The OTB Podcast

This week on the OTB Podcast, we catch up with Sacha Earnest from Trek Factory Racing while she’s back home in New Zealand during the World Cup summer break. Fresh off a season-best 7th place in Andorra, Sacha gets real about the challenges of stepping into the elite ranks, the mental and physical toll of World Cup racing, and what it’s really like going from dominating juniors to fighting for eve...

Our man on the ground at Red Bull Hardline, Cam MacKenzie, delivers us some post race interviews with your favourite kiwi racers. A wild day at the races with some incredible riding by the kiwi contingent throughout the whole weekend! Check in with Sam Gale, Oli Clark, Lou Fergusson, Brook Macdonald, Tuhoto Ariki-Pene and George Brannigan to hear how the week stacked up for them!

Join Kieran Bennett, Lester Perry and Chris Vanderkolk as we dive on in to what happened last weekend in Andorra at another massive World Cup round. Jackson Goldstone had his streak broken and wasn't able to win a historic 5 in a row, Super Bruni is back, Sammie Maxwell continues to show her outright incredible form in the XCO and Tom Pidcock decided to just show up and dominate! Brought to you by...

Wyn Masters joins the show this week to talk all things La Thuile, from a dominating ride by Nina Hoffman and four in a row for Jackson Goldstone to some wild stories from years gone past in Andorra - This one has it all as per usual! Grab a coffee, put your feet up and relax to the dulcet tones of the OTB Podcast. Brought to you by: Maxxis Tyres - New Zealand's tyre of choice! To see the full...

Val Di Sole delivered as always and as always we get together to bring you a not very in depth discussion on the racing with plenty of side quests. It appears Lester has joined Deadliest Catch, Red Dog has gone full time bike packer, Chris has officially declared himself as a downcountry rider and KB will forever still clinging on to his hopes and dreams as a downhill racer. Sit back, enjoy the ch...

The junior mens winner from Leogang joins us this week, Oli Clark drops in to talk about how the weekend went, the track, marginal gains, the pace of racing right now and more! The usual line up of Kieran Bennett, James Rennie and Chris Vanderkolk also guide you through the usual world of OTB with some racing talk and a lot of side quests as you've come to know and love. Brought to you by: Max...

Round two of the World Cup Downhill series has delivered with plenty of drama! Join Kieran Bennett, Lester Perry and James Rennie to dive into the Loudenvielle World Cup and all of the drama that came with maybe the fastest track we have seen in quite some time. Some side tracks are taken into the Nove Mesto XC World Cup, Unbound gravel and EDR, along with some completely random tangents that we a...

The mechanics behind the worlds fastest races are the unsung heroes of the of the sport and Aaron Peltarri is no exception, after 10 years of making sure Troy Bronsnan never missed a practice run he decided to hang it up at the end of the 2024 season. From humble beginnings to wrenching for one of the most consistent riders in the modern generation, Aaron takes us behind the scenes of the often no...

Friend of the show and still current World Cup Downhill racer Wyn Masters joins us this week to discuss what went down at the first round of the World Cup in Poland, from questionable French lines to officials running down the track, there was no shortage of drama! Brought to you by: Maxxis Tyres - New Zealand's tyre of choice! To see the full line up from Maxxis, check out www.marleen.co.nz/brand...

We know you've all been hanging out for this, after a 3 month hiatus the boys and back in town and bringing you a good old fashioned, top quality-low level chat about all things mountain biking and plenty of things that have no relevance what so ever! KB is joined by Lester Perry, Chris Vanderkolk and James Rennie to dive into a smorgasbord of topics and even a new business idea is launched to...

This week on the OTB podcast, we sit down with Mic Williams—founder of WRP (Williams Racing Products) and the brains behind Trinity MTB —for a deep dive into the wild world of high-performance bike tech and bold ideas that just might change the game. We chat about how WRP went from humble beginnings to having components on World Cup winning bikes, the art and science behind component design, and w...

Downhill racing is alive and well in the USA! With the Tennessee National at Windrock and Round One of the Monster Pro Downhill Series kicking off in recent weeks, the American scene is buzzing—complete with a stacked lineup of World Cup talent. Teams like Commencal Muc-Off, Trek Factory Racing, Canyon Collective, and Yeti Factory Racing were all in the mix. Kieran Bennett is joined by Sean "...

