Velo Chumps

It's the most wonderful time of the cycling year. The Tour de France is upon us once again, and that means brands will try to use the iconic race to sell you anything and everything. This week the Chumps look at 2 of the more ridiculous marketing stunts we have seen. One is ridiculously priced, and one is just, well, ridiculous on its own. Listen in, and the Chumps will let you know if you can believe the hype.

This week the Chumps, uncharacteristically, have mostly positive things to say about a few new products in the bike world. We even start off with a tip to save you a lot of money if you haven't yet got sucked into the chain waxing black hole. Also, Chad is back with a historical factoid that you don't want to miss!

This episode is all about the biggest gravel race in the world, Unbound Gravel. One of the Chumps was lucky enough to race the Unbound 200 this year, and we talk about it from the point of view of a chump in the amateur pack. No professional race coverage here. If you want to know how Unbound really is, or might be, for someone like you, tune in!

The Chumps discuss SRAMs newest offering. The updated Red groupset has a lot of new features, so that are more interesting to chumps like us than others. We also discuss the ecosystem SRAM is trying to create and the pros and cons for chumps. Stay to the end for a Red related factoid from Chad, and finally, who doesn't love an 80's movie reference in a title. Someone comment on this pod or on the Velo Chumps Instagram page and let Ryan know what the title refers to.

The Chumps wound down our own spring campaign racing a classic of our own, Barry Roubaix. In a first for the Chumps, we recorded the majority of this episode together on location. We previewed Barry itself and also big gravel events in general. Stick around to the end because we did record a post race segment to wrap things up.

During this holy week of cycling the Chumps talk a little bit about what holy week is and why it is important. But before that we hear about a significant update on Ryan's bike build, which you don't want to miss! We talk a little bit about local racing, and Mike Green is finally back with a factoid to close out the show!

This week the Chumps talk about the of the first World Tour TTs of the season and the arrival of this years TT tech, namely the helmets. That led us into a new segment, "Ask a Triathlete," which didn't necessarily go as planned. We finished with a discussion of some new tech from SRAM, both released and speculated, and what that means in the broader scope for the chumps out there.

The Chumps talk opening weekend of the racing season, but of course from the chumps' perspective. We also talk a lot about tires, both big ones and potentially unsafe ones. So much tire talk that we couldn't even fit in a factoid this week. We hope to have Mike Green back next week with a gem of a factoid, so be on the lookout.

This week the Chumps talk about the upcoming riding season. One chump got some news about an event they will need to train for, we discuss the SRAM Red groupset update we expect to see later this year, and we have some tips for getting your bike ready to ride outside in the spring. We also reveal what month the Randy in serious kit picture was taken and the long awaited winner of the Iistener contest!