Podcasts about Gravel

In which Eamonn and Ben question their friendship after watching Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin. Eamonn shares his favourite road, Ben has an epiphany and there's a shocking turn of events when the fate of this week's film is decided... "Maybe, he just doesn't like you anymore."

core4 Is a unique cycling event which includes gravel, dirt, single track and pavement all in one grand circuit - whether 100 miles, 50 miles or even 25. Modeled after the Rule of Three event in Bentonville, Arkansas, core4 is Iowa City, Iowa's new premier cycling experience, a celebration of community, opportunity, recreation and engagement. core4 will leave no surface untouched on August, 19, 2023. 

Offering a unique pricing structure, registration for the event opens on Dec. 2, 2022 at www.core4.bike. We'd like to welcome Alex Buhmeyer and Nate Kullbom to Bike Talk with Dave, where we talked about the origin of the event, course, support and many many other bike things. 
 Thanks to Alex and Nate for being guests on the podcast - be sure to give core4 a follow on instagram and check out registration at core4.bike. Thanks for tuning in to Bike Talk with Dave! It would be awesome if you'd show your support by rating, reviewing and subscribing - and of course, if you really dig it - share it with your friends! And If you'd like to support the show financially, and help improve this podcast you can look for Bike Talk with Dave at BuyMeACoffee.com or hit me on Venmo at David-Mable If you do I'll thank you with a Bike Talk with Dave sticker! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dmable122QThanks to bikeiowa.com for being the online host of Bike Talk with Dave - BikeIowa.com is your one stop shop all kinds of cycling events, including Core4! As well as news, information and trails in Iowa and around the midwest! Every week new events are added - be sure bookmark bikeiowa.com and check back often! And if you're hungry and looking for a unique treat for your company holiday or end of year party, check out DSM Boards! Order a custom charcuterie board from DSM Boards located in Des Moines and serving central iowa - serving everything from breakfast themed boards, holiday boards or traditional meat and cheese platters - DSM Boards loves to try it all! Check them out on Facebook or instagram where you'll find lots of great ideas or connect at dsmboards@gmail.com! Bike Talk with Dave is a production of Summit Media Films, an award-winning independent film company -whether a 15 second video for instagram or a 2-hour documentary, Summit Media is up for anything! Check out our films “1000 Miles to Nome and Down The Kuskaquim as well as Reach for the Stars at AdventurePlus.com 


Helena Coelho (@helena.ccoelho) convidou Juliana Maciel (@julianamaciels) para bater um papo INCRÍVEL com Ana Lídia Borba (@analidiaborba) sobre a prova Red Bull Gravel X. A prova será realizada em dezembro...

On tis episode I chatted to Alan and Jennifer about their love for Oklahoma Gravel and cycling in general. Alan is from Belfast and the two met when he spent a summer in school at OCU. Playing soccer while Jennifer attended the dance school it was meant to be. We talk about how they both found cycling and how it helped them through some pretty tough times.  Now they travel most weekends cycling on Oklahomas best gravel roads and sometimes out of the state too. Listen in to their story and how they've seen the gravel scene in Oklahoma grow literals from nothing to weekly events.  This episode is presented by the following sponsors. The Oklahoma Hall of Fame at the Gaylord-Pickens Museum telling Oklahoma's story through its people since 1927. For more information on the Oklahoma Hall of Fame go to www.oklahomahof.com and for daily updates go to www.instagram.com/oklahomahof The Chickasaw Nation is economically strong, culturally vibrant and full of energetic people dedicated to the preservation of family, community and heritage. www.chickasaw.net 988Okla The Oklahoma 988 Mental Health Lifelife. 988 is the direct, three-digit lifeline that connects you with trained behavioral health professionals that can get all Oklahomans the help they need. Learn more by visiting www.988oklahoma.com Bedford Camera & Video use promo code "THISISOK" for 5% off your purchase and shop www.bedfordsokc.com #thisisoklahoma

Cuando Jimmy Cliff era niño en la Jamaica de los años 50, iba al colegio sin zapatos y se lavaba los dientes con el dedo, a mediados de los años sesenta se hizo un hueco en la música gracias a canciones que traspasaron fronteras. A finales de la década viajó a Londres donde grabó Hard Road to Gravel, un álbum que lo convirtió en el primer gran icono de la música jamaicana. Pero todo cambiaría y explotaría años después cuando se convirtió en el protagonista de la primera película del cine jamaicano.La carrera, todavía vibrante de Jimmy Cliff, resulta de lo más curiosa y trepidante. Sus orígenes, sus éxitos, sus colaboraciones con Springsteen o Costello, todo ello es parte de una vida pegada a la música que lo han convertido en uno de los grandes referentes de la isla del Caribe más allá del nombre de Bob Marley. Antes de que Bob despegase, Cliff llevaba ya un par de vueltas. La más llamativa llegó de la mano del cine cuando en 1972 se convirtió en Iván, el protagonista de The Harder They Come, la primera producción rodada en Jamaica, con un director y un reparto jamaicanos. Cliff además puso la banda sonora a la que vamos a dedicar el episodio de la esta semana.La historia de este músico, de esta película y de esta etapa de la música jamaicana resultan fascinante y para este tremendo viaje nos acompaña el periodista y escritor Arturo Lezcano y Lucía Taboada con sus reportajes. 

Jupp war bei dem Fahrradanhänger Hersteller in Köln zu Besuch und hat die reizenden Croozer-Mitarbeiterin Katharina über Anhänger und Firma ausgefragt. Außerdem berichtet Vitsi von seinem Besuch beim Cross-Rennen und Jupp von seinem Off-Season Kneipenabschluß...

For this bitesized episode of the BikeRadar Podcast, editor-in-chief, George Scott, speaks to Nathan Haas, who enjoyed a ten-year career as a WorldTour professional on the road, before switching to gravel full-time in 2022. Nathan discusses the unique physiological, technical and tactical demands of gravel, as well as his tech setup, favourite races and targets for 2023. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marisa Boaz has had an incredible first year with the Mazda Lauf Factory Cycling Team as well as the Lux Cycling Development Team. She's been racing in some of the biggest gravel and road races in the U.S. and even abroad, finishing in the top ten, on the podium and even a victory or two! She was my guest on Episode 12 where we talked about her recent victory in the winter gravel classic CIRREM, but also about how and when she got her start racing bikes. Be sure to give that a listen to hear how this wife and mother of four entered the sport and quickly rose to be one of it's best, all while juggling family and training. I want to thank Marisa for inviting me back into her day and being so willing to share her experiences from this past summer! What a summer it was - I can't wait to see what awaits her next year! Be sure to look her up on instagram at @Marisa_Vande_boaz, and follow her team at @mazdalauffactoryracing - together, they're crushing the gravel! And thanks also to you for tuning in and listening to Bike Talk with Dave! I'd appreciate your support by rating, reviewing and subscribing - and of course, sharing it with your friend. If you'd like to support the show financially, and help improve this podcast you can look for Bike Talk with Dave at BuyMeACoffee.com or hit me on Venmo at @David-Mable If you do I'll thank you with a Bike Talk with Dave sticker! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dmable122QAnd bikeiowa.com has been so kind as the online host of Bike Talk with Dave. BikeIowa.com is your one stop shop all kinds of cycling events news, information and trails in Iowa and around the midwest! Every week new events and information is added - be sure bookmark bikeiowa.com and check back often! And if you're hungry and looking for a unique treat for your company holiday or end of year party, check out DSM Boards! Order a custom charcuterie board from DSM Boards located in Des Moines and serving central iowa - serving everything from breakfast themed boards, halloween treat boards or traditional meat and cheese platters - DSM Boards loves to try it all! Click on their website, https://dsmboards.wixsite.com/dsmboards to schedule a custom board for your next get together. Check them out on Facebook or instagram where you'll find lots of great ideas or connect at dsmboards@gmail.com! Bike Talk with Dave is a production of Summit Media Films, an award-winning independent film company -whether a 15 second video for instagram or a 2-hour documentary, Summit Media is up for anything! Check out our films “1000 Miles to Nome and Down The Kuskaquim as well as Reach for the Stars at AdventurePlus.com 


Craggy Range Winery Te Kahu Gimblett Gravel Vineyards In this episode, Rob, Scott, and Becky review a Bordeaux blend from New Zealand, namely the Craggy Range Winery Te Kahu.  So come join us, on The Wine Vault.

Nathan chats to Nico about his first few months racing Gravel, coming over from Road and what next year will look like.

This week meet Eria Sabiiti. He stumbled upon gravel by chance when he and his wife-to-be saw a poster for a bike race in their community. That race turned into quite the adventure, and both of them were hooked! He started a local club called the Iowa Gravel Gang and rides weekly on Iowa gravel roads. He also participates in some pretty epic races across the US like Rebecca's Private Idaho and GravelWorlds in Nebraska. Eria explains why he loves gravel…it's just you, the bicycle, and the road, with the simple sounds of gravel and the miles of wide open countryside. You can see his adventures on YouTube as well as Instagram under the name iowagravelgang. If you are listening to this episode in October of 2022, you can participate in the Murphology 200 Mile Winter Challenge if you need some inspiration to stay active once cold weather moves in. Here is the link: https://murphologypodcast.com/200-mile-winter-challenge, or just head over to the Murphology Podcast website and click the link in menu tab. Iowa Gravel Gang YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsbIuX9LyF2y7aV2VQVoVGg https://murphologypodcast.com/200-mile-winter-challenge www.murphologypodcast.com

It's championship weekend for NASCAR, World of Outlaws Late Models and Sprints and USAC Sprints! Plenty of action across the world of racing and plenty to discuss from last weekends mayhem at Martinsville. Mike and Marc roll into World Finals discussion with the WoO sprint car championship being the closest it's been in 3 years! Is the pressure on Sweet? Or is the pressure on Gravel? Who will be crowned champion come Saturday Night! USAC wraps things up out a Perris this weekend with the Oval Nationals. Grant looks to have it sealed up but never count out the Macho Man. Can he get it done? Or does Grant win his first championship? The cut off races for NASCAR last weekend sure didn't disappoint per usual. Beginning with the Xfinity series. Does Austin Hill have a future in boxing? We think he does after the first round TKO he landed on Myatt Snyder. Ty Gibbs may be the worst teammate in history. Will Brandon Jones look for payback at Phoenix? It's a 3 on 1 battle between Junior Motorsports and JGR this weekend. Who will come out on top? The dinner bell rang once again for Christopher Bell. Another win and in situation and the young driver pulls it off. But shadowing all that was quite possibly the greatest move of all time in NASCAR history. The watermelon man, Ross Chastain pulls a video game like move to secure his spot in the final 4 at Phoenix knocking out Denny Hamlin. Does Denny finally deliver on all the talk of seeking payback on Chastain? Will another driver try and pull the same stunt on Sunday to win the championship? --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reactiontimesports/message

You may know Kim Gravel from her Belle apparel and beauty collection — QVC's highest-performing and fastest-growing line ever — or her Lifetime docuseries Kim of Queens or her regular appearances on The Steve Harvey Show. This former Miss Georgia isn't known as “America's Best Girlfriend” for nothing. But that's just the start. Not only is she a successful serial entrepreneur and a megawatt TV personality, Kim Gravel is an industry leader, certified Life Coach, mentor, advisor, and consultant with a palpable passion for people and seeing them rise. On this week's juicy episode of the Potential to Powerhouse Podcast Tracy and Kim get down to business — the business of creating a better life, for ourselves and for those around us. From the benefits of being a latchkey kid to the power of looking inward to find true confidence, nothing is off limits and the resulting conversation is relatable, hilarious, and, most of all, empowering.

Join us this week for another interview with our friend Merle. Our audience was asking for more from Merle so we delivered. Merle grew up in an Amish Community in small town Iowa. He tells his story as a young teen and the traumatic events of his life that gave him the divine drive and grit to not only survive but to reach success. We share that an education is important but attaining other core values in life can often take you further than even a college education. Don't let the voice of society steer you against your future path, dreams, and goals.

