Cycling Together with Kristin & Steve
For over 25 years, Kristin and Steve of Steve the Bike Guy, an independent bicycle shop in Massachusetts, have been cycling together – keeping things rolling over roads and trails as they also navigated marriage, kids, and careers. Now, they are inviting you to join the ride as they share experiences, insights, and advice for anyone who does, or wants to, ride a bike.
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Cycling Together with Kristin & Steve is a production of Steve the Bike Guy and Sundin Marketing.
Cycling Together with Kristin & Steve
21. How Alex & Jason Started Cycling
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Kristin and Steve welcome their best friend, and original members of the STBG Cycling team, Alex and Jason to share how they each started cycling. From Jason's teenage years, to Alex's introduction through triathlon, through their time racing cyclocross to today, we discuss their cycling evolution, couples rules and why we riders like to do "hard things."
Separately Kristin and Steve discuss what percentage time time a mountain biker is out of their saddle, as well as if e-bikes threaten to destroy QOM/KOMs on Strava.
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You can visit CyclingTogether.Bike for show notes or to learn more about Kristin and Steve.
This is Kristen. And I'm Steve, and you were listening to Cycling Together, a show all about things bikes, riding, and riding together.
SPEAKER_04:We're on location.
SPEAKER_00:On location in Ducksbury, Massachusetts.
SPEAKER_04:Very good. I know that's a hard word for you. It's a very hard Massachusetts. And we have been staying at our friend's house, Alex and Jason, and they're actually going to be coming on the show.
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_04:Momentarily to talk about cycling, cycling as a couple, cycling friends. They have been our closest cycling friends for many years now. Which is awesome to have. And yeah, we've spent the long weekend here. They're also game to let us camp in their front in their front yard.
SPEAKER_00:Which must yeah, we were talking it might be one of the better places we've ever parked a van. Five stars.
SPEAKER_04:Five stars for this camping area.
SPEAKER_00:We are looking out on the Bluefish River tidal inlet, uh, which has like an eight-foot tidal range. So right now we're just coming under high tide. And it's and it's beautiful. It's beautiful object.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, there's some pictures on our Insta, and I'm sure if you if you for anyone who's listening and doesn't watch on YouTube, I do often throw photos or video on top, as interesting as the two of us are to watch on top. So there will definitely be some pictures from this glorious view. But while our friend is caffeinating and getting ready for his moment in the sun, I wanted to talk about a conversation that I had during our most recent women's ride. So we host a series of women's mountain bike rides every two weeks. And what I love about riding with women is how they will ask questions and we end up breaking down information in a way that I have never, never in another kind of ride done. So the conversation we had was one of our ride leaders was saying to one of the women, you should think about keeping your pedals level, and then as you're going downhill, stand in your pedals, stand on your pedals over your saddle. To which the riders were then, well, how how often? When do you do that? How often do you do it? How what percentage? This was I think an actual question, what percentage of time are you out of your saddle on any given mountain bike ride? Which we went, I don't, I don't know. Right? Have you ever thought about it?
SPEAKER_00:No, not really, no, I've never thought about it. But it's a lot.
SPEAKER_04:It's a lot. And so what we were doing is as I was riding, I would call out standing, standing, every time I stood on my pedals. And that's when I realized we originally it wasn't annoying, it wasn't annoying. It was helpful and useful because it helped them understand how often I was standing. And for me, even I was like, oh, I thought it was 50%. I'm thinking it's like 80%. Like you're out of your saddle a lot. And I've been thinking about it since then. Even riding yesterday. I was thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00:I suppose I do think about it sometimes. If I'm riding with more of that that beginner intermediate, maybe uh level rider, and I see them uh in front of me, and I'm like, why are they why are they still on their saddle here? Yes. Right. And I that's when I guess I notice it. Right. Yep.
SPEAKER_04:So let's talk about why I wanted to bring this up is let's talk about why we get out of our saddle. Um so the number one reason is it we become part of the suspension.
SPEAKER_00:We become yes, your body becomes part of the suspension. Yep. Your legs do.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I was hoping you would talk about that more. Oh, I could do that. Sure. Okay. Right. Because you're loose. So your your legs are moving, your arms are moving.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, your body is can is able to uh adapt dynamically to the terrain and the bumps and everything else uh instantaneously, basically, where you cannot quite do the same thing while you're on your saddle.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And you and then you're not getting you're there's no bucking, there's no uh bumping, you know, there's no button to the saddle um issues. You know, over the course of a ride, you would become more uncomfortable sitting on the saddle if you were always getting bumped.
SPEAKER_04:And we were talking about during this the fact that when you get out of the saddle and you you're just by nature going to put more weight over your feet.
SPEAKER_00:A little bit more back.
SPEAKER_04:So that's gonna push you a little back, which will help you compensate in particular in an area that you don't know maybe as well. So I was thinking about this yesterday. We were riding here in Ducksbury, don't know the trails as well, and so I found that even if I wasn't maybe I would normally be in the saddle, I was up because I just didn't know what was around the corner. And if I was if I was out of my saddle, in fact, what happened to me is I came around a corner and I went a little little wide and I ran into a big root rooty bermy thing, which stopped me, just like stopped me hard. Yes, but because I was standing, I did knock my knee, but I didn't fling myself over the saddle and that was over the handlebars. Yeah. And that was by nature of being.
SPEAKER_00:You're less likely to stuff the front tire. Yes, right. And so the if you're if you're talking about, and this is usually on flat to slight down uh yeah, descending a little bit, right? So you don't necessarily need to pedal. That's what we're kind of talking about here. And if you're going very slow, a lot of times you can sit.
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Uh it there becomes a certain speed point at which you just I guess for us, we just naturally stand. Yes. Right? It is, it is you just that's what you your body says, I need to stand up. And this is where I tend tend to see beginner riders more stay seated. Yes and I can see them going over all these bumps. And I and while they're seated, I'm like, you don't have as much control, uh you don't you can't move around your bike as much, you can't shift your weight back as easy.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, and this is where and I realized yesterday as we were riding, and I was thinking about this, that it's not probably always obvious when you're behind me that I'm out of my saddle because I may just come up a little bit. Yes. It's not it's not a big up, it's just that I'm I've just put a little bit of air between me and my saddle. Yes. Especially if I'm going over it. There was a big rootie section. I think we have a video of it, so I'll try to throw it in. Where I was gliding and pedaling, gliding and pedaling, and I was ever so slightly out of my saddle, which gave me a little more control. You know, it helps with the balance too, the the front back balance, because that was one thing we were talking about with the women is they're like, and climbing, you're probably out of it a lot. And I was like, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00:Oh no, that's actually that's actually way more seated.
SPEAKER_04:I that's what I said. I was like, actually, no, again, thinking about it, I was not. There are times like yesterday where there would be a couple poppy things where I'd be out of the saddle, but most of the time I was I was seated for the climb. But I was saying to them, the minute my bike starts just rolling, I'm almost always out of my saddle.
SPEAKER_00:Just a little bit. And you know, so the more power you put into the pedals, the more actually you're unweighting your your butt off the saddle. And so sometimes through say uh you're coming up and I'm and you're going through a rooty section. All right, very rooty, but I'm not going downhill. Um, I will actually, there's sometimes where I'm putting more power into the pedals, which actually unweights myself off the saddle. So I am seated in this section, but I am not getting bumped by the saddle going up and down in the same way because I have really unweighted it through the fact that I'm putting power into the pedals.
SPEAKER_04:And I was thinking about this too, because one of them was saying that she was having trouble, she had trouble standing and pedaling. And I think some of that, what I didn't say to her, but I will next time, maybe that she doesn't realize that actually when you stand, you're probably gonna be in a harder gear than you would be if you were sitting. Oh, absolutely. Right, but but that's uh uh getting to know what is the right combination of weight and and um gear and balance front and back. Yeah. But it yeah, it was just interesting when you when you you know some of the things that becomes unconscious.
