Velo Podcast

In today’s show Bobby and Gus dive into Stage 2 and all things Aero. Is the yellow jersey a powerful motivator? What’s Rule Number One for a TT specialist? Did Jan Ulrich need team to win a TTT? Is your dad’s skinsuit the same as today’s skinsuit. What does Bobby mean when he says—“Don't overthink it.” And is tomorrow’s finish packed with enough snacks? Find out all this and more! Put Your Socks On.

From his academic work on power meters beginning in 1997 until today, Allen Lim, PhD, has been obsessed with improving a cyclist’s performance, on and off the bike. The founder of Skratch Labs has coached some of the world’s best cyclists, including most all the American grand tour contenders of the past 15 years. In Beyond Limits, Lim brings you inside the sport at the highest levels, showing its secrets, its humanity and its significance for everyday riders as we seek to improve. Here in Episode 1, Lim and co-host Brian Co of VeloWorthy bring you Lim's genesis story, from racing the likes of Jonathan Vaughters and George Hincapie as a junior to coaching Floyd Landis and George W. Bush to being shunned from the sport and ultimately coming back on his own terms. Come along for the ride. #velonews #cycling #beyondlimits

On this week's episode of The VeloNews Podcast, Jason Gay of The Wall Street Journal calls in to talk about the Tour de France, the rise of Zwift and indoor cycling, and his experiences at the Fat Bike World Championships, among other topics. Jason is a weekly sports columnist at The WSJ, and he regularly writes about the National Football League, NBA Basketball, and other mainstream sports. But Jason is also a cyclist and passionate follower of the sport, and thus, he also regularly writes about cycling topics. Fred and Jason discuss what cycling topics are able to break through to mainstream audiences. Finally, Jason makes his predictions for who will win the Tour de France. This week's episode of The VeloNews Podcast is sponsored by Garmin and its line of Edge cycling computers. The Edge 530 and touch screen 830 are lightweight and extremely durable computers that go beyond data collection with training tools designed to help you reach your peak performance. For more information go to Garmin's website: https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/into-sports/cycling/cIntoSports-cCycling-p1.html

We all make mistakes. No one trains and races perfectly, which can be frustrating when so often those mistakes are made out of honest effort and a desire to perform at our best. But we have a choice in how we treat our mistakes. One way is to get frustrated and beat up on ourselves. The other is to realize that admitting when we make a mistakes is an opportunity to improve and be a better athlete. With that second perspective in mind, today we’re going to talk about some of the most common mistakes that we see in athletes — even pros. And we’re going to hear from a variety of athletes, coaches, and experts who have been around the block a few times. They know all the mistakes, but more importantly they know what to do about them. A few of the things we will talk about: - The one thing that almost all of our guests said was the biggest mistake – hint, don’t try too hard to figure it out. - Being coachable, or more generally being willing to listen, know yourself, and identify your mistakes. - Warm-ups and cool-downs — they can have a big impact if done right, and also if done wrong - Nutrition — though you may be surprised by what our guests say is the biggest mistake - Too much intensity — do you really think Coach Connor and I were going to have an episode about mistakes and not bring that one up. - Bike fit and biomechanical mistakes — one of our guests today is Dr. Andy Pruitt who has made a very successful career of helping athletes find success by fixing these often-overlooked mistakes. - Racing mistakes and why one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to never risk making mistakes. - And finally, we’ll talk about a more philosophical mistake — not knowing when to move on. Our primary guests today are Dr. Andy Pruitt and Frankie Andreu. By now, you should know who Dr. Pruitt is, one of the foremost experts on cycling ergonomics and medical issues in athletes. Frankie Andreu was a longtime professional, a mentor to many, a team manager and director, a race commentator, and a legend in the sport. Along with our two primary guests, we checked in with several other respected experts including Joe Friel, author of the "The Cyclist's Training Bible" which was recently updated. Joe has coached over a thousand athletes in his career and has seen it all. So we had to ask him what he thinks are the biggest mistakes athletes make. We also speak with Jared Berg, who’s the head physiologist at the University of Colorado Sports Medicine and Performance Center. One of the issues with making mistakes is we can often convince ourselves that it doesn’t actually affect us. But you can’t fool the physiology and Jared sees that inescapable truth every day. Next we pulled in an old interview with Grant Holicky, formerly of Apex Coaching with Neal Henderson and now with Forever Endurance, who talks about a mistake that we love to harp on — training in moderato. Finally, Trevor touches base with Houshang Amiri, a former Canadian National and Olympic team coach who’s worked with many of the best cyclists in Canada. Like Joe Friel, Houshang has seen it all and had some interesting insights on the importance of being prepared.

