Tag: Amgen Tour of California

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Show #452 – May 11, 2019

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Guests: Steve Maxwell & Joe Harris; Denise Korenek

With the beginning of the Amgen – which is arguably the United States’ most popular spring stage race, as backdrop, my first guests are Joe Harris and Steve Maxwell of the Outer Line blog.

According to their blog, “the outer line is the path often taken by cyclists who are unable to break into the lead-out train, but whose strength, resolve and tactical cunning can lead them to victory.

We provide an independent perspective on the challenges facing the sport – and offer an objective forum for analyzing its key structural, economic, governance and ethical aspects. It’s time to listen to new ideas and change direction. It’s time to take The Outer Line…”
With those words as background, I wanted to explore a new project they are working on.

Neither Joe nor Steve comes from a cycling background and both hold full time jobs outside of the bike industry. BUT, both of them have an abiding interest in the sport, especially when it comes to the economics of racing and what it might take to bring cycling into the national spotlight.

It seems Rapha had some of the same questions and tasked Joe and Steve to look into the issues that might be preventing cycling from growing and thriving and come up with a plan.

What Joe and Steve have discovered and learned is being published in the Rapha Roadmap Report – a 10 part series that looks at what is lacking in cycling and what other pro sports have done that might work for our sport.

When we spoke with Denise back in January of 2017, Denise and her driver Shea Holbrook had just broken the broke the women’s paced land speed record at 143 mph.

With the urging of her coach, retired pro cyclist John Howard, Denise realized that resting on those laurels wasn’t enough, and last September, she and Shea set out to break the world record. The record stood for over 60 years!

But, they didn’t just break it – they smashed it! We learn what it took to do that and whether there are other goals out there for her.

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Show #438 – February 2, 2019

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Guests: Deb Banks; Michael Roth

Our show this evening begins with a delightful conversation! Deb Banks, AKA the Rivetress, IS in fact the proprietor of Rivet Cycle Works manufacturing a line of classically beautiful and functional leather saddles. But wait, there’s way more to Deb than saddles. With a PhD in education, Deb spent 30 years in academia before deciding to head out of Boulder and back to California where she grew up.

Today, she wears not only the Rivet hat, but also has a key role in RUSA, Randonenneurs USA, as well as putting together a brevet series in Northern California.

Still recovering from a major crash back in 2014, Deb is hoping to get to PBP this year too.

After a break, we chat with Michael Roth from AEG, he world’s leading sports and live entertainment company. AEG is the producer of the Amgen Tour of California, among a whole lot of other things, and this week the 2019 routes were introduced, touting the longest and most challenging men’s and women’s routes in the race’s 14 year history.

We’ll ask Michael about the routes, who might be showing up to race, and about some of the charitable things that have come out of the partnership between Amgen and AEG – including a very respectable donation to the Red Cross after the California fires last fall.

I want to give a shout out to longtime bicycle fanatic and self proclaimed aficionado Jim Langley for reaching one amazing milestone.
When we spoke with Jim way back in 2013, he had just completed 73,000 miles over a 20 year period – not missing a day of riding. Fast forward to this week where Jim just posted 9,164 daily consecutive riding days – equaling 25 years! He told me he wasn’t always sure he was going to make it, getting older and all… but, clearly that is NOT the case. So, if you have a moment and want to congratulate him, you can find him at [email protected].

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Show #247 – May 23, 2015

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Guests: RKP’s Patrick Brady; Jackie Crowell

Last week, Amanda Batty shared her experiences – good and bad – about her work with the online site Pink Bike.

While she chose to resign from the column she wrote for them, she emphasized that the real issues are much more broad and insidious than just those she experienced with the editors of the site. Rather, she hoped her final commentary detailing the underlying sexism that runs throughout the bike industry as a whole would prompt a new conversation on a broader stage.

So, in steps Patrick Brady from Red Kite Prayer whose entry last week, Pink Gate took up that conversation and then THIS week, he followed it up with a new commentary with the controversial title of “Too Many White Guys.”

Certain to attract attention – both pro and con – I read it with some satisfaction that he had touched upon a lot of the issues in a way that could result in positive and ongoing change.  So, my first conversation this evening is with Patrick Brady.

After some news, we head on down to Atlanta to speak with Jackie Crowell.
The elite woman’s rider and multi-time champion was diagnosed with a glioblastoma – a brain tumor that usually has a 99+% death sentence attached to it. Yet, today Jackie’s scans are clear, she is racing her bike, and she just returned from the Amgen Tour of California after serving as the Ambassador to the Women’s Elite Team(s).

And, in her usual positive and upbeat way, she has come to a new understanding of her life and the role cancer is playing in it as well as how cycling fits in with all that she has experienced in her short 27 years.

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Show #243 – April 25, 2015

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Guests: Phil Liggett; Leah Missbach Day

Last show in April and it’s a doozy!

Tonight I speak with the person who arguably has the most famous voice of all time in professional cycling.  From his early days as a budding journalist to the announcer of all the European Classics including Paris-Roubaix, Fleche Wallone, Giro D’Italia, our American Amgen Tour of California, and of course the Tour de France, Phil Liggett is a wealth of information and fun as he makes bike racing thrilling for us all.

Phil talks about his love for statistics, what he sees as those things that have changed bike racing irrevocably, and how cycling is again coming around to being a sport we will want to support and watch.  And, because of Phil’s close bond with Africa, we talk of the rise of the MTN Qhubeka team and how he too sees an African on the Podium in Europe in the not-too-distant future.

