Just a bunch of talking about some random topics
Just a bunch of talking about some random topics
Thank you so much for tuning in for another episode. This one is another doozy because it's me and Alan talking a bunch nonsense. So if you liked round one of me and Alan being fools, then you're going to like round two because it's more of the same. We did a little few little things different where we talk. We kind of have a little bit of a structure on this episode. So that's good, um, but we at the end we had asked questions on our uh Instagram pages and got some questions that people wanted us to answer, or topics people want us to talk about. That section as of now it's a working title is uh, conversations when dumb and dumber. So that's towards the end of the episode. I think you will enjoy that, um, but if you like listening to two fools ramble, then you will love this episode and thoroughly be entertained. Um, hopefully we'll do more of these episodes. They're a good time and it seems that we get a lot of good feedback, so that's always fun, uh, but thanks again for tuning in. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1:Exciting, super exciting news we have our first sponsor and I wish I could put in clapping noises. Maybe I'll figure that out, but we have a sponsor and this sponsor is allowing us to upgrade with the money they spent. Uh, like I said, I'm keeping this very transparent. This money is not to put into my bank account, it's to go back into the cycling community. So I was able to get some new equipment so we'll be able to do better episodes with uh interviews. So now we can record with four people at once instead of just two. So we have super exciting things coming, um, with them stepping up.
Speaker 1:So more overhead door. I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but I guarantee you know the two guys that run that business and they are cyclists themselves. So Aaron and Brandon stepped up and just want to help continue to move cycling in Oklahoma Ford, and I cannot think these guys enough. So more overhead door. It's a garage door company. They service everywhere in the metro, um, and you, you know we always want to support and take care of each other and this is a great way to do it. They cover everything garage door related.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you've ever had your garage door go off track. I have. Or the spring break I have. Totally sucks. You can't do anything about it unless you have a clue what you're doing. I do not have a clue what I'm doing when it comes to garage doors. So these guys can take care of you.
Speaker 1:They have an outstanding reputation. Most of you know I work at the better business bureau. They have an A plus rating with the better business bureau. This was before me, had nothing to do with me, but they are accredited, so that means a ton. They're a trustworthy company and they can do everything.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you've ever backed into your garage door with the storms that roll through. They get beat up with the wind and hail and all that kind of stuff. So they can take care of everything repairs, new installs. Um, if your kid leaves a skateboard or bicycle and you like shut the garage door on it and tear everything up, they can help you out. Um, if you're building a new house and you want to shop and look at some different styles and different designs to go on your pretty new house, they can help take care of you for this.
Speaker 1:So more overhead door. They're located in more, but they service everywhere in the Metro. So M O O R? E overhead door. Their phone number is 405 799 9214. 405 799 9214,. You can look them up on BBBorg, but it's more just like the town overhead door. Check them out, support two guys that race their bikes every single week and all kinds of disciplines, and they're supporting us and supporting what we are trying to do in the cycling community. So if you're looking for anything garage door related, hit these guys up and support them, because they are supporting us and I cannot think these guys enough for stepping up and helping out.
Speaker 1:So, um, with all of that said, thank you so much guys. Uh, brandon and Aaron, I can't thank you guys enough, and hopefully the cycling community thinks you as well by sending you some business. Um mentioned that. You heard it here. Let's see if we can keep this going and, uh, we will put their money to good use to support the podcast.
Speaker 1:Thank you guys. So much for tuning in. Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoy this one. Please subscribe, share this with your friends, give me topics and ideas for guests or things you want us to hear us talk about. Um, even Rai Rai out in Bentonville, arkansas, sent me a contact information for someone who would be a great uh interview in Tulsa. So I love suggestions. Send them to me. If you think this sucks, let me know how we can make it better, but thank you so much for everyone. That is a part of this fun little journey. And don't forget if you have any garage door needs whatsoever more overhead door is who you need to get ahold of 405-799-9214. Hope you enjoy the episode. Mr Doctor, mr Doctor, doctor, yeah, just doctor, doctor, doctor is that how you?
Speaker 1:like to be called Okay. It is for today. Okay, mr Doctor. Mr Doctor, uh-huh, I would like to welcome Dr. Do you go by, dr Gravel, dr White, how?
Speaker 2:would you do that, all of those Okay?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Um welcome back. It's been too long it has.
Speaker 2:It's been too many months.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you've been requested by tens of people. So it's hands of people Welcome back. So welcome back.
Speaker 2:It's crazy how many idiots out there On Instagram land actually want to hear and listen to this thing.
Speaker 1:I know and they want to listen to us make fun of them, and or someone they know, yeah, make fun of them. They're like oh my God, that was hilarious. Yeah, I'm like I would never recommend someone no.
Speaker 2:Making fun of me, you called me out.
Speaker 1:Yep, I know and I think it's hilarious yeah.
Speaker 2:But bless them yes.
Speaker 1:Bless them, uh, but we are enjoying a cold beverage while we're doing this. Um, right now we have lively, and we have an angry scotsman in front of us as well. It's actually pretty good, which one did you get.
Speaker 2:Oh, we got the same one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the lively, the Mexican logger, it's pretty good.
Speaker 2:So, uh, a little sort of Irish pet peeve here. So this is a lively beer, works Mexican. What do you call it? A lager?
Speaker 1:Lager.
Speaker 2:There is no, there's not two Rs in there. It's not L a r G E R.
Speaker 1:Lark Lager Like a wash.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wash.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like it's the Oklahoma lager.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, trouble for that back home.
Speaker 1:Um before we get this started Yep Um, we'll definitely cheers to. Uh. We've lost two um athletes in our tiny little Oklahoma city community very recently. Um to the to the very different and tragic circumstances. Yep Um the curtain. Um was a legend in the cycling community and touched many, many, many many lives. Yep, uh and and Barrett Ellis and his wife Megan um, who recently passed away in a small plane crash. Uh, which passed like a week ago. Yep Um out at Wiley. So Barrett for anybody that didn't know Barrett, he was a multi-sport athlete. Um had done quite a few races around and uh, I trained with him a handful of times. We knew each other just socially um through that stuff and swam together a handful of times and raced together quite a few times and stuff. But just like Kerto was an absolute huge standup guy. Yep, like the nicest of the nicest to people. Yep.
Speaker 2:People taken too soon For sure, so um I went.
Speaker 1:I didn't know. I didn't make it to Barrett's um Memorial thing last night, but we both went to Kerto's. Kerto's. What a turnout, what a turnout, yeah, so a lot of people, a lot of people from every walk of life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which was awesome, um, and I think it was a true representation of a life well lived.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really was. Um. So when Kerto was in in in hospice, I hit up. Uh, auburn was like hey, cool if we come over. And she's like yeah, and uh, um and Kara, and and said hey, I couldn't tell him I'm bringing beer and I'm bringing fireball.
Speaker 2:It's like just is what it is. And so I can walk, we can walk, jen and I can walk in into this place carrying a 12 pack of stone cloud light and a 10 pack of fireball shots. And we're walking in and Jen goes are they going to let you in here with that? And I'm like I don't think they really care. And the nurses in there were wonderful. They saw us and they just start laughing. So we were in and drinking a beer and and doing fireball shots in Kerto's room.
Speaker 2:I think that's exactly the way he would want it and and he, you know he, he had interactions with everybody that came and visited him that week, Um, and so he, he did his best to flip me off with a middle finger routinely while we're in there.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but yeah that for for both those folks. It's, you know, it's gone too soon.
Speaker 1:For sure, yeah, but we wanted to make sure we uh, we acknowledged, uh, acknowledge them, and that they will be missed by many, many people in our uh, small little community. So, um, when you are out there riding and, um, things aren't fun or things are not pleasurable and either physically cause you're doing it to yourself and or cause things are going wrong, just remember that, uh, there's two guys that would love to be out there doing it, um, so just just remember them and their families during this time. So, um, now let's get on to Um, onwards, forward, to ridiculous stupid stuff that we love to talk about.
Speaker 2:We have a full list. We do.
Speaker 1:And I don't know if we'll get to all of it.
Speaker 2:No, you people messaging with these questions. Some will be included, some will not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some we have to edit out just so people don't completely hate us. Um, we, we will be the messengers for some of the stupidity. Yeah, some of it's a little across the line.
Speaker 2:When you post, when you post a podcast, you have to get it approved, like through Spotify. They'll just let you do anything. Yeah, ooh, yeah.
Speaker 1:All I have to do is have a little button that says adult.
Speaker 2:Adult yeah.
Speaker 1:Safe for kids.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, yeah, Safe for kids, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, uh, I don't think they would kick us off. I don't think we're that far, but I mean, some of the topics that come in could, yeah, get us kicked off. Yeah, we definitely um, and or our bikes stolen and or wheels punctured at all times, so we're wrecked on group rides Brilliant Um. Today we are going to start with the all new G three website. I haven't looked at it yet. I saw it come through today and I reposted it. I have not dug into the website. Have you got onto it? I have actually.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so uh, last night and today is poking a rind on there, Um. So for those of you don't know, so Claire has taken over from Ray as a sort of G three race director. Um, and I love what Claire's doing, so she is kind of in charge of several things right now right. She is killing it right now as um sort of female race director um in this space um between truffle shuffle, um, and what she's doing here with G three and her, her other endeavors, Um.
Speaker 2:but yeah, so she is sort of pan homing to the past history of all the shirts, oh they're bad ass the shirts are hilarious, so hopefully she sells some of those.
Speaker 1:It will not say what they are. Yep, drive some traffic to the site Go to the G three yeah Ray series.
Speaker 2:I think that's what just type it in.
Speaker 1:Yeah To the goose, we'll find it, you'll find it. Um, yeah, look at the shirts, cause it's hilarious, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so the the new website, like it's kick ass.
Speaker 1:So, like.
Speaker 2:so they're really transforming that series to the next level.
Speaker 1:Okay, Um, are they keeping it really grassroots? Are they trying to expand it? Keeping it grass roots, keeping?
Speaker 2:it grass roots. So same sort of format, three race series, omnium, all those sort of types of things. But there's not, there's a right library. Oh, I did see that.
Speaker 1:That's really cool, super cool, yep. There's the galleries of the pictures that are up there as well, so let me ask you this on the routes, if any of it crosses private land, what do you do there? Do we know?
Speaker 2:You got to just gotta go around it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, ride with.
Speaker 2:GPS. I'll write your round it. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's awesome to find, which is kind of like what they're trying to do in Northwest Arkansas with their Oz gravel where they're posting routes in a central location. So maybe something kind of continues to develop with the G three route development.
