WE ARE BACK!!!! Chats with Drummond & RyRy

We catch up after a long gap, from Drummond launching a new appointment-only service studio in Bricktown to traveling nonstop with teams and races. Ryan tells us what racing and supporting a rider in Romania really feels like, then we swing through GP New York chaos, Nationals motivation, the Oz Stage Race, and the moment I finally cave and buy an e-bike. 

• Drummond Performance Studio setup, services, and why bike fits matter 
• Life on the road as a mechanic and sometimes race director 
• Romania UCI stage race details, cobbles, TTs, and mountain finishes 
• Real pro peloton speed, watts, crosswinds, and the mental toll 
• Feeding from the car, race radio, and how the caravan avoids disaster 
• GP New York start on the George Washington Bridge and scary traffic moments 
• Cyclocross planning, UCI points, call-ups, and building a bigger engine 
• Mountain Bike Nationals in Roanoke, why Oklahoma riders should show up 
• Oz Stage Race logistics, rain, flats, and why it’s a great first stage race 
• E-bike handling realities, corner timing, weight, and why it’s so fun 
• Tour dominance debate and what makes riders likable 

Give More Overhead Door a call, let them take care of you for anything and everything you need. Phone number, it’s easily found on Google. It’s 405-799-9214. 
Support OMBA. It’s 50 bucks a year.

Transcript

Sponsors, Trails, And Big Rumors

SPEAKER_02 0:00

What is up? Cycling Oklahoma. It's been a long time. Uh we've taken a bit of a break, honestly, just because I have been being lazy and I've been playing a ton of golf and not riding my bike very much and or doing anything that has to do with cycling. So uh we got a good one here. This was just catching up with me and catching up with Drummond. Um I was able to do a couple of races in the late uh springtime. He's been traveling all over the world uh in his new adventures with his new shop, uh with race director uh sometimes on the team, uh team mechanic, Swan Years, like everything. So we catch up on this one, we get uh get you on the lowdown of what's been going on lately with everybody. Rai Rai joins us. You can hear about what it's like to race in the Pro Peloton and at a completely different level and what that's like sitting in the bunch uh and what kind of numbers you got to put out to stay in the bunch, even at that level. So uh hope you enjoy this one. It's gonna be short and sweet, and uh, we will be getting back to some regular schedule uh programming here uh that will start rolling out more and more as the summer comes to an end and the fall gets here. So uh stay tuned. And I there is some exciting changes and announcements coming in our race scenes very, very soon. So I think everyone's gonna be very excited to hear about that. So if you've heard rumors, they could be true. Uh they could not be true, but I think good things are happening in Oklahoma cycling. So uh again, this is always brought to you by More Overhead Door. They're fantastic, they stood by us forever. Um, if you got a bunch of dents in the door that you haven't replaced from your springtime hail storm, or you finally got your check from that crappy home insurance company uh that you have in this time to replace that garage door, or you need more insulation because it's basically like walking on the sun outside. Give more overhead door a call, let them take care of you for anything and everything you need. Phone number, uh, it's easily found on Google. It's 405-799-9214. And this one, ride OMBA right now trails in Oklahoma have never been better. Um, I not in my riding career, anyways. And I know some of these trails OMBA doesn't take care of, but Turkey is out of control, it's phenomenal. Um, you have amazing trails. Every time I go to Arcadia, they have new features and new styles of riding for everyone out there. Uh the dog trail at Draper, you know, you now have over 20-something miles at Draper, which is fantastic. Bluff is always great. I mean, you now that uh Clear Bay is back online, it's so different than anything else. So trails are phenomenal, but without groups like OMBA, uh Oklahoma Mountain Bike Association, uh, our trails don't exist and our hobbies don't have a place to go. And so support them. It's 50 bucks a year. It goes a long way, a lot farther than you would ever consider or think about. Uh you know, donate some time and go help up clean up some trails, get them ready for fall and for the you know, wintertime racing. But you know, support groups that support us and our hobbies, and OMBA is one of those that you can support, which is 50 bucks a year. So please do that. Uh thanks again for listening, and I hope you enjoy it. And we are back, and hopefully, more really fantastic content coming your way soon. Thanks for listening, guys. All right, now we're rolling.

Back In The Booth

SPEAKER_02 3:11

All right, perfect. We're back in the booth. Back back in the back in action after two weeks off. Two weeks, that's it.

SPEAKER_05 3:17

Ish. How long has it been? Do you know when the last one was posted?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

I have no idea. I don't even know. I have no clue. Um, I mean, I'll I'll look it up while you March, maybe probably something like that. It was when was the stage race?

SPEAKER_02 3:32

That was uh into May.

SPEAKER_05 3:35

It had to have been March or April then.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Well before that. Yeah, it's been a long time. Well, I'll look it up while uh while we're filling the gap here of time. But April 24th. April 24th. Yeah, long time. Just a little summer break. Things have changed. A lot has changed. We've done we've done some things. So many things have changed. Oh, the voice that they just heard it. Mr. Ryrai. Hello.

SPEAKER_05 4:04

You have Ryrai clearance. Uh-huh. Not everyone does.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

That's true. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

I think we've talked about this before. The older I get, the smaller the circle gets.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Yeah. Well, it only continues for the rest of your life. Uh well, we have pretty much have no idea what we're gonna talk about. So whatever this random show ends up being, it ends up being. So deal with it.

A New Appointment-Only Bike Studio

SPEAKER_02 4:25

First one back. But I think we should start off with uh your new adventures, and then I think we'll go into uh Rai Rise adventures so far this year, because those are what people want to hear about probably more. That's true. Just follow them across the globe. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 4:42

My new adventure would be my drum and performance studio name.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

That's the official name. Um and it is kind of a little studio action you got.

SPEAKER_05 4:52

Yeah. And you know, down the road it probably will be too whenever I get more official. But uh yeah, I mean I kind of chose the name because it's not directly related to bike maintenance. Um, because my my 2D9 business kind of just folded into it. So yeah, I'm doing uh bike repairs, bike builds, bike fits, coaching, skills coaching, consulting, kind of anything, anything you need or want, all under one umbrella by appointment only, because I'm out of town a lot.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

So you have been out of town so much.

SPEAKER_05 5:31

Um but it's w it's going really well. I mean, business is good. Doing, you know, uh bike fits have never been really something I focused on, even though I kind of you know I know how to do them, but that's been a big part of it. It's so fun. It's uh yeah, it is fun when you you know you you make a difference immediately for people. But um yeah, I was kind of like I don't really know if I want to do those, and I've done a lot more than I thought already.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Um it's amazing the need in this market for bike fits.

SPEAKER_05 6:01

Yeah, I mean I get messages all the time about it. So um I kind of I resisted for the first week or so and I'm like, what am I doing? Yeah, I should just do it. So the market always tells you. Yeah, so that's been that's been going great.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Um where you at where's your uh shop at?

SPEAKER_05 6:19

Uh I have a I have a little spot in Bricktown, so it's not it's not really uh you can show up and walk in kind of place because it's by appointment and because the building it's in it, just don't want people walking in. But um you make an appointment, you know, I bring people in, do the do the fits in there, or I you know I've gone to Tulsa a few times and done fits at people's houses. So if you can't make it down there, or if you're out of town, I do I'll come to you. You can figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Yeah, yeah. So best way is just get hold of you on Insta.

SPEAKER_05 6:48

Yeah, Instagram, Instagram, Facebook. I've got a a link in my bio to do like a service request, and then from there, you know. I I also resisted giving people my phone number for a while, and now I've just given in. Like it's so much easier. It's just business. I can't avoid it. Nope, you just gotta do it. So I'm not giving my phone number on here. Uh-huh. But um, yeah, if you reach out, I'll I'll get in touch with you and and schedule stuff. And yeah, I mean, so when I'm out of town, I'll have a couple things pop up that I'll schedule and I'm like, I hope I get a little more, and then when I get here, it's you know, it starts filling up pretty quick. Like right now, I'm I'm struggling to squeeze it all in before I leave again Tuesday.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Because that's on like the almost the first, roughly.

SPEAKER_05 7:30

I leave on on Tuesday. Okay. This coming Tuesday. Yeah, the 29th. 29th, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Where

Life As A Traveling Race Director

SPEAKER_02 7:35

are you going now?

SPEAKER_05 7:35

I'm going to Guadalupe. It's in the Caribbeans. Everyone thinks it's Guadalupe, but no, it's Guadalupe.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

In the Caribbean? Yeah. Oh. Weird. Guadalupe. That's cool. I thought it was great. Are you racing? No, I'm not. Who's who's go who you going there with?

SPEAKER_05 7:50

I'm going with the team. He's just not racing.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Uh gotcha.

SPEAKER_05 7:54

It's time, it's time to get ready for a real sport. Cyclecross. Oh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

I didn't know where you were gonna where you were going with that. Okay, gotcha. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 8:02

So yeah, I'll be gone. This this stretch will be long. I'll be gone in Guadalupe. It's a 10-day stage race. Ten days. And then I'll fly from there to Guatemala for like uh I think it's four-day stage race or five. So I'll be gone.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Look at you. Such a little trotter.

SPEAKER_05 8:17

I'll be glad when this one's over because it's it's too kind of probably difficult to navigate events.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Are you in the car for those?

SPEAKER_05 8:25

I'm I'm director for both of those.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Oh you really moved up. You were from went from bike washer to tire pumper to director.

SPEAKER_05 8:33

I didn't ask to be director. It just it kind of depends on if the actual director can go.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

Right.

SPEAKER_05 8:39

Which is Ryan's coach and performance director of the team. If he goes, I'll be mechanic. If he doesn't go, I'm director. So when you're director.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Okay, that's what I was gonna ask if you don't have to mechanic as well.

SPEAKER_05 8:49

Uh I mean You'll help out. If I if they need help, of course I'm jumping in there now. Because I just want to my goal is to kind of get the stuff done and not not be up till 11 o'clock. So yeah, I'll jump in and do that. And the director is very new to me. Like, I don't Do you like it? Um I'm not a hundred percent comfortable in the role yet.

SPEAKER_04 9:11

Well, in what part?

SPEAKER_05 9:12

Well, just kind of race day stuff. Oh like planning schedules and stuff like that, it's is okay. It's not that hard to do, but race tactics and how to play the race, and especially with places you've never been, you don't even know what the course is. So you're just looking at it on paper. Yeah. But some of the guys on the team are good at reading that stuff and kind of give their input, and I rely a little on that.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

That's what I was gonna ask. How much do the racers? Well, they all have an opinion. Shocker.