Connor and Josh are joined by David Gravel, who's vying for his first career World of Outlaws championship this weekend, and we dive into his title hopes. The guys touch on everything going into the weekend, as well as the new World of Outlaws video game, David in NASCAR and more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we sit down with Protect our Winters ambassador and gravel athlete, Matt Lieto to talk about the importance of voting in relation to protecting the environment we love to ride in. Protect our Winters    Support the Podcast Join The Ridership  Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos:   Matt Lieto [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 welcome Matt. Lieto from bend Oregon onto the show matzoh, former triathletes. We'll get into that a little bit. And a gravel racer been doing it out of bend for a number of years has been involved in organizing some of the great events up there in Oregon. But more importantly for today's show, Matt's been involved with protect our winters, a nonprofit organization founded by snowboarder Jeremy Jones back in 2007. But the basic premise that he was seeing the world that he calls home out there in the big mountains. Getting destroyed by climate change. He wasn't seeing the same kind of snowpack. He was observing change and decided to make some change. He decided that athletes outdoor enthusiasts of all kinds, we have a voice in the political process and he set about to create an organization to help passionate outdoor people, productive places, and lifestyle. They love. From climate change. We're sitting here in the first week in November next week's the midterm elections. There's still time to get out there and vote. Do your civic duty. I'm a little bit on a soap box with Matt during this conversation, but I think it's important. Head on over to protect your winters.org. You can find out everything you need to know about the voting process. In your local community, there's still time in many states to get registered and absolutely there's time to prepare your ballot and get it submitted for the midterm elections. Without said. Let's jump right into my conversation with Hey, Matt, welcome to the show. [00:01:59] Matt Lieto: Thanks, man. Appreciate you having me Excited. [00:02:01] Craig Dalton: I am looking forward to getting into gravel, your background, but I'm most excited to talk about p and we'll get into that later. [00:02:09] Matt Lieto: Yeah, it's, it's okay if you if you prioritize climate and the world in, in, in front of getting to know me, that's fine. I'll let it go. [00:02:16] Craig Dalton: Wow. Very modest ego. I like it. So Matt, we always start out just by getting a little bit of background about you, how you got into the sport, and how you got into gravel. We gotta talk a little bit about your, your, your skinny bike background and that arrow position you used to have, but not too much. I don't wanna scare the listeners off. [00:02:33] Matt Lieto: I can't ignore it. I know there's a, you know, no matter what the, the triathletes do and the time trialists do, they're always gonna have, they're gonna have their, their work cut out for 'em for sure. But the reason I've like always got along with Mount biker's, cyclists, and why I'm one myself as I don't mind making fun of myself. Self deprecation is my, my biggest strength slash weakness. So let's go [00:02:55] Craig Dalton: It's important. It's important that the regular listener will know that I have admitted to my Ironman triathlon past. I don't wear it like a badge, but I, I'm not afraid to say that I did that. [00:03:06] Matt Lieto: So you literally, like you don't have a tattoo or anything. [00:03:10] Craig Dalton: No, no, I would, if I could aim the camera down there, I would show you my calf. There's [00:03:15] Matt Lieto: don't move your, [00:03:16] Craig Dalton: down there, [00:03:17] Matt Lieto: I don't wanna see you. Move your canvas south, man. Keep it up. [00:03:21] Craig Dalton: So how did you, you're up in, you're up in Bend these days. Is that where you kind of found the bike and found triathlon originally? [00:03:28] Matt Lieto: No, actually I had started doing try when I lived in Northern California. So like, 98 maybe. And kind of the cheesy story is my brother actually was a, a great professional triathlete, was second at Kona and another world championships a couple times. And I watched him race a race in Hawaii and at the time I was like 260 pounds. And I was like, Wow, these guys are, have more fun than me. And Losts a bunch of weight. Went home and started training for triathlon, trying to get it across the finish line on one of those things. And turned out I. Decent at it and was training with my brother, had a good guide and you know, just kind of kept plugging away. Became a professional triathlete after maybe three years of that. And yeah, kind of just enjoyed that experience. And I, I'm telling you, off air, like the. If I would've started younger and if I had the better pain tolerance I probably would've tried to be a cyclist. Cause that was kind of my, my strength and what I loved doing. But turns out I'm kind of mediocre at three sports. So triathlon worked for me. [00:04:28] Craig Dalton: Nice. What distances were you running and racing in? Triathlon. [00:04:31] Matt Lieto: I did, I've done 'em all. Like I did the [00:04:34] Craig Dalton: Okay. [00:04:34] Matt Lieto: Olympic distance did Xera cuz again, I, I just enjoy riding all kinds of kinds of bikes. So I went to National World champs a couple times for Xera. I did half Ironman was probably my strength in triathlon, just because you could, like, as a cyclist you could Ironman at least then, or for me, was. What watts can you hold for the whole thing and not crack where the half distance is, Oh, I'm faster than you and I'm gonna try to rip your legs off. Like that to me was fun cuz I just love riding a bike hard. And then yeah, that's pretty much it. Did d Athlon, d Athlon, National Champion once, way back in the day. And yeah, just kind of, kind of did it all. But through all that I did road racing, crits, raced a bunch of pro like NRC stage races and all that good stuff. So [00:05:20] Craig Dalton: Gotcha, gotcha. And was finding kind of gravel, just a natural thing up there and bend. [00:05:25] Matt Lieto: Yeah, I mean it's, you know, we, we've got winter here, or we had winter. We'll get, you know, this great segue into what we'll talk about here eventually. But you know, so cinders on the roads, you know, instead of salt to, to keep the roads clear. Here we have cinders, so, those can be a little bit sketchy if you're riding a road bike. So, originally when I moved to town, I was working at a bike shop, wrenching and stuff. Bought a cross bike for that. And then once I had my cross bike, I was like, and I have good buddies with like Carl Decker and Rancher boat and those guys. And every ride we just ended up on dirt every, you know, whether it be single track or whatever. And after a while, like I. And there, those guys are all capable of anything, right? So we'd be on a ride and I'd be on my TT bike and we'd end up on single track and I'm like, Guys, this is like not that awesome. my time trail bike. So eventually I got the right, right bike for the job. And yeah. And in Bandish there's so many dirt and gravel roads, certainly in the winter to be able to to ride when a lot of the pavement isn't clear and you're going slower. So it's. You're less cold, you know, it's 35 degrees outside, going 20 on a road bike doesn't sound that fun. But going 12 on a travel bike is pretty sweet. So [00:06:35] Craig Dalton: Yeah. And when did you start to see like the gravel bike events take off and capture your attention? [00:06:40] Matt Lieto: Well yeah, in Oregon we had, we had like kind of a, we have a rad, I think a really cool like road racing scene. Are we used to? And. A guy actually ended up working with. Now, Chads Barry helped him put on the Oregon Trail gravel grinder. He'd been putting on road races for years and there was a road race. Man, I wanna say. He must have started in oh five, but it was a gorge Rube called it, and we had like six miles of gravel on every lap that was like a 20 mile lap. And it was a cat one, like proper full on road race. And I think one year like net overran was out there with us and like all sorts of like fast dudes. And so we we're riding 23 c. Road tires on gravel, you know, in oh eight or oh nine. And then we slowly started, like after that race he put on a race, he's like, Why don't we just do a race that's totally on gravel? And I think maybe started that in, in 12 and then obviously with everybody else kind of catching up. It was kind of, kind of natural, but it was, it was funny. It was almost weird going to races where we're riding like 30 plus c like cross tires for gravel cuz we're so used to like picking through everything on 20 fives. But, [00:07:47] Craig Dalton: I think my first, in fact, I know my first gravel event was one of those events outside of Bend, maybe in Sisters, and I went up there. I had like a first gen niner. Gravel bike, maybe 30 twos on it. But my buddy that came with me only had a road bike and we kind of read and they were like, You can do it on a road bike. So he was out on a road bike on that. He did get the ship beat out of him, I will say, in all the stutter bumps, but he may manage to survive it. [00:08:16] Matt Lieto: Yeah. Was that the, the, was that the gorge or was it at in Bend? Like near Bend. [00:08:21] Craig Dalton: It was near bend. [00:08:23] Matt Lieto: Okay. Yeah. I mean, dude, yeah, more power. More power to him for sure. And all this being said, like when we were doing this stuff, you know, there was one year when we went from going from like the race with just the eight mile segment to like the full race. I mean, there must have been. 25 guys that flatted in the race, like I've flatted 20 miles in and like the support vehicles like do we're well outta tubes, man. Like you're on your own. So there's definitely like growing pains with how we tried to do it, but it's it's pretty fun. Pretty [00:08:54] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it's so interesting. I mean, we talk about it a lot here just how the equipment has evolved to just make the disasters less frequent, right? Like I just, I had a cross bike back in the day and every time I rode it hard off road on Mount Tam, I would flat and I was just like, Why am I bothering doing this? I might as well just ride a mountain bike and not flat. [00:09:11] Matt Lieto: Yeah, totally. It's, yeah, it's crazy. I think people forget at times what the technology has allowed for us. Like right now I'm looking, I'm, my studio is also where my trainer is, right? So I'm looking at my cella sitting on there and it's, I mean, there, gravel riding wouldn't be around if there would, if disc brakes weren't a thing, right? Like if, if, if we didn't make that move, we wouldn't be doing this. That's why the biggest tires I could ride at those old gravel races were 28. Cause that was on, you know, if you had a cross bike, obviously you could ride something bigger, but it's yeah, it's, it's cool. It's fun. Interesting to see where, where it all goes and where we like stop and we're like, Okay, I'm now riding a mountain bike again. [00:09:51] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I'm, I'm very much there. I mean, people look at my gravel bike. I now have one of those Rudy Suspension forks on it, and I tell people like, you know, where I ride? It's just, it's better, it's faster, it's safer. I'm more comfortable. I go straight up and down the coastal range, there's no in between and I'm flying into things and having the suspension just means I flat less and have more fun. [00:10:13] Matt Lieto: Totally. And so we're, we're on the same page. We're gonna geek out here for a second, but, so I also have, I have the competitor to yours. I have the fox fork. I'm on the East Overland gravel team. We've got Fox and it's, you know, Before that somebody, somebody said, Hey, I want a bike with a fork on it. I'm like, Dude, if you're gonna ride something where you need a suspension fork, ride your fricking mountain bike. Right? Like that was always my line. And they sent me one. They're like, Try it out. And I'm like, just mind blown. Right? Like it is. So much fun. And I'm not even, I used to say, I'm embarrassed to say, I'm not embarrassed to say anymore. It is my favorite bike and I do have like an embarrassment of riches that I've got a couple of my as sparrows. So I have one set up without and one with, and it's just for old dudes with neck issues and like, just everything that comes with being old. It is so much more comfortable, so much more fun. And I did this huge well, not that huge bike packing trip from. Boulderer to Steamboat with Decker this summer and I had my front suspension on and bike packing. It was like game changer cuz like, you're going down embedded rock at 20 miles an hour with all that weight on. Like when you see it, you just like, ugh. This one, I'm like trying to jump stuff and going off little drops and stuff. It's great. [00:11:30] Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah. Same way. Same [00:11:32] Matt Lieto: it'll be, it'll be, it'll be interesting to see where it, where it goes. [00:11:36] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I'm, I'm super interested to see like when the kind of average cyclist starts to see that as being an advantage. Cuz you, you would imagine like people who are really into the sport, like you and I, like, we could suffer, like we could take the abuse if we wanted with a rigid fork and you know, we could make that choice, but we're not, we would seemingly be more willing to take that abuse than the average cyclist should. [00:11:58] Matt Lieto: Totally. And, and, and this is what is, It's like a, I think gravel hit the accelerator when we hit Covid right On like where it was gonna go. Like I'm, I don't know if anybody buys a road bike as their first bike anymore. Right. But a bunch of people buy gravel bikes for their first bike, which is great. I mean, dude, more people on bikes is all great things. I love it. But it's interesting that the, it seems like I, I see people move to Bend and people that live in Bend are on forums and like, Hey, I can, I, can I ride this single track on the gravel bike or da da da, and I'm. That you shouldn't, you shouldn't be doing all this on a full rigid bike. Like, it actually doesn't, like, it's not fun. Like I, I encourage you, like I, I'm, I'm sure you can and I'll support you in trying, but you'll have way more fun if you're on a bike that actually is like, suited for it. And I think, I think those bikes and dude, like, I'm probably a year away from thinking e gravel bikes are the best thing ever. You know, just, you know, seeing people, like I know people, Carl's. Rides an e-bike and they go on 60 mile rides now, where that couldn't happen before. You know, it's just cool. There's, it's great to see where renovation has taken us for for sure. [00:13:07] Craig Dalton: Yeah, a hundred percent. I didn't know I'd see alignment with you so well on these subjects. [00:13:13] Matt Lieto: Oh, it's just Man, Cupid's Cupid's shooting his arrow over here. [00:13:18] Craig Dalton: as you got sucked into kind of gravel racing and I, I remember a few years back you were part of the Eastern Overland team. Sounds like you still are. Did that become more of like where you were getting your kind of racing outta your system? [00:13:33] Matt Lieto: Yeah. Compared to triathlon. Yeah, for sure. And I, when, when I, when I stopped racing triathlon, I, I mean, probably for the last few years I didn't, like, I didn't love it and I, I might not have ever been the person that like loved it, but going from my background as an overweight dude to someone who's. Flying around the world, making a living in a professional sport, it was like pinching me, right? But I always was bummed when I couldn't do the stuff that I really wanted to do. You know, racing bikes and skiing and that and that sort of thing. So when I had the opportunity, you know, Easton Overland, it was probably after my first year at Unbound, I raised with. Craig Richie and some other Michael Vanderham and some dudes there and were like, Hey, we should start this team. They're like, Hey, do you wanna be on this team? I'm like, Okay. And this is way back in the day. And this is funny, like looking back at it now, they're like okay, what will it take you to be on the team? And I said, Okay. Two things. You can never refer to me as a professional gravel racer. Because at the time that didn't exist. Right. And I'm like, Don't do that. And second, you can't pay me anything. , Of course now it's like the, the opposite, going ahead, but just a, a rad group of people and it's all kind of a hobby for us. And you know, the goal is trying to find people that could maybe use gravel as a platform to become athletes, right. And make living off of it. And like we fell into finding Amity the first year and like three months later. One Unbound and it's like, All of us were like, we get no credit for that because we didn't. No offense. Amity, if you're listening, we didn't think you were gonna win on down that first year. Right? So, we are, and she's still involved and she's, she's a sweetheart and she, yeah, she's awesome to still, still be around, but So we continue wanting to try to open doors for people that might not have it. And then for old timers like us that just kind of wanna still have a good time, it allows me to to be around cool folks and ride cool equipment and still go on adventures, which is sweet. [00:15:25] Craig Dalton: Yeah, absolutely. When you think about like the experience of a gravel event, a good gravel event, and then you compare that to like an Ironman day. Are there similarities, like just sort of how you feel, the accomplishment, the journey you have to take throughout some of these events? [00:15:42] Matt Lieto: For for sure. And I definitely, and I think the most similar was Unbound and because it just, I did it in 18 and it, it gave me challenges in ways I didn't think mostly like I flatted three times and that was like, I kind of had some assumption that that would happen, but not to that extent and like, Getting back to the front group till the last flat, like kept going. Like that was, you know, it was like all these, and then you're used to that in triathlon where it's like, it's never the person that has the clean race that wins cuz nobody does. Right. So it's like adapting and, and that I love. So that was really similar but the, the depth of like, it's hard cuz I think I'm gonna get crap for this, but I think every gravel race besides Unbound in my experience is. Way easier than an Ironman. And that's because you're not running, man. And maybe if you're a great runner, you would not say the thing. But I was a shitty runner and I was just trying to get to the finish line every time. Right? So like coasting when you're really freaking tired. That wasn't a thing in triathlon and it is in gravel. So like for me, the shorter ones totally like up to six hours, way easier the unbound. Because you can keep going when you're tired. The like depth of how fatigued you get is like a different level cuz Ironman, I've done it like nine hours max. And if you're struggling it's your like legs that are tweaking out or like you like stop where in. In Kansas, you're just, you have to keep going and you're like, your, your level is well below E so it's it's cool. Like you definitely have to like figure out where, where your energy's coming from. And again, the similarities for me, the, the problem solving is, is fun. I mean, the last, the last aid, the last stop at Unbound, after I had, I'd finally kind of cracked after the third flat. And I call into the guys and I'm like, It's. Coke and gummy orange slices, and they're like, What do you mean? I'm like, Everything . And they like changed it. I literally ate like, you know, three pounds of orange slices you get at the gas station and, you know, 96 ounces of Coke to get to the finish line. Like it's, it's, it's chaos. It's awesome. It's super awesome. [00:18:10] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I, you know, it's interesting, you know, I enjoy talking to people with a triathlon background cuz I was a hobbyist triathlete. Like, I'm like a, I don't know, a 11 and a half hour Iron man kind of guy. But what I learned early on was like, you just, you can't cut corners. Like you have to think about your nutrition. You have to think about what's next. Something's always gonna go wrong. And then when I started doing these gravel events, it was the same way. It was like, not like I was an exceptional athlete, but I just. Get bothered if stuff went wrong. Like my bike was gonna break, I was gonna fix it. I was gonna keep going. I was gonna bonk, but you know, half the people ahead of me were gonna go through the same thing and it's just a matter of keeping the pedals going forward. [00:18:49] Matt Lieto: Totally. And I think you get to the point where when something happens and you have a struggle, whether it's nutrition or mechanical, like as quickly as possible, you figure out and triage like, is this fixable? Okay. If it's not, then like, what's my clears out? Like how do I get what I need? And then, Then you keep going. It's, yeah, it's super fun. And that being said, like I don't know that I've ever not finished a gravel race. And in most cases, like again, like at Unbound, that first year, Not that like, whatever, but a lot of people then didn't know what they do now, and people would've been like, Okay, my race is over. But it's like, No, stick a plug in it, Chase back on blah, blah, blah. Like I was still in the race till, you know, 140 miles or something, till I got my third one. So it's like, it's not the way you'd wanna do it, but it's like there's always opportunities and all that being said, game has changed since then. I'm not, that's not an option I don't think at the the frog group anymore over [00:19:42] Craig Dalton: Yeah, Yeah, yeah. I think you're right. All right. I wanna take a pretty hard detour and talk about protect our winters. Can you just kind of give the listener an overview? What, what the heck is it? [00:19:56] Matt Lieto: So it's Protect Our Winners is a nonprofit that was started actually by. Jeremy Jones I wanna say it was like 2007. And he's a professional snowboarder. Now runs a company called Jones Snowboards. The people, if you search for him, you'll, you'll find him. Pretty, pretty rad dude. Pretty, pretty cool. Like in hindsight, now looking at him, I went to DC with him and it's like, it's hilarious. It's like, You know, Broey snowboarder dudes like started this like full machine. That's like helping us survive the next little bit on earth. But yeah, I think I won't assume what his story was cause like, I won't tell it as well as he did, but basically just going out in the, and exploring the, the zones that he loved, but also obviously depended on to make a living. He saw that it was all changing, right? Like the winters. I mean, it's a very, it is a very yeah, I mean, he, he, he, he definitely saw, he saw the issue and was like, Man, what can I do to fix this? And like, I think it was a very bold, at the time, thought to be like, I'm gonna be able to make a difference. But I think he and I, dude, I mean, I'm sure if he talked to him now, there's no way he, he would. Protector what is, would be where it's at. But basically he's, you know, trying to, to make a change and use voices of, you know, obviously it started in winter sport, so winter sport athletes to to, you know, he obviously had a platform to talk to people that were fans of snowboarding and for him specifically to be like, Hey, This is real. The, the world is changing and it's, it's not going in the right direction for us to be able to do what we want to do for fun. And then started obviously using other people in winter sports and then summer sports and so on and so on. To try to, to broaden the, you know, I think it, it was not lucky, but like maybe a little bit lucky. The growth of protect our winners happened at the same time. Is social media kind of taking off because the kind of ambassadors and alliance members that these guys have aligned with are able to reach a lot of people that care about where they live, but maybe don't think that they can have an impact or do anything with it. And I think that the overarching vibe I get from protect our winners and talking to the folks is just like, Man, you. You can be involved, you can make a difference. And if, And right now, especially like voting is, is huge. And if these alliance members or these, you know, people like Jeremy can, you know, influence or followers to no matter what your viewpoint is, to go out and and vote. And preferably if you're part of what we refer to as an outdoor state, which is anybody that participates in outdoor sports, whether you're a hunter or fisherman or whatever, like you probably. About what's gonna happen to our planet in the next little bit. Whether it's cuz it's what you do for spare time or you know, for me, living in Bend, know, it affects the community. You know, like fire is real and fire season has always, always kind of been a thing. But now it's like fire season is like a month and it might. [00:23:09] Craig Dalton: Yeah. [00:23:10] Matt Lieto: Two weeks, man, where like the AQI is over 400 and you're not going outside to do anything if, and like if you're inside, you got an air filter and you're still not doing anything, right. So it's, for me, that was kind of the, the crux was, was getting out and you know, seeing that, that there's a problem that needs to be solved. But again, I think protect our winners does a good job and be like, there is. Something that you can do to, to help. And I mean, I know you've got a similar, you know, viewpoint and concern and you know, wanting to to impact as well. What was it like for you to try to be like, Okay, I'm this like little dot, how do I like, I think that's the first thing, right? Is like, well, there's nothing I can do. Right? Like me recycling isn't gonna [00:23:53] Craig Dalton: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, you know, going back to Jeremy's like the origin story, like it's really natural, like as a snowboarder who goes back to the same mountain year after year, to kind of understand visually like where the snow pack level is, where you know what's possible to ride and that's what's not possible to ride. And I think what I started seeing in California, With the droughts and the wildfires is like the reservoirs I would go by were just shockingly low. And then combine that with, as you were just saying, like having to actually know what AQI is and get a little app on my phone to look at it every single year to see the effect of smoke blowing into our community from forest fires. It was just really stark. . And that's what I found interesting about the Athletes Alliance is like anybody who touches the outdoors, if you're a gravel cyclist, a rock climber, you're seeing it firsthand happening in front of you. [00:24:48] Matt Lieto: Oh for sure. And it's, it's funny you say that cuz you know, living in Bend and I grew up in Northern California and cut my teeth raising bikes and stuff down there and I'll go down for MIGS races in Grasshopper stuff and in Norco. And I mean, one year on the way back, I had to like go a different way home because the way I was wanted to go home was on fire. And it's, you know, not the same as it used to be. And it's it's sketchy, right? And it's it's, it's real. But again, honestly like. I've got buddies that are involved with Protect our winners. And that's why I kind of got involved myself is them just chatting and thinking I had a platform, and obviously knowing that I'm aligned politically and care about the same things, but for me, and I don't know if it's the same for you, but for me it was like, well, what, what the heck can I do? Right? Like if, if I, I think the, the last few years people just feel like be down. Like we're not gonna be able to, to change anything. Right? Like, where, where are you? Where's your head? [00:25:48] Craig Dalton: Yeah. I think, you know, early on in my, my sort of life post college, I used to think about politics, honestly, like every four years in the filter of. Who's the presidential candidate that I get behind and is probably the last kind of maybe eight to 12 years that I just started to realize, like having a say in who's representing you locally and having those preponderance of voices. Starts to, to make a difference. And I did some phone banking to try to get people out to vote for candidates. And I started to realize there was like this huge disconnect for people. Like, they just didn't even make a plan to vote. They didn't make it a priority. And I, I just started to think to myself like, it's only a few times a year you're asked to vote. It's not that big a deal and spend a little time getting educat. About what the candidates are there for, and if it whatever lands for you, support them, do it. This is like our civic responsibility not to be up on a [00:26:49] Matt Lieto: Yeah, for sure. And it, yeah, it's not, it's not, again, it's not that hard and depending, and I'm speaking from a, a place of privilege, right? For me, it's not that hard. For you, it's probably not that hard either. In Oregon we have male and voting, so it's like incredibly easy. If someone in Oregon said it's hard, it's because they're lazy in my opinion. Or you. I shouldn't judge. But anyways, it, it is pretty darn easy compared to, to what it used to be. We're not standing in line for an hour at a time. Right. It's, it's pretty simple and it. It's impactful. Right? And I think that's the important thing and, and there's so many resources to be able to, It's not like these days, like clearly you can go and get the pamphlet they send you and read through everything, or you can, I mean, you could probably Google, what should I vote for having this opinion? And I'll find it conveniently. Here's a plug. Stoked the Vote Campaign from Powell. You can actually just text 6 5 3 51 text stoke to that number and they'll like tell you where their nearest polling spot is. And if you want, they'll actually give you you know, some, a voter guide that kind of tells you who to vote for or what This is under the action fund of protect our winners, kind of a sister, sister company and they'll, they'll tell you kind of where to vote and what line to vote on. Your concern is the environment and specifically this go around. It's like Montana, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado. I think Utah are like super, super important. So if you live in any of those states and you happen to be listening text 65, 3 51 and they'll let you know. But like, I mean, me and my buddies and, you know, cycling I think is a very social pastime and me and my cycling buddies every year. Every four years or every two years, we'll, like have a dinner party and everybody brings their, like, not their ballots necessarily brings their pamphlets and will like talk about it. Right. And like, we're never getting in arguments or anything. We're just like saying what everything is and kind of, I don't know. I, I think it's it brings something more to our like friendship and like our casual hanging out more than just like talking about bikes. And it's, it's kind of fun to like hash it out, you know. [00:28:58] Craig Dalton: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I was visiting the protect our winters.org site today and clicked on the Stok Stoke vote and saw that whole process that you mentioned over text message, like I put in my name, my address clicked through, told me all about the California deadlines, how to return the ballot, how to track the ballot. And I think I was, I was reading cuz they had, it sort of had an interesting breakdown. The fundamentals. It's like, okay, make sure you're registered to vote and how can kind of help facilitate you finding that information out. If you're not registered to vote, make a plan to vote. So make it easy. Get the stuff in front of you so you can figure out how physically you're gonna vote, whether you're gonna mail it in, whether you're gonna walk in and, and, and submit the ballot and cast your vote. And again, how, how you should be looking at your local ballot measures from the context of we all love this thing, gravel cycling. Whether you believe it or not, it's happening that it's, it's it's being impacted and whether it's massive rainstorms in the Midwest for the early season, mid-south gravel races or mammoth tough getting canceled because of California wildfires. Same thing's happening in Oregon. Like all this stuff, it's right as our, at our doorstep as gravel athletes and you cannot close your eyes. You have to get out there. [00:30:18] Matt Lieto: No. Totally. Yeah, a hundred percent. You you said it said it perfectly and I think it's hard too, cuz I think at at times with how crazy our political environment is right now, that people just, you know, don't believe. Everything, you know, people have, have some people have doubts in the political system in general that is like, look at the facts. We're not gonna go down that, that rabbit hole. But even if it is, like, try, like all you can do is try, right? And I, I'm pretty confident that my vote's gonna make a difference. But I think the big thing that you can ignore is I think sometimes, especially in you know, where I live from where I live and my beliefs, people just, we just assume, like you look at the polls, you're like, everything's. It's like, no dude, do not trust the polls. Like we, That is not something that we can rely on and I think for so many reasons outside of what we're talking about now, even it's so important this next election and, and I think it's hard because I think a lot of the people that are disillusioned a little bit, Are folks that are young folks and a lot of those people aren't voting. And a lot of people that like myself are kind of live in a, a area of, of privilege to a certain extent. You think, Wow, whatever. Everything's fine. Like, I don't need to vote, But it's like, man, no, you do. And no matter what, where you live and what your socioeconomic zone is or what you do for a past time, Something in this next election is going to affect you. Right? So if you care about it or you care about, it's certainly gonna affect someone you love. So get out there and get off your ass. And in my case, I don't even have to get off my ass. They just send the ballot to me and I put it in my mailbox and send it back. So there's yeah, it's, it's, it's a, it's a great time to want to be involved, [00:32:06] Craig Dalton: And I think there's, there's such a thing as political will and just whether you're in a region that has climate favorable policies and that's the prevailing kind of political, political wisdom, great. You still need to st show up and show that we've got massive amounts of support. For these kind of things because there's other parts in the country that you know, don't have the same kind of support, have a lot more headwinds to addressing climate change, and every little bit helps. [00:32:36] Matt Lieto: For sure. And I think there's the, even the, the other side of it is there's, and me. The first, when I first got involved with P I was like, Man, I'm not gonna be able to make a difference. Like, People have been trying to, to make a change in this for years. It's, you know, there's still people that don't believe that climate change is real and all this stuff. Right? And then I went, I was lucky enough to be able to go to Washington DC with protect our winners and, and a bunch of folks through the Athlete Alliance and the Creative Inside Alliance and like sitting down and talking to senators and congressmen and stuff, and, Crazy. I'm like, Whatever. I'm here. We'll see if you guys think I can make a difference, whatever. Not that I'm, I think that I did, but in every conversation we're sitting down with very conservative representatives and not one of them did we spend any time debating whether or not it's real and like, that's stinking huge man. Like that was not the case four years ago. And like I was in a couple meetings with Jeremy Jones and he left. He's like, Dude that is, That is not how this used to be. So keeping like being annoying and knocking on the door and saying, Hey, this is important to me. And of course like we're going there with the like facts, like, hey, the outdoor state is, you know, over 600 million people and this many dollars is going into it. So you start talking their language a little bit, be like, Hey, if my town burns down, then they're gonna lose this much money and blah, blah, blah, whatever it is. But like to leave that. Have the, like, conservative Congress people like High Five and be like, Hey, send me an email. Let us know how we can help. Is like awesome. It's really cool. [00:34:15] Craig Dalton: Yeah. That's amazing. What an amazing experience to see government working like that. Maybe it's not working fast enough, but just to, to be there and having the conversation like that's important. [00:34:25] Matt Lieto: totally. And, and you know, and, and, and p is definitely. I feel lucky being able to have that firsthand experience. But anybody who's involved in power or supporting p is, you know, helping all that infrastructure be around for us to go there and do that. And like, you know, before the last vote for the bill for you know, bunch of money going to climate change and relief and stuff, you know, I was like, email. Swing voting representatives, right? It's like, that's crazy, man. They're emailing back like, it's pretty cool. So like, you know, bragging a little bit about what Powell does, like there's a bunch of stinking smart people making the right moves and. It's hard too. Cause I think go a little bit of a tangent. I think, and this was my barrier to being involved with Powell. And if it wasn't for my buddies, I probably wouldn't have been because man, I don't know how good you are at like sorting your recycling, but like, I'm not very good like, I'm, I'm imperfect when it comes to this stuff. Right? And one of P's big things is it's imperfect advocacy, man. Like in the end, like I'm still trying to get better at all that, Right? And like, I want to eventually get an ev cuz it makes a lot of sense on a bunch of different levels. And, you know, I, I recycle and I try to do everything. I can take my bag to like everything I can, but in the end, the, the personal change isn't really as big of an impact. And I'm being polite. It's the systemic change that is gonna get us out of this shit. And that's what protect our winners is, is shooting for. And they're like combining all these resources of these people to go where it actually matters. And if we can get, you know, every ski resort to change to, to being more efficient and, you know, you know, government to be able to, to, to function at a level where we're using renewable resources and things that we can do now. And that's one big thing with POW two is that right now they're just like, Keep an eye down the road, but like we're looking like right now, like near horizon stuff, stuff we can change now because if we can convince people in the government to put, give energy into doing something like let's do the stuff that we can take care of now. And so they're like kind of cleaving on that, where I think there's, there's a lot of other people looking down towards the road, you know, further down the road. [00:36:39] Craig Dalton: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I'm so glad this conversation was able to happen now, and you know, I kind of turned myself a little bit inside out thinking, Oh, I got a couple podcasts I'm supposed to put out there. Then it dawned on me like, What, what, what am I doing? Like we got one week until the midterm elections, If we can change the couple minds and get some people to make a plan to vote. If we can expose them to Powell's efforts over the long term, like that's what I need to be doing and I hate to be soak boxy to the listener. As I mentioned to you offline, Like I tend to sit back and not say a whole hell of a lot, but I really do believe it's important to get out there and make a plan and vote, and you've got time to do it this year. [00:37:17] Matt Lieto: dude. For sure. For sure. And I mean, I, I, I don't mean to diminish as I did in the past, like, you know, I've been a slacker in the past too. I mean, when I was younger I didn't vote because I was lazy or whatever. But. And I'm sure there were issues that were very, very important then that I ignored. But I think now it's kind of hard to, to look and think that this election specifically isn't super important. And again, kind of the, the, the, the moves that have been made just in the last couple months to help in climate change. You know, if everything changes in two weeks. They can cleave a bunch of that and take that stuff back, right? Like the way our, our system works. So it's like we're all celebrating high fiving that we've got this thing across the line, but in the end, if we vote the wrong people in in two weeks, then that's gone and we're back at ground zero. Right? [00:38:08] Craig Dalton: Yeah, you're back at Mile one 50. The Unbound 200, right, right. Again, [00:38:12] Matt Lieto: That's the worst place to. [00:38:15] Craig Dalton: Exactly. [00:38:16] Matt Lieto: That's the worst place to be. So close, but yet so far. That's a great analogy. I think we're gonna start using that at Powell one 50 at [00:38:23] Craig Dalton: Right on. [00:38:24] Matt Lieto: Yeah. That's too funny. Well, dude, yeah, no, and it, I will echo what you just said. And again, I, I'm similar to you. I don't assume that people wanna listen to my opinion very often, but it comes to a point where, like, right now I don't care. So I apologize if you, you guys don't wanna hear my opinion, but in the end, I don't even care who you vote for or what you vote for. Go out and vote, right? Like that's your responsibility and we're able to do that in this country. And I don't think we should take that for granted. Clearly. I'd, I'd like you to support you know, voters or people that are coming in to, to help with climate change cuz it's affecting what we're doing, gravel racing, what we're doing in winter sports and, you know, us surviving the next. The next century. So, if you've got the capability, get out, get out and vote. [00:39:10] Craig Dalton: Yeah. Goodness. Said it better myself, Matt. Cool. Well, great to get to know you a little bit. I can't wait to run into you at some of these gravel events down the line, and I appreciate all your. [00:39:20] Matt Lieto: Yeah. Thanks. The, thanks for having me on and bringing a little attention, Toal and, yeah, we'll, we'll get some, we'll get some gravel riding in a bend or Norco. I'll be down there soon enough. [00:39:29] Craig Dalton: Right on.   [00:39:30] Craig Dalton: That's going to do it for this week's edition of the gravel ride podcast. Normally I would be taking a moment to ask for your support with a rating or review. But this week, I just want you to get out there and vote. Make sure you're organized. Make sure you've got your ballot. If you're not registered already figure out if it's possible to register at this moment in your state. But get out there and do it. No excuses this year. Until next time. Here's to finding some dirt under your wheels

