Velo Podcast

Senior editor Betsy Welch is going on an adventure. She'll be bikepacking the Colorado Trail, a journey notorious for devouring even the heartiest cyclists to attempt it.

She joins technical editor Dan Cavallari to give us the rundown on what gear she's bringing (not much), how long she'll be out (a really long time), and where she will store everything she needs (bags, bags, bags).

A wild road brought Isabel King to cycling: Division One soccer at Columbia led to a UCLA MBA that led to Wall Street and then triathlon. Not the usual route, but today Izzy is racking up QoMs on Strava left and right in California.

Tune in for a rolling ride on PYSO with Bobby Julich, Gus Morton, and Isabel King.

Pro bike racing is back, and on today's episode we go inside the Vuelta a Burgos and Strade Bianche with dispatches from Andrew Hood and James Startt.

Then, our countdown to the Tour de France continues as we provide detailed and extra-nerdy analysis of Tour stages 11-21. We analyze every climb and every sprint to determine who will win the overall.

Finally, we have an interview with American Leah Thomas who rode to an impressive third place at Strade Bianche. Leah rode with strong legs and smart racing intellect, joining the early breakaway that gave her an advantage on the dusty, dry course. Leah takes us inside the tense few moments after she dropped her chain on a dirt climb and was pushed by an overzealous fan.

The Tour de France is just around the corner, and the 2020 VeloNews Tour de France guide is now available for pre-order. This year the guide is again packed with insight and analysis on all 21 stages and 22 teams. We also have feature stories that examine the Tour's history with global crisis, and the simmering battle between Team Ineos and Jumbo-Visma. You can order yours now at www.velopress.com.

In days of yore (just a few years ago, really), WorldTour team mechanics would spend hours, if not days, building wheels in preparation for big races. Now, most teams have equipment sponsors who send wheels pre-built.

What's the benefit to the rider of having a pre-built wheel from one manufacturer?

Jeff Schneider from Giant Gear joins tech editor Dan Cavallari on the show to talk about how Cadex Wheelsystems ensure riders get the best balance of light weight, performance, and consistency.

It should come as no surprise that it all boils down to research, and hard numbers gleaned from years of testing. In the end, consistency is key. Listen to what Schneider has to say about what you can expect from your next wheelset.

In this special episode, co-host Bobby Julich becomes the hot-seat guest as Tejay van Garderen and Gus Morton pepper the Olympic medalist and Tour de France podium finisher about not only his career, but the decisions behind his actions, his regrets, and his most cherished moments.

After watching ESPN's two-part LANCE documentary, van Garderen has questions for Julich about how the sport and society treated riders who doped, citing the depression and drug-related deaths of Marco Pantani and Frank Vandenbroucke.

Julich talks about his own involvement in doping, his now-wife's prescient words about it decades ago, and his decisions to not only opt to race clean years ago, but to come clean to Team Sky years after, knowing that it would cost him his job.

Van Garderen and Morton are empathetic but probing in their frank conversation.

Van Garderen raced under Julich's guidance at BMC and still considers him a mentor. The younger American says he regrets racing too cautiously in the past, and seeing success as a zero-sum game, and asks Julich if he feels the same about his career.

Julich also talks about his rare moments of zen on the bike, including one special instance during his Olympic time trial ride in Athens that netted him a silver medal.

We have a packed episode of The VeloNews Podcast this week, with interviews and segments that take you into pro cycling's return to racing.

Andrew Hood is at the Vuelta a Burgos this week, which marks the first international pro men's race to be held since the coronavirus shutdown back in March. Andrew provides an on-the-ground account of what it's like to be inside a race during the pandemic, including his perspective on the safety measures being used to curb the spread of the virus.

Then, we hear from American Sepp Kuss, who is racing the Vuelta a Burgos about his return to racing, and how he feels about being back in a bike race.

Our countdown to the Tour de France continues this week, as we take a deep dive into the opening 10 stages of this year's Tour with James Startt. We analyze each stage's elevation profile and offer our thoughts on whether it's a day for the GC riders, sprinters, or breakaway specialists. We also offer our picks for each stage's winner.

Then, Betsy Welch and Fred Dreier link up with American rider Tayler Wiles, who recently traveled back to Europe to start up the pro women's season. Wiles participated in races over the weekend in Spain, and offers her perspective on whether or not she fees safe in pro cycling's return.

The Tour de France is just around the corner, and the 2020 VeloNews Tour de France guide is now available for pre-order. This year the guide is again packed with insight and analysis on all 21 stages and 22 teams. We also have feature stories that examine the Tour's history with global crisis, and the simmering battle between Team Ineos and Jumbo-Visma. You can order yours now at www.velopress.com.

Gear and tech can often dictate the outcome of a stage, or the overall race, at the Tour de France. On this episode of the VeloNews Tech Podcast, European correspondent Andrew Hood joins tech editor Dan Cavallari to recount some of the most interesting and consequential tech moments of his tenure covering the Tour, which started in 1996.

How many athletes can you name that use one sport as cross-training for another? Probably a few, right? But can you name any athletes that participate in the very highest levels of professional competition in one sport as preparation for another sport? That is exactly what Ineos-Grenadier rider Cam Wurf is doing, using WorldTour racing as training for the Ironman world championships, which were recently postponed until February.

In this episode of Put Your Socks On, Cam catches up with Bobby and Gus after the hosts catch you up with the final two stages of the Virtual Tour de France on Zwift.

Oh, and if you're impressed with Cam's two-for-one professional sports plan, you should also know that he has been to the Olympics — in rowing!

The clock is ticking to the start of the Tour de France, and we are taking a deep dive into various elements of the race over the next six episodes. We will examine the stages, the contenders, the storylines, and even the race's history between now and the race's start on August 29.

On today's episode we take a broad look at the 2020 Tour de France route, and examine how it fits into the current trends for grand tour route design. Andrew Hood and James Startt offer their analysis on the 2020 Tour route, and offer insights into how the overall route will impact the racing.

Then, we catch up with one of the country's top up-and-coming junior racers, Zoe Ta-Perez. Zoe rides for the Luxx-Sideshow women's team, and she is a 12-time national champion and a current UCI world champion in the Madison event. Zoe discusses how the COVID-19 shutdown has impacted her racing goals, and what it's like to be a top cyclist while trying to maintain a normal life as a teenager.

The Tour de France is just around the corner, and the 2020 VeloNews Tour de France guide is now available for pre-order. This year the guide is again packed with insight and analysis on all 21 stages and 22 teams. We also have feature stories that examine the Tour's history with global crisis, and the simmering battle between Team Ineos and Jumbo-Visma. You can order yours now at www.velopress.com.

Dan Cavallari and Ben Delaney dive deep into the world of bicycle storage, all in an effort to save your long-suffering and sagging jersey pockets from further despair.

From frame bags to integrated tool solutions that hide in head tubes and handlebars, we live in an era that offers a smorgasbord of clever storage options. Find out which ones are our favorites on this episode of the Tech Podcast.