Get ready to pedal into a captivating conversation with Michael Ray, a gravel cycling dude whose journey is as thrilling as a sprint finish. Join us as we chronicle his cycling experiences, from the exhilarating rides on his first mountain bike, to the thrill of gravel racing, and eventually his debut with the OSU Cycling Club. Discover why for Michael, biking is not just a sport - it's a lifelong passion that keeps turning his wheels.
Michael's journey has not just been podium finishes, but the miles of pure joy with his buddies. Together, we navigate the highs and lows of his journey - from his rapid progression as a cyclist to his struggle balancing responsibilities and maintaining love for the sport. Listen as Michael shares his candid story of how his obsession with cycling led to burnout and how he rediscovered the joy in biking by shifting his focus from chasing results to finding happiness on the trails.
Finally, we traverse through Michael's thrilling racing experiences in challenging conditions and discuss his training strategies, his thoughts on bike maintenance, and his commitment to supporting local cycling events and businesses. This episode also throws light on his future plans, his most challenging rides, and his favorite equipment. So, buckle up your helmets and join us on this riveting ride with Michael Ray - an episode for the seasoned cyclists and the budding bikers alike.
Get ready to pedal into a captivating conversation with Michael Ray, a gravel cycling dude whose journey is as thrilling as a sprint finish. Join us as we chronicle his cycling experiences, from the exhilarating rides on his first mountain bike, to the thrill of gravel racing, and eventually his debut with the OSU Cycling Club. Discover why for Michael, biking is not just a sport - it's a lifelong passion that keeps turning his wheels.
Michael's journey has not just been podium finishes, but the miles of pure joy with his buddies. Together, we navigate the highs and lows of his journey - from his rapid progression as a cyclist to his struggle balancing responsibilities and maintaining love for the sport. Listen as Michael shares his candid story of how his obsession with cycling led to burnout and how he rediscovered the joy in biking by shifting his focus from chasing results to finding happiness on the trails.
Finally, we traverse through Michael's thrilling racing experiences in challenging conditions and discuss his training strategies, his thoughts on bike maintenance, and his commitment to supporting local cycling events and businesses. This episode also throws light on his future plans, his most challenging rides, and his favorite equipment. So, buckle up your helmets and join us on this riveting ride with Michael Ray - an episode for the seasoned cyclists and the budding bikers alike.
What is up? Cycling Oklahoma? Thanks for coming back for another episode and I know I said it every single time, but this one's a good one and I mean I think so far they've all been great. So if you don't agree, then you know what you're getting, what you pay for, because you know. But this is a really, really good episode.
Speaker 1:Michael Ray is such an incredibly cool dude. I call him a kid because I think I'm at the point where now I'm the old guy and anybody that's half my age I feel like I can call them a kid, so he's the greatest kid. Now. Michael's a good dude. I met Michael. I think we met through doing a bike fits really is where we got to know each other Did a couple of bike fits on Michael and he he's just one of those guys that is always got a smile on his face. He's always happy, super positive, and just having people like that in your life just makes your life better, and so Michael truly fits in that category. I can't say enough good things about this guy and he's he's young guy, he's finishing up college at OSU and super, super strong on the bike. I mean the dude can pedal the bike and he just has a great attitude and a great outlook on cycling, on what it's really worth and what it really is all about, and so I think you're gonna love this episode and it's very refreshing to hear how he's super good but he also like keeps it in perspective and truly, truly like take cycling for what it is and realizes that it's for fun and it's, you know, not a job. So I think you're gonna really enjoy this one. Michael's a good dude and I really hope you enjoy his story and his outlook on cycling and keeping everything in perspective.
Speaker 1:And so I can't thank everyone enough for the listens and for the downloads. And you know, more importantly, I can't think more overhead door enough. I know I went on and on about them last week. I'm gonna do that again today and probably for a few more episodes because they stepped up to the play and sponsored the podcast and gave us some money to help get some new equipment and to keep some things going and to really hold like, truly like make this podcast a little bit better, and more overhead doors has really stepped up and done that. They are cyclists, they are in our community, they are out there racing week in and week out and all the different disciplines, and so I really can't stress how much we need to support each other and support each other's local businesses and just, you know, give a shout out to them. You know their money and, like I said, it sponsored some equipment, but also we were able to give back to the Wheeler Crits. We actually were able to do preams last week and so some of their donations I'd say the money coming in is going to go right back out and we were able to take more overhead doors money and put it into making some preams and make the racing a little bit more fun and exciting last week. And so thank you so much for more overhead doors.
Speaker 1:If you are looking for a garage door, if you're looking to like, just change the look of yours like you're building a new house and you want to do this something really cool, something a little different, they can take care of that. If your springs broken, if you just need to update something or something's just not functioning it's off rails or something I've had that problem and it's a nightmare. Call them their local, their cyclist. The phone number is 405-799-9214. You can go to their website. They're on all the social medias. It's more M-O-O-R-E like the town overheaddoorcom, so go check them out. Let them know that you got their information from the podcast. I know of two people that have reached out to them or planning on reaching out to them, so can't think those guys enough for stepping up to the plate and helping us keep this thing going and making it better and better as we go. So more overhead doors, check them out. They are supporting us. Let's support them.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of great racing coming this fall in Oklahoma, so make sure you're supporting our local grassroots events. Cross is coming. Mountain bike tour to dirt is firing back up this month. So go out, even if you're not racing, go watch volunteer support. There's a lot of cool stuff coming in the fall and winter in Oklahoma cycling so make sure you get out and enjoy the events, enjoy the weather and if there's anybody that you want to get on here you want to hear, let me know. We do have several Tulsa people coming, recorded one this weekend, got two or three more planned to record ASAP.
Speaker 1:So I'm loving to reach out to people outside of the Oklahoma City community. So all you lot and folks and medicine park folks like let's chat, let's talk. Tulsa people, let's chat. Reach out. Please let's get you on the schedule and make this happen. So thank you guys so much for listening. Please share with your friends and please subscribe if you have not already. We are going to continue to look for sponsorships, so if you are interested in doing that, please let me know. But, like I said, the money comes in, money goes out, and I can't thank you guys enough for all the support and I hope you enjoy this one. Michael's a great dude. I think you're gonna like his story and his journey and how fast he has come onto the scene and the cool things that he has going on. So thanks again and we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 2:All right, michael, this is one we clearly we have been working on this podcast for a year, a year and a half, I mean yeah, easily, yeah, I think probably since the first time you came in and got a bike fit absolutely and yeah, we talked about doing this and now we're down to the wire because you're getting ready to move or move back to still water full-time yeah
Speaker 2:yeah, we're like we're down to the native grady, so we had to get it done today, a few days, okay, so I think, clearly you have a huge footprint and still water cycling scene and the dirt gravel cycling scene.
