Velo Podcast

With a daring attack over the final climb, Vincenzo Nibali wrote himself into Milano-Sanremo history with a solo win. Did he get lucky, or was this a result of careful tactics? Which sprinters' teams blew it in the final chase? We unpack all of the takes and analysis from the first monument of the season and talk to reporter Gregor Brown who was on the ground in Italy.

Plus, Spencer has a rundown of his trip to Oklahoma for the Land Run 100 gravel race. He didn't end up scraping peanut-butter mud off his bike with a paint stirrer, but it was still an epic day on the bike.

When it comes to exercise, can there be too much of a good thing? In this episode we take a deep dive into heart arrhythmias in endurance athletes, and the details of how and why long-term endurance exercise could cause a variety of heart arrhythmias.

We’ll analyze the research, discuss warning signs, and give you an idea of how hard your heart is working when you’re doing that set of intervals or running a marathon. And, of course, we’ll discuss at length the evidence that suggests there could be too much of a good thing when it comes to exercise.

With the season's first monument just around the corner, the show is switching gears for a deep dive into Milano-Sanremo via the Recon Ride, back with the VeloNews podcast for the spring classics!

The Recon Ride is a race preview show with more analysis and commentary than you ever knew you needed. On this week's show, hosts Cosmo Catalano and Dane Cash take a closer look at the route and favorites for Milano-Sanremo, and also have a chat with one of the contenders, Quick-Step's Elia Viviani.

This week's Tirreno-Adriatico race got us thinking: What would Team Sky do without Chris Froome? The four-time Tour champ had a rough outing at the one-week Italian stage race. We analyze the action from there and also consider the takeaways from Paris-Nice.

Plus, Fred talks about his recent article on virtual racing. Will bike races of the future take place on trainers, in front of sell-out crowds in huge stadiums, on Zwift?

Strade Bianche was a muddy masterpiece of bicycle racing. We've got takes on how the racing action went down, and what we can expect in the classics this spring.

Then, we unpack the never-ending Team Sky saga, which again has Bradley Wiggins in the hot seat, defending his reputation and his time as Britain's standard-bearer in the Tour de France. Is his reputation tarnished forever? We discuss. All that and more on this week's VeloNews podcast!

Is aging as bad as everyone thinks it is? Are our rides doomed to slowness and pain after 35? Don't despair, on this podcast we give you some answers. Throughout, we talk to Ned Overend about how he's managed to stay fast into his 60s.

We first address what the research says, and why even past research painted a much grimmer picture than reality. We’ll explore the science with Dr. Jason Glowney and coach Frank Overton who know how to help masters athletes get the most out of their aging bodies. Don't sweat it, folks — age is just a number!

Astana impressed at the first cobbled race of the season, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. How did young Michael Valgren pull off this big win? We analyze the race and also look at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, where Dylan Groenewegen confirmed that he's a top sprinter to watch. Plus, American Alexis Ryan found the podium in the women's Omloop.

Also on this podcast, Andrew Hood talks to Paris-Roubaix winner Greg Van Avermaet about the classics and why Tour of Flanders will always be his dream race to win.

We wrap things up with a look ahead to more classics action coming up Sunday at the men's and women's Strade Bianche races on Tuscany's white dirt roads.

If you've ever ogled a handbuilt steel frame, you should thank Tom Ritchey. Founder of the eponymous brand, Ritchey was one of the pioneers of modern framebuilding. He also was integral when a band of Californians decided to take their bikes off-road on the trails around Marin. This interview covers all of that and much more with a living legend of American cycling.

Can you feel that? The cobbled classics kick off this weekend with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad! We look ahead to that race and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Who is riding well? Why did Sagan decide to skip these fun early spring openers?

Plus, we call up European correspondent Andrew Hood for an inside look at the crazy media scrum that was Ruta del Sol. Ruta del Sol? Yep, it was Chris Froome's debut race, and as you'd expect, there was a lot to discuss.

All that, and we also look back on last week's other stage races: Tour of Oman and Volta ao Algarve.

It's time to unlock the mysteries of fatigue. Is it just lactic acid pooling in your legs, as your high school coach probably told you? No, that’s not it. The answer is actually a lot more complex than you'd think. In fact, some of the most exciting theories have only recently been proposed. This episode reveals those exciting revelations and explores the foundations of fatigue.

First, we’ll discuss the many different physiological causes of fatigue, including muscle damage, glycogen depletion, body temperature, and why no one of these reasons fully explains fatigue, despite what some researchers might tell you.

We’ll discuss an exciting new theory that suggests there’s a “central regulator” of fatigue, which integrates all of the different past theories and ultimately allows our mind to decide where are limits are. That is, could fatigue be, in part, a psychological thing.

We ask the question, how much fatigue is actually a conscious choice that can be influenced by the length of the race, cues we give ourselves, and mental tricks

And finally, we’ll examine why we need to be careful about toying with our fatigue limits.

Our guest for today is Dr. Stephen Cheung, an exercise physiologist and professor in the kinesiology department at Brock University in St. Catherine’s, Ontario, whose research interests include the effects of environmental stress on human physiology and performance. We'll also hear from Sepp Kuss, a neo-pro with LottoNL-Jumbo on the WorldTour, who will talk about his limits when racing.