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Show #539 – January 30, 2021

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Guests: Chris Zigmont;  Chris Carmichael, James Sonnhalter, Michael Dever, and Mary Cierebiej;

Hello and welcome to TOC.  I’m your host Diane Jenks and this is our show for January 30, 2021.  WOW – January seems to have flown by and I’m eagerly looking forward to February with an eye toward spring!

Before we get to our show this week, I’d like to make a correction from my blog entry for Bike Bentonville from  last week.   I stated that Dirty Kanza had been changed to the Big Sugar ride – nope – incorrect! In fact, Big Sugar is a NEW ride – sold out by the way – and Dirty Kanza’s new name is Unbound!  Both are Lifetime Events!  Many apologies for my faux pas.

Moving right along; I think our show this week is very interesting!

A couple of weeks ago, Shimano announced that it would take over neutral support for the peloton at the 2021 Tour de France.

Many of you know that neutral support has been the pervue of Mavic with their yellow support vehicles loaded with bikes, wheels, and other equipment.

Today, we learn a lot more about neutral support from someone who was not only part of it, but knows the history.

Chris Zigmont  has been in the bicycle world since the 1980’s starting out by stealing his older brother’s bike, subsequently wrecking it, and finding out that the bicycle would be a lifelong passion.  From working at a local bike shop in NH to a stint at Specialized at the beginning of his career, Chris has been all over the world – involved at the deepest levels of the sport.

He’ll take us from then to now… his most current project – The Alternate Route!

We’ll have our 4th and final installment of our training tips with coach Chris Carmichael.  Today, we discuss weekly mileage – whether you should take one LONG ride a week or several shorts rides.

 

And finally, we speak with a trio of folks from North East Ohio who are working to bring 30 miles of new paths and trails to the Cleveland Lakefront with the Cuyahoga Lakefront County Access Plan.

Armand Budish, the Cuyahoga County Executive, had this to say to jump start the plans for the new Lakefront Planning Effort:

“To make a huge leap forward for our region, to separate ourselves from our competitors, we must build on our best asset. And that is our lake.”

My guests, Mike Dever, Mary Cierebiej, and Jim Sonnhalter, couldn’t agree  more:   The Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath – which is over 100 miles long – has been a 40+ year project that will finally see its final connector piece drop into place later this year.  This new plan will get underway a lot sooner!

 

 

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Show #538 – January 23, 2021

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Guests: Kalene Griffith &Aimee Ross; Chris Carmichael; Joe Lindsey

 

We start out this week’s episode in Bentonville, Arkansas. Yes, it’s the home of Wal-Mart and the Walton family. And, it’s recently been billed as the mountain bike capital of the world.

With events such as Big Sugar, which is a new event from Life Time  and which sold out almost immediately upon opening registration, and hundreds of miles of great trails that expand into other parts of the state from Bentonville, I wanted to know more about the City and what else it had to offer.

From a new airport that’s almost like a living museum to a downtown that acts like a trailhead to spread out onto the many paved and unpaved trails, Bentonville is a ride-365-days-a-year place. CEO and Director of Visit Bentonville, Kalene Griffith and the Aimee Ross, director of Bike Bentonville are over-the-moon excited about bicycling and what the city has to offer visitors.

We’ll have part three of our four part series with head coach and founder of CTS training systems, Chris Carmichael. And, this week’s tips are about something near and dear to all of us – FOOD.

I learned the hard way that certain foods and I don’t get along when I’m riding; and, I guess we all have to figure some of that our for ourselves. But, it’s nice to have some guidance and Chris Carmichael is ready to give us some tips.

Our last guest for this week is journalist Joe Lindsey. Joe writes about outdoor sports, health and fitness, and science and technology, for consumer publications and commercial clients.

2020 was such a strange and in many ways, a disappointing year for so many of us. But, we also know that bicycling was a bright spot and the question is whether all of those who turned to the bicycle – whether for recreation, transportation, and even indoor riding when in lock-down as many countries even forbade outdoor activity, will stay with it giving bicycling an expanded population going forward.

In his January 21, 2021 article for Outside Online titled “The Pandemic Bike Boom Is Here To Stay,” Joe gives us facts and figures about why that might be true.