We wrap up our conversation with his Helping Rhinos campaign (watch the video too!)– which means as much to him as his work as a journalist.  He tells us how we can support the cause, ride with him in several events, and about the efforts being made to protect the few remaining Rhinos from the horrific poaching that is going on in Africa.

We have news of course – including a massive recall from Trek – and then head on to SRAM headquarters in Chicago to talk with Leah Missbach Day about World Bicycle Relief.

WBR celebrates 10 years this month and Leah, who along with her husband FK Day, are the founders of the hugely successful movement to get people who could not otherwise go to school, work, or even bring food and water to their families on the African Buffalo bike. We talk about the very first delivery of bikes right after the devastating Tsunami in 2004 through the Africa Rides trips that you can take.

So, get ready for a great evening of cycling talk as we head over the pond to speak with Phil Liggett!

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Show #201 – July 5, 2014

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Guests: Professional cyclist Jackie Crowell; Chairman of the Board of the new American Bicycling Education Association Mighk Wilson; and Patrick Brady

It’s show #201 and with it… we are introducing a new theme song. As Greg said “it’s ear candy” and it was time for an “audio redecorating”. Hope you like it.

This week, we are speaking with Jackie Crowell. Jackie is an 8-time National Champion on track and road, a coach, a mechanical engineer, and a cancer patient. Last year, as she posted her best time and place in some prestigious races, she presented with symptoms that turned out to be brain cancer. But, while she is still in treatment, she is living a life filled with hope, love, work, and cycling! Jackie’s speech at the Breaking Away from Cancer dinner at this year’s Amgen Tour of California will blow you away!

We also welcome back to the show transportation planner Mighk Wilson. Mighk also just became the president of the board of the brand new ABEA – The American Bicycling Education Association. And, that’s what he will share with us today.  It’s a new direction for the education of cyclists, drivers, law enforcement, and transportation specialists.

Finally, we’ll hear Red Kite Prayer‘s Patrick Brady offer his review on the new book by George Hincapie – The Loyal Lieutenant – Leading Out Lance and Pushing Through the Pain on the Rocky Road to Paris  – and you might be surprised by what he has to say.

So, hope you had a great 4th of July and are ready for another great edition of The Outspoken Cyclist!

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Show #196 – May 31, 2014

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Guests: Tech Guru and author Richard Hallett; Traithlete David Brumley; Tour de France announcer and television “star” Paul Sherwen

We’re back with another brand new edition of the Outspoken Cyclist and welcome three guests with very diverse stories.

For those who enjoy the nitty-gritty of cycling, U.K. “tech Guru” Richard Hallett will offer up a delightful “deconstruction” of the machine in his new book: “The Bike Deconstructed – A Grand Tour of the Modern Bicycle” Richard talks about history, materials, the 650B wheel, and what he thinks about disc brakes for road bikes – among a lot of other things. Richard is also a frame builder – specializing in steel frames at RichardHalletBikes.com. The book is a coffee-table quality oversize tome with many lovely photographs and a lot of tech-talk in layman’s terms.

Second up is triathlete David Brumley. By all rights, David should be happy to just walk to the end of his driveway and pick up the local paper in the mornings, but a question from his then 3-year old daughter in 2008 made him take a more proactive role in the management of his chronic and incurable disease CVID. We’ll learn what it is, why it often goes un-diagnosed even though the patient is ill much of the time, and how David has become a super Dad for his daughter! Since his “epiphany” about his situation, he’s decided to share his experience and give back to the “Primary Immune Deficiency – PI” community with his Triforbetter.com organization.

After a short break, we’ll scurry back with some news and then head on over to Uganda to speak with one of the most famous cycling voices on the planet. Paul Sherwen is the historian and storyteller at the major races like the Tour de France, The Amgen Tour of California, and many more. What you’ll learn though is more about Paul and his how his background reaches back many decades into our sport. It’s a delightful chat!
Enjoy!

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Show #194 – May 17, 2014

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Guests: Photographer Gil Garcetti; Amgen’s Kathryn West; Journalist Warren Cornwall

Things are always better in threes and tonight is no exception.

First up, we’ll speak with award winning photographer Gil Garcetti. Gil started out as an attorney, became the Los Angeles Prosecutor, and was then elected L.A.’s District Attorney; but, a photograph of the iron-workers building the Walt Disney Concert Hall led to a book that led to more books that led to the one we are going to discuss this evening: Paris: Women & Bicycles. Gil’s approach to his subject matter and his subsequent finished projects show a much deeper relationship between Gil,  his subjects, and the social issues that are evoked in his photographs.

Then, we’ll talk with Kathryn West, Director of Advocacy for Amgen.  As the Amgen Tour of California winds down this weekend, a series of events will be taking a place right alongside the racing pros from the Breakaway from Cancer foundation.   Honoring those who have given back to the cancer community at large, Breakaway from Cancer partners with four non-profits to make living with, surviving from, and being a supporter of a person dealing with cancer easier.

Finally, I listened to a great show on NPR West from last weekend titled Athletes Chased by Technology in the Sport of Anti-Doping – the interviewee was Warren Cornwall and I decided right then and there that I wanted to talk with him.  In doing my research I found that he not only had explored this topic but also the scary topic of why a number of seemingly otherwise healthy triathletes never make it out of the water alive.  Warren spent time at Mass-General in Boston with Dr. Aaron Baggish – who is the Associate Director of the  Cardiovascular Performance Program.  We’ll learn what Warren found out about testing and whether you should be worried.