Speaker 1:But maybe people in Oklahoma City or Tulsa don't completely know you unless they've been in the gravel world. So give a quick update of who you are and kind of like where you come from, and then we'll get into the native grady of everything yeah, absolutely, I'm Michael Ray.
Speaker 2:I am from soulwater, oklahoma, born rays. I got a mountain bike in 2017, kind of started riding some of the McMurtry trails, had a lot of fun, met some guys at OSU I started riding with on the trails fast forward about a year I went on.
Speaker 1:So how old were you when you got, when you started riding out. So 16 16 okay, so you never really wrote before. Then I wrote, kind of I wrote around the neighborhood.
Speaker 2:I had a Schwinn and every day after school I'd practice wheelies for like an hour or two every day.
Speaker 1:I was a blast life of me.
Speaker 2:It was a. I mean.
Speaker 1:It took a long time yeah, I went to the park one time. I was like that's a skill. I feel like, for no reason, it's not really gonna do me to go, but I feel like I should. I mean this was like two or three years ago. So I was like one day I was like I'm going to get my mountain bike, I'm going to go up to the park by my house and I watched a YouTube video of how to do it and I was like, ah, got it. First one was like, oh, I didn't really get it off the ground. Second one was like I didn't really get it off the ground and I'm like, ok, I got to commit to like when I pop, push down my pedal at the same time. Man, I ejected myself off the back of my bike so fast. It hurt so bad, took the breath out of me. I laid in the middle of the park.
Speaker 2:I was like I think I'm going to go home, that's, I don't need to know how to do a wheelie.
Speaker 1:That was that was the end of my practice.
Speaker 2:Three times, yeah, I mean, there's definitely not a shortage of looping it in front of is that what it's called whenever you go off the back?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just like each and every neighbor.
Speaker 2:and then, because it was a shwin right, and so just had rim brakes and the more I did wheelies, the worse the pads got, and of course I wasn't going to replace the pads, because that's like eight dollars.
Speaker 2:Right, so I know I'm just going to ride it. And so pretty much every wheelie like lever goes all the way to the bar and you just hope that it grabs just enough to hold you back. And before so that first mountain bike was a salsa timber jack which I purchased from Bobby up in. So what our district and that was that was one of my first tests was that I took it out in front of the shop and I wheelied across the whole front of the shop and Bobby just always likes to tell that story. And you saw me, I'll play it yeah it's perfect.
Speaker 2:They're just like who is this kid?
Speaker 1:16 year old, punk on exactly. So a little bit of a new start with the mountain bike. But you don't, that's not your gig. So, yeah, what? How long did you ride the mountain bike?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So Twenty seventeen got the mountain bike about 16 years old, wrote that on the trails for like seven or eight months. When, on the Monday night, ride out of this search which is their social gravel, rides about like 15, 18 miles and just talk stop at the halfway point, have a beer if you're not 21. Maybe you have a juice box or?
Speaker 1:whatever you want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good boy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly yeah.
Speaker 2:And so Did that. Fell in love with riding riding gravel.
Speaker 1:Did you take your? You rode your mountain bike on the road. My bike on that.
Speaker 2:That was summer 2018 and got super hooked, met a few people that helped me out, getting on some bigger gravel rides, and so, before I knew it, I think within like a month or two, I was riding to Perry and back, which is like a 50, 60 mile ride on your mountain bike yeah, with like a Nike T-shirt and flat pedals and a 40 pound camel back.
Speaker 1:Oh, my stuff.
Speaker 2:It was a. It was a sight to be hold.
Speaker 1:Sounds terrible.
Speaker 2:It was awful but it was perfect in that time, like I didn't know any better. Right, this is fun. This hurts like a lot, but I love it.
Speaker 1:Were you able to keep up with anybody, or were you going by yourself?
Speaker 2:No, I was able to keep up pretty pretty all right. I think most of those luxury average like 14, 15. That's cooking with that. Oh, my God I was. It was so fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, those things are just right for fun at this point.
Speaker 2:I was just right for fun, not a golden sight of racing and later that year I'd bought a Salsa by from Austin at district and really just rode more and more gravel. Had that for about a year. Did my first mid south on that bike. She's the 50th, the hundred year, first year, Hundred Of course. Hundred. And then I got a Santa Cruz Sigma and late 2019. I've ridden that ever since and you get one of the new ones. I don't hot take. I don't really like it that much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know it's like, it's not like a mountain bike.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it doesn't have like the, I don't. I like the older road geometry.
Speaker 1:I say it looks like because yours is very classic style yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and yeah, I'm not not a fan honestly, so probably not. But that's kind of the, I guess the overarching like story.
Speaker 1:When did you find, when did you realize like I'm hooked, like I'm all into the cycling thing? Was it like when you were doing the 4050 mile gravel rides?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so, like every day. I just wanted to go ride and explore roads and meet people, and it was were you so fun?
Speaker 1:When did you go to? When did you graduate high school?
Speaker 2:2020,.
Speaker 1:Ok yeah so did you join the OSU cycling club or whatever they have there, or are you just kind of like how did that work? Were you a part of that at all?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a couple of the guys that I started riding with were like president and, I guess, vice president of the club, and so they were both graduating when I was going into OSU, so I was actually the president of the club the first two years.
Speaker 1:Because you put on a cross race. Right, I did yeah.
Speaker 2:Did did gobble cross in 2021. And yeah, so I was the president for the first couple years. Ok, that was fun.
Speaker 1:What is the OSU cycling club? What, like? What does it entail? Like in college, when you have a cycling club like that. I mean, is it just like a group ride kind of situation once a week and it's just a place for students if they want to get into cycling, it's a way for them to learn, or like. What does it consist of?
Speaker 2:Yeah, before, before I came on, it was they had some like road collegiate races so they went down to in Texas every spring. But when I came on I wasn't really interested in road and nobody that was still there was really interested in traveling for the road racing for collegiate. Half of them were like grad students and so they were kind of just like riding biker fun and doing their schoolwork and weren't like super, super into racing most of them. So when I was there we pretty much just had like a Monday night ride and every night every Monday, just as a social ride, get to know people, get people on bikes that are interested at OSU, like everyone's welcome type of thing. You can go however fast or slow you want. There's like one hot segment that we all race and then we all meet back up. It was a good time.
Speaker 1:It was a road, it was a road ride. Yeah, it was good.