SPEAKER_05 9:39

Yeah, and and they don't always they're not always the same. So yeah, a little bit of what I'm getting comfortable with is kind of shutting that down, being the guy that's you know giving some direction, not letting everyone just do what they want to do. Because if if you don't give any direction they all want to do something different, and and they will just do that, and then you have no success. So um yeah, that's all pretty new.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Okay, so let's just jump into this because and Rye, you chime in on this because I watch race TV, like EF stuff, um, which is a fantastic YouTube show if people don't watch it, um, especially for their tour cover, which is really good. They put out an episode every day. But it's so cool to see like the behind the scenes part where they're in the bus talking about the planning for the day. This is what we're gonna do, this is who's gonna go, these are the people that get to like relax today, those kinds of things. Are these the people that are bottle getters today or all the things? Like, what is it like on the level that you guys are racing on compared to like is it the same stuff, just different race, or is it like it just gets so much more precise the higher level you go?

SPEAKER_00 10:51

I mean, it definitely gets more precise.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

You're gonna have to stop chilling over there.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

It definitely gets more like precise and detailed the higher up you get, but it's pretty much the same stuff. Like any level below us, it's like kind of just do whatever, but um like our team and up, it's you're doing a lot of the similar.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

So when you guys go to a race, do you I mean you kind of know everybody that's there for the most part, like who the hitters are?

SPEAKER_00 11:21

In the US. In the US. Over there, I was I mean, like Marcus, he's raced over there some, so he knew what was going on.

SPEAKER_05 11:28

If they had a UAE kit or a Red Bull Borg.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Basically, if it was a team you could actually recognize over there, you're like, okay, they're probably pretty good. They're probably pretty good.

SPEAKER_05 11:37

They were there, the Pinarello. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Okay. Okay. Oh, well, let's

Romania Stage Race With Big Teams

SPEAKER_02 11:42

jump into that. Okay, so let's just jump into the Romania trip. So what race what kind of race is that? What level of race is that? Like, what were we talking about? Like what was the.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Do you know what the actual UCI ranking?

SPEAKER_05 11:51

I I don't remember what it was.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

There was like World Tour teams, four world tour teams, like five Pro Tour. Wow. And then like ten UCI Connie.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

That's like a real race. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:04

So it was like the I would I don't know, I don't know where you'd rank them, the B or C squad. Like the development team? Not even development, just like not the guys that are at the tour. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Like the U23 World Champ is who won GC for the whole thing.

SPEAKER_05 12:18

And he won like the baby G-Row this year. Okay. So they're it's like the real deal, though. They're legit.

SPEAKER_02 12:23

There's they're like the next generation racers.

SPEAKER_05 12:25

They're like, yeah, they're the ones that are gonna get pushed into the you know the tour in a couple years, probably.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

So were there so on those level of teams were they just really young, like young riders?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

It was actually there was a lot more like guys that are probably on their way out. Uh and then the top riders were the younger guys.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Okay, gotcha. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Like mentors, the older guys are mentors.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

That makes sense. What was it like lining? I mean, you've done some UCI races where you've lined up against some big big name kits. What was it like lining up in a stage race with that stuff?

SPEAKER_00 12:54

It was not nearly as intense as lining up for a cycle cross World Cup with some of the guys I have, but um just being next to like UAU or Bora at some point and you like see them ride past you, like That's pretty cool. Yeah, it's kind of like just catches your eye for a minute. Those are really the only two teams that like actually did that for me. The rest I was just like, yeah, there's nothing.

SPEAKER_05 13:14

I mean a couple guys on the team, like Andrew said, he's like, Man, it it took me a day because you're kind of like, oh wow, like I'm really here. And he's like, then I realize like, oh, I can do this. Like I can race this race.

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Was it a really so how long of a sta stage race was it?

SPEAKER_00 13:29

It was four days, five stages.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Okay. And then it was like just like legit stages, like mountain stages, sprint stages, what was it?

SPEAKER_00 13:38

The first day was a sprint stage, well, sprint stage. It ended in town on like a cobble climb-ish like each day started in the town square.

SPEAKER_05 13:47

Okay, it was like town square with all these like old buildings, super cool looking, all cobblestone. So it started and finished there twice.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Yeah. I wouldn't say it was like a true sprint stage though, because it was like a pretty steep climb to sprint up, like it was a climber sprint.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Yeah, kind of like a breakaway kind of stage. Like if you were looking at it almost like a tour kind of stage.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

It gets like really narrow going into town, so it's yeah, positioning, and then if you have like a good kick on a steep punch, then it's a sprint for you. But it was what a 70 mile first day was 70 miles, and then like a five-minute prologue TT at the end of the

Cobbles, TTs, And Mountain Finishes

SPEAKER_00 14:25

day.

SPEAKER_05 14:25

And then that was like in the town square on the cobblestones.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Yeah, it was a cobble TT. That's sketchy. The first section was like cobbles big enough to where like you couldn't pedal over them. They're so big, like you would drop your chain or flat. But there was like Is this your first experience with cobbles?

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Yeah, pretty much real cobbles, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

But there was like a five-inch like smooth cobble section in the middle of it, and you just have to like rip up the middle of it, and if you got off, you're like bouncing all over the place. Which I nailed it luckily, but it's it was um one guy rode a T T three, too. Oh everyone else rode road bikes, but there was one section that was like 30 seconds long, and there's pavement, and he made up so much stuff. Oh, I bet. Because he started right behind me, actually, and you can like kind of tell where the gap was, and I put time on him on the cobbles, but he beat me by like 30 seconds. And it was just because he ripped. Is that like the out and back on the road? Yeah, he ripped that pavement section so fast. But then stage two was a mountaintop finish. Um That's cool. Yeah, it was I don't remember that was a smaller mountain though, right? Yeah, it was like an eight mile climb at the end. Um, I was pretty dead that day. That was a bit of a struggle. It's a rough climb. Yeah. Um I was worried about him that day.

SPEAKER_05 15:41

I I fed him when he was off the back, and he was kind of like, I can't. I was like, you better.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

I was going for breakaways early in the race, and okay. I kind of kept getting pushed up there because my teammates were a little shuffled back, so I had to go on a few more than I would have liked, and it uh burnt my legs up a bit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:02

And I mean, like, yeah, give some reference to the speed, like the speed they were going. Like when I was in the car and we would like hit the brakes and slow and be like slower on. I'm like, all right, finally slowed down. We were doing like 50k an hour when it felt slow.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

My gosh. Like that day, like they were freaking ripping. Mostly flat, flat-ish. Um, and I averaged 26 miles an hour with that eight-mile climb at the end, and I was probably going like eight miles an hour of the whole thing. So that's insane. Yeah, that shows how fast we were going into it.

SPEAKER_05 16:33

That's I mean, they're hitting like rollers, you know, through the countryside, like what we would consider a hill here, and they never slow down. That's like over 30.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

That's insane. How can everyone be that fast?

SPEAKER_05 16:44

Well, I think you only need like 30 guys that fast, and that's a lot of Peloton's just pulling, you know, if you're in it, you're just rolling it.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Like it's you're not, I don't think you're soft pedaling, but over there it's like, yeah, like soft pedaling is like 300 plus watts because there's so many like narrow turns and like the road's narrow, like it strings out, and there'll be a train of 100 guys on the back doing 400 watts. Like I got dropped once in crosswinds doing over 500 watts, and they were still just and you got dropped. Yeah, I got back on, but like we came out of this town, and I was like let letting little gaps open through the town, just like so I'd have to slam on the brakes through the turns, and I let a little bit too big of a gap open and just couldn't get back. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

So what's it like racing and something like that? Is it like what you dreamed of as like coming up? Like, this is so cool, this is exactly what I thought it would be, or is it like this is so much harder than I thought it would be, or it's such a different style than I was thought like what what is it like compared to what you thought as a kid growing up watching the tour? I mean or any other big race.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

I don't know, cause like cross, there's so much throw behind it, and you're lining up with Matthew and WoW, like the biggest guys, like it's not quite there for like that level of racing, because like I don't know who any of those guys are. Right. But they're on World Tour teams, so it's cool lining up with those people. Um I mean it's definitely really cool experience, though. Like it shows like the gap isn't as big as you think it is. Like, of course, those guys are on the front all day. Right. I was just sitting in, but right, like it's not that huge of a gap to their like C team people.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

Yeah. Like you see that it's obtainable.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Yeah. When you see like a guy like that and you're like, man, that dude's really fast, and he's on the C team.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

What is that like? Is it something you're like, man, there's just so many levels to this and it just is what it is, or is it like, oh I could see the possibility of getting to a certain level that's kind of close to that. Like in reality.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Yeah, I mean, I think like that level like isn't that far away. Like, even just like I mean, the tour, they do it way longer, but like looking at the speeds of their stages and elevation, it's Romani was about the same. Like the speeds we were averaging with the elevation we did, like the tour's not that much faster, but the high end those guys have is a lot higher than they can repeat it, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

That's what I was thinking, like when I was watching it, you know, like you see a like just like a normal day in the tour, and you're like, man, that's what people train for all year to go do like Copper Triangle in Colorado, and it's one day, and they're like, they trained all year for that, and they just survive. And these guys do it like for three weeks straight.

SPEAKER_05 19:29

Well, like watching these guys, like we get when we get back, and just how how effed they are. Like, I'm like, I don't know how they're gonna go do it again tomorrow. And they go to you know, it's like they do. Uh-huh. Like, I took I took a video of him, I didn't get it soon enough. He was walking backwards down the stairs one day because his legs aren't so. Yeah, in 12 hours, I'm gonna be doing it again.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Do you recover that well, or does everybody just so beat up that it's a fair game because everybody's just gonna be able to do that?

SPEAKER_05 20:04

I don't think I think it's like we're we obviously were really like lower budget and lower staffed. Like one of the teams in our hotel, I could I saw through the crack of their door that was open, like they're getting massaged every night. Like that would make a massive difference to just like work the soreness out. Yeah, like we didn't have every amenity that some of the teams did.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

But budget really matters.

SPEAKER_05 20:27

But for me, for me, I felt like like Marcus was our GC guy and he had like a top 20 finish, and he had he's he's good, but like the real mountaintop finish, he didn't have the best day. But I was like, man, if all of our guys make it to the finish line the last day, I'm gonna feel like that's a success. Right. And I kind of had some conversations with Grant, the director, like what's like what's our goal over here? Because I don't know what to tell them because I don't know what our goal is. Yeah. Is our goal, you know, like because partially it's like you need to be in the mix, you need to the jersey to be seen. Um, but then it got to a point one day I'm like, all right, if the jersey's seen, it's gonna probably end that guy's race. Yeah. Yeah, because it's so hard. And he's you know, he's kind of torn, he's like, Well, I don't I don't want to rob them of the chance to finish, but we need to prove we belong. Right. So that's tough. Yeah, it's it was a hard call because it was like it was Ryan or two others that were basically gonna be the pick.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Because how many guys did y'all take over there?

