Open Mic with Mike Creed

THIS EPISODE Mike gets together with a man who needs no introduction. At the tender age of 23, BMC's Taylor Phinney can list on his resumé: Olympian, Worlds Medalist, U23 World Champion, Junior World Champion, US Track Champion, US Time Trial Champion, heartthrob of the peloton, and all around snappy dresser.

Mike visits Taylor at his home in Boulder and is introduced to Phinney's "high class frat house lifestyle," as Taylor dubs it. The two kick back and pleasantly pass the time chatting about the correct pronunciation of Phil Gaimon's name, the value of early social media training, how avoiding dating improves cycling performance, saddle sore woes, hoping for the most-loved award in the peloton, and Olympic girlfriends.

Along the way they also cover what it's like to be the child of cycling legends, saddle sore woes, being the brash young American on a stacked international World Tour team, surviving the grind of the BMC racing schedule, and what the future holds.

We guarantee you're going to be thoroughly entertained by this thoughtful, intelligent, and fascinating conversation with one of the bright stars of the cycling world.

Open Mic with Mike Creed is sponsored by The Colorado Cyclist, Mike’s very first professional cycling team in 1998. Thanks to everyone at Colorado Cyclist for their support of Mike over the years, and a big thank you to them for stepping up and sponsoring the podcast and offering $50 gift cards to our Twitter contest winners. Please visit their website at coloradocyclist.com and give them a follow on Twitter at @Co_Cyclist to show your appreciation for everything they do for us.

Be sure to call them at 1-800-688-8600 and mention the podcast for 15% off your purchase.

THIS EPISODE For our Thanksgiving edition of Open Mic, Mike catches up with old friend Patrick "Maddog" O'Grady, cartoonist and wordsmith extraordinaire, an unsung legend of the cycling industry, and one of the chain gang members on the Colorado Springs group ride who taught Mike the etiquette of riding in a pack on the road.

They trash talk Arcade Fire, consider the merits of Tom Waits, Charlie Bukowski, and Netflix, and cover the origins of Patrick's obsession with comic books and cartooning, in addition to covering an immense range of other topics throughout their hour-long conversation.

Irreverent, candid, funny, intellectual, and filled with stories, Patrick's chat with Mike is going to become one of your favorite podcasts.

WARNING. Mike goes all self-indulgent and honors a Thanksgiving tradition for many by playing the entire 18:34 version of Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant." After you listen to Mike's opening comments, if you want you can fast forward to the actual interview with Patrick, which starts at 23:15.

Open Mic with Mike Creed is sponsored by The Colorado Cyclist, Mike’s very first professional cycling team in 1998. Thanks to everyone at Colorado Cyclist for their support of Mike over the years, and a big thank you to them for stepping up and sponsoring the podcast and offering $50 gift cards to our Twitter contest winners. Please visit their website at coloradocyclist.com and give them a follow on Twitter at @Co_Cyclist to show your appreciation for everything they do for us.

Be sure to call them at 1-800-688-8600 and mention the podcast for 15% off your purchase.

Fear not, faithful listeners. We're not messing with the regular "Open Mic with Mike Creed" podcast. Every Friday you'll still get an in-depth conversation with Mike and a featured guest.

This new joint is Mike's Tuesday call-in show. Over the weekend Mike will tweet a number and a time for listeners to dial in and join him for a free-ranging hodgepodge of pranks, music, fan questions, heckles, and other random tips from cycling's most handsome and ripped plus-sized head model with a rapier-like wit.

Imagine "Punk'd" crossed with Howard Stern, but with bikes and music. Yeah, that.

So download this sucker to your iPod, break out the sick whip, and get lost for an hour.

This week's show features some old friends and new acquaintances, including Daniel Benson of CyclingNews worrying about whether or not he's gossiping live on the air, a guy from Norway with an awesome Christopher Walken question, Byron the dentist, Roxanne of @CyclingRox fame, our friend Chris Garrison of TrekUK, and some crank calls just to keep you on your toes.

