With Pace

Brayden Johnson landed his dream situation in 2024  when he signed a contract with a factory team. As a third-year U23 rider, it was a crucial opportunity on his way to the elite field. He had already shown his potential, winning National Champs and podiuming at World Cups. Soon after moving to Italy for the new team, however, Brayden started to notice some red flags. Before the end of the season,...

Gwen Gibson is one of the best World Cup XCO racers in the world, but she almost didn’t make it into the professional ranks. In college, she juggled racing with a full class schedule and held down three jobs to make ends meet. When she graduated, she thought it was probably time to quit her dreams of being a World Cup racer and find a ‘real’ career path. But then she started showing up to races an...

Reigning Queen of Gravel Rosa Klöser returns to the show to talk about some of the major developments in her career since we spoke with her after her surprise win at Unbound last year. That victory launched her into the spotlight as a major new player in the gravel scene, but her spur-of-the-moment decision to race German Road Nationals really brought her to the attention of the broader cycling wo...

Payson stops by XCO National Champion Bjorn Riley’s apartment in Girona to hear about his training camp in South Africa with his new team, the one and only Scott-SRAM. They also discuss the part of winning a race that people don’t often talk about: the terrifying moment when you decide to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. Then, Bjorn pulls out some of the artifacts he’s found in abando...

The final stage of Sahara Gravel in Morocco ended in a sand pit that left some riders sprinting on foot across the line. Payson sits down on a windy sand dune to chat with stage winner Petr Vakoč about how the event went for him over the past four days -- the highs, lows, and his favorite type of tagine. He also talks about his plans for the rest of the season and his unconventional travel plans t...

Stage 3 of Sahara Gravel in Morocco was harder than pretty much anyone was anticipating. Despite seeming to have hardly any climbing, it proved to be the toughest day yet and the first stage that took the riders deep into the Sahara Desert. Payson sat down with British rider Maddy Nutt, who has been battling for first place with Luise Valentin since day one. She talks about getting caught in the s...

It's day two of Sahara Gravel and the general consensus is that the scenery was pretty mind-blowing on this 68 mile mountain stage. Payson sits down with Oti Zolati, the only Moroccan in the race, to talk about being a tourist in his own country and his bikepacking trip across Africa that got him hooked on cycling. Then he talks to the founder of the race, Janosch Wintermantel, about how he w...

It's stage one of the four-day Sahara Gravel stage race in Morocco and Payson is sitting down with the stage winners Luise Valentin and Matteo Fontana. They tell us how their days unfolded, what they do when they're not training (Luise is an engineer in Zurich and Matteo is a former triathlete and bike fitter outside Milan), and how they're feeling about the race so far.  Instagram:...

If you’ve seen two-time Olympian Alison Jackson in the media, chances are she was either dancing, standing on top of the Paris-Roubaix podium, or both. The EF rider won Roubaix in 2023 and quickly became a fan favorite for her joyful social media presence and finish-line celebrations. She caught up with Payson in Girona this week shortly after breaking her arm at a race, and somehow seems to be as...

Growing up in Ethiopia, Tsgabu Grmay was inspired to start riding by his father and older brother, who were both cyclists. As a teenager, he was selected to go to the UCI’s World Cycling Centre in South Africa and signed with his first UCI team in 2012. Since then, he raced 12 years on the WorldTour with teams including Lampre-Merida, Trek-Segafredo, and Jayco-AlUla. He retired from road racing at...

Geerike Schreurs spent nearly a decade as a WorldTour soigneur, taking care of some of the best riders in the world. Now, she’s their teammate. The Dutch rider officially signed to SD Worx-Protime to race a combination of gravel and road this season, and even though she had a breakout season last year and snagged second place at Unbound, she says that this is the first time she’s finally feeling l...

Emilly Johnston was wondering if she was going to have a team for her first Elite season when she got a call from Scott-SRAM team director Thomas Frischknecht. Shortly after she signed a contract with the team, she placed third at Worlds, rounding out a triumphant 2024 season that marked her as one of the most promising up-and-comers in the women's field. Emilly sat down with Payson in Girona...