SPEAKER_05 21:24

Six.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Six, okay. And so but as a writer, do you feel that?

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Or do you know that that's like kind of a conversation that's happening in the background or what's the expectations are like man we I mean I knew the goal was like we obviously knew we weren't actually gonna be in GC contention or anything. I think it was just like gonna break. Like I think that was our biggest goal of the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Is it tele was it televised?

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Yeah. Well, they did it on their Facebook page. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

Um which like that's why like at kilometer zero, like at least two of us were up there and I did that the first three days and After that I was pretty done, but like I mean a lot of it was experience.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Yeah, just cool. And what you had a top 20 guy?

SPEAKER_00 22:11

One day. I don't know what he ended up overall. Like 30s, 40s.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Gotcha. Man. Was it as cool as you thought it would be doing a race like that, or was it just like, man, this is so freaking brutal?

SPEAKER_00 22:22

It was hard.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

I mean Can you imagine doing three weeks of that? No.

SPEAKER_05 22:28

I think I was able to take in in the car. I was like, I had some moments I'm like, man, this is crazy. Because like I'm like, this is what you watch on TV, and I'm in it, and my son is in it up there. Like it's crazy that we're both here. I can't like looking at some of the views, like ripping through all the little villages, it's like what you watch on TV.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Because Romania is sub I've heard Romania's gorgeous.

SPEAKER_05 22:52

It it is, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

I mean, I wouldn't I didn't expect that, but um it's much more mountain y than people probably understand.

SPEAKER_05 22:59

Well, it's at the the town we started in was at the base of the Transylvanian Alps. Oh. So one of the it was like an alpine mountaintop finish the the day after he was talking about it. Real mountains. It was real 18 mile climb at the end.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

How was that coming from Oklahoma City? It was hard.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

I like led our team into the basin, and then I just I got up it. And like that one, we were talking about speeds, I averaged 24 miles an hour for that stage after an 18-mile. And how long was the day? Uh three and a half, four hours. Golly.

SPEAKER_05 23:36

But it was like it's like the the twisty mountain road you see in the tour, and there's like snow up there. That was it was really cool.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

Did you so when you're in the race and in the car, do you guys get do you do you get to take in the sights at all?

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Because you're because you're so pinned. You're pinned, but like when you're not, you're going so fast still. Like when you try to actually look around. And the roads were kind of shit. It's so easy to cross wheels and just make a little mistake.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Yeah, so you don't get to really see anything.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Like people, like a lot of people ask me, like, how was Romania? I'm like, it was honestly just a blur. Like looking at guys back. It's just like ass wheel gas, and then I was just sitting in bed, like staring at my phone because that was all I could do.

SPEAKER_05 24:18

I mean, I had a good amount of time to take it in, I felt like, but but when it's go time in the caravan, it's like it's go time. Well, and you have so many things going on.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

Is it just you in the car?

SPEAKER_05 24:31

No, so there's a mechanic in the back passenger side, that's kind of how you do it. Um, he's there, he's got like a tool roll hanging on the back of the front seat, so he's got all his tools, he's got wheels, we got bikes on the roof, and then we have cooler in the back because we have feed zones, but we also feed from the car, like the feed zone, if they're going 40 miles an hour through a feed zone, they're not all getting bottles, if any of them. So we're feeding from the car a lot. Uh so they'll come back, hand me their empties. So the driver does the feeding. So you're watching the road in front of you, which is a car right in front of you. There's riders all over the place. There's riders coming up from behind you. So if you slam your brakes on, they're gonna hit your bumper. And he was driving manual, and it was a manual. Oh, shut up. So the car they gave it. It was really fun, other than the feeds, but the rest of the time it was like race and go cars.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

It should not be allowed to have a manual on the city.

SPEAKER_05 25:23

Well, so there's a there's a car dealership that just basically like if you don't have a car, we'll donate a car, and that's what they gave us.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

I'd have been like, no oblast there, no stick shift.

SPEAKER_05 25:33

She said, Is this is this problem? I'm like big, I guess not. Very big because it's the only car we got.

SPEAKER_02 25:39

Are you on the correct side? Yeah. Okay. So when we went to Cape to Africa, when Smoke and Brandon um like surprised us or whatever, they got a car and it was you, it's on you're on the other side and it was stick shift. And Brandon, they have the best story of Brandon just ripping into a curb like because

Feeding From The Car In Chaos

SPEAKER_02 25:57

and driving the stick on the wrong side. I was like, oh, like they Brandon had to pay for hubcaps when he when he turned it back down.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Yeah, it'd probably be really hard to get used to it on the side of you.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

Yeah, it's wild.

SPEAKER_05 26:07

The the stick honestly was not, it was only a problem certain feeds. Like the mountain, there was no pro no problems other than like if they were going a speed that was between second and third gear, and I'm like third, because you know, when you hand them a bottle, you do a sticky bottle. Basically, basically you just nudge them back in. You're kind of allowed. But if I was in third and it was lugging, I couldn't get enough. There wasn't enough torque to like speed up. Uh-huh. So like I would take the basically what you do is take the empties, throw them in the back, and then the mechanic's handing you the the fresh ones. You're doing one at a time. But yeah, I would like take a bottle, I'd have to shift gears, and then I would reach out and like shoot them back up with that the other bottle.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

How many times did you come close to either wrecking and or killing someone?

SPEAKER_05 26:55

I one time.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 26:57

So I was I think we're moving. So what you do in the caravan is you're numbered based on your GC order. So you have to stay in that order. And then there's this thing called race radio. So the the commissaire in the front car has a radio that goes to all the cars. And we have radios to the riders, but if they want to feed, they'll go to the back of the Peloton and hold a bottle up, and race radios like a comp edge for a feed. So then you get out of line and you full gas it to the front. And it's usually everyone wants to feed at the same time because the parking course is ideal. So all these cars line up, laying on the horns. There's riders feeding, you have to get around. Like you're just you're getting you're trusting that everybody knows what's going on.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

So as a rider, how do you know what to do?

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Do you just I was just kind of swerving around and hoping I didn't get hit.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

I mean, yeah, that's what I was saying. Do they like tell you, like, hey, when you do this, you go here, when you do this, you go there, or is it just like, I mean, I saw them.

SPEAKER_05 27:58

I'm gonna show you this video because you can hear the car coming up from behind us.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

And I'll try to explain it.

SPEAKER_05 28:05

So that car's trying to go past him to feed, and he's in the lane.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

So and so he's honking at Ryan.

SPEAKER_05 28:11

So I told him to come over so we could get out of the lane.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

Oh, okay, and then they're gonna pass. Oh.

SPEAKER_05 28:17

So every car's doing that. The whole time.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

The whole time.

SPEAKER_05 28:20

So the one time we almost got in a wreck, we weren't feeding yet. We were about to, it was when Andrew broke his wheel. So we had a rider flat, destroyed the wheel, and then we tried to pace him back in, but the I think they're pretty lenient on you pacing your rider to have a mechanical. You can't just drag him all the way, but they'll kind of turn a blind eye. Right. But he flatted at a time that a lot of guys got dropped, and I think the commissaire thought he got dropped, so he told us to leave him. And that was the big mountain day, and I was like, he's fucked. Because when we left him to catch up, I was doing 70 or 80k, just ripping through this town. And so we we come into this town and we're like, we're also being called defeat at the same time we're stopped on the side of the road. So I'm a little frantic, like, yeah, we gotta get up here. And then uh we got in line and someone from from the Bora Red Bull team flatted and that car out of nowhere pulled in front of the car in front of me and completely stopped. Oh jeez. And I looked up because I was doing something, I looked up and there was a car, like it stopped. I hit the brakes as hard as I could, and we didn't hit them, and somehow the car behind didn't hit us. Oh my gosh. But it was like a bumper to bumper thing. Other than that, there was not any like really close calls. But there's a lot of like you're really close to a rider, and like I'm uncomfortable, but I'm trusting like that rider knows I'm here because you're just on the well that's the thing, is when I watch the tour and you watch all that stuff, like there's just it's just mass chaos in the cars with riders. Oh, I had my watch on, so I would I would look back at an heart rate and I could see when it got really busy. Yeah. Because the rest of the time it's just boring. Like almost like nodding off. You're just like driving through the country. Um, but it was it was I'd never driven in the caravan. And so doing it for the first time in that race, I was nervous for about an hour. The first day I'm like, oh, that's not bad. Right. And then you kind of you just kind of learn it. Yeah. But you've got to be you gotta like if you're going down a descent, you gotta watch behind you because riders that get dropped can catch on the descent. You'll look up and someone's just on your bumper.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

That was the only scary moment I had as I stopped to pee and I caught back up on a descent, and I was going on the inside, and this car just like it was it was close. They almost clipped my foot.

SPEAKER_05 30:41

So the cars are supposed to watch, and it's like depending on where you're at, you get all the way to the outside and get out of the way, or you slam on the brakes on the inside and give the rider the corner. Right. Uh like we fed on a dis a a twisty descent, and my rider's like feeding, and we're coming into a tight turn. I just had to slam the brakes on so he could make the turn. You just have to you have to be able to like everybody just trusts all that stuff at once.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

Did did it happen? I mean, was there accidents?

SPEAKER_05 31:09

No.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

That's what's wild.

SPEAKER_05 31:11

I think everyone that does it they just know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

Everybody just knows. Yeah. And everybody just trusts that everybody's gonna do what they're supposed to be doing, and they do.

SPEAKER_05 31:18

I think being a rider, so like Vanessa's driven caravan and I've been the jumper, uh-huh, and I'm not comfortable with that because she doesn't understand she doesn't understand the change of pace, I feel, as much as I do with like going into a climb or a descent, or if a rider's on the bumper. Um she does she does pretty good with it, but it's like I can tell what's gonna happen with the bikes around me. Like if a bike's on my bumper, I'm watching up, I see all the brake lights coming, I'll let him stay there as long as I can, but then I swerve to the right. So like if he doesn't realize I'm about to stop, he's got an exit. You're kind of giving them a way out because they are right on your bumper.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

I mean, yeah, like inches. Yeah. How is that as a rider? When you're coming back up through the caravan, is it fun or is it scary?

