This episode of the podcast covers good news for cyclists in PA and a look at what’s happening in NYC – from the mayoral election to Central Park.

Ed Blazina has been a transportation writer in Pittsburgh for over 20 years and is or was employed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  I say is/was for a particular reason; he and his fellow journalists have been on strike for 2 ½ years! 

But that’s apart from the original reason I contacted him.  Apparently, bicyclists in Pennsylvania were NOT entitled to be on the road with other vehicles – until the state supreme court handed down a decision that said they were.

And that is the story we are going to talk about today.

In the second half of the show, I welcome back one of my favorite guests, NYC’s Professor John Surico.  Every month, I receive his informative newsletter, Streetbeat, and every month I have an extensive list of questions that come out of it.

But, since we don’t talk every month, I compile my thoughts and fire off the most relevant ones for our on-air conversations.

Today, we chat about NYC’s mayoral election, the presumptive and somewhat controversial Democratic nominee, Zorhan Mamdani, and the candidate’s thoughts on NYC transportation issues.  We also cover congestion pricing, the changes coming to Central Park, and more. As always, it’s enlightening!

For more information and a written transcript of the show, please go to www.outspokencyclist.com

Today, my guests are Mark Van Tongeren from Michigan Adventure Racing and Professor Jim Martin from the Nutrition and Integrative Physiology and Neuromuscular Function Lab at the University of Utah.

I’m not sure how I didn’t know about Michigan Adventure Racing.  The organization seems so together, and Mark Von Tongeren, the founder and producer of these events seems to be the best kind of ride director.

If you are into well organized events that offer up some challenging riding, Michigan Adventure Racing might just have what you’re looking for this summer.

I was introduced to my second guest, Dr. Jim Martin by bike fitter extraordinaire Paul Swift. In my conversation with him back in February, he mentioned the work that Jim is doing and the fact that Jim will be the keynote speaker at a professional fit symposium at the Tour de France next month. I thought I’d nab him first.

World Champion Tadej Pogacar uses relatively short cranks.  And that has re-ignited the conversation about crank arm length among a lot of folks – especially bike fitters.

So… going to the horse’s mouth – so to speak – and finding out that a change in crank arm length might be easily discerned by the rider, does not necessarily result in more power output.

My guest today, Professor Jim Martin, has the proof-positive that this is so, and he’s going to explain it and a lot more.

Buckle up y’all… it’s a bit techy, and quite fascinating.

My guest is not new to the show, and he is certainly not new to U.S. cycling or to the custom bike business.

In fact, Toby Stanton – Mr. Hot Tubes, Mr. Junior Development Team Guy, and probably one of the few people in the U.S. who has watched U.S. bike racing ebb and flow with deep insight and broad knowledge, is one of the most knowledgeable and approachable people in the biz.

I was fortunate enough to get “schooled” on the current state of U.S. bike racing – including how he views team development – in our conversation today.

We do talk about some of the other hats he wears – or has worn – over the years – frame builder, painter, and currently carbon repair whiz.

But, his depth of understanding about how to “raise up” a young team of bike racers is exceptional.

Today’s young elite stars the likes of Magnus Sheffield and Matteo Jorgensen, who came up through the Hot Tubes development program, are showing us that the U.S. CAN and does compete successfully on the worldwide stage – for the first time in a long time!

Toward the end of our conversation, which took place just before Paris-Roubaix, I asked Toby who he thought might be on the top of the podium… actually, I suggested it might be Tadej Pogacar… Toby was an emphatic NO and, pretty much nailed the winner.

Hope you enjoy this chat as much as I did.

How’s your heart?  Do you regularly keep tabs on the highs and lows of your heart rate? Have you noticed any irregularities?

My guest today is Dr. Tamanna Singh.  She is a sports cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic and, in her words, an “advocate for athletes.”

Dr. Singh reviewed an article in Bicycling Magazine on March 12th titled 6 Myths About Max Heart Rate Cyclists Need to Stop Believing and at the top of the list was the statement: If You Exceed Your Max Heart Rate, Your Heart Explodes.

It seemed ridiculous of course, but I decided to get in touch with her and tease out answers to questions I think we all might have that aren’t quite as outrageous, including how to determine max heart rate (so your heart won’t explode!) what IS a normal heart rate, and how Afib has become such a widespread topic.

In the second half of the show, my guest is Dean Gore, VP at Trek Bicycles. 

In an effort to make cycling more appealing and less scary to those who might not feel 100% safe, Trek has developed an app for both Android and IOS called Ride Club.

