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Show #156 – August 17, 2013

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GUESTS: KAREN BLISS, JOANNE KIESANOWSKI, MEREDITH MILLER, INGA THOMPSON, AMBER PIERCE

 

This week’s Outspoken Cyclist is the culmination of many months of planning and plotting to bring together five women who are either current or former professional bike racers, for a panel discussion on their experiences and expectations racing in the shadow of their male counterparts. The ladies often race the same courses at virtually the same speeds as the men (minus the high-profile cheating) and yet there is an order of magnitude of difference in the pay and media coverage. Why is that, and what will it take to change it? Well, that and many other questions are the subject of a full hour with five very smart and talented women racers.

You can learn more about each of this week’s guests by following the links below:

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Show #155 – August 10, 2013

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GUESTS: DAVID EPSTEIN, ROB GREENFIELD, SEAN WEIDE

You know that feeling when the temperature is just right, and there’s enough of a breeze to cool you down, but not enough to impede forward progress, and your bike is shifting and riding with the silent precision of a Swiss watch, and your legs feel like they could turn the cranks at this rate indefinitely? Yeah, me too. Rarely. But just often enough to lure me out in case today is that day.

And now on to this week’s show:

If you’ve ever wondered why your buddy climbs so much faster than you, or can out sprint you, even though you train just as hard (or harder) David Epstein has your answer. It turns out that almost all athletic achievement is, to some extent, genetically predisposed. The way our bodies respond to training, food and drugs varies according to our DNA. Epstein’s new book, The Sports Gene is loaded with information about how our potential for different sports is determined, and how it’s realized.

Our second guest this week is not a competitive cyclist, but he handily walks away with the prize for most interesting and creative use of his time. Rob Greenfield has traveled far and wide on a shoestring (or less!). His latest adventure involved a 4700-mile ride across the U.S. on a bamboo bike while living off the grid. Rob’s tiny carbon footprint makes mine look like a Sasquatch by comparison.

Finally, the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah is happening now, and Diane caught up with Sean Weide, the press liaison for Team BMC, which is racing the ToU. Diane and Sean talk about racing in the U.S., drug-testing, and the consistent success that BMC’s riders have been having this year.

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Show #154 – August 3, 2013

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GUESTS: GEORGE THOMAS, SEAN PETTY

 

Here we stand at the intersection of July and August, and I can see the light in the opposite direction has gone from green to yellow, which means it’s time to get a foot clipped in and be ready to push off on green. It also means there are just two months left for U.S. cyclists to log miles for the National Bike Challenge. Rolling!

If you need a bit of inspiration to get you moving, here’s much more than a bit: George Thomas joins us this week for the first half of the show. George is a solo and team Race Across America finisher, director of the Race Across Oregon, and host and producer at Over the Top Productions. But his story is much deeper than those accomplishments. After being hit by a drunk driver, he had to learn how to walk again, and then overcome debilitating seizures before he could become an ultracycling legend.

After a break and a trip through the week’s news, Diane is joined by Sean Petty, Chief Operating Officer of USA Cycling, to talk about the USA Pro Challenge, which is coming up August 19-25 in Colorado. The 2013 Pro Challenge will feature top pro teams and riders, including, it appears, TdF winner Chris Froome and Richie Porte of Team Sky!

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Show #153 – July 27, 2013

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GUESTS: JANE GEISSE, GINNY SULLIVAN, CLIFF COLE

 

If you read the news at all, it’s easy to see that there’s no shortage of seemingly intractable problems in the world today. Read the news too much, and you might think there are no solutions to these problems. Ride a bike, and the world starts to look a little better, and its problems a little smaller. Listen to The Outspoken Cyclist, and discover how your fellow cyclists are taking on the world.

First up is Jane Geisse, a 60-year-old road and cyclocross racer from right here in NE Ohio. Jane has been racing for only 6 years, but has racked up an amazing set of palmares. She’s competing in the 2013 Senior Games, held in Cleveland this past week, and then it’s on to Nationals in Oregon. Proof that there is no expiration date on a motivated person!

After the news, Diane turns her attention to trains, specifically the ability to take your bike on an Amtrak train without taking it apart and boxing it up. Ginny Sullivan of Adventure Cycling and Cliff Cole of Amtrak both weigh in on the current state of efforts to make it easier to travel by train and bicycle. It turns out, slow but steady progress is being made.

