Velo Podcast

Katie Compton heads to Tacoma, Washington this week for the USA Cycling National Cyclocross Championships, where she is the 15-time defending national champion.

This week on The VeloNews Podcast we catch up with Compton to talk about her legendary streak at U.S. nationals. Who are the women to challenge her at U.S. nationals? What role does confidence play in her many victories?

Compton then discusses some of the wider dynamics at play in international cyclocross, from the rise of young female racers from The Netherlands, to the proposed 16-race World Cup calendar for 2021.

All that and more on this week's interview with Katie Compton.

Riding on the gold-standard Velotron in a laboratory, and breathing into an uncomfortable face mask while a physiologist like our guest Jared Berg pokes your ear for blood might not sound like a good time at all. Which is probably why Coach Connor can't get enough.

But this week’s show is about exactly that—physiological testing. The end result of a good test is a robust set of data specific to you, which can help you understand things like your true physiological training zones, how much carbohydrate you burn for a given effort, and just how well you can get up infamous climbs like Magnolia Road here in Boulder.

Learning about your body’s unique capacity for work is crucial as you prepare for races and work on pushing yourself to your full potential. Our guest, Jared Berg, the lead exercise physiologist at the University of Colorado Sports Medicine and Performance Center in Boulder, is going to walk us through some of the most common performance tests, including the VO2Max test and the lactate test, describing each protocol as well as its benefits.

You’ll learn what’s the right test for you, the ins and outs of the various protocols, and how to prepare yourself for the day of testing. We’ll also discuss how to select a lab that will give you the most accurate data.

Maybe you'll even learn how to pronounce a few new words with us. Ever heard of symmorphosis? Can you say it? Coach Connor can’t...

Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet, drop everything and check out the legendary bike racing movie, American Flyers. It's available on Amazon Prime for $2.99, which is probably too much, but, hey, it’s educational. You can’t consider yourself a true cyclist, nor will you fully appreciate this episode, until you’ve seen it.

Finally, if things already sound a little different and you notice a lot better sound quality on this episode, that’s because we have a new producer on the show! Jana Martin has joined our team, and we’re incredibly excited about that. She comes to us with over a decade of podcast and television production experience. In other words, now that Trevor isn’t allowed to touch the computer, the show is going to get better!

As always, send us your feedback and thoughts at [email protected].

What were the races, riders, and moments from the 2019 pro cycling season that were simply the best? On today's episode of The VeloNews Podcast, Andrew Hood and Fred Dreier discuss the annual VeloNews Awards issue, and dig into the moments that defined the 2019 season.

The VeloNews Awards gives praise to the Best Male and Female riders, plus the top moments of the year. This year, the issue also dug into the top storylines from the decade. Fred and Andy discuss two of these storylines, and examine why each one helped define the past 10 years of pro cycling.

The holidays are right around the corner, and right now VeloPress has a great deal: Subscribe to VeloNews and receive a free VeloPress book of your choice. Go to www.velopress.com for more information.

The VeloNews Tech Podcast returns from a lengthy hiatus, and tech editor Dan Cavallari gets a cohost! Editorial director Ben Delaney joins us to chat about smart trainers and cycling indoors.

With the explosive growth of indoor riding and racing, smart trainer technology and all the peripherals surrounding them have grown up in a hurry. Cavallari and Delaney discuss the evolution of smart trainers and the importance of Zwift to the growth of indoor cycling.

Gravel cycling and backcountry mountain bike racing are booming, with events like the Dirty Kanza, Epic Rides, and SBT GRVL races attracting throngs of participants each year.

As it turns out, these events are also bringing female cyclists into our sport, and providing a new challenge for women who are longtime participants.

On this week's episode of The VeloNews Podcast, we sit down with VeloNews contributor Betsy Welch, who covered gravel and mountain bike racing this season. Betsy attended events like Leadville 100 MTB, Dirty Kanza, and Epic Rides, and also participated in them as well. In her reporting, she examined why these events and their respective communities are so welcoming to female riders.

Cycling fans, the holidays are right around the corner, and we have the perfect gifts for those cyclists in your lives. Right now you can subscribe to VeloNews print magazine and receive a free Velopress book of your choice. That's right, popular titles like "Zinn and the Art of Mountain-Bike Maintenance," "Sagan: My World," and "The Cyclists's Training Bible" can be yours.

Plus, on Monday Dec. 2 all titles at Velopress.com will be discounted by 33 percent. Shop now at www.velopress.com

We all understand that to race or ride our best, we need to periodize our season. That’s obvious and essential for a pro who’s racing upwards of 80 races in a season. Simply put, they wouldn’t survive if they went hard all the time: They need a base, they need rest, and they need peaks.

But what about those of us who only have three or four races in a season. Or to take it one step further, what about those of us who don’t race, or who may do a gran fondo at some point. How do we map out our seasons and prepare for those couple events? Do we still need to periodize? Can we be on form all year round?

Today we'll dive into these questions and talk about:

- What we can learn from the pros. Even though they do a lot more races, the same physiological principles apply when you’re talking about reaching your best form. And the pros have learned a lot about how do that right.

- What you can’t take from pros. The simple fact that they do so many races means they can race themselves into shape. That’s a lot harder to do when you have a month between each of your events. So, we’ll talk about what not to mimic.

