The Inside Line Podcast - Vital MTB

I believe that Rob Warner is a significant part of the success of today's World Cup Downhill mountain biking. As a winning DH racer, he turned his passion and knowledge into a career as the voice of our sport. Starting as commentator for the first World Cup DH race webcasts with Freecaster.tv, he made the transition when Red Bull TV took over the webcast and has honed his narrative skills eve...

Chris Cocalis has a deeply rooted history in the sport of mountain biking. Coming from a BMX background, he combined his love of riding bikes and improving on broken parts into a lifelong career in MTB. From days as a racer and shop employee, he learned how to weld and started making bikes at an early age out of pure passion. That passion led Chris to create Titus cycles in the 90's and ultim...

The Inside Line podcast sits down with Jack Moir, Charlie Harrison and Dean Luca, the athletes of Intense Factory Racing. These successful downhillers have been progressing and climbing through the ranks and are anxious to kick off the 2018 World Cup DH season. This fun and serious interview is full of insight and some incredible stories about keeping their prototype Intense M29 bikes rolling in 2...

Gee Atherton needs very little in the way of an introduction. As one of the fastest humans on a mountain bike, he's always been a personal favorite of mine on World Cup race day. His 2017 season was impacted by a severe hip dislocation at a local Fort William race and he was off the bike for months. He eventually returned to racing at the Lenzerheide World Cup DH, significantly earlier than e...

Welcome mountain bikers. Mike Ferrentino, today's guest, has been a mentor and inspiration of mine and is one of my favorite humans. Whenever we cross paths, I always feel lucky that mountain biking has given me the chance to meet people like him. He's passionate, funny, crusty, opinionated but transparent and real. I hope you enjoy his stories and insight on bikes and life as much as I...

It's incredible to think that the Enduro World Series is just over five years old. While the format of enduro mountain bike racing has existed for years, the EWS, still in its infancy, has become the global force by which all other enduro events are now measured. One of the hearts and brains behind the Enduro World Series is Chris Ball. A former downhill racer and UCI official, Chris and some...

It's an honor and a pleasure to kick off our 2018 Inside line podcast with one of America's most dedicated gravity racers, Curtis Keene. This Northern California native turned a passion for riding bikes into a full-time racing career. While working as an electrician, he raced downhill for a decade, working his way up to the Elite World Cup ranks before finding himself as a podium contend...

When the Santa Cruz Syndicate gives you a couple hours of their time during an off-season evening, you jump on the chance to meet them. Greg Minnaar, Loris Vergier and Luca Shaw were in Southern California making the rounds, visiting sponsors and enjoying weather. Thankfully, they agreed to sit down for a fun and candid interview for The Inside Line. Enjoy some quality time with one of downhilling...

Nope, it's not Wednesday. This week we're dropping the podcast early to coincide with the big news around Intense and today's guest, Jeff Steber. Intense has made the decision to offer their bikes directly to the rider through online sales. They have a unique sales model, however, that keeps their dealers involved in the process. I had a great time speaking with Jeff the other day a...

I'm extremely honored to introduce today's guest of The Inside Line, Kathy Sessler. The first thing I want to say is that I feel like I was way off in our interview intro when I call her the "Den Mother" of the Santa Cruz Syndicate. While I meant that to be endearing, I realized, after our interview, that the term doesn't convey the complexity and responsibility that comes...

Matt Thompson may be the biggest reason for the existence of Vital MTB. As one of my best friends, back in 2009, he suggested I contact Vital Media Network to see if they were interested in starting a mountain bike website. They had Vital MX and Vital BMX running successfully and I ran Littermag at the time. The rest is history. Matt is a staple fixture of the Colorado mountain biking community an...

One of America's fastest downhillers is also one of America's greatest hopes for the survival and growth of #USDH

Jeff Lenosky is a household name for any long-time mountain biker. The diversely talented rider started skating and riding BMX as a youngster and pointed those skills at a mountain bike in high school. At 6'4", the BMX bikes were always small for him, so mountain bikes were a perfect fit. Finding his way into a cross country race, he realized that trials existed and was a progression of...

All of your questions answered! We discuss one of the hottest tech topics in mountain biking with the guys making rear shocks for a living. See the full story at http://www.vitalmtb.com/features/TECH-TALK-Air-Shocks-Versus-Coil-Shocks-Whats-Better,2065

Welcome mountain bikers! We have an extremely special guest on The Inside Line. Few in out sport have such a storied career as Toby Henderson. He began racing BMX bikes some 40 years ago and turned that desire to race bikes and avoid "a real job" into one of the most varied and successful careers in both BMX and mountain biking. I remember seeing Toby in BMX magazines as a kid and then i...

Cesar Rojo of Cero Design and the man behind UNNO bikes dropped in on us at Whistler during Crankworx. He was riding and showing off his exotic carbon downhill bike to the droves of curious, drooling on-lookers. The talented Spaniard has a World Cup DH pedigree as he was part of the original Global Racing squad in the early 2000's. Combining his riding skill with a passion for engineering, Ce...

Arguably the gnarliest downhill race on the planet, Red Bull Hardline whittles down a heavy field of riders to a select few. Enjoy interviews with the race winner, Craig Evans and his fellow competitors.

As one of mountain biking's greatest photographers and storytellers, Sven Martin's name should ring out to anyone who's been on Vital MTB or picked up a magazine in the last 10 years. His images and interviews capture the atmosphere and emotion of the World Cup and Enduro World Series in a way that only those of a true mountain biking superfan can. The South African's immersion...

The 2017 UCI Mountain Bike DH World Championships are in the books with Loic Bruni and Miranda Miller earning the rainbow stripes in Cairns, Australia. Vital's main man on the ground, Sven Martin, speaks with the winners, their mechanics and also Myriam Nicole and Mick and Tracey Hannah in this special for our podcast channel. Stay tuned for the race day slideshow and the return of The Inside...

You may know him as Fitzy, but Mark Fitzsimmons took a passion for two-wheeled thrills combined with disassembling things and turned it into a career. As Race Program Director for FOX, he's involved in product development for the consumer market which can only get there through the rigors of world-class racing and competition. Besides being a slayer on two wheels (with or without motors), Fit...

Corner the best downhill mountain biker of all time, force him into his car and see what kind of questions he'll answer.

The journey of today's Inside Line guest is inspiring. Joe Graney just happens to be CEO of Santa Cruz Bicycles, but he never had the goal of being the man in charge of such a highly influential bike brand. The Bostonian followed his passion for riding bikes, tinkering with bikes, machining and engineering. Mix in a little RV life and low and behold, after designing some of mountain biking&ap...

Josh Carlson popped onto the world enduro scene unknown, but he left his mark early on. Always ready to go for it, Josh had some big tumbles and serious injuries before figuring out how to channel his inner sender and develop the kind of consistency required to feature on page one of the results sheet. We had the opportunity to meet Josh at the recent launch of the new Giant Reign, and we sat down...

If it weren't for Hans Rey's VHS videos, I'm not sure I would have found the same love for mountain biking that I have now. Without that love for mountain biking found in the mid-90's, there's a great chance that I would not be where I am in mountain bike media today. My story about the impact, direct or indirect, that Hans Rey has had on my mountain biking experience is j...

It's hard to believe that NSMB.com is almost 20 years old. Cam McRae and two friends saw a void in mountain biking content that reflected their aggressive riding styles and instead of starting a print magazine, decided that the internet was the most effective way of sharing the gospel of MTB. Fast-forward to today and NSMB is a highly respected editorial outlet sharing the authentic mountain...