The Adventure Stache

Sarah Sturm is back, fresh off of winning Migration Gravel in Kenya. As usually happens when she and Payson start chatting, the conversation covers a broad range of pressing topics. Did Sarah watch Cole Paton ride to his doom in a rainstorm just before recording the show? Will Cole reply to Payson’s texts? What is tempo? Why did the runners at Hardrock 100 wear bucket hats? Will Payson make his dinner reservation? They also talk about the grueling, exhilarating experience that is Migration Gravel, including the white-knuckle van ride to the start of each stage, beautiful cows, and the "princess palace" that the pro men stayed in. Sarah also talks about why she almost skipped the Grand Prix this year to focus on the Gravel Earth series (which she’s currently leading), how she’s managing to pursue both, and her latest efforts for Protect Our Winters.

But first, Payson recaps the race that wasn’t -- Crusher in the Tushar -- which was canceled due to wildfires. He talks about where the cancellation leaves the Grand Prix standings, who benefits and who suffers, and how changing the points structure from best of 7 races to best of 6 will make the final event in Bentonville all the more exciting.

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Dylan Stucki has dabbled in just about every bike-related career out there. He's worked as an equipment tester, mechanic, and race promoter, and even found the time to do some pro racing along the way. These days, one of his main roles is team manager/mechanic/and all-around support system for his fiancée, Sarah Sturm.

Payson caught up with Dylan this week to talk about what it’s like maintaining a personal and professional relationship in the non-stop world of pro racing, his trajectory from bike shop grom to cycling Renaissance man, and racing alongside Sarah at Migration Gravel in Kenya last month. He also gives a glimpse into the stress of manning aid stations at Grand Prix events, talks about the merciless battle he waged to bring Single Speed World Championships to Durango in 2022 (shock collars and hot dogs were involved), and how he and other members of the Durango cycling community are trying to revitalize mountain bike racing with the Durango Derby, which takes place in September.

You can register for the Durango Derby through July 15th at durangoderby.com

Alex Roszko's metal album recommendation: Manifesto 1.0: Stages of Grief - Orphan

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New Zealand cyclist Samara Sheppard has found success in multiple disciplines, including cross country (she won a U23 World Cup in 2012 and is a multi-time New Zealand and Oceania champion), road (she nearly landed a contract with one of the most prominent WorldTour teams in 2019), and marathon (she’s placed 5th and 6th at the marathon world championships). This year, she’s taking on a new discipline — gravel. As one of the new riders in the Grand Prix, she wasted no time in showing that she is one to watch when she placed second at Sea Otter in April. 

Despite her many successes, however, Samara’s career has been full of near-misses. From seeing her long-held Olympic dreams dashed when the cross country spot was given to a reserve track racer to losing out on a road contract at the last hurdle, she has had to constantly find creative ways to pivot. Samara sat down with Payson in Durango this week to talk about chasing World Cup success by herself in Europe as a teenager, getting a Master’s Degree in Public Health when racing stopped in 2020, becoming the first athlete from Oceania to podium at the Cape Epic, and how the online riding platforms Zwift and MyWhoosh have provided some of the biggest opportunities of her career. She also talks about why she had everything riding on a top result at Sea Otter and why she chose not to race Unbound. 

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As co-founder of SkratchLabs and co-author of the FeedZone cookbooks, Chef Biju Thomas has played a major role in how cyclists fuel themselves. He and his family emigrated from a rural part of Southern India to Colorado when he was 10. As a teenager, he fell in love with cycling right around the time he started working in restaurants, and dreamed of combining his two passions. Decades later, he’s done just that, cooking for top cyclists, authoring cookbooks that have changed the way the cycling industry thinks about fueling, and starring in his own TV show for Outside.

Payson caught up with Biju in Bentonville earlier this month to talk about moving to the U.S. as a kid, falling in love with cycling after the 1984 L.A. Olympics, and finding a kindred spirit in future business partner Allen Lim.

You can follow Biju at @bijuthechef on Instagram or find out more about his latest projects at chefbiju.com.

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YouTube: Payson McElveen

A year and a half ago, Paige Onweller was working as an emergency PA and racing bikes on the side. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, she won Big Sugar. Recognizing that she had a fraction of the racing experience that her competitors had, Paige quit her job, built out her sprinter van, and got to work racing weekend after weekend around the country. She tried everything from time trialing to mountain biking, eventually deciding to commit to gravel and the Grand Prix. At Unbound this year, despite having spent barely any time on the bike since undergoing major ankle surgery, she placed third overall and first in the Grand Prix.

