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This week on Life in the Peloton, we’ve got Lael Wilcox back on the pod. As many of you know, Lael has just become the Guinness World Record holder for cycling around the world. She rode an incredible 29,000 kilometers starting from Chicago, circumnavigating the globe in 108 days, 12 hours, and 12 minutes.

I was so excited to get Lael back on the pod this week. I loved following her journey around the world through her podcasts and videos. Lael is full of energy, and what really drew me into this adventure was how she managed to make something so difficult and challenging sound like so much fun to manage to involve so many people.

In our chat we spoke about what it was like to complete this adventure, to cross the globe, to ride in all these amazing places, and to do so with so many people joining in and following along.

Her record attempt was followed by thousands of people, many of whom took the time to join her on the ride, offering gifts, places to stay, and help along the way, as well as the occasional diversion to improve her route!

I was particularly keen to hear what it had been like riding across Australia, but I love to hear how people see my country and be able to see it through fresh perspectives. Lael actually reached out for a route, and I was really happy to be able to help out - at the last minute! And then to hear what this adventure had been like.  

Lael is so inspiring to talk to, her story and approach to riding her bike is fantastic, and we loved having her back on the pod.

Take a listen to this episode—it’s an amazing trip around the world, not to mention a new world record, and something that’s inspiring for so many cyclists.

Sit back, relax and enjoy.

Mitch

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Listen to my previous chat with Lael - Lael Wilcox - The best of the best in Ultra Endurance Cycling

This episode is also supported by our friends at Wahoo head over to wahoofitness.com to check out their awesome bike computers and trainers.

The Dirty Docker is almost here! Dirty Docker is my multi-day event for all things cycling and running in the Macedon Ranges. For the last few weeks of winter, you can get an exclusive discount code by signing up to the Life in the Peloton Newsletter here.

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Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP

Regulars to the pod might be familiar with the story of Christian Meier the cyclist, the teammate, or the Girona resident and coffee shop owner. But, inspired by organising my first running event - the ‘Pub to Pub’ in Lancefield, this instalment Life in the Peloton is all aboutChristian Meier: the ultra-runner.

After retiring in 2016 and setting up his Girona coffee shops, Christian hasn’t sat still, and instead has found a new athletic passion that has led him to some quite incredible heights!

For most ex-pros finishing their career means they wind down and gradually do less sport (or none at all). Christian has broken that mould and found a new love for Ultra-running that in his mind eclipses even his feats as a professional cyclist riding the Tour de France, Giro of Vuelta.

I’ve been loving getting involved with running since I stopped racing, even starting up the Lanny Run Club here in Lancefield. Interestingly in the past few years, we’ve seen more and more professional cyclists turn to running as part of their training and fitness regimen, even during the race season, something that was unthinkable for a pro rider just a few years ago.

Christian was a fascinating guy to talk to on the subject (I ran out of time to get all the tips out of him that I wanted!) but I did get to ask him about what it was like making the transition, what he loves about ultra-running and the similarities and surprising differences between the two endurance sports.

We also went over his incredible win in the TDS, an ultra-running race of 145km that takes in over 9000m of climbing in the Alps. I’ll leave you guys to have a listen to hear what the man himself has to say about that!

Cheers!

Mitch

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The Dirty Docker is almost here! Dirty Docker is my multi-day event for all things cycling and running in the Macedon Ranges. For the last few weeks of winter, you can get an exclusive discount code by signing up to the Life in the Peloton Newsletter here. 

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP

Hey everyone, we’re back this week with another Talking Luft Top Six Most Influential! This week I’m joined by one of the most recognisable and talented cycling commentators, Rob Hatch to talk all about our most influential World Championships.

The World Road Race Championships is not only one of the most prestigious races of the year, but it’s also unique in pro racing being the only race of the year where professionals race for their national teams, for that coveted rainbow jersey! 