And here’s a bonus tip I simply must share: Road ID has released a free smartphone app that will text up to five friends to let them know you’re headed out for a ride or run. It provides your friends with a live GPS tracking map to show your route and current location. There’s even an option that will alert them if you haven’t moved in five minutes (“dead in a ditch” as my wife likes to half-joke). Road ID calls these tracks “eCrumbs” (like a trail of bread crumbs, get it?). Besides the safety aspect, I can see this being very useful for cyclists trying to meet “on the road”. Check it out.

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Show #152 – July 20, 2013

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GUESTS: TRAVIS TYGART, SEANA HOGAN, CASSIE SCHUMACHER

 

Here in the U.S., we need to take a mental photograph of this week and its beastly hot weather, so we can pull it out in six or eight months when we’re bitching and moaning about freezing temperatures and snow-covered roads. In the meantime, chill out with a new episode of The Outspoken Cyclist.

The name Travis Tygart is one that gained a lot of notoriety during 2012’s L’Affaire Armstrong. As CEO of USADA, Tygart led the investigation that produced the now-famous reasoned decision, outing many pro cyclists as having cheated in sport. Find out more as Diane talks with Tygart about why USADA exists, and how it goes about policing cycling and other sports.

Earlier this summer, we were glued to Tractalis following the Race Across America, including Cassie Schumacher, a woman from our own backyard, who in 2013 became the first female solo RAAM finisher from Ohio. This week we are honored to have both Cassie and six-time RAAM winner Seana Hogan on the show to share their thoughts and experiences on ultra-distance cycling.

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Show #151 (really?) – July 13, 2013

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GUESTS: GREG BORZO, SCOTT BRICKER, LINDSEY VOREIS

 

With the TdF, RAGBRAI, XOBA, et al, the July Effect is getting into full swing about now. Objects in your favorite tour may be closer than they appear. But it’s not all about the road, or even all about the wheel, as this week’s Outspoken Cyclist illustrates.

We do start on the road, the road across Iowa to be exact. Every summer since 1973, tens of thousands of cyclists have participated in the rolling Mardi Gras known as RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa). Our first guest, Greg Borzo has written a new book entitled RAGBRAI: America’s Favorite Bicycle Ride. Warning: if this ride isn’t on your bucket list already, it will be after reading Greg’s book.

You may wonder what a walking advocate is doing on a show about cycling, but really biking and walking are fraternal twins in the transportation family, and a city that’s walkable is also bikeable almost by default. Hence, we’re pleased to welcome Scott Bricker, the Executive Director of America Walks. Scott’s organization is active all over the country, and with a wide variety of partners to promote walking as the “no tech” solution to better health and transportation.

News? Ain’t nobody got time for that, at least not with guests like we have this week. So in the second half of the show we hit the dirt for an in-depth conversation with Lindsey Voreis. Lindsey is a mountain bike racer and mountain bike skills instructor who also participates in just about every outdoor sport there is. In 2001, she appeared on Survivor: Africa. These days she’s most passionate about teaching mountain biking to women through her series of camps around the world.

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Show #150 – July 6, 2013

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GUESTS: GRAEME FIFE, SCOTT HEMBREE, CHUCK HARMON, RACHEL APPEL, AND THE KIDS FROM THE BRONX LAB SCHOOL

 

The U.S. is in the midst of Independence Day weekend, where we shoot off fireworks, char animal flesh, and consume alcohol to celebrate giving ole King George the boot a couple hundred years ago. Don’t forget to squeeze a bike ride in there somewhere, because nothing says “Liberty!” like self-propulsion.

This being July, there’s a little bicycle race going on in France right now. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Our first guest is author Graeme Fife, arguably one of the persons best-versed in Tour de France history. His book, Tour De France: The History, the Legend, the Riders was originally released in 1999, and has been subsequently updated to include post-’99 editions of the Le Grande Boucle. Graeme joins Diane in the first half of today’s show to talk about the Tour and his approach to writing about it.

After a break and the news, Diane welcomes Scott Hembree, a track cycling champion in his own right, and father of BMX phenom Cyrus Hembree, who at 5-1/2 became the Arizona state champ, and the #2 natinoally-ranked rider in his age group. For Scott, Cyrus’ success as a racer is secondary to his overall development and his enjoyment of cycling.

