Velo Podcast

Seven wins in 22 days ... That's a pretty impressive record for Julian Alaphilippe so far this year. Plus, he capped it off with his first monument classic win at Milano-Sanremo. We discuss the significance of his streak and how he managed to conquer some of the sport's top riders in Sanremo on Saturday.

Then, we hear from American classics star Coryn Rivera. She discusses how she coped with the high expectations set by her stellar debut season with Sunweb and what we can expect from her in 2019.

This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Pactimo, who is kitting us out for our summer of gravel racing. Check out the Summit Stratos 12-Hour bibs we'll be wearing at Dirty Kanza 200 and other big events: https://www.pactimo.com/collections/the-12-hour-endurance-cycling-bibs-men-women?avad=219157_d15680ff9

Most modern training software is based on principles that Coach Connor fully admits he would use if he was developing software. Heavily influenced by coaches and physiologists, many training software developers knew what they were looking for and hunted for it in the data. One training package however, stands out from this. Xert was created by Armando Mastracci, who is an engineer first. While he came to understand the physiology, he started by simply looking for trends in the data instead of looking at the physiology.

The result is Xert, a tool that has found unique trends which may seem unfamiliar to a physiologist, but are certainly compelling. At the heart of Xert is the notion of failure: the idea that we reveal our true fitness and our profile as a rider in the moments when we hit our limits at these points of failure.

In this episode, Armando discusses how he was able to identify these moments of failure in athletes’ training rides, and then use them to create an athlete’s profile and help direct training.

But before we dive into the conversation it is helpful to define a few terms that are somewhat unique to Xert and this conversation:

First, Maximal Power Available. If you uploaded a workout to Xert, you’d see your normal graphs — heart rate, power, cadence, speed, and so on. What will be new to you is a line calculated by Xert called your MPA or Maximal Power Available. This is a second-by-second graphic of how much power you could produce. When you’re fresh, it’s equal to your sprint power. After a killer attack up a five-minute climb, it may not be much more than your threshold power. It is dynamic and it constantly changes over the course of your ride.

We’ve already mentioned failure — it’s that moment when an athlete can’t go any harder. In Xert, it is the moment when your MPA line equals your actual power — meaning you are going as hard as you can go. And if the rider beside you can go harder, they will drop you.

Finally, Peak Power, High-intensity Energy, and Threshold. All software packages have moved beyond FTP as the sole parameter used to define an athlete. TrainingPeaks uses a power duration curve. Neal Henderson talked with us in episode 33 about using five-second, one-minute, five-minute, and 20-minute peak power. Armando uses three parameters: 1) Peak Power: simply the power you can hit in a sprint when fresh; 2) High-intensity Energy: our capacity to ride above threshold, which is also often called Watt Prime; 3) Threshold: you know this as FTP. Xert uses moments of failure in rides and races to constantly adjust these three parameters.

Our primary guest today is, of course, Armando Mastracci, creator of Xert and owner of Baron Biosystems. He is the original brain behind these concepts, but he has also brought in respected physiologist and owner of Pez cycling, Dr. Stephen Cheung, to interpret these trends from a physiological standpoint, making for a more complete package.

Along with Armando, we speak with one of our favorite Fast Talk regulars, Colby Pearce, who needs no introduction. He shares his thoughts on this concept of failure.

Finally, we'll touch base with Paulo Saldanha, owner of PowerWatts and coach of 2018 worlds bronze medalist Michael Woods. Paulo discusses lab testing in comparison to finding an athlete’s fitness on the road in slightly less structured but more competitive scenarios.

And the rich get richer... Team Sky managed to outdo itself with new sponsor Ineos, which is owned by a billionaire who's one of the wealthiest people in the world. We analyze the deal and discuss how this could affect the races.

We also recap Paris-Nice, where there's more Sky news — turns out Egan Bernal is even better than we thought he was. And we discuss Tirreno-Adriatico and Adam Yates's very tough day on a time trial bike.

Finally, we hear from Caleb Ewan about what to expect in this Saturday's first monument classic of the season, Milano-Sanremo.

This episode is sponsored by Canyon, which provided us with its Grail gravel bike to take on last weekend's Land Run 100 race in Oklahoma. Learn about this innovative bike on Canyon's website:

https://www.canyon.com/en-us/road/grail?utm_source=Velonews&utm_medium=Article&utm_campaign=Grail&utm_content=Grail

Mountain bike rear suspension technology has changed drastically in the last decade or two. Do you even understand how your bike works?

Luckily, today we talk to Dave Weagle, father of the DW Link suspension design and a prolific engineer in the world of mountain bikes. He helps us understand concepts like anti-squat, anti-rise, and more. Things get a little nerdy, but don't worry, Weagle has a very common-sense approach: Ride a mountain bike, and if you like it, it is good.

At the start of this week, we were stunned to learn the news of Kelly Catlin's tragic death. The Olympic silver medalist and three-time world champion took her own life overnight on Thursday, March 7. In this podcast, we hear from her twin brother Colin, who remembers her quirky personality and her drive to be the best at whatever she set her mind to.

Also in this podcast, we recap Strade Bianche and discuss Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico.

if you want to be at your strongest and, more importantly, if you want to ride a bike for a long time, off-the-bike, functional training is the work you can’t skip. Whether you’re 21 or 51, if you don't add strength and mobility to your routine, it’s going to come back to haunt you, as Trevor and our guest today will testify to.

In episode 69, we take a deep dive into functional training… literally. Trevor and I both get down on the floor of the studio to do some exercises, all in the name of getting this important message across. We'll cover:

- What is functional training? And why this buzz phrase is often misunderstood, and why cycling seems to be way behind the curve.