SPEAKER_00:There's also there's also maybe something, and this could be a a a teaching thing, what we do with somebody when you're talking about doing some skills Saturdays, but um there are times where I'm standing in the saddle. This is not we're not talking about a uh a bumpy descent or even going that all that fast down a descent. It is more at a cruising pace where I don't have to pedal, where so I'm stand, I'm standing- I'm uh up on the paddles, pedal standing, and my legs are locked. And the reason my legs are locked is because when your legs are straight, you are no longer supporting your weight. So you're almost resting while you're standing. And that might seem counterintuitive to people. My legs are locked, I'm on a bike, but uh, but no, this is actually that's a a a skill of of riding.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it's just the idea that you and you are active on the bike. It's not like taking your bike out onto a rail trail and just pedaling. You are when you're on a mountain bike, you're up and you're off, you're aside, you're back. It is a big thing. That's why it's so dynamic. Active, dynamic.
SPEAKER_00:Um that's why like a bike fitter will you're sort of looking for that millimeter-ish precision on your saddle height on a road bike, even though, of course, uh your saddle height tech needs technically change even over the course of the same ride, or the the it gets hot outside, or you're you know, all you're wearing, you'd wear different shoes that day. So millimeter precision is something that's not truly accurate. But you don't need it, you don't need quite that same sort of millimeter precision for your saddle height on a mountain bike.
SPEAKER_04:Right, because you're so constantly moving, plus you have the dropper in play, plus the so anyway. That's what I I love riding with the women because we really do we do break stuff like this down in a way that I don't see elsewhere. Anyway, we're gonna take a break, we're gonna check on our friends, and we're gonna bring them back for their interview. Okay. All right, we're back, and we are here with our best friends in cycling and life. Best friends! Alex and Jason. Welcome to cycling together.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you. Nice to be here.
SPEAKER_04:Good morning. Thank you for letting us sleep in your front yard. All right, so we are gonna be talking. You're both cyclists, you're both athletes. We're going to be talking about how you got into cycling, but let's start with how we met. Oh. Make sure our memories match.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, let's make sure our memories match.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, how do you think we met?
SPEAKER_03:Do you remember it as we met and then introduced our husbands? Yes. I don't remember it that way. I met your husband before I met you. Yes, at a Dunkin' Donuts. Oh, that's right!
SPEAKER_02:At a Dunkin' Donuts. Yeah, because they were setting up a course together.
SPEAKER_03:Because they were setting up the cycling the wave fundraiser for I can't remember what it was. There's no memory of you being attached to the case. And I don't remember how we got your name. I don't either.
SPEAKER_01:But you were involved in the city.
SPEAKER_00:But I was told that there was a Yeah, but I don't think And you had had a good you had actually had a course and at that point, and then you were just sort of looking for feedback on what I thought about it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we had yeah, we mapped out a course which we I think we probably borrowed from another ride. I think it was something that we saw online. And then somehow we I got your name. Yeah. And we met at the Dunkin' Donuts in Ashland, and you looked at the course for another woman at a Dunkin' Donuts without me knowing. Yeah, it's true. It's true. And I don't think I figured that out until something happened, and I was gonna enter your phone number in my phone, and I was like, wait a minute, I have you in my phone already. And that's how I figured I'm like, oh, you're that guy! Because I did that ride.
SPEAKER_04:You did that ride? I did, yeah. My my girl, a couple of girlfriends. We because of course he helped with the girl. And he was uh no with um, yeah, because Nancy Cantor did that ride also with Michelle and I think our neighbor up the way who was doing the PMC, she she also did it with Oh, that's so funny. Yeah, see, in my memory, we met at softball because our girls were were playing softball together, even though they're a week they're a year they were a year they're a year apart, but it was a multi-grade league or summer league.
SPEAKER_02:End of the season league that they played in. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I think it's you need to get your microphone closer. I think that was I think it was just the spring town league.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know. There was lots of cheering. I loved so I hated softball for this sport, but I loved it for the very long and cold in April when it first started. Games just went on forever. That's when I was like, I like I like the people we met, but you should try lacrosse. Yes. Can it be just an hour? Can we time it? An hour we're done.
SPEAKER_03:So we met. So you had already met Steve but didn't know it. Yes. Right. Well, because I yeah, because I don't think I had even seen you or remembered seeing you at softball.
SPEAKER_04:Right. And then how did we connect that I wrote you were doing triathlon and I was doing triathlon? Did we figure that out at some point? Is this when you got into triathlon, Kristen? I was already in it.
SPEAKER_00:You were already in it.
SPEAKER_03:I had already started on the season opener with you had a little tri group that you had done in the Steve the Bike Guy campaign.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, because the Steve Because we had because you were you were servicing triathlons. So then I started doing the sprint triathlon since you weren't getting paid. I was like, might as well get a free entry.
SPEAKER_03:I feel like it's the cycling connection was much slower than this. I think that we were just the yelly enthusiastic parents on the bleachers and you had a camera. I did have a camera. And you were taking all the good pictures. I think that's right. You're like, well, like her, she takes good pictures of my kid with a bat. And then I think we discussed that we were both doing triathlons.
SPEAKER_04:Yes. Somebody must have been wearing something that said a triathlon, because that's what you did. That probably you weren't triathlon.
SPEAKER_02:You I think I helped you at one of the one of the um.
SPEAKER_04:That would have been after because we then had the conversation where we said, Oh, you had a conversation with Jason.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. Where you said what? I think I said Kristen's husband is also a cyclist. And then you said, mmm. Sure. Do you know what he rides?
SPEAKER_04:Well, I kind of get it because there's so many.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_04:Is he riding a bike with a basketball?
SPEAKER_02:When he ends his ride, does he put down the kickstand?
SPEAKER_04:Well, we had a cycling group in town, and like their big thing was they stopped for ice cream. So it wasn't necessarily what you would say your crew. Yes, they come and have ice cream outside of our shop. You know, it's all the the Ashland cycling. That's what I'm saying. Like, if you said if you said to someone, yes, he's a cyclist, and you said Ashland, that doesn't necessarily mean a cyclist that I would want to ride with.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think he was really I think he was really saying, Does he wear lycra? Yes. Yeah, there we go. I think that's actually the distinction.
SPEAKER_05:Does he wear lycra?
SPEAKER_04:Is he a mammal?
SPEAKER_02:But you had said to me, because I remember we had you and I had looked on, remember, mapmyride.com away. And we had been riding a little bit here and there and everywhere, and we went on that to find a course that was a loop, that was flat, that we I remember there was the Ashland triathlon, and we were trying to stay away from some of that course because that could be hilly, and and you said, Oh, I'm actually meeting with a guy who's a cyclist, and we're gonna go over the course together.
SPEAKER_03:That was for the that race.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm thinking, yeah, here's some fifty-something year old fat guy. That's not a good one. Who I am today, but anyway. I'm thinking, you know, and he's uh, you know, yeah 30 miles in three hours, kind of rider. And then I think it was at a softball game. It was a softball game at home. It was a softball game. He's younger than I am, he's fitter than I am. I maybe should shut my mouth.
SPEAKER_04:As Steve rode to the softball game, I have a photo from this day. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:And I think I've had a bike. I think I had a giant cross bike that I had just put.
SPEAKER_03:Honestly, I think it was. Had you started doing cross yet? Because I think this was a conversation. I think it was bike. You were thinking about cross and you had done cross races, and I think that was actually the conversation. I think it was like, well, my husband does cross, and I think I was like, Kristen's husband has a bike, would like to do cross, and then it was like, hmm, oh cool. I think that actually I think it was, it was I think it was Cyclocross, was the first place where it got connected.
SPEAKER_04:Where they started to connect, and then you started to go to races together.
SPEAKER_00:Because of Jason, then I did my first race. Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Was that Shed Park?
SPEAKER_00:Was that so it was Lancaster? Yes. Oh and we had gone to your cousin's wedding and we left early because Jason said you really should come do this race. And and we left. That wasn't that wasn't New Hampshire, and we left.
SPEAKER_04:For the record, the wedding was over. It was the next day. It was the next day, it was the next Sunday.
SPEAKER_00:The wedding was on Saturday, we left, but we left early on Sunday so that we could get to the race and do the race. Yes.
SPEAKER_04:We were like, we gotta leave the reception. We gotta go.