THIS EPISODE Mike gets together with Skratch Labs saveurs Allen Lim and Biju Thomas, and the trio talk about everything from soup to nuts (well, really, rice cakes to smoked barbecue). We learn some fascinating parallel immigration stories from Allen's and Biju's childhoods, and discover the early experiences that shaped their respective drives to succeed. The guys share stories about how they got their start in cycling, and reminisce about the seminal years together on the TIAA-CREF team.

We learn from Allen Lim – whom Creed asserts actually invented the idea of "marginal gains" – that it's less about marginal gains and more about removing the limiting factors - the bottlenecks - to performance and training, and how those innovative principles became the foundation for not only Lim's methodology as a DS, but the very core tenets to this next adventure with Biju and Skratch Labs.

Along the way we also get some funny stories about Creed using the Secret Salty Drink Mix sleeves as pixie sticks, as well as some special training involving holding your breath (really, it's science...).

You're sure to find this engaging conversation a fascinating departure from what you might have expected.

Open Mic with Mike Creed is sponsored by The Colorado Cyclist, Mike’s very first professional cycling team in 1998. Thanks to everyone at Colorado Cyclist for their support of Mike over the years, and a big thank you to them for stepping up and sponsoring the podcast and offering $50 gift cards to our Twitter contest winners. Please visit their website at coloradocyclist.com and give them a follow on Twitter at @Co_Cyclist to show your appreciation for everything they do for us.

Be sure to call them at 1-800-688-8600 and mention the podcast for 15% off your purchase.

Fear not, faithful listeners. We're not messing with the regular "Open Mic with Mike Creed" podcast. Every Friday you'll still get an in-depth conversation with Mike and a featured guest.

This new joint is Mike's Tuesday call-in show. Over the weekend Mike will tweet a number and a time for listeners to dial in and join him for a free-ranging hodgepodge of pranks, music, fan questions, heckles, and other random tips from cycling's most handsome and ripped plus-sized head model with a rapier-like wit.

Imagine "Punk'd" crossed with Howard Stern, but with bikes and music. Yeah, that.

So download this sucker to your iPod, break out the sick whip, and get lost for an hour.

This week's show features some old friends and new acquaintances, including Phil "The Thrill Gaimon," someone who sounds suspiciously like Jeremy Powers, and co-host of the "Race Radio" podcast Derek Troy helping Mike give iTunes advice.

THIS EPISODE Mike spends a solid chunk of time with his hometown pal Colby Pearce during an attempt at the U.S. Athlete Hour Record at the velodrome in Colorado Springs. The accomplishments on Pearce's resumé are impressive: Olympian, 14x national track champion, time trial record holder, U.S. Masters hour record holder, national team coach, World Cup medalist...

Mike and Colby sit down in the evening after Colby made his attempt on the Hour Record in October, and over the course of two hours they take a jaunt down memory lane, reminiscing about their days racing together for the Colorado Cyclist team, trading story after story of exploits and adventures from a lengthy career spent spinning wheels.

Prepare to be enthralled as these two old friends effortlessly travel back and forth across the years with their fascinating reminiscences.

Open Mic with Mike Creed is sponsored by The Colorado Cyclist, Mike’s very first professional cycling team in 1998. Thanks to everyone at Colorado Cyclist for their support of Mike over the years, and a big thank you to them for stepping up and sponsoring the podcast and offering $50 gift cards to our Twitter contest winners. Please visit their website at coloradocyclist.com and give them a follow on Twitter at @Co_Cyclist to show your appreciation for everything they do for us.

Fear not, faithful listeners. We're not messing with the regular "Open Mic with Mike Creed" podcast. Every Friday you'll still get an in-depth conversation with Mike and a featured guest.