- The two main benefits of functional work: improving your neuromuscular performance on the bike and preventing injury.

- Why functional training and staying healthy aren’t simply a matter of stretching or picking up the periodic heavy weight. Proper movement and form are key.

- Then, Trevor and I will get on the floor and embarrass ourselves for a bit.

- Next we discus how to evaluate functional fitness and why you should consider having the help of an expert.

- The importance of belly breathing.

- How cyclists can succumb to the pitfall of less-than-optimal firing patterns and not even know it.

- Finally, Menachem Brodie, our guest today, walks through six key exercises for cyclists.

If there's one thing we hope you get from this episode, it’s to do these exercises several times per week. See the VeloNews website for details.

Our primary guest today is the aforementioned Menachem Brodie, head coach at Human Vortex Training and a USA Cycling expert coach. Along with Menachem, we spoke with WorldTour riders Joe Dombrowski (EF Education First) and Brent Bookwalter (Michelton-Scott). Both riders emphasized the importance of functional work, even if it means spending an hour less on the bike.

We also connected with Jess Elliot, the owner of TAG Performance Strength and Conditioning. She talked with us about how easy it is for athletes to fall into poor muscle firing patterns.

Fred is back from a trip to the United Arab Emirates ... Why? Because WorldTour bike racing made its annual pilgrimage to the desert. He explains why the UAE Tour exists, what challenges it faces, and what the racing action was like.

Also, we recap Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. We dig into the details of this emerging doping scandal in Austria, and finally we look ahead to Strade Bianche.

This episode is sponsored by Floyd’s of Leadville. Athletes, wherever your training takes you, Floyd’s of Leadville CBD products can ease your pain and get you back in the game. Combat muscle soreness and inflammation with Floyd’s arsenal of premium CBD products - transdermal skin cream, penetrating balms, protein, hydration, softgels, and oil. Check out all of Floyd’s of Leadville CBD products at www.floydsofleadville.com.

Get psyched ... the spring cobbled classics start Saturday with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad! We look ahead to the two Belgian races this weekend. To do that, we take a quick look back at the action from last week's flurry of one-week races.

Plus, we catch up with Brent Bookwalter at the UAE Tour. He talks to Fred about the transition to Mitchelton-Scott, his motivation to keep racing, and the Australian culture.

In this episode we’re taking a step back — way back — to see the forest for the tress. Let me explain: Many of you have been fascinated by our recordings with scientists and coaches like Stephen Seiler, John Hawley, Iñigo San Millan, and Joe Friel. Now, we’ve sifted through hours of Fast Talk recordings with our many distinguished guests to bring context to what we hope is a simplified, unified message about the fundamental principles of these previous shows: there are just three types of rides. Yes, that’s a simplification. Yes, you’re getting our bias. So, if you want that high level of detail, please return to those past episodes.

In this episode, we’re talking about the forest. We’re hoping to give you a framework to understand all that scientific detail. And we’re going to keep it simple.

We’ll discuss:

- First, when you take away the complexity, training boils down to three ride types in most training models.

- We’ll give a simple zone system, based on physiology, and explain why that’s important.

- We’ll define the long ride: why it’s important, how to execute it, and why there are no shortcuts.

- We’ll define the high-intensity ride: why less is more with this type of ride and why executing it with quality is so critical. Dr. Seiler actually divides these rides into two categories — threshold rides and high-intensity work. For this podcast, we’re lumping them together, but we will hear from Dr. Seiler about why we shouldn’t neglect threshold work despite the current popularity of one-minute intervals and Tabata work.

- We’ll discuss the recovery ride. Ironically, for most of us, this is the hardest to execute. When we’re time-crunched, we might think that spending an hour spinning easy on the trainer is not time well spent. We’ll discuss why that philosophy is dangerous to take.

- Finally, we’ll talk about some of the exceptions, including sweet spot work and training races.

We’ve included excerpts from Dr. San Millan, once the exercise physiologist for the Garmin-Slipstream WorldTour team, among others. We’ll hear several times from Dr. Stephen Seiler, who is often credited with defining the polarized training model, which developed from his research with some of the best endurance athletes in the world. Dr. John Hawley will address both long rides and high-intensity work. Dr. Hawley has been one of the leading researchers in sports science for several decades and is a big proponent of interval work and carbohydrate feeding, but even he feels there’s a limit. Grant Holicky, formerly of Apex Coaching in Boulder, Colorado, has worked with some of the best cyclists in the world. He sees undirected training, those “sort of hard” rides, as one of the biggest mistakes athletes can make. He’ll explain why. And finally, we’ll hear from legendary coach Joe Friel about sweet spot work and why it does have a place… even though technically it’s not one of our three rides.

Now, to the forest! Let’s make you fast.

Sad news for fixed-gear crit fans: Red Hook Crit will not take place in 2019. We discuss what this means, how the iconic race series will move forward, and what made it so successful to begin with.

Then, we talk about one of the last remaining 24-hour mountain bike races, 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo. Every year, more than 4,000 people come to the Arizona desert for this party that devolves into a bike race. We hear from special guest Dave Million who has raced all 20 editions of this event.

This episode is sponsored by Floyd’s of Leadville. Athletes, wherever your training takes you, Floyd’s of Leadville CBD products can ease your pain and get you back in the game. Combat muscle soreness and inflammation with Floyd’s arsenal of premium CBD products - transdermal skin cream, penetrating balms, protein, hydration, softgels, and oil. Check out all of Floyd’s of Leadville CBD products at www.floydsofleadville.com.