Speaker 2:And I need to talk to Claire and some others because the stuff they're doing with the Oz gravel and all that up in Northwest Arkansas, I think we can. We can do it here in Oklahoma Easy, Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really do Super easy.
Speaker 2:I don't think I mean between everything that's going on here. I think it's just about getting a group organized around it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it would just really take one person and, to be honest, I think that would be a place that we could help out with doing that and sharing the message and or bringing stuff together, bringing people together. So if people have ideas like, reach out and let us know.
Speaker 2:And yeah, there's so many riots around sort of central Oklahoma, you know, northeast. I was just talking with Chad on Tuesday night about I need to get out to Hinton and explore more right there of right side around there and he had a lot of really good ideas of you know grassroots races out there and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I was watching. I was on the trainer today and I was watching a GCN video of this guy doing a 400 mile ultra and it was hilarious because I was like it was in I don't know. They went through Cambridge and all up through there was I don't remember where all they went, but it was 400 miles and I'm like this is the original G3. Yeah, they have the race director on there. He's an old photographer guy and kind of ride. But he was like, yeah, what it shouldn't be about the bikes, it's about riding your bike. He's like you got a little single track, you got a little road, you got some, like you know, adventuring and I'm like it's the rule of three, it's, it's exactly what it is here, except this has been going on for a long time and it's just yeah, you're finally formalizing it here in the States, so it was pretty awesome. But yeah, I think what G3 is doing is being grassroots and hopefully they keep it that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll see. It's a GCN last week, published the week before they'd done a sort of. These are the 10. I mean it's there.
Speaker 1:I wanted to lead into that. I'm glad you brought it up.
Speaker 2:They're 10 monuments of gravel. And then last week they came up with a and here are the 10 grassroots and I was curious and I went through and looked, went through and looked and the entry fee for it there was not one entry fee lower than 150 bucks.
Speaker 1:I think 150 was the cheapest I saw after you posted that one and looked, so they were like 150 to like 300.
Speaker 2:That's like 300 bucks for an entry fee is not grassroots.
Speaker 1:No, so what do you consider grassroots?
Speaker 2:And I would say anything under 100 bucks is 100 bucks or under that.
Speaker 1:That's a grassroots race which is ridiculous, that that we've gotten to that threshold. It's crazy, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I understand. I don't understand why it's so expensive, but if you go to an Ironman event, you see where money's spent. Yeah, like, the infrastructure that they set up is ridiculous. And then the amount of course closures and road closures and cops and all the tents that they set up on a 100 mile course, bike course like, and you get it. They spend a lot of money. So I kind of understand. Plus, they have to make a profit. Yep, on a gravel race, 150 bucks to go ride dirt roads with zero besides, like one like pop-up table support in the middle. Sometimes they don't have that. It's like you're supported. If you want your own people out there, yeah, or we'll drive your stuff and dump it into a parking lot.
Speaker 2:There's probably a number of people threshold in there somewhere too. I don't know what it is Like you start getting north of you know 500 people starts to become okay. We've got to do something different here. I remember Andy first started rule of 399 and initially it was like I will let 300 people in and you know Andy, being Andy, 300 becomes 500. Right.
Speaker 1:Got to let all the friends in as well, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then 500 becomes a thousand. It's too much. And all of a sudden you know you're for sure have that grassroots feel, but you're a big time event.
Speaker 1:For sure? Yeah, for sure, because I mean I'll go ahead and put it out there right now. I will not do the mid-south again at the price that they're charging. Yeah, I mean, I've told this to numerous people. Putting it on here is probably going to get me a lot of kickback and probably make me a target for many local cyclists and people that don't like what I'm saying. But it's ridiculously expensive to ride gravel roads that I can ride every single day.
Speaker 2:And that's so. Folks in Northwest Arkansas and even over here feel the same way, right? So, big sugar, little sugar. Those lifetime events in Bentonville Ridiculous. I'm not paying those prices for stuff I can go ride every single day. Totally agree, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, and Bobby puts on an amazing event and experience between like three or four days leading up to it the shakeout rides, the concerts, the shutting down downtown Like it's extremely well done. It's how events should be. 100%. For me, it's just too expensive for what it is, yeah. I mean, maybe if it's a one-time deal, 100% get it. How much a steamboat? Oh, don't ask. Same kind of thing right.
Speaker 2:So when steamboat is the perfect, how it started was again a grassroots event. When steamboat first started, we paid 75 bucks to enter it Mm-hmm. This past year my entry fee was $2.50.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. Yeah, I mean I get. People want to make money.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Good for them, and it keeps selling out, so keep raising the prices until it doesn't. I get it.
Speaker 2:Which is so funny. Because I'm so anti-lifetime and anything they do in the space, I won't pay their entry fees, but I'll pay $2.50 to go race steamboat.
Speaker 1:What's the entry fee? For lifetimes they're $2.50 and up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, leadville, last year was $500.
Speaker 1:For Leadville.
Speaker 2:Maybe north of that actually, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I can't yeah.
Speaker 1:I can't.
Speaker 2:I can't.
Speaker 1:But the problem is there's people that will yeah, they sell out instantly. So until the market tells them otherwise, keep raising the price. That's just business. I get it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, washington Challenge hit that ceiling a few. Well, everything seems like a few years ago, but before COVID, where they were bumping the price every year and then they hit a price point where people went nope, and they did not get a turn out for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the only way you find out. Yeah, just keep raising until you do. But yeah, I would say grasshoots. I agree, $100. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, how many of those races have you done? I was on the top 10.
Speaker 2:All but two.
Speaker 1:Oh, impressive. All but two Good for you. I guess I need to catch up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the Belgian waffle ones, those are the ones that interest me. I've never done them. Yeah, the one I. Those things are brutal. Yeah, that's what like watching the videos and whatnot. They look challenging and I'm always up for a yeah. There's no way in hell I could do that. They look kind of miserable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like they're at the distance where it becomes not fun, right, it's suffering yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm not in for that anymore. Yeah, I mean I, I understand. What are you going to go? Do I understand?
Speaker 1:but and I had that conversation with Melissa the other day and she's like what? And I'm like no, I understand, but yeah, it's like 130 miles of mixed terrain with a lot of elevation, yeah, it's a long day. My days are going to suck, but they're only going to be five to seven hours In a row.
Speaker 2:In a row, but it's not 13 at once yeah that's a long day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it would be 10 to 12.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably easy. Yeah, it'd be up there with the unbind 200 for sure.
Speaker 1:Probably yeah, in terms of distance doesn't really excite me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got train for it, I suppose sure you're doing it.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's true. Anything else you want out on G3? Haven't announced anything for the races or anything.
Speaker 2:No, there's no courses yet planned for 24, but I suspect it'd be the same sort of format of Mm-hmm at northeast side, southern side and central. Okay, did you do any of them this year? I did Guthrie, okay, yeah loved it. You missed the hinting course that was a doozy.
Speaker 1:I know I was in Hawaii.
Speaker 2:Sorry, doozy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all the pictures that I saw in all the stores. I heard it looked off, it looked amazing. Yeah, it looked like a great adventure.
Speaker 2:It was one of those because you got sort of the roadie contingent. It was out there going this is awful. Why are we doing this? Uh-huh, you know I'm out this like some of them quit, that's the way it should be. Uh-huh, and then all the sort of hardcore gravel folks going this is amazing. This is what we want. I heard there was a lot of walking a lot of hike a bike, yeah, and it was through sand which is you know or ruts Purgatory road is nothing but a ruddered out road.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's made for great pictures.
Speaker 2:It did yeah but it was really good looking forward to that this year the Uh-huh.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, following, just following up with that let's talk about, let's go into what you're doing as far as your racing and your training, because it kind of goes hand-in-hand with we're talking about g3. Yeah, did you do all three of the G3's.
Speaker 2:I did two of the three. Okay, so I did single speed this year like an idiot, and Hinting on single speed was just awful, awful, yeah, awful.
Speaker 1:Are you doing any races this winter?
Speaker 2:I am, so I'll do the Grodio. Yep, who's your team? I'm a wolf pack of one man I told Chad on Tuesday I said I just threw an entry in on bike rides to get a placeholder and now I need to start recruiting finding your people, yeah, people that don't know what Grodio is. Explain that it is a four-person format across a hundred kilometers, so 62 and a bit miles, where your time is based on when the last person in your group crosses the line Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:So it's a really good format and last year it was a lot of fun Mm-hmm it was super windy, but a lot of you with last year and it was me, amanda Weathers and Paul Mays, and Jen was supposed to be there, but she was sick, okay, and so we went into a headwind for 20 something miles on the way, I, and it was pretty visible, and then Jimmy Davis caught up to us and he had booze, so we just started drinking perfect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a good day.
Speaker 2:It was an awesome day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and it's in January. Yep mid January yeah and it's in Goldsby Yep, which Southern Oklahoma.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a few folks coming down from Northwest Arkansas. No, I'm gonna. I might try and recruit the drummans, because I'm gonna get myself and three drummans.
Speaker 1:You just well, I'm gonna get an e-bike. Oh, there you go. Yeah, I was gonna say you can't. You wouldn't even be able to hang onto the back. No, but yeah, I would get an e-bike. Well, maybe Aubrey could ride behind you and push you. She could, yeah yeah, be nice. Yep.
Speaker 2:That's a good plan actually. Yeah, yeah. I have an e-bike lined up if that actually comes to pass.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I can score you one too, if you need to, but Before we get into your other races, Uh-huh. I would like to say, and we briefly talked about it on Tuesday on the Christmas light ride yeah. I got to watch you get lassoed, oh you did. Oh, with the damn zombie at the damn zombie race which I mean I'm glad you did not get hurt. I'm glad you were not going faster, yes, cuz it would have been really bad. Yeah, but it was one of the funniest tracks I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was one of those. We all started and and Billy and I had a plan and strategy and Billy were doing the we did the team the six hour. Yes, relay, yeah, and, and, and we knew so.
Speaker 1:Rob and Ben were for anybody Don't know, was a six hour mountain bike race. Yeah, it's like a was like six mile loop. Yeah, just do as many times as you can at six hours yeah yeah, Rob and Ben were on a team and so then, over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like, okay, you're fighting for second through whatever. And so Billy and I had a strategy on hey, as long as we we finish, we get one extra lap in, you know. So we start a lap before the end of the six hours, the way it's always been Every six hours.
Speaker 1:have ever done in my life Uh-huh anywhere in the country.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so. So I was doing the first lap when I, with all you losers at the front, we make that climb. I'm like, okay, I'm sitting good. And then we come up the where there's a cable blocking the trees. It's like shit, I gotta get through this before the rest of these. I can't get caught in traffic, mm-hmm. And somebody's on hook in the cable and I hear you going hang on, alan, hang on. And I'm like, nope, I'm hanging on, mm-hmm. And I jump on the bike to go and I like I'm going to sand it down that dine hill, mm-hmm. And the next thing, all I feel is the bike going from under me and he's sailing through the air.