In this episode, we sit down with Syd Schulz and Macky Franklin , the dynamic duo behind the popular MTB YouTube channel Syd & Macky . From racing the Enduro World Series to tackling epic bikepacking adventures, they’ve done it all—while keeping things fun and relatable. We chat about their recent time in New Zealand racing the Volcanic Epic and spending some riding time in Nelson, their journ...

The downhill scene in the US is looking maybe stronger than it ever has, so we catch up with our foreign correspondent Sean "Griz" McClendon to talk about the upcoming races at Windrock and Ride Rock Creek. As always, Griz has is finger on the pulse and pulls out some names to watch and tells us who has been flying in the pre-season races! Brought to you by: Maxxis Tyres - New Zealand's tyre of ch...

From one Masters brother to the next, we catch up with Eddie Masters in studio while he was in sunny Nelson for the NZ Enduro National Championships on an unfortunate extended stay. Eddie has seen and done it all and is this episode is nothing short of some great thoughts on the current climate of World Cup racing, the New Zealand scene, permanent numbers and more! You don't want to miss this one!...

Hardline Tasmania is done and dusted, along with a few riders race seasons being dusted too. Wyn Masters joins us this week to discuss the event, riders motivation behind it, some interesting behind the scenes knowledge, his thoughts on the 2025 World Cup season and more! Brought to you by: Maxxis Tyres - New Zealand's tyre of choice! To see the full line up from Maxxis, check out www.marleen....

Theres been a lot of team changes going on for the 2025 World Cup season so we dive into who is going where, good choices, bad choices, who is going to excel and more! Join Kieran Bennett, James Rennie and Chris Vanderkolk for the usual talk of downhill racing with a mixture of side quests, a not too serious look at the sport! Brought to you by: Maxxis Tyres - New Zealand's tyre of choice! To see...

Erice Van Leuven joins us this week for her first ever podcast! After two incredible years in the Junior Women class winning multiple DH world cups, a World Cup overall, two World Championships and even an EDR World Cup round, Erice is moving up into the Elite field and has also joined the Norco Race Division team! We catch up with Erice on how settling into the new team is going and also take a l...

We catch up with Lachie Stevens-Mcnabb as the announcement has just come out that he is joining the Trek Factory Racing squad for 2025. After his break out 2024 and the unfortunately closure of The Union, it's no surprise that he has made the move into the factory team.

The news has dropped today that Ellie Hulsebosch has joined the Santa Cruz Syndicate for 2025 and beyond! We caught up with Ellie recently to talk about her new deal, her breakout 2024 World Cup season and much more! Ellie is a rising star on the downhill circuit and has the skill and drive to be at the top, we are definitely looking forward to watching where she goes in the next few years! Brough...

We're back for one final episode to round out 2024 before holiday season kicks in and we decided to let you guys, the listeners dictate where this episode went! We've got team rumours, listener questions and the always popular power rankings by Chris have made a return. Thanks for joining us for another year, we'll see you in 2025! Brought to you by: Maxxis Tyres - New Zealand's tyre of choice! To...

Rae Morrison joins us this week as we take a dive back through her very nice career racing on the enduro circuit over the last 10 years. From the classic humble kiwi beginnings of putting everything she had into going racing as a privateer to spending a number of years as a factory racer with Giant/Liv, theres no doubt that she gave it everything. After announcing her retirement from full time rac...

And were back! Its been a few weeks but the crew is back together to catch up on everything that has been going on. Lester and Red Dog attended the Le Petite Brevet, KB went to the Ignition MTB festival in Australia and Chris... well we're not really sure, he probably went running. All the hot topics are covered this week, whats the difference between a brevet and a gran fondo? how long does it ta...

Do we even need to introduce Lachie? After an incredible 2024 World Cup Downhill season that saw him land two podiums, including an absolute nail biting second place at the final round, Lachie sat down with KB to talk about the season just gone and what has lead him to this point. Another rising star out of New Zealand, we're excited to see what the future brings for him! Brought to you by: Maxxis...

John Kirkcaldie, an absolute legend of New Zealand downhill racing joins us this week to discuss just about everything from his years of racing in the USA - The bikes, the contracts, the antics, we leave very few stones unturned! JK did it all, from his early days as a privateer on a Foes, to being part of the factory Schwinn power house team with Dave Cullinan, to his very successful years with M...