SPEAKER_02:Listen to me.
SPEAKER_04:That's right. And then, okay, so you started racing together. We watched a season of them.
SPEAKER_03:Do we even know what year that was?
SPEAKER_00:We could look at cross results, but I'm gonna say we don't do that anymore. 2014, 2013? Sure. 2013. Okay. 2013. We'll test that.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Um so then you guys came as moral support and we said nothing but make fun of us. So stupid. We're like, okay, by the way, that's what you do at cross race races.
SPEAKER_04:We were just doing it. We were heckling.
SPEAKER_02:We were heckling. We were heckling. It's a stupid sport. And then when you realize what's going on, we said, we're not doing this ever.
SPEAKER_04:This is so stupid. We're gonna do because we were doing sprint, we were doing our sprint triathlons. You had joined team Betty, and you encouraged me to apply, and and I got on the team the next year, and then this one saw pictures of the other m team members, including the one who was doing a hands, a headstand just on her head, no hands. Beautiful, and he said, How the hell did you get on this team?
unknown:I was like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:Because you're awesome. And then and then it was around that time we then thought, no, it would take a little bit more.
SPEAKER_03:Why didn't it take longer? It took much longer. No, no, no, this is how this happened. So we watched them at Shed Park, yeah, and it was cold. I remember sitting in the car. I have energy. You and Nancy started a text thread about how we were going to become knights of suffralandria. That was our next photo.
SPEAKER_05:Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_03:And I was like, I don't know what this is, and then you said you get a t shirt or something.
SPEAKER_00:I'm like, I'm in lingerie.
SPEAKER_04:I feel like that's a little backwards. Oh, no. No, you were not crossing. Oh, we met Nancy through triathlon.
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, wait a minute. No, and we met Nancy through cross because we met I met Nancy. Nancy. You met Nancy.
SPEAKER_02:Because a cyclocross, we used to do that where was that, Steve? Was it down on Rhode Island? They had it at night on like a Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_04:Night we night.
SPEAKER_02:Oh no, no, it wasn't.
SPEAKER_00:It was in Wound Socket, I believe. It was just practice. Just practice.
SPEAKER_03:Like somebody's farm.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, it was like baseball fields. It was a whole recreation complex. Yep.
SPEAKER_02:And Nancy was showing up to do that. So it was you, Mark, and myself that were doing those. Well, and also Nancy. And then we started meeting Nancy at cycle cross races.
SPEAKER_03:But then Mark kept texting me, like, you have to meet Nancy. I love her. She's a powerhouse. She does triathlons and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02:So somehow guys at a race. No, but except for I feel we Because Nancy was doing a lot of races at that point. No, but I think you're I think the order's wrong.
SPEAKER_04:The order's a little wrong. So we met Nancy. We took the she definitely started before us because she tells us the story of how she passed. No, no, being upside down on the road. No, that wasn't the one either. It was that she was doing a race and she had her GoPro on and she can hear herself muttering, I I thought I was in good shape. Because she is, but she's she's triathlete, and it's again it's one of those like it's totally displayed.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, so then maybe we had just finished racing at Lowell, and then that's when that whole other thread started. That's a whole other thing.
SPEAKER_04:Because I think we really met Nancy at uh Helen.
SPEAKER_03:So that's how that started. I think when I think we were reading the races and it said high tea with Helen. And I honestly think you might have been down here, but I think I actually thought there was gonna be tea.
SPEAKER_04:And not that it was a cycle.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know, a British uh cyclocross champion. I could see there being a tea.
SPEAKER_04:I'm like, what a great idea. A little cyclocross and we'll have tea. And we'll have tea. So my first race, according to according to cross results, was in 2014. No, my first races for cyclocross was when Steve said you should sign up for Gloucester, Crossfest, KMC Crossfest, and Improvidence. You had to do the Holy Week. And and Night Weasels. Midnight Ride. Midnight Ride. Night Ride. Night Weasels was different. And so I signed up for all three. And then I said about a week before, wait a minute, what does holy week of cycle cross mean? And he was like, Oh yeah, this is like the week. It starts with Gloucester, and then we did then you had the clinic with Helen, and then you did the midnight ride the next day, and then and then Providence.
SPEAKER_03:It was the Helen midnight ride, then Gloucester, because I hurt myself at midnight ride. Okay, that's good.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, this anyway. The point was, um I think that's where we really connected with Nancy was 2014. I think that that feels accurate. And I remember you being like, oh great, now that the women are involved, we're gonna have to take care of two bikes.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I remember Steve and I walking in the dark in the parking lot in Lancaster to where you guys had parked, because you guys had done high tea with Helen, so you had great parking. Oh, we did. So you guys were walking ahead of us, both of us were pushing your bikes, and I looked at Steve and I said something to the effect of, oh great, we're now they're pit bitches. That sounds right.
SPEAKER_01:And the two of you are out in front of us talking about how awesome it was and everything like that. And it was like, okay, we have lost our independence.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, you lost it so much that we gave you kits. We did we got a full with our awkward family picture of the four of us in our full kits before you and I were gonna get it. So we got the skin suit. I was literally still crying when I rode on grass.
unknown:Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, and there was that where we were I was riding with you and you were like, Why are you comfortable on grass? Yes. And I said, Oh my gosh, I used to mountain bike. Right. Because that's how we had started, but I hadn't mountain biked in a decade.
SPEAKER_02:Well, Alex had a mountain bike at that point. I had a triple bike. She was using to do triathlons.
SPEAKER_03:That's true. That's also true.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I did have a mountain bike, but it was like you were one of those who were using a mountain bike. Did you do a triathlon?
SPEAKER_02:Her first sprint triathlon, she had the mountain bike, and I put the balloon on it so she could find it at the transition. Yes. All right, with the knobby tires.
SPEAKER_03:Yes? Oh no, no. No, I put flip, I put flip.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, all right. Well, at least you did that.
SPEAKER_04:All right, I was fast on the downhill. You were in um, what did they call that? Like hybrid village. Yes. Like there was a place where all pile hybrids are. But she did have her helmet on, right? Because they wouldn't fit into the shed her helmet on, right? That is good. They wouldn't fit into the bike stands or they had or they had kickstands. Yes. Okay, well, that actually brings us to why we're talking today, which how I realized I have no idea how either of you started cycling or who started all the races.
SPEAKER_00:Like how how did I like before I met you, Jason? How were you already to that point of of being in Lycra and riding your road all the time with with Mark and doing cyclocross races?
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so my biking started way back in the day. Well, I mean, I had always I don't obviously as a little kid and always had a bicycle, and then um I bought a Centurion touring bike from a friend of mine because I had signed up for a triathlon that was here in Ducksbury. It was called the surf pedal and trot. You windsurfed. Oh, okay, that's how they got you. No, excuse me. First you first you rode your bike, then you windsurfed, and then you ran. And I was a strong windsurfer, and I had trained on running, but I didn't train on biking. So the first year I was trashed. And we did it for probably four years. And then I so I I How old were you, would you say uh 19?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah. So I just started riding my bike for the next year, and I was like, this is fun, I really enjoy this. Um and then all of a sudden other things started to disappear, and cycling became what I did. I stopped windsurfing and I got really into cycling, and then I bought my first mountain bike, my GT, and got into mountain biking, and then I moved from Ducksbury to Tucson, and I brought both my bikes with me. He's just like you. I took a triathlon course uh at school. For credit. Wait. For credit, for credit, forathless? It was a triathlon training class, and um found out that my triathlon experience was not gonna be anything other than just my best for me because I'm not a good swimmer.
SPEAKER_04:Well, yeah, I was gonna say you didn't swim in any of those windsurfing. They didn't have a lot of surfing surfing options.
SPEAKER_02:And doing it with the life preserver on is not it's not good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and unfortunately, Iron Man didn't take up windsurfing instead of swimming.
SPEAKER_02:They didn't, they didn't. But um so living out in Tucson, all of a sudden I found myself um riding my mountain bike more, which then led me to get rid of my GT and buy a hard rock and a rock hopper, excuse me. And I did my first mountain bike race in Tucson, Arizona, and it was the hardest, most grueling race I've ever done in my life with a fixed fork. And um, I think I had like four flats during the race.
