With Pace

Joe Cruz has been bikepacking since the 80s, when a college trip introduced him to the excitement and challenge of multi-day cycling adventures. Since then, he's raced and bikepacked his way across the world, including journeys through Ethiopia, Patagonia, Pakistan, and Tibet. When he's not riding his bike, he is Professor of Philosophy at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he also...

Alexey Vermeulen began his career racing on the WorldTour circuit for Jumbo Visma. After falling out of love with the road scene, he decided to transition to gravel and mountain bike racing in 2018. Since then, his results have included second and first place finishes at the Iceman Cometh in consecutive years, and third at Belgian Waffle Ride. In this conversation, he talks about his decision to c...

Nat Ross has many firsts to his name. He was the first rider to race a World Cup on 29 inch wheels, the first winner of the Marathon National Championships, and competed in the first X Games...in two disciplines. He's also competed in forty 24 hour races and won nine, including two World Championships. During his professional racing career, he was often at the front of the line to try the lat...

Sarah Sturm returns to catch up with Payson about how her life and career have changed since her first time on the show in 2020. She talks about learning to say no to things, why she doesn't like going back to races she's already done, and the imposter syndrome she still feels on the start line no matter how many wins and professional successes she achieves. They discuss how she chooses...

Chad Cheeney is the co-founder of Durango Devo, a non-profit mountain bike program for kids in Durango, Colorado. Since the program began in 2006, Chad has coached thousands of young riders, including Sepp Kuss, Christopher Blevins, Sarah Sturm, and Howard Grotts. But beyond those who have gone on to become world title holding pros, many more have achieved the program’s central objective: becoming...

At just 19 years of age, Vali Höll is no stranger to the World Cup podium. In 2018, she won every Junior World Cup race and went on to win the overall title two years in a row, occasionally beating the fastest Elite times. Her 2020 season was cut short by injury and further complicated by the pandemic and studying for her final year of high school. She tells Payson about the rehab process at the R...

Annijke Wade is a mountain biker who was finishing her third season of racing when a crash on a familiar trail left her permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Now, almost three months later, she talks to Payson about coming to terms with her life-altering injury. Shortly before the crash, Annijke became a certified mountain bike coach and founded BIPOC AF, an organization that seeks to make th...

Today on the show, photographer and Iceland expert Chris Burkard turns the tables on Payson to interview him about his record-setting self-supported 257 mile ride from the northernmost tip of Iceland to the southernmost tip in just under 20 hours. They talk about his gear and nutrition choices and how the ride stacks up against some of the other challenges he's done in recent years. They also...

Payson, Lael, Nichole, Rue, and Chris sit down for one last Iceland recap. After eight days and 680 miles of touring the Westfjords, they talk about the most memorable moments from the trip, their favorite gear, the gear they wish they'd brought, and how they hope people might approach the route in the future. Payson and Lael also give a sneak peek of the competitive efforts they'll be u...

Payson, Chris, Nichole, and Lael talk about day seven of their bikepacking tour of the Westfjords of Iceland. With perfect weather, stunning coastal views and varied terrain, they're calling it the Queen's Stage of the route. They share their highlights and preview their final day.  Instagram: @withpacepodcast YouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

Payson, Lael, Rue, Nichole, and Chris discuss their sixth day of riding, which featured--as usual--a roller-coaster of weather and lots of eating. Evan the photographer returns for a second cameo to talk about his favorite moment of the day in the media van. Threinn the videographer (and former MMA fighter) makes his first podcast appearance to set the record straight on the pronunciation of his n...

Payson, Lael, Nichole, Chris, and Rue review their fifth day touring the Westfjords of Iceland. After the previous day's tailwind, today featured 90+ miles of headwind, side wind, cold, and rain. They talk about the creeping onset of fatigue halfway through their trip, the day's animal sightings, and the brutality of the environment that dictates its beauty and its harshness.  Instagram:...

