Well, Chris Froome did it. He won his third grand tour in a row at the Giro d'Italia, waiting until the last possible moment to do it. Rivals crumbled, fans freaked out, and lots of people have opinions about his impressive victory. So let's try to make sense of it all. To better understand things, we hear from our European correspondent Andrew Hood, who was on the ground at the Giro this year. He has audio from Chris Froome and Simon Yates's Canadian teammate Svein Tuft. Finally, Chris Case com...
May 30, 2018•1 hr 1 min
What just happened? Chris Froome blew up the Giro d'Italia's GC in stage 19 Friday. Simon Yates is out of pink. Chris Froome is in it. And poor Tom Dumoulin is left chasing another Englishman. We recap the action, hear from Froome at the post-stage press conference, and have some takes and analysis about Froome's performance. Was it his best ever? Was it believable? All that and more. This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Smith Optics, which outfitted us with the Session helmet an...
May 25, 2018•33 min
We hear from Svein Tuft on what it's like to see his Aussie team grow up from its roots as upstart Orica squad to world-beaters as Mitchelton-Scott. Plus, we discuss Simon Yates's four-month ban for an asthma medication back in 2016 and whether that should color our opinion of his Giro dominance. We also talk about the recent round of the Epic Rides mountain bike series in Grand Junction as well as Stephen Hyde's plans to try for an Olympic spot as an XC mountain biker. Finally, Fred's got a few...
May 23, 2018•1 hr 1 min
After the stage 4 time trial propelled Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) into the general classification lead at the Tour of California, stage 6 brought another big GC shakeup. Sky's Egan Bernal reclaimed the yellow jersey with a powerful move on the long climb to South Lake Tahoe, nabbing his second stage victory in the process. We catch up on the big storylines from the day and hear from Bernal and his teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart after their impressive performances on the final big GC day of the...
May 19, 2018•33 min
Have you ever noticed a little "Tg" on your carbon fiber rims? It means "glass transition." Did that clear things up for you? Of course not. So, our tech editor Dan Cavallari spoke with Enve's Scott Neilsen about what this means for bike wheels. Why does glass transition matter? How does this relate to rim durability under heavy braking as well as ride quality? We answer these questions and more. This episode is brought to you by Pro Bike Gear. With its new online saddle selector, you can find y...
May 17, 2018•37 min
It's often overlooked, sometimes forgotten. But it never should be. Recovery is just as important to strong performances as your daily workouts and weekly riding volume. Recovery is the other side of the training balance that we often neglect. In today’s technology-driven training world, we have easy-to-use tools like power meters to track our performance. But tracking recovery is not so easy. What’s lacking is that one clear metric or tool to tell us when we're fatigued. In today’s episode, we ...
May 16, 2018•1 hr 8 min
America's biggest race is underway in California! Dane Cash and Fred Dreier are on the road and covering all of the key stories from the Amgen Tour of California. We discuss Colombia's emerging climbing talent Egan Bernal who won the Tour of California's queen stage on Gibraltar. Fun fact: He actually had to borrow a helmet for his first bike race back in the day. Bernal has come a long, long way since then. Plus, we hear from Americans Sepp Kuss and Brandon McNulty at the race. This episode of ...
May 15, 2018•45 min
The Giro d'Italia is underway! And Froome is off the back... Already! Should Sky worry about his bad ride at the opening TT? We check in with Andrew Hood and Gregor Brown who are on the ground in Italy. Back in the States, the Amgen Tour of California starts on Sunday. We preview the route, the key riders, and more. Finally, in our tech segment, we talk to Dan Cavallari about patents. Are they a window into the future of bike design or just a tease, never to materialize on our personal bikes? Ki...
May 08, 2018•1 hr 14 min
Should we call them frenemies? Not quite. Mountain bike stars Howard Grotts and Payson McElveen are close friends and training partners even if they clash on the trails at the races. We recorded this interview in the back of McElveen's van at Whiskey Off-Road in Arizona before they embarked on a road trip to U.S. marathon mountain bike nationals in Arkansas. As they did last year, the Durango, Colorado duo brought the heat with McElveen winning his second title in a row and Olympian Grotts again...
May 07, 2018•22 min
Welcome to the brand new VeloNews Tech podcast, in which we’ll discuss complex tech topics and distill them down into terms we can all understand. Aero tube shapes are now integral parts of bicycle design. Engineers test them in the wind tunnel once they’ve got a prototype in hand, but before such prototypes even exist, a virtual design can be created and tested on the computer using Computational Fluid Dynamics, or CFD. Chris Yu from Specialized walks us through CFD and explains how it influenc...
May 04, 2018•36 min
The Giro d'Italia is here! Froome vs. Dumoulin. The Zoncolon. We preview all of the big storylines ahead of the season's first grand tour (at 42:30). But first, Spencer talks about what makes the Whiskey Off-Road and other Epic Rides mountain bike races so successful. On the other side of the country (and racing spectrum), Fred went to the Red Hook Crit. Why is fixie racing so popular these days? Plus, we have a rundown of the latest news from Romandie and takes on Lieuwe Westra's doping confess...
May 03, 2018•1 hr 10 min
This episode is all about data. Not long ago, people looked at you funny if you had a two-inch screen mounted to your handlebars. Now, we ride with head units the size of iPhones, sensors connected to our limbs, and wearables that track our every step and heartbeat. No one bats an eyelash. A few episodes ago, we talked with Hunter Allen about the history of power and how we got to this point. Today we ask this question: Where is all of this data going, and what do we gain by covering our bodies ...
May 02, 2018•1 hr 9 min
The first grand tour of the 2018 season gets underway on Friday. The Giro d'Italia kicks off with a time trial in Jerusalem, making it the first grand tour to begin beyond European soil. The start list is an impressive one, with Chris Froome (Sky) making an attempt at the first half of a Giro-Tour double — assuming he is not suspended for his adverse analytical finding for Salbutamol — and he's not the only big name set to be in attendance. Defending champ Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), Fabio Aru (UAE T...
May 01, 2018•49 min
Lance Armstrong settled with the Feds for $5 million... Did he win? Plus, we discuss the tactics that played out in one of the most exciting editions of Liege-Bastogne-Liege in years. Later in the show, we bring on tech editor Dan Cavallari to talk about the biggest bike show in North America, Sea Otter Classic. What tech was cool? What trends are growing? And what's the deal with e-bikes? All that and more on this episode.
Apr 24, 2018•59 min
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.
Apr 19, 2018•35 min
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 Mar...
Apr 17, 2018•1 hr 4 min
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...
Apr 13, 2018•1 hr 5 min
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-Roubai...
Apr 10, 2018•24 min
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...
Apr 06, 2018•42 min
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.
Apr 03, 2018•44 min
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,...
Mar 30, 2018•1 hr 15 min
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 Qui...
Mar 29, 2018•39 min
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 race...
Mar 27, 2018•52 min
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.
Mar 22, 2018•36 min
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 mu...
Mar 20, 2018•54 min
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 ...
Mar 16, 2018•1 hr 22 min
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.
Mar 15, 2018•51 min
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?
Mar 13, 2018•58 min
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!
Mar 08, 2018•55 min
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. ...
Mar 01, 2018•1 hr 10 min
