The Paceline Cycling Podcast

Back in 2013 when my youngest son was born he almost died less than three minutes after his birth. He had a condition that would have been terminal when I was born. He was moved to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) where he proceeded to spend the following 39 days. Enter the Deuce is the story of his—and our—journey, from nearly losing him, through the ups and downs of his treatment until he w...

With the days getting shorter and Christmas right around the corner, the combination of less light and more family obligations has John thinking about scheduling. Patrick considers what it takes to ride in the rain and what that says about us as cyclists.

This week John looks at getting high, well, his version of it, which doesn't involve any illegal or recently legal drugs. Cycling is an indispensable part of the experience, but not all of it. Patrick discusses flow and how any flow experience begins with a period of struggle. Yes, those peak experiences follow some frustration earlier in the ride or day.

The Paceline is back following its Thanksgiving break. John takes a look at bike categories and just how blurry the margins are. What's it all mean? Patrick had an intimate encounter with a car and he takes a look at its after effects and offers a mea culpa.

John takes on a listener question this week regarding the notion of Safety 3rd. Is it foolhardy or a sound philosophy? John and Patrick ponder its implications. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, Patrick takes a look at what he's grateful for and the how and why of his increased practice of contemplating what he has to be grateful for.

John wonders if Peloton riders just ride a Peloton or do they actually, you know, ride outside at all? Patrick takes on a listener question about riding in the rain.

With Halloween behind us, the retail world turns its attention to the holiday season. Patrick and John put together their Christmas wish lists which they hope listeners' significant others will act upon because gifts involving cycling are pretty terrific.

John has been doing what we'd refer to as gravel rides since before he had a gravel bike and while he enjoys increased specialization, he thinks we don't always appreciate just how versatile less discipline-specific bikes really are. Patrick talks to industry vet Rick Vosper about how the Dutch conglomerate Pon just purchased Dorel, one of the biggest producers of bikes for the U.S. market and jus...

This week John elects to take the road less traveled and concludes he's better for it. Patrick, on the other hand, has chosen to take a break from his riding in an effort to get a reboot.

With the arrival of fall John says the change of seasons increasingly truncates his day. To prevent the his abbreviated days from cutting into his winter riding, which will involve many hours in the dark, John says he's instituting the practices now that will carry him through the winter. Patrick looks at trail work and how it both provides a service to the community and feeds his connection to th...

John is just back from doing a very hard thing. A thing that was harder than he expected. We learn things about ourselves on these occasions, and he learned a thing or two. Back from Memphis, Patrick confesses that he failed in packing for his trip. Maybe he can save you some trouble before your next trip.

Our not-quite-man cyclist, Robot, will be running an ultra this coming weekend. He says that there are some remarkable parallels between endurance sports and suggests we are likely to agree. Padraig takes on a listener question about his new TCI series, The Angle. It's a fair question: Why should anyone care about bike geometry?

We can laugh at ourselves, yes? Robot takes aim at cycling costumes, our seriousness, ridiculousness and functionality all being poked, prodded and panned. And maybe justified, too. This week Padraig takes on helmet mirrors. Are they a good idea? What does brain science have to say about them? He digs into that and discusses what we can do to increase the odds that a driver won't go thump-thump ov...

This week John takes a look at a watershed event in Shimano's history. They have discontinued mechanically operated drivetrains on their Dura-Ace and Ultegra groups. The new versions of these groups we should see before the end of the year will be electronic-only. One of the biggest retailers in the country recently announced their sale to a Dutch holding company. As a result, Specialized severed...

John is just back from vacation in New Hampshire's White Mountains. He went glamping with the fam and says it was better than staying in a hotel. Patrick takes on a listener question about strategies to fit more training time in preparation for some long gravel events that he hopes take place next year.

Just what is humidity? For a cyclist, relative humidity can make the difference between a lovely day on the bike and a session of abject suffering. But what does that number really mean and how should we interpret it. Our man Robot goes full nerd. It wasn't too long ago that most roadies were decrying the advent of disc brakes on road bikes as unnecessary technology and a cynical effort to make us...

In this episode of the Paceline Tandem, we speak with Phil Cavell, author of The MidLife Cyclist, a book that shows the way forward for middle-aged riders (and athletes). Cavell is co-director of Cyclefit, an internationally known fit studio in Central London. With co-founder Julian Wall, Cavell has fit Pro Tour riders, Olympians and legions of aspiring middle-aged cyclists. The MidLife Cyclist is...

This week John considers his diet. He likes eating all the things, including kale. But is that really good for the environment, he asks. Patrick wonders what the delta variant means for doing bike events and travel. Is buying a hazmat suit the answer?

John is thinking about cycling culture and just how it manifests, like who's responsible? Is it influencers? Patrick got a question about cycling heroes and who his are (hint: it's not who you think). 

John has been giving some thought to the brouhaha over gymnast Simone Biles' withdrawal from the Olympic Games and how none of us really knows what is going on in her head and how, maybe, we could cut her some slack. In response to a listener question, Patrick takes a look at what we get out of doing really hard things, like maybe a 200-mile gravel race and how a day that doesn't go to plan can be...

Our guest for this installment of The Paceline Tandem is Mark Peterman, the CEO and founder of AirFom, a new foam insert that replaces inner tubes (and air) in bicycle tires. Peterman is an industry veteran who has done it all: He was an elite level racer in Colorado where he raced against the best of the best in the 1980s. He was a race promoter, a bike shop manager, a regional sales rep. He join...

Our man John is considering his good fortune. He has a home and nice bikes and friends who think he's awesome. He also has someone who depends on him who is in a fix. What's on his mind is how cycling teaches us to help when you can. Patrick spoke with bike industry veteran Mark Peterman about the supply chain issues that have seen very few bikes arrive in shops. Peterman has deep experience and i...

A new shop has opened up near John, and he's hopeful that they can make a go of it. His question is why it's so hard to pay and keep good mechanics and why bicycle retailing isn't a more profitable endeavor. After some soul-searching in the wake of the end of a relationship, Patrick asks what it means to give. As is his way, he looks to cycling for his answer. 

Where are the bikes? Not the ones in your garage or your friend's garage, but the ones that should be appearing on the floors of bike shops around the country. Demand has fallen off, possibly because non-bike-owning types are tired of waiting for bikes to show up from the factories. Robot digs into this question with unsurprising results.  A listener wrote to Patrick to comment on the stance the s...

Why is riding bikes with friends so good? We know it's true, but can anyone really explain why? Our man John takes on the question. Did you pick up Covid pounds? Patrick did and now he's trying to figure out how much discipline he's willing to live by, how much of his diet he's willing to give up.