what we cover in this week's VeloNews tech podcast. VeloNews tech editor Dan Cavallari asks SRAM's chief system engineer for road drivetrains, Anthony Medaglia, how your drivetrain's chain line influences the way your bike is designed. Does chain line matter as much as it did ten years ago? What about 1X drivetrains — what kind of stresses affect the chain when it's angled like that? Medaglia's got the answers.

The Colorado Classic offered plenty of storylines over the past week. We hear from Travis McCabe on what the atmosphere has been like on a UnitedHealthcare team that could fold at the end of the season despite the team's dominance in Colorado. We also hear from Lauren Hall, for whom the Colorado Classic marked the final race of a long career. The podcast also looks ahead to the Vuelta a España. The season's third and final grand tour gets underway this weekend with a start list that includes GC heavyweights like Nairo Quintana, Vincenzo Nibali, and Richie Porte, and also the reigning world champion, Peter Sagan, returning to the Vuelta for the first time since 2015. This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Feedback Sports, which makes the stable and easy to use Sprint Repair Stand. For more, check out www.feedbacksports.com.

This spring we sat down with Sepp Kuss, the recent winner of the Tour of Utah, to discuss what it was like to go from domestic U.S. racing to the WorldTour in three short years. The theme that returns again and again is the struggle of jumping to the highest level and the need to persist when your first year is a grind. There's also some great advice about training, raising your level, and the value of persistence. So, in honor of Sepp's Tour of Utah win, we present our interview. We talk with him about: - His career so far: Since Sepp did his first road race just three years ago, this part will be short. - What his spring was like in Europe, and surviving his first big race: the Tour of the Basque Country - The mental side of stepping up to a higher level and getting beat up over and over again - What training is like in Europe compared to what it’s like in the domestic peloton - Finally, we have a longer discussion with Sepp about something that may surprise you: his focus on the process rather than the

Sepp Kuss absolutely smashed the field at Tour of Utah. So is he America's next star climber? We hear from Dane Cash, who was covering the race this year and Chris Case, who did an in-depth sports science feature on climbing that featured Kuss (how prescient!). Then, Fred Dreier talks to another star climber, Katie Hall, who just announced she will race for super-team Boels-Dolmans in 2018. This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Feedback Sports, which makes the stable and easy to use Sprint Repair Stand. For more, check out https://www.feedbacksports.com

The science on recovery has changed significantly in recent years. Once it was almost purely focused on reducing delayed onset muscle soreness (or DOMS), now the science recognizes that inflammation and some discomfort are a necessary part of recovery, and the best recovery tools aid this process. The tools that seem to do this best are within the compression categories of recovery, including massage, cold water therapy, and compression gear. In episode 52 we’ll cover: 1. The current research on recovery: how it's changing and why getting out of the way of our bodies and letting them do their thing is often best. 2. We’ll also touch upon those areas where the body doesn't always do a great job and may need some help. This includes venous return, edema, and excess inflammation. 3. We'll zero in on compression therapies which have been showing benefits and explain these sophisticated tools called external pneumatic compression 4. Our guests will talk specifically about NormaTec: how the founder, a doctor, was

What is trail? No, not that dirt path you like to mountain bike on — we are talking about the often-misunderstood bike geometry measurement. In this episode of the VeloNews tech podcast, we speak to BMC Switzerland's head of engineering, Stefan Christ. He helps us better understand how trail affects a bike's handling. But more importantly, he explains why a variety of factors influence the way a bike feels — it isn't as simple as just one geometry measurement.