I was lucky enough to race a couple of worlds for Australia and I can tell you it is a pretty special experience to be able to represent your country in your sport. I loved racing for Australia and I pick out some of my experiences for this pod, including helping Micheal Matthews to the silver medal in 2015, and that rain in Yorkshire! 

My guest Rob Hatch has been covering pro racing for well over a decade and has been following cycling for even longer. His voice has accompanied some of the most epic racing moments in recent years - and many of those non-epic hours that fill our TV screens too! 

Rob has an incredible, and in-depth knowledge of cycling and he’s as passionate as any anyone I know on the subject. We talked about some fantastic Worlds from Chambery to Harrogate via Richmond. The Worlds really does cover so many different places and characters that it was always going to be hard work to get things down to just (over a) handful of editions! 

If, like myself and Rob, you can’t wait for the worlds to roll round (now that the Vuelta is old news!) then have a listen to this one, and get in the mood for the big WC. 

Cheers! 

Mitch

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The Dirty Docker is almost here! Dirty Docker is my multi-day event for all things cycling and running in the Macedon Ranges. For the last few weeks of winter, you can get an exclusive discount code by signing up to the Life in the Peloton Newsletter here. 

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP

Life in the Peloton has been cooking up something a bit different for you this week, I’ve thrown my press badge back on, and jumped in on the rest day press-conference action, to bring you the very first “Hot Off The Press”, Life in the Peloton’s Virtual Press Room from the Vuelta España. 

With so much action and suspense at the Spanish Grand Tour, which - I keep reminding everyone, was a favourite race of mine, I figured why not get on the phone, dial in to the pelo, and get the freshest possible take on what is going on. 

I was lucky enough to speak to some of the most important characters from this year’s race, including the current red jersey wearer, Ben O’Connor, stage winner Mike Woods, Richard Carapaz’s sports director at EF, Juanma Garate, as well as top domestiques Robert Gesink and Carlos Verona. 

Make no mistake this is a brutal edition of the Vuelta, and our guests fill us in on everything from what it takes to try and win at the race, to what it feels like to try to survive, and everything in between. 

This pod is a new one for us at Life in the Peloton and I’m delighted to be bringing you all these  hot-off-the-press takes as we head into the third week, where we can expect plenty of action from our guests and the rest of the Vuelta peloton. 

Sit back, relax and tune in before it cools off! 

Cheers! 

Mitch

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The Dirty Docker is almost here! Dirty Docker is my multi-day event for all things cycling and running in the Macedon Ranges. For the last few weeks of winter, you can get an exclusive discount code by signing up to the Life in the Peloton Newsletter here. 

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP

It’s Race Communiqué time at Life in the Peloton, and this week Luke Durbridge, Tom Southam and I, are once again covering all of the latest action from inside and outside of the peloton as we move into the final big phase of racing for the year. 

First up, we dive into the latest news from the Vuelta a España. It’s been a thrilling race so far, and along with my take on all of the action from the commentary box, we also have some great behind-the-scenes info from Tom who has just come back from a stint at the race. From the breakaways to the brutal climbs, we break down all the key moments and what they mean for the GC contenders.

Next, we catch up with Luke Durbridge, who’s been on a rollercoaster ride to recovery. Luke opens up about his journey back from injury, the challenges he’s faced, and how he’s gearing up for the rest of the season. We also talk about how riders manage to return to racing and what it takes to come back from setbacks and injuries. 

Tom also takes us through the latest transfer news. The cycling world is buzzing with big moves and surprising switches, and we all share our opinions on who’s going where and what it means for the teams involved.

To top it all off, we’ve got a super special edition of the Communi-quiz - all about a rider who will close the curtain on his career very soon, the one and only Rigoberto Uran. 

So, grab your coffee, settle in, and join us for another epic episode of Life in the Peloton. 

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This episode is supported by our friends at The Escape Collective.

Check out Escape Collective's Classifieds section of their website where thousands of used bikes, parts and accessories are being sold every day.

It's free for anyone to use, not just members.