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains a lengthy discussion on mental health, depression, anxiety, self harm, and suicidal ideation. In the season eight finale of the show (the fifth episode of the season, and the 48th episode overall) Kevin welcomes writer and podcast host Anna Borges to the show. Anna is the author of The More or Less Definitive to Self-Care, and the host of the mental health podcast Mood Ring. The two talk about the expression "theatre kid," being depressed teenagers who turned into depressed adults, and Anna's love of the Spotify algorithm. To learn more about Anna, please follow her on Twitter or Instagram. The essay "I Am Not Always Very Attached to Being Alive," can be read here. Subscribe to the podcast she hosts, Mood Ring, here. For additional information about Anhedonic Headphones, please click here.    Episode Musical Credits Intro Music: "Brooklyn Zoo (instrumental)," written by Russell Jones, Dennis Coles, and Robert Diggs; originally performed by Ol' Dirty Bastard. Taken from the Get On Down reissue of Return to The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, 2011.  Outro Music: "What Does Your Soul Looks Like (Part 4)," performed by DJ Shadow. Endtroducing..., Mo Wax, 1996. Incidental Music: "Cymbal Rush," written by Thom Yorke; performed by Christopher O'Riley.   “My Immortal,” written by Amy Lee, Ben Moody, and David Hodges ;performed by Evanescence. Fallen, Wind Up, 2003. “Addicted,” written by Pierre Bouvier, Chuck Comeau, Arnold Lanni, Sébastien Lefebvre, and Jeff Stinco ;performed by Simple Plan. No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls, Warner Brothers, 2003. “All Hail The Heartbreaker," written and performed by The Spill Canvas. Sunsets and Car Crashes, One Eleven Records, 2003. “Be Calm,” written by Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, Jack Antonoff, and Sam Means; performed by fun. Aim and Ignite, fun music, 2009 “Are You Satisfied,” written by Marina Diamandis; performed by Marina And The Diamonds. The Family Jewels, 679 Recordings, 2010. “Black Sheep,” written by Gin Wigmore and Butch Walker; performed by Gin Wigmore. Gravel and Wine, Universal Music, 2011 “Scream," written by Harry Springer; performed by The Midnight Club. Self released 2019 “C'est La Mort,” written by Joy Williams and John Paul White; performed by The Civil Wars. Barton Hollow, Columbia, 2011. “Dust and Ashes,” written by Dave Malloy; performed by Josh Groban. Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812, Reprise, 2017. “House by The Sea,” written by Pål Moddi Knutsen; performed by Moddi. Set The House on Fire, Propeller, 2013. “Stranger,” written by Thomas Freeman; performed by Covey. Self-released, 2015

This week we come to you with recordings live from the Big Sugar Gravel event in Bentonville, AR. Conversations with Litespeed, Obed, Kuat, BMC, HED, ROTOR, Allied, and more. Support the Podcast Join The Ridership       

Sydney Marshburn was a competitive swimmer until a condiiton required amputation of her left leg above the knee in August of 2021. As she recovered she entered and won an entry for the SBT GRVL race in a contest from Click Medical. Her story is inspiring!   Download or find links in your favorite Podcast App (remember to rate and review!) https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/consummateathlete   Show Sponsor - Athletic Greens Use the Link - athleticgreens.com/mollyh  to get your free bonus of a free 1-year supply of Vitamin D and 5 Free Travel Packs   Show Notes Articlce about Sydney's Recovery and finding gravel https://clickmedical.co/sydney-marshburn-the-gravel-road-to-recovery/   Links to Our Article Archive & Services: ConsummateAthlete.com   SUPPORT THE SHOW WHILE YOU SHOP:  https://amzn.to/3Aej4jl to shop amazon   Subscribe to our Newsletter ->  It's free and brings the latest podcast, post and clinic/event information to you each Monday   Book a Call to Discuss Your Training - https://calendly.com/smartathlete   Books By Molly Hurford  https://amzn.to/3bOztkN   Get The Consummate Athlete Book - LINK Follow The Consummate Athlete on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook Follow Molly Hurford on Twitter and on Instagram Follow Peter Glassford Follow @PeterGlassford on Instagram and Twitter   Past guests Include: Stacy Sims, Stephen Seiler, Simon Marshall, Frank Overton, Dean Golich, Joe Friel, Marco Altini Katerina Nash, Geoff Kabush, Ellen Noble, Phil Gaimon, David Roche, Matt Fitzgerald, Dr. Marc Bubbs, Christopher McDougall, Rebecca Rusch, Kate Courtney, David Epstein and many more

So excited to bring Pamela Harper back to the podcast to talk about her new Gravel Team/Group : I Love Gravel Racing and how she started a Gravel Race Points Series: Showcasing USA and Canadian Gravel Races.

O Gregario Radio é um oferecimento de Session Brasil (@sessionbrasil). We Make you Faster. Visite o site: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa3ZsRkx1RDhkQzc5VjVKNlRNakNvMUdQS1MzZ3xBQ3Jtc0tuWkhuRXJ4a3N5elNQS2loRnBTZVNjMWdMSy1XR2JzRzRLQkIyM2I1VzkxTzNWSlRoMUI2ZGtudE5qMmpuZl9Tcl9ZeXBUUkxDYURxLXNndGJNUXZ4VDlwRk5sT0lIN09wcU4tUjdPeFlyaHVtaG81OA&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sessionbrasil.com.br%2F&v=HY8tR_ZMeD0 (http://www.sessionbrasil.com.br) Nosso encontro semanal está garantido com muita informação. A temporada de estrada chegou ao fim, mas tem Gravel, MTB, Ciclocross, Bike Series, Mundial de Pista Paralímpico e, claro, a expectativa para as grandes voltas de 2023. O Giro d'Italia lançou seu percurso e nesta quinta é a vez do Tour de France. E temos uma novidade para você! This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

In episode 38, Ashley starts us off with the case of Stephanie Lyn Crane, whose disappearance quite possibly ties in with the case of Amber Hoopes in episode 37. Our "Between the Cheeks" headline this week felt too close for comfort, and Cody details the case of Suzanne Nahuela Jovin, who had been left to die just outside her Yale University Campus. 

George, Ash and Stan from BikeRadar dissect a bumper week for road and gravel tech, covering the launch of the new Specialized Diverge STR and Bianchi Oltre RC, as well as the return of the Bespoked show.As Specialized's first take on a full-suspension gravel bike, the Diverge STR introduces Future Shock Rear, a tendon-like system with 30mm of travel.The Oltre RC, meanwhile, is Bianchi's next-generation aero road bike, complete with F1-inspired Air Deflector wings on the head tube.The trio also reflect on the 2022 edition of Bespoked, the UK's leading handmade bicycle show. What weird and wonderful machines did we find in London?New Specialized Diverge – https://www.bikeradar.com/news/2023-specialized-diverge-str/New Bianchi Oltre RC – https://www.bikeradar.com/news/bianchi-oltre-rc/BikeRadar's Bespoked 2022 coverage – https://www.bikeradar.com/events/bespoked/Bespoked gallery – https://www.bikeradar.com/features/2022-bespoked-gallery/Sturdy reveals the Eimar, a 3D-printed, titanium time-trial bike – https://www.bikeradar.com/news/sturdy-eimar-time-trial-bike/Josh Poertner podcast – https://play.acast.com/s/bikeradarpodcast/bikeradar-meets-josh-poertner-of-silca-on-marginal-gains Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One fun fact came out during our discussions with Specialized engineering mastermind Chris D'Aluisio: much of his testing of the company's new Diverge STR fully suspended gravel bike has been on tarmac with a full complement of road components. In his words? “It's awesome!” That got us thinking, especially given D'Aluisio's background in Moto GP racing: if full suspension is good for gravel, then might it also make sense on the road, too? Give this one a listen before you pick up the pitchfork.

Spencer Martin of Beyond the Peloton & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast discuss what the future holds for gravel cycling as it gets more and more popular before debating if there is a viable business future for North American professional road racing. Read Andrew's recent essay on the 'spirit of gravel' Get in-depth race breakdowns with the BTP newsletter Listen to Andrew's Choose the Hard Way Podcast Hit up Andrew (@vontz) & Spencer (@btpcycling) on Twitter with your questions, opinions, and anything else cycling related

Hannah Shell is a professional gravel privateer, powered by Vantage Racing and fueled by The Feed! She's racing the biggest gravel races in the U.S. as well as the Lifetime Grand Prix. She sparked my interest when she posted a strong opinion regarding the structure of the elite women's race at the recent UCI Gravel World Championships (NOT the Pirate Cycling League's Gravel Worlds in Nebraska!). I contacted her to have a conversation about the ever evolving gravel landscape. She was open and willing to share her opinions, which I did as well! We also get to know this long-time professional road racer who got hooked on gravel with a great result in her first gravel race a handful of years ago!It was fun getting to know her and I really enjoyed our conversation about the state of gravel. Be sure and follow her adventures on her bike and as she travels the country in her RV with her hubby Jake and two cats - find her on the gram at @hannhgshell. If you have opinions about the growth of gravel at the UCI level - look for that contact form here and let your voices be heard!Thanks again for listening to Bike Talk with Dave! I'd love if if you'd be so kind as to support the show by rating and reviewing, and sharing with friends! If you'd like to support the show financially, and help it improve, you can go to BuyMeACoffee.com or hit me on Venmo at @David.Mable and throw some loving my way - I'll use it to make the podcast better - I've got some ideas I'd love to implement! If you do I'll send you a Bike Talk with Dave sticker for your tool box or maybe the rear window of your RV!https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dmable122QAs a Bike Talk with Dave listener, you're welcome to a free three-month subscription to the Adventure Plus streaming platform! A streaming service with hundreds of awesome adventure films! Just click the link below and get registered for 90 days where you can watch more than 600 films on cycling, skiing, surfing, running, mountain and rock climbing- pretty much all the cool stuff! Head on over to adventureplus.com - click the link below for the free trial! https://adventureplus.com/orders/complete_order?o=76196I want to thank bikeiowa.com for being the online host of Bike Talk with Dave - BikeIowa.com where you can find all kinds of cycling events, news, information and trails in Iowa and around the midwest!Bike Talk with Dave is a production of Summit Media Films, an award-winning indy film company that is not afraid of snow. Check out our films at AdventurePlus.com with your free 90 day subscription! That's 1000 Miles to Nome and Down the Kuskokwim, our films on the Iditarod Trail, and Reach for the Stars about a 100 mile run on the hilly gravel roads of south central Iowa.