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Or is it just I mean it's fun. Like, it depends on how fast you're going. Like sometimes you're like fully pinned still, just trying to hold the car's wheel, I guess. But um, it's normally not that scary unless you're descending. Yeah. It gets it gets a little sketchy sometimes, but I we were he was pacing me. Yes, was that yesterday? Yeah. To the Tuesday. To the Norman ride, and I hit a hole and broke my rear wheel. Oh my god. Yeah, you can't see that.

SPEAKER_05 32:30

I saw this giant hole coming, I'm like, I don't know what to do because I can't tell him, and then it's wham.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

How okay, so how is it on the radios? Because when I riders, uh-huh. Can you hear anything?

SPEAKER_00 32:41

It's sometimes you have to talk like very slow and like pronounce everything very well, or else it just is completely.

SPEAKER_05 32:49

Our mechanic was on the radio a lot. I started getting on the radio more, like normally the director is, but with me shifting and driving, I was just like, tell them this. But he he has like a really quiet, soft voice. So I felt like they were having trouble hearing him because you gotta talk loud and clear and slow because you got wind noise. Yeah, that's what I was wondering. So if you talk quiet and and fast, like words get missed. Yeah. Um when they talk to us, that's what I could hear. Like they called back when Andrew flatted. We heard like Andrew flat. Like you can't make out a lot. You're like, all right, we know we're going to a flat.

SPEAKER_03 33:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Um I had a big request one day because I need I didn't bring enough gels, and I like it I process it in the neutral rollout. So I was like, hey dad. Dad, are you there? Dad was like, I'm about to say a lot. So I was like, can you ask Yemma to put a gel in the water bottle lid when he feeds me? That's funny.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Everybody else's like, Jesus, these two. Dad. It's like elves. But it was really clear. I could hear him.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Well, I was like, making sure he knew I was about to say a lot.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

That's fantastic. Oh, that's good stuff. All right. Um, any other races you want to talk about that you've done that have been super cool recently?

SPEAKER_05 34:08

Um, me or him?

SPEAKER_02 34:10

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 34:11

What do you I think New York was GP New York

GP New York And Traffic Nightmares

SPEAKER_05 34:15

was super cool. I think I don't think we've talked about that. Because that's been so what GP New York is, is it's like a massive grand fondo. Okay. Like it's what it how much does it cost? It's like a crazy amount of money to do it.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

Really? But it's like you get a lot of money. But it's like you get I think they might give you a rental car for the weekend. Oh my gosh. You get a full kit, you get clothing for the entire weekend. We start on what bridge is it?

SPEAKER_05 34:40

It's also a race, but this there's a fondo with it. Okay. So they shut down the George Washington.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

Yeah, the George Washington. Oh, cool. The coolest part about that is we Your pictures are with you guys staging on the bridge, right? Oh, yeah, that was. We were neutral support. We weren't team support. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 34:55

We had a team car, but Tyler and I were neutral one, so we're at the front of the race. So we get to go onto the bridge and like be on the bridge with everything. So it was kind of weird, just like you can see New Jersey on this side, you see New York on this side. There's two signs hanging because we're on the state line. So you're like, you feel the bridge like rocking.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

The bridge is moving the whole time. It was pretty cool. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

But then we like rolling what a random like a life's like life experience that is.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

It's pretty weird just like standing there.

SPEAKER_02 35:23

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 35:24

I thought the weirdest part was there's a porta potty and I was peeing. I'm just like, I'm just on the bridge? No, I was in yeah. Well, there's like a construction zone. And you're peeing on the bridge? Like, how this is weird. It's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 35:37

That's a that's a good like two truths and a lie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:41

But yeah, that was that was a cool event.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

How what was the race? Like how what how far was it? Like, what was it like?

SPEAKER_05 35:47

Um 80 something miles, I think. Um it was the sketchiest race I've ever been in. It was very like traffic control.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 35:56

Like, I don't know how so.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Do you go into Jersey or into New York?

SPEAKER_00 36:00

It's mostly in Jersey. Okay. But we start and finish in.

SPEAKER_05 36:03

It's it's kind of an out and back loop. But gotcha. So the things I saw, you know, one thing we're we're coming down a descent, you know, we're going fast. There's a woman running up the descent, on coming, like no one got her off the road, and she's pushing a stroller with her kid in it.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

And we're going 45 miles an hour, and nobody's calling it out on the radio. And she doesn't move.

SPEAKER_05 36:28

No. Like her other child that's a little older is running on the sidewalk. There's a sidewalk. Uh-huh. To me, I'm like, you're putting your life and your child's life completely at risk because you don't want to move over for probably 20 seconds for this whole thing to go by. Oh my god. And then the that was I think that was the second worst one. The worst one was we're another descent, two-lane road, uh, twisty. We're coming around a left corner, and we're probably we're probably doing 45. And uh one of the commissaire motos is next to us because it's a full road enclosure, so he's in the opposite lane. We come around the corner and see a car coming up, which is someone someone that's a fireman of some sort and like the fire SUV.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:15

Driving up, and Tyler luck Tyler sees it, slams the brakes on to leave a gap, and this moto went between the two.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_05 37:22

And that guy's he's like mad that it's happening. He's yelling at everyone, like I guess he refused to get off the road. Oh my gosh. But like the traffic enclosures were terrible for that. Like, I how someone didn't get killed in that race, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

I got really close to getting hit by a car. It was one of the Commissaire cars, actually. So I don't know what they were doing. But we're going down that twisty descent, and it we were in the lead group of like 20 guys, and it was like single file, and he was trying to pass me on the descent, but he's like coming up on my inside and was almost like T-boning me. He did it three times, and I like smacked the front of the car and like was yelling at him, and then he like finally went off. But like my elbow is probably like maybe an inch from hitting the side of the car because they were like trying to dive mob me to pass me.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

I think people have a clue how good a bike handlers people like professionals are because like the average person, if a car comes within like a foot and a half of them driving down, like when they're riding to Lake Hefner, they're like, Oh my god, that was so close and so scary. But like you're in a group, like first off almost getting hit by cars, also a group of people, because we ride, everybody stays in a two by two-ish kind of situation. There, when I watch it, it's just like mass, it's like just mass chaos all the time. Like, there is not holding a wheel, it's like you hold that wheel

Elbows, Yelling, And Holding Position

SPEAKER_02 38:40

and somebody's trying to push you off the wheel with their elbows, and now you're trying not to cross a wheel. It's like it's just chaos the entire time. I can't, I don't it's shocking there's so not so many more wrecks.

SPEAKER_06 38:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

What's it like being in the middle of that chaos?

SPEAKER_00 38:53

Are you just like fried at the end of the day, like mentally? I mean, yeah, it takes a lot mentally, but like me, like I'm pretty comfortable with bumping people. So like it doesn't matter Is everybody like that though? No, they're not. I'm like the only person on my team I would say that's like really comfortable with that.

SPEAKER_01 39:10

Oh and kind of surprising.

SPEAKER_00 39:12

That'd be terrifying. Yeah, like Nick, he's like a smaller guy on our team, and like I mean, he'll do it if he needs to, but he really doesn't like it. So it like puts him in a lot of weird spots, and yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:24

Ryan's the enforcer.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

Yeah, like I I I'm the one that always has to get in fights with people, and people are always like, Ryan, why are you picking fights? I'm like, I'm like holding our team in position.

SPEAKER_05 39:34

And I have this German guy yelling at me trying to take me off the road, and I'm like I mean you can imagine it's like, yeah, they're gonna yell at you and bump you to intimidate you out of the way. You have to do it.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

That's a lot of people like they fumble under that pressure and just let them have the wit. Like that's what all the guys in the crits do over here. Like, they scream and yell at you, and you just like okay. I don't care, I'm not on your team. Yeah, like I'm not here to help you out.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

Yeah, it's not my problem, man. So get get in line.

SPEAKER_05 40:00

I think I think it's a pretty common tactic to yell at you and make you think you're doing something wrong just so you get out of the way.

SPEAKER_02 40:05

But even if you are doing something wrong, okay. Yeah, big deal. Not my problem. I mean, okay. Yeah. What are you gonna? I mean that's a you problem.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Yeah, that's not a I've been at Tulsa so many times. Like, people are like, stop die bombing our train. I'm like, I'm not on your team. Right. I'm moving up where I can.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

This isn't like etiquette class. Yeah. Do you feel like doing some of these things you're just like, oh man, like doing I mean not necessarily local stuff, but doing like say like MavCrit or Tulsa Tough and stuff, it's just gonna be so much more calm because you've been in so much more chaos.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

Being in the group at Maverick, I was like, this is weird. It's just like I definitely like could feel like people had a little more respect for me in it, so it was like I wasn't having to like fight people for a position, but it was like you know, it was so calm.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

Seems so and it used to be so chaotic, yeah, and sketchy.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

Yeah. Like Tulsa was really chaotic, and then I went and did the U23 crit at Nationals, and it was like that was the calmest, most boring race I've ever done.

SPEAKER_05 41:01

I was like Until a bike hit you in the head. Well, yeah, yeah, that was that was good.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

Yeah, yeah, that was wild, but it was like literally just like sitting on the back, like doing 200 watts the whole race, and it was so boring.

Cyclocross Plans And UCI Points

SPEAKER_02 41:12

But you getting ready for cross, I get already?

SPEAKER_00 41:14

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

Starting to lean into that. I guess it is almost August.

SPEAKER_05 41:22

And then like the week after that, it's huh?

SPEAKER_02 41:24

Maybe two.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

Maybe undecided on Green Mountain.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

But and then cross. So what's the back to Europe for cross?

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Um, yeah, I don't know exactly what my schedule's gonna look like. I might try to go do some of the November World Cups and then try to be home for Christmas and then like go over right after Christmas or go before Christmas, come back, something like that.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

So perfect scenario is a lot of Europe racing.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

Um well yeah, I'll do all the US races still because that's where there's not that many. Yeah, there's not yeah, there's not a whole lot, but I can get points and hopefully a good amount of money at those. So Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

So do do points and stuff carry over, or they start all over again?

SPEAKER_05 42:05

They they go a calendar year. So the from when he got his last point, you know, like if he only got one point at one race, a calendar year.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

They expire at that race the next year.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

Okay, gotcha. So you just always gotta be ready to be fine.

SPEAKER_05 42:19

He has so many at this point. Like, you know, for a couple years it was like, man, just try to get away. You got a point. Yeah, like how many do you have now?

SPEAKER_00 42:27

Uh close to 400. I'm ninth in U-23 standings in the world. That's so cool. I'm fourth in US standings overall, and then like 53rd in the world or something. Okay. So like that's wild. I'm set up pretty good going into this year as long as I can.

