Brendan Fairclough is back for the 2nd time on the show! We sit down for an off-the-cuff-style show. Brendan has excelled from a very young age and carved his own unique path in the Cycling Industry. It didn’t come by sheer luck though. The hard-working Free Racer shares some very valuable insights from his journey to the top.  @brendog1 achieved 2 World Cup Podiums as a Junior. His career took a slight detour after a knee injury in 2011. He has now become known for way more than just racing. He has a movie on NETFLIX named DEATHGRIP and managed a 4th Place at Rampage.  Check out his Youtube Channel

The Australian Troy Brosnan was a junior phenom and has continued his rise to the top of the downhill world stage.  He has 3 World Cup wins to his name and even more impressive some say is the fact that Troy finished in the top 3 overall too many times for anyone to remember.  He opens up and shares some great stories about when he was teammates with Sam Hill and Brendan Fairclough, strategies for his consistency, and much more. 

2022 World Cup Downhill racing is here and Sven Martin is my co-host for this episode of Bench Racing.  WHAT A RACE !! We break down the first round held in Lourdes, France. Get all the insights and behind-the-scenes chat from the race. We will cover the season and bring you review episodes of each race throughout the year. 

This podcast series is brought to you by Crankbrothers.  Crankbrothers is synonymous with the DH racing circuit, and last year celebrated 11 years in a row of Elite World Champs wins with the Mallet DH pedal! Determined to improve the shoe and pedal interface for riders, Crankbrothers spent the last two years developing their own range of shoes, launching late last year, and in 2021 we’ll see those shoes in use on the World Cup DH circuit with riders like Luca Shaw, Bernard Kerr, Angel Suarez, and former World Champs Oisin O’Callaghan and Camille Balanche, as well as many more. 

2022 World Cup Downhill racing is here and Sven Martin and Alan Milway are my co-hosts for this episode of Bench Racing.  We will cover the season and bring you review episodes of each race throughout the year.  We break down the upcoming 2022 season with a preview show and the riders to watch for 2022 with racing kicking off at Lourdes, France on 27th March 2022. 

This podcast series is brought to you by Crankbrothers.  Crankbrothers is synonymous with the DH racing circuit, and last year celebrated 11 years in a row of Elite World Champs wins with the Mallet DH pedal! Determined to improve the shoe and pedal interface for riders, Crankbrothers spent the last two years developing their own range of shoes, launching late last year, and in 2021 we’ll see those shoes in use on the World Cup DH circuit with riders like Luca Shaw, Bernard Kerr, Angel Suarez, and former World Champs Oisin O’Callaghan and Camille Balanche, as well as many more. 

Jared Graves is easily the most all-around Mountain Biker of our generation. He has won the World Championships in 4X and Enduro.  He has also achieved a medal at the Downhill World Championships. He switched his efforts to BMX and represented Australia in BMX at the Olympics. Oh and to add to that he has some national titles in XC MTB. There is not much this man has not done. He also recovered from Brain Cancer late in his career. He is an inspiration. 

Here is an article if you think we missed something. This topic has been picked apart ad nauseam and I wanted to celebrate Jared's incredible career as he retires in this chat. 

The name Remy Metailler is now a well-known name in the bike industry.  He burst onto the scene with his wild Whistler Bike Park edits. Remy has carved his own niche in the mountain bike world now focusing his efforts on YOUTUBE.  Remy took what he learned in business school and applies it to the industry.  His early bike park edit can be found HERE  . Find his YT Channel HERE.    He shares some great insights about his career, attitude to learning and progression, and the business side of sponsorship. 

With over 50 years of racing experience, Andrew Neethling and Myles Kelsey of Bike Network take you on a journey into their MTB World.  We answer some listener questions, take a deep dive into getting you the rider faster on an MTB, plus some random MTB-related topics. This show is made for the listener so keep sending those questions in and let us know where to go with this show!! 

Davi at The Ride Companion ( Formerly the HKT Podcast ) was a huge huge help by pushing me to start my own podcast. This is a re broadcast of an episode where he had me on his show.  I thought it would help you listeners get to know me a bit more and we talk about all sorts in the industry including racing, the lack of support for mental health and loads more. 

Matti Lehikoinen is a real-life badass.  Winner of 2 World Cup downhills and the most successful dh rider out of Finland, Matti has seen and experienced it all in the sport.  The good, the bad, and really ugly.  We dive into his life story, winning, his ego, and how it affected him, riding for the iconic factory Honda DH racing team, crashes, and more crashes that eventually ended his career.   Matti is a great friend of mine and I appreciate him opening up and not holding back.  Follow Matti HERE

Sven Martin joins this week as my co-host.  The guest this week is Clay Porter. Porter is leading the charge as one of action sports most visionary and progressive filmmakers - directing, shooting, and editing many of the industry’s most acclaimed and influential projects. From the age of 17, Porter has devoted his life to filmmaking - shooting on six continents and burning through three passports all before the age of 25. Best known for his work in mountain biking, Porter’s core mountain bike films have become the industry standard while he continues to progress the sport with each new release.