Speaker 1:It was. I don't even know how it happened, but it was amazing.
Speaker 1:The the cable, the end of the cable got caught in my rear triangle Uh-huh, and just stopped my bike, dad, instantly instantly, because it was attached to like a 12 inch around tree, yeah, yeah, and watching you right off and I could see that the rope was attached to you and everybody's yelling and you just keep riding until you didn't, yeah, and it it was like I mean, I can't say is like pulling a rug out from underneath you because that doesn't do it justice, but it was like full speed and you kept going, yep, and the bike did not hesitate to stop.
Speaker 2:The bike was stopped and I wasn't no, yeah, and lucky you didn't get hurt. Yeah, and you come riding by, go, and that couldn't have happened to a better person.
Speaker 1:Because it was hilarious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when.
Speaker 1:I saw that you weren't, that you stood up. Yeah, you were, you're moving.
Speaker 2:Yep, I got back on the bike and you know off we went so.
Speaker 1:So how did it go wrong for you guys? Oh?
Speaker 2:so.
Speaker 2:So Billy and I strategy was it was so good Because we were doing really well and we were looking sort of at the lap times, checking it out, each lap, right, we're okay, we're good, we're good, we're good.
Speaker 2:And so we were sitting I think we're sitting fifth or sixth and then Before, so it was, we were into hour five and we're looking at times, going, okay, billy, you've got to finish this last, this, your lap, before that thing hits you know six, so I can go back out get us one more lap, which will get us move us up into second, cuz we've had an extra lap. And so poor Billy's out there just sort of Sanding at the get ride, and so I'm standing at the start finish, waiting for him, and he, he comes around, comes down, and I'm standing there and Pearl Tom standing there going what do you do it? And I went, I'm about to go buy them a next lap. And he goes no, he asked that your time is when he finishes his last lap. Your last lap has to be finished before the six hours. I was like, oh no, but inside, secretly, I was like, thank you, cuz I was done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so done. So the way that they did the timing was it was different. It was different. Yeah, it was basically at six hours Cut off. It was cut off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it was done 99% of other endurance races like that are as long as you started Before, that's it. You got to finish, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Cuz, the same thing happened us because we finished when we came through he was pointing at the clock and we're like I don't know why he's pointing at the clock. When we came through for to go out to do the other half, yeah, we're like, okay, we just kept cruising, we were just talking, not even Putting in any effort or all. So we finished that lap. We come across at 601, 20 something. Yeah minute and 20 after and it didn't count like they're like no, you're, that's like. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1:Yeah so come to find out, we end up I mean me and Saxby rode together. Yeah the entire day. We end up fifth and six we would have. We missed third by a minute and a half. Yeah, he finished at 5, 59 something, but we had zero effort those last two laps. We even stopped in P. Yeah, just cruising just because we knew you got time, we have time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a big deal.
Speaker 1:And yeah, not that I mean maybe, maybe we get third, maybe yeah. I mean, who cares? But still, yeah, we did not pay attention to the rules.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will say that was a really fun race to do a great course.
Speaker 1:Yep five really enjoyed it. They really did a great job on that course.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was worried on that first lap because over on that east side down below is a little squirmy, Uh-huh. But once it did and once wheels, got on it like it started biting and it was really good well like to add to the story of this and then we'll move on to other things.
Speaker 1:But I have no problems with e-bikes. I think e-bikes are amazing. I think e-bikes should exist. They should be in races, like I love everything about e-bikes. Yeah, if I lived and went to Colorado a lot and bike, I would have an e-bike, a hundred percent, yeah. So my e-bike story of the day the three hour guy. So we're out there, we start the six hour people start oh, and then the three hour people start. Yeah, and we're already in Schittsville. Uh-huh so we're halfway through the first lap, the three hour people's first lap.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the really really fast.
Speaker 1:guys have already caught us and passed us. So we're going into the windy tree section and here a guy coming Okay, cool, so Saxby's in front of me, we're riding through and it's in an area where there's no trees, it's like really wide open and there's like just grass and the trails four feet wide easily. So here a guy coming kind of slow down and I was like, okay, here you go. So which side do you pass on?
Speaker 2:which side do I pass on the left?
Speaker 1:always yeah, everyone passes on the left. Yeah, when you're on the, on the road, it's on your car.
Speaker 2:I'm coming up on your every race you ever do, Yep you pass on the left.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're coming through this section and here this guy come. I was like, okay, here you go, we'll get over. So I get over to the right, I get off the dirt into the grass. This dude hits my back tire. Oh, no.
Speaker 1:I bet he was going 20 because it's a wide open straight section on the bike. It's my back tire, so flush it like Whip lashes me. Then he runs off up into my leg and now we're, he's in the right bushes. He's so far right and I was like what the hell dude was like, oh, sorry. And then he's like backs out and takes off right now like thank you, to support us. What the hell just happened to me? I just got like rear-ended by an e-bike, by an e-bike yeah like what the heck?
Speaker 1:so Not the last time I sell this guy, yep. So a handful laps later he catches us again and we're in the back section by the river where you have those like three like really steep whoop-de-woop yeah sections, but the river's like right there on the right.
Speaker 1:Yeah there's no room. Yeah, it's sketchy right through there anyways by yourself and like going through them, like you kind of to explain to people you kind of these really sharp, having them maybe like five feet deep, yeah, just go straight down, straight back up, yeah. And then the last one, you go down and it's a hard right hand turn, yep, and you go down again.
Speaker 2:Yep, and then you come up that there's an edge right there.
Speaker 1:There's an edge like a 30 foot drop to the river and I'm not moving to the right.
Speaker 1:No, yeah. So I Hear this guy coming through the trees again, yeah, and I turn and I can see his bright orange handlebars. So I know who it is. Again it's this guy, because he's he goes so fast, he's got hand guards on his handlebars nice to keep him from ramming trees. So I hear him coming Saxby behind me and I get to the section and we're going through the first whoop and we're coming up and we're at the river. Like if I go straight, I'm just gonna run off into the river and they have the netting up, yeah. So I turned to look to see if he's, because I feel like he's like right on us, but he's already past Saxby and he's between us now.
Speaker 1:So I, when I look, I kind of hear slightly to the left, but I'm on the left side of the dirt at this point. Yeah right but still in the trail. But the trails a foot and a half wide and and I'll turn left, and when I do, he starts to pass on the right and I'm like Excuse my language mom if you're listening to this, but I'm like, dude, what the fuck you like? It scared me.
Speaker 1:Yeah he was, his wheel, was like at my, at my leg, yeah, and there's no room. So I was kind of beer over, and now he almost hits the netting and he comes around and I was like I Was like what the fuck? He goes, hey, on your right. And I was like no, I was like you.
Speaker 1:And of course I called him a f, an asshole, and he's like, okay, and just like and just keeps going and Saxby, I think, is gonna fall off his bike laughing because he's hilarious. I'm so pissed at this e-biker. First off, he almost kills me the first lap.
Speaker 1:And then he almost runs me over here, almost sends me into the river, and I'm like dude, like first off, just some communication. Yeah, passing here, hey, let me know when you can get me give me room. Yeah, like any communication would be great. Yeah, but Passing on the right is never okay. Yeah, passing without telling someone is never okay and passing in a dangerous section is never okay.
Speaker 2:I will say I love e-bikes. I wasn't a first huge fan, I will say the. The thing e-bikes has done which is, I mean, it's borderline dangerous is it has given people who need skills development speed that they shouldn't have on a trail for sure, right, mm-hmm, a lot of those folks on e-bikes need to develop some good skills.
Speaker 1:People don't get hurt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep. That's the biggest thing when you're gonna mountain bike for the first time. You, your lungs are good, but you're still sucks, he's not there, yeah. Yeah, but man, that's. That was my story from the zombie story. That's awesome. Yeah, I got crushed by a e-biker twice. He laughed me. What are your? What are your big races that you're doing next year?
Speaker 2:Oh, oh um, so big races, really mid-sized. I think we're gonna go back up to Wyoming for the dead sweet Steamboat, obviously. And then there is a rumored that's what I was gonna say Run at the tour divide in 24. Okay that'll be an exploratory run.
Speaker 1:Like what are the? What are the chances that happens? The chances at starting pretty high. Okay, the chances of finishing the chances of you making it to the American border pretty high.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, well, I'll make it to Canada. Yeah, I'll be in Banff.
Speaker 1:Oh, you'll make it up there, but will you oh?
Speaker 2:You mean coming size?
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:Well, that stretch I've done before, so I know it. So I'll make it to the American border. Okay, beyond that's new territory.
Speaker 1:How much is it cost for that race?
Speaker 2:That would be zero it is really yeah.
Speaker 1:they just only allow certain number in it's wide open really yeah, oh, I didn't know that you just Google sheet you fill out and that's it. Huh yeah, I had no idea.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, they take a donation, I must say that's pretty grassroots. That's very grass roots, yeah they have zero now what gets what's gotten interesting is bike pack racing has become over-romanticized, like Thanks Instagram, mm-hmm, and so you don't see the suffering and sort of the struggles of bike park racing, which is, I mean, and Especially on stuff like the divide, arkansas high country, like you're right there and it looks miserable. You have to figure out it's, you know, not just. It's less about bike training and more about Mental training mental survival.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and the ability to adapt right. Shit is gonna go wrong, and when it does, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I watched a lot of lives this year. Yeah, so I've like watched the recap videos and you watch like people's like little documentary videos and those all look like, oh, this was hard and what's up, I watched several people probably five or six people's lives this year. Yeah, I've never had interest in doing it but I've always seen the romantic side of it. I've seen like, okay, I get it. I have no interest, but I get it.
Speaker 1:Yeah watching it this year. I don't get it. Yeah, it is. It's a miserable grind every single day. Yep, even for the good people and the slow people. Yeah a fast people on slow people. It's the same amount of misery. Uh-huh Day. And it just depends on how miserable you're gonna be that day high uncomfortable, can you?
Speaker 2:and they're like God's so beautiful.
Speaker 1:But I can't sit down. I got this saddle so bad and my crank fell off and now I can't my. You know, my bottom bracket doesn't turn. Yeah, my wheel broke and then it's been a headwind for four days and raining, and now I've been walking. I slept in a porta potty last night yeah. I've been walking in the mud for three days. I'm like yeah this is stupid.
Speaker 2:Yep. So yeah, we're gonna go give that a shot. Jan has said how did she phrase it when your ass gets to Wyoming or Montana, which I'm impressed that she thinks I'm gonna get that far?