SPEAKER_05 42:41

You gotta you got a good call-up of the first race, if that goes bad. You you have good call-ups, it's like that's how you that's how you're set up to accumulate more.

SPEAKER_02 42:48

Yeah, because you already have once you're in, it just makes it so much easier. Yeah. It's not easy, but it's easier.

SPEAKER_05 42:54

Yeah, you get to a point where you can't earn them anymore, then you're in trouble. But yeah, it's like it's not there. I felt like when he was a junior, so much writing on every single start. And it's like, damn it, didn't get a point today. Yeah. Like, maybe we get a point tomorrow. Next week will be a little better.

SPEAKER_02 43:11

I remember you guys doing that.

SPEAKER_05 43:12

And it's just like you just need a break. And then, you know, like finally he he got there.

SPEAKER_00 43:18

Yeah, I had like three weekends last year, and I like went from like 18 points to 200 points, just like that, and then it was like, don't have to worry about call-ups at all.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

Yeah, then in life gets just yeah, but so many better opportunities.

SPEAKER_05 43:30

And then there's no, well, I'd have done better if I started up front. Right.

SPEAKER_02 43:33

You're up there. Then you gotta then you gotta do it. It worked. It worked. Let's hope it works this year. Where is uh where's worlds out this year? Or and cross out.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

Oofstead. I think it's Osted. It's um yeah, Netherlands.

SPEAKER_05 43:47

It's like um Isn't it the sand race where they had worlds?

SPEAKER_00 43:51

Yeah, it's I don't know if you will r like know this course, but it's the massive flyover, like the biggest flyover you've ever seen and drops in the sand. Yeah. I don't think that's gonna be in it. I don't think that whole beach section is I think there'll be some sand, but not nearly as much. Gotcha. And then I hope not at all. Cross nationals is Fayetteville again.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

Oh, Fayetteville. Okay. It's because it's there to your that's right. Okay. Cool. Um Race, you wanted to talk about Mount Mike Nationals?

SPEAKER_05 44:18

We can, or we can talk about your stage race. We've let's talk about us a lot.

SPEAKER_02 44:21

I know. Let's finish up with this because then we're gonna with that will lead into the e-bike goodness. Yeah. You're one of them now. I know. I can't wait to get fat. It's gonna be so great. Drink so much more beer. Clydesdale, here we come. That's right. I'll waddle right to the start line.

SPEAKER_05 44:43

I'm about to find out.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Exactly right. Uh yeah, so let's talk about mountain bike nationals. Well, first off, are you doing any more mountain bike at all? Rye, Ryan.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

Either in the mountain bike, and I it's not the focus right now, but if something were to happen, I can. Like, I'm not like against mountain biking. It just didn't fit. It's not what I'm doing right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 45:04

Just walk by and look at it on the wall. You know what's really funny? My mom sent me this picture the other day. I should find it and show it to you at least. And it's Ryan when he was like doing Kids' Cup. Those are always great pictures. He had like this dump truck jersey. Oh, here it is.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

Those pictures are always fantastic.

SPEAKER_05 45:25

She had repaired the zipper because he really liked it. So here's the picture.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

How first off, how old are you in this picture? I think this is the cover for the episode.

SPEAKER_05 45:37

So she said, I mean, that is fantastic. Just just thank me when you uh racing the Tour de France one, you know, for sure, because that's the picture that's showing. He said, I'll never race the Tour de France because I'm not a roadie. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 45:53

Fair enough. Uh-huh. Now look at you. Yeah, be careful what you say. Mm-hmm. It all comes back to you.

Mountain Bike Nationals And Why Go

SPEAKER_05 45:59

Yeah, I I just I did Mountain Bike Nationals last week. I worked for a different team. It's a team out of Durango that I just by chance got connected with in Fayetteville earlier this year, and I guess they like me, so they brought me back into ranch, which is a lot different than the road scene. I mean, it's they're very low maintenance. They don't they're not used to having a mechanic, so they don't ask for a lot. I'm almost like I'm forcing them to let me be their mechanic because they're really they're self-sufficient because they're used to it. Like I went to their house to like go through the bikes, and they're trying to like swap their own wheels. I'm like, guys, just go in the house. I have nothing else to do here. But also that's the difference in I think it's just difference in a program and disciplines, and you know, I mean, I think it I talking to their their director, I'm like, I think it's super cool that they're they're just they don't these guys are good too. Like they were top six in the elite race. Oh wow on the podium. Like they're not I mean they're really good. Yeah. And there was never like I never hear them talk about what they don't have. And and then mountain biking, it's a little different what each team has. There's some teams that have pretty big setups and support, but like they're in a house, we got a tent, and then they got me. They're pumped, man. That's like the dream. They go out and crush it and they don't make any excuses, and I'm like, I think that's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 47:20

But I also think that's mountain biking.

SPEAKER_05 47:21

I think it yeah, it's just a little different.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

Yeah, it's just a different mentality.

SPEAKER_05 47:25

But it's it's so we went to Roanoke last year, but he because he did marathon. Yep. But we only did marathon. So they do what's cool about how they have this set up now is marathon's one weekend, and then midweek is short track, and then the weekend is sh is cross-country. So if you want to do them all, you're there for a week, you can do every discipline. Um it's also great for spectators to get to go watch it. Phenomenal. It's in the middle of downtown. Oh, that's cool. It's in a park. So what I we didn't even look at any of that. We did we did marathon in left town last year. Um so the short track is in like the starts on like this little brick road in in downtown, and then there's just like this hill, this grass hill, and they built like a rock garden at the top of it. But it's like the spectators, it was super cool, like the elite races. There was tons of people out there watching. And some of the riders had some complaints about the course, and I'm just like, all right, so you put the course out at the XC venue, and who's coming to watch? Right. Your family. Right. But there was like all these people from the town you write by all these restaurants. Super cool. Like, I wanted to ride the I rode over to ride the course actually, because I didn't have anything going on that day. And I was like, man, this course looks awesome. I want to ride it. But there were races back to back for like three hours, and one of them was my age group. And I would I sat there for a minute and I'm like, You should have. I'm like, I know Vanessa could get me in. I was like, uh, I was like, man, I know how that's gonna go. So I just left and went to the XC course.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

It's gonna suck and you're gonna get pissed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:00

But I really wanted to ride that course. Um so I went out to the XC course and rode. But yeah, I mean I I made that post the other day because one, I think it's a bummer that like Oklahoma as a state has kind of almost just gone back into the very basic grassroots. There's people here that are good bike racers, and that that cross-country venue's not at a ski resort. It's a really fun, like I think my laps were like 13-14 minutes or something. It's just on a hillside, it's very flowy, it's got some jumps in it, it's got some hard climbs, but nothing sustained. It's like of of the mountain bike, I've been to three mountain bike nationals. It's it's the most fair course you could ask for.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

I always think it's so stupid that they host any nationals whatsoever in like the state of Colorado. Yeah. Or something similar to that. Yeah, it's ridiculous. For any cross, mountain bike.

SPEAKER_05 49:56

I think they're starting to see that they know that. And then I think a lot of times the hang up is like no one else puts in a bid. So um but yeah, it's there for one more year, so that's why I put that out. I'm like, man, everyone has a year to get ready. There's people here that could compete for podiums.

SPEAKER_02 50:12

So they still have all the categories and stuff at Nationals?

SPEAKER_05 50:14

Yeah, it's age group. So it's essentially like cat one two three, it's pretty pretty much open, and then they break them down, they have single speed. They had e-bike. I don't know if they're gonna have e-bike again, but they should. There's an e-bike protest and e-bike protest. I think the women's e-bike race had two people. Oh no. Which was the race the protest was in.

SPEAKER_02 50:35

Oh what?

SPEAKER_05 50:36

Wait, and then the men's had like nine. So I I don't know if it's a viable thing.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

Well, I mean, they have e-bike world championships. Yeah. A woman that I was riding next to at uh rule of three, she had rainbow stripes. Or was it rainbow stripes or I think she had stars and bars. And I like I wrote up next year, we're just talking. I was like, hey, what's the what's the stripes for? And then we were talking about something, she goes, Oh, and I won e-bike nationals. And I'm like, they have an e-bike nationals? That's hilarious and awesome. Good for you.

SPEAKER_05 51:07

What's funny?

SPEAKER_02 51:08

Because they have e-bike worlds.

SPEAKER_05 51:10

I'm not gonna touch on this on the podcast. I'll tell you later.

SPEAKER_02 51:13

Because they have e-bike world championships, and some of the like bigger riders ride in it, which is wild and awesome.

SPEAKER_05 51:19

It's not, it's just not catching on at national. I don't know if they'll continue with it or not. Makes sense, but yeah, if you're a single speeder, they've got single speed men's and women's. Cool. Then they have I think the age groups right now are five year. Okay. Maybe they're gonna go to ten year if they don't numbers don't get better. Okay. But yeah, I mean, if you're a decent cat one or two, like you could probably go compete. I mean, and I you know, I might know where it's gonna be after Rona, and you would be able maybe to compete there as well. But yeah, I just think it would be cool. Like there was a time where there was probably four to five current national champs in Oklahoma, and now there's like nobody even goes to the event.

SPEAKER_02 52:01

Nobody even goes outside of Oklahoma. First off, nobody races in Oklahoma, but also nobody goes outside of Oklahoma and races at all anymore either.

SPEAKER_05 52:07

Yeah, and I I think you know, I had lunch with Saxby today and we were talking about this, and I was like, man, I think there's a lot of people that just think, well, I'm not good enough to do that. And they don't do it. And there's people that are good enough. Maybe you're not gonna win, but like getting on a podium at National is a bit of a good thing. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 52:21

Yeah, it's real cool.

SPEAKER_05 52:22

And there's people that are capable of that.

SPEAKER_02 52:25

Well, just going racing a real race is cool.

SPEAKER_05 52:27

Yeah, I agree. I mean, just doing something at a a a higher level and and that's it. And I think maybe just the post hopefully puts some attention on the fact that there is a higher level and it is possible for people. Like, I would have never thought I could do it. But like, like I've said before, like Jake went and won a national title, and I'm like, well shit, I could do that. He did it. And then like other people followed in line from there, but then that just kind of it seems like that kind of died off. Like a lot of people Jake and Tulsa won national championship? Yeah, cross. He won the year before I won.

SPEAKER_02 52:59

And that sorry pastor raced against my category at mountain biking. No wonder he would whoop my ass. No, not that Jake. Not that Jake. I was like Jake Lasley. Oh, Laslie. I was like, uh Beeson. We're working on Beeson. Beeson Beeson could win one. Yeah, he's so fast. He's so fast. He just needs the consistency. I was like, no wonder he whooped my ass so bad. Yeah, okay. No, yeah, that would be lame. Yeah, exactly. I was like, wait a minute. Uh-huh. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 53:26

But yeah, I just I don't know, man. It's national championships is such a cool event. It's got like such a special feel to it.

