Marginal Gains Cycling Podcast, Presented by Silca

It's always fun to find out what questions are going to really catch Josh's attention. In this episode, we talk about tiny marginal gains, postulate why mountain bikes are not particularly aero, follow up on the best gases to fill your tires (and why), and much more. But the question that really grabbed Josh has to do with a crazy hypothetical: how would you optimize your bike and track for an hou...

Alexey Vermeulen is exhausted. He deserves to be, having just taken a hard-fought podium spot in the Life Time Grand Prix. And wins in multiple BWR races. And producing a show where he mentors novice cyclists. And much more. But he still found time — hours after flying home from Big Sugar and hours before he flies out to his next event — to get together with the Marginal Gains crew to talk about h...

We rely on Marginal Gains listeners to provide intelligent and provocative questions, and as always, our listeners do not disappoint. In this Ask Josh Anything episode, we re-open the question of hour record attempts, this time considering pros and cons of a negative-split effort. We talk about Nitrogen and its merits of using it instead of air for tires with sealant. We talk about the aerodynamic...

Jeremiah Bishop proclaims he is a "nerd in recovery," but we know better. Bishop was a crucial member of 2015's Team Topeak-Ergon, which set a record Leadville 100 time that stands to this day. And this was not just a story of strong legs and lungs; it was a Marginal Gains story, through and through. Whether you race road, mixed surface, or dirt, this is a conversation you will not want to miss.

After a nice long summer break, we're back with more questions for Josh. Josh, Hottie and Fatty met IRL in Leadville last month, so we spend a good chunk of this episode talking about the LT100 MTB race -- altitude, aerodynamic speed minimums, and other marginal gains available two miles above sea level. We also make time to talk about Dan Bigham's amazing new hour record, aerometers, and the stor...

Phil Gaimon takes on serious topics, but he doesn't take himself too seriously. He uses his social media to document is KOMs and occasional Everesting attempts, but also takes us on interesting rides and shows us how cyclists and motorists can get along on the same piece of tarmac. Phil is a fantastic climber, an advocate, a humorist, a Silca athlete and a newlywed. It's a pleasure to have him joi...

Josh answers a batch of listener questions, from the extremely practical to the fascinatingly hypothetical. Are pros flatting more than they used to? Has the balance between strong and light swung too far toward light? How do you make your hydration as aero as possible? What air pressure should be used for the back wheels on a competitive trike? And how good would electronic / wireless brakes have...

Dan Bigham's job title — Performance Engineer — for Team Ineos really undersells his value. Dan is a through-and-through marginal gainer, with a special gift for figuring out how to beat the wind. And as such, he's the perfect guest for a one-on-one chat with Josh. Don't miss this episode of Marginal Gains!  

What if CDA measuring were brought to the masses via some sort of attachable device? Michael Liberzon—an engineer and triathlete coach—has field tested an aerometer and researched several others. In this episode, we talk with Michael to get an overview of where we are with aerometers and whether real-time CDA will ever become a thing.

Putting 50 years of Tom Ritchey's history and knowledge would be nearly impossible, so for this conversation, we focus on some of Tom's game-changing ideas and innovations, as well as how he got there. You'll also hear some great stories, a little family history, and how this pioneer's ethos turned into one of the world's most-respected bike brands.

Hopefully you've seen Ashton's gutsy world record effort and his killer performance for the rainbow jersey. Now Josh gets the inside scoop on what it took to succeed at both, even as his partner is working on going to outer space.

If you're looking for something to make you feel good about something happening in the world right now, you have found the right episode. Josh talks with Dan Craven — Olympian and owner of Onguza Bikes (onguza.com): beautiful steel bikes, handmade in Namibia and shipping across the world. This is an inspiring episode of Marginal Gains you will not want to miss.

Silca has a new tubeless tire sealant out, and Hottie and Fatty have some questions about it. A whole hour's-worth of questions, in fact. From the recycling aspect of it to setup strategies to keeping carbon fiber from clogging your valve stem, this is the episode that shows what happens when Josh starts thinking about plugging up holes.

Part 2 of our chat with Andy Hampsten picks up right where we left off in part 1: With Hampsten in the Maglia Rosa. Andy finishes this incredible story, and from there we get into a wide range of topics with this iconic cyclist: Cinghiale Tours, Titanium bikes, Eddy Merckx, "Huffy" bikes, and much more. Don't miss this issue of Marginal Gains!

Amity Rockwell is not afraid to speak her mind, which makes for a fast, fun, and thoughtful conversation with this Unbound champ. We talk diversity, equity, social media and most recently, plans for a Gravel Hall of Fame. You will not want to miss this episode!  

The Bike club has been operating under the same model for years -- decades. Bike Club NFT seeks to change that by turning memberships into digital assets. Some things under the old model are still true but as Josh finds out, Bike Club NFT has some new twists too.

Possibly the nicest living cycling legend, the one and only Andy Hampsten joins Josh to talk both about the early days of his career and to give an account of what is easily one of the most extraordinary performances ever in cycling: Andy's unbelievable day on the Gavia in the 1988 Giro D' Italia.

If you saw Paris Roubaix this year, there's a good chance you saw our guest — Candadian Road Champ Guillaume Boivin — in action. And thanks to the laws of supply and demand (Guillaume needed a chain, and Hottie had a Silca Hot-Waxed Chain available), we were able to nab this interview with this road star about how "G" (as his Istrael StartUp Nation teammates call him) started biking, his fixation...

If you are a student of cycling — and the fact that you listen to this show means you are — you have no doubt read a fair amount of Lennard Zinn's work, from books to being the tech editor at VeloNews, Zinn has written thousands of pages about cycling. And in this episode, he joins Josh to talk about his days as a skier, how he got talked into writing books, Hopf Bifurcation and bike shimmy, rolli...

 A wheel builder wants Josh's thoughts on the difference between road and track rims. A soon-to-be-worldtour-racing pro wants to know whether the sluggishness he senses in tubeless tires is all in his head. A gravel racer wants to know how to justify the purchase of a second set of wheels to his wife. And of course, the saga of hypotheticals continues as a listener asks what Josh would do if he we...

There was a time when weight was thought of as the most important — if not only — consideration for more speed. That's obviously no longer the case, but weight does still matter. In this episode, we look at when, where, and how much weight matters. If you've ever hoisted a bike to get a sense of how much it weighs (yes, that's all of you), you will not want to miss this episode of Marginal Gains.

It's a rainy, muddy, sloppy, gritty day at the Paris-Roubaix, and you're a pro team's race director. What chain treatment do you go with? You have the option to swap bikes on the course; are the watts you gain with a clean drivetrain worth the cost in time lost in bike transfer? What's the tire pressure you should run...and should you tell the truth if anyone asks? We get into all this, more, and...

Allen Lim is best known for his Skratch drink mix. It has hydrated countless riders and been in the bottles of top cyclists around the world. But the road to becoming one of the most well known people in sports nutrition was crooked and bumpy. Allen tells Josh how the Secret Drink mix almost never made it. How he used the ideas of compassion and caring to steer athletes away from doping. And how h...

Shimano Road Brand Manager Nick Legan and Road and Gravel Product Manager Dave Lawrence join the Marginal Gains crew to dig into what the what the new road groupsets are, how they're different, and — natch — where you'll find marginal gains in Shimano's new drivetrains, brakes, and wheels.

The 2021 Olympics are behind us, and Marginal Gains thinking was  evident in practically every sport. Josh, Hottie, and Fatty take a look at some of the key events and moments during the games — kinesiology tape, anyone? — and how technology has impacted (and will continue to impact) record-breaking achievements by the greatest athletes in the world.