On this week's episode of The VeloNews Podcast we analyze the Tour de France's list of flawed GC contenders, including the new frontrunner, Egan Bernal. Bernal's dominating win at the Tour de Suisse makes him one of the top favorites to win. What would a Bernal victory mean for Team Ineos, and more importantly, the country of Colombia? We discuss Bernal's rising star in pro cycling. Could a French rider win this year's Tour? The climbing course and lack of Chris Froome could open the door for Thibaud Pinot or Romain Bardet. Fred and Andy examine the two French riders and their teams, and ponder whether or not either man can take the Tour. Finally, we catch up with Jonny Brown, the reigning U.S. professional road racing champion. Jonny takes us through his big victory a year ago and discusses the impact that the U.S. championship had on his young career. With USPro on the horizon for this weekend, Brown's story sheds light on the importance of the race. The 2019 VeloNews Tour de France Guide is available now. Get your copy at www.velopress.com.

On this week's episode of The VeloNews Podcast Fred Dreier and Andrew Hood discuss the seismic shift that pro cycling underwent in the final week. Chris Froome's crash has completely changed the dynamics at the Tour de France, as Team Ineos no longer is the favorite to dominate the race. Which riders have the best shot to win in lieu of Froome's participation? How does the crash impact Froome's spot within Tour history? Then, the guys discuss the news that the UCI will sanction Juan Jose Cobo for a biological passport violation from nearly a decade ago; a move that could nullify his 2011 Vuelta a Espana win. Finally, we hear from Olympic mountain biker Chloe Woodruff, who takes us inside the chase for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The U.S. women have a fabulous opportunity to qualify three riders for the Olympics, and Woodruff explains the dynamics shaping the yearlong chase for the upcoming summer games. The 2019 VeloNews Tour de France Guide is available now. Get your copy at www.velopress.com.

The VeloNews Fast Talk podcast is your source for the best training advice and most compelling insight on what it takes to become a better cyclist. Listen in as VeloNews managing editor Chris Case and our resident physiologist and coach, Trevor Connor, discuss a range of topics, including sport science, training, physiology, technology, nutrition, and more. We all know how to train hard. Tearing up a set of Tabata intervals, giving it our all at the local Tuesday night training race, or attacking someone from New Zealand on Zwift is what we do. But training — at least effective training — is actually a balance between stressing our systems and recovery. Remember that training does damage. It's in recovery that we repair and get stronger. This may be why several recent studies have shown that training based on our recovery level can be more effective than rigidly following a structured plan. This is also why Coach Connor loves to say “be as intense in your recovery as you are in your training.” Train hard, rest hard. Yet, while there are a multitude of tools to measure our training stress – bike computers, power meters, heart rate straps, WKO, Golden Cheetah, Xert and the list goes on – the list of tools to measure recovery is not nearly as robust. But new players such as Whoop – which uses a combination of resting heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep and strain to assess your daily recovery level – are starting to tackle this very important side of the training balance. So today we dive into the recovery side of the training-recovery concept and talk about: - This fundamental principle of training also called super-compensation. - How to know when the balance between training and recovery goes too far towards the training stress side and is leading to over-training. Interestingly, it starts neurologically which can express as changes in mood and motivation long before it shows up on the training ride. - We discuss ways to identify neurological fatigue both on and off the bike. - Next, we dive into the recovery side of the equation and discuss ways of measuring recovery including resting heart rate and heart rate variability. - Why sometimes going into the red on the recovery score is necessary - We discuss the new Whoop strap 3.0. Whoop is a sponsor of this episode and Coach Connor and I are excited to have them as part of the show. This isn’t the first episode where we’ve preached the value of recovery and Whoop is the one tool out there really focusing on that value. And their new strap is providing even better metrics including their strain coach to help you decide when to push and when to pull the plug. Our primary guest today is Kate Courtney, the reigning mountain bike world champion, and winner of the first two rounds of the UCI World Cup this season. Along with Kate we talked with Houshang Amiri, a past Canadian Olympic and National team coach and owner of the Pacific Cycling Centre. Houshang has helped athletes such as World’s Silver Medalist Svein Tuft by focusing on the value of recovery. Houshang talks with us about ways he’s used to assess it. We include a past interview with Phill Gaimon, who talks about the importance of feel and knowing your own body. Finally, we feature an interview with two top coaches in Colorado – Mac Cassen with Apex Coaching and Frank Overton with FastCat coaching. This interview was actually from episode 45 a few years back, but we talked about measuring recovery and it’s the episode where Frank introduced all of us to the WHOOP strap.