SPEAKER_00:And those darn thorns in Arizona.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, and raw every even the sand is tough. And I finished and I thought to myself, well, this is my new sport. And I got into mountain biking, and I graduated from Arizona and moved back here, and I found myself doing mountain bike races, and then the next thing I knew there were two kids that were in high school who um whose parents came up to me and said, You're from Ducksbury, my kids are really into this, it's hard for us to get our kids to races. Would you mind?
SPEAKER_03:Did you have a camper?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, wait, I had a 76 um V dub camper.
SPEAKER_03:He's kind of like he's kind of like the guy with the van you could transport.
SPEAKER_04:Wait, did you know these parents?
SPEAKER_02:Or they just knew I knew well one of the parents I kind of knew because their daughter, um f now 46 years ago, we have a big picture of her eating ice cream on the deck. Okay, and so you know, it's a small town.
SPEAKER_04:And you own an ice crop ice cream shop in town. So it's not like you're just some weirdo with your trailer and some bikes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and these kids, I mean, I was 22, 23, and these kids were 17. So, I mean, yeah, there was a difference, but not a huge difference. Right, right. And the next thing I know, all I was doing was riding both road and mountain bike with these two kids, and we were going all over New England racing. We were gone every week afterwards. Wow.
SPEAKER_04:Who are these children and where are they now?
SPEAKER_02:Well, one of them is Matt, and he lives up in outside of Burlington. Okay. And the other one is Mike, and he lives uh in the same area. They're both St. Mike graduate kids. And uh Matt has still stayed into cycling and has a young son who's 13 or 14 and is becoming quite the racer himself and probably better than his old man. But we uh we went everywhere.
SPEAKER_00:We went Mount Snow and I was gonna say, we probably for all we know, we you and I bumped into each other at the 96 Mount Snow race.
SPEAKER_02:We probably were standing next to each other at the naked crit. Absolutely. Were you there when the guy proposed to his girlfriend and she was completely bareass in front of everybody? Completely bare ass on a knee. Seriously, like we were probably right next to each other in New York City.
SPEAKER_03:See, this is one of those destiny moments, right? Like your pads have crossed so many times, and it takes this many times before you meet, right? Yep.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. So when does uh so you and Alex have known each other all your lives. Fourteen. Since we were fourteen. Since you were fourteen. So you kind of knew some of this was going on. No, I did not. Oh, you weren't paying that much attention to him? No, I was not.
SPEAKER_01:She was busy being married.
SPEAKER_03:I was up at 14. No, he was not riding bikes when he was 14. No, that's right. Absolutely. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. The memory of Jason riding a bike was to come visit me when I was at my grandfather's house, and he would ride his bike with his cowboy boots on to my house.
SPEAKER_04:I'm gonna need photos.
SPEAKER_00:How cool did you think you were with those cowboy boots on your house?
SPEAKER_01:As a matter of fact, I had a groove in the bottom of the boots for my pedals.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Yep. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Yep. So separated for a while, back together at like you were you were married, so you weren't riding.
SPEAKER_03:Oh no, he was riding when we first were dating again.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no, but you weren't, you didn't ride. No. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:So then I would come up on weekends to to Ashland from Ducksbury, and Alex became friendly with a guy because of um daycare.
SPEAKER_03:And he kind of did the same thing to you. I was like, Oh, my boyfriend rides.
SPEAKER_02:My boyfriend rides, I yeah. And back and forth, back and forth. So it was like, all right, fine, I will ride with him. So he and I went out riding one day, and the first thing he saw was my bike, and he was like, ooh, titanium. All right. Quattroasi. Maybe it was a little too small for me, but it was titanium. Right. And he and I went out and rode, and then he would be, Are you coming up this weekend? Coming up next weekend. When are we gonna ride? When are we gonna ride? We're gonna ride both days, we're gonna ride. And I rode with him, I don't know how many times. And then Alex, John Dylan, and I were at Home Depot. Okay. And all of a sudden, this guy and this woman and this kid in a the kid was in a stroller, and they're talking to me, I'm talking to them, and I have absolutely no idea who this guy is. Because it's Mark Sedrone. Okay. He's not wearing a helmet. So this he's not in his bike kit, and he's not wearing his bike glasses. Right? So there's no recording. That's how I knew Mark Sadrone for the first two months.
SPEAKER_03:Not in lycra. Who are you? Yeah, not in lycray. What is your hair look like?
SPEAKER_01:What's this frequency tall guy talking to me in Hode Depot? He is right. With this woman and this kid. I have no idea who this person is. And I was like, that's the guy you ride with. I was like, oh, okay. All right. Oh, he seems nice.
SPEAKER_04:He's got hair. What is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He has a whole face. Yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Pretty much all I saw on Mark was the was the ass end of him because that's pretty much all I could do to keep up with him.
SPEAKER_04:And I did hear stories that like you and Mark would go out and it would just be days later before you.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, well, the problem I had was not knowing the area at all. Yes. And Mark not understanding that I had commitments. We would be out riding, and I would remind him an hour into the ride that I had an hour left and I had to be back home. And he would say things to me like, Uh-oh, we're currently in Rhode Island. I don't know how we're gonna get back in time.
SPEAKER_03:That was his strategy, take him as far away from home, knowing he could still have to bike home. So that was it. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:But that's Mark.
SPEAKER_02:That's Mark.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yes. So Mark would get mad at you because your equipment was so bad.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, Mark would get very upset with me because my chain was squeaky, or um maybe I had a flat tire, or I was not as anal with my things as he is.
SPEAKER_03:Bike maintenance isn't our favorite.
SPEAKER_02:Bike maintenance, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Did you still struggle with the idea that air was free back then? I did, I struggled with the five. He still does, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Apparently, did you know when you have a bicycle, you have a special adapter? You can't go to the gas station and put air in your joggers.
SPEAKER_03:I've heard we're no no, we're talking about you and you're reluctant to put air in your jobs. But this one is actually about you. Like, oh no, they feel fine. They are not fine.
SPEAKER_04:They still roll. So when did you start? So you were athletic, that you're a runner. She's a runner.
SPEAKER_03:At the time this was all going on, you were so bicycling transportation is what bicycles are for, to get you from one place to another. You've got a bunch of baskets, you can pull someone on a skateboard, that's what bicycles are for. That's great. All good stuff. I like that. You can ride down a big hill and crash into bushes, that's what, or make jumps, that's what bicycle's for. Okay. Um, and I did actually I'm I'm recalling that I did have one date when I had recently graduated from high school where a guy was like, You want to go for a bike ride? And I was like, Yes. And so I borrowed my dad's nope, borrowed my dad's 10-speed, and I followed him around for 17 miles. And I was like, This is the worst date ever. 17 miles? He took you on. He probably had on underwear.
SPEAKER_00:That's actually a lot for somebody who's not a rider.
SPEAKER_03:On a bike that didn't fit them. Oh yes. Yeah. So and definitely no lycra. So I was just like, this was a really bad date. I don't think we're gonna do this again. So that was my introduction to road cycling. And then Stellar, I basically so then my little sister called me up and said, you know, we don't get to do things together. We should sign up for a triathlon together. I said no, because I don't want to swim. I don't know, I really am not a great swimmer. That seems like a stupid idea. I don't really like to ride bikes. And then she said, please, please, please, and I said, Fine. So we both signed up for a dancekin triathlon in 99. Okay. And we were dating, and so I started taking adult swimming lessons, thinking that was the biggest problem I had, because I knew I could do the the the run wasn't gonna be a problem, but surviving the swim was like felt like the biggest obstacle to me. The drowning's a realning was really bad. Really, yeah, really scary. And when I swam in the pool the first time, the instructor was like, Oh, that was pretty. I had a lot of work to do there. And it I sort of I figured I had biked. Yeah, but the biggest places like how hard could the biking part be? Okay. And I don't even know what I had for a bike. I think I had my old truck.
SPEAKER_02:Your truck. I had my old truck from college. From college that got me too. 760, 740? Yeah, that's what got me to work. That got me to work. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:And um, and that that was.
