Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure

Send us Fan Mail A flat stage can look boring until you watch 46+ km/h speed, a boxed-in peloton, and a finish where the last 200 meters decide everything. We’re back with a Tour de France 2026 Stage 7 recap from start to Bordeaux, including how the breakaway got managed and why the sprint teams dictated the day. We dig into Tim Merlier’s win and what it takes to launch at the exact right moment w...

Send us Fan Mail A mountain stage can feel like a slow burn until it suddenly becomes a wildfire, and Stage 6 in the Pyrenees is exactly that. We are Michael and Adam, and we come in hot on the first true summit showdown of this Tour de France, where the numbers alone sound unreal: 186.2 kilometers, 4,100 meters of climbing, and oppressive summer heat that forces every team to ration matches. If y...

Send us Fan Mail A sprint stage is supposed to be predictable until it isn’t. Stage 5 of the Tour de France brings blazing heat, constant fight for position, and a gutsy solo breakaway that forces the peloton to make hard choices long before the finish. We break down the Len Lamazan to Po run with the numbers that matter, what 88-degree temperatures do to hydration and decision-making, and why “st...

Send us Fan Mail Stage 4 of the Tour de France is the reminder every cycling fan loves and every GC team fears: one day can rewrite the race. We talk through the full Stage 4 recap from Carcassonne to Foix, including the brutal numbers, the four categorized climbs, and the oppressive 104°F heat that forces teams to rethink pacing, hydration, and risk. When conditions get that extreme, “normal” tac...

Send us Fan Mail A Tour de France stage can feel like a summer joyride on TV, until you hear the numbers and realize it was basically a moving furnace. Day three brings 195.9 km of racing, an average temperature around 90°F, and the first real mountain exam as the route crosses into the French Pyrenees. We break down what that heat means for pacing, hydration, and team control, and why a fast aver...

Send us Fan Mail A mechanical problem, a 22-year-old rising star, and a team captain who chooses leadership over ego, that’s the kind of Tour de France story that sticks. We pick up right after Stage 2 with a clear, fan-friendly breakdown of what “categorized climbs” actually mean, from Category 4 rollers to Category 1 grinders and the brutal HC ascents that feel beyond human. If you’ve ever liste...

Send us Fan Mail Eight seconds doesn’t sound like much until it’s eight seconds at the Tour de France. We’re launching Leisure Breakaway as a short, stage-by-stage companion to Tour de France 2026, starting with the opening days in Barcelona and a team time trial that already reshuffled expectations for the general classification. We break down the big-picture setup first: July 4 through July 26,...

Send us Fan Mail A bucket hat shows up in our lives again, and this time it’s not just an awkward dinner story. We read a real headline about a Florida bank robber who demanded cash in his bucket hat, then basically helped police catch him by continuing to wear the thing. It’s ridiculous, it’s funny, and it somehow fits perfectly with our ongoing theory that bucket hats cause people to go a little...

Send us Fan Mail A guy rode past us during a bike event while listening to our podcast at the exact same moment. That’s the kind of sentence we would have laughed at when we first hit record, and it’s the perfect way to frame our 100th episode milestone. We start with classic Cycling Men of Leisure catch-up: work trips that turn into mini road adventures, the beauty of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula,...

Send us Fan Mail Big BRAG week is here, and we’ve got a confession: we’re jealous. We’re thrilled our cycling team is rolling deep with 23 riders, but it’s still strange not having our own gear spread across the floor and our bikes half-packed for travel. That tension sparks a bigger conversation about what a multi-day bike ride really is when you strip away the stats. For us, BRAG isn’t just a ro...

Send us Fan Mail Your house might be quieter than you think, and that can be dangerous. We share a real fire safety wake-up call that sent us home to twist detectors off the ceiling and read the fine print, because smoke detectors and CO alarms can expire and “smart” models are not always the safest choice if you’re not tracking lifespan and sensors. If you’ve ever assumed your alarms will just wo...

Send us Fan Mail A $125 Old Fashioned with fire, maple syrup, and bacon sounds like a joke until it shows up tableside and the whole bar starts watching. We kick things off with high-roller banter, travel timing headaches, and a reminder that our kind of road adventure is not about speed, it is about stories you will still be laughing about months later. Listener Spotlight takes a surprising turn...

