VeloNews Podcasts

It's often overlooked, sometimes forgotten. But it never should be. Recovery is just as important to strong performances as your daily workouts and weekly riding volume. Recovery is the other side of the training balance that we often neglect. In today’s technology-driven training world, we have easy-to-use tools like power meters to track our performance. But tracking recovery is not so easy. What’s lacking is that one clear metric or tool to tell us when we're fatigued. In today’s episode, we delve into the question of recovery metrics. First, we'll discuss why the balance between training and recovery plays such an important role in performing at our best. We'll also address the difference between overtraining and functional over-reaching. Next we'll discuss a recent review comparing subjective metrics to objective metrics of recovery. If you think that a blood test or heart rate measure is necessarily better than answering a few questions every morning about how you feel, think again. Finally, we'll hear from several coaches and athletes about what they feel works best when it comes to monitoring recovery.

America's biggest race is underway in California! Dane Cash and Fred Dreier are on the road and covering all of the key stories from the Amgen Tour of California. We discuss Colombia's emerging climbing talent Egan Bernal who won the Tour of California's queen stage on Gibraltar. Fun fact: He actually had to borrow a helmet for his first bike race back in the day. Bernal has come a long, long way since then. Plus, we hear from Americans Sepp Kuss and Brandon McNulty at the race. This episode of the VeloNews podcast is sponsored by Smith Optics, which outfitted us with the Session helmet and Attack Max sunglasses for the Epic Rides mountain bike series.

The Giro d'Italia is underway! And Froome is off the back... Already! Should Sky worry about his bad ride at the opening TT? We check in with Andrew Hood and Gregor Brown who are on the ground in Italy. Back in the States, the Amgen Tour of California starts on Sunday. We preview the route, the key riders, and more. Finally, in our tech segment, we talk to Dan Cavallari about patents. Are they a window into the future of bike design or just a tease, never to materialize on our personal bikes? Kind of a little bit of both, but they are still very interesting to follow. Want to watch the Giro d’Italia? Stream all the stages on Fubo.tv for a special first-month introductory rate of $19.99. Subscribe now: https://www.fubo.tv/lp/giro/?irad=361812&irmp=1235874

Should we call them frenemies? Not quite. Mountain bike stars Howard Grotts and Payson McElveen are close friends and training partners even if they clash on the trails at the races. We recorded this interview in the back of McElveen's van at Whiskey Off-Road in Arizona before they embarked on a road trip to U.S. marathon mountain bike nationals in Arkansas. As they did last year, the Durango, Colorado duo brought the heat with McElveen winning his second title in a row and Olympian Grotts again getting a silver. We talked a little about the racing but a lot more about their heavy duty training programs, and how Grotts likes to keep it old school as far as technology is concerned.

Welcome to the brand new VeloNews Tech podcast, in which we’ll discuss complex tech topics and distill them down into terms we can all understand. Aero tube shapes are now integral parts of bicycle design. Engineers test them in the wind tunnel once they’ve got a prototype in hand, but before such prototypes even exist, a virtual design can be created and tested on the computer using Computational Fluid Dynamics, or CFD. Chris Yu from Specialized walks us through CFD and explains how it influences bicycle design today. Episode one is brought to you by Pro Bike Gear. With its new online saddle selector, you can find your next saddle with just a few clicks. Visit pro-bikegear.com and check out Pro’s newly expanded line of saddles.

The Giro d'Italia is here! Froome vs. Dumoulin. The Zoncolon. We preview all of the big storylines ahead of the season's first grand tour (at 42:30). But first, Spencer talks about what makes the Whiskey Off-Road and other Epic Rides mountain bike races so successful. On the other side of the country (and racing spectrum), Fred went to the Red Hook Crit. Why is fixie racing so popular these days? Plus, we have a rundown of the latest news from Romandie and takes on Lieuwe Westra's doping confession. This week's VeloNews Podcast is sponsored by Fezzari, the bike company that brings a personalized experience to buying bikes online. With a 30-day "love it or return it" guarantee, you can shop with confidence and get the ride that's right for you. Check out http://www.fezzari.com to learn more.

This episode is all about data. Not long ago, people looked at you funny if you had a two-inch screen mounted to your handlebars. Now, we ride with head units the size of iPhones, sensors connected to our limbs, and wearables that track our every step and heartbeat. No one bats an eyelash. A few episodes ago, we talked with Hunter Allen about the history of power and how we got to this point. Today we ask this question: Where is all of this data going, and what do we gain by covering our bodies in sensors like something out of a Star Trek Borg episode? In this episode, we'll discuss the data revolution, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. There’s been exponential growth in the amount of information we're now able to collect and analyze. That data is allowing us to analyze our training in ways we never could before, but it also comes with some dangers.