SPEAKER_02:Unfortunately, lifting it wasn't part of the event because she would have been bought in her ass.
SPEAKER_03:I didn't have to carry it over any barriers. Um, but then Jason was like, I think I can get you a Calloy mountain bike that was lighter or maybe had more speeds. I don't even remember what it was. But there was a reason, or maybe it fit me. I don't remember what it was. But that we got that and booked. I checked a box. And that's just what I rode. I don't do I don't know if we went out and did any tri I don't even I don't think I trained.
SPEAKER_02:No, you did not do a lot of bike riding.
SPEAKER_03:I think I rode here one time and got a flat tire and you came and got me in a truck. Okay. That was it. Yep. I was like, this is nineteen ninety ninety nine. Okay. Yep. And um I cried a lot. But and I was the sl I was very slow on the mountain bike compared to everybody else, it really turned out. So then somehow I got something that was more of a road bike for the next year when I did the same race again.
SPEAKER_04:So you got through that and somehow decided to do it again?
SPEAKER_02:She's a caney.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it hurt awfully bad, but I also survived it, and then my sister said, Wow, that looked really great. I will do it with you next year. And so she so I I signed up for it again, trusting her that she would be there, and she was there the next year. Okay, wait, you missed that part. So she thought you sign up for the first year and then bail? Yeah. She's like, you know what? I can't, I'm not gonna be there. I think she had an internship or she had something, and I was like, She got you into it and then bailed on you. You still did it. I did you had spent the money. I did. He put a balloon on my bike. He came. Oh, he was great support. I even made a teacher. Where was it? Where was Renth them? It was in Rentham, Lake Pearl. Oh, yeah, the Rentham one. Yeah. Lake Pearl. Okay. Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Beautiful course. Oh, okay. Absolutely gorgeous course.
SPEAKER_03:I did I quit like seven times. So yeah, she didn't even show up, but I did it.
SPEAKER_02:She comes out of the water. I have never seen a grumpier face in your life. I'm genuinely happy. I was not in the happen. Maybe I can hide in the room.
SPEAKER_03:This is like stage one. This is like one. This is not my idea. No. And the biking was really hard, and it was like I I'm like just watching everybody go past me. I'm like, I am definitely in better shape than this, but the shape that's. No, yeah. We need to back up. Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_02:Her father probably 25 years before that had done an Iron Man and came in like fifth place or something like that.
SPEAKER_04:Of course. Okay. Really? For his age. Yeah, for his age. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, things like that. So I'm just gonna say maybe there was a little pressure in the back of the head in the mind there.
SPEAKER_04:I could see, but I could also be seeing bikes go fast. I remember doing my first triathlon, and I had a road bike. Yep. That's all I rode. So I had a road bike, and I remember passing hybrids who were pedaling downhill. Yes. And I was passing them without pedaling. Yes. And I thought, oh, they are working so hard. I was working really, really hard. You're so strong. Good on you, man. Yep. You know you have to run. I got a great workout. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Got a great workout. Okay. So next year you you're So I did it again. I signed up with Erica again, and she showed up. So I came into this relief. Reluctantly through triathlon, and I think you had given me a couple of like small routes to r go out and do. And I was doing sprints. So they were like 10 or 11 miles.
SPEAKER_04:But you were riding by yourself, you weren't riding with her either.
SPEAKER_03:Well, because we had John Dillon, so somebody was watching John Dylan. So we had to be dividing up and conquering here. Okay. And I yes, and actually the because the Kolloy became the bike with the baby seat on it.
unknown:Correct.
SPEAKER_03:That's how we so anyhow. Okay. Um and I would come back from each ride and I would just say to him, I don't get it. I really don't understand this cycling shit. I know that you think it's great and you love it. I don't get it.
unknown:Really?
SPEAKER_03:I don't. I just was like, it is the weirdest thing. Like I'm gonna do it because it's part of the race, but I just do not get this. I were a lot of triathletes are that way.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I was gonna say most triathletes are like triathletes to me, and since I probably had did the neutral support for a hundred of them, they were either swimmers or runners, and the bike was just an unnecessary email.
SPEAKER_03:It was literally the thing to get onto my bike a hundred percent. And but I I was just so used to the feeling of finishing a run, you know, and you just feel like total shit and you're just happy it's done it, but you feel really good about it. I never felt that way. I'm like, it's too efficient. There's something about a cycling which is too efficient, and I do not hurt enough. Okay. And yeah, so I just I didn't get it. So I yeah. So he'd be like, You want to go for a ride? Nope. I'm good. Yeah. For a very long time. It was really whatever you had to do. The part in the middle. And then something I can't remember what switch.
SPEAKER_02:I think maybe it was Millen got a little older, so he was all on his own. Yep. And you and I started riding together, and we would she would say although I think Jackie and I started riding together before you and I started riding together. Absolutely. Because you were training, because Jackie was training for lit races up in like Sudbury and those smaller sprint races.
SPEAKER_03:But we went out and wrote our first 25 miler together, and then I was like, oh, oh, I actually like cycling. It had to be longer and harder. Yeah, longer and harder was what my issue was. And until I got then I was like, oh, okay, yeah. Okay, I get this now. And so that was the thing. I wasn't I didn't like it until it hurt more.
unknown:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:See it's just like the sticker I was making last night. I was making the sticker that's last night using the John F. Kennedy quote, which is we do these things not because they're easy, but because they're hard. Yep. And you were and I were like, was it difficult? And I was like, no, it's hard. It's that word hard.
SPEAKER_00:Isn't that unusual how athletes are like that? You you do these big events that were very, very difficult, and you just are exhausted and spent at the end, and you're like, Yeah, I'm coming back next year.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, it's that type two fun. It's that type two function.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. And I don't remember, I think it it I think part of it was also having a social system that then revolved around bikes. Because I remember like these when you had the once you got the bike shop and we were doing suffer nights of sufferlandria videos together on the trainers. I was like, we're gonna be on a bicycle and train? Like, I don't understand. Like, you know, like and social. And social. And then it sort of just became its own beast. Oh. Because you guys had a tent in your backyard.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we had a great tent in our backyard. I would come and we would get on the trainer. Um, that's when I learned that that hot flashes were like a mutant ability because we would be in a tent freezing, and she is steaming. Yeah, she's her body is physically steaming.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was. I loved that tent. I love biking because you could bike outside with a little protection. Oh, I love that. Yeah, the tent was brilliant.
SPEAKER_00:This is not a camping tent. This is this is not a big thing.
SPEAKER_03:No, this is a glamping tent.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it is a glamping tent, fully framed, white walls.
SPEAKER_04:Type of tent I used to camp in at my summer camp, but you put like ten bunk beds in it. Yes, like it's a big camping, you know, it's 14 by 20. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But we'd walk to it, which was what, fifty feet from our house. Okay. And in our crocs, because we had to bring the shoes in at night because they would be able to get away. Because they would freeze awful.
SPEAKER_03:You would cry if you remembered that you left your shoes out there. You'd be like, my shoes are in the tent.
SPEAKER_04:So you guys are at this point really kind of cycling together, but also separately. Like you're doing triathlon stuff, you're out there with Mark.
SPEAKER_02:So I I I was when we started dating again, the umpteenth time. I had been I've been seriously into mountain bike racing, and uh that was filling a void in my life, so I was racing every race I could find that was within, you know, a four-hour drive. And then she and I started dating, and uh the mountain bike racing wasn't as important to me, but cycling stayed important to me. So I was doing my road riding thinking that I could bring her into mountain biking, and that was I quickly realized that wasn't gonna happen.
SPEAKER_03:Well, also, this is a shorter time frame because I did the triathlon in ninety nine, Erica and I did it in two thousand, we got married in two thousand, so we were spending more than there's the weekends together, so we had more time available. So we would ride together more, but we also I think you bought your fancy new giant. And I was cross bike. Yeah, no, you couldn't did you go to the road bike? Oh, I did I bought a giant bike. Yes, because my quatriasi was just and we were still living under the rule of he's the better cyclist, he's the stronger cyclist. Okay, so he's the really nice bike, and I am fine on a shitty old heavy bike.