What we discussed: 0:00 - Intro 2:07 - Announcements 4:38 - Why is frequency (consistency) more important than intensity? 6:13 - How many days is Josh riding in a week? 7:45 - How did Josh model his program? 10:33 - Does Josh hold back too when it comes to leg training? 14:07 - Why is it hard to bounce back if you are inconsistently training? 17:59 - What variable is often neglected when doing intensity training? 20:20 - Josh' favorite way of preparing for sessions? 21:42 - What is a T-Spine? 24:51 - Derek's take on Josh' prep sessions 28:23 - What is core bracing? 33:56 - Josh' additional tips in terms of warm ups 35:50 - What is Post Activation Potentiation and when to implement it? 39:35 - Heart of Gold Gravel Race recap Check out our 7-Day Free trial: www.dialedhealth.com Get more daily content from Dialed Health: Instagram: @dialedhealth Youtube: Dialed Health | Double Everest Ride Website: www.dialedhealth.com App: iOS App | Android App

Sean and Melinda Cool decided they wanted to watch a stage of the Tour de France in France rather than on TV. It took quite a lot of preparation and they were kind enough to come on the podcast to share how they pulled it off. It's a lot of preparation, so take a listen, take out your pen and paper because 2023 could be the year you do it too! They were in person for the stages of Carcassonne, Foix and Peyragudes, so they did this 3 times! They did not bring their own bikes, but rented bikes locally and that worked out for them as well. There will be another episode soon with folks who brough their own bikes over from the US to follow the Tour. Why watching a stage of the Tour de France in France is wonderful You don't get to chat with fellow Tour enthusiasts when you watch the Tour on TV They had good luck with a bike shop called Evadeo in Carcassonne, recommended You can ride along the Canal du Midi Getting stuff like shirts and hats from the Caravan Use the Tour de France App Ask Tourist Offices about road closures, they'll know a few days before the Tour People following the Tour in their RV   Table of Contents for 'Watching a stage of the Tour de France in France' with links to the text transcript   [00:00:14] Intro [00:00:37] Today on the podcast [00:01:00] Supporters of the podcast [00:01:31] Thank you new patrons [00:02:55] Join us on Patreon [00:03:55] Show notes and transcript [00:04:21] Next week on the podcast [00:04:39] Supporting Elyse [00:04:58] Feedback and newsletter [00:05:56] Melinda and Sean [00:06:48] The difference between being there in person and watching it on tv [00:09:00] The stages they followed [00:10:16] Why Carcasonne [00:11:16] Shakeout rides [00:12:13] Bike rides from Carcassonne to Trèbes [00:13:34] Gravel bike for rides along the Canal du Midi [00:16:03] Tips for Riding Bikes Around Carcassonne [00:17:25] Be Careful with Google Biking Directions [00:18:16] About Restaurants in Carcassonne [00:20:24] Everyone is more relaxed in Carcassonne [00:20:50] Eating too much foie gras while waiting for the Tour to come by! [00:22:23] Boulangerie in Carcassonne [00:23:53] Public transpot in Carcassonne[00:23:53] Figuring out the local bus company [00:24:44] The Caravan of the Tour de France [00:27:02] Getting the good stuff as the Caravan goes by [00:27:49] You can buy official jerseys at the start and finish lines [00:29:07] Watching a stage of the Tour de France in Foix [00:29:36] Beware of Road Closures around the Tour de France [00:31:53] Made some friends [00:33:56] Last stop [00:34:54] Chasing the cyclists [00:36:20] Following the race action on the app [00:36:24] Following the race live with the Tour de France App [00:36:51] Staying informed about road closures [00:38:18] Was it all they had hoped? [00:39:03] Tips for riding the tour yourself [00:41:05] The route of the 2023 Tour should be announced soon   More episodes about active vacations in France FOLLOW US ON: Email | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter Support the Show Tip Your Guides Extras Patreon Audio Tours Merchandise Read more about this episode Transcript  Categories: Active Vacations in France, France How To

Nice Eclectic Mix for a Saturday Afternoon in the shop at Seaweed & Gravel. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Under the table lotto scratchers

In this episode of the BikeRadar Podcast we look a little deeper at tyre inserts.These loops of foam sit inside your tyres, offering puncture protection and improved tyre stability.But, do they work well? Are they worth investing in? And, are they easy to fit? Our tech-heads Warren Rossiter and Luke Marshall wade in with their experiences of using tyre inserts in their gravel bikes and mountain bikes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vom Kalorienzählen bis Satelliten Notfallrettung ist heute alles dabei! Der App-Wahnsinn mit all seinen Sport-GPS-Geräten erreicht einen neuen Höhepunkt. Und Ingo ist voll drin und testet alles aus: Apple Watch Ultra, Garmin ENDURO 2 & natürlich seine COROS Vertix 2. Dazu kommt dann noch ein neuer Wahoo Elemnt Roam 2 - der für viele eigentlich eher ein Roam 1.1 ist. Freut Euch auf nerdigen Talk über Geräte & Apps, die für den einen unnützes Zeug sind und die der andere voll im Einsatz hat.

What's up party people. We've got another monster episode for y'all today. Dizzle Dillman's back in the hot seat and we're talking UCI Gravel World Championships, Belgian Waffle Ride Michigan, Waterloo World Cup (Trek CX Cup), the most legendary of legends races, and a whole lot more so stick around til the end to hear all the banter. Send any feedback and questions for the show to @scottmcgilljr @dylanjawnson and @adamsaban6 on the ol'  Instamachine. For more Dylan Johnson content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIf1xvRN8pzyd_VfLgj_dow   Intro/ Outro music by AlexGrohl on Pixabay.com - https://pixabay.com/music/id-111445/ 

To lift, or not to lift? That is the question. Or, more specifically, how and when should bike riders and endurance athletes lift weights? What should roadies do? What should triathletes do? What about mountain bike and gravel? Here to guide us through the why and the how is Coach Suzie Snyder, just back from the Xterra world championships. Suzie is an NSCA certified strength and conditioning specialist and a five-time national Xterra champion. Coach Suzie explains some general principles that apply to all endurance athletes, then breaks down some specific strength and conditioning exercises that each type of athlete should do. Here are five videos with Suzie demonstrating quick and effective strength and conditioning exercises: https://fascatcoaching.com/blogs/training-tips/video-5-quick-effective-strength-conditioning-exercises Be sure to use the code "25podcast" to get 25% off your first training plan on FasCatCoaching.com. All our plans are backed by a 100% money-back guarantee and we have more than 1,000 five-star reviews.    

What's going on guys, welcome back to another episode of Coffee and Van Chats on the Out of Collective Network. This week we sat down with pro gravel cyclist Peter Stetina and chatted about the gravel culture and what is acceptable!  Instagram: @johnccroom  Twitter: @coffeevanpod Tiktok: @johncroom Merch – johncroomcycling.com [...] The post Coffee & Van Chats – E125 – Peter Stetina on Gravel Culture appeared first on Out Of Collective.

Martin and Kara Smith, residents of Birdeye, Arkansas, share their vision of revitalizing the Arkansas Delta through a network of gravel bike routes along Crowley's Ridge and throughout the delta region. Cultural immersion by bicycles and backroads.

Helena Coelho (@helena.ccoelho) e Werther Krohling (@werther_k) batem um papo cheio de Girl Power sobre o primeiro Basecamp do coletivo Mulheres de Gravel. Nessa delícia de conversa com as divas...

O Gregario Radio é um oferecimento de Session Brasil (@sessionbrasil). We Make you Faster. Visite o site: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa3ZsRkx1RDhkQzc5VjVKNlRNakNvMUdQS1MzZ3xBQ3Jtc0tuWkhuRXJ4a3N5elNQS2loRnBTZVNjMWdMSy1XR2JzRzRLQkIyM2I1VzkxTzNWSlRoMUI2ZGtudE5qMmpuZl9Tcl9ZeXBUUkxDYURxLXNndGJNUXZ4VDlwRk5sT0lIN09wcU4tUjdPeFlyaHVtaG81OA&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sessionbrasil.com.br%2F&v=HY8tR_ZMeD0 (http://www.sessionbrasil.com.br) O RADIO da semana recheado de ótimos assuntos. Um fim de semana marcado pelo fechamento do calendário WT e WWT, mas também com o final de uma era. Agora é sério (será?) Vincenzo Nibali, Alejandro Valverde e Philippe Gilbert estão entre os nomes que anunciaram aposentadoria após as disputas deste final de semana. Quem viu, nunca vai se esquecer. Quem não viu, agora só em reprise. Não tem como deixar passar em branco esse momento. Mas não tememos o futuro. Tadej Pogacar venceu a Monumental Lombardia e termina 2022 reivindicando de volta o título de melhor ciclista da atualidade. No feminino, a melhor ciclista do mundo não teve vida fácil. Annemiek Van Vleuten estreou a camisa arco-íris, completou 40 anos de idade, mas foi superada por Asheigh Moolman na Volta da Romandia. Na pauta também, o incrível recorde da hora do Filippo Ganna, o polêmico Mundial de Gravel, o Brasileiro de MTB e a presença brasileira no Sul-Americano de Pista. É assunto que não acaba mais!!! This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Meet me in the Pleasant Ear Wave Tube Music Mix for a Sunday afternoon at Seaweed & Gravel. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

I sit down with Dr. Sally Sherman to discuss all things biking + cycling. Mountain biking, Road biking, Gravel biking, Leadville 100 on a mountain bike tandem, the importance of kids biking, and so many stories and anecdotes that will inspire you to live an active lifestyle.I had Sally on the podcast (MMP #016 - Overcoming Obstacles) - and it is worth the listen

The boys discuss the Valverde & Nibali Guard Of Honour and why some riders are chosen to be immortalised and others not. Is Ganna's hour record the peak of human performance? We touch on the Gravel World Champs & reflect back to the day 'Gravel died'. The boys then scurry down a few worm holes to discuss absurd cheating scandals, TSDP Golf tournament & Georges experience of Malaysia so far.  MERCH SHOP: https://shop.betootaadvocate.com/collections/dm-podcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Laurens en Stefan gaan verder en dat is opvallend aangezien vandaag toch echt het WK gravel werd gereden. Moest Lau daar dan niet laten zien hoe het moet? Zowel op als naast de fiets kunnen die jongens van de UCI namelijk nog wel wat lesjes gravel gebruiken en wie anders dan LTD himself is daar beter voor geschikt? Lau reed in ieder geval niet maar Ivar Slik wel en die laat zijn licht schijnen op wat er gebeurde in Italië. Zaterdag was de blik ook al gericht op Italie en dan op Lombardije om precies te zijn. Pogi heeft de code gekraakt maar wie is nou de beste wielrenner van het jaar? Je hoort het allemaal in de Live Slow Ride Fast podcast...Niks missen?

What defines a gravel or all-road wheelset? In this episode, Ash, Simon and Oscar discuss the technical differences between gravel, all-road and road wheelsets. What kind of rim width you should be looking for, carbon vs aluminium, hooked versus hookless rims, and how to choose the right wheelset for your needs.For more advice and information, plus our pick of the best gravel wheelsets currently available, check out our buyer's guide; https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/best-gravel-wheels/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spencer Martin of Beyond the Peloton & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast preview the upcoming Gravel World Championships before diving deep into what this means for the nascent discipline, where it is going, and what it means for top-level road races. Get in-depth race breakdowns with the BTP newsletter Listen to Andrew's Choose the Hard Way Podcast Hit up Andrew (@vontz) & Spencer (@btpcycling) on Twitter with your questions, opinions, and anything else cycling related