This new joint is Mike's Tuesday call-in show. Over the weekend Mike will tweet a number and a time for listeners to dial in and join him for a free-ranging hodgepodge of pranks, music, fan questions, heckles, and other random tips from cycling's most handsome and ripped plus-sized head model with a rapier-like wit.

Imagine "Punk'd" crossed with Howard Stern, but with bikes and music. Yeah, that.

So download this sucker to your iPod, break out the sick whip, and get lost for an hour.

THIS EPISODE Mike took a road trip to California and got together with Jesse D. Anthony, his former teammate on Optum Pro Cycling p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies. From skidding contests to crashing BMX bikes to racing mountain bikes and cyclocross to becoming one of the most-capable all-arounders on the domestic road racing circuit, Anthony has crammed a lifetime of experiences in his relatively short career span. They pair sat down in Jesse's hometown of Thousand Oaks to talk about their teammates, transfer rumors and the goings on in the silly season, and where Jesse's travels will take him next.

They consider the merits of underpants humor, career trajectories, and Jesse's early years as a junior and his cyclocross roots in New England.

The way their personal stories intertwine into a shared history of bike racing is both fascinating and heart-warming.

Open Mic with Mike Creed is sponsored by The Colorado Cyclist, Mike’s very first professional cycling team in 1998. Thanks to everyone at Colorado Cyclist for their support of Mike over the years, and a big thank you to them for stepping up and sponsoring the podcast and offering $50 gift cards to our Twitter contest winners. Please visit their website at coloradocyclist.com and give them a follow on Twitter at @Co_Cyclist to show your appreciation for everything they do for us.

Fear not, faithful listeners. We're not messing with the regular "Open Mic with Mike Creed podcast." Every Friday you'll still get an in-depth conversation with Mike and a featured guest.

This new joint is Mike's Tuesday call-in show. Over the weekend Mike will tweet a number and a time for listeners to dial in and join him for a free-ranging hodgepodge of pranks, music, fan questions, heckles, and other random tips from cycling's most handsome and ripped plus-sized head model with a rapier-like wit.

Imagine "Punk'd" crossed with Howard Stern, but with bikes and music. Yeah, that.

So download this sucker to your iPod, break out the sick whip, and get lost for an hour.

THIS EPISODE Needing no introduction, this week's guest is Adam Myerson. Erudite, opinionated, slightly obsessed with Prince, inked, hooped and bespectacled, he's been called the godfather of cyclocross, although he'll tell you he's slightly uncomfortable with that moniker. I'll go with the Don of Dirt, the Baron of Barriers, or the Capo of Cyclocross. His official biography will tell you that "Adam Myerson is a professional cyclist and coach who specializes in criteriums and cyclo-cross. A former collegiate national cyclo-cross champion, he began racing as a junior in 1987, and has been a professional since 2003. He currently captains Team SmartStop presented by Mountain Khakis based in Winston-Salem, NC. He is the founder and president of Cycle-Smart, Inc., President of the New England Cyclo-Cross Series, organizer of the Cycle-Smart International Cyclo-Cross which is the oldest UCI event in North America, a former member of the UCI Cyclo-Cross Commission, and a former member of the management committee of the International Association of Cyclo-Cross Organizers (AIOC-Cross)."

But there's so much more to Adam than this neat little blurb, and you'll find this out as you listen to him and Creed during this hour-plus conversation about everything and nothing, including Skittles and Diet Coke, believable performances, misanthropy, Twitter friends and foes, and working together on the same team in a kind of changing of the guard. I know you're going to enjoy this extremely smart and fascinating conversation.

Open Mic with Mike Creed is sponsored by The Colorado Cyclist, Mike’s very first professional cycling team in 1998. Thanks to everyone at Colorado Cyclist for their support of Mike over the years, and a big thank you to them for stepping up and sponsoring the podcast and offering $50 gift cards to our Twitter contest winners. Please visit their website at coloradocyclist.com and give them a follow on Twitter at @Co_Cyclist to show your appreciation for everything they do for us.