Speaker 2:And so we had that, and then we did also have a Tuesday night ride for a bit, where it was like the faster pace ride, and then we had double cross in 2021, which is Do they still have that race. They don't, but there there might be something.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's like I did whisper. I did that back in the day but for like three seconds I did a cyclocross and I did that race and I just remember coming up out of the creek bed Like there was like a really steep section, like when you're coming up out of the trees, like almost back to like the stark finish section.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, whiskey Hill, it sucks. Yeah, it's so steep, it's so steep you have to like hit the corner just right to carry enough speed to hit it.
Speaker 1:Well, when you have no ability, leg power and or handling abilities, it is not the course for you, not feasible. No, no, there is no hitting the corner. Just right, it's like ride as hard as you can, hope you don't tip over in front of everyone so they don't laugh at you. Or then I just learned like I'm just going to get off at the bottom and just like, yeah, because everybody in my race only it's like a 50-50 chance. Right, yeah, it sucked. Yeah, that's a hard course, it was fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah it was a super fun course, super super fun course. But yeah, so there's, there's something in the works there. Okay, cool.
Speaker 1:But so when you kind of so what the OSU Cycle Club, you were got involved, you were just like kind of doing it, going through the motions. At what point did you be like man, I think I'm going to be like, yeah, I'm going to race, race, like I really dig this. Was that when you got to college, I think it was before college.
Speaker 2:So, going into my senior year, the fall of my senior year was 2019. And so that means the spring of it was 2020, which is where everything hit the fan and everything shut down. So, but in 2019, I was really into just seeing what I could do and like training as much as I could. I worked at Olive Garden as a buster at the time. And so I remember the breadsticks, or I mean they're, they're good, there's no, there's no denying it.
Speaker 2:So I guess a little background. In high school I was in the in the spring engineering program out of Bow Tech School up in Soilwater and so I took, was there half the day, took like all my AP, math, science and some like engineering courses that are kind of meant to get you prepped for like taking an engineering degree at college. So I did that for three years and it was pretty heavy on coursework and I didn't even want to do engineering by the end of it and so, yeah, I mean kind of wish I had done it about the same time. It was good. But so I did that was an Olive Garden buster for like a year, year and a half, and I just remember times when in the winter I get home at nine or 10. And I was like, ok, it's time for intervals, I go out to the garage which is like 35 degrees.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a winter miserable, and just like me and my bibs, and I didn't want to wear a shirt because you get soaked, but I'm also freezing until I get one and yeah, there were many nights like that because I just was super motivated. What made you strong as I could, as fast as I could.
Speaker 1:What made you so obsessed with cycling? Was there any other sports growing up that you were like super into? Or was this just like happened to be the thing that clicked for you?
Speaker 2:No, this was. I mean, this was pretty much the only sport that's really clicked for me. I played a little soccer growing up, like a ton of kids do, and it was fun but wasn't all that good at it and I didn't have like a love for it. I thought it was fun for a little and I was ready to move on, and so finding cycling was definitely way different than soccer.
Speaker 1:So you were just obsessed with it. I just loved it. Yeah, interesting.
Speaker 2:And just like how it makes you feel and where you can go and the places you can see. Did you feel your own power?
Speaker 1:Did you feel like when you started because it's funny, you know like just talking to, to drumming. You know, in that podcast we just did and talking to some of these guys that are like at that high level.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like you can see that their progression happened so fast, Like whenever, like my level, it's just been a shit ton of work to like barely get any better. These guys put in like I don't know what I'm doing, I just run my bike really hard and like two years later they're a cat one. So was that kind of what it was like for you?
Speaker 2:Like you just saw really fast progression which makes you more hooked, or yeah no, definitely In a sense it was like that, for sure, just because I hadn't had really anything like structured like that before for cardio and like kind of a muscle muscular combo. So I never really like trained those systems before that. But I had a lot of buddies that were really into racing and road riding and stuff that I met at OSU and otherwise and it was just super fun to me to just like get as fast as I could.
Speaker 1:And it happened pretty quickly.
Speaker 2:And I thought it happened pretty quick just because I was riding I mean as much as I possibly could doing intervals all the time Was it structured or was this kind of you were making it up Like did you have a coach or a plan? I didn't have a coach. I looked up a ton of training videos and made my own workouts and asked people what they were doing and I'd make like I'd made trainer road workouts on my computer and then upload them to the Wahoo and you're just like in the trainer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like so much more into it than I have been for the last two years now. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Well you've become a big kid now and have, like big kid, responsibilities, not just college and all of garden Right. I was.
Speaker 2:I was too obsessed with it at that point. It I mean it was too, it was a little. It was a little much because I was just wanting to get as fast as I could in a short of a timeline as I could do that and see what I could do at races and so on, and so forth?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to, and I do want to come back to that because I think we share a common philosophy there. But getting you through, like up to where we are now, just when you're college, because you're just getting ready to graduate, yeah, I'll be a senior. I'll be a senior this fall.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And your degree is in.
Speaker 2:I have a marketing major, and then I have a data science minor.
Speaker 1:Okay and so, and we can touch on on your summer experience and how you're going to move all that into your next phase of life. But through college, were you, did you continue just to like pedal to the metal when it came to the bike? I mean, were you just like man, I just want to keep going hard, hard, hard. Or was it like in the past year as, like you, kind of transition to this out of college and try to, you know, get a big kid job and, you know, do all the big kid things and trying to figure out the adulting piece of life? Yeah, was it just? I guess the question would be is it, was it more just a natural transition because, like life's changing, or was it just like Goals changed just from?
Speaker 1:like being less serious about it less, being less like completely, 100% obsessed with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there was kind of a turning point where I wrote so much in 2020 I think I wrote almost like 12,000 miles a year, which is, I mean, ridiculous, a lot more than I'd written in years past, and I just kind of kept that energy going into 2021. I Got so burnt out I barely even want to look at a bike all summer of 2021. Just like just over it. I was so over, it wasn't even funny and From from then on, I was like chasing Only results to make me happy.
Speaker 1:So were you doing a lot of races at that time.
Speaker 2:I never did a ton, but I did enough that they were like constant goals and I was always thinking about what I could do for them. They were all gravel races pretty much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were a couple like Cyclocross road seven there, but really mainly gravel. I think it was kind of that's the tipping point of being like it's not a good relationship with it If the only read, if the only way I'm happy is like when I'm feeling really good on the bike or when I'm as fit as I can be, or when I'm happy with race results.
Speaker 1:And so Was there something that caused that shift, or was it just like you just like kind of like slowly start realizing it? I think.