This week we sit down with professional gravel cyclist, Alexey Vermeulen.  Alexey is currently ranked 2nd in the Life Time Grand Prix going into the series finale at Big Sugar.  2022 has been a breakout season for this rising star with a big win at BWR San Diego.  In addition to his racing exploits, Alexey is one of the founders of the From The Ground Up Project and the excluse ride partner for the 'fastest known dog', Willie the weiner.   Alexey's website  Episode Sponsor: AG1 by Athletic Greens Support the Podcast Join The Ridership  Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: Alexey Vermeulen [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 Alexi Vermilion. Alexi is a professional off-road cyclists competing in the lifetime grand Prix series this year. With only one event left big sugar in Bentonville, Arkansas coming up this month. He is sitting in second in that competition it was a great time to check in with Alexi. Alexia is not only a great athlete, but also a great ambassador for the sport. He always seems to be around, to share a smile or a laugh after some of these big events. If you don't know him for his professional cycling career. You may have also seen him with a dog on his back, riding a bike. Yeah. We'll get into his relationship with Willie. And what type of terrain Willie likes to ride? I'll give you a hint. It's the off-road kind. Before we jump in, I need to thank this week. Sponsor athletic greens and I've been using athletic greens for many years now. And I like to refer to it as my nutritional insurance. I don't always have the best diet and it just gives me a baseline of some of the nutrients and minerals that I need throughout the day. One tasty scoop of athletic greens contains 75 vitamins minerals and whole food sourced ingredients. Including a multivitamin multimineral probiotic, green superfood blend. And more, all that work together to fill those nutritional gaps in your diet. Increase energy and focus. Uh, aid with digestion and support a healthy immune system. All without the need to take multiple products or pills. This is what I think I really love. It's simply every morning I have a routine. I get a scoop of the powder, put it over ice and water. Shake it up. Get some hydration and get all those nutrients and vitamins in me in one fell swoop again on days where I go deep on the bike, sometimes I'll do a second class. I know for me, I start to feel sort of just run down and drained and I don't have the luxury of sitting back with my feet up after a ride. I often have to jump right into enjoying my son and caring for him. So I love just being able to top off and make sure I've got my recovery. Athletic greens is offering a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs to all my listeners with their first Simply visit athletic greens.com/the gravel ride. And join health experts, athletes, and health conscious go getters around the world who are making a daily commitment to their health. Again, simply visit athletic greens.com/the gravel ride. And get your free year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs today. Would that business behind us let's jump into my conversation with Alexi. Alex, welcome to the show. [00:03:06] Alexey Vermeulen: Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. [00:03:07] Craig Dalton: I feel like this is a long time coming, like Cody [00:03:10] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah. Since what, two years almost now? [00:03:12] Craig Dalton: Yeah, exactly. I remember when we met at Rodeo, I had asked Neil Shirley about, you know, just who was gonna be there and who I might talk to, and he's like, Here's Alex. He's the fastest guy in gravel you don't know about yet. [00:03:26] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah. I think Neil believed in me maybe before I believed in myself. But I think that was my rodeo. Strava kms were the beginning of my success. [00:03:33] Craig Dalton: Put you on the radar, but you'd been on the radar for a long time. So I, I always start off the podcast with just getting a little bit about your background. So why don't you tell me, tell us where you're from and how you got into cycling, and then ultimately let's talk about that journey into gravel and MTV territory. [00:03:49] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah. I'll try to keep this somewhat short. If we start at the beginning, I probably, I started in like kids triathlons. My mom was doing em. As with any cycles, I feel like hated this swimming portion. You just like get to the, get to the run and bike and they're like, Okay, let's go. This is fun. Ran with my helmet on my first triathlon. That was cool. But yeah, it just kind of transitioned to my love of just going fast and pushing boundaries. Right. I think I was 1211 at that portion and my grandfather immigrated from Holland, actually grew up racing. And when he immigrated to Canada, didn't really continue. He did a lot of riding. That kind of caught on at some point when I was doing triathlons. I remember this very vivid ride. I was on like a 24 inch wheel trek and we did a, like, supposed to be a 30 mile ride, became 60, you know, and like completely bumped 10 miles to go and like the entire last 10 miles, I would like fall back into his hand. He'd give me a push and I'd spin as hard as I could, you know, for minute and a half. But I think like as I grew up and started doing other sports, I did a lot of things, played hockey, played soccer, cross country. It eventually in high school fell to cross country and cycling. And I was, I think, somewhat naturally gifted. Just I enjoyed endurance and pushing myself, but it just became a, a choice between the journey, right? Like cycling took me to new places. I got to go to Vermont to scream out stage race. I got to travel. We did family weekends. Cross [00:05:03] Craig Dalton: you live in a community? Did you live in a community that sort of embraced endurance athletics? Where were you? [00:05:08] Alexey Vermeulen: So I grew up in Michigan. Yes, it's good. Good job. You're good at this? Yeah. No, I grew up, grew up in Michigan. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, but grew up in Michigan since I was two years old. And that's kinda like, I think just where I was. Ann Arbor about an hour south of Detroit. It's just, it's a big. Community for the Midwest at least. This big, an AVE Club was there and definitely like, you know, had the Tuesday crib practices. Like there wasn't a, a pathway, wouldn't say there was many kids my age. But there was definitely, like, I remember I hear stories now about, Guys come up and talk to me and they're like, Oh yeah, your dad used to drop you off the local school and just say, don't let him get dropped. I'll see you guys at the other end. But I didn't know that, you know, I was like, Oh, I'm on this alone. I'm 12 years old. Ah, look at all these guys. You know? So there definitely was, maybe not, maybe unbeknownst to me at the beginning, but I do. I. There's a lot of hard Midwest guys that come out because you don't, I realize that even when I go back, you can't stop peddling Colorado. I'm like, Oh, I've got three hour ride. I'll climb for two hours and descend and coast down Michigan. You got a three hour ride, you're peddling for three hours. [00:06:04] Craig Dalton: So I was talking to someone about this the other day. It's so different, like even in California on the coastal range here, I get a lot of breaks where I'm not pedaling. So when I go somewhere where I actually have to continue to turn the pedals for four hours in a row, I'm absolutely crushed. [00:06:17] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah, it's, it's a big deal. I, yeah, every time I go back I feel like I bon every third ride. Probably my issue with not eating, but another story. But yeah, so it just kind of continued. Probably, so sophomore year of high school was like that deflection point. I won nationals, which I always say somewhat lucky. Obviously you can put in the work, but there's also 10 other guys doing it at a minimum. And that kind of gave, opened up the financial side of it for my parents, where the national team covered some of the, And I got to go to and I was 16 racing at 17 at the time, and European racing, you just fit me man. I like, I loved it. The CME style all out. Just like if you're not in the front, you're in the back. I just like, it was everything I had dreamed. I remember I went over there with like 700 euro spending away with my parents and like came back with like 1400, like doubled it and I was like, Oh, this is great. And just like it was the first moment I remember like not thinking this is my career, but. Like, Oh, I wanna push harder cuz this is really fricking fun. And it's also, you get to be in Europe, right? Your kids are, your friends are back at high school and you're like, you know, you skip three, three weeks, you go home. But that trip, that was supposed to be three weeks at ces, turned into going to the World Championships in Copenhagen cause I did well. And so that kind of opened up this whole pathway to actually having a chance at something. Juniors. So that was the World Championships in Copenhagen in thousand 11. You know, cut a race with guys that I grew up watching. Canara, KA Dish. All these guys race up the same course I day to day earlier, which is just like, there's no words for it, right? Like when you grow up dreaming of something or like watching random videos. [00:07:40] Craig Dalton: Yeah, and unless you've observed or watched one of these things, you just cannot understand like the spectacle of having everybody racing with their country flags on their bodies. No trade teams. Like, it's just such an amazing experience. I, I love, and I've had good fortune of going to two world championships to watch, and it was just electric, both of [00:07:58] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah, it's, it's unbelievable. And I think it's like, it's, yeah. Something I'll never forget. That kind put me on a pathway in to fast forward this, you know, in cycling there's a couple jumps, right? There's under 23. So when you, when you're 18 years old, jumping into the next category, which is a four year category, but that also coincides with in the, pretty much everywhere, college, university. And so I made. Little packed with my parents like, Hey, if I have offers from one of one or both of the two big teams in the US at the time, which were lived strong in bmc, it was just coming on that I could def still apply, but defer college for at least two years through that contract and see what I could do. I was fortunate enough to have an offer from both and ended up choosing bmc. Cause I just loved the racing in Europe and they were, had to schedule it primarily there. And I just, it just kept growing. Like, I feel like this, that first year on bmc, you know, you're not making much, you're making 15 grand or something, but you're, you're 18 years old, you're living in Europe with your best friends. And it was the first time I was like, Wow, you can make this your job. Like, that's like, where can this go? What, what can I do? And three years on, I was lucky enough to get an email from, from Lato Yobo. And you know what? Transitioned and became the job. And it was that moment where I like, had completed this USA cycling pipeline and I was like, Okay, so what's next? You know, I signed this big contract and I was, I was stoked. You're 21 years old and it's what you've dreamed of your whole life in a sense. But also felt like I, like, okay, so am I doing this for 15 years or am I doing this for 10 years? Like, it was such a, I questioned a lot of it. Right. [00:09:23] Craig Dalton: You a, I mean, presumably in those BMC years, you were forced to live that professional lifestyle and make start to begin to make significant sacrifices to continue progressing. [00:09:36] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah, I think BMC was lucky because you got to see it also, right? So we were at the development team right underneath the Pro World tour team. You know, you got to watch guys like Brent Book, Walter, who's American and Larry War Bass. Go through their version of it, right? Like, help you kind of pick, Hey, if I actually move, if I actually make this jump, where do I wanna live? Do I wanna live in east? Do I wanna live in drone? And kind of see before you had to deal with it, see the struggles and see the positives of racing at that level. But yeah, like it, it just came down, you know, once I signed that contract, I just, I wanted more and more and more. And it was this weird feeling of like, unless you were winning, You couldn't make, you couldn't do more, You couldn't make an impact on sponsors or people or community. [00:10:15] Craig Dalton: And this is at at the then the jumbo team at [00:10:17] Alexey Vermeulen: yeah, yeah. Sorry. So two years on and I loved it, right? You get to race these, like, we all dream of like Lia Best and Lombardia Doe. Right? [00:10:25] Craig Dalton: Yeah. It's probably somewhat lost. It's probably somewhat lost on a listener. I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's somewhat lost that that is. That's the big time. You're, you're on. I mean, everybody knows it now, but it's the one of the biggest and best teams in the world. You sort of made it there, obviously, like it continues to be a journey when you're a neo pro and you've got your first year in these big pro tour teams. But I think you were just getting into sort of this idea of, okay, now what's my identity? What's my role in this big organization in the biggest league in the world? [00:10:55] Alexey Vermeulen: yeah. And even in life, to be honest, right? You're 21 years old. I honestly, I think if I. In hindsight, probably would've given myself my last year in under 20 threes. But like when you take a chance, like you don't turn down, like at the time that I went, it had been almost three years since the American had gone to the world tour. So it was one of those things that like when is the opportunity if going to come again? Like, you're just young, right? You learn everything. Like, I remember my first moment, I, I chose to move to J and I just, I got a, a key mailed to me and I'm like, Google translating the back of a taxi in Spanish. Like, I think is this addressed? I'm like getting out, trying. It's like nine o'clock at night's dark. I'm like trying to find the lock, like eventually find where I'm going. And there's like life experiences at the same time. That, you know, back to not going to school. I like, kind of feel like I was educated by the bike. Like I learned a lot of like life. Balance. I don't know, just maybe not directly academic, but I learned a lot about myself in, in that time. And it kind of just transitioned into when I was racing at the top level, what, what is next? What can I do? What do I want to do? And I remember, you know, you kind of mentioned it quickly if I wanted to go to mountain bike or not, but like, I remember thinking like, okay, I can continue doing this. Maybe get better, right? Because that's 21, 23. But like I didn't, I wanted to be a GC rider. That's what I'd grown up doing. And I kind of felt like I wasn't good enough in a sense. Like you never know you're young, but like I was like, there's a lot of work to be done here to be able to climb like Andy sch Slack or anything that I watch growing up. Right? So just, you know, in 2018 was like, I kind of wanna just go send it and see what happens. And I was good enough at the business side of her like connection side that I had relationships with Bianchi and kind of took a lot of the sponsors I had on Lato to back into the US and said, Hey, I wanna try this mountain bike thing. And very quickly realized that the World Cup mountain bike is the exact same as what I was doing. Just different bikes and wider titers. But gravel was growing and so I, you know, I was trying to figure out where I belonged and my identity had kind of changed, but that was the beginning of what I'm doing now, which there's things I miss, but I don't have any regrets. It's, it's really cool to see what's growing in the us [00:13:04] Craig Dalton: Yeah, no doubt. So you to just unpack it a little bit, you move over, you get a, you get what maybe described as a private tier program with Bianchi. You start trying the mountain bike thing. Discover it's, it's sort of emotionally and maybe sim physically similar to what you've just been going through in the world tour and leaving the world tour. You were looking to do something different and have a different relationship with your vocation as a professional cyclist. [00:13:32] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I think the biggest thing was that I, I wanted to actually positively impact either the companies I worked with or. Individuals community around me, right? Like athletics of any kind are very selfish. You have to be selfish on some level to, to grow as a person, as an athlete. But on the world tour team, you know, you have 28 riders and you have these companies paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to be a part of this team. And rightfully so, the team wants one answer, not 28 different answers. And I felt like, well, there's eight of us here who could actually make an impact on this company that's giving a lot of money to this team yet. You're blocking it. So I felt like there was kind of a, a backup or like a flaw in the system. And not that I was the only one that ever saw that, but I was like, I actually like the portion off the bike as well. I like enjoying and talking. Like, it's not exhausting to me. I enjoy, you know, being a human and talking through things, Hey, this worked, this didn't, or like, let's figure out how to do this better. I'm up for do that content, you know? So I saw that gap kind of existing in the US as things grew. But I don't think I ever thought it would grow into what it is now. [00:14:36] Craig Dalton: Yeah. And was that sort of just timeline wise, was that the beginning of the pandemic that you had done your mountain bike thing and you were gonna transition into gravel that 2020 season? [00:14:46] Alexey Vermeulen: 29. I had one full year, 2019. I did a good schedule. Mostly mountain bike, almost all mountain bike. But I did, I like Belgium, Fri, San Diego and Flatted out of, and like I was definitely that year and even with my coach, we were all just like, let's just go test events this year and see what happens, you know? Had to convince my parents I wasn't being an idiot. But other than that it was easy. And it was just like, it was fun to. Start to build those relationships that we talk about now, right? Like, I pride myself on not ever burning a bridge and like being able to go back to anybody. And like I feel like I talk to companies I've worked with in the past, even just as a consultant nowadays which like is kind of just cool to me. Like I enjoy, like this is doing well. This is not like, you know, it is just such an interesting space to be in. [00:15:30] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it really is. And the, I think the athletes that can articulate feedback about the product and the experience, or even the vibe that companies are trying to create, that's gold, right? That's where you wanna be spending your money. [00:15:42] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah. Yeah. And it's a, it's a battle as you know, like trying to figure out advertising is such an interesting thing especially in sport, because sport is hard to quantify. And like the way I, I mean like, not to give away my secrets, but the way I kind of pitch this thing as an athlete is, It has to be at least three parts, right? You have to validate equipment on some level, and so that doesn't mean you need to win every race, but you need to be up there validating a new bike, a new set of wheels, a new handlebar. Like does it work at the highest level? Why does it work? But I think that's, you know, 30% of it. Maybe the other part is just being a face for a brand, which to talk about vibe. Like it means like, you know, not having some sterile company with a tent at an event, like talking through things, real life shit, having a dog, right? Like Willie's been such a. It would make jokes about it. Just such a conversation opener when you're just standing. Like, who? We all want carbon wheels. We're all buying them every day. No. So how do you just be a person? And the last is the internal feedback, right? That it just takes time and you have to work with a company for a long time for that to actually be beneficial. Right. I think people are like, Oh, Alex had that bike a year before it launched, so he put all the feedback. Dude and I had feedback that'll affect the next generation of that bike, but it's so far in advance that to truly, positively impact a company, you have to be involved really early on. [00:17:01] Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. [00:17:02] Alexey Vermeulen: So I, I think if you put all those together, that's the full athlete, you know, doing well in the US and privateer. [00:17:07] Craig Dalton: And it seems like one of the things you recognized was this idea that, you know, you will be required to create content as an athlete in this new space, and you took a very proactive vision on what that content was gonna be and how you were gonna show up [00:17:25] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah, I tried to, I mean, I think it's, especially now, like you look at a race, like on band, I feel like there is almost more videographers than racers sometimes. Right? It's kind of, And content for content sake. Is the bane of my existence. Like I, I, I hate to be, and like even the way you and I just chatted before we started this podcast, like I struggle with podcasts that just jump in and say the same thing the entire time. Because if you have an i, if you have an agenda and you asked me exact same questions I talked about last week on a different podcast, it doesn't benefit anybody, right? It's just content for content's sake. Cause not that I'm not gonna be listened to, but you could go to some other channel list and the exact same. Unless, you know, you give me the option to talk through things and figure things out and open up what I wanna get to as well. So I think that's the same thing with what I took into content. I was like, what do I enjoy this sport and why did I change what I'm doing? It's not that I was the best world tour writer, I was very far from it, but I have a, an experience at a different level and I enjoyed the relationship. So I was like, that's what is interesting to me. So, I've just focused a lot on any content I can. I want to be about relationships and how this works. You know, like my relationship with Neil and Envy, like that's what's interesting to me. And then the humanity of the sport is what actually draws people in or inspires and motivates more than the next, Hey, the widest wheel set, cuz that's, You can find that on the web. [00:18:46] Craig Dalton: quick, quick follow up on your dog since not everyone is familiar with Willie, although they should be. Just describe Willie and why he's got a little bit of notoriety in the cycling world these days. [00:18:58] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah, Willie's probably the fastest, fastest known dog in the cycling world. No, but he's a long haired miniature din, looks like a mini golden retriever if you trying to picture it. And early on in the pandemic, I started riding with him when my girlfriend did runs and he just loved it. And it's kind of just grown, I mean, He's done rides as long as seven hours. He gets out, goes to the bathroom, goes back in the backpack, and we just ride. But he is like, you know, you got his shoulder over his head, over one of your shoulders and it's kind of like, it's great as a training partner also. Like, I'll go ride three hours and come pick him up for an hour at the end. And I don't have to talk to anybody, but I kind have someone they are with me, like a little training partner and no one yells at you on the bike path. So it's a win, win, win. [00:19:38] Craig Dalton: does Willie have a preference between road riding and gravel riding? [00:19:41] Alexey Vermeulen: He probably likes gravel more in Colorado cause he loves prairie dogs. He loves like, you know, hunting from, from up high. He's actually most into mountain biking, which I try to like ride trails before I take him there. But like, he knows when the goggle, he hates the goggles, but he knows when the goggles go on, it's like it's, there's gonna be branches in this face. It's gonna be time to focus. And he just like, he gets all four legs up on my shoulder, like a par. Just kinda like if there's someone in front of me, he is just like, his head is probably three or four inches in front of my face and just like, he's trying to just like, we have to get back to them. He just, I think he just loves the interactive nature of it. So I don't take him mountain biking that off and it's probably his favorite. [00:20:19] Craig Dalton: So podcasting is not the medium to really enjoy Willian, but I encourage the listener to follow you on Instagram cuz I I love it. Everybody loves it. Willie's a hero. [00:20:28] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah. He makes everyone smile, which is a goal in life, so it's. [00:20:32] Craig Dalton: you also seem to have linked up with someone who is your, is your frequent video videographer partner, and that seems like be like a really interesting relationship to give us insight into your, your comings and goings and your career and your successes and your failure. [00:20:47] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah, so that's, that's funny. So like, this is, that was something I started last year. So Avery stu, like he does all my, almost all my photo and video that's not through another company and even if it is but we just started, he DMed me when I was back racing Iceman one year, which is a big mountain bike racing in northern Michigan where I grew up. And we've just kind of weirdly just been on the same path. He moved out to, to Boulder about three months after I did. And I think we both have an understanding of what the other's job is to get done, right? I think there's a lot of cyclists who just expect, Hey, this car and video, this photographer will follow me and just take pictures. But like, that's not, it's not that easy, right? It's back and forth and, hey, this is the great, this is the gap. And it's annoying at times. And then the same as he understands I have to get work done right. So he'll just come, Hey, I'm gonna go out in the car with you for four hours. I'm gonna ask you to turn around six or seven times. But like, so we're able to create really cool content because we both are just in it cuz of our friendship less than money. If I were to like, like I've had people ask me this year, like, Oh, what do you pay? YouPay him hourly. I was like, Are you kidding me? That guy works more hourly with me than I think I could ever pay him in my entire life. But it's more, Cause it's friendship, right? It's something that just, it, the relationship is the reason that we work together, not anything else. And so this year going in, I was, that was kind of the goal. I was like, I went to companies and I was like, Hey, I, I want to try to bring Avery to all of the races because to me, First off, you'll get pictures after the race, which every company wants if you go do well, but more importantly, I want to show the relationship side of this. Right? And a really good example of that is if anyone's who made a video at Belgium Welfare Ride that I won this year in San Diego, but there's a moment in there about two thirds the way through where the person I had feeding me just it's kind of shit the bad that day. It's kind of struggling sometimes you just aren't on the same wavelength. They keep missing you. They don't see your jersey, whatever it is. And Avery literally just stopped filming and handed up two bottles, which was like, ch I would've dropped outta the race, very honestly. And that kind of like moment, that's a relationship thing, right? If I'm paying someone to take pictures and videos, they're gonna do that till the end of the day. But the relationship side of him knew, Hey, my friend is struggling. Feeding is more important than filming right now. And I will always cherish that because that's what matters more and that's what moves the the world go, not what makes the world go. [00:22:56] Craig Dalton: yeah. When you, when you were structuring your sponsorship agreements for this year, were you, did you specifically carve out like a dollar amount for him and. This is going to him to make sure he can get everywhere with me. [00:23:08] Alexey Vermeulen: it was hard. Concepts proven are easier to sell, right? So this year I would say I spent, I spent a good amount of my own money getting in places cuz I, I believe in it, right? And so if anyone's interested, like we have a YouTube channel just like Alexian Avery Which I think we've had, I think it'll be at the end, like 18 videos this year. But so I had, you know, a couple companies that I think believed in what I was doing, sign on, you know, like Envy for example. Neil was like, that's great that we need this, this is perfect. We want to add humanity to what we do already. And there's other companies that were less excited about it because the thought process and cycling has always been, we wanna pay for this direct photo shoot, not for this like big ambiguous season. But I think also everyone this year has come back and now, next year I've kind of stipulated it for everybody. Like, Hey, if we're working together, I really need to ask you to put a percentage of, like, I've pretty much said a percentage of my paycheck you need to add in on top of to pay for bravery to come to races cuz you've all benefited from it this year. And if you haven't then you need to show me where you didn't. Cuz it's just such a organic way of doing things, right? When it's more about the relationship of it and everyone's include. It's just fun. Like I took, I took Avery and our friend tra, we had two videographers at Sea Oder, and it was a blast, right? It was the three, two of us and Willie hanging out the biggest event all year, right? Like just, I don't know, like the bike race is the smallest portion of it, and that is, it's the biggest portion of my life, but it's, it matters least it's just the vehicles. All of us to go hang out at events and the community of it is what has growing, what I'm a part of. Right. [00:24:43] Craig Dalton: Yeah, that's a good point. I think for the outsider, just to understand gravel, it's not about who every section of the race and who's winning. It's about the overall experience. It's the pre rise, the shake down rides. The post ride hang out. That's what makes it so magic. [00:24:57] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah. And like it's intoxicating, right? Like I think that is the coolest thing. I had a. I had a quote the other day about, you know, at some point in every race, the winner of the pro race is gonna struggle as much as the person finishing lasts. And I think that's beautiful, right? Like we're all riding on the same course and taking on these things and it's just, it's just about the different journey, right? The struggle is going to be different whether it's mental or physical or mechanical, but in the end, we're all gonna send up, end up sitting the same place, and that is something that never existed where I was at the road. [00:25:27] Craig Dalton: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanna get a little bit into the Grand Prix, but along those lines, the Grand Prix, I mean, I think people, listener's gonna know it's Park Mountain, bike Park gravel racing. As we think about it, when you, just to follow up on the sponsorship thread as you designed your season. Being aware of the Grand Prix and the requirements of having both a, a gravel bike and a proper mountain bike to race these races, how did you kind of figure that all out? Because I think you had alignment maybe with a gravel bike set up, and maybe the mountain bike was like, Oh shit, where am I gonna get one of those? [00:25:58] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah, no, I think it's also, again, to start relationships, right? It's easy to, to leave the sponsorship thing and say, Oh, look at this. This company has all, all the bikes I need and this company doesn't. But to me, longevity of the company matters more than getting what you need. If I have to go buy a bike, I'm willing to but I was lucky enough to structure it, so, I ride road and gravel bikes from Envy, which is cool cause it's just a past relationship I've had since I left the road. And I signed on with Factor for Mountain Bikes, which it's funny cuz both of those companies launched their bikes for the first time this year. So it's been a chaotic year. But it's cool. I mean that's the, also the beauty of this is I feel like both companies in a weird way gain from knowledge that I learned of launching bike. Simple sides, right? And even if they're not the exact same discipline and it's a weird defined space there cause it doesn't really exist sometimes. , I think. I love that people can understand that and as long as it's like written down and talked about, nobody feels like they're losing out because it's just a, it's about growing the sport more than selling bikes all the time. [00:26:52] Craig Dalton: And how does the jukebox team fit into all this [00:26:57] Alexey Vermeulen: yeah. So I got a complicated setup this year. Yeah, so Jukebox is printing company in Vancouver. You know, stickers, business cards, you name it, posters we'll have many willy stickers to. If you're wondering but no, they, Loredo whos the company kind of wanted, he has an image entertainment in Canada and he wanted to grow this, like the community side of it. He supports Israel Cycling Academy on the world tour stage, but. He had this idea of, Hey, how can you tie athletes together with a title sponsor? Right? So we all have, if you look at someone like Phil Guyman is quote unquote on this team. Pretty much the only sponsor, Phil and I have the same is Jukebox and Phil's not racing, and I'm very ous racing focused right now. But the goal is that you kind of have this traveling community that fits into all disciplines that you couldn't find the corners of without. Alienating anybody. So I think there's five or six people now. All from different backgrounds. [00:27:48] Craig Dalton: And is there any sort of I mean, are you guys connected in any meaningful way? Like do you, do you train with Dylan Johnson here and there? [00:27:56] Alexey Vermeulen: Not really train cause we all live in different places, but like, even like big sugar, we're all gonna be in the same house. Just doing photo stuff and hanging out and I think it's been hard to, with co like as Covid was still tailing off, like, get everyone together. Cause I think that's the goal. Like there's a lot of talk of getting everyone together in, in Canada and, you know, doing a training camp and things like that. Which I hope happens next year, but this year it was very much focused on. These guys are racing. You know, I've seen Dylan and Ashton and Adam at every race because we're all doing the Grand Prix and that's how it goes. And then I've seen, I haven't seen Phil once this year, but hopefully that changes, you know? And then there's also people like you know, there's downhill cycle cross racers that I will probably never see cuz I don't do those things. [00:28:34] Craig Dalton: May, maybe Sea Otter, you [00:28:36] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. See Otter hopefully. But yeah, it's been weird, but I've actually enjoyed it cuz you, the non-endemic side of the sport is like, when I talk about enjoying the business side and figuring out relationships, it's where it becomes more fun because it takes work and homework to actually figure out how to actually benefit that company. [00:28:53] Craig Dalton: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So onto the Grand Prix, I mean, presumably you found out about this short towards the tail end of last year and. Getting an invite to participate in the series was a big commitment. Obviously, there's six races on the calendar, half mountain bike, half gravel bike. It was really gonna have to take the sort of cornerstone position in your calendar, I presume, for the year if you were gonna intend on being successful. [00:29:19] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah. In a lifetime, Grand prs been kind of, I probably went into it a little more relaxed than I should have. I. Was excited about racing it, but also cognizant of how it can kind of, it's a long season and mentally it can really drain, drain you. So, you know, going into c was probably a little undercooked and like kind of focused on just building throughout the season and being as consistent as I could. Back then in April I was like, Oh, I think you can finish top 10 in every race and finish in the podium. I don't think that's true. I think it'd be more consistent than that. And I also don't think I, anyone ever thought Kegan was gonna be as dominant as he has been. If in hindsight I probably would've tried to peak a little more for different races, but I've had this thought process of just being very consistent throughout the year. Not really peaking for anything, just trying to be fit and be mentally have a lot of mental freedom to, to not feel like I'm ever pressured. And so from, I didn't start racing until April cause that was kind of the goal. I did one race in Michigan, very rbe before Sea Otter, but otherwise was pretty much. Very fresh. And then throughout the year, I've probably taken almost a month off the bike throughout the year, just finding that balance between things, right? Maybe it's not always off the bike, but not worrying about training. You know? 10 days before Leadville went to watch my girlfriend compete in the Commonwealth Games, which was incredible and. Maybe lost me half a percent, but like mentally, I had this space to go from Leadville straight into like this very different block to get ready for the final races. I think that's the biggest thing about this is I've, throughout the last six months or seven months said, Okay, here's my calendar, here's the races, and if it's a mountain bike race, I'm gonna spend per most of my time on that bike before the event and do. Workouts that affect that, but hopefully hold this fitness and just kind of changed little bits to be ready for different things. Got a big climbing race in Utah. Okay. Do some longer threshold efforts. And then the minute Leadville, like in Leadville is obviously a big training camp just to be ready for altitude. And the minute Leadville finish it was like, okay, full on three to five minute efforts, Endurance Doesn't matter anymore. And that's, that is somewhat the beautiful thing is once you get through unbound, If you have like cycling such a build sport year after year that you can kind of hold endurance most of the year. I don't have to really focus on that during the week and I can turn a lot of my rides into like, Hey, how hard can I go? Because that's what these races become. Like if we wanna talk numbers like Schwam again, the two hour mountain bike sprint we just did was like 330 normalized for two hours, just like it was, it just on the whole day. And it's like something I dreamed of, but we haven't done it all year. [00:31:45] Craig Dalton: It was such a gear shift just as a fan of the sport. To see everybody now have to do like a two hour event, like what the hell? [00:31:51] Alexey Vermeulen: I loved it. Yeah, and then just like, not to jump away from the grand pretty quickly, but I think that was something that's interesting about my background is there's a lot of really strong guys in the Grand Prix. Guys that I thought were gonna stick out and are probably, are, are coming around like Locklin. Alex have had some, both of 'em have had some bad luck, but Rob and even Dark Horse, in my opinion, Pete Stat, you have a lot of guys that come from a road background and have the. To do well at all these events. But I think moving two years earlier than a lot of those guys has made a difference for me. Cuz dude, I struggle a lot with the technical side of the sport on the dirt because it's just different on the road. You just expect you, you find lines and that's it. And, There's a flow to it. Mountain biking and gravel riding's a lot more. Like, you kind of like, Hey, you're gonna slide sideways and you're gonna find your edge and then you're gonna keep moving. And it's so foreign. And I felt like I really struggled for the two years before this and kind of found my feet at the right time with the Grand Prix. People always act like, like for example, Leadville as a road race, mountain bike, race. Dude, I disagree. Like if when you're going 35 down power line on a hard tail with the, with guys that are pure mountain bike, You have to be able to handle your bike. [00:32:58] Craig Dalton: sure. Yeah. It, I mean, I, and it depends on the, the weather that particular year, the year I did it, it was pouring with rain, which took another different skill set. I mean, people were just absolutely falling apart during that event. Yeah. Speaking of, I mean, I guess since this is gonna publish in early October, we've got one race remaining. You're in second place in the Grand Prix. Keegan's obviously been crushing it all year, but I think there are, A couple people within range that if he had a horrible day, like something drastic could happen in the results. [00:33:33] Alexey Vermeulen: Kegan's theoretically safe now because he can drop a race and he's done so well. So Ke Kegan has won the, won the Grand Prix now but second through, Well, it's just because, it's just because he can drop a race. So theoretically he could not, he has to show up, but he. He can have his worst result and his worst result right now is fourth, which is insane. His worst result is fourth at Schwam again after he crashed. So if he drops big sugar and finishes 45th, it still doesn't matter cause he has more points than I do right now. But yeah, it'll be interesting. I mean, big sugar being in Batonville is like, it's known for sharp rocks, right? It's a, it's gonna be kind of a race of attrition, Put it all out there, but also be intelligent about it. For me, I'm definitely gonna err on the side of insurance, you know, like we talked about, inserts a little bit, little extra sealant. But I've never, I've tried to never go into any of these races thinking about the Grand Prix because if, like, if you race to win, you'll be up there. I can't think about where Cole is or Pete or Russell like doesn't help. I enjoy racing my bike too, so I think, yeah, I mean theoretically all of them I think up to seventh could theoretically pass me. I guess I haven't really done math cause it's kind of hard, like Cole didn't race unbound, so he doesn't have a drop race. So like if he does worse than my tent at Crusher. He can't beat me. But, you know, it's, it's so, it's really up in the air until you finish. And that's been cool about the point system in a way for me. Yeah, it's hard to say. I'm like, for the first time this year, nervous. Cause I've really tried to not think about the Grand Prix until this point because it's just, it's so up in the air and you have one bad day. Like, I pulled my front trailer cable out at Crusher. Like, so weird things can happen to anybody. Right. [00:35:09] Craig Dalton: Yeah. [00:35:10] Alexey Vermeulen: But yeah, I, I will say that I'm happy. That I was somewhat a mountain biker's, turf in the mud for two hours in Wisconsin. And I, I fared. And so I think we're a little bit more to my benefit in Bentonville. [00:35:24] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it's, it's, it's got so many punchy climbs in addition to kind of the, the big potential rock hazards there. It will be interesting from a racing perspective, like who's gonna go all in early? Does it stay together? Like, how are you gonna turn the screws to each other? I'm excited. [00:35:41] Alexey Vermeulen: I'm stoked. I mean, I think it's, you're mainly gonna see guys like Pete that is in fourth and Russell is in fifth, try to make moves because like, at least until we get to the end, like racing wise to win the race, I have no reason to do much before then. But it's also easy to say till you get it in that moment and it's pissing rain or something, weird's happening and just becomes full on chaos for five hours. So, yeah, I don't know. It's, it's kind of, it's weird and everyone's taking different paths to get there too. You know, some guys are still on mountain bikes. I kind of came back and immediately started doing, you know, hard, harder efforts to kind of get ready for a sprint finish. And but yeah, I mean, I, like in the end, yes, I wanna finish on the, putting the gram pretty, but I, I kind of wanna win big sugar, like love kicking to death. I would like him to not win another fricking race. So that, that would be the, the real goal on top. Cherry on top, like finishing on the podium. Grand PR is great, but de that kid's been dominant this year, so that's probably the biggest goal for me. [00:36:33] Craig Dalton: and, and best of luck to him this coming weekend in the world. So that's just insane that he's on that team right now. [00:36:39] Alexey Vermeulen: I just, yeah, I just, I love that there is a transfer between gravel and road because you, you do have a lot of guys come over here that I think think they, because they're really strong on the road, they could just jump in. Like you look at Nick Tetra at Leadville, obviously he is, that altitude's not used to it, but it's not the same. You gotta be able to put the whole package together to do a lot of these races and to get through a whole season of it. I think the Grand Prix has been the hardest in that sense, right? That it's pretty much one race a month and that. to peak for six races every month. You kind of have to pick and choose or just be consistent. Yeah, and I think the only person do it perfectly this year is been Kegan and I guess perfection was lost at Swan again, but still, I, I would still say he was perfect. [00:37:16] Craig Dalton: We'll see. We'll see after big sugar. [00:37:18] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah. [00:37:19] Craig Dalton: That's exciting. Well, I'm super excited to ra watch that race, as I said, and hopefully I'm gonna be there myself to watch the action first hand, or at least from way, way behind you guys. [00:37:29] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah. It, it, it'll be fun. And Bentonville puts on a p puts on a party every time too, which I love. Right. They so much. It's all about cycling in that community right now. And I every, it's intoxicating every time you go there. [00:37:42] Craig Dalton: A hundred percent. I wanted to take a step back and talk about your other sort of big, I don't know if you call it your personal project, but it's, I think it's just been a big part of your journey the last couple years to Leadville and the from, from the ground up project. Can you talk a little bit about that? [00:37:55] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah, I think I'm really bad about just giving you a quick synopsis. So I'll start. There is, so from the ground up is we take three riders who haven't been on a bike or haven't raced before to Leadville the hardest mountain of race in the nation, in my opinion. And the goal is just to make the sport less intimidating, more accessible through showing. The questions and vulnerabilities of people who are going to struggle at the event, let alone the pros. Cuz pros are stupid and don't show it even though we all struggle. So it started in 2021 was the first season we did, the second season this year. And I say season cuz it's a TV series on the back end. But it's really, it's this pathway just learning how. How hard cycling can be, whether it's lingo or training or getting into this sport financially. And it's, it's been something I've been super passionate about and takes a lot of my time from January to August. But it validates everything. And the reason I left the road, it's something that like, it's easy to talk about making positive impacts on people, but also very, very difficult to do it while racing as a professional. And I, for the first two years, for 20 18, 20 19, I struggled with that. Like I would say it to companies and then you get to racist and you're like, Dude, I'm getting flogged as it is, like let alone trying to stand out here on my feet all day in the sun talking to people. And so it's been really cool to see like Covid brought this whole new way of people into the sport and it allowed this access to. People that, you know, literally didn't get on their bike because of Lance or Greg. They got on their bike because they're gym closed. The need of mental sanity. And that is a very different pathway than anything we'd ever seen before. You know, all of a sudden cycling was like a marathon, you know, It was, it was just to do it. It was just to accomplish something. And I think there was a little bit of a disconnect because of how elitist cycling can. that we struggled to inform people that, hey, maybe Unbound isn't the best first race, you know, Or, Hey, maybe you should figure out how to change a tube before you take on this gravel race. But in all reality, it still became this big question of how do we keep these people in the sport and make it exciting? And that's what from the ground up has kind of been, you know, it's trying to show that normal everyday people can take on the hardest thing in the world or the hardest thing in the cycling world, in my opinion. Then go on and you know, even if they don't finish, they can go on and take on normal races and it's never gonna feel very hard. Right. Cuz yeah, you do the 100 at Unbound, it's hard, but it's not at 10,000 feet, it doesn't have 11,000 feet of climbing. It's not with the sense there's so much that that grows and I would equate finishing the Leadville 100 to, to doing an Ironman and we have multiple on film being like, Oh, I finished two Ironmans and this was way harder. Cuz it's just, it's so mentally taxing, you know. A lot of it is mental, more than physical, and that's really hard. [00:40:28] Craig Dalton: A hundred percent. Like my personal experience there was I was, I was about ready to quit and honestly, like, I think had my wife been at the feed station before Columbine, I might have quit, but I was like, Well, I don't have a ride home so I might as well continue going. Unfortunately, and miraculously, by the time I came back down, I was feeling good and I was like, I can make it. [00:40:50] Alexey Vermeulen: But that's how life is too, right? Like that's the coolest part of this is at the same time I go and race my race, I don't know how they're doing. And at the some point on Leadville, if you don't know it's out and back course. So I end up hopefully crossing them if their days are going all right. And that's just so cool to me, right? That you could have these people taking on something the first time very much in the understanding of how impossible it is and still towing the. That's motivating and inspiring. Right? And like cycling is made for everybody of all sizes, of all shapes, of all anything you want to name it, right? But we don't show that. We don't say it. It's very hard to talk about because it is primarily white is primarily male and you have to have money to be into it. And I think as that changes, we all. Gain value, like the sport is more important and it doesn't have to be about racing. You can be any type of rider, right? We have, in our first season, Shauna, you know, she finished, she stopped Leadville, I think at the Twin Lakes aid station was like, that's it. But no, went and took on like fat bike nationals in northern Wisconsin and like a different side of the sport. She's never wanna race laville again, but bikes can be anything. You can go become fricking bike commuter if you want. That's still, that vehicle of the bicycle is the cool part of the project. [00:42:01] Craig Dalton: Where can people watch the project? [00:42:04] Alexey Vermeulen: First season was on YouTube the second season I was on outside. But it's not behind a pay wall, so, [00:42:09] Craig Dalton: Yep, [00:42:09] Alexey Vermeulen: And there will be a third season. I just, first you heard it first here. But no, the hard part is not to cut you off. Like the hard part is figuring out how do you make it less overwhelming? Cause every year you're like, Wow, this is really sadistic. Why are we doing this to people? [00:42:23] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it's hard to imagine like someone not just off the couch, but just off the couch wanting to do Leadville. I mean, there's, when they're submitting their application to you, they're submitting it to do Leadville, so at some level they've decided they're willing to do it. [00:42:38] Alexey Vermeulen: but they don't understand. That's the beautiful part of it, right? They don't have any idea. And there's this process of like growing up and six weeks out we go to like a Leadville training camp, and they get to feel the altitude for their first time and ride the course over three days. [00:42:50] Craig Dalton: Yeah. [00:42:51] Alexey Vermeulen: And it is, I cannot tell you how like just wide-eyed, like what the did I sign up for? And, but none of them quit cuz they're, they've invested so much of their life for the last five months into it. They're like, Shit, I'm here. May as well. [00:43:06] Craig Dalton: The cards fall. [00:43:07] Alexey Vermeulen: yeah, I mean that's definitely the balance side of it that I've enjoyed is being able to do something like that. Cause you could never do that when you're racing on the road. [00:43:13] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it's a great, it's a great, I don't know, series I think was the right word that you used. It's a great series. I watched it on outside tv. Super powerful to, I mean, I'm, I'm always impressed when anybody takes on a journey that's bigger than themselves, whether it's a marathon or a gravel race or whatever it is. There's something absolutely admirable about someone who's willing to tackle something like that, knowing that, like, we may finish, we may not, but I'm gonna do something huge. [00:43:41] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah, and I think that's the takeaway, right? Is that hopefully like there is a connection between cycling and life and. We have those rolling hills, You come down Columbine and all of a sudden you feel okay again. And that's the reality of all of this. Like most of the days you train, you feel like shit. That is the majority of cycling. Like even a professional athlete, 99.9% of the time is just bullshit. Get out the door, maybe convince yourself to get a coffee and stop for a couple minutes, but like get the work done and move on cuz you don't feel great every day. And I [00:44:07] Craig Dalton: I think someone said, said like, if you're not, if you're, if you're feeling good, better than 30% of the time, you're probably not training well. [00:44:15] Alexey Vermeulen: Yeah, it's true and that, but I think that's not, because that's not what we, that's not what anyone shows on social media or anything else. Right. It's always the good time. So yeah, my advice Could yourself, a wiener dog and ride your bike? [00:44:26] Craig Dalton: I love it, which is the perfect note to end on. Wiener dog promotion, which by the way, I will have another one if I didn't already have two dogs, and that's a long story. We would have a wiener dog cuz that's my wife's jam right [00:44:38] Alexey Vermeulen: yeah. They're perfect. The right at the right size. That's the, that's the true goal. [00:44:43] Craig Dalton: Yeah, my actual golden retriever does not fit well on my back and in a backpack, [00:44:48] Alexey Vermeulen: See, but that is like my goal after my, after my career is I've told my girlfriend I wanna get a golden retriever, not another wiener. So I could just be like, Oh, this one didn't grow. [00:44:55] Craig Dalton: I love it. I love it. Thanks so much for the time, man. It's great to catch up. Good luck at Big Sugar. Hopefully I see you there and good luck at Belgium Waffle Ride Michigan. I know that will be a, a great one for you being a Michigan. [00:45:07] Alexey Vermeulen: No, thank you so much. It's, it's exciting. And Yeah, just hope the sport keeps growing and thanks for talking through it. [00:45:12] Craig Dalton: Of course we'll see you, my man. [00:45:14] Alexey Vermeulen: See ya. [00:45:16] Craig Dalton: That's going to do it for this week's edition of the gravel ride podcast. Huge. Thanks to Alexi for joining us and big, thanks to athletic greens and ag one for sponsoring this week's episode. If you're interested in connecting with me, I encourage you to join the ridership. Simply visit www.theridership.com. That's a free global cycling community where you can connect with gravel athletes from around the world. It's also your straight line to having a conversation with me, making episodes, suggestions, et cetera. If you're able to support the show, please visit buy me a coffee.com/the gravel ride. Or ratings and reviews are hugely appreciated. It really helps in me connecting with additional gravel cyclist. Until next time here's to finding some dirt under your wheels