SPEAKER_00:We had a whole podcast on this.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, yeah. And so we did that for a while. Yes. Yeah, we did that for a while. And I remember yes, because I remember being behind you saying, like, wait a minute, shouldn't you be on a heavy bike? Because then wouldn't this make this e even? Oh, right, right, right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but we were at the theory of yeah, is there's she gonna be a little bit more.
SPEAKER_03:Is this thing gonna go back in the garage and I don't know if this is gonna stick. Yeah. Right, right. Yeah. But anyhow, had a whole show about this, James.
SPEAKER_02:And by the way, as my friend Scott Zoltavsky says, I'm a unicorn because I'm the guy whose wife has more bikes than he does. At this point. Ooh.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, there is quite a collection down there.
SPEAKER_04:I love it. I know. Yeah. Anyhow. Okay, so when did that switch where you started to get you, Alex, started to get nicer bikes?
SPEAKER_02:To a to a newer bike, a better bike. I said to Alex, there was a there was a Cannondale that was beautiful. And it w we were at that place where it's like, okay, we need to do something different for Alex. She needs to be on a better bike. She's becoming her bicycle is holding her back at this point in time. And so she so we went to the bicycle barn. It was a red barn somewhere. I forget where.
SPEAKER_00:There's a there was a bicycle barn. Could be right.
SPEAKER_02:So we went and I and I forget where it was. It's on the minimum end trail, right? So we went on the bike trail? I had already looked at the TCR. Oh, yes. Mark Sidron was driving the exact same bike bike at the time. He he's it was the same year and everything. It was like it had been there on the floor for like two years. It was a great deal. So I'm gonna buy that. Alex, you come up and you look at this bike that I think would be great for you. And it was, it was beautiful, but it was too small for her. So it was like, okay, I'm here now. Let's start looking at other bikes.
SPEAKER_03:Well, yeah, it was the first time that I had been on anything with carbon, and I was like, Well, wait a second, wait a second, my back doesn't actually hurt when I'm riding this one. What do you have in my size? Like this is something magic.
SPEAKER_02:So we were looking at bikes. He was the guy that was helping us, he was the owner of the shop. He was saying, Yeah, this bike will fit you, but the stem is too small. So he would swap out the stem right then and there. And Alex was like, What's going on? Magic. Yeah, yeah. And then she would drive, she rode one bike, and then she rode another bike, and I said to her, I think you should take out the carbon, the carbon bike. And and it was kind of rainy out. And she's like, No, I don't think so. I said, Well, we're here, I think you should take it out. And she went out for her ride, and she was gone for quite a while. A lot longer than she usually was gone on the other bikes, and she came back, and she it was something to the effect of I can't believe it. You're actually right. Carbon is awesome. You were so you were coming off the cannonale?
SPEAKER_03:No, I didn't. Did I have a cannon dale? What was my dad's bike? I thought I had my dad's bike because we gave that. You had a Fuji. Yeah, at a Fuji. I mean, I was just gonna steal.
SPEAKER_00:I was just gonna say, Oh, steel. Oh, steel.
SPEAKER_03:So you went from steel to carbon. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, so no, steel does ride quite nice. It's gonna say aluminum at that time.
SPEAKER_03:Well, hold on a second, but it was steel that was my dad's bike. Yeah, yeah. So it wasn't necessarily didn't fit me.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. Okay. So it really didn't fit.
SPEAKER_03:This bike just felt like that.
SPEAKER_04:So did you start coming back to road riding as she started to try athletics?
SPEAKER_02:Right. Racing. Yeah. Um, I found at the time that it was so much easier to get into road riding. Yep. And it was less amount of time, it wasn't as dirty, I didn't break as much stuff. Um the people I were riding with were kind of more roadies than they were mountain bikers. So um, and I think my mountain bike broke.
SPEAKER_03:I I have a memory check that I need to check in with. Did I sign up for an X-Terra triathlon?
SPEAKER_02:Well, you did the one in Hopkinton.
SPEAKER_03:So I so so okay, I really like the Pathfinder, and it was an X-Terra, so I think that's how I wound up. Yes. But I also like to run trails, so I thought, well, if I like to run trails, how hard could it be to ride a bike? So, anyhow, so I do recall if I rem we did take a one practice ride around the res. Around the res before the race. Is that right? Yes, we did. Yes, we went the day before and we ran into somebody, and I'm like, I don't know who this guy is.
SPEAKER_02:So we're at the finish line, they're setting up the tents and stuff like that. I think we're there the day before. Yeah, we have a pre-riding. And you because it was right down the street from the house. We rode there, we did it. And there's this guy walking around, he's just he's doing some stuff and stuff. And as my wife does very well, starts talking to him, and she says, Have you ridden the course? And he says, Yes, I have. She says, you know, something along, it's kind of technical, and you there's a section over here in the picture.
SPEAKER_03:I think I was like, it was really technical.
SPEAKER_02:Really technical. I think I've been like that. Almost crying. And I'm looking at the guy and I'm going, I have posters of this guy. I I okay. And I'm just gonna give you a I'm gonna give you a little brief description of this guy, and maybe you'll know who it was. He had a mole on his face.
SPEAKER_00:Ned Overand?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Oh my god. That's all you needed to know. I'm in the background going on. I have no idea who that is. Oh my god. And my wife is giving him pointers.
SPEAKER_03:And you know what Ned said when Ned's given. Hold on, wait, wait. I was giving him pointers because I did not do a good job then. I was not giving him pointers. I was just talking to him about my experience. I know he was just like me. He was being so nice.
SPEAKER_04:So nice. He was just by the way, it's about time some man got some woman's claim. I am for it.
SPEAKER_00:That's great.
SPEAKER_01:So G and I are riding home, and I'm like, you know that was the Michael Jordan of Mountain Bike. Like, no. I'm like, I don't. Nope. I do I want to know that.
SPEAKER_03:But it was really nice. But why I signed up for it, that was the syllabus. Because it was our backyard. Okay, so when I'm very good at signing up for things.
SPEAKER_04:When did you, Jason, get into Cyclocross? How did you even know that that was a thing?
SPEAKER_03:Okay, so there's gonna be a story. Back in the day why we're here. There's always a story.
SPEAKER_02:The first team I ever rode for was a team called Fat Dog. Okay. There was Fat Dog Racing. There was a there was a um uh team.
SPEAKER_00:It was a uh There was a shop in Westwood. Right?
SPEAKER_02:Before that, it was in Carver.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay, yes.
SPEAKER_02:And I remember that. There were these two local guys that had ridden a couple of times, and their last name was McCormick. Oh, of course. And then there was another guy that name um I know that Brian. Uh I'm spacing Brian's name, who now owns uh what is it? It's got three initials. J.R.A.
SPEAKER_04:Oh Brian, yes, Brian.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. And a couple of other guys. And um I who was mountain bike racing with them. Okay. I well, I was on the same course as them. And um they had said to me, hey, you ought to try this. This is a thing called Cyclocross, it's up at Fort Devons, you should come up and do it.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And I Okay. So I I think I threw together some jalopy of a bike and went up to Fort Devons. I'm pretty sure they were flat bars and everything, and did a course up in Fort Devons that was just insane. And I said, Yeah, I don't know about this thing. So I st I didn't do it anymore. I walked away from it, and I was riding a lot with Mark at the time, who told me that I needed to get a winter bike because you don't want to beat up your nice road bike in the wintertime, because we are riding this snow on the ground. Mark has got me out there riding the whole time. Cidrone. The drone.
SPEAKER_04:Yes. The tall the tall guy he didn't know at Home Depot.
SPEAKER_02:Right. So I I had a very good friend who had a bike shop here in Ducksbury, and I went to him and we talked about things, and I bought a steel Fuji cycle cross bike. And Mark and I were riding it, and I signed up to do Fort Devons again because now I had the cycle cross bike, so now I was gonna do much better. And I think I was sick, so I couldn't go do the race. So the next race that came available was Ice Weasels, when it was in Brentham at the farm.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, yep.