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Show #537 – January 16, 2021

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Guests: AJ Roan; Chris Carmichael; Scott Bricker

My first guest lives in Wasilla, Alaska. And, if you think back a few years, that should sound familiar. (I’ll leave it at that for now.)

I always think of Alaska as being exotic and so far away. I know many of you have been there, but I haven’t. So, almost like being there, we’re going to talk with AJ Roan.

AJ writes for North of 60 Mining News and you might wonder what we’d have to talk about since his work is in mining – which is another whole topic we don’t get into a lot in our conversation. His article, titled 1000 Miles Ride From Dawson to Nome, is what grabbed my interest.

What we DO talk about is a gentleman named Edward Jesson who lived in Alaska at the time of the Great Gold Rush.

In 1899 Edward Jesson was a successful businessman. It was during the time of the insanity of the Gold Rush and thousands of people were heading to Nome, Alaska to stake a claim. It was also the beginning of the new-fangled safety bicycle – similar to what we know today.

Edward decided to sell all his belongings, buy a bicycle – something he didn’t even know how to ride at the time – and ride from Dawson City in the Canadian NW to Nome – 1,000+ miles.

We’ll speak with Chris Carmichael of CTS Training Systems out in Colorado Springs in the second of our 4-part series about training. Today we talk about cadence, how and why it’s an important indicator of your performance, and how to determine what is optimal for you.

Then, we head on over to Pittsburgh. Yes, Browns fans, you can gloat about football, but when it comes to a great advocacy organization, I think Pittsburgh is probably at the top of the list.

It’s been over 7 years since we spoke with Scott Bricker the executive director of Bike Pittsburgh, and I thought it was high time to see what the organization is up to these days.

Along with some great events, the organization does a remarkable job with combining advocacy, community building, and education addressing just about every aspect of urban cycling.

 

 

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Show #536 – January 9, 2021

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Guests: Gersh Kuntzman; Chris Carmichael; Paul J. Lee

We have two guests this evening and, as promised, our new weekly feature!

My first guest is blunt, to the point, and doesn’t mince words when it comes to the Mayor of NYC and the NYPD.  Gersh Kuntzman is the editor of Streetsblog NYC and Streetsblog USA and this past week, he published a Streetsblog entry based upon a report by TransAlt about New York City’s Failure to Add Bike Parking, although it was promised, and what the consequences have been.

 

Then, we’ll have the first of four special segments this month on training. Chris Carmichael, founder and head coach of CTS Training Systems in Colorado, joins me today to talk about getting dropped – or, more to the point – NOT getting dropped!.

 

Finally, we head over to London to speak with researcher Paul Lee from Deloitte’s TMT – Technology, Media, and Telecommunications – division. Back in December of 2019, he and two of his colleagues published their research in a report titled “”Cycling’s technological transformation: Making bicycling faster, easier, and safer.”

Little did we know that a worldwide pandemic would ensue in the following months and I wanted to know how some of the predictive ideas he was talking about were still on track going forward.
So – of course, me being nosy and all, I decided to contact the head researcher, Paul Lee, to hear what he had to say.

 

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Show #535 – January 2, 2021

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Guests: Steven Frothingham; Charles Pelkey & Patrick “Mad Dog” O’Grady

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you had a great holiday – not too much carousing and all!

With SO much anticipation for a better year, I’m hopeful that will be the case.

Today, I thought we’d begin with a wrap-up of the 2020 bicycling season with Steve Frothingham, the editor in chief of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News,.

To say it’s been a stressful year would be a gross understatement and I knew Steve would be able to put a lot of it in perspective.

I’m not sure what your experience was with bike shops or bike related products in 2020, but it was uber-challenging to say the least.

Once we figured out that bicycle retailers were “essential workers” and that going outside was a safe and in fact very important piece of the pandemic puzzle, the bicycle was suddenly on center stage under huge spotlights.

What happened next and as a result of some unanticipated twists of fate if you will, left the industry overwhelmed with demand, absent of adequate product, and scrambling to figure out how to solve what are still difficult and exasperating problems.

Steven and I talk about the winners, the losers, and what we might expect in 2021.

After our break, we loop in Charles Pelkey and Patrick O’Grady – AKA the Live Update Guys.