And to wrap up the hour, we have our annual check-in with Chuck Harmon, Rachel Apple, and the students of the Bronx Lab School in New York City. Each summer, Chuck and Rachel lead a group of teenagers on a week-long, 300-mile bike tour in Ohio, visiting sites along the Underground Railroad. Listen as these “city kids” talk about exploring a rural environment, and testing their limits, both physically and mentally.

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Show #149 – June 29, 2013

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GUESTS: CONGRESSMAN DAVE JOYCE, ROB GARD, LARRY NILES

End of June – beginning of the 100th Tour de France.  Time is flying by; but there is always time for another edition of The Outspoken Cyclist.

My first guest this week is a Congressman Dave Joyce (R-OH) who, along with colleague Congresswoman Dors Matsui (D-CA) introduced the new Safe Streets Act 2013  into Congress.  Congressman Joyce went to Washington to help enact this type of legislation because his friend, Judge Chip Henry, died in a tragic car-bike accident a few years ago and he wants to see change – NOW.

Then, I head on out to Los Angeles where we usually think is cars, cars, cars… but “CicLAvia” is about no cars, no cars, no cars, and the organizer of the events, Rob Gard tells me how he get L.A. to embrace car-less streets and spread joy in Los Angeles several times a year.

After some news, I talk with my old friend Larry Niles who, along with his wife Dawn, run Discovery Bicycle Tours out of Woodstock, Vermont.  Discovery is the new name of their several decades-old company and I wanted to learn about several of their tours including the 10-day El Camino Santiago – usually thought of as a “pilgrimage” by tens of thousands every year.

 

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Show #148 – June 22, 2013

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 GUESTS: ROB VAN DER PLAS, CHEF BIJU THOMAS

 

 
Here in the northern hemisphere, we’re celebrating Summer Solstice (and the perfect Solstice activity would be a bike ride, hint, hint). The astronomical celebration continues tomorrow (Sunday, June 23rd) when we’ll have a perigee full moon, when the moon is at its closest to Earth for the entire year. Another great excuse for a night ride (or at least to go outside and stare at the sky for a while)!

Meanwhile, in the subterranean studios of WJCU, Diane has cooked up an episode of The Outspoken Cyclist as big as the sky. First up is engineer and prolific cycling author Rob Van der Plas. Van der Plas has written a small library of cycling-related books, and his latest is an epic collection entitled The Bicycle Illustrations of Daniel Rebour. In an age where everyone and everything is photographed and shared instantly via social media, Van der Plas’ book is 288 pages of pure technical, black-and-white, line-drawing happiness. You need a copy for every bathroom in your home (plus one for the coffee table)!

After the news and a break, Diane welcomes back chef Biju Thomas, whose new book (co-written with Allen Lim, PhD) is Feed Zone Portables: A Cookbook of On-the-Go Food for Athletes. Thomas and Lim build on the premise of their first book, namely that athletes should eat real food during exercise, with simple, tasty recipes that are both wholesome and mobile. For those of us not lucky enough to have Skratch Labs follow us around and cook for us on the pro tour, this book is the next best thing.

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Show #147 – June 15, 2013

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GUESTS: SENATOR SHERROD BROWN, KORY PIORKOWSKI, JEFF SPECK

 

Here we are in mid-June, and if you live in the northern hemisphere, and you’re not riding your bike on a regular basis, check your pulse; you might have expired and not even know it! Meanwhile, here at the Outspoken Cyclist Department of Sustainability Department, we have three great guests to engage your brain.

We are pleased and honored to welcome back U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who revealed, among other things that he walks the mile to work at the Capitol Building. Senator Brown is also very upbeat on the progress Ohio is making in the areas of sustainable transportation and urban revitalization.

Sometimes, the best time to undertake an over-the-top adventure is when you’re young and haven’t yet learned the meaning of impossible (and I mean that in the positive sense). Kory Piorkowski and Michael-John O’Neal are two young men who are determined to determine what they and our country are capable of this summer. They left this week on an east-to-west continental bike trip with a goal of finishing in two months. Along the way, they’ll be promoting sustainable culture. On the eve of their departure, Kory stopped in to the WJCU studios to talk about their project: Spokes of Green.

After a bit of news and a break, author and city planner Jeff Speck joins us for an extended conversation about walkability. Jeff has written a new book entitled Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time, which talks about the re-population of urban core areas, and what cities can do to encourage the process. I know you might be thinking “wonk alert” but Jeff will blow your mind on topics like parking, one-way streets and the difference between walking and walking.