The Long Game Project

What happens when the plan falls apart out there? In this episode of The Long Game Project Podcast, host Svein Tuft sits down with good friend Greg Taylor to dig into one of the hardest decisions in ultra-endurance bikepacking: knowing when to scratch. Svein opens up about his experience at the Caves and Coves TT on Vancouver Island — a route he'd been dreaming about for years. Despite meticulous...

Svein and Steve Neal reunite to talk cold-weather endurance, bikepacking prep, and training for time-crunched athletes. With the Big Beautiful Badger — a 665K, 11,000-meter climbing route through the Canadian Rockies — just days away, Svein shares a harrowing story of going fully hypothermic on a previous expedition: freezing rain, four degrees, pushing through alders at 2 AM, body completely shut...

In 1986, Alex Stieda became the first North American to ever wear the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. He raced professionally through an era when being a Canadian trying to make it in European cycling was a strange and lonely path — and he helped open a door that a generation of riders would eventually follow through. But that's not really what this conversation is about. Svein has known Alex...

This is a crossover episode originally recorded for the FKT Challenges Podcast (all about bikepack racing, ultra-racing, and people creating their own loops to post the fastest time). The host shares it on the Long Game Project Podcast because the guest, Greg Taylor, embodies everything the Long Game Project is about. Key details from the intro: Greg Taylor is 54 years old, from Coldstream, Britis...

Brad Huff is remembered as one of the great American criterium racers of the 2000s — a two-time US Pro Criterium Champion, a bronze medalist at the 2007 Track World Championships, and a fixture on the North American racing scene for two decades. But as Brad would be the first to tell you, the race results were never really the whole story. In this conversation, Brad takes us back to a farm in rura...

Cody McKay was racing his bike at an elite level at 29 years old when a routine chest X-ray — ordered for something as mundane as winter congestion — revealed an ascending aortic aneurysm. What followed was a journey through diagnosis, open heart surgery, and an unlikely return to competitive racing. In this episode, host Svein Tuft sits down with Cody to unpack what it's like to discover a life-t...

Geoff Kabush on Racing Longevity, Skill, Doping Era Survival, and Still Finding New Adventures Svein Tuft talks with mountain bike legend Geoff Kabush about building a decades-long career, from growing up in the Comox Valley and discovering cycling in his teens to racing internationally as a junior in 1995. Kabush describes the mid-’90s “glory days” of XC racing, his formative years in Victoria, a...

What does your body actually do during a long ride — and how do you find out? In this episode, Svein sits down with performance physiologist Steve Neal, who traveled to Nelson, BC with his full metabolic cart setup to put the Svein through a comprehensive testing session ahead of the BC Epic 1000 — a 1,040 km ultra-endurance race. This isn't a standard VO2 max test. Steve's protocol goes far deepe...

Steve Neal joins the Svein to answer a listener question from Chris O'Leary (New Zealand) on FatMax: what it actually means, why it matters, and how to improve it. What You'll Learn FatMax defined: The highest fat oxidation rate with the least carbohydrate contribution — not just peak fat burning. On a metabolic cart, fat oxidation can stay flat across multiple power steps while carbs double under...

This is the first guest episode of the Long Game Project, and it felt important to start with someone who really sets the tone for what this is all about. Steve Neal is a coach with over 30 years of experience working with endurance athletes, from development level all the way through to high performance. He’s known for his deep understanding of physiology, testing, and how to actually apply that...

In this opening episode of The Long Game Project, Svein Tuft lays out the intention behind the podcast. After nearly two decades racing at the highest level—including the Olympic Games, World Championships, and Grand Tours like the and —this episode focuses on what actually lasts: the process. This is a conversation for anyone trying to stay consistent, capable, and engaged while balancing real li...