SPEAKER_02 53:33

But people have here's a here's one of my observations. And so people have so much ego. Well, first off, cycling is just full of ego, but they get so much ego in the results that they only race like shitty races because they want the podium picture. Which I'm like, you didn't beat anybody, so what's it worth? Like, I have granted, they are like technically national championships. I'm not wearing stars and bars on anything because they are against like no one, right? Because it just is what it is not like a real one. I mean, it is a real one, but it's not a real one. There is levels to national championships, in my opinion, and or level of races. But it'd be like Rai Rabbi, like, well, I don't want to go race that Romania race because I'm not gonna, I'm just like trying to finish.

SPEAKER_05 54:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:18

Well, okay, but what an awesome experience. What cool memories. Like, and you got to go do it and you've got to find out. Like, okay, this is where I stack up in real life, not I just race the cowboy crit like Winsy and Tuesday.

SPEAKER_05 54:31

I went and rode stage one on the day I had a part of stage one, and I was doing the climb, and I was like, man, I should just quit riding. I really thought like this is this is sad. Like what I'm doing compared to what I watched them do. I don't why am I even doing this more?

SPEAKER_02 54:48

But that makes you gives you a true appreciation of what you think you're good, and you're there's so many levels to good in everything that anybody does. There's so many levels of good.

SPEAKER_05 54:57

I don't know, man. If I got two people to go to nationals at that post, like that would be cool. Just to get someone from Oklahoma to go.

SPEAKER_02 55:05

But even more go to the cross nationals, it's three hours away.

SPEAKER_05 55:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:09

Like, there's no reason that we don't have 15 people over there.

SPEAKER_05 55:12

The Mount Mountain Bike Nationals was a course that I would I would enjoy riding all day. Like, I had limited time and I didn't like having to stop when I had to, because the course was so much fun. And it wasn't like overly now. I did have some conversations. Like, there's they do different courses. They do like three different in the black being like UCI or high school. I rode that course and I was like, man, that's that course is not hard enough.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

Oh, okay. It was it was easy. Because you have done some of those, because you went to the UCI races or whatever, and uh the one at Snowshoe. Yeah, yeah, and you're like that course.

SPEAKER_05 55:48

If you're comparing like this the black course was still an amateur course, they need to make it harder. So next year it could be harder than it is now, but like any age group is not gonna ride that. It's gonna be like 15 to 16, and then UCI categories. But yeah, I mean I just I think it'd be I think people would enjoy the experience. The events run really not not all national championships are great, but that one was really smooth, really cool place. Not the best town to hang out in, but not much there. It's pretty rough in places. Oh interesting. Yeah, Roanoke's a rough town, but I mean there's two, there's a UCI cross race there and a national mountain bike championship. So cool. Um yeah. All right, and if anyone has questions, like like I said in the post, I'm happy to give advice or steer people in the right direction to help them go do that event. Because I just think it would be cool to get more people from Oklahoma. I mean, you have Texas represent all the states around us are represented.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

Um nobody was there for me.

SPEAKER_05 56:46

I mean, there could be, and I'm missing it, so if I am sorry, but not nothing I no one I saw that I knew.

SPEAKER_02 56:54

All right.

Oz Stage Race Mud, Flats, And Fun

SPEAKER_02 56:55

Uh on the mountain biking thing, let's talk about the Oz stage race. Oz stage race make this one quick.

SPEAKER_05 57:00

You're a stage racer too.

SPEAKER_02 57:01

I am it's true. I'll give you some tips for I write. Uh no, I called Smoke to come pick me up because that definitely happened to me on stage two. Uh I will say for people that want to do a stage mountain bike stage race, it is by far and away the easiest one I've done as far as every piece of it. Like the logistics, because you can go out and pre-ride the course so you know exactly what you're getting. You can set your equipment up so you know all of that stuff. You don't have to guess. There's no altitude, which most of them are in the mountains. Um it's not a big field.

SPEAKER_05 57:38

I mean you're pretty like close to town.

SPEAKER_02 57:41

Yeah, you start in so where the you basically you s you finish in the exact same spot every day, which is in the field across from the new bike park, the downhill bike park. So we did uh it was an optional prologue. You didn't have to do it, but if you did it, that was who got the jerseys for stage one, essentially. So we got to ride before they opened up the bike park, the downhill bike park, dude. You two would lose your minds there. First off, you might kill yourself, but you would have to he's a road biker, no. Oh, it's he's a roadie, I forgot. You probably couldn't handle it. Yeah, that's true. Well, you could ride the green course that we rode. Yeah. Um, so you take the ski lift up and they put us on. I was thinking it was just gonna be a downhill the whole time. Plus, you couldn't really warm up at all, you know. So you get on the go up there and then you stand in line and wait, and they're just like, Yeah, you know, where are you? Just when you're ready to go, go, and everybody's just a line, so you're just going and you're lined up by whoever you're lined up behind. So people were pretty cool, but like, oh, you look way faster than me, so go in front or whatever. And it was like, I was thinking, legit just gonna be a downhill. Well, it was like two miles downhill, and it was just like a basically a pump track, which took some time to kind of get the flow of it and kind of get used to it. Plus, the gravel's all like brand new on that trail. So when you're outside of the six-inch line, it's super like super actual gravel. Yeah, it was very loose over hard. So if you're not right where you want to be or right where you need to be, it's sketch. So once you kind of get that field out and whatever, it was fine. Well, about two miles in, there's a hard like U-turn back up a hill that they had just mowed to make the course longer. And it was like, oh, I was not ready for it.

SPEAKER_05 59:21

And when you decided to buy an e-bike, yes, yes, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_02 59:25

I was like, wow, this is really hard. Well, this is what happened to me. Uh so you go through that and you kind of get this part, and then it's like an open field, and it's like a legit like wall of a hill that's like grow. I don't know how steep it was. It was 20% probably legit, and it's a gravel road up, and it's probably it's a quarter mile climb, is what it was, or just under a quarter mile climb. And I'll be damned that asshole cameraman, video camera guy, wasn't at the top. And he sees me, he comes running down it, and I'm like, I was just gonna phone it in, just put it in the easiest gear and get up it. I was even considering because people were walking. Yeah, I was like, Well, I may just get off and walk. What does it matter? It doesn't matter for anything. And he comes down, he's following me. So of course I can't get off and walk. So now I'm trying to like ride hard and he's talking to me. I'm like, so I'm like, if I just get up this, he can go away, then I'll recover and I'll just soft pedal and like whatever. Nope. He jumps on his e-bike and follows me, and he's right behind me because then it goes for like another like 500 yards uphill.

unknown 1:00:26

Gallin.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:27

Oh, it was awful. And he kept going, You're doing so good. Where are you from? And I'm like, breathing out of my butt. I can't do anything, I can't function. Oh my god. So, but it was super fun. So it was basically kind of like an enduro kind of thing, it was really fun. Um, that was the first day, and then the next day was back 40. And it we're kind of the full loop, pretty much, yeah, for the most part. It's a little bit longer.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:53

Um, and I were there, I was like trail markings and all that stuff for fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:01

No, couldn't miss anything, and they had good aid stations, like it was awesome, and they paid fantastic money for the overall, like for winners. Like, I think they had like $15,000 or $18,000 prize pool, like it was real money. Yeah, um, and it we were standing in the corral to start, and it started raining, and it did not stop raining until about an hour after we were done.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:21

I mean, luckily, other than the big slick rocks, the rest of the trail is usually fine when it's like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:26

There's a lot of really slick rocks, yeah. I ate shit so hard, like going off of like basically like you know, like when you kind of come out and you're kind of on like a paved trail and you kind of just jump back. Kind of the back 40, like when you start, because they took us off another direction and we ended up back on the back 40. So, like early on in the back 40, when you go past the sign, so we did it counterclockwise, so like right when you're in the bottom parts that's flat, you know, so it's that part, and you kind of come out of the sections, and there's like just maybe like a six-inch rock to pop up on to go into the next little part, and I lift my wheel up and touched it down on that rock.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:02

I have nightmares about those things.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:04

I landed on the ground so fast and so hard.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:08

It was that you don't stand a chance on the rocks.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:11

No, and they're covered in mud.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:12

There's not any like skill, just you're just gonna eat shit.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:16

Yeah, instantly. So, and then you're in a line, so then you want to hurry to get out because now you've made everybody stop. It was so it, but it was super fun. I've never been that dirty in my entire life. Yeah, ever. It was um, and that's the day my dropper stopped. So yeah, um, but it was super fun. We got done, everything was fine, we survived. Next day was um was next day little sugar or whatever it's called, tunnel, tunnel vision. Yeah, tunnel vision. So we did that one. Um, it was fun, great, no big deal. And then the last day is a shorter, you have more gravel the last day. So last day you kind of do some of hand cut, and then you'll do some of the rule of three core gravel roads that as connectors to like the next trail. So you did slaughter pin, you did hand cut, you did just kind of that outlier stuff, and it was a shorter day, but fantastic course. Fan the amenities at the end after every stage, they have a tent set up there and tons of furniture. You had smoothie bar, they had great food, buff like a buffet. Every night they had stuff, but we didn't go to that, like the night things.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:21

Did you, or did someone else tell me they had like people to wash their bikes and probably probably sort of wash your bike?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:27

Yeah, I think you could do that. We just did them at the house, it wasn't a big deal. Um, but there was nothing that they could have done to make it a better course and race and for the year one, yeah. And it was it was a couple hundred bucks. I mean, by far and away, it was as good as any stage race I've ever done.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:44

Besides, I feel like the price seems almost seems high because it's just like almost our trails right there. But if it were like anywhere else in the country, it'd seem like a good deal. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:54

If you'd never been to Bentonville, you're like four hundred dollars. Yeah, fantastic because you got to do the bike park, you got great food every day. And if you went to the things at night, you got like beers and wine and food and like snacks at night if you wanted to go to that stuff. So there's tons of stuff if you wanted to be a part of it, but we just stay at the house at night and it was what it is, what it was. But um, highly recommend to anybody that ever wants to do a stage race or dip your toe into that. It's so much more I guess biker friendly than you don't have to travel far, you know, it's easy to go to and go do, and you're not at altitude, and yeah, it's highly recommend. I I would consider doing it again next year, yeah. So but yeah, that was the final nail in the coffin for my e-bike situation.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:40

But we talked about that right after that, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:42

Yeah, so but so day two, I flatted. I was like halfway through, I was feeling fantastic. I was legitimately at the halfway points 36 miles, I was a mile 18, just flowing down a fun downhill. It's like this is so and I legitimately said, This is so fun out loud, I was by myself, and 10 seconds later, and it was like a rock like the size of your phone just laying in the middle of the trail. They somebody had kicked out from the side and it's just laying there, and I missed it with my front tire. And the second my back wheel hit it, I knew it. I like I hadn't heard it yet, but I knew it. It wasn't, I was just waiting, and it just busted the bead and punched a hole in the top, and I plugged it, and I was like trying to fill it up with my little auto thing, and then I used all of that and I couldn't get still, you know. I was just so I hiked it back up, and there's a guy at the crossing that like crossing the road there, and uh he's like, Man, you know, I'll help you. I live right here. So I go into his garage and he pulls out his air compressor and trying to get a candle. He's like, Well, I'll swap your tire for you if you want to do that. I'm like, We're done. Like, I get it, but like I don't care. Like, because if you don't finish a stage, they just give you max time for the stage and you get to go again the next day. And I'm not trying to win anything.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:49

It's cool that you're not done. Yeah, that you get to ride the next day, you just get to go.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:52

So it was fine. It was and um, so it was fun.