- Next we’ll dive into a few scenarios including one in which you have four or five races in your season and they are all within a short time frame; a second scenario in which you have four or five races but they are spread out with long periods of time between each; the scenario of doing a single big event; and finally, the scenario in which you don’t participate in any official events, but love to hit the local weekly group ride.

Today, we are using a roundtable format with three top level coaches to answer these questions. Our first guest is the now famous, much loved Colby Pearce. Also joining us is the always infamous, also loved Grant Holicky with Forever Endurance.

Now, let's make you fast!

On this week's episode of The VeloNews Podcast, we speak with Rebecca Fahringer of the Kona-Maxxis-Shimano pro cyclocross team. Rebecca is currently leading USA Cycling's Pro CX standings, and has won five major North American races this year.

Rebecca shares insights on how she progressed through the ranks from a collegiate newbie to a North American pro. She talks about the desire to race in North America, rather than base herself overseas.

And Rebecca explains why cyclocross is a great entry point for women into cycling.

What types of bicycle racing stories appeal to a mainstream sports audience? It's a topic we've often thought about here at VeloNews. On this week's episode of The VeloNews Podcast, we speak with Patrick Redford, who covered pro cycling for the sports website Deadspin.com.

Patrick also takes us through the fateful past few months at Deadspin, which saw the entire editorial staff resign after the outlet's ownership tried to alter its focus and voice.

Before we hear from Redford, Fred Dreier and Andrew Hood discuss the week's biggest story, which was that WorldTour veteran Peter Stetina will become a full-time gravel racer in 2020. Stetina is trading the Tour de France for Dirty Kanza, the Belgian Waffle Ride, and other big gravel events, and he's doing so in his relative prime, at age 33.

What does this news, when matched with the cancellation of the Amgen Tour of California, tell us about the state of U.S. bicycle racing? The guys discuss the ongoing trends in professional and participatory cycling, and try to read the tea leaves for what it means for the sport.

All that and more on today's episode of The VeloNews Podcast.

Bobby and Gus bring you this special edition of PYSO from Pace Ranch in Tucson, AZ. And not only are the guys together in the same room, but they have a special guest too. Nicola Cranmer, the founder and GM of the TWENTY20 Women’s Pro Cycling Team joins the podcast.

The trio talk cover a variety of topics including:

* What riders do during their off-season (spoiler alert: not much according to Bobby)

* The physical & mental importance of taking time off the bike

* The cancellation of the Amgen Tour of California & what it means for American cycling

* Weekly Zwift rides with Team Twenty20 - join them!!

* Ad hoc Fall training camps (Bobby despises them), and formal Dec/Jan camps.

* New kits, new bikes, and new teams.

Got questions for Bobby and Gus? Send them over to [email protected]. If they answer your question you'll get a pair of PYSO socks.

Typically, when we hear the words “strength training,” we think of going into the gym, slapping some plates on a bar, and seeing what we can lift. The more, the better.

But there’s a lot more to strength training than that, especially for those of us focused on endurance sports. Strength and conditioning is also about maintaining proper function, training neural patterns, and preventing injury. Sports like cycling, by nature, cause imbalances. If all you do is ride your bike, an overuse injury is nearly guaranteed for your future.

We also believe that weight training aids performance on the bike. Regardless of your position, as Coach Connor likes to point out, no matter what you believe, race performance will suffer if you’re sitting on the sidelines with a bad back or painful knee injury.

So, in this episode of Fast Talk, we’re going to discuss four of the most common overuse and imbalance injuries in cyclists and how to address them with off-the-bike work and proper bike fit.

Patellar tendinitis, or pain at the front of the knee. Cycling is a quad dominant sport. Keeping balance and doing some loaded eccentric work can help prevent this very common pain.

Pelvic obliquity, a broad term for imbalances and asymmetrical movements in the hips.

Back pain. A proper bike fit and learning to rely on your glutes and hamstrings instead of the postural muscles of the back can go a long way towards preventing this all-too-common issue.

Thoracic kyphosis, a fancy term for a slouched back, which is common among cyclists. Regular exercise to open the chest will help you improve posture off the bike.

Our guest today is owner of Tag Performance and University of Denver faculty member in Human Performance and Sports, Jess Elliot. [you can link here to episode 32 which she also appeared in]

Jess recently taught a half-day workshop on strength training for endurance athletes at the Training Peaks Endurance Summit and, for those of you in the Colorado area, because of the popularity of that workshop, she’s hosting it again on December 7. Go to her website at tagperformanceco.com/events to sign up. Use the code “fastlabs” to get a $25 discount.

You’re going to hear a lot of technical terms in this episode; we hope you walk away with an understanding that effective strength training is about more than creating a list of exercises then going to the gym and giving it your best shot. Proper movement, ensuring you are activating the correct firing patterns, and lifting an appropriate weight are all crucial. To help out, Jess is posting videos of most of the exercises we discuss on her website.

Along with Jess, Trevor talked with Charles Van Atta, the head biomechanist and fitter at the University of Colorado Sports Medicine and Performance Center. There’s no point in doing the off-the-bike work to resolve an over-use injury if a poor bike fit is promoting it. Charles addresses each of our four injuries from a bike fit perspective.

With that, let’s make you fast.