Speaker 1:Okay, she's really giving you some credit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she said, you're not calling me to come get you, so how are you getting home?
Speaker 1:I'll fly home, just ride to an airport. Yeah, can you put this bike in that box? You know what? Just leave it here up.
Speaker 2:Come back and figure it out some time I'll try back and get it, just ride to a bike shop and leave it there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, okay, that's a big goal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're. There's two runs, so there's a 24. That'll be sort of okay. Figure this thing out, mm-hmm. And then currently 25 is the okay. We're gonna race this thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you want to say who you're. Yeah, oh, yeah, it's me, Billy and iron.
Speaker 2:Yeah and irons. The idiot started it all.
Speaker 1:Not surprising. Yeah, what are the chances that Billy doesn't get beat up by one of you two?
Speaker 2:We're more worried about bears.
Speaker 1:You can feed Billy to the bears. Yeah, that's what we've talked about is, don't have to outrun the bear Just one of the other two just flatten Billy's tire Because he well, I think you'll be fine with bears. They'll stop talking.
Speaker 2:That's true, yeah plenty of oils. Yeah, so iron did, it's probably be an key.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, billy.
Speaker 2:So iron got this fancy-ass cutthroat. It's all decked out beautiful.
Speaker 1:That's all the other night on the Light ride, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So here about a month or so it goes, I'm gonna do a trial run of I'm gonna do the trans Oklahoma, like okay. And so he takes Kevin Kopeck with them. They go down south and Trying to tell Aaron, look on these types of things, like you eat 12 mile an hour average like you need to just just roll, just need to paddle, soft, paddle. You kind of go fast. And so he starts texting us. He's like 50 miles in and he's like I'm average in 18 and a war like you're done.
Speaker 2:You're gonna blow 18 and a half, oh dude, and so they. They fair play to them. They made a hundred and 140 something miles the first day. I'm at about a 17 18 average Brutal. Next day woke up not moving Shocker, yeah, so he calls Carly. Hey, come get me. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a different. It's a different world.
Speaker 2:You have to think different, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know, okay, that's big goals.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's some good races, Yep you've got a big one coming up here pretty soon. You're in. Most of us are in off-season training. You're in mid-season, coming up to peak event training for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did an hour and 40 minutes on Swift before we did this. Oh so, cape Epic. Cape Epic, when is it? It's in March. I looked at the other. I think I leave March 11th. It's me and Saxby are going. It's an eight-day mountain bike race. The distance isn't crazy Because it's mountain biking. Yeah, it's just under 400 miles for the eight days. Your first day is your easiest day, yeah. Prologue.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh.
Speaker 1:It's 16 miles with like 4000 feet of climbing. That's your easy day Right, and then that's seed you in your corral from a mountain bike. Yeah so. Each day is between 50 and 60 ish miles. Yeah, maybe low 60s, but the form, it's a team format. You have to stay together. Okay, you can't be more than 30 seconds apart, oh wow, 30 seconds at any given time.
Speaker 1:Your first time you get caught, it's a one-hour penalty, yeah. Then the second time it's, I think, a two-hour penalty, and then it's a DQ, yeah. And where is it? Cape Town, south Africa. So the huh Southwest point of South Africa and you have to go.
Speaker 2:You can't go south there, you have to go north, right, north.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we kind of go north and west. Yeah so the first day, as in like a vineyard where it's always at, and then they your sec, your Then, then you start the race. They call it seven, say it's eight stages. Yeah prologue and seven stages. That's what they call it. So your stage one and two and three start in the same spot, so one and two you like a?
Speaker 1:lot. Yeah, you circle back to and stay in the same location, stage three. You start there and ride to your next point and then four and five are there. I Think in six and I think six. You ride to the to an end yeah. Then they shuttle you everybody from stage six to stage seven. Stage seven and eight are in a different point. Yeah, so it's a lot of logistics to it.
Speaker 2:How have you guys been training for that? Drinking beer, making lion noises at each other yeah, you know, but that was good at.
Speaker 1:We did have lions chasing us.
Speaker 2:I said damn zombie trail. I had to make it authentic for you.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that. Yeah, it's just been a lot of riding. So every day I get on the bike six. I mean. Last week I took off on I don't know what day it was, I took off Monday. I think this week was the first day I'd been off and it's like my second day off in like three weeks. So it's just like when I'm on the bike I try to get on for like an hour and a half, two hours every day minimum, and then long days right now, long days Friday or Saturday, sunday. That will go up and my this is my thinking in January that'll go up to a long days Friday, saturday, sunday, yeah, and February. At the end of probably January, middle of January, I'm gonna do a big like five-day block. In the middle of February I'll probably do another really big five-day block. But in February I'll move it to where it's like Thursday, friday, saturday, yeah, or yeah, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday or big days. When I say big days, it's like a minimum of three to four hours.
Speaker 1:Yeah maybe five to six, somewhere in that range.
Speaker 2:Are you doing all that on your mountain bike? Are you doing some on different bikes?
Speaker 1:gravel, all right, pretty much everything. But I tried, every time I can get on mountain, I'm gonna get on mountain. So at least one big day on mountain every, get used to the lower back and, yeah, moving around in the hands and the skills and stuff like that. So right now it's mountain bike one, maybe two days a week and then it's just a lot of time one's with, yeah, a lot of time riding, but the training is going good yeah.
Speaker 2:What's your biggest worry with that race? What's your biggest fear?
Speaker 1:Honestly, is Getting like COVID or sick or something, oh yeah, and then not being able to do it just because of something so stupid. Yeah so we both got COVID within the past month score, so hopefully, that'll hold over we'll get some residual effect. That's my biggest fear. Like, a mechanical or something. If you have a mechanical, you can you can navigate a day.
Speaker 1:Oh, do you really? So if my bike breaks today, yeah, saxby can keep going, yep, and then I can start again tomorrow. But if it happens again, you're done. Yeah, if. But if you have a wreck or something, I don't know if you get a scratch day for that, yeah, but man, I just don't want to get sick. I don't want something stupid to take me out yeah. The other one is like saddle sores.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah because, I gotta figure out how to live with them, yeah eight day and it's summertime there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so eight days in the heat Riding a mountain bike. You're gonna get saddle sores, so just how bad are they gonna be? Yep, and you sit on them.
Speaker 2:Yeah and so some big name heavy hitters do that thing all the big ones world tour pros.
Speaker 1:A lot of the world tour guys were there last year. Yeah, when they retire they kind of seem to go do that Yep as a bucket list thing. Yeah. So yeah, it'll be fun. Here's the cool thing is I didn't know what bike to ride because it's 50,000 feet of vert right, and so the lighter the better.
Speaker 1:Yeah so I have two bikes. I have a niner, which is like an all trail bike, and I have a scalpel, which is like a cross-country bike. Yeah, scalpel is like five pounds lighter, but that only has a hundred mil travel and it's not raked out like yeah. So that's the one I would like to ride. I don't know if I have the skills to ride, yeah.
Speaker 1:So of course, all the big pros ride an XC bike, but they have skills. I try not to die, yeah. So I sent messages on Instagram and this is why social media is amazing. Yeah to a handful of big name people. Yeah, or people that have done it before, and Matt beers that's awesome and Mitch Docker both replied to me yeah, and so basically we're all best friends now. I can't believe they they were gonna be here today, but they were yeah, otherwise engaged, yeah, but for people that don't know them.
Speaker 1:Matt beers, I mean, he's kind of big deal South African guy yeah. South African guy. Yeah, he kind of kind of is a big deal. Oh, and blevens blevens commented back.
Speaker 2:Oh, did he really.
Speaker 1:Evans is a short track world champion yeah, he's from the US and he won it last year, nice. And Mitch Docker won it last year yeah, with his amateur team. So I mean, what was their advice? The XC bike, was it really? Yeah, lighter the better, yeah, yeah, they're like you were gonna be miserable. You're gonna be super uncomfortable being on a less travel bike. Yeah, it's gonna be faster and better. So is it comfort over? Yeah, and so. But I also think I like string training and doing that kind of stuff, so I'm not like as fragile as a typical cyclist, right? So I think I'll be able to withstand the beating, yeah, and for me, I'd rather be in comfortable with the beating then, yeah, and be able to go up a mountain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did on the XC bike. That's what I've been training on. Is it a hardtail?
Speaker 1:No, full switch yeah for sure yeah yeah, so that's the, that's the, we're Cape Epic stand. So far, training is good. We did the six hour, so we did a three and a half hour hard gravel ride the day before, followed by the six hour. We are able to ride the whole thing nice. So we'll do it again in the six hour and January at Thunderbird.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's coming up, so we'll do another probably a big day Friday and a big day Saturday, and then hit that, so that'll be another probably a 15 hour weekend, and just keep piling it on. Very cool, yeah. So all right, let's get to some of these other fun topics.
Speaker 2:We're gonna make fun of stuff.
Speaker 1:Um, let's go. All right, I want to save the the funny one. Let's do Shimano cranks, because that maybe affecting people. Yeah, so there's a lawsuit going on. People's cranks are like basically breaking in half. Yeah, what do you know on?
Speaker 2:that, and there's a Instagram account that's been going around for years. That was I can't remember the name of it was basically like Shimano's cranks or shit or something like that right, and the base? It was a post for years of people's cranks breaking Mm-hmm. Shimano would never acknowledge it, right?
Speaker 2:They're like no, it's not, not a thing and then this year they came and said yeah, if you have a holo tech, the El Tegra cranks First of them. So they backtracked a little bit. First they said, all of them, you need to go get all of them. Like, like, don't ride it. And then they were like, oh, no wait, well, take it to your local bike shop and have them.
Speaker 1:And the problem is with that. Uh-huh there's a whole problem with that right is If the bike shop inspects it who's liable?
Speaker 2:So now there's a class action lawsuit against Shimano for this.
Speaker 2:Well, it's like, I'm like it's in the millions of cranks right, uh-huh, because that was the thing is, initially they came out and said if you have an Ultegra crank that basically matches these first four digits which was just about every Ultegra crank it's going to be replaced. How do you replace a million plus cranks? So you have all these people showing up at bike shops going I need new cranks. You know I've got four year old cranks, I'm going to go get new cranks. For sure I'm stridium yeah. So then they backed off of that and said actually your bike shops just going to inspect them and determine if they need replaced. And then you had the bike shops going wait, we're doing what we want. New part of this liability.
Speaker 1:No, because if it's okay today, the cranks breaks tomorrow. Yeah, the bike shop screwed and.