SPEAKER_02:And at the time I really didn't know a lot of people that were racing, except for my friend Arnold, who is a beast on a bike, and he had a Pugsley. I did a rod. So the ra it is freezing. It is ice everywhere. So we get into the first the the bell goes off, we get into the first turn, and I wipe out, and by the time I can cross the course to get where my bike is, the entire race went be went past me, and I got back on my bike, and I essentially rode as hard and as fast as I could so that nobody would pass me.
SPEAKER_04:Right. She didn't want to be left.
SPEAKER_02:Because I was there weren't a lot of cyclocross bikes at that point in time.
SPEAKER_04:No.
SPEAKER_02:So I'm trying to stay ahead of the guys on the mountain bikes who had stud tires and things like that. So I got over it, and then I remember there was a field across the way, and I probably spent the next 45 minutes pulling people out of the field because they were all stuck in the field because they were in their two-wheel drive, whatever. And I remember driving back to Ashland thinking, well, that was fun. You're so dumb.
SPEAKER_03:Try explaining that to someone who doesn't like to ride on anything but road. Like you came home and had to explain.
SPEAKER_02:You're gonna do it again? Yeah, so I'm gonna do it again. In the whole atmosphere. I mean, it was a weasels race, you know.
SPEAKER_04:Well, yeah, Ice Weasels is was that still at the end of the season, like ice weasels is now at the end of the season. It's kind of like the end of the year party for psych for New England psychocrats.
SPEAKER_02:Rentham was so close, it was like, how do you not do it? Yeah. Um, I'm sure there were other races, but they were all over the place. Um But before that, I remember thinking I had kind of gotten out of biking and kind of walked away from it, and I remember I was either I was flying home from Colorado. I had been snowboarding and there on the plane is Mark McCormick. And I'm like, what are you doing here, Mark? What's going on? And he saw I was out here doing a race. I said, What? What what race? Oh, I was doing a cyclocross race. Oh, okay. I said, All the way out here? Well he said, Well, it was it was Nationals. I said, Oh, really? I said, Well, how'd you do? Well, it's a good course. It was muddy and it was rocky. Yeah, okay, you know, he's telling me all about it. I said, Well, but how did you do, Mark? I mean, you know, Mark McCormick, you guys walked on water around here. Now he's going out into the railway. Well, I mean, it was 15 minutes, and he me saying, How'd you do, how'd you do? Well, yeah, I won. Okay, so what does that mean? Well, I'm going over to Europe next to compete with the Europeans. Like, okay, so you know, that was pretty cool. Yeah. And um so I kind of was like, okay, maybe this is something. And Mark had gotten kind of into Cyclocross, and it was just it was one of those events where no matter how much you trained and how much you rode, no matter how hard you went out, you were essentially tr just trying to be a little bit better than how you started the race. And that was a success for me. I had had a very successful mountain biking career at my level and my age, and I was getting my ass handed to me in Cyclecross.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, it's really and that was fun. I'm gonna I'm gonna pay money for this.
SPEAKER_02:When when's the next race? Yep. And of course it was the bike that was holding me back, so then I bought another bike, and I didn't do much better. So then that bike was definitely holding me back. So I bought another bike, but at this time I did not get one with um disc brakes because they're not they're fad. They weren't gonna last. Oh, okay. So I got a nice bike with rim, and that didn't that that was it wasn't the bike that was holding me back. Right. It was my fat ass that was holding me back. So um, but that's when we were starting to hang out together and we were starting to do cyclocross.
SPEAKER_04:So how many years did you do cyclocross before um I had probably dragged Steve?
SPEAKER_02:Not serious, like Steve when I when Steve and I started racing is when I really got into it. Oh, okay. But prior to that, it'd probably been off and on for three three years. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Um, Devon's was earlier. And you were in Colorado it much earlier than the other. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Devons was earlier. No, but I I hadn't.
SPEAKER_03:But then you then there's a break. Yeah, then there was a break. Yeah, then you would go to Gloucester and like Weasels. Right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Right. And drive around and do it.
SPEAKER_03:So I think the kids were little.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the kids were really little. And my bomb bike had broke. So and I sent it off and it got rebuilt, and then I just never got around to building rebuilding it.
SPEAKER_04:So when Cyclocross, when you started Cyclocross, is that like the first time you guys were riding together that regularly? Like we would repeat it.
SPEAKER_03:Never competed. Never competed. We did get you to do one triathlon. You did the one. I did a couple of things. We did one here and I did Sudbury a couple of times. But yeah. Yeah, no, so we bec well, I started riding more. I also I realized when I was doing triathlon that if I wanted to be on a podium, I did have to practice the bicycle part because it was the longest part of the and it and I really liked it. So we did a we did it all mostly road riding.
SPEAKER_02:We did a lot of road riding, yeah. And finding courses together, and because that was map my ride um or map quest, I forget what it was.
SPEAKER_04:Map my ride before really ride with GPS.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was. That was sort of the the original. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, actually, and I remember coming down here and he I learned see I'm not being a cyclist, there's uh hilarious things I've learned because he would give me routes, but he doesn't know the name of any streets. He only knows like where his third grade teacher lived, and to take a left after that. Well, so those were really challenging. And then I can remember like he took me on a really long ride, and I came back and I Had had this thing like Hill Street was such a climb. He's like, Do you not know that everything named Hill Street is a hill? I'm like, no. Mountain also? True. Yes. Oh, I had no clue whatsoever. I don't know. I'm just gonna you said take it. Mountain, fine. Right, right. Yeah. All things I learned. Like, wow.
SPEAKER_02:You also learn it's to you it's easier to make right hand turns on a when riding. So I'm gonna go to the next one.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think I so that was the transition. That was so I think that why I was such an awful um cyclocross racer is because I became my legs were very strong, I had a lot of power, but I could ride on very smooth pavement straight, and I can make really good right turns because I was just focused on sort of efficient routes and triathlon. So cyclocross wasn't any of that.
SPEAKER_04:And yet you still kicked my ass regularly. Because you were especially on the power courses. If we had a more technical course, I was gonna I had the upper hand.
SPEAKER_03:But after a couple years I stopped crying.
SPEAKER_04:If it was just yes, if you just had grass, it was one of those courses I was like, I'm done. Alex is gonna take me out. So as you got more involved in cycling, did you find you had to have some like couples rules for your like we've had to develop some rules because as I got more serious, yeah, he couldn't say just take parts off of my bike with the expectation I wasn't gonna use it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think one of the biggest issues that we had for a bit when I was doing triathlon is I would go back and forth, like we would ride road together, so I would be on a road bike, or if I went out by myself, I would then switch to my tri-bike. And there were times when I was in tears because of the kids that you had this tiny, tiny window to go out. Yes, and I could not get my pedals off my bike because he's like, I didn't put them on that tight. I'd be like, for you.
SPEAKER_02:We didn't really have a pedal wrench, we had a wrench that I had grind down to fit so that sounds appropriate for you.
SPEAKER_04:Did it ever occur to you to just buy another pair of pedals? It wasn't long.
SPEAKER_03:Uh well, I I you know we still weren't sure it was gonna stick.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:No, that that that happens.
SPEAKER_00:You think, oh, it's not a big deal to move the pedals back and forth, and then you realize sort of But hold on.
SPEAKER_03:Says the woman, didn't I have to bring you some pedals one time?
SPEAKER_04:I finally so where the lesson came was because you and I were supposed to go for a ride. Or was I just going for a ride, and I just called you because I was crying. But I I had I had the windows, and cycling. I pulled my bike off, and I realized there were no pedals.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And it wasn't that there were no pedals, they were just over there. They were you had they were gone. They were at the shop, they had been disappeared or something. And um that's when we had the come to you know who where I had to say, you cannot take parts off of my bike, you cannot take things off of my bicycle because I need to be able to use it at any time. At any given time. At any given time. I also have another rule, which is he can't put my bikes on the ceiling of the garage because that's like two stories. So I have to get up on a bucket to get it. And I'm like, no, my bike seems to be within reach. No, you had an oil bucket that you used, it was like the perfect height for me to be able to she was heavy enough that I wouldn't fall off of her. Apparently a bucket. Um but yeah, you had to have yeah, but then I my new thing has my new thing over the years. I've been like, we should just have two. Like, oh why do I why do I have to keep moving my supplies from one I'll just have two sets?
