Off The Back Podcast

In 1935 Rawlings Market was a corner store with beer for sale. Sometime in the 1950s it became the iconic Parkway Tavern, the location of many late-night cycling conversations between Danny and Matt. In this episode they revisit the parkway to record where the birthplace of Off the Back podcast.

In part 2 they catch up on their week. Danny talks about the Whoop. Matt talks about riding Ellensburg and doing his first century and we end with a racing news recap.

As youngest wearer of the Yellow Jersey, Egan Bernal, became the first Columbian to win the Tour de France, instantly becoming a superstar in his native bicycle and football crazy nation. In spite of Welshman Geraint Thomas and the Netherlands' Steve Kruisjick completing the podium, most of the credit for what is widely considered to be one of the most exciting Tours in the past 20 years goes to 5th place Frenchman and panache-rider-extraordinaire, Julian Alaphilippe. His attacks earlier in the race and tenacity to hold on in the latter stages stimulated the racing and forced teams to innovate in their tactics. In the end Bernal was the best climber of the bunch, although unproven against retiree and French hopeful, Tibault Pinot, and succeed in climbing clear in the mountains that counted the most.

Now that the Giro and the Tour have been won by South American riders, who will win the Vuelta? Can Carapaz complete the double? Will Quintana finally deliver on his promise?

With almost hundreds of recovery tools, tips, and feeding options available Danny does his due diligence to try out as many of them as possible for you. In this episode we talk about mix from Maurten, Tailwind Nutrition, and SIS and recovery tools by Icelegs, Normatec, and Powerdot.

With the Tour de France soon to enter the 3rd and final week its still pretty open with 10+ riders within a few minutes of the yellow jersey. French superstar Alaphilip is in yellow. Will he be able to withstand in the high mountains of the Pyrenees?

We're back! Matt just back from 2 weeks in the South of France and Barcelona and talks about what he experienced of cycling in Europe without taking a bike.

The biggest race of the year has started. We're 5 stages in and we've already seen Sagan in the Green Jersey, Viviani winning his first stage, Wout in the White Jersey, and Toms has already been in his first breakaway.

In 2008 a group of cyclists, mechanics, and bike messengers who wanted to see more people on bikes started a small community bike shop called 2nd Cycle. When Matt first visited them in 2011 they were in a small storage space with no windows tucked behind a Pho shop in the heart of Tacoma's Hilltop area. There were dozens of crates full of parts and partially disassembled bikes. Today, they have a permanent shop-front location, serve a large community of cyclists, host a repair events and kids camps, and run a bike-shop at IDEA, a local high school. At a fundraiser this week, Matt was able to hear stories about how lives have been changed by the shop and its outreach and was inspired to reflect on how his life has been changed by cycling. It forced a moment of thankfulness for Danny and Matt and a needed reminder that cycling is amazing!

We invite you to donate to 2nd Cycle's efforts here: https://www.2ndcycle.org/copy-of-open-shop-1

On Saturday, the First of June, 1200 committed cyclists took on the gnarly and gritted gravel roads of Kansas over 200 miles of unrelenting sun, rolling hills, and infrequent rest-stops. John McConnell, our guest in this episode, was one of those who completed the race and survived to tell us about his experience and why he'd kinda like to do it again.

The 102nd edition of the Giro d’Italia is well into its final week with 3 stages and a time-trial remaining. The favorites, Richard Carapaz of Movistar, Vincenzo Nibali of Bahrain-Merida, and Primož Roglič of Jumbo-Visma, are separated by 2 minutes. Can Carapaz hold on to his lead and win his first Grand Tour and Movistar’s first since 2016? Can Nibali attack long and hard enough to drop his opponents and cement his place in Giro history as a three time winner along with Bartali, Gimondi, and Hinault. Will Roglič hold on and take the lead during the last Time Trial in Verona? Hot on their heals are the runner-ups, Mikel Landa, Bauke Mollema, and Simon Yates. Can they Froome this edition and regain back 5 or more minutes on the favorites? (Not likely) We cast our predictions of what’s to come.

The 2019 Amgen Tour of California featured 10 Danish riders, as many as there were Italians. In the WorldTour the only nation without a pro-team that has more riders is Columbia. We talk to two Danish pros and discuss what is contributing to such a strong showing in the Men and Women’s WorldTour.

In the news we highlight Phil Gaimon’s Olympic efforts and talk about the gravel race to end all gravel races, the Dirty Kanza. No prize list, but 5 Pro riders taking part for the first time.

In its thirteenth, and arguably hardest edition, the 2019 Tour of California, was conquered by Slovenian climber Tadej Pogačar of UAE, ahead of Neo pro Sergio Higuita, in his first race with US Based EF Education First, and Flanders Runner Up Danish Kasper Asgreen of Deceuninck–Quick-Step. The race was won on the Queen Stage to Mt Baldy, where the diminutive climbers dropped the field in a slo-mo battle up the steep climbs.

Dutch Superstar Anna Van Der Breggen took the win on the first stage and the overall, matching the pace of team-mate and overall runner up Katie Hall on the stage to Mt Baldy. South African Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio came third after a strong performance.

Matt and Danny discuss their week and get started talking about diet, protein, and easy healthy.

Finally, with another Slovenian Primož Roglič in a commanding lead in the GC competition, things are starting to look pretty certain. The sprinting competition is wide open with wins by Ackermann, Gaviria, Demare, and Ewan. Only Elia Viviani, the Italian champion, is lacking a win. He has one more chance in tomorrow's sprint stage.

This is our last recap podcast from the Amgen Tour of California. We walk around the team buses at the start line, catching up with yesterdays hero Alex Hoehn, talk to GC star Ritchie Porte, look at some bike tech, and finally wrap up some pressing news from the world of Pro Cycling. Thanks for coming along with us this week!

We follow and report on Stage 3 of the 2019 Amgen Tour of California. We talk to stage winner Rémi Cavagna, catch up with Toms Skujinš, and bump into Peter Sagan and the Deceuninck-Quickstep riders at the Specialized HQ Block party.