Velo Podcast

Brendan Quirk's rise — from Competitive Cyclist and Rapha to working with the Waltons and USA Cycling — tracks with the rise in importance of his home state for cycling. Arkansas has become a hotbed for American cycling for a few reasons, and Brendan Quirk is one of them.Newly elected as USA Cycling’s chairman of the board, Quirk talks on the VeloNews Podcast about his career’s trajectory, and exactly how and why his home state of Arkansas is booming for cycling.Quirk co-founded Competitive Cyclist in Little Rock, Arkansas, and grew it from a two-man bike shop into a major online player. After selling Competitive Cyclist to Backcountry.com, he became president of Rapha North America, helping grow that brand in the U.S., and then took the helm at Allied Cycle Works, which builds carbon bikes in Bentonville, Arkansas.Arkansas, meanwhile, has become a major player in cycling, with millions of dollars invested in trails and cycling infrastructure, and brands like Rapha North America and Allied calling the state home. In a span of 12 months, the Natural State has hosted or will host major road, gravel, mountain bike, and cyclocross races — including the upcoming ’cross world championships where Walmart has signed on as title sponsor.Which leads to another major connection point between Quirk, Arkansas, and cycling importance — the Walton family.Tom and Steuart Walton, grandsons of Walmart founder Sam Walton, have made an impact in cycling via their investment in brands like Rapha and Allied, and through the Runway Group that they founded more than 10 years ago to develop Northwest Arkansas with a focus on healthy outdoor recreation. Quirk worked for the Runway Group for a few years as cycling program director.Now, Quirk chairs the board of USA Cycling, steering the direction of the governing body of American bike racing.In this podcast, Quirk talks about the importance of bike racing as a focal point, but also how he sees it as vital to make cycling accessible to as many people as possible.But first, we check in with Sadhbh O’Shea about a French police-led study into drug use among Tour de France riders, and then we speak with Betsy Welch, who is just back from racing in and reporting on Big Sugar Gravel in Arkansas. 

Virtual bike racing is a thing. A big thing. Consider this: Every Tuesday more than 10,000 racers on 1,800 teams race each other in leagues through a series called ZRL, which is now in its fourth season. And then of course Zwift has scores of races every day of the week that are open to anybody on the virtual cycling platform.To explain this phenomenon, and to offer advice on preparing for and competing in Zwift races, Ben Delaney talks with Eric Schlange, the founder of ZwiftInsider.com, a site that provides detailed advice on all things Zwift related.Schlange has done more than 630 races on Zwift, and further, it's his job to know what's going on inside the game. He shares his thoughts here.

Well before he co-authored three Feed Zone cookbooks with Dr. Allen Lim, Biju Thomas was cooking for cyclists all around the world. He's been the chef for everyone from Lance Armstrong to Peter Sagan, and he's cooked in fancy hotels and in parking lots.Thomas is now the resident chef at Outside, the parent company for VeloNews and VeloPress, the publisher of the Feed Zone cookbooks.In this episode, Thomas talks with Ben Delaney about how he got his start in cycling and cooking, and he gives advice on what everyday riders should and shouldn't do when it comes to their food.

American Neilson Powless' spring didn't go like he expected; instead of racing the classics he got Covid. But a win at Clásica de San Sebastián followed by a fifth place at the road world championships hailed an excellent return to form.On this podcast, Powless checks in from his hotel in Italy, while Sadhbh O'Shea chats with world champion Elisa Balsamo at the Women's Tour in England. 

On this podcast we celebrate Belgium and Belgium-adjacent racing. Andrew Hood checks in as he travels between the raucous party that was the world championships and Paris-Roubaix. Fred Dreier speaks with Belgian Waffle Ride founder Michael Marckx on the dusty boom that is gravel racing. And Ben Delaney talks tech, with the results of VeloNews lab testing on 15 Paris-Roubaix tires and a new Trek Checkpoint just going live this week.

Andy Hood, Sadhbh O’Shea, and Ben Delaney are in Belgium for the road world championships, and on this week’s pod they weigh in with their takes on the time trials — including the relay format — and their prognostications for this coming weekend’s road races.Also, a UCI-sanctioned gravel world championships? It’s true. Hood broke the story, and the trio discuss what gravel racers, gravel race organizers, and the UCI are saying about the 2022 event.Tune in for this week’s VeloNews Podcast.

It's Fred Dreier's final episode of The VeloNews Podcast! Fred is joined by Sadhbh O'Shea, Andrew Hood, and departed editor Spencer Powlison to offer unvarnished opinions on some of the biggest cycling stories of the last five years.Why is Chris Froome so polarizing? Annemiek van Vleuten or Anna van der Breggen? What will we remember most about Peter Sagan? The list of questions is long, and the takes are weird. It's a fitting sendoff for the founder of The VeloNews Podcast.This week's episode is sponsored by Flobikes, which reminds you to watch the UCI World Road Championships this coming week. You can sign up at www.flobikes.com/velonews.

The Vuelta a España concluded this week, and the race also delivered one of the biggest controversies of the 2021 WorldTour season. Colombian star Miguel Ángel López quit the Vuelta on the penultimate stage after he was dropped from the front group, and afterwards reports circulated that López was unhappy with the tactics of his Movistar team. The story has developed into a war of words between the Spanish team and López's camp, and now, the rider and the team may have an irrevocably damaged relationship. We discuss this latest polemica and add some context and opinion on what transpired. Then, U.S. road champion Lauren Stephens joins the podcast to discuss her historic win, her decision to blend road and gravel cycling, and how she's handled disappointment throughout her career. Stephens is one of the best U.S. riders to never be named to an Olympic team, and her process for dealing with disappointment is something that we all can learn from.

On this week's episode of The VeloNews Podcast we discuss the latest controversy in U.S. gravel racing. Earlier this month a storyline emerged from SBT GRVL about the CINCH cycling team using team tactics to help its star rider, Lauren De Crescenzo, win the race, The news caused a stir in the U.S. gravel scene, with multiple riders taking to social media to contemn the team tactics, as well as CINCH owner Tom Danielson.The rules governing gravel races, however, do not forbid teammates from setting the pace for teammates, helping teammates fill water bottles, or other team tactics. Rather, it's the unwritten rules of etiquette of gravel racing that some riders say were violated.We discuss the storyline and the response, and then have a spirited conversation about the growing tension created by the gap between the written and unwritten rules of gravel. As prize purses grow, and media outlets (VeloNews included) give more attention on gravel, will riders obey the spirit and etiquette rules, even if doing so hurts their chances at victory?Then, Andrew Hood joins the podcast to break down the final week of the Vuelta a España, and why the big climbs on stages 17 and 18 may decide the overall. All that and more on this week's episode of The VeloNews Podcast.

On today's episode of The VeloNews Podcast we analyze Primož Roglič's zany attack on stage 10 of the Vuelta a España, and Ineos Grenadiers' continued setbacks at the Vuelta a España. Then, Andrew Hood explains how the winds, soaring temperatures, and surging pace is making this Vuelta the hardest grand tour of the year.Then, we hear from Ian Boswell, who has reinvented himself as the top male gravel racer in the USA. Big wins at BWR and Unbound Gravel have opened doors for Boswell to step back into full-time bike racing. He doesn't know if he wants to pursue it.