Speaker 2:I Don't know if there was anything and that's super specific that caused it, but it was definitely more of a, I think, a gradual change after I kind of have that period During the summer of 2021 where I just didn't like it at all anymore and I was so confused because that was something I'd put so much time and energy into in the last Three years Mm-hmm, I was like, well, I don't have cycling, like what, even like what's making me?
Speaker 2:like I'm happy, like as a hobby and stuff, if I don't have cycling to do that? And that's kind of when I started just exploring, I was like, why does this like what actually makes me happy with this hobby and is it Talking to people? Is it getting fit? Is it like after you had a hell of a day at the office or at school or Whatever it is, that you go out for a bike ride and you're just stoked because it makes you feel so good? And or is it like Winning races or whatever else?
Speaker 2:And it definitely just came back to a couple of points where it's like what I get the most enjoyment out of is just riding with people. I like riding with and meeting people, and the Sega part of that is like, yeah, when I have a day, that's just a long day and I can look forward to just putting some earbuds in or or otherwise, mm-hmm or not, and just going out for like a two or three hour ride after work or school or whatever it is and just Unplugging from the rest of life. Mm-hmm is, I think, where I get the most enjoyment out of it, just because it's like such a nice separation. And that has nothing to do with like races or how fit I am. It's just like it feels good to Just have that outlet that's completely separate from, like all other facets. That's weird in your life.
Speaker 1:It's, it's weird and shocking and impressive that Do you, I mean, and I've told you some stuff you know like, of what I think about you and where you're gonna go, I mean, and how much I admire you in where you're at in life at this point. It's, it's impressive that you came to those like understandings at such a young age, because it's like such a that's such a why is like thing to like, have, enter, like to look inside and be like what, why do I enjoy this and why do I like this? And then do it for those reasons, instead of getting caught up in the peer pressure of like.
Speaker 1:Yeah especially in cycling. Let's just be honest it's full of egos, but I think that's the safest way to do it without pissing off all my listeners.
Speaker 2:Yeah but it's, but it's driven by?
Speaker 1:What's your watts? How much do you weigh? What kind of bike do you ride Like? What races have you done Right? How far of a race can you do like it's it's always pushing the limit? And a lot of people, I think, just continue to do that because they're stuck in the rat race and not because it's like what they really want to do Exactly. And I went through that in multi sport when I just started looking around and being like man, what I'm I am one of these people that I that like wear me out, you know.
Speaker 1:I was like you know, I am one of the people that's like wearing the compression crap and only talking about their heart rate and what their macros are. I'm like this is so stupid. We like we're a bunch of middle-aged people that like have no talent. We just like do these things for hobbies.
Speaker 1:I just like it yeah and we take it way too serious. And you know I went through some like Big shifts in life that made me like realize, like what it really is. But so for you to come through that conclusion at such an early point is pretty like shocking and impressive.
Speaker 2:Thank you, yeah, after that, what did you?
Speaker 1:do with that Awakening moment. Did you just say, was it through the time that you had kind of taken a burnout and then you just kind of restarted, or what did you do with it?
Speaker 2:when you figure that out, yeah, and I I guess I wanted to touch on something you just said where, like I think it's important, especially I mean in every sport or like just your personal life or anything, I think it's really important to Like constantly ask yourself what actually makes me happy, what do I enjoy? What?
Speaker 2:about if you don't if you don't ask yourself those things and you don't like really know what actually makes you happy, not what people in Society like tell you that should make you happy, like you're just chasing something that you don't even probably want, mm-hmm and I think are you wanted it and then now you don't, and but you feel like you have to keep doing it right, exactly, I went through that with the bike shop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I loved it, I wanted to keep doing it. I miss the people, I miss the stories, right. But I had a change in life, circumstances changed, and it was like, well, I feel if I don't keep doing this, I'm going to let people down and I'm going to be letting others down. And I said I was going to do this. I have to follow through doing it. And then one day I was like and I was actually whenever I went to Kona was almost a year ago for a buddy's race, and I was sitting there I was like I don't have to do it, like, right, I'm just do it, because I signed up to do it, like, yeah, I can just not do it ever again Exactly, and that's OK. And then so when I got back, that's what I did, I just tried to figure out a way to wind it down and because I wanted to do other things, yeah, but you're scared to do the other things because you feel like you have to do that thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I could talk about this for a long time Well perfect, let's make it a deep episode.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think another thing, too, with cycling is just that you get exposed to so many different types of people and from so many different cultures and backgrounds and work experiences and where you like, where you come from, and I mean the list goes on and on. I think it's a really interesting hobby, and sport in that sense is because it's so diverse and dynamic between the people you meet, and that was something I'm really grateful for in, like growing up, like through high school and college and having this sport, just because you do end up talking to people that are generally older than you and all their life experiences and how they experience cycling, and it really makes you question like why you're doing the things you're doing, which is interesting, right, because most people don't know what they want to do when they're in high school or in college.
Speaker 1:I don't really know what I want to do now and to be honest with you. So if you figure it out, good for you.
Speaker 2:I have not told it, but I guess we're all working on it.
Speaker 1:I have ideas and they change all the time. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it is just interesting just because you're around people that are generally much older than you, and so I think it gives you just a completely different perspective than other sports might, where you're only like on a team with people your age or doing things like that. I think that's been really helpful and like life changing to me. It is amazing how diverse.
Speaker 1:the group is Right, I mean you go I mean I'm going to go to Wheeler after we get done recording this and it's amazing Like you're going to see a guy that's a lawyer, that lives in a big fancy house and makes multiple six, maybe seven figures a year and he's lined up racing next to a guy who, you know, I don't know is, you know, doing everything he can to put food on this table for you know, and pay his bills.
Speaker 1:And they're out there racing and rubbing elbows and smiling have the best time ever and those two people would never meet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, ever, no, no, no, any other place in society, right, but now they're buds.
Speaker 1:They go to rides together. All the time they're on the same teams, or whatever the case may be, and that just doesn't. It's a good melting pot.
Speaker 2:It's super cool. I mean just meeting people that love the same thing you do, that come from completely different walks of life.
Speaker 1:It's awesome, it is awesome.
Speaker 2:Um, I guess to get back to your question from a while ago like what I did kind of after I had some of those thoughts was I was just like this is not that serious, like I'm not trying to be pro. I thought I might want to give something to go like in 2019, 2020, but, um, I was like this is not, like this is not my dream. I really like it as a hobby and that's why it gives me so much enjoyment from the relationship aspect of it and just how it makes me feel. But if I have to depend on how I actually perform to put food on the table or like make me happy or get a promotion or join some other team or get a job offer, whatever it is like, I don't need the pressure to ruin that hobby for me.