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Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP

This week’s episode of Life in the Peloton is a treat for all the tech fans out there as we’re talking to Josh Poertner. Currently, Josh is the owner of iconic cycling brand Silca, where he has been doing some really cool stuff in the past few years, but he’s also one of the minds behind some of the most interesting changes in tech in pro cycling in the last decade.

Coming from a motorsport background, Josh was introduced to cycling through at Zipp where (amongst other things) through his work with Fabian Cancellara at CSC, he changed the way that, my favourite race, Paris Roubaix is raced, showing the world that the cobbles could be conquered on carbon wheels.

These days it might not even sound that revolutionary to think about tackling a race like Roubaix on deep section carbon wheels, but as someone who raced it back in the late 00’s on 36 spoke box section rims this was a real revolution. Small changes like this make huge contributions to the speed of races and the way that the peloton moves these days.

To be honest the wheels at Roubaix, although a huge talking point for me obviously, are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Josh’s work in pro cycling. His is one of the minds that has led to the revolution in aerodynamics, lowering rolling resistance, ceramic bearingsand a host of other seemingly small but game changing ideas that has sped up the sport in the past decade.

I was pumped to sit down and talk with Josh about all of this, and of course recount the pretty funny tale of when we first met in 2019 and he had to go and pick up the race bike I’d left on a baggage carousel the day before Roubaix!  

Sit back and have a listen and get to know one of the people who has really changed the sport for the better!

Cheers!

Mitch

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The Dirty Docker is almost here! Dirty Docker is my multi-day event for all things cycling and running in the Macedon Ranges. For the last few weeks of winter, you can get an exclusive discount code by signing up to the Life in the Peloton Newsletter here. 

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP

This week Talking Luft’s Top Six Most Influential is from one of my personal favourite races with one of my best mates from the peloton: it’s the Vuelta España with Sam Bewley. 

Sam had a great career on the road, riding all three Grand Tours in his thirteen-year pro career and is now a successful DS at Israel Premier Tech. We were teammates at Green Edge and rode a couple of our Vuelta’s together back in the day, which made making this pod even better! 

Each Grand Tour has its own characteristics, and the Vuelta would have to be the wildest of the three. We both raced there in the 2010s when the race was settling into its current format with the super tough finishes and more open racing than we were used to at the time. 

As always, our selection of the most influential parts of the race includes some of the action from the stages, but also the stories, the climbs, crosswinds, routes, and riders that have made this race so special. There are even a few first-hand accounts of some of those key stages and some nice bits of detail that you would certainly never have seen on TV! 

I loved having Sam back on the pod and being able to chat about some of those stages and moments, as well as one superb post-race beer session (post our race - if not the race…) which I have to say is my absolute favourite moment from any of my Grand Tour experiences; a special memory and a great story to tell. 

This one is a blast, and on the eve of the race itself, I hope it leaves you thirsty for a bit more Vuelta action!

I have teamed up with Elderton Wines to bring you the Life in the Peloton x Elderton Shiraz! It's full-bodied, rich and classic and I can't wait for you to try it!

The Dirty Docker is almost here! Dirty Docker is my multi-day event for all things cycling and running in the Macedon Ranges. For the last few weeks of winter, you can get an exclusive discount code by signing up for the Life in the Peloton Newsletter here. 

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP

This week on Life in the Peloton we get away from skinny tyres and dive back onto gravel with Haley Smith and Rosa Klöser, two stars of the privateer gravel scene

Many of you will have seen the epic finish at this year’s Unbound Gravel, which ended in a gripping nine-rider sprint in Emporia.

Both Haley - who is a former winner of the Lifetime GP overall, and Rosa - the eventual winner that day, were in that group fighting for the win in the most prestigious gravel event on the calendar.

While Haley made the switch to gravel racing after representing Canada in mountain biking at the 2021 Olympics, Rosa is relatively new to competitive cycling - having taken up racing just a couple of years ago.