Throughout his 12 years in the World Tour, Thomas De Gendt was known as one of the preeminent breakaway specialists of the century, winning five Grand Tour stages including the infamous Queen Stage of the Giro on the Passo dello Stelvio. Recently, he announced that after 16 years as a pro on the road, he would be switching to gravel.  This week, Thomas sat down with Payson in Girona to talk about...

Riejanne Markus is a Dutch WorldTour rider who is currently racing with Lidl-Trek. She went professional over a decade ago and has moved from strength to strength, nabbing three national titles and finishing second overall at last year’s Vuelta a España. Riejanne sat down with Payson in Girona this week to talk about her decision to join Lidl-Trek after four years with Visma-Lease a Bike, growing...

Bond Almand was just 20 years old when he rode the nearly 13,500 miles of the Pan-American Highway from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina in 75 days, beating the previous record by nearly 10 days. That feat is even more impressive considering that the last rider to hold the record was a professional racer who did it with a support crew, while Bond did it all self-supported between semester...

In an extended outtake from our previous episode, Payson and Hannah chat about how they're preparing for the upcoming season, whether they're changing anything, and how they're balancing the Grand Prix schedule with non-Grand Prix events they love. Instagram: @withpacepodcast YouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

This week, Payson is joined by Hannah Otto to run down the women's roster for the 2025 Grand Prix. They talk about the five new riders, the riders who won't be returning, and how the slimmed-down field might affect the overall series. They also go deep into the weeds on whether the Grand Prix is now geared toward mountain bikers (spoiler alert: they're biased), talk about why they w...

Big changes are coming to the Life Time Grand Prix in 2025. Among them are fewer events, fewer riders, less altitude, and an extra mountain bike race. There are new riders, riders who were absent for a season but are coming back, and riders who have featured heavily in the series who won’t be returning. Payson unpacks all the changes on the men's side, including the new riders, the most painf...

Haley Batten spent years preparing for the Olympics, and it all came together this summer when she walked away with Silver. She sat down with Payson last month to talk about where it all began, when she was a 14-year-old with a printed resumé approaching pro racers at bike events. Eventually, one of them took notice and gave her her big break. She talks about how she built a career with the help o...

Earlier this week, Payson completed his latest ultra-endurance crossing challenge following his Crossing Iceland and Crossing Tasmania projects from previous years. This time, he connected three of New Zealand’s best-known routes — the Paparoa, Old Ghost, and Heaphy trails on the South Island. With a few unexpected twists, he managed to complete the 241 miles and 24,587 feet of climbing in under 2...

Ryan Standish has had a tough year. During pre-season training in Madeira, he split open his knee during a crash and had to put his entire season on hold. The crash ended up going viral thanks to the GoPro he was wearing at the time, and he found himself in the middle of an unexpected internet news cycle. Ryan sat down with Payson over the Big Sugar weekend to talk about the crash, how it shaped h...

Kelsey Urban’s time racing the World Cup circuit has been anything but smooth. After years of suffering from a mysterious health condition that mystified doctors and forced her to pull the plug on her 2023 season, she was finally able to begin the long journey back in the UCI points this year. In the first World Cup of the season, she made it clear that she was a top contender by finishing 8th, an...

And that’s a wrap on another round of the Life Time Grand Prix. Payson goes over the final points breakdown and talks about the changes that have been announced for the series for next year. He also talks to Matt Beers about their tie-breaking sprint for second place overall, and Alexis Skarda, who, after a five-week break in the middle of the series due to injury, still managed to come away with...

There was a point when Payson thought there were two Heather Jacksons racing the Grand Prix. How could one person excel in so many sports? The former hockey star who landed a spot on the Olympic track cycling team is now known mostly for her career as a star triathlete on the Ironman circuit. Lately, however, she’s transitioned into gravel racing and ultrarunning, competing at the highest levels o...

When Justinas Leveika raced the Tour Divide for the first time last year, it was, according to him, “a disaster.” But despite having done almost no preparation, he emerged from two weeks in the wilderness in second place behind Ulrich Bartholmoes. His bike barely made it, and he resolved to put the event behind him. This year, however, he returned, and not only did he win the race, but he beat the...