Speaker 2:Cause? Then it's not, it's a job, it's not even something you like.
Speaker 1:You love the sport of cycling, not the business around. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:I love riding and it doesn't need to be anymore I like that Than that. So, uh, that's kind of where I landed post like that summer of 2021 and 2022 just ended up having as much fun as I could. I rode a good bit, but a lot of it was just kind of riding how, um, how I like, and just kind of what makes me feel good on a daily basis with your boy Henry, yep, and you're all things up in solar, the homey and uh exactly.
Speaker 1:And I don't know if you guys ever ride a part.
Speaker 2:I mean, sometimes I wonder the same. No, I'm kidding, cause I follow you both on.
Speaker 1:Strava, and it's almost always on top of their, their together, because you guys rode together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've, we've ridden, you guys put a lot of miles to go Thousands upon thousands of miles together. It's been, it's been great, um and yeah so 2022 kind of just like rode how I wanted, didn't worry about intervals and go out for a hard ride with Henry, like every weekend, and we just do four or five hours of a road ride or a gravel ride and swap poles pretty much the entire time, and just like kind of um were you still doing races when you were kind of after?
Speaker 1:you took in that, taking that break did you kind of decide that I'm still going to do some races, or did you kind of completely take time off?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I enjoy. I enjoy racing within reason and so as long as I don't let it be something it shouldn't be for me, then I enjoy it. Uh, so I kind of just got to find the balance between that. So I didn't I don't race a ton, uh, like I did mid south, I did roll three with Nick and Henry as the team race, which was a brutal team.
Speaker 1:You guys had to do all right, huh.
Speaker 2:Uh, I think moving time we would have one, but actual time we were four hours behind the person that or the team that won. Because for Henry, yeah.
Speaker 1:So and first, did Henry ride back to still water? No that's a long time.
Speaker 2:It's a long time, yeah, uh. So Henry broke a wheel. Riding downhill heard a huge crack, had no idea what it was, didn't realize it until the end of the race, but from basically a mile 15 on every uh, I'd probably say like six to seven minutes we stopped and had to hand pump Henry's tire up from zero to 40 PSR or whatever, and it was 60 degrees. It was raining, because that's how it was the first two years. This year was beautiful. Didn't go this year, but that was great. I went to share with amazing. The first two years are not so, uh, not so much like that, but yeah. So we broke like two hand pumps a couple of inflators.
Speaker 1:I can't believe you guys finished. I would have told Henry we were dead set on it. Yeah, we were like we're out here, we're doing this.
Speaker 2:This is just boys having a good time and that's all it is. And so we're going to get through it. Yeah, exactly, and uh, yeah, every like six or seven minutes we would hand pump Henry's tire up. Oh yeah, and it was like you know, you get some body time going because you just started again. Uh huh, um, all right, sorry, you start to get some body time going after starting. But Arkansas, so, hilly, that, like Nick and I are going down hills right after we were pumping Henry's tire up and we had lost all the body heat and just full body shakes at like 30 miles an hour downhill because we were, I mean, like getting like hyperthermia because it was like 60 degrees in pouring rain and we weren't doing anything and we were just in like soaked kits Sounds terrible and uh, it was way tougher.
Speaker 2:It was up then.
Speaker 1:I would have quit so far before that. Yeah, and I'd had this conversation with Aaron King last night on the group ride I was like, look, I am in for epic adventures, I'm not in for epic conditions, like I don't have any interest in that. Yeah, Some people love that. I have zero interest.
Speaker 2:I don't mind the heat and I don't mind kind of the mid range like that was at that racing.
Speaker 1:Well, it kept riding, it would have been okay. Yeah, literally Sure.
Speaker 2:And um, but I cannot do like cold, cold. I say that I can never live to move to a state where it's actually cold. Oklahoma's cold enough. I would do anything for Colorado, but I can't be there in the winter.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly, I have rain nods and I just in the like oh yeah, me too, and if it's under like real minds, like it just keeps getting worse. So you have that to look forward to Awesome Uh-huh, and it's only real. I mean, I have my hands and feet, but like the hands are the problem Right. So, whenever every year in the mid south for like the first 15, 20 miles. I'm like man. I hope I don't have to break because we're not breaking.
Speaker 2:You can't feel anything, anything Like there are lovers and your hands are somewhere on them, but you have no idea what they're doing.
Speaker 1:So mountain biking is primo for me in the winter time. Oh yeah, it's real solid, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's awesome and uh and it was funny because when we were stopping and hand pumping Henry's tire up like there was this group of six or seven people that would pass us every time we pumped the tire up. And then we were rolling fast enough that when we had pressure, we'd pass them Mm-hmm, and I'd be like, all right, see you in 10. And then, sure enough, we're stopped on the side of the road.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, they pass us again. What a day, and it was one like that for hours.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I mean we were. We were out there from 8 AM, I think. Maybe it started almost nine, I don't know 8, 39 to 7 PM, because in the dark on that like seven and a half hours of moving time and like 11 and a half of total, and it was not because we were taking beer breaks.
Speaker 1:The pumping tires, exactly. Oh man, get in all workout in. You did some races there in that time. Yeah, have you kind of. Have you gotten back into racing yet? Are you still kind of just like, yeah, floating along?
Speaker 2:Yeah, kind of just floating along. I found that I like it best that way, like I did the G threes last fall and yeah, I was really happy with that. Yeah, I love those races.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, you doing them this year. I am Okay.
Speaker 2:Did like Audacity Sanpony Audacity last.
Speaker 1:August as well, and that was in August. What was it? It was last weekend, so we're recording this on the 8th, so it was the 1st of August.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so that was.
Speaker 1:I didn't even know anything about that. Distribution was last weekend yeah. Until I saw everybody posting these results about it. So, I did not keep up very well yeah.
Speaker 2:I know that's totally okay. So what was that event? So, um, phone call by Sanpony Team, sanpony, like Tony Russell and a few others, and it's, uh, 67 miles and it goes up northwest into the Osage. Okay and super fun. I mean really fast, because probably half of it is road and then half of it's gravel. But with some of the rain we got, it was really fast gravel and it wasn't dusty and it was beautiful, and half the people there running tarmac SL7s with 32s. So it's a fast race. It's a fast race.
Speaker 2:Like we had reached almost 23 miles an hour Shut up. I'm serious, yeah, my gosh.
