With Pace

This weekend, 18 of the world's best freeride mountain bikers will compete at Red Bull Rampage, the legendary event held in the Utah desert. Each rider has four days to build the perfect line to showcase their skills and send it on the big day. In this episode, we hear from the riders taking on the event this year, from first-timers to 20-year Rampage veterans. We also hear from the behind-th...

Sarah Sturm returns to the show to talk about the inaugural UCI Gravel Worlds which took place in Italy last weekend. The event sparked controversy when it was announced, with fears that the UCI would tarnish the spirit of gravel. This, along with the fact that it wasn’t being held in the US where the discipline took root, and the fact that the women’s course was significantly shorter than the men...

Keegan Swenson returns to the show to talk about his experience racing the UCI Road World Championship in Australia at the end of September. Though he spent years racing on the mountain bike World Cup circuit, this was his first experience competing in a WorldTour level road race, and it came just a week after securing his win for the overall Lifetime Grand Prix title at Chequamegon. He talks abou...

Earlier this month, WorldTour racer turned “alternative” cycling adventure seeker Lachlan Morton returned to the Colorado Trail for the second time. His first experience in 2019 was harrowing mentally and physically and left him determined to go back someday to rewrite his relationship with the infamous 530-mile route. After the death of professional cyclist Sule Kangangi this summer, Lachlan retu...

Payson sits down with the winners of Chequamegon, Savilia Blunk and Bradyn Lange. Savilia talks about her breakout World Cup season and navigating the unexpectedly muddy conditions of last weekend's race. Bradyn talks about his childhood motocross career, van life, and being caught off guard when he found himself in the lead at Chequamegon.  Payson also answers listener questions about the ra...

When Meg Fisher went to college, she was a walk-on for the University of Montana's Division 1 tennis team, but was taken out of the sport and the life she knew when a catastrophic car accident left her in a coma. When her leg was amputated, it was the least of her doctors' worries. Most of them assumed that she would never be able to live independently, let alone walk, but Meg proved the...

When Kiel Reijnen’s five-year-old daughter EmmyLou told him that she wanted to ride to Idaho (a 700+ mile trip), he suggested they compete in the 102-mile gravel stage of Rebecca’s Private Idaho instead. Kiel joins Payson to talk about how he brought this idea to fruition and got to witness Emmy’s grit, endurance, and competitiveness. With only one low point around mile 85, they won the tandem cat...

Bjorn Riley is part of the wave of young US cross country mountain bike racers that’s been making a splash on the World Cup circuit over the past few years. Placing 5th at Worlds this year, 2nd at the Snowshoe World Cup in West Virginia, and landing at the top of the podium at Nationals, Bjorn is already making a name for himself on the international stage. After spending three years on the Bear D...

South African cyclist Matt Beers has done a little bit of everything when it comes to racing on two wheels. Starting out in motocross, he turned to mountain biking after he was sidelined by an injury, going on to win the South African Marathon National Championships and the Cape Epic stage race in 2021. After an impressive but unlucky showing at Cape Epic in 2019, he was invited to guest ride on t...

Today on the show, we feature some of the experiences that riders in all categories had at Leadville and SBT GRVL last weekend. Payson answers listener questions about the races, including his training in the weeks leading up, using hydration packs instead of stopping at neutral aid stations, and his bike setup. He also chats with Keegan Swenson, the winner of Leadville, SBT, and the combination r...

5x mountain bike Marathon National Champion Rose Grant joins Payson to talk about her recently announced retirement, how she hopes to finish out the season, and what she’s looking forward to post-professional cycling. Rose started racing later than many riders, only getting into the sport when she was nearing 30. During her first season, she became pregnant with her daughter, and has spent the hei...

Sarah Sturm returns to the show for a wide-ranging conversation about the struggle to stay hungry in a profession full of uncontrollable inconsistency, Tour de France Femme, and the anxieties about what life might look like after retiring from professional cycling. They also discuss the many ways that grief is shaping the gravel community this season and how their mental and emotional connection t...

Barry Wicks started racing professionally in 2002, competing on both the mountain bike and cyclocross world circuits. These days, he continues to race off road, but focuses much of his attention on managing Kona Factory Racing, the team he's been with since he signed his first pro contract. Last week, it was announced that he would be leading the new Bike Alliance with Protect Our Winters, a...