Learning Speed On An E-Bike

SPEAKER_02 1:05:55

I just called Smoke to come pick me up and we did that, but um, yeah, highly recommend. But that's when I decided to get an e-bike because I'd be riding along, dying trying to get up a climb. And grandma would come past me, Are you doing so good? And on her e-bike, I'm like, that's this bitch. And just leaving me behind, going like 18 up a climb. I'm like, this sucks. And so I'm like, as soon as I got done, I'm like, I'm buying an e-bike. I've always wanted one. I am buying one because she had so much more fun than I did. So much more fun. So I bought an e-bike. And it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:29

I haven't even seen a picture of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:30

Oh, I don't even know if I have one. I've ridden it once at Arcadia. Dude. First, it's a complete, it's completely different. It's not like riding a bike, a mountain bike at all.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:42

How much does it weigh?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:44

Like 42. Yeah. So, but it's got those massive, like what I don't even know what the tires are called. It's actually kind of the minion DHF or whatever, which is the tires I rode at uh Breck because I didn't know anything. And I was like, well, I don't want to get a flat in the middle of the mountains. They weigh like three pounds each. Things are bulky. So heavy. But I was like, well, I'm swapping these out instantly. But after riding it, like I will swap them out, but like at this current moment, I do not have the skills to take that bike through corners without that much tread. Yeah. Just going so fast. Yeah, so I think I'm gonna leave them on at least for a couple of rides because yeah, I don't trust myself on real tires at all. But it I rode Arcadia and it makes Arcadia a completely different trail. I was like lost half the time because corners come so fast. So I'm like, oh, I didn't I just like your time is completely off, how you take a corner is completely off.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:36

Well you the point where you should stop pedaling is a lot sooner than what you're used to. It's because you have that like motor lag where you stop pedaling and the motor kind of goes a little more.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:47

And you gotta like you gotta learn what that timing is, I feel like to stop pedaling sooner.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:52

And you have to learn how to take corners at that speed. Yeah. It's different. It's so different.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:57

That's what speed I take them at now.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:59

Yeah, it's not the speed I take them at at all. Because that was the thing I was like, oh, this is gonna be so fun. I can go ride with like drum and I can ride with Troy and like and just like get on it and it's gonna be so much fun. Like, I don't think so. Like that's sketchy. This is this is real.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:13

Taking them at that speed on that heavy of a bike, too. That's the thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:16

Yeah, so getting around it, plus it's a 160 travel, which is way different, so it's super long. And trying to get around some of those corners, man, it's like you you send off into the trees a little bit sometimes, and but it's fun. But when it I don't ride it on full boost because I tried that once, and that is a bad idea.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:32

Boy, you talk about launching yourself into a tree. I can have to fast. Yeah, or you pedal coming out of a turn, yeah, and you like get on it, and it just like it doesn't throw you off the bag, but it'll launch you right into the next corner that a lot faster than you're ready for. So yeah, I I'm excited for everybody to like ride it because I just have my seat marked. I'm like, I want everybody to just go play on this thing because it's so fun. But man, it's fun, it's so much fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:00

Maybe I'll have one soon.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:01

I hope so. Maybe I'll have one tonight. I you need one. I want us I want a full e-bike army out there.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:08

I'm like, if it's meant to be, it's gonna still be there. I keep, I guess. I'm so disappointed right now. Pushing it out.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:13

I've never been so I've never been such a fat and happy old man making fun of e-bikes like three months ago.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:18

I've never made fun of e-bikes.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:20

I won't.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:20

I've made fun of e-bike etiquette. Oh, that's a completely different story. I've loved e-bikes since the first time I rode one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:27

And I think there's Well, you're not allowed to race e-bikes at the local XE race.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:31

I sent Marty a message today that I told him that I got one. He's like, Well, I was gonna race next year. Am I gonna be lining up against you? I'm like, I mean, I probably won't race everyone. I'm gonna tell you this. I will race probably in every stage race I do from now on will be on an e-bike. Because I go to those for fun. Yeah. Right, those are just I just want to go ride new trails, and that's fun. So I will probably do all of my stage races on an e-bike. Locally, I don't know. Definitely not the endurance races I won't do on an e-bike, but the battery won't make it, that's why. Oh, I got I can buy an extension. I've already I've already priced it. Yeah. Believe me, I'm like, how long can I make this go? Because what that'll determine when I ride it, but man, it's fun.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:13

It is fun. Like when I when I worked at T Town, I would do like demos. That's when they were first coming, and everybody was so mad about e-bikes. Not so many people are mad now, but yeah. I, you know, like, what are you mad about? Yeah. And they they were, you know, it's cheating, it's this or that. I'm like, just go ride it. And I'd have to like do like a demo day, and they'd come back grinning. And I'm like, see? It's not about cheating, but like some people enjoy cycling with this that couldn't enjoy cycling without it.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:43

I will say it does I'm excited to ride it more and then come back to a regular bike because I think it'll make me so much better on a regular bike because everything will be slower, it'll take time to yeah, but I also understand how you guys having a motocross background, how riding a mountain bike is so much easier for you to do that because of the speed of things and the weight, like getting a 40-pound bike around a corner and over an obstacle, it's completely different. Yeah, yeah. When you run into that thing at Arcadia, I don't know if you've seen it, Rye Ride, like the tree that's down, it's on what outer space, and they have like little ramp up and ramp on the other side. Well, normally on a bikes, you just kind of pop wheel and kind of like just jump over it. I mean, it's like two foot tall, like you don't even think about it.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:28

This thing, I was like, You go to pull, and you're just like you gotta like you gotta give it like two bounces before. Yeah, and then back.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:35

Well, the first time it did not. Um just yeah, it was sketchy. And plus, you're at speed because it'll just launch you. Yeah, man, yeah, you could really launch into oblivion on those things.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:45

You're pretty close to getting a dirt bike. Jumping in bike's weird. You have to pull so hard.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:51

So hard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:52

I I don't know whose it was. I rode someone's in Bentonville a lot, and you have to like it's ridiculous how they're so tiring trying to ride them down.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:01

It would be. If you race rode it on a really technical trail, it would be.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:04

Yeah, well, even just like jump trails, like I think they're less fun because how hard you have to pull to even like catch air. That makes sense. That or you have to go so fast, but the jumps aren't built to go that fast.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:14

Yeah, you do have to go fast. Yeah, I think, and I was telling Smoke, I was like, dude, just go to the store. Just go to the store right now. As soon as I got off, I just text him at just go buy one.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:24

Like just don't even it's not even it's a no-brainer.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:27

I was like, it's all the fun stuff of mountain biking without the crappy parts of mountain biking, without the hard parts of like a bumpy uphill that you have to work so hard and navigate and miss things, and you just ride over them. You don't even think about it.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:41

I really wanted one when we lived in Arkansas. It would be so fun to be there. Because like the jump trails. Like I didn't really mind climbing up, but if I just wanted to go jump for the day, yeah, you could just like fly back to the top, do the jumps.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:53

A lot of when I would go ride, it was like the middle of the day, so no one's out. And I would ride backwards up the jump trails, and I could jump some of the jumps going uphill backwards. Yeah, you could just play the dual slalom that caller, I could jump pretty much every jump backwards on that thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:08

It does make you kind of want to get one of those like little motorcycle like battery ones. Dude, those would be fun because I saw those for the first time at Moab. They were everywhere, and I'm like, I don't know what that is. Like, yeah, they're like the little motorcycles. Oh, dude, that looked fun, like really fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:27

Those things are a lot faster than you.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:29

Those things went really fast. Yeah. I mean, they I don't know how fast they were going, but it was double what e-bikes were doing.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:35

So there's like a really high-end one of those, and and Aubrey's boyfriend Browne over to the house because he was gonna go ride it. And I so it's uh it's a motocross bike. Okay. It's electric. Uh-huh. Um, and then and you have like a it looks like an iPhone on the crossbar. So you've got a switch and you can change like max power on it. And the max power on it's 80 horsepower, which is like a 450 motocross bike, is probably like 65. Oh, and the torque is just so I like went and rode it down the street and I rode it at like it was like 20, 40, 60, 80. Uh-huh. And it was like peppy. And then I'd put it at 80, and I just like whack the throttle a little bit and it instantly wheelies. And I was like, no way. No. Electric motor is so much different than a gas torque. So different. It's just like so much, and it's unlimited RPMs.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:30

Instant too.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:31

Like, I'm curious. I would I want to ride it like on a track, but on the road, I was like, I didn't want to get off this thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:37

Because this is gonna get me hurt really fast. Yeah, that would because mine has what so the one I have a smaller motor, that's the thing. Uh mine's 85 torque. Um, and and some of them, like the AM flow that I looked at, I think it's uh it's a hundred or maybe one fifty. I I guess if you were like in Colorado and you had like these massive straight climbs of 150 would be fine. You couldn't even sniff. I would I put mine on full boost and I was like, this is this ain't right.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:05

When I rode them in Tulsa, it was like the full power Levo, and I couldn't ride them on that's like a hundred, I think. Yeah, well, I mean this was like the first gen, probably a little less, but uh yeah, I I couldn't ride it on full power. Not if there's a turn. No, for sure. Because of that mo that that lag, I would just yeah, like you had to run into trees and hit stuff because it was like it would keep going when I stopped pedaling. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:28