Even though they no longer do their wildly popular LUG gig, Charles called me last week to talk about the loss of one of their “regular” posters to the daily commentary that followed along with the major races each year.

Monsignor Richard Soseman – known as just Mons when he chimed in to the sessions, was originally at St. Peter’s in Rome and recently had transferred back to the U.S.

On December 6th at the age of 57, he died from COVID and Charles wanted to offer up a fond tribute as well as his heartfelt homage to a sweet and special man. It’s a lovely story.

Along with Live Update Guy Patrick “Mad Dog” O’Grady, here is my conversation with Charles about the Monsignor.

Click the link to read the Monsignor’s “essay” from stage 8 of the 2014 Giro

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Show #534 – December 26, 2020

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Guests: Jamie Anderson; Sean Wilson

Happy boxing day – happy holidays – and I hope you are finding some time to relax!

We’ve got almost two feet of snow here in NE Ohio and it’s been just fine with me to take my time and put together what I think is a great show.

I want to start with asking if you have lived the life you want, following your dreams and finding the path that is satisfying and that feels right?

My first guest, Jamie Anderson, realized more than 20 years into a successful career with a wife he loved and three great kids, that HIS childhood dream hadn’t been fulfilled and, that it hadn’t diminished either.

His idol as a child was Greg LeMond – and, his circumstances pointed him away from a career as a professional cyclist into one of academics, teaching, and consulting. Our conversation is about what happened that lead him to that path not taken earlier in life and the message it offers all of us.

And, take a few minutes to listen to his Ted Talk!

You might remember that we spoke with Rob DeMartini, CEO of USA Cycling last week about the new Olympic Development Academy. This program is offered to those who are 16 and older.

But what about youngsters – those who are just starting to ride through the age where the ODA might be a place to move a talented rider towards and Olympic dream?

Sean Wilson has a lot of the answers to this question. He’s the founder and head coach at the Youth Cycling Association in Redlands, California. The YCA is a “national youth sports strategy champion,” and the first cycling organization to have the designation. 

Coming from a racing background through an extensive and storied academic career, he is able to take his science into his coaching and training to get kids safely and more skillfully riding on two wheels.

Sean is an associate professor at Loma Linda University and combining his pro-racing career, his work in the medical field, and an abiding interest in getting young children on bikes safely, he is looking to bridge the gap for children to excel in bicycling and look to making it a life-long sport.

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Show #533 – December 19, 2020

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Guests: Gary Fisher; Rob DeMartini

As promised, Gary Fisher is back to talk about his new book, Being Gary Fisher And The Bicycle Revolution well, we SORT of talk about it. Let me explain.

There is no one quite like Gary Fisher – and from the time he was a little boy, he’s marched to the beat of his own drum.

He says his new book, Being Gary Fisher – And The Bicycle Revolution – isn’t a memoir; rather a collection of stories and ideas.

If you remember the original “Whole Earth Catalog,” – a loose compilation of all sorts of things hip and natural – it’s kind of like that… only in full, explosive color, teeming with photos and commentary, with the bicycle stitching it all together.

The conversation shoots off in a variety of directions – sometimes seemingly disconnected; but, he always comes back to the bicycle – for what it is, what it does, and what it can portend for the future. In fact, after you hear this and read the book, it will all become very clear!

After our break we head to Colorado Springs.

There was a lot of twisting and shouting about the new Olympic Development Academy, a program USA Cycling is rolling out for 2021. When a Velo News article appeared about the ODA, social media lit up like it was 4th of July.

Aimed at finding and training young riders, 16 and up, in the hopes of drawing in a more diverse body of talent, the fact that there is a price tag attached to the program seemed to upset a lot of people. I think you’ll understand it a lot better from the source.

I wanted to hear about it straight from the source, so I rang up USA Cycling’s CEO Rob DeMartini to give us the low down on the program and what he and the organization is hoping it means for the future.

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Show #532 – December 12, 2020

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Guests: Phil Liggett; Kathryn Bertine

We have a most interesting show today, highlighting two amazing people and the work that they do.

His voice is unmistakable and his ability to recall facts, figures, names, dates, and stages of any continental race for the past 4+ decades is staggering. Yes, my guest today is Phil Liggett.