Sam Pickman returns to the show to talk about Allied's first ever mountain bike, the BC40.  He and Payson discuss how long it's been in the works, collaborating with Barcelona-based Cero Design to get the look just right, and why they changed the name of the bike just before the launch. They also get into the technical side of things, including bike geometry and the carbon manufacturing...

Today on the show, we review the third race in the Lifetime Grand Prix, Crusher in the Tushar. Payson is joined by winner Haley Smith to discuss her emotional finish, her new position as a Grand Prix frontrunner, and the illness and self-doubt that made her path to this moment so uncertain. She also talks about how her mixed feelings about participating in the Tokyo Olympics are evolving with hind...

Daniel Oss has raced the Tour de France ten times and has noticed many changes over the years, from equipment to rider mentality. This year, he’s racing for a new team, TotalEnergies, where he followed friend and long-time teammate, Peter Sagan. He joins Payson from the first rest day of this year’s race to talk about how the Tour has changed since he first lined up for it in 2010, being Sagan’s r...

Annijke Wade joins Payson again, nearly a year after the mountain bike crash that left her paralyzed. The last time they talked on the show, she was living at Craig Hospital, a leading institute for spinal cord injuries. Now, she's home, learning the ins and outs of living with her injury. She talks about how she plans to spend the first anniversary of her crash, all the details about her new...

Anton Krupicka fell in love with running at an early age. He competed in his first marathon when he was 12 and started running mountain ultras when he left college. He went on to win the Leadville 100 twice, and place second at the Western States 100 in 2010. These days, he’s added cycling and ski-mo to his competition schedule, recently completing the Unbound XL. In this interview, he tells Payso...

Gus Morton quit professional cycling at the age of 21 to pursue a career as a filmmaker. He was briefly pulled back into professional racing but left the sport for good in 2017, when he merged his two areas of expertise by creating the production company Thereabouts, which put an alternative lens on cycling that didn't revolve around competition or traditional,  straightforward narratives of...

In this week's episode, we hear from riders of all levels and distances of Unbound who tell us about their experiences participating in North America's biggest gravel event.  Later in the show, Payson answers listeners' questions about the race. He addresses the muddy conditions, dynamics in the lead group of riders, the impact of WorldTour racers, aero bars, and all the crashes in...

Payson sits down with professional mountain biker and gravel racer Ryan Standish to preview the second race of the Lifetime Grand Prix, Unbound 200. They talk about the start list, a Who's Who of World Tour, gravel, and mountain bike racers, and make some predictions about the podium. They're also joined by unexpected guests Bobby Wintle, founder of The Mid South; and Howard Grotts, moun...

Joe Grant is an ultra runner and mountain athlete who holds the FKT on the Colorado Trail and has competed all over the world at races such as the Hardrock 100, Ultra-Trail Du Mont-Blanc, and the Iditarod in Alaska. He also explores the mountains by bike and competed in the Arizona Trail race in 2016 on a fully rigid drop bar bike. Born in England and raised in France, he now lives in Durango, Col...

Payson sits down with professional mountain biker and former teammate Hannah Otto to discuss her new privateer program, splitting her 2022 schedule between North American gravel racing and UCI World Cups, and her childhood as a world champion triathlete. Hannah started racing triathlons at 9, eventually winning the XTERRA Amateur World Championship. After switching to cycling in college, she becam...

In this second part of our coverage of the Epic Rides Whiskey Off-road, Payson sits down with self-proclaimed "weekend warrior" Ben Mauceri to talk  about how mountain biking takes him to a physical and mental place that nothing else can, the commitment required to show up at the start line while maintaining a demanding career, and the strong sense of comradery and pride he feels for his...

Payson sits down with professional mountain biker racers Haley Smith and Andrew L’Esperance to talk about racing a 50/50 World Cup and North American schedule in 2022, snagging spots on the podium at their first Whiskey Off-Road this year, and their new podcast, OffRoad InRoads.  He also chats with Todd Sadow, President and CEO of Epic Rides, about adapting to wildfires and the pandemic, expanding...