Top British Professional Triathlete, Ruth Astle is a 2x IRONMAN Champion, she came in fifth place at IRONMAN World Championships St. George 2022, and back in 2019, Ruth won First Female Age Grouper overall in Kona 2019 IRONMAN World Championships, before she went pro.  Ruth and I sync up about how she got her start in triathlon, when she earned her spot on the Zwift Academy Triathlon Development Team, her love of cycling and riding gravel, what she is looking forward to in Kona this week, and how she continues to balance a carrer in banking with being a pro triathlete! Want to watch VINFast IRONMAN Championships, you can tune in on LIVE on Peakcock or on IRONMAN's official Facebook Watch, YouTube and Twitch channels to watch athletes compete on this iconic race course. Also, if you haven't already tuned in to our Marni On the Move LIVE Pop Up Series from St. George World Championships in the OOFOS Recovery lounge and want to learn about the 23 pros, age groupers, and brand founders, I interviewed from around the globe, tune in here. CONNECT Ruth Astle on Instagram and YouTube Marni On The Move Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, or YouTube Marni Salup on Instagram and Spotify OFFERS Neotein Neotein is a protein and electrolyte supplement. It's the perfect quick hit after a training session  for a protein boost and rehydration.  It's easy to use, just add one of the single serve packets to water. Neotein's protein packet's are great for a ride, run, or busy day on the go, and fit into your pockets or bag.  Made in the USA with straightforward, high-quality ingredients, Neotein has no unneeded additives, sugars, or fillers and its just 45 calories, with a light refreshing flavor that tastes great.  Get 20% off and use our code MARNI20 at Neotein.com Revitin Revitin is a prebiotic toothpaste that is an all-natural vitamin and mineral-rich formulation that gently cleanses, whitens teeth, and freshens breath while helping to restore gums and reduce harmful plaque. It is free of SLS, synthetic detergents, or additives and contains no harsh chemicals, fluoride, artificial colors, sweeteners, or dyes. Created by biologic dentist Dr. Gerry Curatola, years ago, when he recognized a need for a new and effective oral care product that could support sustainable health within the mouth.  Use our code Marni 15 at Revitin.com SUPPORT THE PODCAST Leave us a review on Apple. It's easy, scroll through the episode list on your podcast app, click on five stars, click on leave a review, and share what you love about the conversations you're listening to. Tell your friends to what you love on social. Screenshot or share directly from our stories the episode you're listening to, tag us and the guests, and use our new Marni on the Move Giphy! SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Download for Marni on the Move updates, exclusive offers, invites to events, and exciting news!

