Velo Podcast

Tour de France organizers boasted that the 2019 route was the "highest Tour ever" — does that mean it will be exciting for fans? We analyze the mountainous route and debate whether they should have included more time trial kilometers.

Also at the Tour presentation, race director Christian Prudhomme had some strong takes on power meters — he thinks they should be banned from racing! Is that right? Does he even understand how they work? We discuss.

If you live in the Colorado Front Range (or close enough to drive) come out to VeloSwap on Saturday! Fred and Spencer will be there checking out all the cool vintage bike gear: www.veloswap.com

American Robin Carpenter found himself in the deep end of the European peloton this past season. His Rally Pro cycling team made a big push to race more in Europe, and Carpenter has plenty of exciting stories from the experience.

He explains how he manages to find breakaways that succeed, what it is like to be up against WorldTour heavies, and why pro cyclists always get married in October.

This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Health IQ. To get a free quote and save money on life insurance, go to www.HealthIQ.com/velonews

In episode 56, we talked with Colby Pearce about what it takes to make an attempt at the hour record on the track. Not long after, Pearce set the master’s 45-49 world record with a scorching 50.245 kilometer effort. For this special episode, we caught up with him to discuss his successful attempt, the training he did, the difficulties of selecting gears and training on a track that was different from the one where he set the record, and how he managed the pain.

This episode features two controversial guests. First, we have Thomas Dekker, a retired pro who recently wrote a book that gave an in-depth look at the rampant doping in the early 2000s. We hear from him on why an honest look at that era is important to him and whether other ex-dopers should be involved in the sport.

Then, we talk to Dr. Rachel McKinnon who just became the first transgender rider to win a world championship. She won the masters 35-44 sprint event on the track over the weekend. McKinnon explains some of the issues and misconceptions about transgender athletes.

Off the top, we discuss the action at Il Lombardia and much more.

This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Mavic and Fezzari. Learn more about Mavic's Allroad wheels and tires here: https://www.velonews.com/2018/07/gravel/first-look-mavic-allroad-pro-ust-disc-wheels-and-yksion-allroad-xl-tires_472526 ... and check out the Fezzari Signal Peak that Spencer's been riding all season at the Epic Rides mountain bike races: https://www.velonews.com/2018/05/bikes-and-tech/first-look-fezzari-signal-peak_465206

So, you think you know bicycles? Well, think again. Today we’re sitting down with a legend of the cycling industry to talk about a variety of factors in frame design that most cyclists have never heard of. Yet these design elements — things like fork offset, trail, and head tube angle — have a bigger impact on a bike’s performance and ride quality than frame material, or any of the things we focus on when checking out what our friends are riding.

Our guest today is longtime VeloNews contributor Lennard Zinn. Author of the definitive books on bicycle maintenance, Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance and Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance, among other titles, Zinn has spent the past 37 years building custom bikes and studying the physics of bicycle design. Incidentally, it all started with his college thesis on building an un-rideable bike.

Remember when rims had hooks to hold on the tire beads? Well, that is changing. Hookless rim designs are everywhere in the world of mountain bikes and now they're coming to road wheels. The design is lighter and offers performance benefits.

We talk to Alto Cycling's Bobby Sweeting about this evolving technology. He also expands on carbon rim technology, rim brakes, and why pro riders don't like disc brakes. Finally, Sweeting talks about the controversial test his company conducted to test rival companies' wheels under the stress of heavy rim braking.

With Il Lombardia approaching, it's a great time for the VeloNews podcast to take a closer look at the final monument of the season. There's plenty to discuss: Newly crowned world champion Alejandro Valverde is hungry for his first win in the rainbow stripes, and riders like Thibaut Pinot and Mike Woods are eager to put their late-season form to good use. We pick a few favorites for Saturday's race.

Plus, news director Spencer Powlison reports on his experience at the Oz Trails Off-Road. The final event in the Epic Rides series offered some great racing — and one heck of a prize purse — over the weekend.

This episode is sponsored by Feedback Sports, which just unveiled its Range Torque Ratchet Combo wrench. This tool is all you need to correctly torque your bike's bolts and easily remove them without damaging the torque mechanism. Learn more: https://www.feedbacksports.com/shop/range-torque-ratchet-combo/

Best worlds ever? The Innsbruck edition of the UCI World Road Championships certainly had tons of exciting action. We hear from Team USA rider Coryn Rivera on how the action played out and what it was like for her to make that bold breakaway in the elite women's race.

Then, we discuss Alejandro Valverde. He won the rainbow jersey with magnificent cunning, but for some, he is a symbol of the bad-old-days of early 2000s doping. How do we feel about having a world champion who served a doping ban after Operacion Puerto?

All that and much more on this podcast.

This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Health IQ. To get a free quote and save money on life insurance, go to www.HealthIQ.com/velonews

The Hour. Those two words represent many things to many people. Some believe it to be the ultimate test of man and machine: out there on the track, with nowhere to hide, an athlete must come to terms with what they’re truly capable of. Others know it as a form of torture, a crucible for understanding one’s ability to cope with pain, suffering, or madness. If you’re lucky, the Hour is a hard way to reach a form of cycling-inspired, dizzying nirvana.

Many of the greatest cyclists in history have made attempts or held the Hour record. Most of them then crawled off their bikes never to ride on a track again. With UCI rule changes several years ago came a resurgence in interest in the event. Eventually, Bradley Wiggins smashed the record, hitting 54.526 kilometers in June 2015.

And the obsession lives on. There are few people in the world who know both the agony and ecstasy of the Hour as well as Colby Pearce, our main guest today and someone who has attempted more Hour records than anyone else I can think of. Just days ago he set a new master’s world record in the 45-49 age category, riding a remarkable 50.245 kilometers, 833 meters farther than the previous record held by Kent Bostick.

How fast have you gone on a bike? Denise Mueller-Korenek hit 184 miles per hour! We hear from her about her wild ride.

But first, we have an in-depth preview of UCI World Road Championships. It's a climber's course, but will it suit a pure climber? We discuss the favorites of the men's and women's races and analyze the course.

This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Health IQ. To get a free quote and save money on life insurance, go to www.HealthIQ.com/velonews

Check out the bike that Mueller-Korenek rode to her world-record speed:

https://www.velonews.com/2018/09/gallery/bike-gallery-denise-mueller-koreneks-record-breaking-khs_479137