Road Is Dead

When you have future pro racers toeing the line in the same field as the slowest racers around it's a formula for for those slower racers to get burned out. That's the enthusiast market that the sport needs for growth.  At the same time what's the point of a P, 1, and 2 designation when all of those racers have the same level of skill. 

Listen and give us your thoughts and ideas at [email protected]

Cast: Robert Curtis, Leah Sanda, and Barron Gira

Spurred on by a few things in the current news we talk about and attack the futility of our sport. Sponsors, lack of participation, and general apathy in the face of our fanatic support. 

Lots of swearing - Impassioned arguing - fighting for what's left with the few words we still have. Honestly one of the best I think we've done.

Cast:

Anthony Mikos

Alex Edwards

Eric Olson

Robert Curtis

Discussion of cyclocross season to date. We talk a little about Jinglecross issues as well as local issues but mostly about just racing and the series. 

Cast Anthony Mikos and Robert Curtis

We are joined by Doug Bauer - mechanic extraordinaire to talk about the upcoming cyclocross season. We cover tips and tricks and things to make sure every rider needs to have in their bag when the go to races. Not so they can be like a pro as there aren't many actual pros and they usually don't know what's going on and are never prepared - rather so you can be like prepared racer. 

We cover course talk, Upcoming announcements regarding Woodstock, etc. 

Doug Bauer

Robert Curtis

Anthony Mikos

Leah Sanda

American Pro is a new book written by Jamie Smith and Published by Velopress. It chronicles the journey of the Astellas team from day one until the final race and podium. 

Astellas being a Chicago based team makes the book amazingly close to home in so many ways for the Chicago Cycling community and yet the stories throughout tell the true story of what it means to be in this sport in the United States. 

As mentioned in the podcast here is the link to buy the books:

https://www.velopress.com/?s=jamie+smith

Also the link to the Bike Forums thread where it all started: https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/200479-we-re-going-yell-you.html

Its not the cost, attitudes, speed, etc. - Americans don't want to play if they're not the best. Correlations between road license numbers and performance at the top level of the sport.

Cast:

Alex Edwards

Anthony Mikos

Robert Curtis 

It is more often than not becoming the norm for bicycle races to cease paying out any race other than the top men's and women's races. For some (cough - masters racers - cough) this elimination of a payout has become too big of a pill to swallow. 

For this episode we were sent a copy of an actual email that an actual "masters racer" sent to the promoters of a local race. 

Edwin Bull was in Chicago after the CABDA show so we invited him over to the shop for a podcast and to show off some bikes. We discuss all sorts of things from his background and experience into how the company started, etc. 

Give it a listen and check out their bikes at: https://www.vandesselcycles.com/

Cast:

Edwin Bull - https://www.instagram.com/edwin__bull/

https://www.instagram.com/van_dessel/

Leah Sanda - https://www.instagram.com/lrsanda/

Anthony Mikos - https://www.instagram.com/unstagrum/

Rob Curtis - https://www.instagram.com/psimet/

We discuss the end of the cyclocross season with some nationals and worlds coverage and impressions. We talk a bit about Aspire Racing and sponsorship. We also cover some winter tech and our own projects. 

Links to our youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMJ7ywz2t-2xuApwWlm_OrQ?view_as=subscriber

Cast:

Robert Curtis - PSIMET - https://www.instagram.com/psimet/?hl=en

Anthony Mikos - Tormund Giantsbane - https://www.instagram.com/unstagrum/?hl=en

Leah Sanda - Tawny Kitaen - https://www.instagram.com/lrsanda/?hl=en

Barron Gira - A Young Chevy Chase - https://www.instagram.com/barrongira/?hl=en

Debbie Dust hops on the phone to discuss the landscape of Domestic Pro Cycling and how it's changed. We discuss a bit of what it means to be a pro and/or at what level is sponsorship seeking and crowdfunding really just having friends pay for your hobby?

Note after the podcast from Debbie: "One other thing about being a "pro" that I didn't mention but is certainly something to include: a pro doesn't take to social media to complain and whine about "sketchy" riding that causes wrecks. A pro knows where to be in the group so they don't get sucked into the "sketchiness." If you don't know "how" to race, yeah, you're going to wreck. Go learn how to race. I was wrecked relatively infrequently in all my years of racing and have very few scars and injuries tied to those years. Even when I wasn't the strongest rider, I still know how to race and ride intelligently. I also never called anyone out unless they were being lazy cuz that's not racing. It's just being an a-hole." Cast:

Debbie Dust

Anthony Mikos

Robert Curtis