With Pace
Professional mountain biker Payson McElveen sits down with some of the biggest names in sports and adventure to get an inside look at what sets them apart. With no script, the casual conversations are as diverse as the guests, with topics ranging from harrowing tales of survival, to debates on current events, to everyday tips and tricks and everything in between. As Payson travels the world for his two-wheeled day job, listen in as he rubs shoulders with and learns from some of the most inspiring athletes, entrepreneurs, academics, and others as they chase and inspire greatness.
Episodes
390 episodes
Sam Shaw on setting a new FKT on New Zealand’s Great Tracks
Sam Shaw isn’t your average FKT setter. The Kiwi rider has raced XC, gravel, and Enduro over the years (he was on the podium at XCO nationals just this year), but since getting married and starting a family, he’s worked full-time off the bike a...
Maddie Munro on battling the mud to her first World Cup podium
The first World Cup of the season took place in a new country (South Korea) and featured treacherously muddy conditions that forced riders to navigate large sections of the course on foot. 24-year-old Maddie Munro crossed the finish line in thi...
Lauren Stephens and Levi Leipheimer on Levi's GranFondo
This week, we continue our recap of Levi’s GranFondo with this year’s winner, Lauren Stephens, who checked in from the Tour of the Gila to talk about running her own team, the dismal state of road racing in the US, and her controversial use of ...
Brennan Wertz on his unexpected Levi's GranFondo podium
Brennan Wertz wasn’t expecting much at Levi’s GranFondo last weekend. At 6’5” and over 200 pounds, he isn’t the type of rider who usually excels at races with nearly 14,000 feet of climbing, and, to use his own description, he'd “got his doors ...
Sea Otter recap with Sarah Sturm
The 2026 Life Time Grand Prix is officially underway after an action-packed day at Sea Otter. In the injury-ridden men’s field, Bradyn Lange surged to victory in a sprint finish with Keegan Swenson. In the women’s field, Sofia Gomez-Villafañe t...
Morgan Aguirre on preparing for her first Grand Prix season
It’s been more than two years since we last had Morgan Aguirre on the show, and since then, a lot has changed for her. After two strong seasons racing gravel mainly in Europe, she is headed for the Grand Prix this year for the first time. Payso...
Mike Woods on his unlikely WorldTour career and multi-sport retirement plans
Mike Woods' career in the WorldTour was practically a fluke. After earning a full ride to college for running, he quit the sport over a series of injuries and started riding his dad's bike on the weekends. Fast forward about a decade and he had...
Samuele Bressan, Head of Global Marketing for Pirelli's cycling division
During Payson’s trip to Italy last week to race The Hills, he stopped by the headquarters of his new tire sponsor, Pirelli, for a tour of the factory floor. Afterward, he sat down with Samuele Bressan, the company’s Head of Global Marketing for...
George Hincapie on Modern Adventure Pro Cycling and his storied racing career
After more than three decades in the sport, George Hincapie has started a new venture this year as the founder of the UCI Pro Road Team Modern Adventure Pro Cycling. It’s already gaining steam much faster than he expected — so fast, in fact, th...
Alex Miller on growing up in rural Namibia and joining Swatt Club
Alex Miller is a two-time Olympic XC racer from Namibia with multiple road and XC marathon national titles. These days, he lives in Girona and races for Swatt Club, splitting his schedule between gravel, road, and mountain bike races. He joins ...
Luke Lamperti on opening weekend of the Belgian Classics and chasing marginal gains
The last time we spoke to Luke Lamperti was two years ago, when he was just starting out as a WorldTour neo-pro with Quick-Step. This year, he’s switched to EF and has already racked up some impressive finishes. In fact, Payson ran into him jus...
Sahara Gravel stage 4 recap with Leoni Kolberg
To close out our Sahara Gravel coverage, Payson sat down with race volunteer Leoni Kolberg, who has spent the past four years riding around the world, often solo and sleeping in a tent. Last year, she rode across South America. Before that, she...
Sahara Gravel stage 3 recap with Eddy Le Huitouze
Stage 3 of Sahara Gravel took the riders away from the Atlas Mountains and towards the Sahara Desert, with 95 kilometers ending in a tailwind. Payson is joined by stage winner Eddy Le Huitouze to discuss how the race played out, but first, they...
Sahara Gravel stage 2 recap with Nicolas Roche and Marta Torà
Stage 2 of Sahara Gravel comprised 105km and 1800 meters of climbing. To recap the day, Payson is joined by former WorldTour pro Nicolas Roche and mountain biker Marta Torà, who are taking on the race together in the pairs category. They talk a...
Sahara Gravel stage 1 recap with Lizzie Hermolle
Stage 1 of Sahara Gravel was 99 kilometers in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. Payson is joined to recap the day by UK Gravel National Champ and today's stage winner, Lizzlie Hermolle. They discuss the profile of the route, an unexpected c...
Caleb Swartz on transitioning from cyclocross to the Grand Prix
Caleb Swartz started racing cyclocross when he was eight years old, but the discipline has been dwindling in the US since the 2010s, and the writing has been on the wall for any American racers wanting to make a sustainable career from it. Last...
Allied FITZ is here: CEO Drew Medlock and Director of Product and Engineering Sam Pickman on the new trail bike
You might have heard that Allied just released a new feather-light trail bike this week. The FITZ is new territory for the brand, so it seemed like a good opportunity to bring in Allied’s CEO Drew Medlock and Director of Product and Engineering...
Riley Amos on his first year as an Elite and his love of product development
Most riders spend their first year in the Elite ranks just trying to find their feet, but Riley Amos was determined to be different. He had good reason for it. Not only did he have a dominant final season as a U23 in 2024, but he also finished ...
Haley Smith on becoming a privateer in 2026 while doing her PhD
Haley Smith has been on one factory team or another since she was in her teens. In that time, she spent a decade as a World Cup XC racer, went to the 2021 Olympics, and won the inaugural round of the Life Time Grand Prix. But this year, she’s e...
Mads Würtz Schmidt on his transition from WorldTour to gravel
Mads Würtz Schmidt might be a newcomer to gravel, but he’s already established himself as one of the best in the world. The 31-year-old Danish rider went all in on the sport last year with little financial support and ended up winning the Traka...
2025 in review (with Nichole Baker)
We're back from our holiday break, and Payson and Nichole are here to recap a packed 2025. They offer a peek behind the curtain at their year, from the emotional toll of Payson's broken hip last spring to finally offloading one of the worst inv...
Staying fit in the off season and Privateer Parts with Sarah Sturm
Sarah Sturm is back for another monthly catch-up, and this time, she and Payson are talking gym routines. How much lifting is too much? Should you be lifting heavy or doing high reps? And how bad is it for Sarah’s cycling career that she can’t ...
Kevin Vermaak on founding the Cape Epic and Gravel Burn
When Kevin Vermaak left his job in IT to found a brand-new type of bike race, he had no idea how much money he’d lose up front or how successful the resulting event would become. 20 years in, and the Cape Epic is one of the most famous bike rac...
Scott Bowden on his Crossing Tasmania FKT attempt
Scott Bowden set out two weeks ago to tackle a 580km route across Tasmania. His goal was to beat Payson’s FKT from 2021, but most importantly, he just wanted to finish. With 11,000 meters of elevation, multiple river crossings, all types of wea...
Ride With Pace: HolySpiritOfGravel
Leni Carrillo, a self-proclaimed "gravel normie" from San Antonio, Texas is the genius behind the HolySpiritofGravel meme account on Instagram. With her lighthearted and extremely specific takes on the world of gravel racing, she brings some mu...