Speaker 2:I don't like shop that says, yeah, you're good, not a chance, no way, yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 1:Where's the lawsuit stand? Do you know?
Speaker 2:I don't know right now. I need to go look it up. Um, I was looking today, um, on some Shimano stuff because I was curious and like there's, there's Shimano has issues, um, and, and I used to be a Shimano fan, I'm a big SRAM guy. Okay, um, luke will appreciate that. Yeah, um, but uh, there's a lot of the tour de France. The world tour teams are dropping Shimano. Oh, interesting. Their contracts have ended and they are not renewing Interesting. Yeah, yep, you're a SRAM guy. Now I am a SRAM guy, I think.
Speaker 1:I have both.
Speaker 2:I have SRAM on everything but my mountain bike. I have Shimano XTR.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I have a. Basically, I think I'm like we're mixed right on the middle.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't really care to me. Yeah, I'm not a tech person. I'm not an equipment person.
Speaker 2:So once I went electronic on SRAM it was like I'm not doing anything else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, are you electronic on everything?
Speaker 2:Oh, you fancy bastard. Yep, as Billy calls it, the bee boop shifting Bee boop, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's wonderful. Can Billy spell bee boop no?
Speaker 2:I didn't think so yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, but if you do have questions, I would say contact your local bike shop yes, Because at least they can give you information of what to do next. Yep, um, and then go from there, because you definitely need to get your cranks checked out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you have Shimano get it checked out and I know some folks who had their cranks actually break on them Mm Um one of them up in Northwest Arkansas while she was pedaling and literally her the crank and snaps and she has a pedal attached to her foot. Yikes, yeah, that's scary.
Speaker 1:Well I had the same thing, but it's because my crank fell out of the bottom bracket. Oh, that was, I think, a user error.
Speaker 2:So yeah how that happened, Cause I've never taken my crank off but, it did fall off one day on a group ride.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. It was a good thing we were going slow. It feels all I know Um super hot topic.
Speaker 2:Uh-oh.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is a year in review, okay, and you even put it out there, like the Spotify situation.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, spotify wrapped yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm really confused why so many adult middle age men have Taylor Swift in their top five. Yep, this is the juice that people tuned in for this episode. I'm sorry it's taking us 40 minutes to get there To get the Taylor Swift, but yeah. I don't understand, like, okay, I get it. Some of her songs are catchy. They stick in my head. When I hear them on the radio I'm like catchy song, I get it.
Speaker 1:I know a handful of her songs because they're played 24 hours a day. Totally understand, I'm not searching her out on Spotify, really ever.
Speaker 2:Oh, alice, that's disappointing man.
Speaker 1:I think she was in your top five. She was Maybe number two or three. She was number.
Speaker 2:she was number one. Yeah, it was like Taylor Swift and then a bunch of Irish musicians. It's quite the mix. And Irish ancestors. Oh, they're loving it, yeah.
Speaker 1:She's probably.
Speaker 2:Irish somewhere down the line yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't understand how so many adult men are huge Swifties.
Speaker 2:I don't get it. Yeah, I mean, explain it to me. I don't understand it. Why do you? Why do you? It's one of those things, man, you just seek it out. Yeah, it just comes on the radio and you're jamming to it.
Speaker 1:But if it comes on the radio, I get it. Yeah To not change the tone, to not change the channel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's on my Spotify too.
Speaker 1:Because you clearly search it on Spotify, clearly.
Speaker 2:It's great Swift playlist too. Oh dude, but rule of three, ninety nine. Last year we're in the car up the front and Taylor Ladine had disappeared on everybody. He's off the front and so we're rolling up alongside him. He's got his headphones in and I have Taylor Swift playing in the car and so we're starting to talk to him. Like Taylor, you've got to like Taylor Swift, right? I mean, she's your namesake. Surely you're listening to Taylor Swift in there, and he's like no man.
Speaker 2:I get it, yeah, and I'm like do you even, do you even know a Taylor Swift song? He's like nope. I said what are you listening to over there? He goes death metal, not a boy.
Speaker 1:Good for him, and that's why he's leading.
Speaker 2:Uh huh.
Speaker 1:So are you a chief's fan? Now I'm, I wasn't. I am it like? Annoys me that they put her face on sports.
Speaker 2:She's on every yes.
Speaker 1:It annoys me. I'm like I don't care. I don't care what celebrities at the game Makes me know a difference. Travis Kelsey. Good for him. I don't care who he dates. I don't care who any of them date. I'm tuning in to watch the football game.
Speaker 2:So if Taylor Swift was a cyclist, what would she ride? Would it be gravel? Probably an e-bike.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's exactly what it would be.
Speaker 2:And she'd run into your back wheel and piss you off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. I think that's where we're going with this yeah, I don't understand. Like I feel like Taylor Swift is great, for I mean, all of her songs are about her breakup relationships and or like some sort of feel good dance thing.
Speaker 2:You got to be vulnerable. Ryan, she's vulnerable. You got to be vulnerable. Vulnerability is the thing You've got to figure it out.
Speaker 1:Maybe Taylor will help you. I think maybe that will listen to her music. Dose of Taylor. Yes, what's your favorite song and or album?
Speaker 2:Oh, the Midnight's 3 AM edition.
Speaker 1:You know what that means.
Speaker 2:That's the name of the album. Vigilante Shit is the favorite song.
Speaker 1:I've heard of neither one of those. Oh Lord, Were you a big Britney fan.
Speaker 2:I wasn't until she went bat shit crazy OK now you like Britney.
Speaker 1:Oh, she's brilliant.
Speaker 2:She's off the reservation. Man, oh man.
Speaker 1:I don't even know where to go with this. Ok, are you getting anything Taylor related for Christmas that you know of?
Speaker 2:No, but I am getting a Valtry Bottas his naked ass calendar. So he put out a calendar to raise money for something or other.
Speaker 1:I mean, you guys are basically best friends.
Speaker 2:We are. We're tight man. I tried to get him drunk at Steamboat.
Speaker 1:Like you and like you guys are best friends, the way that me and Blavin's are best friends, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that Steamboat is feeding him beer, and he had no idea who it was. But he did. You Irish are all the same and I'm like thank you, I appreciate that so. Jen ordered me. He made a calendar that's just pictures of his butt for every month and so that's the calendar I get Good for him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ok, lord, I mean, are you a bigger fan of Taylor than your daughter?
Speaker 2:Yes, oh, hands down yeah.
Speaker 1:Doesn't that tell you that something's wrong with that decision?
Speaker 2:No, it's awesome, my daughter's not even Taylor Swift fan. Yeah, I have Jennifer, though She'll listen to Taylor Swift.
Speaker 1:She listened to it, or will she seek it out? She'll tolerate it. See, I agree with that, yeah.
Speaker 2:But if you don't seek it out, yeah.
Speaker 1:And you weren't the only one, though, that popped up on my. Isn't that crazy? That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you really want to know who people are, just watch further. Spotify wrapped at the end of every year.
Speaker 1:And we'll really disappoint you and tell you how much new friends you need to make. Ok, well, we have Zwift written down. We kind of talked about it, but are you a Zwifter? Let's talk about your Zwift and your setup.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I am a Zwifter. I'll call it a closet Zwifter. I pretend not to be, but I have come, much like you, to learn to enjoy it. Two years ago I rode outside all through the winter. It was miserable.
Speaker 1:Just like there's no reason.
Speaker 2:It cold. I hated, sort of dreaded every ride, got home and sat in front of the fire for an hour Just defrost. And so last year I decided I can't do this, and so I started racing the crits on Zwift, just as a way I got to build fitness without a structured training plan, but fake a structured training plan. And so I started racing all the crits on Zwift and it'll sort of I mean, it'll bring you down to earth in a hurry when you go.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm in the C group Easy, no worries. And then you get your ass handed to you. Crushed in the C, destroyed, and so, yeah, I've got a pretty good Zwift setup. So I've got Apple TV 4K one hooked up to a big screen, and so I'll put Zwift up on that. I can't just I can't go on the Zwift and just ride. I have to do a group ride or race. There has to be something to hold my attention for it.
Speaker 2:And so this year I'll start doing a lot of the group rides, which I think the group rides are awesome.
Speaker 1:They're hard yeah they can be as hard as you want, yeah if you sort of pick one of the B or C group rides Do you do with the group leader that are going on 24 hours a day, or do you do like a starts at four o'clock group ride?
Speaker 2:I'll do the starts at four o'clock group ride because those are closer to sort of outside world group rides where they can surge and you have people going off the front and people getting dropped, you have people talking shit and that's probably the best part.
Speaker 1:I don't understand how people have so much ability to type. Yes, what are they doing? I don't know what their setup is. Yeah, full typing conversations while they're riding at 250 watts. Yeah, I don't know what they're doing.
Speaker 2:So it's crazy how much there is behind you know, I don't know what you would call it, but like there's, people have YouTube channels that will stream live there Zwift races and how I discovered this was last year in one of these current races. I made it onto this Australian guys YouTube stream and he's on a Discord channel with all of these other people and I had no idea there was a where they're talking to each other and they have race tactics going on and my in a group.
Speaker 1:In a Zwift race Race OK.
Speaker 2:And my avatar has this giant fro. That's exactly what looks like me, and so somebody had caught me onto this and I went and watched it and they're like talking shit the whole time and that's hilarious Damn it, I missed out on this.
Speaker 1:I had no idea. It's amazing. Yeah, ok, what's your Zwift setup? Man, I got a pretty dial right now, so I have a whole bike room. It's got everything in there. Maybe I'll post a picture of my bike room.
Speaker 2:I'll post that on Start that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's do that and I'll post it, and if people will send me theirs, I'll post theirs too so what's your pain? Cave, look like for your bike room.
Speaker 1:That would be kind of a cool thing. So send that, we'll do that, mine's pretty good. So I have a little dresser in there and it has my cycling stuff, clothes in it. Then I have a rack that's up next to the wall. It's two stories, like you would see in a bike shop. So I have two bikes there, then a bike in front, then a bike sets on the trainer, so the bike never leaves the trainer. It's my cross bike. I don't do cross, so it just stays on the trainer. So I have the climb and the kicker.
Speaker 1:But those are from the shop whenever I had that, so I'm not fancy they just came when I closed the shop. Then I have a TV and then my laptop. So I have the LEDs, I have the lights, so at nighttime I can turn those on, and I have my Bluetooth speaker in front of me. So if I'm doing a hard race or something, it's the races on TV, the speakers blaring in my face and we're all in. Oh, and I have a tool cabinet in there, oh, nice. And so if I'm doing something casual and chill or just a workout, then I'll leave that on the laptop and watch something like YouTube or something on TV.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did this year breakdown and bought a piece of shit $300 sort of steel frame, old road bike and throw on there.