Spending the 2020 cycling season at home in England, Phil Liggett was able to continue in his role as the voice of the TdF this year with the help of NBC, technology, and Bob Roll – who was in Connecticut. (How cool is today’s technology anyway?)

Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the longest running sports relationship in history – partnering for 33 years,

Paul was an integral part of the team that became the voice of cycling. But, two years ago this month, the world woke up to the news that Paul had died suddenly and the world lost a generous, smart, and dedicated man.

In an effort to continue Paul’s legacy of helping the people of Uganda, where he and his wife Kathryn lived, as well as keeping his memory alive, the Paul Sherwen Project was recently launched.

While we spoke of the 2020 season, what he believes will happen in 2021 and going forward, and other-things-bike, what we finally came to focus on was a new project that is near and dear to him – the Paul Sherwen Project.

Her voice is persistent, compelling, and gets amazing results as a professional cyclist, author, filmmaker and activist for women’s rights

Kathryn Bertine, whose documentary Half the Road still garners a regular royalty check 6 years later, signed her first professional cycling contract at the age of 37 only to experience being benched for one year, suffering verbal and physical abuse from the manager and staff.

Kathryn has taken the high road to success – using what she calls visionary teamwork and benevolent disruption to speak her truth which – it turns out – is what everybody is not only thinking, but what pretty much what everybody wants. – equality or at least equal opportunity.

After she signed her first professional contract, her female team manager warned her to keep quiet about the inequity in women’s sports. “Stop talking about this equality crap. No one will listen to you. You are a nothing, you are a no one.”

But as you will hear in the following conversation, Kathryn says that  Change is possible. Activism isn’t relegated to the wealthy, the famous, the politicians and superstars. We “regular people” have the power to make change happen, too.

(You can pre-order Kathryn’s new book, Stand, too!)

 

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Show #531 – December 5, 2020

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Guests: Leah Missbach Day; Mike Lessard; Dan De Vise

 

Leah Missbach Day is the co-founder of World Bicycle Relief and shares how the organization is adjusting to a new normal and finding ways to not only do what they have always done; but to expand and flourish.

Over the years, we have talked about how a bicycle can change a life – making it easier to travel for work or school or to deliver life saving healthcare.

We’ve talked about how having a bicycle empowers people in countries with little besides what they can grow or make on their own.

But, how has a worldwide pandemic affected not only the ability to do all these things, but also the organization that has been providing the bikes for over 15 years.

Then, Adventure Cycling Association‘s Tours Director Mike Lessard fills us in on some new tours for 2021.

As with most companies that offer bicycle touring, AC had to curtail and for the most part cancel the 2020 season.  But, armed with some new protocols and looking at what people might be able to do going forward into 2021, AC is offering Long Weekend Tours – just 4 days.  Already booking and, in some cases, already filled, these tours promise to get us back out on our bikes in a safe and fun way.

Lastly,  Dan De Vise, the author of The Comeback – Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legenday Tour de France, is back to give us an update on the Congressional Gold Medal we spoke about in September, 2019.

At that time, the bill had been introduced by Congressman Mike Thompson (D-Ca) to and passed the House of Representatives and was on its way to the Senate.   Last week, the law passed and Greg LeMond WILL be a Congressional Gold Medal honoree.Image result for congressional gold medal

 

 

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Show #530 – November 28, 2020

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Guests: Jan Heine; Abbas Navqi

There is always a lot of anticipation for the books, magazines, and bicycle components that come out of the prolific mind of Jan Heine.

The Winter edition of Bicycle Quarterly just rolled off the presses and his 4th book, The All-Road Bike Revolution has just been published.

In his foreword to the book, Ted King says” Jan has one of the most inquisitive and scientific minds towards the bicycle,” and today, Jan and I unpack some of his thoughts and ideas about a wide variety of topics.

Jan’s belief is that we should all be able to ride when, where, and what we want – comfortably, reliably, and fast!

Then, we review Wahoo’s ElemntRival GPS triathlon watch with product manager Abbas Naqvi.  If you swim and run, and even if you bike and don’t use a GPS computer, the many features of this watch might just make it the best holiday gift – for someone else OR for yourself – this gift giving season.