We kicked off our chat going into some great detail about that final in Unbound, but I also wanted to understand the importance of the race as an event and what it means to win it. We also got to discuss how the women felt that the race had benefitted from differing start times for male and female athletes in 2024.

Like ourselves here at Life in the Peloton, both Haley and Rosa are supported by MAAP, and even though Haley and Rosa are rivals, I wanted to take this opportunity to have a chat about but how the world of privateering works for these athletes, and what being a privateer really means.

It felt like the hour flew by for me, I love learning more details about the world of gravel, the races and these athletes through different perspectives.

As ever - sit back, relax and enjoy.

Cheers,

Mitch

The Dirty Docker is almost here! Dirty Docker is my multi-day event for all things cycling and running in the Macedon Ranges. For the last few weeks of winter, you can get an exclusive discount code by signing up to the Life in the Peloton Newsletter here. 

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP

This week on the pod I managed to catch up with one of the revelations of the season and one of the big players of last month’s racing at the Dauphiné and Tour de France, Matteo Jorgensen.

2024 has been a huge season for Matteo. After four years knocking at the door at Movistar, last winter he made the switch to Team Visma Lease-A-Bike and he hit the ground running winning both Paris-Nice and Dwars Door Vlaanderen back in March, before coming back into top form for the summer months. 

I first met Matteo back in 2020 when I was still racing and I was so happy to get this chance to get to chat with him at this stage of his career, because in many ways his development is the perfect example of how the sport has changed in a short time.  

It was fascinating for me to hear some of the inner workings of Visma Lease-A-Bike compared to a more traditional outfit like Movistar, and to learn how the riders and teams need to work in order to perform in 2024. The changes and improvements in diet, training and race preparation are really eye-opening and I loved hearing the detail of all of this. 

When I spoke to Matteo he was between the Tour and Olympic Games where is representing the USA. Not only was it pretty cool to manage to get some time between the two races, but it also gave us the chance to chat about how you go about balancing two huge goals like the Tour and the Olympics. 

We covered a lot of ground in our chat, Matteo is a really great and open guest who happens to be literally at the top of the game! 

There is so much here to unpack that I’ll leave you to sit back, relax and enjoy! 

Cheers!

Mitch

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The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP

A little later than usual, but we are back this week with a hot-off-the-press Race Communiqué. 

The Tour de France is the only race on the calendar where, myself and my two regular podcast guests, Luke Durbridge and Tom Southam are all on the ground at the same time. 

After a month on the road doing our respective jobs at the race, we sat down and caught up on all of the action and shared our perspectives on the race. 

While I was hitting the road every day with the press and sometimes doubling up doing the odd bidon hand up, Luke was guiding his team sprinter Dylan Groenewegen to his 6th TDF stage win for Jayco Alula, and Tom was behind the wheel of the team car helping Richard Carapaz and EF Education Easypost light up the race in the mountains in the final week. 

It was an eventful race for all of us, and we wanted to catch up about the things that had stuck in our minds, from the great tactics, to the mood and the dynamics in the grupetto plus of course, plenty of insight on the things that you wouldn’t have seen on TV or read about in the press. 

This pod is always a fun one to make, but this one is packed with great stories, not to mention revealing our strategies for the Escape Collective Fantasy Tour, and of course, no Race Communiqué would be complete without a quiz. 

Time to grab a cold one, and finally relax after an action packed month. 

Cheers! 

Mitch

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This episode is brought to you by our friends at Zwift Ride. Throughout the Tour de France and beyond Zwift are running rides across Europe.

Sign up here to get your free ticket to one of the events listed below.

This episode is brought to you by MAAP, Australian cycling apparel that was born in Melbourne but made its mark the planet over. Kick-start your adventure at maap.cc.

This episode is supported by our friends at The Escape Collective.

Life in the Peloton listeners get 2 months of free access to Escape Collective. Just head to http://escapecollective.com/LITP and claim your 2 months free to get a feel for what the community and content is all about.

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.