Speaker 1:Just leave it on there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's got a triple front chain ring. Ooh fancy, eight speed Shimano, sora Fancy Like this is baller.
Speaker 1:But it's perfect for that. Mine's a 10 speed. Today I had to manually reach down and push it to shift it, because it wouldn't shift. Like shit, it's stuck. It was stuck in the big ring and I was doing Alpda, zwift or whatever. And I'm like I cannot stand the big chain ring the entire day. It's going to be miserable.
Speaker 1:So I had to manually push it with my hand. Brilliant, yeah, so I probably won't go back. But yeah, it's a pretty good setup, so I'll take a picture and post that. But yeah, I actually used to like an hour. I was fine with this time for what I'm doing. I'm going to have to get used to it Plus it's a good mental training.
Speaker 1:So I'm up to an hour and a half pretty easily and don't mind that. So next week we're going to try to bump it to two hours. It's just. It is what it is.
Speaker 2:If you told me to go get on a trainer and ride for an hour without anything in front of me, I couldn't do it. No way, no way, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do the group rides. I'll do races here and there. I like their workouts are great. So if you need an over-under workout or a threshold workout or a sweet spot or something, just pop it in and go.
Speaker 2:It's awesome, yeah, I love it Taylor Swift.
Speaker 1:I can't believe I have that on my notes. Well, let's go.
Speaker 2:You guys' questions, by the way, are horrible.
Speaker 1:They really are. This one's going to make one person extremely happy that we're bringing it up and you wanted to talk about it and this is going to piss people off. Oh brilliant, let's do it. What is it? Fake factory teams.
Speaker 2:Oh, pet peeve of mine, I did not send this in Just FYI.
Speaker 1:I am just don't kill the message.
Speaker 2:This was not generated by either your eye. This was not. This was a question that was submitted, or a statement.
Speaker 1:A statement. I'm not going to reveal who sent it in, but I will say that we have the same name. That's all I'm going to say. So you guys figured out from there, and if he is listening, that would be too bad. So when people say that they are on a race team, uh-huh, it's becoming huge and gravel. Yep, it is Everywhere in multi sport, not so much in typical road riding or mountain biking.
Speaker 2:Not really hasn't made it into either of those.
Speaker 1:Really I don't know why it did.
Speaker 2:It tried to make it into mountain biking for a little bit through L E L, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:But I mean, I guess it hasn't gotten into row because people they ride for their shop and they think they're on a team there.
Speaker 1:So, it's kind of the same thing, but not really so. What we're talking about with fake factory teams is you think you are a sponsored athlete and or rider? Again, this did not come from me, but I totally understand where this is coming from, because I make fun of it all the time. So you have a kit that has a company's name on it and or a hat or a T-shirt that you paid for. You send in an application.
Speaker 2:Not only did you quote that, only did you pay for that kit, right, you paid to be on that team.
Speaker 1:Right so, but from there on quotes, you get a discount, sure, and I don't know if you get anything extra If someone uses your code or not, I don't know. I don't know how it works. I've never been a part of one of these teams, I've never been invited to be one of these teams. But what is your take on that? And or are you actually on?
Speaker 2:a race team. I'm not on a fake factory race team.
Speaker 1:Is it a fake factory race team or is it a real Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have been invited on numerous occasions to be on a fake factory race team.
Speaker 1:You fancy.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's the, it's the best conversation, because you'll get the invite. Like OK, wait, wait, wait, you want me to pay to be on your team and then I get to buy the jersey, right, how about you give me that shit for free? No, not happening. You're not a sponsored rider, right, you're just yeah, you're paying to be on the and and, like it wasn't, you pay $20 to be on the team. It was like you pay 200 bucks.
Speaker 1:So you pay 200 bucks plus, then you buy a kit, or the 200 bucks gets you a kit 200 bucks.
Speaker 2:You buy, gets you on the team and then you get the discount on the kit. But you can then wear the fake factory team kit.
Speaker 1:What a what a deal. So I'm going to pay you $200, but then you're going to give me a discount.
Speaker 2:Yes, to buy the products. We are missing out here on a business model that apparently works.
Speaker 1:We need a cycling Oklahoma factory race team. We'll call it the fake factory race team. Oh, that's this name. Yeah yeah, factory, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:Man, people pay to be on the team, ok, and then they pay for a jersey or kit. It's probably really only half the price of what they're actually paying.
Speaker 1:I like it. It's genius, I like it. Yeah, ok, so if we're going to skew up some more interest here, how many people would be interested in being on our on our factory race team? Yeah, we want to call it fake.
Speaker 2:Factory team Fake factory team and they have to hashtag it.
Speaker 1:So take FFT, yep OK.
Speaker 2:Got to take pictures of themselves in our fake factory team kit, uh huh. And then hashtag it with FFT Uh huh, yeah.
Speaker 1:I definitely think we can get some products. I do too Some t-shirts, some hats yeah, it's genius. Maybe a kit? Ok, the FFT 2024 isn't. I'm actually making notes of this right now, so FFT 24. Ok, that is officially started, and is money maker man. I mean, I feel like it's probably going to make as much money as this podcast, but probably yeah so and you know what If you don't like the material too, bad, you get what you need. Ok, so fake factory teams coming coming in 2024.
Speaker 2:Genius.
Speaker 1:I like it Um Light etiquette on group rides.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a good one.
Speaker 1:Well, don't say that it was a good one, because the guy that sent it in is probably going to be all big headed. That was he pissy about it.
Speaker 2:I think I'm assuming he's in in like four things in a row.
Speaker 1:Was he or she pissy about it? No, it's he for sure. You got that right. He's in in like four things in a row on our on asking questions on Instagram. Of what topic should we be? So I'm guessing that there is some sort of ulterior motive with this yeah.
Speaker 1:So asking what your setup is whenever you would do a group ride. So let's just say you're going to ride to the group ride, yeah, and you're going to be on busy streets in the normal time of year, whatever, not in this time of year when it gets dark on us. But do you? Do you normally ride a, have a light on the back of a linky?
Speaker 2:So so shameless plug. The best piece of kit I've ever purchased hands down is a Garmin varia, the radar with the light. The radar is the. I wasn't. I didn't think it would be any good. Jan had one for the longest time. I was like whatever, it's just a fancy light. And then she got a new one that has the camera and so I took her old one, started using it as like it's legit the best piece of kit ever.
Speaker 2:And so just the ability to see when vehicles are coming up alongside you. But if you have a Garmin head unit, it ties to the head unit and the head unit tells the light like it's able to tech. Well, however fancy it is, if you're riding solo, it does like a solid light, but then if there's cars coming to blink at them and then if you're in a good to text, if you're in a group ride where it goes solid. So it's not just interesting, it's really well done, that is cool, and so it's automatic. So I don't have to change it. That's nice. Yeah, but Perkins was bitching at me a couple of weeks ago on the capital ride because I put it on manual.
Speaker 2:So it's just blinding the shit out of him by blinking.
Speaker 1:Uh huh. Yeah, perkins didn't send the same. But this is a topic that Perkins would send in.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so I'll do, I'll use that one, and then for a front light on the road, I've got just like a little crappy 800 lumens and I'll put it on blinky for the most part until it's dark, dark OK.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but in a group ride, what do you think the etiquette is for a back blinking?
Speaker 2:It's got to be solid man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you leave it on?
Speaker 2:Do I leave it on? Yeah, a group on low.
Speaker 1:Ok, yeah, yeah, I would agree. Yeah, if you're in a group ride, either turn it off or put it on low. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Mountain biking as a group in the dark, no real. Lights, no real, do not do it. No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no For sure. And then the OK, mountain biking at night. What do you? You got to have two lights A helmet light and a handlebar light. Yeah, what are you using? I don't ride at night.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Sox speed. They have a group. There's a group that does it right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did Arcadia. There's been rotating to all the trails.
Speaker 1:I don't like it, I have. I tried it a couple of times.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I've never done it in a full group, so maybe that would make it more fun because it's more lit up, yeah, but I don't. I don't find enjoyment in it because I feel like I have to slow down so much because I feel like I'm on the edge of hurting myself. Yeah, so that's boring, and then I feel like I'm on the edge of hurting myself all the time, so I'm just like tight and I'm just not flowing in. Yeah, I've done it a handful of times and never, and even when I did the 24 hour mountain bike race, I almost went off of the cliff at really.
Speaker 1:Aladero, and after that lap I'm like I'm done. I'm going to bed. I just don't enjoy it.
Speaker 2:See, that's like I got faster at night because it was more relaxed.
Speaker 1:I like night gravel riding. Yeah, my favorite. That's my favorite riding I've ever done. Yeah, I don't like it on the trail.
Speaker 2:It's fun. Yeah, I've got for mountain biking, so on my on the bar light is a. I find lighting the trail Evo and man, it's like you're, it's like the floodlights.
Speaker 1:I mean I have all the lights.
Speaker 2:I got 1500 lumens, yeah, lights insanely bright, and then the same for a headlight, and so there's no shortage of light.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I just don't enjoy it. Yeah, I think it's my, I don't know if it's my old man eyes not seeing well at night or the shadows, and I just don't like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will say on group rides though, for for lights like front lights, like when people, when the, when the crew pulls over and people turn their bars straight and it's like don't put your eyes on my face.
Speaker 1:And if you have one on your helmet turn it off.
Speaker 2:You have to not turn and look out or turn it way down, or something.
Speaker 1:So whenever you look at someone, it doesn't blind them. What other ones are we going to do? Well, one of them that came in was kind of packed to you, so is it use way, I think?
Speaker 2:so OK, well, let's go with that.
Speaker 1:You sway pack or camel back. Well, because you say, packs are super popular right now, extremely trendy. Do you have one? I do not. Ok, but they had just become the sponsor of Cape Epic, so I'm wondering if we get some swag with.
Speaker 2:That would be really cool. That would be cool swag. Do you want me to break your heart? Sure, you sway packs or the Taylor Swift.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're not wrong about that. You are not wrong about that. They really are. They really really are.
Speaker 2:I don't have one I do Shocker.
Speaker 1:The Taylor Swift, the hydration. You should put a Taylor patch on it.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's genius, I'll do that. Ok, I do have a camel back as well. The mule, I think, is the biggest one they have. Ok, I like the use way better, just because it sits up higher.
Speaker 1:They look super clean.