The first grand tour of the 2018 season gets underway on Friday. The Giro d'Italia kicks off with a time trial in Jerusalem, making it the first grand tour to begin beyond European soil. The start list is an impressive one, with Chris Froome (Sky) making an attempt at the first half of a Giro-Tour double — assuming he is not suspended for his adverse analytical finding for Salbutamol — and he's not the only big name set to be in attendance. Defending champ Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), and rising star Miguel Ángel López (Astana) will also be in the mix for the three-week race. The Recon Ride talks route and favorites ahead of the Italian grand tour — and also hears from GC contender Simon Yates, who forms part of a dangerous Mitchelton-Scott two-pronged attack with Esteban Chaves.

Lance Armstrong settled with the Feds for $5 million... Did he win? Plus, we discuss the tactics that played out in one of the most exciting editions of Liege-Bastogne-Liege in years. Later in the show, we bring on tech editor Dan Cavallari to talk about the biggest bike show in North America, Sea Otter Classic. What tech was cool? What trends are growing? And what's the deal with e-bikes? All that and more on this episode.

The spring classics are nearing their conclusion, with one monumental race left for classics fans to enjoy this Sunday: Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) will look to defend his title against a flying Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) and a host of other punchy climbers in the Ardennes week finale. The Recon Ride previews the parcours and the favorites of "La Doyenne," the oldest major one-day on the calendar and the final marquee classic of the spring.

The WorldTour peloton has left the pavé behind, but the classics rage on for another week in the Netherlands and the Ardennes forest. Michael Valgren kicked off Ardennes week with a classy victory at the Amstel Gold Race, toppling heavyweights like Peter Sagan and Alejandro Valverde. On the women's side, Chantal Blaak took the win for Boels Dolmans, defending the title her teammate Anna van der Breggen nabbed last year. Meanwhile, the North American peloton got into gear this week at the Joe Martin stage race, where Rubén Companioni and Katie Hall delivered overall wins. The VeloNews podcast talks Amstel takeaways as well as the domestic racing scene — with Canadian pro Rob Britton weighing in to boot — as the Amgen Tour of California approaches. VeloNews tech editor Dan Cavallari also gets in on the fun as he prepares for the Sea Otter Classic — and a string of his own tech-oriented shows soon to arrive on the VeloNews podcast network.

We take a deep dive into race strategy and tactics, and the necessary skills and training you need to excel at bike racing. We'll discuss some of the differences between professional and amateur racing and why that leads to different approaches. We’ll take a deep dive into crit racing: why skills are so important, how to save energy, and how to get comfortable with the speed and fear you might feel while racing in the pack. Next it will be flat road races: the importance of saving energy, how it's one of the most predictable races in cycling, but why you still need to be attentive to those unexpected moves. And finally, we'll talk about some of the dynamic tactics you'll encounter in these races, including sag climbing and breaking away. We’re joined by two veterans of both European and American racing from Rally Pro Cycling. Team manager Pat McCarty has spent much of his adult life racing, as a junior, U23, on the WorldTour, in Europe, in the U.S., in crits, climbing races, and on team’s big and small. One of Team Rally’s leaders, Evan Huffman is known for his skills as a breakaway rider and time trialist. He’s coming off a phenomenal 2017 season.

Sagan finally succeeded in winning Paris-Roubaix, doing it in the most audacious way imaginable. Andrew Hood and Dane Cash were on the ground in France to witness the world champion's second career monument victory. They discuss how the race played out, what it means for Sagan, and also speak to Zdenek Stybar and Philippe Gilbert to find out why their Quick-Step freight train went off the rails. As you may know, Sunday also was tragic. Michael Goolaerts, 23, died of heart failure at Paris-Roubaix. Our deepest condolences to his friends and family.

The grand finale of the cobbled classics is nearly here! The hardmen are headed south to take on the so-called "Queen of the Classics," Paris-Roubaix. The gnarliest cobbles on the WorldTour await on Sunday, with defending champ Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), world champ Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), and a stable of powerful Quick-Step riders set to do battle on the pavé one last time this spring. The Recon Ride takes a deeper dive into the parcours and the list of pre-race favorites, with Quick-Step's Zdenek Stybar and EF Education-First's Tom Scully also providing some insight ahead of the 116th edition of Paris-Roubaix.

Coming to you from the classics heartland of Belgium, we've got ample analysis and opinion on Tour of Flanders. Some riders surprised, impressed, and amazed us. Others... not so much. Dane Cash and Andrew Hood look back on the biggest race in Belgium and what it meant for the key classics riders. Tune in for lots of post-race interviews with key players of the peloton, recorded on site in Oudenaarde, Belgium.