King of the Ride

Jeremy Powers has made a tear across the cyclocross scene. The most dominant racer for years, he's a master of his craft, and was crafty enough to start the JAM Fund to support development of cyclocross especially in his native New England. The ever smiling Jeremy and Ted sat down after the biggest fundraising event for that organization, the JAM Grand Fondo.

Farid Noori is the founder of MTB Afghanistan, an organization meant to bring empowerment to his native country of Afghanistan. Currently a student at Middlebury College, Farid reached out to Ted years ago with the intrepid hopes of building cycling infrastructure back at home as well as to pursue elite athletic hopes of racing in the Olympics under the Afghan flag. He's definitely on the right track.

Tim Johnson is a friend of the bicycle and a friend of Ted's. He taught Ted to brush my teeth after bike rides and he teaches hoards of people throughout the land why the bicycle is an incredible tool for change, for empowerment, and betterment. Tim is a lifelong racer with a sliver of fitness that he can let out of the bag now and again. Tim and Ted caught up on day one of the 6 day, 500 mile traverse, the #tourXnewengland.

Jim Merithew is a photographer by trade, a writer by talent, and one of the most creative minds you'll ever encounter. Jim started the website Element.ly, he was the photography director at Wired.com at the advent of the modern internet, and now his mind spins 1,000,000mph with ideas as creative director at inGamba tours. Jim is a crack up and spouts ideas with Ted how to improve the entire sport of cycling. Just a heads up, the audio hits a hiccup a 20 minutes, so apologies for the ambient noise.

Austin McInerny is the president of NICA, the coast to coast, high school mountain biking league. NICA is the leading feeder of young Americans getting into the sport of cycling and Austin is at the helm leading the charge. Austin and Ted sit down to a conversation at the NICA headquarters in Berkeley, CA where Austin has risen from coach to board member to head of the board to now president.

Amidst driving cross-country, moving from California to Vermont, Ted swings through an eyeopening Spearfish, SD. The original beacon was the Gold Rush Gravel Race, but Spearfish is also home to industry leader Quarq. Ted and founder Jim Meyer have been happily acquainted since as early as 2008, so the two had lots to catch up on across the cycling spectrum in their ten year history.

Lelan Dains is a co-race director of the gravel mecca that is Dirty Kanza. The day after DK 2018, Ted and Lelan sat down to decompress how the entire event went down.

On the 36 hour eve of Dirty Kanza, Ted catches up with the only male 4-time winner of the event, Dan Hughes. Dan is a father of three stellar young men, owner of the Sunflower Outdoor and Bike shop in Lawrence, KS, and is always up for a good time. Dan is an accurate example of the expression, Dan is the man!

21 years ago Miguel Crawford started the Grasshopper Adventure Series. What is the GAS? It's everything that's right about bike riding as we know it! It's fun, it's camaraderie, it's mass start, it's gravel, and it's badass. Ted sits down with Miguel and talk about all things bikes in the first of the King of the Ride podcasts.