One of the first things Dean told me was that fully 1/3 of the bikes that leave the shop never get ridden.  And THAT is a shame.

You don’t have to ride a Trek and the app is free.  Features include route building, a “call Trek” button, and has a library of videos to refer to if you need any kind of help – on the road or at home.

It rolled out a few weeks ago and the reviews coming in seem to be very positive.

I wanted to get this episode out right away as it is time sensitive.

It isn’t always my great good fortune to be able speak with one of the iconic American pro riders who is still “in the bike world,” but today is one of those days.

Retired pro racer Levi Leipheimer’s career goes back to the mid-90’s, and throughout that decade and beyond he racked up some impressive stats including an Olympic medal, the U.S. championship, and winning three tours of California – the list is very long.

When he was 13, he saw his first Tour de France.  That started the dream of being a TdF rider and he told himself… one day that will be me.

And from that dream, Levi went from amateur to pro, becoming a rider for the Rabobank team in 2002.  Over the next few years, he didn’t fulfill his Tour de France team just once, he fulfilled it 10 times, completing the event 8. (Unfortunately, he crashed out of two of them!)

As you will hear in our conversation, what he saw as he traveled the world racing his bike, was how fortunate he was and that led him to his desire to “pay if forward.”

And, according to him, one of his greatest successes is the Levi Gran Fondo.

A Gran Fondo is defined as a type of long-distance road cycling ride, originating in Italy in 1970, and roughly translates into English as “Big Ride”. Officially, the event should be at least 120 kilometres (75 mi) long, and the riders are individually chip-timed (start to finish) with prizes for the fastest riders.

Now in its 16h iteration – losing a couple of events to the pandemic, – Levi’s Gran Fondo has become one of the most recognized and popular in the U.S.

It ‘s coming up quickly – April 19th and here is my conversation with Levi as we roll up toward the start line.

My thanks to Levi Leipheimer for joining me today.  You can find out all about Levi’s Gran Fondo, including the Growler Pro Roster, how to sign up, show up, or watch it live from wherever you are starting at 11am Pacific Time on April 19th via YouTube at levisgranfondo.com.

It sounds like a great event!

She really wanted to wear skirts and get her nails done, but Alison Tetrick, while remaining ever the fashionable girl, is a feisty competitor – in all sorts of ways.

Starting out as a tennis player in high school, she played in college on a full ride where she studied biochemistry.  She worked in drug discovery research for Amgen, and then….with all her energy and competitive urges, was egged on to bike racing by her grandfather Paul Tetrick, who found his passion for bike racing in his 60’s and raced well into his 80’s.

Alison’s trajectory toward success on the bike was almost instantaneous as you will hear in our conversation. But it wasn’t all unicorns and roses.

As strong and capable as Alison is, she tells us about some of the things that will take a person down – physically, mentally, and emotionally – and learning to deal with them – asking for help, realizing you can’t always do everything on your own, will shape you in new and perhaps much better ways.

Our conversation runs the gamut from her early successes on the bike to the work she is doing now to get more young girls into the sport. And her honesty, humility, and frankness are refreshing!

You can follow Alison and her journey @amtetrick on social media. Check out her bandanas (there’s a link on outspokencyclist.com to help and support more girls and women on bikes.

We will also have a link to Gloria Liu’s article, Cycling’s Silent Epidemic, on outspokencyclist.com too.

And if you find yourself at either Unbound or Sea Otter, look her up!  She’ll be there.

My thanks to you for listening.  I’d like to let you know that there is now expanded content for most episodes on my brand new Substack page.

I love talking about bike racing with Escape Collective’s Joe Lindsey because he has such a superb grasp of the sport – for both men and women.

Today, our conversation covers a little bit of the Spring Classics – Paris-Nice, Milan San-Remo – both men’s and women’s editions – as well as looking ahead to Paris-Roubaix and on into the upcoming Big Tours.

Having failed at Milan-San Remo five times, Tadej won’t be satisfied until he wins that as well as any other Monument he has in his sights.

We muse about how Tadej will do at Paris Roubaix next week, being the first to attempt it AND the Tour de France as defending champion in the same season since Greg LeMond in 1991.

I always learn so much from Joe.  As he reminds us, this coming weekend, the 268.9-kilometre for men and 148 km  Tour of Flanders for women pushes off on Sunday, April 6th from Brugge, Belgium with a who’s who of illustrious riders.

You can watch the race via FloBikes, but unfortunately there won’t be any other coverage in the U.S.

Of course, we talk about how bike racing is – or maybe more accurately – isn’t – covered by the media, especially here in the States, and why we haven’t re-embraced track racing as the perfect American spectator sport.