Speaker 1:Well, the problem was I saw some of the group pictures that you posted. You were screwed. It was you and a team.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, me and on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you were dead in the water it was. It was kind of funny and they were heavy hitters. They, yeah, those are really fast guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I saw you post the picture I was like, oh, he does like so happy. Then I saw the next picture of like. There's a group of like, I don't know, maybe seven or eight of you guys like Catholic or omnia jerseys and they're like the fastest dudes in this, in this state, right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like Demsie, seth, leslie Kagle I mean super fast guys like the first 15 miles or 15 yeah, probably about 15 miles in a pretty decent group. And then there's this hill called Wildcat, pretty solidly steep. I think that was like kind of where the brick went. Demsie attacked pretty hard up there and there were a few like People off the front here and they're that first 15 miles, but nothing was hard enough. Mm-hmm, stick until that hill where I think I did like 450 for two minutes. Come on, I was like coming back, demsie was going up and I was like please slow down, just like a little.
Speaker 1:I don't want to, that's why I was a big dude for a cycle. It's to be like dropping you because you're a little dude ripping it use.
Speaker 2:I mean Just near like sprinting up the hill and I was just doing all I could to hang on, yeah, and so that was pretty much the break. There was like 10 guys Kelle from Kira, few from Omnia, me and then, like Sam Anderson, my buddy, nick Thorpe from Stillwater, who I also ride with a lot, and Then kind of shaved down a little Pass like mile 40. Nick had dropped off one of the Kira guys. I was pretty much just me, kagle Demsie, seth Leslie, sam Anderson and Austin Edgar and that was pretty much like sounds pain and yeah, it's quite painful. That was pretty much the end of the gravel section, more or less by mile 40.
Speaker 1:So ended up just being kind of like Battle of attrition which place you end up, and up there, oh no, which I was super.
Speaker 2:Who won? Super soaked with Kagle, okay, kagle, demsie and then me and the last, like five or six miles. I mean Kagle I attacked I don't even know how many times. It's ridiculous, just like it's not even there, gets to a point where it's not even annoying, it's just impressive because I know I could never do the same thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, where it's less of like you've got to be kidding me and more of just like you can do it, you go awesome yeah and that was pretty much the last like five miles where he just went and Nobody like I was like I'm yeah it's good, cool, good for you.
Speaker 2:I can't do this, yeah, and and then Demsie went a couple miles after that and I didn't really have the legs like really go with that. And so then it was just me, sam, austin, edgar and Leslie and Came into the final couple corners and it was a slight uphill sprint to the finish, very slight, like maybe two, three percent gradient and and if that, and we came around like the last left corner. I was kind of on the inside, right behind Seth, awesome, as to the right and the outside of me, and then Sam was right behind me and Seth and I just started going out up the hill. It's probably like, if I don't know, like 200 feet, yeah, yeah, probably like 100 to 150 feet or so and, yeah, I was able to get the sprint. It's a good like much sprint group too. Yeah, it was super fun and I didn't know what to expect, but I was stoked to that's fine, grab third, and I'd actually got there last year as well, which is funny, but yeah so it was super fun race and starts at 6 pm.
Speaker 2:I guess we know that context Okay so it's kind of weird, because you don't really know what to do with yourself all day. It's usually race in the morning, right, but so it started 6 pm and I think we got back right around Like it was really fast and we did 67 miles in like two hours and 55 minutes or something, which is hilarious, sounds terrible. It was so fun. And I think it was some of the best legs I've ever had that's cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was so. So freestyling it seems to be working. Yeah, we're so okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:I've. I've enjoyed it because if I don't do as well as I'd like, I don't care.
Speaker 1:Are you following any kind of structure or is it just kind of like well, I know I probably need a long ride today. I know I need to do some intervals today. Or is it just like just go run by? Yeah, I ride with what I do pretty much like I.
Speaker 2:I don't even remember the last time I did any structure or any intervals. Pretty much I'll just go out and do some Little like tempo endurance riding most days of the week and I don't have a ton of time During the weekdays, but then almost every weekend Henry and I'll go hit like a four or five hour ride and pretty much the entire ride we just swap threshold pulls every like four minutes until we can't and that's just. We love it because you and Henry about the same yeah, very similar and we just love it and that I think that got me a better shape than any structure had ever done, because I mean that's pretty. It's pretty similar to a race situation, right, like you're just Going until you can't and trading pulls, and I mean that was the race Saturday. I was just going until I can't.
Speaker 1:So whenever you and Henry are riding, does one person have? Do you guys? Is it an ego? We're like, I'm not giving up before he gives up. So I'm gonna be like, or is it like, dude? I think it's my last one.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna. I need you to back off. I think we've kind of. I Don't think there's really an ego with any of it. I think it's more like there's been enough times where I've cracked first and he pulls me, or he cracks first and I pull him, that it's almost like it's just a balance now.
Speaker 1:So now I'm done, take me home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty much like where we're both just happy to like if the other cracks before Like, yeah, you just get here him, then we just keep going like Pull, pull the other person.
Speaker 1:What are you planning for the rest of your G3?
Speaker 2:anything else, yeah so just just G3. I think I'd be an event or two in Arkansas that I heard about, like some over in favor of Bentonville. I might try to hit this full, but besides that pretty much is just G3. Pretty much all gravel stuff, no crits.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I need that stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no. Yeah, that's kind of funny. You mentioned that after we finish up a 7 hour time for a second. He was like you ever thought about raising grits. I was like I don't know, not really my, not really my jam, mm-hmm, but I have a lot about it, so are you.
Speaker 1:Are you gonna because if you keep Throwing out results like that with the big hitter or somebody's gonna be like, hey, you should come race with us. I'm sure that's probably happening, so we're gonna happen. So Are you gonna stay as a solo artist? Are you gonna be joining any teams?
Speaker 2:I think probably just solo, honestly, like I don't really Want it be, like I don't want to be stressed out about raising again, and so I think just being solo and being able to, because I'm a pretty structured person when it comes to having a good routine that makes me feel good, where I can ride and work and Just like get good sleep, whatever else, but I also want to be able to like, yeah, change my plans on the fly if something comes up and I don't.
Speaker 1:Want to like explain.
Speaker 2:Oh, I kind of do these intervals today. Mm-hmm I can't go this race because of x, y and z. I just want to be able to like change on the fly and I have to explain myself to someone. So it's like I like it. That's kind of where I am. I think you're just doing what you want to do. Yeah, it's been great, keep doing. It keeps me, keeps me excited and you do any Feels fresh stuff off the bike?