Payson, Lael, Rue, Nichole, and Chris discuss a very different day on the bike: 40 miles of tailwind. They talk about the impromptu piano concert they witnessed, Lael devises a nontraditional stage race for the route, and Evan the photographer makes a cameo appearance to share what goes on behind the scenes of the group's Instagram photos. Instagram: @withpacepodcast YouTube: Payson McElveen...

After a grueling 140 mile day of rain and headwinds, the group sits down to discuss Nichole's biggest day on the bike ever, Payson's favorite encounter with a local family, Rue's observations from the van, and Chris and Lael's misadventures with wind, mud, and horse poop.  Instagram: @withpacepodcast YouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

Payson, Lael, Rue, Chris, and Nichole recap their second day of riding, including conversations with locals, the evening's hot spring, and Nichole's first peloton experience.  Instagram: @withpacepodcast YouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

Payson, Nichole, Lael, Rue, and Chris recap their first day of riding, which encompassed 90 miles and included a glacier, an arctic fox, a feast of blueberries, headwind, tailwind, and a hot spring at the end. They share their highlights of the day and preview day 2. Instagram: @withpacepodcast YouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

Payson, Nichole Baker, Chris Burkard, Lael Wilcox, and Rue Kaladyte join us from their hostel in Ísafjörður for their first nightly dispatch from Iceland. They discuss their bikepacking route, first impressions of the Island, and highlights of the day, and preview their ride.  Instagram: @withpacepodcast YouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

In preparation for our upcoming daily series following Payson’s bikepacking trip of Iceland with Chris Burkard, Nichole Baker, Rue Kaladite, and Lael Wilcox, we’re replaying some of our favorite moments from Payson’s previous conversations with Chris about the country. He’s been to Iceland 47 times and traversed it in just about every way possible by plane, car, and bike. This episode features sto...

Pete Stetina raced in the WorldTour for ten years before transitioning to gravel racing in 2019. During that time, he raced in the Tour De France, the Giro D’Italia, and the Vuelta Espana. Since moving to gravel, he has featured on the podium at many races, including winning the Belgian Waffle Ride during his first year on the gravel scene. More recently, he won the inaugural Leadboat, a two day c...

Rue Kaladyte is a photojournalist and videographer. She started out in journalism, working for the Anchorage Daily News in Alaska, where the pressures of the 24 hour news cycle led her to seek longer form projects, including one that introduced her to her wife, Lael Wilcox. Following the closure of the newspaper, she began working full-time as a photojournalist capturing stories from ultra-enduran...

Chris Blevins returns to the show to talk about competing at this year's Olympics in Tokyo. It was a different experience than the one he anticipated in 2019, when he visited the city to test ride the course before he knew he would make the Olympic team. Since then, the event was delayed by a year and transformed by the pandemic. Chris talks about the bittersweet feelings of competing in his...

Neil Beltchenko has competed in some of the most infamous bikepacking races for nearly a decade, including the Iditarod Trail Invitational, which he won in 2018, and the Arizona Trail 300, which he has won multiple times and where set a course record in 2016. In this interview, he joins Payson just days after winning the Colorado Trail Race. He has ridden and completed the Colorado Trail six times...

Jeff Garmire is an ultrarunner and thru-hiker who holds the unsupported running FKT for the Colorado Trail, which he completed in nine days earlier this year. He specializes in unsupported efforts, carrying all the food and supplies he needs from beginning to end, including any trash he generates along the way. He has also held the FKTs on the Arizona Trail, the Long Trail, and the Pinhoti Trail....

Today on the show, Payson sits down with Fred Dreier, editor-in-chief at VeloNews. They talk about the changing face of professional cycling, the decline of American road racing, and the rise of the athlete influencer. Fred also talks about the parallel evolution he’s seen in journalism, both in cycling and in more conventional media spaces. During a hiatus from VeloNews, Fred graduated from the C...

Haley Batten burst onto the elite World Cup scene this year, taking the podium at back-to-back races in Nové Mesto and Albstadt, and securing herself a place on Team USA for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. Haley joins Payson from her training camp in Italy to talk about the whirlwind of success she’s achieved during her first year out of U23. They talk about why her first podium came at a moment when...