Send us Fan Mail https://www.buzzsprout.com/2054444/subscribe Tornado sirens, Spanish artisanal cheese, and bourbon business headlines sound like three different shows, but that’s a normal ride for us. We start with road-style storytelling and conference chaos, including the legendary tale of a family raising chickens and learning the hard way that “Jennifer” is not the sweet hen everyone expected...

Send us Fan Mail The weird truth about modern life is that a robot might reject your resume, your phone might read you a transcript like closed captions, and a stranger in a restaurant might force you to hear their videos at full volume. We lean into all of it while keeping the Men of Leisure spirit intact and yes, there’s a big announcement tucked inside. We start with a real update from the road...

Send us Fan Mail https://www.buzzsprout.com/2054444/subscribe A canceled flight at 2am shouldn’t turn into an overnight saga, but sometimes travel has other plans. We share a Southern California trip that starts as a meaningful family vacation and “back to where it all began” birthday idea, then ends with airline chaos, shifting departure times, and that particular kind of exhaustion you only earn...

Send us Fan Mail https://www.buzzsprout.com/2054444/subscribe A fog‑shrouded descent into Detroit turns into two full‑throttle go‑arounds, a shrinking layover, and a dash through Atlanta that ends at a gate announcing an instant “on time.” That chaos becomes our doorway into a bigger theme: how slow travel—and the right kind of humor—can turn stress into stories worth keeping. We swap flight nerve...

Send us Fan Mail Subscription Link  https://www.buzzsprout.com/2054444/subscribe A slow ride can carry a lot: jokes from a sunlit cruise, a bottle of bourbon tucked into a jersey, and the kind of conversation that pauses for grief and keeps rolling anyway. We open with playful “secret agent” teasing and a check-in on the job search, detour into bourbon dreams and Peerless Distillery legends (yes,...

Send us Fan Mail A warm floor, a borrowed basement, and a hardwired cable set the scene for a conversation that mixes honesty with humor. We open by acknowledging a tough week for the family, then steer into what so many professionals are feeling: a job market where interviews stack up, portals show hundreds of applicants, and patience becomes a skill. From there, the conversation swerves—smoothly...

Send us Fan Mail Ever notice how your feet slow down in Epcot or how an ugly wall disappears into the trees? We spent a chilly Florida week trading climbs for castles and pulled back the curtain on the design choices that steer your attention, shape your pace, and keep the story intact even when the weather doesn’t cooperate. Between CityWalk wandering, Sanaa’s legendary bread service, and a night...

Send us Fan Mail Sunshine, fairways, and a hall full of creators—this Florida trip gave us exactly what we needed: time together and a clearer sense of why we make this show the way we do. We walked into Podfest surrounded by pitch decks and monetization playbooks and walked out more committed to community, consistency, and the simple joy of talking to people we like about places we love. We compa...

Send us Fan Mail What if calling a week-long ride’s overnight towns could win you a jersey no one else will ever own? We turned our BRAG 2026 route fever into a community contest and crowned a winner who came astonishingly close to a perfect map. Along the way, we unpacked why state rides like Bragg are such a powerful gateway into bike touring: approachable daily mileage, supportive staff, flexib...

Send us Fan Mail New Year energy, winter grit, and a community that refuses to thin out—this one hits all three. We open with holiday contrasts that say everything about the ride right now: one of us hiking on ice with crampons and a Starbucks in hand, the other stepping out in shorts on a 70-degree Christmas. That contrast becomes a theme as we talk candidly about a slow job search, the quiet pow...

Send us Fan Mail Ready for a ride that blends rail-trails, river views, and real small-town hospitality? We’re unveiling BRAG’s “Happy Trails” route and bringing you along for a southbound journey that starts at LaFette’s Honeybee Festival, rolls past a winery rest stop, settles into a two-night layover in Carrollton, and detours into a behind-the-scenes tour at Trilith Studios. From the Silver Co...

Send us Fan Mail A Bigfoot sweater, a heavy backpack full of mics, and a plane to Orlando—our year closes with the perfect mix of ride stories, travel plans, and one serious warning every cyclist needs to hear. We’re gearing up for Podfest, turning a living room into a studio, and cashing in on a DVC Moonlight Magic night that lets us skip the crowds and snag a few hours of park time. Along the wa...

Send us Fan Mail The ride is more than the route, and this week we prove it—from a hilariously stubborn bathroom repaint to launching our biggest community challenge yet. We kick things off with the small stuff that somehow becomes big stuff, then shift gears into a listener spotlight reveal that lands in Tucker, Georgia, complete with military roots, postwar industry, and a surprising Kansas conn...