On this week's episode of The VeloNews Podcast Fred and Andy link up to discuss some of the biggest news stories from pro cycling in the month of June. What can races like the Criterium du Dauphine and Tour de Suisse tell us about a rider's form in July? What's the significance of Vincenzo Nibali's transfer to Trek-Segafredo for 2020? Then, Andy recounts his memories from the 2009 Tour de France, which featured the inter-squad battle between Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong. As it turns out, the budding website Twitter played a major role in how we reported on Armstrong and on the race. Finally, we catch up with Richie Porte to talk about his preparation for the 2019 Tour de France. We also give Porte a chance to walk us through the various setbacks he's had at the Tour de France over the years. The 2019 VeloNews Tour de France Guide is available now. Get your copy at www.velopress.com.

Spencer RETURNS this episode to take us through his race at Dirty Kanza 200, and what lessons he learned about gravel racing. Fred and Spencer break down all the action from the Dirty Kanza. Then, Andy takes us through the final week of the Giro d'Italia, which saw Richard Carapaz fend off attacks from Vincenzo Nibali. What does the Giro's outcome tell us about Carapaz, Mikel Landa, and Primoz Roglic? Plus, we hear from American Chad Haga, who won the final stage. Finally, we invite Colin Strickland back on the podcast to talk about the Dirty Kanza. Only this time, Colin tells us about his stunning win in the men's race. This episode is sponsored by Vittoria Tires, which provided its Terreno tires for all of our gravel events this year. Spencer raced Dirty Kanza on a pair of Vittoria Terreno tires and didn't suffer a single puncture. Check out the complete line of tires at www.vittoria.com.

In episode 75, we’re joined by Dr. Stephen Seiler, one of the top exercise physiologists of today. Dr. Seiler has talked with us previously about the polarized, or 80/20, model of endurance training, he’s shared his thoughts on zone models, and he’s helped us understand how slow your “slow” should be. For more with Dr. Seiler, return to episodes 51 (Polarizing your training) and 54 (Applying the polarized model). We’ve already talked about the overall polarized approach and how to do that 80 percent — the long, slow ride. Today, we’re going to talk about the other 20 percent: high intensity work. In this episode we’ll address: - Why, even though Dr. Seiler recommends 80 percent or more of our work to be at low intensity, he is by no means against some hard work. -What you should use to structure the intensity of your interval work: heart rate or power, percent of max or percent of threshold. Or, is there another approach? His answer might surprise you. - Dr. Seiler’s multiple studies on interval work, including the three protocols he’s studied — 4x4 minutes, 4x8 minutes, and 4x16 minutes. - Notice that while each workout is hard, none of those three protocols is very complex. We talk about why things like execution, accumulating time, and consistency are more important than complexity. - Some of you may cringe, but we also discuss why the specificity of interval work isn’t as important as a lot of people think. To a degree, most work hits most systems. So don’t get caught up in being a few beats or watts over or under the target. - We’ll briefly discuss the periodization of interval work.We’ll wrap up the show with a discussion of higher intensity anaerobic intervals such as Tabata’s, and ask both Dr. Seiler and some pros about their favorite interval work. Finally, we’ll answer the pressing question: Who’s the biggest nerd of all. Our primary guest today is, of course, Dr. Stephen Seiler. At this point, he needs no introduction. He is one of the most influential researchers working today.  Along with Dr. Seiler, we’ll hear from Michelton-Scott rider Brent Bookwalter about balance in interval work. This is the third episode in a row that we’ve heard from Brent, and that’s because as a top pro, who’s raced 10 grand tours, he has a lot of good things to say.  Next we’ll hear from Ruth Winder, a talented racer on the women’s Trek-Segafredo team. Finally, we'll hear from Bruce Bird. Bruce took up cycling in his 40s and has since won the Gran Fondo World Championships multiple times. At 50, he can tear apart the local pro races in Ontario. In other words, he’s figured out a few things about proper training. So, if you’re ready to get intense, if you’re prepared for a smattering of nerd bombs, it’s time to make you fast!