My guest today is Professor Alex Karner from the U. of Texas in Austin. 

I learned about Alex and his work in an article by Magdalena de Valle written  for Bloomberg News on February 26th.  She stated: “Alex Karner got an email from the Transportation Research Board ordering him to stop work on his research project studying equitable access to goods and services.” 

My ears perked up and I took a dive into the rabbit hole, contacting the Professor to find out more. Alex will be with me in a moment.

My second guest today is Maria Elena Price; she and her sister are co-owners of Experience Plus Bicycle Tours.

Many years ago, Maria Elena’s Dad, Rick Price the founder of Experience Plus, visited my store in downtown Cleveland along with several of tour company owners for a weekend Touring Open House.

Each tour director gave a short presentation about the company s/he represented and what I remember most about Experience Plus was the emphasis on the language and culture of the tours they offered. 

When this new generation took up the reigns, that emphasis didn’t change, and today’s tours are as interesting, varied, and immersive as they were then. 

Maria Elena and I delve into the background of the company and what it offers today.

My guests today are NYC’s Professor John Surico and the bike fitter’s bike fitter, Paul Swift.

John is one of my favorite repeat guests as those of you who are regular listeners know.

And go figure, this conversation was recorded exactly one day before the President put the kabosh on congestion pricing in NYC.

John and I had spoken last May about the project and how it was on again and off again and how he was looking forward to what it might do for NYC. The cameras went online in January and the immediate effects were pretty amazing.

Early in January, the long-awaited program to help ease traffic in NYC went into effect.  The cameras went on and lo and behold – traffic eased, Broadway saw a 20% increase in ticket sales, and crashes were down a whopping 30% – and that was in just two winter months.

But along with many other programs, the president decided he didn’t like congestion pricing and in the stroke of his marker, had the cameras turned off.  The legal wrangling that is going on is yet to be decided, but the day I spoke with John, things were looking pretty rosy.

My second guest is Paul Swift – the bike fitter’s fitter and developer of many cycling related products that facilitate a better experience on the bike – whether on the ground or in the gym. 

Paul Swift has been developing his fitting techniques for decades. He also sees things IN those fits that have led to a plethora of products from the wedges fitters might use under your cycling cleats to his line of saddles.

Paul’s philosophy stems from observation, as well it should in my opinion.  He recognizes that sizing is not fitting, and that it takes many years and thousands of fits to see what you are actually looking at and before making the changes necessary to accomplish a comfortable and efficient position with great results.

The conversation is casual and enjoyable…

It is a tough day for the Outspoken Cyclist Podcast as well as the many shows and most of the staff of WJCU – the radio station at John Carroll University that hosts my show. 

Back in 2010, when TOC first went on the air – and we were a radio broadcast as well as a podcast for many years – my co-host, engineer, and mentor was a gentleman named Greg Priddy. 

He spent endless hours editing our show for podcast and taught me ins and outs of the studio sound board, how to edit, mix, and upload my shows, and would fill in for me when I had that occasional cold or lost my voice.

For those of you who have been listening to the show from the beginning, you will remember Greg.  He could be funny, but he was more likely to be the Abbott to my Costello, offering a serious note on many topics.

So, it is with a deep sadness that I report Greg lost his long battle with cancer this week.  Back in August of 2017, Greg asked if he could offer his thoughts about the disease and especially what he believed you might do to make sure you stay healthy.  I’ve added a link to that episode on our website if you’d like to hear it – or maybe replay it if you heard it back them as a reminder of what you can do for you and your family to ensure you detect any problems in a timely way.

Our best deepest condolences go out to Greg’s wife Jean, and we hope that Greg’s last days were peaceful.  There is a short tribute, with photos, on the WJCU website.

Keeping Greg in our thoughts, we have two great guests on the show today to talk about two timely topics – tariffs and the fires in California.

First up, I’ve invited Steve Frothingham, the editor-in-chief of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, to weigh in on not only the tariffs but the bicycle industry in general, as it struggles with everything from inventory issues to where our bikes are being manufactured and sold.

In the second half of the show, we meet another Steve – yep it’s Steve squared today. 

Only this Steve is a retailer whose store in Altadena, California for almost 40 years.  And, yep you guessed it, the contents burned to the ground.  (You’ll see before and after photos on the outspokencyclist website.)

But, rising out of the ashes like the proverbial Phoenix, Steve immediately started sourcing bikes from anywhere and everywhere in an effort to replace the hundreds that were lost in the fire for his neighbors and customers.  It’s a helluva story.