Speaker 2:They really are look very secure. They. I hate hydration packs. I hate wearing them, always have the use ways the only one that I can wear for like a long, long race, and be like, ok, this feels OK and I'll refill it and like if it was a camel back, I drink it, dump it and just pick it up later yeah, but the use way, I'll keep it. Refill, interesting, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have two Osprey packs. Yeah, so I have the one that's like a normal backpack. I think it's two liter water and has some storage in it and stuff like that's a little bit bigger. The one thing I do like about it is it has a way that between the pack and my back has like a mesh and a pad, so it's breeze a little bit. So it's pretty nice, but it still gets really hot and I only use it really on like a long mountain bike stuff. So it kind of changes the way you handle a little bit, but I'm not good enough for it to really matter, so it's just usually hot. Yeah, it's fine, it's totally fine. The one I really like the most is I have a Osprey hit pack.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and that is one of those that feels significantly better because it's not as hot being on your back, it's low down and it's around your hips the two sucky things about having that one. Yeah, I know they must make them for people that weigh well over four to five hundred pounds, because the straps I have it Huge as tight as it will possibly go.
Speaker 2:And you're at the end of it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it won't go any tighter. And it's as tight as it needs to be.
Speaker 2:And I mean.
Speaker 1:I get that I kind of I'm a little person, but I'm not that little right that I shouldn't be like maxed out, because if you're smaller than me, you're just so it won't go tight enough yeah. And so it kind of hurts. It doesn't have padding in the way it sits on your hip bones yeah, kind of hurts your hip bones, kind of rubs them raw a little bit. So I don't like that. And then, since the thing goes around your waist, the drinks nozzle. Yeah, it's hard to ride a mountain bike and reach down and get it put back on.
Speaker 1:So I did see a hack for that. I've made it. I haven't used it since. I did it with a like a retractable key. Oh cool, you just hook that onto the and so you never have to let it go, it just snaps back. Yeah, so I haven't used that yet, but I have it rigged up.
Speaker 2:So have you noticed the U-sway, u-sway, sure, the hydration packs are making it into road rides now.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing when I started mountain biking this is one of the things that I love so much about how cycling changes when I started cycling, I was a cat three. I was not taking my hand off the bars for anything, and I don't care if it's in the parking lot, I'm not taking my hands off the bars to do anything. So I wore a backpack at every race. Everyone made fun of me. Why are you wearing a backpack? Just use your bottle, drink one. I'm like no, I'm not taking it so much easier. Why do you not use a backpack? This is so much better. Yep, they're like no, it's not, it wasn't cool. Yeah, I'm cool, it was. I got made fun of for like two years because of it.
Speaker 2:You were ahead of your time, Ryan.
Speaker 1:Basically, I'm a trendsetter. I showed up at the Christmas live ride and there's people with people with their damn water packs on their back. And I'm like we're going nine miles an hour with a hydration pack. With a high and it was multiple people with hydration packs on. Yeah, for every group ride.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, but now it's cool.
Speaker 2:It's a cool thing to do. I told you there's a Taylor Swift of cycling hydration packs.
Speaker 1:Man, I wonder if, Well, I feel like now that you sway is so cool, I feel like we need Camelback to sponsor our FFT. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, is there anybody? Else that's more on the out than Camelback, because I feel like Camelback Osprey are kind of the same, because who sway is the cool one? That's a good question.
Speaker 2:There's a cycling companies that are really just sort of on the out now. That's who we need to be fine for sponsorships.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah Well, shimano, shimano Pearl.
Speaker 2:Zoomey's in a world of trouble. They were owned by Shimano Yep and they just sold them off. They just laid off a ton, so maybe they could be our apparel sponsor for FFT OK. Send in your $200.
Speaker 1:You will get a 10 percent discount.
Speaker 2:Pearl Zoomey. Pearl Zoomey and Camelback yeah.
Speaker 1:Man, this is really coming together.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:It's a business plan. This is a business, something man we're running out here. So the last two that we have and we'll tackle both if whatever escape collective lists, which we kind of went over earlier. But let's talk about that real quick, just to kind of wrap that one all up. They came out with escape collective. If you don't know who they are, they have a podcast, they have a website.
Speaker 2:They're really good. It's amazing, it's wonderful.
Speaker 1:I listen to all their podcasts most of their podcasts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the guy's name is Matt. I think Matt something. Yeah, there's a handful of them yeah.
Speaker 1:And they used to be part of outside. Well, they were owned by outside. They were, was it, fellow yeah?
Speaker 2:And that whole group, yeah.
Speaker 1:Anyways, that whole disaster they left, they started escape collective Great podcasts. They have like three or four or five of them. Great topics, great conversations.
Speaker 2:Websites are really good too.
Speaker 1:Men's cycling, women's cycling tech.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Training, building companies, like all kinds of different, but they came out with a list of top.
Speaker 2:They called it the 50 largest influences on American cycling. Mm-hmm yeah.
Speaker 1:They had their grassroots list Yep, they had top gravel ride list, so go check them out. Yeah, good conversation, yep, but this one upset several Oklahoma people.
Speaker 2:So the 50 biggest influencers on American cycling. So if you think about it right and some of the people they have on there it's you couldn't argue over the 50, they picked that. There's a wrong one right.
Speaker 1:Is it like 50 of all time? Yes, Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you talk across sort of all the disciplines of mountain bike, road, gravel, you know, downhill, all those things. There's somebody on there sort of representing in that space, so you have you know, gary Fisher's on there.
Speaker 1:There's Lance. On there he was not he has to be on there Again, you. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:I think that's the funny thing about these lists is you can argue about who should and shouldn't be on there.
Speaker 1:Well, it has to be on the list.
Speaker 2:He is not on the list.
Speaker 1:I'm going to try to look this up when we're talking, yeah.
Speaker 2:Tom and Stuart Walton are on there.
Speaker 1:How is Lance Armstrong not on the list and the Waltons are? They've been around in cycling for like five years. Yeah, and so they granted, they've done amazing things, but for this part of the country.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ridiculous.
Speaker 2:And there's like Kate Courtney's on there. There's a bunch of Lachlan Morton's on there. How's he a US influence on American cycling? Not necessarily US people. It's a stretch. But when you talk about the gravel scene and OG gravel, there's a handful of folks that's on there, but there's nobody from Oklahoma on that list. And if you go way back it's obviously Bobby, being one of the original OGs of gravel, the dude's in the gravel hall of fame, and you think, ok for sure, major influence in the gravel scene in the US, but did not make that list.
Speaker 1:So the guy that started Dirty Kansa on that, yeah, or whatever it's called Lailin Danes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he is on there, huh, yeah.
Speaker 1:Because I mean I don't really have a dog in this fight, but I mean I feel like Kansa and Mid-South and Landrun Yep, those were the two that started the whole thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, yeah, but yeah, the list is fascinating.
Speaker 1:Well, I have the list here and they said what it's not. It's not the most popular, most powerful, most race wins. Historic figures no longer act like involved Blah, blah, blah. I mean there's people on here. I cannot believe the Waltons are number four. I know, yeah, what the heck? So go to escapecollectivecom. You can see this. I pulled it up on their Instagram.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can search for it.
Speaker 1:Like a co-founder of Strava, 100% agree, this is youraganism. Yeah, fellas, it's awesome To Like that's legit. Tour de Femmes, totally get it. Yeah, I mean, there's some really big names on here, but this is ridiculous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rebecca Rush, axl Merckx, all those folks like, ok, yep, that's legit.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, the Finneys, Jim for sure.
Speaker 2:Jim Cummings and Joel Dyke again. And it says while Unvine was not the first gravel race, its finders captured the imagination of the nation.
Speaker 1:Huh. So I wonder why you think that they love. I mean, bobby can be a polarizing figure, but the guy that created dirty canza got, he got fired.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:Comments yeah, so, and Bobby's never made comments that have been in a negative way. I mean it may rub people the wrong way. His beliefs and or stand on social issues, yeah, but I mean I don't care what you think about Bobby, he's, I mean he's got to have one of the. He's the biggest influence in gravel cycling to get as far as getting it started.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's one of the original big events.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's stronger than ever. Yeah, if you talk about sort of people who shaped the the gravel scene in the US, he's got to be at the top of it To where it is today. Right, he has to be top five. He's yeah, he's in the top three for sure.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:For sure. And locations right If you talk about name locations that you know really shaped the gravel world in the US its Emporia and still water Oklahoma.
Speaker 1:Which is so weird. Uh-huh, the two tiny little towns Tons yeah. And they just weird.
Speaker 2:Both of which have colleges.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Emporia State yeah, interesting.
Speaker 2:OSU, both small colleges.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Yeah, yeah, that's it. So, okay, that's an interesting one, but, yeah, go look at that list, because the people on both half of them on there I didn't even, I've never even heard of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a bunch of them on there.
Speaker 1:That the names you like the societies or like groups that they founded and stuff like that. Um, all right, last topic. And this was one that came in from someone else who has my same first name maybe the same person who started the FFT movement, Um, qualifying for a world championship and or a national team.
Speaker 2:Oh boy, oh boy.
Speaker 1:And we're going to wrap up on this one because we're probably going to get uh, I'm sure someone's going to be canceling us after today. This is awesome. Probably going to cancel us because I made fun of Taylor, but this is another topic. So how do you feel about qualifying for a national team in quotes and or a world or national event?
Speaker 2:It should be the pinnacle of the sport.
Speaker 1:Discipline 100%.
Speaker 2:Whatever it is, should be the pinnacle of that sport or discipline Mm-hmm, and should be the hardest thing to qualify for.
Speaker 1:So do you feel that if they don't fill up their roster, that they should just go with an empty roster? Ooh, or should it roll down until they get people that will go and represent that country?
Speaker 2:Oh, was the Jamaican bobsled team the pinnacle of the people of that sport.
Speaker 1:In Jamaica. Okay, uh-huh, yeah, yeah, but I mean they got a movie made about them.
Speaker 2:They did they were geniuses, yeah, yeah, I mean. So I told the story of UCI gravel world championships. They thought it'd be a great idea to hold these qualifiers. One of them they held out in Fayetteville, arkansas, right, and got really poor numbers to show up. So, and the way the qualification system was built, it was age group based. Okay, very small increments of age group based. So basically, if you finished, there was a high likelihood that you were qualifying for a world championship race according to UCI. And so there's a great story of these three guys showed up and the man's 40 to 49. No, it was 45 to 49 age group. They rode, they didn't race, they rode together in Fayetteville and flannel shirts and old surly bikes and they qualified for the world championship.
Speaker 2:But they do it as sort of a you know, a jab at this structure of the system 100%, but they still qualified for the world championship race in Italy, and so they were the USA's representative.
Speaker 1:So do you think that they should have been a representative for USA based on team USA?