Paige sat down with Payson in Bentonville shortly after the race to talk about how her nerdiness and curiosity have helped her go from amateur to top pro within a mere 18 months, the rare ankle injury she suffered during a crash in February that brought her season to a standstill, and how she played to her tactical strengths during Unbound to ensure she would stay at the front despite having almost no training under her belt. They also talk about how groundbreaking the race was for the women’s field and how the past four months have taken her to the darkest and brightest places of being a professional athlete.

Paige's YouTube video: How to Survive Unbound Gravel

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Lea Davison thought long and hard about her retirement, but even when she finally decided to bring her mountain biking career to a close, she didn't have any intention of slowing down. During her racing career, she won a silver and a bronze medal at the World Championships, placed third overall in the 2015 World Cup series, and went to the Olympics twice. Now in "retirement," she's working as a race commentator, mountain biking coach, and public speaker. Last year, she traveled more for work than she did at any point during her racing career. Payson caught up with Lea at Unbound earlier this month to talk about how busy her work has been since stepping away from the World Cup circuit, why she was devastated to miss out on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics team, and how racing Unbound in 2022 forced her to confront the weight of her retirement. She also talks about a turning point a few years ago when she decided to go all-in on advocating for women in cycling, the difficulty of coming out as one of the few openly gay athletes in the sport in 2018, and her elaborate routine for preparing for the grueling 15 hour day of commentating for Unbound.

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Trains, a moto crash, the hero pull of the day, and two peeing mishaps are just some of the crazy moments from Unbound that make the cut in this episode. As the race expands every year, so does the potential for chaos within the peloton. Payson rounded up some of the most striking examples that you didn't see in any on-the-day coverage.

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This year’s Unbound was one of the most dynamic and exciting in the event’s history, featuring two new winners, separate starts for the elite men and women, and a nine-up sprint at the women's finish. Payson caught up with two of the top riders to get the lowdown from inside the men’s and women’s fields. We also hear from some of the riders across the other categories, from 50-milers to the Unbound XL.

Payson and Pete Stetina discuss how the men’s race played out, including Lachlan Morton's crowd-pleaser of a win, how Gravel World Champ Matej Mohorič ended up being less of a threat than expected, and why starting separately from the amateurs and elite women actually impacted the race in a big way.

Lauren De Crescenzo joins Payson to talk about her ill-fated solo breakaway, why the new rules for the women’s race didn’t go far enough, and which Grand Prix riders over and under-performed.

Watch the Unbound race highlights here

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You can find out more about TIME pedals here 

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Jasper Ockeloen started racing on the road in the Netherlands when he was 8 years old and took up cyclocross not long after. The combination has come in handy now that he’s turned his focus to gravel and the increasingly popular discipline of beach racing, where he's a two-time European champion. This month, he’s back in the U.S. to tackle Unbound for the fourth time. In addition to racing, he runs the aero-sock brand Sockeloen, which he founded more than 10 years ago while racing for the Rabobank development team and doing a degree in commercial economics. Today, Sockeloen’s aero-socks are favored by some of the world’s top pros.
Jasper sat down with Payson in Bentonville last week to talk about their predictions for Unbound, how the race has changed since he and fellow Dutchie (and 2022 winner) Ivar Slik started attending, and why, despite some impressive road results, he never went to the World Tour. They also talk about how Jasper and his fellow members of the so-called “Dutch Mafia” are helping to make Euro tactics mainstream in American gravel, and how witnessing Ivar’s recent crash first-hand has made him re-evaluate the safety of the sport, especially in relation to his wife, Visma Lease-a-Bike rider Riejanne Markus.

Click to WIN: TIME XPRO 12 SL Pedals + Sockeloen x Payson Aero Socks

You can find out more about TIME pedals here 

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YouTube: Payson McElveen

At 46, Kateřina Nash has been racing bikes for three decades and continues to compete at the highest level. Originally from the Czech Republic, she competed in skiing throughout her early life, even competing in two Winter Olympics before discovering a love for mountain biking. She was part of the first cohort of the groundbreaking LUNA Pro Team in 2002, and stayed with the team for more than two decades. In that time, she won seven Cyclo-cross World Cups, competed in three Summer Olympics, and, for the past few years, has served as a Vice President of the UCI and President of the Athletes’ Commission.

Payson caught up with Kateřina in Bentonville last week to talk about growing up behind the Iron Curtain, moving to the U.S. on a ski scholarship, and why she still can’t believe she got to sign with the LUNA Pro Team. She talks about how her training has changed as she’s gotten older, why she still loves professional racing, and how she’s managed to stay so fast for so long. She also talks about how her roles within the UCI came about, and the phone call she received last year that is an athlete’s worst nightmare.


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