It's time to start dreamin' and schemin' about your 2023 season, and on this episode we've got 23 suggestions of gravel races you could do. While road and mountain-bike events might be somewhat limited in certain parts of the U.S., gravel events are popping off every weekend in seemingly every state in the country. So, we brought in gravel reporter and gravel racer Betsy Welch to break down 23 of the best gravel races in the lower 48. Betsy and Ben Delaney talk about the what and the why, and Frank Overton breaks down the how, in terms of training and strategy. Ready to get locked and loaded for 2023? Head over to fascatcoaching.com and use the code ”25podcast” to receive 25% off your first FasCat training plan. All our plans are backed by a 100% money-back guarantee and we have 1,000 five-star reviews.

We're back in the studio for a group show after a whirlwind of activity at the recent UCI world championships, and we're wasting no time with the heated debates. Do dropper posts (or even suspension posts) have a place on gravel bikes? What about Meta's tease that it's entering the virtual reality world for indoor cycling? Do our opinions even matter?? Either way, the Nerds really did do their homework this time, sharing their thoughts on the ideal setup for hidden cable routing – frame designers, take note!

This week we sit down with Matt Hawkins, organizer of North Carolina's Croatan Buck Fifty and founder of Ridge Supply. The special origin story of Ridge Supply and ultimately the Croatan Buck Fifty have lead Matt to create an amazing early season event. Episode sponsor: Bike Index  Ridge Supply  Croatan Buck Fifty  Support the Podcast Join The Ridership  Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: Croatan Buck Fifty [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 podcast, we've got Matt Hawkins. Matt is the founder of Ridge supply, as well as the creator of the CRO 10 buck, 50. Oh, super well-regarded gravel race out in North Carolina. I've been wanting to get Matt on the show for a few years after meeting him at sea Otter. And I'm excited to have you get to know the Crow 10 buck 50. I believe there's still some spots available for the 2023 edition. It's one of those early season races. So a great way to get tuned up for a fantastic 2023. Before we jump in. I want to thank this week. Sponsor, bike index. Bike index is a bicycle registry and stolen bike recovery platform. No one likes to think about getting their bikes stolen. I unfortunately have had two stolen over the course One was a BMX bike when I was a kid. And I feel like that scarred me. I've always been super careful about how I lock my bike up, which is probably a good thing, but ultimately, a garage that housed my bikes in San Francisco got broken into and I lost a track mountain bike. Neither one of them were ever recovered. Bike index is really the only game in town that focuses on stolen bike recovery. They've built a platform to blast your bike out to local social media channels. And they can provide you all the best advice on how to increase the chances of success in getting your bicycle recovered it's a nonprofit. All the services are free. All you need to do is get your serial number and add your make model and color to the platform. And there you go. It's like insurance. That didn't cost you anything. Simply visit www.bike index.org and get your bike registered today. With that said let's jump right into my conversation with matt [00:02:10] Craig: Hey, Matt, welcome to the show. [00:02:12] Matt: Hey, Hey Craig, [00:02:14] Craig: I'm excited to get into the Croatan buck. 50. Am I saying it? Correct? [00:02:18] Matt: you are, you are a lot of people say Croatian but 50, but I think they do that just to make me mad. [00:02:24] Craig: Yeah, and we'll get into it. We'll get into it. Cuz I think people are gonna need to get out a map and you're gonna tell us where it is in the country. I, I had to do that myself. I knew it was in North Carolina, but I didn't know exactly where and it's actually pretty interesting part of the state, but we'll table that question for the moment, cuz I was like just starting out by. Just a little bit about your backstory, where you grew up, how you got into riding. And I think we should talk about your company Ridge supply, because I think it will filter into why you created the event and you know, the vibe behind it. [00:02:53] Matt: Sure, [00:02:55] Craig: Yeah. So let's start with that question. [00:02:57] Matt: wanna know? [00:02:58] Craig: Yeah. So, where'd you grow up and when did you start riding and when did you decide, when did you discover drop bar gravel riding. [00:03:04] Matt: Well, I, I my wife and I both are from central Virginia. So up near the Charlottesville area born and raised there. My family's been there a long time, many generations. And I, I grew up in a real rural kind of county, a lot of farming communities there, but we just happen to have a race. That started back when the tour Deon and the tour to Trump rode, they came through our town. And we had a, we had a local race called the tour to Madison, and I did that with a buddy of mine on some, some Huffies. And we started racing and riding when I was really young. I've literally been riding bikes for, for almost 40 years. And yeah, so that's, that's kind of how I started. I, I of course I, I crashed on my first race and and loved it, loved doing it, but I was a swimmer by trade and I swam my whole life and swam through college. So I really picked up cycling after college sort of as my primary. And I've been doing that, you know, every, every chance I get as my soul sport really, since I got outta college, [00:04:18] Craig: Were you, were you more excited about the roadside or did you start off road riding as well back? [00:04:22] Matt: You know, actually I did a whole lot of mountain biking to start and did used to, you know, race 24 hour team races with, with the, with a team and did some road racing and some crit racing gravel obviously didn't exist back then. When I moved here to North Carolina back in oh five. I, I, you know, the first place I went to ride was the Croatan because I could go there at night with lights and be off the road. And it felt like, you know, that's where I could take my mountain bike and I could just go kind of ride. And I didn't really know. CRO, Tan's a pretty big, you know, a surface area and it, it has a lot of roads, but they're not all connected. So a lot of it's kind of sketchy. You're just like, I don't know what's down that road. So we started, you know, exploring a little bit more on road bikes with, you know, 25 sea tires or whatever is probably a bad idea. But we are just seeing, Hey, what's down that road. And I got my first cross bike and started really. Exploring it and doing, doing proper gravel, if you will, kind of before the gravel boom, but more like 2013, something like that. And and yeah, so I was like one of the first people here in our little town to do Strava. And so I made a lot of the segments originally. And and that's kind of how I got into, got into gravel was the Croatan was, was here and then everywhere I've travel. That's the bike. I primarily will take, you know, I ride a rodeo labs trail donkey now, and I'll just everywhere. I'm gonna go. I'll take that. So I can, I can ride road or, or gravel or whatever suits a fancy, [00:06:08] Craig: Yeah, exactly. When you first started on Strava and it probably sounds like the same vintage I did. When you created a segment, you could actually name it, right? Like you could name, you could name the, you name, the climbs, all the climbs. You could put your own names on them. [00:06:22] Matt: Yeah. Yeah. My, my mother-in-law sends me things all the time. Bless her heart. If she's listening, I love her to death, but she'll just send like a text message with some, with some cycling related news article and. If you, if you're like us and you follow cycling, it's things that you've already heard two or three days before, but when they hit the mainstream media and maybe my mother-in-law would see it, I would always be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But she sent me this article about Strava, which I'd never heard of before. I think this was 2011. And I kind of clicked on it. I was like, oh, this is kind of cool. And I thought, well, I wonder who's using it around here. and I, I, I downloaded the, it might have been a beta app or something at the time. And, and of course there was no segments anywhere everywhere. I went for the first six months I was telling you gotta try this, you know? And Yeah, I made all, I made all the segments in the beginning which was kind of funny. And tho the GPS on your phone back then was horrible and it, it was all squarely lines looked like spaghetti everywhere. And so, yeah, Stravos come a long way with better head units and yeah. You know, all that stuff. [00:07:28] Craig: Yeah, yeah. A hundred percent. So it sounds like the Croton is, is actually rideable from where you live right now. Is that [00:07:34] Matt: Yeah. Yeah. So we are, we are surrounded by it's 200 miles a road gravel road. And it's right here. It's five, five miles from where I'm sitting right now, so I can ride over there linked together all I can handle and, and come back pretty and it's open, you know, year round. There's no closures. It's they're public roads. [00:07:57] Craig: And to position it. So it's in North Carolina, but very close to the coast is what I saw. [00:08:01] Matt: Yes. Yeah. So we're, we're in Eastern North Carolina. It's totally flat. There's zero elevation. And the Croatan is what's called a pacoin. So, pacoin is like an elevated section of low lands. So there's a lot of water in. In the Croatan and it has nowhere to go because there's no elevation and there's really no drainage. So what they did was back in the sixties They dug canals to create the roads. So they would go in there, they would scoop out, you know, along the left and the right side, create these canals for drainage and that, and they'd put the earth in the middle and then they'd elevate that section for the roads. And so a lot of what we're riding on is you know, as gravel roads that were built in a swamp essentially. So, that. It's pretty cool. Like when I first started going in there and riding, I was a little bit like, because you, you can be like 20 miles from nothing, you know, which it's really hard to say that, especially over on the east coast, you know, if you're in Montana or something. Sure. You could maybe, but like out here, man, you can't be that far from civilization. And we have this beautiful, you know, national forest that is like kind of weirdly isolated We can, we have it right here in our backyard, which is, which is great. So this is a [00:09:24] Craig: Yeah, isn't [00:09:25] Matt: to start a start a bike race. [00:09:27] Craig: Isn't that one of the, that's just one of those amazing things about having a gravel bike. You can just sort of explore and get into these pockets of wilderness. And in, in this case, pretty large pocket considering where you are now in, in the, in the four, is there, what's the canopy, like, are there large trees in there? Are we looking at kind of [00:09:45] Matt: Yeah. So Eastern North Carolina is filled with pine. And a lot of it is plantation planted pine. So RO you know, long, straight rows of, of pine Warehouser and places like that own. Ridiculous amount of land down here with just pine trees and the Croatan is essentially mostly that except for there are maybe six pretty big lakes that are in the Croatan. And then there's a lot of, you know, tributary, swamp creeks that are coming in and out of that, when we. A lot of rain here, which, which is pretty often it's heading towards the coast, which isn't that far away. It's just that we, we tend to we te we tend to fill the sound is right here, where we're at. So we have the sound and the ocean in a barrier island. That's like 25 miles long. So, it's all connected. And you know, it's three miles off the beach basically is where the, where the place starts. [00:10:48] Craig: Got it. And are there other kind of offroad recreators in there? Are there, you know, jeepers and four wheelers and [00:10:55] Matt: Some, some of that, mostly it's hunters in the, in hunting season. And other than that, honestly, it's, it's pretty much just for us. There, none of the roads really connect to each other. So we, we get to use them. A lot of days when I go out there, man, it's like, I can't believe, you know, just it's like, it's just, it's all. It's just you. And that's, that's, that's a blessing for sure. It also means that the roads aren't maintained as well as they could be. And like we had the, we had hurricane Florence sorry, if you hear that helicopter, just the sound of freedom here. We got the Marine Corps here. So, the hurricane Florence in 2018, which. Yesterday 2018. I mean, we just got devastated and we still haven't had the roads fixed since then. So that's been four years. You, you just can only imagine the amount of potholes and damage and stuff that's there, but that's what makes our race a little interesting too, is that you never know what the roads are gonna be like [00:11:56] Craig: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. [00:11:57] Matt: the new change. They're like a lot. [00:11:59] Craig: before we get into the race itself, let's talk a little bit about Ridge supply and what, what led to you founding the company and the vision? Cause I've when I heard the story, I found it super interesting and frankly made me want to just jump on the website and order some socks. [00:12:13] Matt: I appreciate that. I, I need that. I need that. Yeah. If, if, for folks who don't know, I, you know, I own and operate Ridge supply, which is a which is a cycling apparel. Running apparel brand. I'm a one man show, so I I've got no employees. I've been doing it seven years and it's an online, only business. We, we, we primarily sell direct. So you know, the pretty much the only place you can get our product is, is at our our website. And I, I, I ship everything myself. I started doing. Back in 2015 and I didn't know what I was doing. I, I, I knew that I had I had a pretty good job at the time. And I, the, the, the quick story is I, I got I got run over by a pickup truck while I was riding my bike. And it was a hit and run and I was sort of very, very fortunate to be alive and. Acutely aware of that in the hospital that a lot of folks wanted to know if I was gonna keep riding my bike. And I, I immediately that I had to resolve that was just like, of course I was, I wasn't, it was never like, I'm scared of riding on the road. I, I certainly was aware of the danger prior to this happening. And I knew that that day I was wearing all black. and that's kind of the easy color to find in cycling apparel. Everybody makes black apparel. And I knew that if I was gonna continue to do it, I wanted to try to figure out how to do it safer. And so while I was laid up with a broken pelvis, I started doing some research and I put two sort of premises together. One was that Blocked color was more visible than solid color. And what that means is if you have the brightest, you know, pink or orange, that neon pink or orange, and we, we love it in our products. If you put it by itself and you stick it down the road like you would see from a car, you might, you might not know what that is. It, it, it looks like. anything could look like a road sign. It could look like whatever. It could just be a bright thing that you're not quite identifying yet, but when you put blocked color together like a dark color, a light color and a bright color, it catches the eye in a way that makes it stand out. It's not necessarily as. As the solid bright color, but it's more eye-catching. So that was one premise and was sort of a scientific premise there. And the other was bio motion mechanics. And what that means is that the human, the human brain recognizes another human's movement. And when that, that happens, that that brain will then acknowledge that that's a human and treat it like a. and I think what happens in cycling, the phenomenon that we all experience when we're riding is we're not treated like humans at all. And it isn't because people are driving around saying, you know, oh, these Kirsty cyclists, you know, it's actually that when they're driving, they're just not acknowledging that, that thing that they see is. Another person. It's, it's just an object. It's not, it's not dangerous. But when you think that that's a person, you notice it's a person, you will, then you don't wanna run somebody over. You know, that's not what anybody's trying to do. Then you will start acknowledging that that's person treat 'em like a person. So I took those two premises together and I said, well, I knew defeat is here in North Carolina. I had been to visit. and I was kind of their neon poster child after my accident. And I realized like I could make my own sock. All I had to do was make 72 pair and. I took the most trite design. If you, if you're seeing this on YouTube or something, it's right behind me. But I took the blue Ridge mountains that I grew up with in central Virginia. Everything is blue Ridge, blue Ridge, blue Ridge. It's the most trite non-original thing I could have come up with, but I'd never seen it in a sock. And so I took that design and a contour line also was something I had never seen. I only has it really seen straight. They're easier to knit straight. Or vertical line. So I took that contour line. I made this five color sock and that was my idea was like, if I make a bright eyecatching multicolor sock and it's moving all the time there, you get your bio motion, you get your most visible. And and yeah, so that's what I did. I mean, I. I, I did that in 2015. I, I had no idea what I was doing. I thought, man, if I could just sell these 144 pair that I ended up buying the first time I maybe I could do a sock of the month club or something. I no idea how to ship them nothing. And I made a phone call to a buddy who owns a bike shop. And he was like, oh, this is great. You know, I'll buy six pair. And I called another buddy who owns a bike shop. And he was like, oh, I'll order 18. And I was like, oh my gosh, whoa, I've sold 23 pair. What am I gonna do? You know how I was just panicked. And so I, I, I really worked hard for like a week and I like created a website and did got the shipping integrated and I did all these. Back in 2015, these tools were just becoming available to people like me, who really didn't know what they were doing, but pretty dangerous on a computer, but like, I can't do code, you know, and I could do all these things, like sort of cookie cutter and just like work hard at it and do it. And so that's, that's how I was, it was just dangerous enough to, to get 'em sold. And then I sold them within two weeks and then I was like, well, I'll just take that. And I'll reinvest it in a new, new color and I just keep flipping it. And that's how my business started in 2015. And I literally never put another dime into it. I bet I was able to do that for a while, while still having a regular job. And then yes, slowly but surely it's grown to the point. , you know, I think a lot of people think Ridge supply is a lot bigger than it is. But you gotta sell a lot of $17 socks to make a living. And I'm fortunate to sell a lot of socks. So, we that's, that's what I do, which is kind of, kind of crazy when people ask me, like, what do you do? I'm like, I sell socks and they're like, well, what do you do for a living? I'm like, I sell a lot of socks. I don't know. I mean, that's the deal. [00:18:43] Craig: I, I love that Matt. And for the listener, like I'll put a, a, a link to Ridge supply, so you can check out the color ways and whatnot. And I think it's the type of design that once you see it, as you said, you've, you've iterated on the color ways. Numbers and numbers and numbers of times now. And there's lots of different options there, but the core elements are generally the same, that skyline design that you've talked about early on from the blue Ridge mountains. So it's super cool and visual. And I think I also heard you mention to others that, you know, you, you do find that people talk about their socks, which I think is, is interesting. And you know, in probably a great way that has, has helped the company. [00:19:20] Matt: Yeah. A AB I mean, absolutely. I had no idea. The. The a community nature that was being created. And then the, the virals, not the right word, the personal connection that the Sox would make with other people out in the world. Like I'm always blown away at the number of new customers that rich supply gets every month that I'm not, I'm not advertising to get them. They're they're coming through grassroots. You know, people on a group ride, people, seeing something on Instagram, people telling somebody else about 'em and that excitement around it is something that is, is the blessing of why this is actually a business. And isn't, wasn't just something I did. And , and, and it, and I can't take credit for it because a lot of that is timing. And the MIS the, the mistakes or risks that were taken early on with the business that worked at the time when nobody else was really doing that now in revisionist history, it looks like, wow, you really knew, I didn't know what I was doing, you know, like, so, I, I can't sit back now and be like, yeah, look at this. I, I, I still just in awe and my wife and I will look at each other sometimes and be like, what is going on? Like, we , we both had, you know, Big time jobs and corporate blah, blah, blah. And all of a sudden it's like, we're sell socks for a living. And, and, you know, it's bizarre. It's a bizarre life, but I think I got the best job in the world for me, you know? So [00:20:59] Craig: Yeah, that's amazing. And I, I do, I mean, I think as a consumer, we all appreciate like the transparency and authenticity of business owners. Like now that I've heard the story, the origin story about why the SOC design is the way it is. You better believe if anybody asks me about those socks or says like, oh, those are kind of cool. I'm gonna tell them, oh, they were designed for increased visibility. And like, there's no doubt in my mind that customers relay that story if they hear about it. Because it's just, so it's just an interesting talking point. Like most socks are boring. These aren't. [00:21:33] Matt: and I appreciate that. And you know, you, can't not, everybody can listen to a 45 minute podcast to let me get long winded about telling that story either. So it's, it's hard to, it's hard to get that message out there. I assume everybody knows it, but of course they don't. And so I'm, I'm happy that you've. You know, you, you brought it up because it's, it is a, it's not marketing. I it's the last thing from marketing, it's really the, kind of the core design philosophy of what I do. It, it, isn't just, it's either mountain related, you know? So like the names, the style, the design is kind of related. It also has that five color. I try to do five sometimes I can't, but. And once I that's my brand identity, I don't have a logo that people recognize. I don't have a text that somebody's like, oh yeah, it's it's that. And when I started that in 2015, nobody was doing that. And so when you see my socks in a picture, they really stand out because of that branding. And that I've I've I like to say like, You know, like a dog, like peed around my tree. So many times, like you come near that tree, you're like, oh, that's where it supplies tree. Whoa. You know? And it's because that's what , that's what that did. And I didn't know that's what was gonna happen. But now I, I, it's funny, like I have like, Social media watchdogs out there. You know, if somebody does anything with five colors or contour lines, I get these text messages. Like they're stealing from you. You know, it's, it's not that there's only so much you can do on a sock. That's not really what happens, but that's, what's made it unique. Is it it, you can tell what it is without seeing the words or some, you know, a swoosh logo or. [00:23:17] Craig: Yeah. I love it. I love it. I'm in the listener. Well knows that I can geek out about the basic business behind any enterprise. Cause I love it. I'm fascinated by it, but I definitely wanted to transition to the Caran buck 50. And learn, learn more about the event. So what, when did you get the idea for it and what was the inspiration? Why, you know, it's a lot of work to put on an event as you can attest. And why did you tackle that? [00:23:42] Matt: Well, I mean, ignorance is is a great motivator to do something ridiculous because I had no idea. I had never, I don't think I'd ever volunteered for a race and nor had I ever put one on I'd done a lot of them. And I just knew that I knew that our area was kind of unique. Gravel was something that it hadn't quite taken off. There weren't a lot of big events outside of, you know, like Mid-South and dirty Kansas at the time. And there was really no, and there's there still aren't many events on the east coast, outside of like Vermont. And so I knew we had the Crow team here and I. The better part of six months or so, just kind of riding the Croatan, giving a feel for it and, and trying to come up with something that could work. The, the one challenge we have most, because we're on the coast, you can't go in our case south, because we're south facing, which is kind of strange. They don't, we're like long island, you know, when you go south, you go into the water. So. We don't have options for loops. You kind of go into the Croatan and the way that it's structured with its lakes and its swamps and stuff, some of the roads just don't go anywhere. And they're really kind of like fire access. So we couldn't do like a, a traditional loop, like you would normally like almost every course is. So we had to do an out and back. That's interesting. Nobody really does that. And I wasn't sure people are gonna like that. And so I kind of wrote it enough. So I was like, you know what, I don't hate this. I could do this, you know, and enjoy it. And it is different an out and back's always different. It's going another direction, a different view, different thing, different turns. So, but yeah, in 2017, I, I did that. I, I had a. A buddy at the time that was helping me kind of promote it. And we got it started. And, and we had 250 people, I think in 2018 come and do it. And I like I've told some other folks too, like I had no idea what I was doing and a lot of bike races, you know, you just kind of show up, they start you and then you finish. Sometimes there's timing. Sometimes there's not. If you're not on the podium, you just kind of, you know what I mean? Like there's nobody there to finish. I finished races before here, locally, where I got back to the finish line and there was literally nothing there, you know, I've won event like that where I'm like, there's no finish line. There's nobody to, to document it. You just ride across and you're like, I won. You don't win anything. You're just the first person to finish. So with this race, We just winged it that first year it was a success. People loved it. We do start and stop at the Speedway here, which is, which is one of our crown jewels. We, we have a a, a NASCAR short track. If you don't know what that is, it's essentially like, you know, less than a half mile track. And it is. they call it the nicest one in the country. And the reason that is, is it's built like a, like a Speedway where it's got, it's got like eight or nine bars. It has grandstands, it has towers. It has a restaurant in the middle. It's got a garage. It's I mean, it's, it's amazing, but we, we are able to use it for our start and our finish and it, and it provides this ambiance about. The start and finish in a way that is real communal and has the right vibe. And it's right beside the Croatan so short, little, little paved section to get out there and then you're in the woods. And just that combo together was a good, it just worked in 2018. [00:27:33] Craig: Yeah. And was it 150 mile race? Or did you have other [00:27:37] Matt: Yeah, no. So we have three. We call it the buck 50, because there's 150 mile race. We have a race called the buck, which is a hundred miles and we have a race called the 50. That is 50 miles. W the first year we basically had a course that was almost 50 miles and we did one lap, two laps or three laps. It's a mass start. Everybody started at the same exact time. And we had. We had sections of the course. It changes every year, the course changes a little bit every year, but that first year we had this section of road that was really primitive and abandoned road that was, had a lot of potholes, a lot of mudhole and we called it Savage road. And that was a section that was about three miles long that really broke the race up. It was the, it was the animated piece. And that was a big hit. We were able to use that the first two years. And since then we haven't been able to use it, which is fine. And we've changed the course a little bit, but now, now we have three races. The 50 uses that same out and back to start. And then the hundred uses a 60 mile loop and then a 40 mile loop. And then the buck 50 uses 2 75 mile loops. So what's kind of nice is we have all these people out there in the course, and it kind of is three different courses, but there's a big section of the course where it's it's everyone uses it. So unlike a lot of races, we have a lot of back and forth traffic. So, out there on the course, you will find other riders heading the other direction that are 40 miles. You know, away from you in the race. But the way that we stagger it and that provides a lot of, we found that that provides a lot of positive comradery. Yeah. There's that small group in the front, that's drilling it for the race lead and they're not waving it people. But everyone else seems to be really encouraging of the other groups. And that community aspect, I think, is something unique about our race that people really like. [00:29:49] Craig: Yeah, that sounds super interesting. And I agree. I mean, there's, it's very few races where you double back on yourself and see other people. And it, it's fascinating as, you know, as a mid packer to see. to get an opportunity to see the front front leaders of the men's and women's race go by. That's a lot of fun and inspiring to see. [00:30:06] Matt: Yeah. And I think makes people feel a little bit safer too, you know, if you had a catastrophic situation you're, you're not alone. The Croatan is very remote and you could be. You wouldn't be out there by yourself forever, but the way our race is set up, you know, you're not alone very long. And I think people, like, I think people like that. [00:30:26] Craig: For sure. You talked a little bit about how the terrain was laid out early on in this conversation. What type of equipment do you see people riding? What kind of tires, et C. [00:30:36] Matt: Yeah. You know, the more I've tr traveled around and don't know other races and stuff, I, people that have never done this race, they actually, they just don't believe that the terrain, this terrain exists, you know, and they've never really ridden terrain like this because it is it's perfectly flat and what that means for you is that you never are able to coast or, you know, there's no climb, so there's no dissent and you never stop peddling. And in the course of a 50 mile, even just a 50 mile ride, it can really drain you when you do 150. It is a, it is a serious effort. So as far as gearing and stuff is concerned, you could literally ride. , you know, you could ride road gearing here and be fine. But a lot of folks, you know, this is a great single speed course, because if you get the right gear, that's, you know, the right cadence you want and can get you at the speed you wanna go, you don't need to change your gear. So it's a perfect course for just grinding out on a single speed tires. You know, we've got really good surface area or surface that is not like sharp rocket rocks at. It can be a little Sandy at times. So a little bit of volume is important, but I mean, the race has been one on like 30 fives and 30 twos. So I wouldn't ride it on a 32 myself. I'd rather I ride like a 38. And I feel fine on that, but I ride a slick out here all year round. So even, even if it's wet a slick is fine. Our corners. Our corners are a little Sandy. So tires tend to not do anything for you. You just gotta take 'em a little gingerly. If you go in a corner too hot, you're just gonna eat it. But we don't have many corners, you know, so a lot of the roads are straight and you're what you really have to do is find your line. That's the other thing you can't ever explain to somebody until they come and do it? We have. We we, you call 'em potholes, but like we have small indentations, like a pothole in the gravel and they're everywhere. They're everywhere. And so imagine you're in a group of 800 people and you're nine, 10 riders back. You're not gonna see any of that. And all of a sudden, you're just like, bam, you hit the bottom of this pothole with your rim. It becomes this thing where as the course opens up and as people start to spread out, picking your line, it's like a snake, you know, and it just winds around and, and the groups are all doing it. You can be on the left, you can be on the right. If you're in the middle of the road, it is a nightmare because there is just no way that you're not gonna have some catastrophic pothole in your way. It, it's a weird kind of way to race your bike. But one really cool thing is like, you'll never calm down and just like tune out. You have to be on the Razor's edge mentally the whole time. And I think that's actually a great way to grab a race, you know? Cause if you're just like, you always talk about people, like I just had to grind through this thing, which is so boring. Like this course is not. It's flat and it's an out and back, and that sounds boring to people until they do it. But then when they do it, you throw in these potholes it's, there's something special about it. [00:34:03] Craig: A heck of a lot of peddling and a heck of a lot of attention required. It sounds like [00:34:08] Matt: Yes. [00:34:09] Craig: when you think about the event, were you looking to put something on the calendar that attracted sort of a highly competitive crowd or what was, what was kind of the vibe and intention of the, the race design in your mind? [00:34:20] Matt: Yeah. You know, I, I set out to create something that could be the first gravel race you've ever done in the 50. That is like, You know, like, even if you're going pretty slow, you can complete that course in four hours. And I felt like four hours is like, you know, if, if you're really riding and training, some, you can do that. Even if you never train more than two, you could still pull out a four hour effort. The buck 50. Was always gonna be a challenge just from a time perspective, because like even the fastest people who are blazing this course at like 21 and a half miles an hour, they're still in the seven hour range. And that is that's goes all the way up to 12, you know, depending on who who's doing it. What I tried to do was make a race. and this is the magic of the Croatan being flat. If you're the, if you're the, the person who just wants to come out and experience it and ride, you can line up against, you know, Ian Boswell, who's gonna go, maybe win it. And you both have. An equally rewarding experience. It isn't that the person in the back is just lollygagging. The course they're gonna have to do something really special for them to complete it, but the people at the front are gonna get this unique experience of a March race that doesn't have crazy elevation. Doesn't have, you know, high altitude doesn't have extreme weather and yet it's. But it's just hard enough for wherever your fitness is at. And I think that's one of the sweet spots and we don't bill it. I know it's called the buck 50, but it, we split it about a third. So we have, you know, a third of the people sign up for the 50, a third of the people sign up for the a hundred and a third of people for the buck 50 and. One of the unique things about our race too, is like, we let you switch the distance up until a month out because people will sign up and then they'll be like, ah, my fitness, isn't what I want it to be. Or they maybe have a great winner and they're like, you know what? I wanna do. I wanna bump up from the a hundred to the 150. So we allow people to do that and change it on their own. And that's, that's been a big, a big blessing because it, it, we were seeing 150 people. Change, which is a nightmare for a race director to have to deal with all that. So we just let him do that one bike edge until January. [00:36:53] Craig: Nice. Yeah. It's interesting that March date on the calendar, I think it's like, it's such a great focal point for your energy. Like through the winter to say, oh, I gotta, I gotta stay fit. Cuz I wanna do something big in March and it just sets the table for a great year on the bike. I think if you're fit at that time. [00:37:10] Matt: Yeah. I think people that we, so registration just opened up yesterday and on, on the 15th of September and it's a long way out, but it really isn't. When you think about your holidays. Your new, year's all these things. And people do use this as their carrot. I know I do. I use it as my, I gotta get on swift. You know, I gotta do another workout, even though I don't ride it. I just know that that's what people do and then they, it's not, you wanna come outta your, come out of your, you know, to start your season at the buck, 50 Andy blazing, but you know that you don't really have to perform at a weird, you. Extreme level, you just have to grind and that's, that's kind of a neat way to start your year too. And I think, I think it's worked for people that really wanna set, you know, set a goal, an early season goal and then pick up their June and, you know, July things later, cuz they built that base. [00:38:08] Craig: Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like from your description that the, the race track has just created this very important piece of infrastructure. For the overall event, how are you kind of harnessing that? Obviously like a lot of gravel events try to foster a nice after race party or an event or experience for the community. How do you kind of manage that? And, and what should we expect when we show up? [00:38:32] Matt: Yeah. You know, we're, we're, we're super blessed. We we've got all of these things in this background where you're you're you're on this NAS. You know, short track it's paved. It has a pit lane. We, we have the finish line there, right? Where, right where the the vending is and the food and all that stuff. So it's this communal effort once you've, once you either are coming through for a lap, you get to see everybody or at the finish right after you finish you're right there. And it's been an interesting. It's evolved, but it's been an interesting environment because we also have free camping there on site. So basically like you can literally come in there the night before pitch a tent inside of the track, wake up, you're basically at the start finish line and start the races re reminds me a little bit of the, some of the mountain bike events that you get to do or camping's involved. But we, we offer, you know, meal afterwards and beverage, we typically will have like a, you know, a, a beer, a partner that'll that'll have beer. We do like. A, a full catered buffet style meal, which, which is kind of nice because just some, you know, where we are. It's not like we got eight, 900 people. There's not a lot of restaurants and stuff, you know, you can't just like, say, Hey, go get yourself something to eat. We kind of have to provide it. So we do that. And the big thing that because of Ridge supply and because of who I am as a business person, if you will like. I've always made. I've always tried to set out to make this race a value, even though it's not inexpensive race. There's. I feel like there's peer races that are of our size or bigger that are more expensive. And the return that you get from the buck 50, I've always tried to maximize the return and make every decision that we make. I say we, that I make about the race is rider focus. Because I think what happens with race directors and I'm not pointing any fingers at anyone else, I'm saying this happens, happens to me. You get this registration, you sell your registration, which is great. Then you have to provide services with that, with the, that revenue and the amount of services you provide. There's like a minimum and a lot of folks stop there. They're just like, this is all you gotta do. . And what I try to do is give back enough a in services, but also in product, we give away a huge swag package. Nobody does this, but I do it because a that's what I do. I sell stuff, you know? But like this year, when you come and do this race, you're paying for the entry, but you're get, you're gonna get basically a, a, everything that we do is fully custom just for racers too. So it isn't like you can buy this on this, on the website or. Somebody printed a cooi and gave it to you. It's like you get a custom pair of socks. You get a custom race tee that is not like your typical race tee. It's a legit piece of garment. You get a finisher's hat. When you finish, that's specific to your race, you're gonna get a pair of gloves that are custom long fingered, hand up gloves that you're gonna get. You may get some other things and I'm not gonna say out loud what they are. Those things all add up. It's well, over a hundred dollars worth of stuff. You get a meal afterwards, you get beverage afterwards, you get free camping. It isn't about what you get back, but when you do all those things, and then the value of the race experience in itself is what it is. And people do really enjoy doing this event. I hope that they tell other people about it and then they wanna come do it again. Otherwise, you know, it's a giant waste of time. I've found that from, from a race director's standpoint, if, if it stretches me a little bit where I'm just kinda like, oh man, I got, you know, when you have 900 people, every dollar that you spend is a thousand dollars, you know, and those add up very quickly. And there's a lot of times that that feeling that you have, you're like, well, I don't have to do that. They won't, they don't really, you know, you don't really need that. That's almost the, the surefire indication I need to. And I, the one thing we don't do that a lot of big races have, I don't really have a whole lot. I really don't have any corporate P partners. I don't sell sponsorship. Nobody's presenting this. And I like that because it keeps it, the vibe is the right vibe for March. I don't think a March race should feel like the world championships of anything. It's like, bro, you're just coming outta hibernation in the Northeast. This is your first time to see the sunshine and you wanna ride your bike, but you know, you, you don't need all that pressure yet. And so we try to keep it like that. And I think it's translated. I think the, the race track does provide that. And that's kind of what we use it for. It's just a backdrop. We really don't, you know, you do get to ride around it and finish and you come in and out of it to do your pit. But yeah, I'm not sure if I answered that question correctly, but [00:43:35] Craig: You you, you, you did for sure, Matt. No, I love it. And I do think, you know, by my likes again, like it's come to me through a number of different sources that this is a fun event. If you can get it on your calendar and you're close to the east coast where you can get there. So I think you're doing all the right things and I'm, I'm happy to have you on the podcast and just hopefully expose this race to a broader audience. I really love the idea. Encourage encouraging people to travel, to ride gravel in different parts of the country. Cuz as you expressed early on in this conversation, it's such a unique part of our country that has these funny little attributes that you're not gonna experience elsewhere. [00:44:14] Matt: Yeah. Yeah, I appreciate that. It, it is it, when you live here, you're kind of like, why would anybody want to come here and ride our little gravel and then you make the bike race, and then everyone's like, It's amazing. And you're like, really? Is it, you know, and, and that's kind of been an eyeopener too, is that you realize that it is unique. The art terrain is unique and I've, I, I spent a lot of time in Vermont. I I spent a lot of time in Colorado, kind of all those kind of areas. I'm like, you can't mimic those things. They're just, they are what they are. And they're amazing. It's just that what we have is just. Squished flat and you can get away from everything in a way that is just kind of bizarre. You know, there's no homes, there's no buildings. There's no nothing. You're just on a gravel road in the middle of a forest, as far as your eyes can see. And that's kind of cool. [00:45:04] Craig: Yeah. And thank you. Thank you for just putting a hand up in creating this. I mean, it, I always like to express that sentiment to advent organizers cuz it's, it's hard, hard work, but I know it's, it's a virtual, it's a love story to your local community in the, the trails that you've explored the last few years. [00:45:22] Matt: I appreciate that, man. Yeah. I mean, I would do it again if I, if I knew, but if I knew it was this hard, I would think really hard about starting it. I'm glad, I'm glad the ignorance is, is prevalent for me. [00:45:35] Craig: it, it totally is. It totally is. I don't think you start a business. If you know everything you're gonna have to go through and you probably don't start an event either if you know everything that's in front of you, but cool. Thanks again, Matt. I really appreciate it. [00:45:48] Matt: Craig. Appreciate it. [00:45:48] Craig Dalton: That's going to do it for this week's edition of the gravel rod podcast. Big, thanks to Matt for coming on board and talking about his backstory for Ridge supply and that amazing sounding Croatan buck 50 race coming up in early 20, 23. Big thanks to bike index for supporting the show this week. And big thanks to you for listening. I may not say this enough, but I very much appreciate you listening to the show. And making me part of your gravel cycling experience. If you're interested in connecting with me, you can visit the ridership that's www.theridership.com. It's a free global cycling community where you can interact with gravel, cyclists from all over the world. If you're able to support the show, ratings and reviews are hugely appreciated. Or head on over to buy me a coffee.com/the gravel ride. If you're able to contribute financially. Until next time. Here's to finding some dirt under your wheels