Speaker 1:Do you do any like gym work, any mobility stuff, and you like emerge? Just kind of like I mean, you're still young enough that it's like you think cuz like. Here's the deal, my old ass. I had to go. I've ridden more for me than I have ever in my life, the past like Six weeks, and so I've ridden. I looked at it today. It was like almost 12 hours since Friday, so in like four days nice, so for me, yeah, that's like that's like I'm maxed.
Speaker 1:So today I was like man I really need to do intervals, but then I'm like I have a hard time getting off the couch, so yeah before this I went to the gym and set in the hot tub for like 20 minutes and then did mobility stuff and some Strength and conditioning stuff, because I'm like that's the only way my old ass is gonna like be able to function. Yeah, are you still like in the sweet spot where you're just like, yeah, I'm just maybe my leg around a little bit and go right?
Speaker 2:maybe a little. I could definitely tell that if I cared a little more it would help probably greatly. But I I usually don't have the initiative to like really.
Speaker 1:Do a lot extra stuff.
Speaker 2:I'd rather just Do what makes me feel pretty good on the bike and then the rest of the time just enjoy my time, without like all those additions, something I feel like I I ride a decent bit, or if I'm not riding, I'd usually like to just be like doing something that doesn't have to do with riding. Like I have that separation so I'll just do some core here and there. I stretch like every day because I know when I don't stretch my body is not happy.
Speaker 1:So I stretch every day but Core is hit or miss that routine of stretches that you do, or is it just kind of yeah, yeah, where did you learn those from? Or just kind of come up with it?
Speaker 2:I've watched some videos. I've seen some people that I know, and so I can do some.
Speaker 1:I guess there's somebody you follow.
Speaker 2:I watch and listen to a lot of stuff from Brennan Hausler and Patrick Wally from evoke bike in high school. And that's where I think I learned some like a lot of the interval stuff I wanted to try and then, as well as some stretches and like Core workouts and stuff like that and so like evoke bike, yeah, and those two guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's. It's funny because people Want to make things really complicated and they're like, oh, I got this coach and then you see their training plan. You're like it's like algebra, like what the hell?
Speaker 2:man, I'm like you, just like it doesn't have to be that complicated or right, they want to do mobility stuff and all the stuff.
Speaker 1:They just list out all these names. I do this and I'll have had to buy these like $300 worth of equipment to do x, y and z, like you just need to do like the basic stuff for most people, especially at the normal level, for sure.
Speaker 2:Like if you're trying to, yeah, if you're trying to, we all have low hanging fruit at this point.
Speaker 1:Let's call it what it is. We're not trying to eat out. That like one percent Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's the stuff that just like drains me, is just trying to like worry about every last thing I'm saying. So, um, keeping kind of the balance is what helps me like enjoy it, and I mean, I think there's something to be said as well for, like, the more you ride, the more flexible your body gets and being able to do that position. So for now yeah, that's right, mine goes backwards.
Speaker 1:I have started realizing one of the things and I don't know if I'm the only one that notices this, but I, since I started riding a bunch more in the past, like two months my like lats are so tight and I think it's because your chest is rounded on the bike, yeah, and my chest is getting tighter because my shoulders are rolled in more on the bike, and so when I get off, I'm just like oh my God, and I try to lift my hands over my head Like because normally I would go swimming and all that stuff stays loose because I'm do that position all the time, or overheads with weights and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:But like since I've just been riding more than anything else, I get off and I'm like man, it's hard for me to lift my hands over my head without feeling tension in those areas and I'm like it's cause I'm stuck in this stupid bicycle position, Right, Terrible.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I think part of it for me too is like I could definitely tell that more core could help. And that's when I'm trying to get myself on a little more, just because I know I've been slacking on it, because my hands will really bother me after, or my hands will just feel super fatigued after really long weekends of riding just because I'm like pushing on them because I don't have the core to support like the position I like to run.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I haven't got. I don't know the last time I saw you for a bike that probably like 2021, probably for the Sigma, and I mean like I don't know.
Speaker 1:You and Henry come by for checkups. Well, Henry, more than you. Yeah, I'm like Henry, your seat has moved like four inches. He's like, really, I'm like oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that actually like two weeks ago. He was like man, I just feel like my seat is like slipped and just not feel good. And yeah, he moved it up and he says it feels better now. But he was like, yeah, I probably need a bike fit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that all city frame, that he has it, but it does work its way down over time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because at one time he came in. He's like man, I have this bad knee problem. I'm like, well, he got up there and I was like, have you changed anything? He's like no, I haven't touched anything. I'm like I don't. There's no way. I sent you out of the door looking like that and then we moved and I'm serious, I bet we moved it up two inches and he's like. He's like oh, this feels so much better. I'm like you think I can't believe you could pedal.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, no, exactly Exactly. And sometimes I wonder that too, if my salad's dropped a little, but I'm like, as long as I'm not feeling pain, then I think I think it's good. Yeah. And I mean, I want to like a longer, a bit of a longer stem, I just like put on a longer stem, and so I've definitely just become more flexible from like more riding as well. It doesn't mean I shouldn't like do core work.
Speaker 1:Right, you're used to the position now. Yeah. Well, before I get into yard sale, what happened to the mountain bike? Do you ever ride mountain bike anymore? Because I feel like that goes with your art sale. So do you ever ride mountain bike anymore?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I miss. I miss riding mountain bikes for sure. I'm just not.
Speaker 1:Just not anything, I don't feel like.
Speaker 2:I'm not really like in a like. I've ridden so many of the trails at McMurtry so there's not that many, but like. I've ridden them so many times in Blackwell and just like I don't, there's no reason for me to have a mountain bike as long as I'm in salt water, because I just simply won't use it enough to pay for it.
Speaker 1:So do you even have? You don't have anymore, so I don't have that.
Speaker 2:I sold it for like 500 bucks because I ruined it Doing my, doing my normal stuff, and so I don't have it anymore. But definitely. For sure. I definitely want to, as soon as I move to a place where I get like sea, riding mountain bikes two or three times a week. Yeah For sure, okay, cool. So I'll be back someday.
Speaker 1:I like it. All right, let's jump into uh, let's jump into the yard sale. All right, man, I have so many of these. I want to ask you, I don't know which ones to go with. Let's go with, um, oh, the typical one, your favorite piece of equipment under a hundred.
Speaker 2:There are a piece of equipment under a hundred bucks. I was not prepared for this. What?
Speaker 1:This is like a, the question that everyone gets. I should have thought about it more.
