Velo Podcast

The decade is coming to a close, so VeloNews tech editor Dan Cavallari and editorial director Ben Delaney count down the most significant bicycle gear and tech developments to occur since 2010. Some of these advancements changed the way we ride (Indoors? On dirt? It all happened!) and some never gained a foothold.

What do you think of our list of the top 20 most important tech stories of the decade? Have questions or feedback? Think we missed a few? Be sure to tweet @browntiedan to let us know!

Base training has traditionally been all about long, slow rides. But that's tough if you live in the northern hemisphere and you hate the cold, or lack the necessary equipment to ride safely outdoors when road conditions might be perilous and light is limited.

Today, we’re discussing how best to deal with those challenges that plague the northern hemisphere this time of year. (Apologies to all of our friends in the southern hemisphere!) Does it kill your motivation to ride? Do you feel the fitness literally draining from your body? Don't let it!

The darkness, cold temperatures, and perilous road conditions of the winter months don’t have to be any sort of barrier. In fact, as you’ll learn in this episode, this time of year is the perfect time to find a host of new ways to stay motivated, add variety to your training methods, try something new, reinvigorate your work ethic, and, ultimately, set yourself up to improve performance when the racing begins later in the year.

Our primary guests today are Andrew Randell and Steve Neal, the owners of Toronto's The Cycling Gym, joined by one of their athletes, Jeremiah Groen, someone who we imagine is similar to a lot of our listeners: "I'm a very amateur cyclist, don't do many races; I mostly just want to be fit."

These three Canadians don’t care about the winter blues! Their advice? Get brave and get outside. Yes, even in the dark and even in the snow. But if you can’t or won’t go outside, they have plenty of sage advice on how best to hit the gym, the trainer, or the weight room to get the most, and the most balance, out of your training sessions.

We’ll also hear from pro roadie Erica Clevenger. She divulges some of her favorite methods of cross training. All that and much more, including some tech advice from Lennard Zinn.

By the end of this episode, you’ll understand that using the base season properly to prepare for the build to come and the all-important race season to follow can be a very enjoyable time of year.

Now, let's make you fast!

Gage Hecht rode away with the 2019 U.S. Cyclocross National Championships this past weekend in Lakewood, Washington. On this week's episode of The VeloNews Podcast, we go inside Hecht's dominating win at 'cross nats, including Hecht's thoughts on the crash that knocked rival Kerry Werner out of second place.

Also, Hecht has balanced his commitments on the road with his cyclocross ambitions. Which does he prefer the most? We find out, and discover why Hecht may have to choose cyclocross or road in the coming years.

All that and more on this week's episode of The VeloNews 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.