Velo Podcast

The spring classics are nearing their conclusion, with one monumental race left for classics fans to enjoy this Sunday: Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) will look to defend his title against a flying Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) and a host of other punchy climbers in the Ardennes week finale.

The Recon Ride previews the parcours and the favorites of "La Doyenne," the oldest major one-day on the calendar and the final marquee classic of the spring.

The WorldTour peloton has left the pavé behind, but the classics rage on for another week in the Netherlands and the Ardennes forest. Michael Valgren kicked off Ardennes week with a classy victory at the Amstel Gold Race, toppling heavyweights like Peter Sagan and Alejandro Valverde. On the women's side, Chantal Blaak took the win for Boels Dolmans, defending the title her teammate Anna van der Breggen nabbed last year.

Meanwhile, the North American peloton got into gear this week at the Joe Martin stage race, where Rubén Companioni and Katie Hall delivered overall wins.

The VeloNews podcast talks Amstel takeaways as well as the domestic racing scene — with Canadian pro Rob Britton weighing in to boot — as the Amgen Tour of California approaches.

VeloNews tech editor Dan Cavallari also gets in on the fun as he prepares for the Sea Otter Classic — and a string of his own tech-oriented shows soon to arrive on the VeloNews podcast network.

We take a deep dive into race strategy and tactics, and the necessary skills and training you need to excel at bike racing. We'll discuss some of the differences between professional and amateur racing and why that leads to different approaches. We’ll take a deep dive into crit racing: why skills are so important, how to save energy, and how to get comfortable with the speed and fear you might feel while racing in the pack. Next it will be flat road races: the importance of saving energy, how it's one of the most predictable races in cycling, but why you still need to be attentive to those unexpected moves. And finally, we'll talk about some of the dynamic tactics you'll encounter in these races, including sag climbing and breaking away.

We’re joined by two veterans of both European and American racing from Rally Pro Cycling. Team manager Pat McCarty has spent much of his adult life racing, as a junior, U23, on the WorldTour, in Europe, in the U.S., in crits, climbing races, and on team’s big and small. One of Team Rally’s leaders, Evan Huffman is known for his skills as a breakaway rider and time trialist. He’s coming off a phenomenal 2017 season.

Sagan finally succeeded in winning Paris-Roubaix, doing it in the most audacious way imaginable. Andrew Hood and Dane Cash were on the ground in France to witness the world champion's second career monument victory. They discuss how the race played out, what it means for Sagan, and also speak to Zdenek Stybar and Philippe Gilbert to find out why their Quick-Step freight train went off the rails.

As you may know, Sunday also was tragic. Michael Goolaerts, 23, died of heart failure at Paris-Roubaix. Our deepest condolences to his friends and family.

The grand finale of the cobbled classics is nearly here! The hardmen are headed south to take on the so-called "Queen of the Classics," Paris-Roubaix.

The gnarliest cobbles on the WorldTour await on Sunday, with defending champ Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), world champ Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), and a stable of powerful Quick-Step riders set to do battle on the pavé one last time this spring.

The Recon Ride takes a deeper dive into the parcours and the list of pre-race favorites, with Quick-Step's Zdenek Stybar and EF Education-First's Tom Scully also providing some insight ahead of the 116th edition of Paris-Roubaix.

Coming to you from the classics heartland of Belgium, we've got ample analysis and opinion on Tour of Flanders.

Some riders surprised, impressed, and amazed us. Others... not so much. Dane Cash and Andrew Hood look back on the biggest race in Belgium and what it meant for the key classics riders.

Tune in for lots of post-race interviews with key players of the peloton, recorded on site in Oudenaarde, Belgium.

This episode is all about POWER. First, we’ll touch upon the history of power, and how it has fundamentally changed the sport of cycling and, more importantly, how we train. When did the use of power meters and power analysis first appear? Which athletes were the first to use them? And how did the pioneers of power revolutionize training methods over time to create the many sophisticated metrics we take for granted, like TSS, FTP, and performance management charts?

We are joined by Hunter Allen, a veteran coach who, along with Dr. Andrew Coggan, wrote the original book on training with power in 2006: "Training and Racing with a Power Meter." That book has now been translated into 20 different languages and has recently started selling throughout Asia.

All the "tune-up" races are in the rearview mirror. The big kahuna of the Flemish classics awaits. The Tour of Flanders — De Ronde van Vlaanderen for the faithful — rolls out from Antwerp on Sunday.

In contrast to recent years that saw Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen bidding the cobbles adieu, the conversations at the classics in 2018 have not revolved around "last hurrahs." Instead, all the focus has been on big stars in their prime. Peter Sagan, Greg Van Avermaet, seemingly every rider on Quick-Step Floors ... They will all be in the hunt for Belgium's biggest cycling prize at De Ronde.

The Recon Ride pre-race show previews the route and the contenders, hears from perennial contender Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First-Drapac), and picks a few favorites to land on the podium ahead of the Tour of Flanders.

Go inside the Belgian spring classics with our team of reporters who are on the ground (er... cobbles) at E3 Harelbeke and Gent-Wevelgem.

Dane Cash, Andrew Hood, and Gregor Brown discuss the racing action. Just how good was Quick-Step at E3? Is Sagan's win at Gent-Wevelgem an indication of bigger things to come? Why did American Coryn Rivera go off the front in Gent-Wevelgem instead of waiting for the sprint?

Stay tuned for more analysis and interviews throughout the rest of the big one-day races, including Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

We receive tons of compelling questions from Fast Talk listeners, and now it is time to give you the answers. On this first edition of "Ask Fast Talk," we discuss the following: the importance of aerobic threshold training and the physiological adaptations that take place from doing so; should FTP be based on one's very best race effort or on a test; dealing with muscle soreness after weight training; training in extreme cold; and much more.