Speaker 2:and gravel based on who the rest of the world's no exactly Right.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I think it's part of being a part of a factory team that you pay for. Exactly, I think it's a very similar thing, yes, and I kind of don't have anything to add to this, because is it the same in triathlete world. That is a topic, man, you are going to get crushed after this. So I will say I greatly benefited from this this year. Did you wait? Because that's how I got to go to Hawaii with Lindsay, is it really? Yeah, awesome, she got a roll down spot. Oh, you're in trouble, dude.
Speaker 1:You're in so much trouble, I know, and she actually listens to this crap.
Speaker 1:So she got a roll down spot. She did Iron man Arizona in November. Couple months later she got an email hey, you got a roll down spot. If you would like it, you can have it. The fact that she got it a couple months later is crazy, yeah. But basically, what happened? For anyone that doesn't know, iron man has always had the world championships in Kona. It's 2500 athletes split between men and women. There's a little bit more men than women. After COVID they did a catch up, so they split the field and did the women on Thursday of last year in 23 or 22, and the men on Saturday to get everybody through the system that had deferred because of COVID. So then Iron man realized huh, we can make a lot of money if we do this all the time. Yeah, the city of Kona and the island said screw off, yeah, there's too many people, we don't like it, go away. So instead of canceling it, they said we're going to split.
Speaker 1:So the men this year went to Nice, france and had their world championships there and the women were in Kona. Yeah, and then this year the men are in Kona, the women, or next year the women are they flip flop it. So we're going to do that for the next four years or five years. Well, filling up the men's side, there's so many more men that race.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's. It's not as hard, yeah, but for the women's side it's just not as competitive and there's just not as many women racers yeah, so to get 2,500 women, that will pay $10,000 roughly yeah, we can cost more or less to go to Hawaii and race in a race, I mean, that's, that's a big ask. Yeah, defined, and so they started just rolling it down. There was a handful of events where and used to be up until like two years this year. Yeah, basically you had to win and or get like top two or three in your age group depending on how many people are in your age group is how many spots were available, yep, but usually you had to go like top two in your age group to get into Kona, yeah, and it would roll down maybe one or two spots, yep, but you basically had to go top five to have any shot, which is ridiculously hard to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They basically have no chance. Yeah, you better be elite.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, this year they changed it. It was like man, we got to give people spots. So Lindsay finished like I don't remember. She finished like maybe mid 20s in her age group, so not bad Right.
Speaker 2:That's pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she did good especially for her first one, you know, and she got a roll down spot. There were some people who finished dead last yeah, in their age group, dead last, Last finisher of the entire event.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Got spots to Kona. Usa representative, man, usa representative, I can't get on board for that I can't Not, for I think the event I understand they're there to make money. That is not a world championship event If you have someone who is the last finisher in a race.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Coming to your world championships, it becomes a and I was there. I went. It was an magical week. It was a magical event for a huge number of people who had never been able to experience this. Yeah, never get to see Kona, never get to do that race course. Yep, they had a great time. I had an amazing time when I was there. I understand all of that, so don't come at me with all this cancel crap and like, say like I'm just being a jerk or an elitist or whatever you want to call me. I experienced it.
Speaker 2:Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1:I was the beneficiary of it. I had a great time. Lindsay had a once in a lifetime experience. Yeah, she loved it. I watched a bunch of people cross finish line who, again, never would have gotten to come there. Yep, I don't think that should be considered the world championships, and or you should qualify for a world championship in that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think if Iron man, Kona, whoever and you know I'll call it the real gravel worlds that happens up in Lincoln, Nebraska, over here, it's cool to have people come do it. If you want to come enter, right, Mm. Hmm, but understand that at the pointy end there will be elite racers and that's really where the sort of you know the pointy end of the race is and that's where a world championships decided right.
Speaker 2:But if it, and it's okay to say that, yeah, 100%. But but I think there's, you know, there's a little bit of the, you know, participation award thing going on.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Of you can represent the US of a or whatever. I don't actually I don't think anybody else in the world does it this way of you know, we'll you know, you pay and you can wear a USA jersey to go do it. I and there's probably some folks that have represented the USA, their country, over the years that may believe that's taken a little bit of the shine off of what they had to do.
Speaker 1:For sure To get there. Yeah, well, I mean the people that worked for years, yeah, and finally make it happen.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Now they have the same story and or experience of somebody else. Yeah, that just like didn't die gets to have.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, cause, why is that different than Olympic qualification? Right, it's a very different picture, right, right? So those you know, the same folks that are going to show up at a Fayetteville? No one, hey, I'm going to qualify for a world championship in this discipline. If it was Olympics, there's not a chance in hell. You qualify, right yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean one time, the one of the times that I went to worlds for a multi sport, I got a roll down spot. I didn't finish. I had a great race. Yeah, I didn't finish in the top 20.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think of at that time I think it was top 15 you had to be and I didn't. I had a great, great day. I went to Milwaukee and did a sprint, didn't qualify, I got to. I think I finished like around 20th, 22nd, something like that. I got a roll down spot. I went to worlds. It was a blast, it was great, but they only had it. It only rolled to us. I think it rolled to 25 and that was it. And if they didn't fill the spots, they didn't fill the spots Right. So I'm I can I see having roll downs?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think they should have an end to it. They don't feel the field. I understand that. Maybe they don't that Vent does make money and it's a it's a whole thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The best are still going to win the race.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:They still are competing with the best. These other people get to have these experiences. I understand all that stuff. Yep, it's just strange to call it a world championships when um yeah, who finish events get to go Right.
Speaker 2:You and you can have there is a space for for both to happen in the same event. Right Of you can have an event that you can call it a world championship, but but don't try to paint this brush on it that you know all these nations are being represented.
Speaker 1:Okay. So let me ask you this. I see this posted off. Oh God, I'm really digging myself in here. If you go to a world championship, yeah let's say, let's say you go. They're going to say that tour divide is the bike packing world championship next year. Okay, you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You finish. There's a thousand people that do it.
Speaker 2:And I finished 999.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, are you the 999th best bike packer in the world?
Speaker 2:Damn right, I am Okay. Let's move it up a little bit. Let's say, you finish 50th.
Speaker 1:Yeah, are you the 50th best bicycle rider in the world? No, you're not you were 50th in that event.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's it, cause it really truly wasn't the top thousand people in the world, right.
Speaker 2:The.
Speaker 1:Olympics is the top people in the world.
Speaker 2:And and you could argue there that it is it right, it it? Yeah? Are you getting the top people in the world? Yes, are you? You're probably still missing out on folks right, that's, that's.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Normal with any elite sport, right? Um, you know the minute, the minute and this is my, so well you're.
Speaker 1:You're getting me on a on a rant on a rabbit hole here.
Speaker 2:So um, this is a complete sidebar.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Um, the minute you create a pay to play model in a sport, you eliminate a certain, um uh, population of what could be potential athletes, right, okay, and the best example I have of it cause I've, I've, I've grew up in it in Europe, where it was the opposite, but then had my kids grew up in it here is pay to play and soccer, right. So you have this pay to play model where it's you, as a family, pay a fee for your kid to play soccer, and it is not a small fee.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, it is. My brother went through it with baseball. Yeah, it's exorbitant, right.
Speaker 2:Yes, and there are folks who simply kind of afford that right. But their kids are, you know, they, they excel at these sports, at these athletic events In Europe. It's the opposite. So they have development academies that go right into communities to find these kids and then they pay the families travel for those kids to come and train, to come and develop in these different sports.
Speaker 1:So is that why European soccer is so much better than US soccer Of?
Speaker 2:course it is. That's why European cycling is so much better than US cycling. Right Is the barrier to entry is way lower Interesting. So hence my anti lifetime thing. Right Is you create this barrier to entry of cost, right? And, and it's Ironman's the same what was it cost to do? What's the actual cost? What do you pay to go do an Ironman event?
Speaker 1:I want to say it. The low end ones are around 750, 800 or the low end ones, and I think Kona is 12 to 1500. Wow, that's a good one for entry fee. That's bananas, bananas and last year they cause, when went last year with with Smoke and Bryson did the whole team thing, they didn't get crap for swag, like nothing. Yeah, this year she got loaded up with swag. Good, she got a lot of cool stuff. So I would say she got some of it back. But it's ridiculous that it's like 12 to $1,500 for an entry fee.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the question there becomes is it really the best athletes that are there?
Speaker 1:or is it because it's people that finish last and a reason it rolls down to them?
Speaker 2:and can pay the entry fee.
Speaker 1:It's because it's going to be in yeah, and if you're going to Hawaii and you have a spouse, you're not leaving them behind. No, hell no. And if you have kids that are 12, they're probably not leaving them behind. They're coming too, so now it's going to be a $15,000 trip for a family of four, cause let me tell you how much prices are in Kona Through the roof Through the roof, like it's already expensive to be in Hawaii but then there's no hotel rooms so think of how expensive those are.
Speaker 1:Like it's out of control. Yeah, it's wild, but yeah, there's no way that there's a lot of really fast people that don't get to go to to do events because it's way. But I understand it's capitalism and it's the way the world that we live in and that's what it is. I totally get that.
Speaker 2:Yep. So for fake factory team, are we set in an entry requirement of you've got to be able to afford Kona.
Speaker 1:Well, that's about what our entry is going to be to pay for to get on the team. Oh yeah, we have to make money out of this.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's what we do. Is we make money off the fake factory team so we can go do those events?
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, we can get hired athletes. Yes, by all the fake factory team members. That's what they're doing, but they're teammates. Yeah, teammates, teammates.
Speaker 2:Your teammates.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we'll ride with them like once a year or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I can probably cut and paste a generic training plan together. Off as Zwift Genius.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe we'll ride with them on Zwift. Once a year that's a whole team.
Speaker 1:That way we don't have to like meet up and like actually talk to them.
Speaker 2:Oh brilliant.
Speaker 1:We'll do Zwift rides. Awesome, dude. This has been a very profitable and prosperous Yep Year-end wrap-up. Yeah, is there anything that you would like to add? God, we've done a long time. Is there anything that you would like to add to wrap up the end of the year or for the start of next year?
Speaker 2:I don't think so. You know, if folks want us to continue doing these, just tell us we're not going to listen to you anyway, yeah. Another one where we're going to get canceled.
Speaker 1:The three people that listen. Probably you're going to be pissed about this, yeah.
Speaker 2:I always get messages from people of going. I'm listening to you in the car and you guys are so full of shit.
Speaker 1:It's true, yeah, it's true, and next time I'm bringing whiskey.
Speaker 2:And so we'll really get it going. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Yeah, that's good, good stuff.
Speaker 1:Good stuff. Thanks for doing this and have a good holiday. Awesome, same Awesome. Getting out of bed early hours right now is just being kind of scary on people. Сдел.