And the tunability. It has tunability through the app, which is pretty cool, through the Shimano app, which is cool. Oh yeah, like adjusting the like the natural feel and how does it gradually kick up or kick down or whatever. But man, I would love to see you guys ride one and like on a trail and play because it would be it's it's so fun. Maybe soon. Yeah, we'll order that up tonight.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:49

Hey, and we can maybe go this weekend.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:51

Ooh, now we're talking. Right, right, get dust off that mountain bike.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:57

There's cobwebs on it.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:58

Uh-huh. I'll just stay just get on my wheel. Don't follow my line, but get on my wheels. Uh-huh. I know because when I got done, I did the outer space, and like I was like, and the thing is you ride, you're in a hard gear, and when you you forget to shift. Because I'm like, ah, the motor, I'll just do it. But then I'd come out of a corner riding at like 25k and the motor doesn't kick in. Well, and it when it does, I'm just in such a hard gear because I came out of a straight and I'm like, dude, I gotta you forget to shift. Yeah. Because it just does everything for kind of does everything for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:30

And you sit in the hardest gear a lot of the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:32

Yeah, that was a mistake. I learned that the hard way. Because then once I learned to shift again, I was like, oh, yeah, this is a lot better. So um you got a date tonight? No. No, just checking.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:44

When's your next race? When do you leave? Um the end of August, August 29th, Philly. Oh, so you got a little bit of a break. Yeah. Philly, is that crits? No, it's uh a one day. It's um it's pretty similar to New York. Like there may be some like development world tour teams there. That's cool. Yeah, it's a big race. But yeah, just some time at home.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:08

So how's your uh experience of your first year? And we'll kind of start wrapping up with this, but how was your experience for your first year of like being on a legit team doing legit races? And was it what you thought it would be or not?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:19

Um, yeah, it's about what I thought it would be. Um yeah, it's been super cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:24

Like it been more exhausting than you thought it would be?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:27

Yeah, the past like month or so I would say has been pretty exhausting. I've started to value what my time at home is like more. Beginning of the year, I was like rush, rush, rush. Like I felt like if I stopped, I would lose the flow of things and it burnt me out a bit.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:42

Not like really physically, but just mentally.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:45

Do you think how much do you think this year on the road helped you with cross?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:48

I think it helped a lot build that engine up and just like realizing mentally how dig how deep you can dig. So like I think have you seen your numbers change a lot change dramatically throughout the year? Um well, I've been setting higher power number, but the power meter I have also like I mean, we've talked about it. It reads low. So I'm setting higher numbers with a power meter that reads low, so I would have to do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:13

That's probably what's wrong with mine.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:15

It's gotta be. Yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:17

Yeah, I think so. I'm yeah, we need to get that tuned up.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:20

Well, it's i it's interesting, like we're using Shimano power meter. But and we uh like I'm trying to figure it out. On a Wahoo head unit, it won't calibrate. So you calibrate it through the the Shimano app. But like the first few times I rode with this because I have like a spare bike for the team. Basically his spare bike is what I ride. I'm just like, man, I know I'm not fit, but these numbers just don't they don't seem right. Like for how hard this is for me to push, it doesn't seem right. And then I then I tried my hammerhead and it calibrates with my hammerhead and it and I'm like this feels accurate. So weird. I'm trying to figure out there's gotta be like a communication issue between the two, but as long as it's always reading the same, it's uh all that matters. But yeah, well, unless you're like them and yeah, those increases are something you need to need to monitor.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:12

But yeah, yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So but you do feel like that because that's the thing when you look at the road or the cyclocross or the mountain bike guys, like the and women, the ones that are always at the top are the ones that have do road seasons. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:28

Built my engine up a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:30

Massively. It's just such a huge base now. That's kind of what he was lacking. To start laying the high intensity over the top of is massive.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:36

Like I think I had a lot of snap last year, and my bike skill got me through stuff, and I think going to this year I can just hold those high numbers a lot more and like actually have an engine to back me up and like But all your numbers did go up this year just from doing that's crazy.

unknown 1:19:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:53

All right, you want to start winding down? I don't know what else we want to talk about. Uh we talked about the e-bikes, rule three, stay tracing. Oh, well, we didn't talk about the tour because none of us are really watching it or care because it's over, basically.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:05

It was over after day two. When it started day three, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:08

Pretty much.

Tour Dominance And Who We Like

SPEAKER_02 1:20:09

I mean, nobody's that's the thing. So how okay, what are your opinions on this? Because I feel like because I went through this watching Tiger in his prime, which was like my prime years as a college golfer and all that kind of stuff. But like it was awesome to watch. Like it was so cool that you're like watching the greatest to ever do it, and you're like appreciative of it, but you're also like it's boring because you like who's gonna get second. Yeah, it's over. Like once he gets in the lead, it's over. Yeah, but it's the same with God.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:36

Yeah, I think it's cool. There's a pretty good battle for second right now with the white jerseys are awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:41

Yeah, that's the battle. That's the battle. That's a cool one.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:43

And those two dudes are gonna battle forever. Yeah, those two if they stay healthy. Yeah, yeah. That's a cool battle. It's been good. Yeah, I like Del Toro. Who's the Lethal Trek Rider? He's been there's been two Letal Trek Riders. I don't know. Yeah, either of them, but they've been up there. There's been a good battle for second.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:59

Yeah. What are your thoughts on Rimco?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:01

I don't know. I've never really liked him.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:02

Same. He's just same. He's the same little pitch. They both just seem like they're just like Pickcock is kind of whiny, but he is also kind of honest about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:10

I mean I don't like his ad his brother's the same way. I raised him. I didn't know. I didn't know he had a brother. Yeah, his same team. Same team, and they're both they're both the exact same. Oh, really? I don't really like either of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:22

Is he tiny little fella the two?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:24

Uh-huh. Because Pitcock's tiny.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:26

He had a massive ego for no reason, really.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:29

Yeah. Yeah. Rimco. I've just never been a fan of him.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:32

Yeah, he's really whiny, it seems like. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:34

He seems like a little biotch.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:36

He seems like he seems like all the stereotypes of a rodi. Uh-huh. If you give him like a package a roadie personality, it would be Remco.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:43

I think that's why you get the writers that are so popular, like Lout, Matthew, Tate, Mads, like the ones that are like actually cool and don't make excuses. Like people like that. For sure. Because it's not your it's not what they expect.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:00

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tate's I think it's cool to see. But as from somebody on the like on a different level, like recycling is your thing. Do you appreciate like that, or would you rather it be more where it's like you don't know who's gonna win all the time?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:16

I mean, as someone watching it, I would rather it be someone I don't know, like someone else win every time because it's more entertaining. But I mean he's definitely pushing the sport to levels that I don't think people thought were quite possible. It's freaking awesome. That's wild. It's crazy the fact that like Paul is 19 and almost reaching that level, like what is he gonna be doing in a few years? Yeah, that's the thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:40

But but uh what's his name was like that um Colombian the Colombian guy. Had the bad bad wreck. Um Burnell. Mm-hmm. I mean he was gonna be that guy.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:52

He was super young like that, and then I hope someone is, because one, it's boring, and two, it's like how long until Tade gets bored?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:01

I think he already is. Yeah, but he's but he's just got a couple records he still needs to get on. How long can you I think he's like Vanderpool and Cross?

SPEAKER_05 1:23:08

Like do that workload when you don't even want to be out there because you're bored.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:13

I think he does it until he sets a certain couple of benchmarks and and then I don't see him.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:19

I mean he goes back to cyclocross. He did cycle cross? Oh yeah. That's why he's so good. He's a crosser. Tati is I don't think he did it last winter, but he's done it every percent.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:31

Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:32

On a lower level. Like he does it in his home country.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:35

God, can you imagine showing up at a local cross race and Pagatcha lines up next year? He was gonna do it this past year. He was gonna try to do some races to help push it into the Olympics. That would be cool. He knew he would have that pool, but he would. I could see him doing a lot more stuff like that. I don't know the way Sagan.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:52

His team shut it down.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:53

Oh his team shut it down, and I think like he was kind of told like it's probably not gonna happen anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:58

So that would be cool, because you know, like Sagan kind of went out and did fun stuff like that to entertain himself because it would be fun to see somebody like that cross over and do fun stuff. Yeah, that would be cool. Um, all right, so Drummond, what's your give one more plug for your business?

Plugs, Episode 100 Plans, Tour Divide

SPEAKER_05 1:24:15

Uh Drummond Performance Studio. Okay, Instagram, Facebook. I do Facebook. It kind of feels like a waste of time, but I do. But Facebook. Like, I don't know. There's not a lot going on there.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:27

There is a clientele that's on there though.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:29

There is. I mean, I do it because there's like maybe ten people, but that's where they see the stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:35

Yep. Gotta be everywhere. So yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:38

Hit me up. I'm I'm leaving for two weeks, but before and after.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:43

Mm-hmm. Rye Rai, anything you want to plug beside your team? No. Okay. I don't think so. Alright. Well, I got nothing. Who knows when we'll do another episode? We will get back on a very regular rotation really, really soon. And we have two of our most wanted guests will sit down and record with them probably in the next month or two and get that done because we're coming up on episode 100 really quick.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:11

I'm gonna be here listening for that one. Yeah, I'm just gonna be listening.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:14

You should. We'll do those. We should get those because I think this is this episode's up in the high 90s now. So we wanted them to be number 100 and 101. And one of them was doing the um Colorado Trail, I think this month. So that he needed to get done with that before he wanted to come in and record, so so he had more stuff to talk about. And also, congrats to Tanner for finishing Tour Divide. He's the only Oki that I know that did Tour Divide this year. Was there any others? I don't know. I don't know of any others, but he finished single speed. Congrats to anyone that finishes single on a single speed.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:46

Did you see the record?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:47

Yeah, the record got broken days. Insane record got broken. Um, Tanner finished on a single speed. I followed this chick on it who did it with her dog. Fantastic. Took her like a month, it was awesome. Our little chihuahua dog should so that dog was Oh, the dog wasn't like running.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:01

No. Oh, you're saying that.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:03

No, she carried it with her. Um, but she was an awesome follow because I mean, sometimes she'd have it like stuffed in her jacket when it was super cold because he's like a little chihuahua thing, you know. And then sometimes she's riding and he's like running along beside her, and you know, like her feeding it as she was eating stuff. It was pretty awesome. And so she said it was the second dog to ever finish the divide. She knew she knew of one other one that she she followed. Uh interesting. So it was the second one that she knew of, which is pretty fun. So um, yeah, congrats to Tanner for finishing uh the divide. So yeah. Cool. All right, fellas, appreciate it. We're done.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:35

Yep, yep. See ya.