Off The Back Podcast

On the day of his return from a 4 day/500km bicycling adventure around the Olympic mountain range in Washington, Matt talks about his route, his kit, the memories that stand out, and the things that he'd do differently next time. The shortest Grand Tour of 2020m the Vuelta a Espana wrapped up this past weekend with very consistent results. Roglic wore the Points Jersey from day 1, He and Carapaz traded leaders jersey, Martin carried the Climbing jersey for most of the race, and of course, Movistar won the teams jersey.

We get a bit real in this episode, reflecting on how our current climate is impacting us. Everything around us is stuck, waiting for something to change and its hard to have hope. We talk about how were dealing with it (or not as the case may be). Next we get to bike racing, recapping Flanders, the Giro, and the Vuelta and then finally we talk about our Kit journey and re-iterate our best advice: Don't be afraid to buy the good stuff! It's worth it.

Specialized released a new bike this week, the featherweight Aethos. Its a premium, disc-brake, electronic shifting only bike that starts at $12k. Specialized claim they prioritized ride quality above aero. We ask: Is it worth it and discuss what we look for in a frame. We celebrate Mads Peterson's Gent-Wevelgem win and Sagan's stunning Stage 10 win in the 2020 Giro.

The compressed season means a bunch of racing all at the same time. We highlight three things we've observed from these past few weeks including the World Championships, the Giro, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and Flèche Wallonne. What do you ticker with when you first get a new or used bike? We all make changes to make our bicycles our own. What's most important and why do we alway talk about weight weenying in the end. Finally, why are ugly kits beautiful and how does a company with no connection to cycling happen to make a kit that fits so well in the peloton and some bold speculation on MVDP's path to the World Tour.

Shocking! Startling! Unexpected! Surprising! Are all words that can be used to describe the 2020 Tour. While there were surprises, other events unrolled in very unsurprising ways. We talk about both those unsurprising and surprising events in this podcast with our conclusions on Pog's incredible time trial to Planche des Belle Filles!

Life is full of highs and lows and a cycling life is no exception. Week 2 of the 2020 Tour de France just wrapped up with 2 Slovenians on the podium. We talk about our highlights and lowlights. They include Hirschi getting his win, Porte's holding on, Sagan's relegation, and Bernal getting drrroooooppppeeed and out of contention. We also celebrate a the last road stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, raced like a classic, and won by a classic's rider, MVDP.

We give you our Off The Back the recap of the first nine stages of the 2020 Tour de France and share some results and moments that stood out to us. We love the tour, we love talking about bike racing, and we hope you enjoy hearing about it!

One day, two different races, multiple crashes. Was this the worst day in cycling history? Are riders out of practice, out of form, or just desperate to win during this shortened season? We also talk about an amazing Milan Sanremo and a surprising win at the Criterium du Dauphiné for EF-Education First's Dani Martinez.

Danny impresses again with a wide array of bike fit knowledge and resources - maybe there's a job in this for him somewhere - while Matt just keeps talking about his feelings. An Irishman beat Contador by everesting 23 minutes faster on a seriously interesting bike setup. Wout Van Aert and Annemiek van Vleuten win Strade Bianche with lone attacks. And Dylan Groenewegen is ejected from the Tour of Poland for deviating from his line and pushing since hospitalised Fabio Jakobsen into the barriers. Links: A Simple Approach to Correct Saddle Height (for road cyclists)by Cam Nicholls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNGMRtJ5LIc https://ecfitstrength.com / https://www.instagram.com/ecfit_strength/ https://www.instagram.com/bikefitjames/

On a secret assignment and loaded with a bike bag and some trepidation, danny visits the Northwest to join Matt and friends to ride the Palouse To Cascades trail from Cedar Falls to Ellensburg. We talk about the trail, the bikes and packs, and the experience of riding 160 miles of gravel in 2 days.