Speaker 2:The one the one trying to think of something that's just like really, all right, you can keep saying Dynaplog, I guess is something under a hundred bucks. That is like a key to riding dirt in Oklahoma, especially dirt in Arkansas, Because if you don't have a Dynaplog in Arkansas you are screwed.
Speaker 1:Like. Is that like your favorite one to use?
Speaker 2:Yeah, dynaplog, why I have a. Uh, I have the pill and so it's like the, it's not the racer. That is, I mean, much nicer to use overall, because you just like pop one end off and you like shove it and then you're good.
Speaker 2:The pill is a little less fast, but it holds a lot more and so like it has, I think, five or six plugs in it, versus like two that the racer has and then it has like a tool that you can put on that can make like the whole little bigger If you say do you have different size plugs? I actually don't. They're all the same size plugs, but um just the fatties, I'll usually just put two in it.
Speaker 1:They're actually like the smaller ones yeah.
Speaker 2:But I'll usually just put two in. Like I put, I think, at this ride called like the Osage 200, it was like a 200 mile ride up in sew water a few weeks ago and uh, yeah, I like wrote my side wall open 20 miles in and I put two of the Dynaplogs in and uh and uh wrote the last, like I don't know, 180 miles on those and so like I'd say that's my favorite piece of stuff like piece of equipment under a hundred bucks Cause. I mean lifesaver, like maker, maker breaker day.
Speaker 1:For sure that's a good one, okay, yeah, well, it's funny cause the last two in drummers was, uh, inserts, which, so two episodes it's kind of anonymous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're getting into the tire stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Um, what is the hardest? It could be a hardest training ride event, whatever. What's the hardest day on the bike you've ever had? Well, the rule of three sounds like it's up there. The rule of?
Speaker 2:three was hard, uh, but I don't think it. It didn't really like break any of us, because we literally got a break every six minutes and so we never had a really try that hard Right, uh, it was the hardest day on the bike you've ever had, I think, the hardest day probably probably when I first did the 200 mile Osage ride, uh, back in June of 2019.
Speaker 1:And so I was only a year into riding and, like, embarked on this for again you're too dumb and too tough for your own good To be such a smart, wise man. You do dumb stuff.
Speaker 2:I just can't help it.
Speaker 2:I just get like drawn to these situations with cycling, I'm like, yeah, we're doing this, yeah, so you just send it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like, uh, wanted to try something different this year and so it's time for the Mid-South double and train as much as I could, ended up definitely like just about getting a stress fracture and couldn't, haven't really been able to run right since, and I think that's changing soon. But like, so for me, just like having fun of just doing different things that I haven't done before is really what brings me joy for it. So that's kind of what the Osage ride was is longest ride ever at that point by like 60 miles. I think I done like a 140 a couple of weeks before just to see how it went, and that one went pretty okay. And then the 200 was just an absolute shit show where, like, we started six in the morning, we made it to Pawhuska, which is a hundred miles in, and we saw to this burger place and we were there for like two hours because we all got burgers and fries and it was a hundred degrees.
Speaker 2:We were just sitting on this patio waiting for our food and like leaving that, leaving that restaurant and getting to like mile 110 or 115.
Speaker 1:I was just like, oh God because this is so far to go.
Speaker 2:So far to go. I feel so bad. It's not even believable how bad I feel, because at that point I hadn't had the experience of, like, what nutrition works for me. What hydration, how much do I really need to drink? I mean now I'll sob at a gas station during the summer when it's like a hundred degrees out in the morning. We've just been like dumb and sweat and Henner and I, my, drink like I don't know 70 ounces and 15 minutes like just as much as we can.
Speaker 2:But back then I didn't know any better and that was my main issue, just because I was so dehydrated I just like couldn't, did you make it? I made it Okay, but lots and lots and lots of stops, like how long did it take you? I think we left at six and got back at midnight.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, and so I think it was like yeah, 18 or 19 hours or whatever of elapsed time, and then I think we averaged around 14 miles an hour for moving time. That's rough and it was. It was very rough. Yeah, I just didn't know what I was getting myself into and I think, like I hadn't ridden enough, didn't have enough miles on the legs at the time to like really do that in any decent fashion.
Speaker 2:And it put me in a huge hole, like I remember not, I didn't feel good for like two months, yeah, and so that was definitely hardest ride hands down, cramped super hard, like had my first pickle pop experience, and that saved my soul.
Speaker 1:I can't believe you finished.
Speaker 2:What's the most miles you've ever?
Speaker 1:done on one ride 200. Yeah, favorite place to ride.
Speaker 2:Hmm, that's a good question, having traveled as much to ride as I really would wish, but I'd probably say favorite place so far, favill, arkansas. Okay, yeah, that was.
Speaker 1:Arx. All right, last two questions. You dream bike, since you're not getting the new stick monitor. What's what's? What's the dream gravel setup, dream gravel?
Speaker 2:setup would be. I feel like I have more of you on a dream road.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to go with the road.
Speaker 2:I'd probably like like Prova cycles. I don't know, I could totally be wrong on this, I'm just going to get like rekt for it, but pretty sure they're out of Australia and they kind of they're like a tie slash like carbon by school company where, like their bikes are, they'll have like a carbon C tube and then the rest of its tie, yeah, and they're just beautiful bikes and you do like the classic styles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, beautiful, and so Prova for like a road bike would be the dream. I really like titanium stuff and so I think, like a rebel, like tie gravel bike would be OK, you like the?
Speaker 1:tie stuff. I like the tie stuff. You're an old soul man you have no idea how many times I've heard that and, after all, since you're still I mean, you have a lot of experiences, but you're still fairly new to the game what would be your advice to a new gravel rider?
Speaker 2:Hmm, advice, I'd say Taking all you can, but Don't let it control what you think of the sport and how you enjoy it. For you, and don't Don't get like pulled into the like the swath of like Training to win and riding to win and just like do your own thing and find the people that are on the road, do your own thing and find the people that align with how you like to ride bikes and don't hang out with people that like make you feel shitty about how you ride bikes, like that's not going to be enjoyable to you and that's not going to make you want to say and grow in the sport. What's going to make what's going to make you want to say and grow in this sport? It's just like finding what really makes you happy and why that makes you happy, and then like delving into that and finding people around that and not like surrounding yourself with people that don't support how you like to ride bikes.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, I don't have anything to add to that. I feel like that's perfectly said, all right.
Speaker 2:Dude, thanks so much for your time. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:There's going to be huge things coming for you. Hopefully, big kid jobs will be happening soon after this next year. Hopefully, yeah, and who knows where the next, the next race and adventure takes you. But thanks for taking time to finally do this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks, ryan Thanks buddy, it was a pleasure.