SPEAKER_03:Two wrenches of no, uh and I think that that yeah, I don't know why there was only one set of pedals. They may have been really light and very expensive, and I don't know. Yeah, I didn't found frigate at that point in time. Yeah, I can't remember exactly why, but there was a reason. But that was I honestly, that was the one that I can actually remember like just being like reduced to tears, like as you watch the window go by and it's like I'm not going for a ride because I can't get whatever it was hit the frigate because they're also cross, they're they're reverse-threaded, right?
SPEAKER_02:There's a reason why I have never ridden a full suspension mountain bike or a triathlon bike, of which my wife has both, and that's because in order for me to ride it, things have to get a little different. I have to raise the seedle, whatever. And they are dialed into her. Well, they're her bikes. Oh, yeah. You don't borrow her bike. If I move if I even look at moving it, she knows.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. It's definitely like, oh, what did you do?
SPEAKER_01:It's just better for me to just leave it alone.
SPEAKER_03:I think so. Where we are now? Yes. Where are you now? Where are we now? So Do we have bikes? We have bikes, but so it's a request. Like, so Jason's very good about fixing things and helping. Yes. But he also only does it if I ask. Okay. He's not like, I went down and I did da-da-da-da-da. But it's so it's the like, did I ask for you to change the pedals off or not? Right. So that's when it's like, so he isn't cry he knows much more still about the mechanics than I do. Yep. Um I think so. But it's so it's I if I make a request for help, then we can help. But yes, unsolicited helping, no. Yes. Yeah. I think that's fair.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I remember being the reality of of my cycling and Alex's cycling is when when I had been doing cross, you and I had been doing cross, Kristen and Alex hadn't been doing cross, they then started doing cross. Yeah. And it was the first year. And you and I went down to the race that they used to have in uh Rhode Island. Providence. Providence. Yes. Yeah. Which is a beautiful race. Yeah. And I'm standing in line at the taco truck to get lunch because I had just raced and you know, had done poorly, but better than where I started, so it was a success. Right. And there were a number of women behind me. And one of them asked me, Oh, what do you think? And did what about this race? And I said, Well, I've done it before, and I like the race. And we got talking, and I said, Oh, you know, the my wife wasn't able to do this race, and I don't remember why. Right. She didn't do that race.
SPEAKER_03:I think this was having kid the kid. Okay. It might have been something I was there, but you weren't.
SPEAKER_04:You weren't at it.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, you were there. Yeah. And what really stinks is um she did a race, she did the Weasel, oh no, um Midnight Ride. Midnight Ride. Yep. And she had a really good time. And um she got to ride with Helen and she finished her lap with Helen Wyman. And they looked at me and they said, Are you married to Alex? I've never seen these women before. I've never talked to these women. I've seen these women, and I said, Yeah. And the woman turns to the other woman and says, He's Alex's husband. And they were like passing it down the line. And I'm going. Okay. So I've been doing this how many years? And nobody knows who I am. I'm just some dude. I'm the 40 bucks, right? Yeah. That's all I am.
SPEAKER_00:They do now. You're Alex's husband. And now I'm Alex's husband.
SPEAKER_01:You're married to the luckiest woman in Cyclocross.
SPEAKER_02:And I'm now Alex's husband.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And that's where I was like, okay, that's where I'm at.
SPEAKER_04:Well, there to give that some context. Alex had, we had taken this class with Helen Wyman. We then did the midnight ride of a cycle cross. And Helen.
SPEAKER_03:I was very, very, very, very last.
SPEAKER_04:Very, very, very, very last. Very well. Helen actually jumped on the didn't she jump on the catch. No, she wasn't. No, she didn't.
SPEAKER_03:No, the pros raced with the cat four, right? Okay. So everybody was on the course. And she was coming up on my wheel to finish. Yes. And she had been training me for two days, so she knew a lot of my issues already. She just started screaming at me to pedal faster. Right. Pedal faster. Do not let me catch you. And I was like, ah! And so I did. Yes. And then she stayed on the course and she said, just grab my wheel. Yes. And I rode an entire lap of her.
SPEAKER_02:Her cooldown lap. Her cooldown lap. And I moved her fast with my battery.
SPEAKER_03:Yep. But I rode on her wheel the entire time. And I had the it was the best lap ever.
SPEAKER_04:It was like covered throughout New England Cyclocross as you being the luckiest woman in Cyclocross. Yes. You made a t-shirt for it. I did. But it was, it was, it was heavily covered. You know, one of the things I loved about Psychocross was like the fun, those moments where I remember you and I, we were at one race, I will not remember it was, and I got lapped on the line. But I can't. Can't I got lapped on the line, but I didn't know for sure if I had been lapped, right?
SPEAKER_00:I think you had snuck a didn't you sneak really weren't you? I was right at the line.
SPEAKER_04:I think it depended on what side you were standing on. Right. So you but they didn't tell you to stop. But pre-righted started hiding. So you followed me at the time, and you were yelling at people to get out of my way because I was still racing. Yep. And it was just like the just a just a moment. I do remember that. Just a moment. It was like I remember being like, oh, Jason's got my back.
SPEAKER_01:That's when I realized you need two bikes for this event.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we've got to.
SPEAKER_01:I gotta get me another bike.
unknown:Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:No. So where are you before we as we wrap up? Although we could talk to you all day about this. Where are you today with your cycling?
SPEAKER_05:Oh. No.
SPEAKER_03:We have a lot of dusty bikes in the basement right now. We're gonna go dusty. Anybody want a road bike? Yeah. No, um, I very much like cycling, so I haven't gone back to I only want to run. I like to gravel. Gravel is my preference. I don't like I loved the distance you could cover and the power of road riding, but I don't love cars.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:They really bum me out. And so pretty much we ride, we have our beach road, and it's about it's like maybe 12 miles if we do the part that we can do, and we pretty much go out and we ride for an hour. Yeah, but we but we ride for an hour, hour and 15 minutes in the beautiful beach. We're not hammering, and if we are, you can't tell by looking at us. Oh my gosh, actually, so we hadn't been on our bikes for a whole year. We were out on our gravel bikes, and a guy on a mountain bike was like, Whoa, those are real gravel bikes. We're like, Yes, they are.
SPEAKER_02:He goes, Wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, he's like, Okay, let's see what you got, let's race.
SPEAKER_05:I'm like, no.
SPEAKER_03:There was a day, yes, but no, we're not doing that. But yeah, so that's what we're doing. We're pedaling around. There's a fitness component of it, and really, I also still love to run, but I like the amount of things I can see on a bicycle. Like, so I can see like four miles worth of things on a run, yeah, but I can see like 12 miles worth of things on a bike ride.
SPEAKER_04:So that's where I'm so maybe it doesn't have to be now you have it an appreciation you didn't have at the beginning. It's hard, but now it doesn't have to be one of those.
SPEAKER_03:So as a matter of fact, it's come full circle. Okay. So if I have been recovering from surgery, let's say, or something that I've taken a break from fitness, yeah, I actually prefer cycling because I can get a great workout and it's not too hard on my body. So here we are.
SPEAKER_02:And here we are. And we still ride on the trainers. And we still ride on the train trainers.
SPEAKER_00:You have a cargo e-bike which brings us ice cream. So I mean, there you there you go. That's an important ride aspect right there. True for us.
SPEAKER_02:Just getting a hell of a workout.
SPEAKER_04:I feel like it speaks to the fact that bikes can be so many things. Yes. And you can always come back to bikes. Yes. Right? Like I don't run anymore, and I don't see myself taking up running. It hurts my back, it hurts my knees. But I don't see myself ever not riding. I may take breaks. Yep. But like riding can be all those things. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I I definitely still so like when Jason and I like the first couple of nice days when we're out, especially at night when that things are twinkling, like I will still be bicycling bicycling along and then think to myself, Yay bikes. Yay bikes! Our unofficial, official name. Exactly. And I but I I definitely I'm a hundred percent in Yay bikes.
unknown:That's all.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I I miss at the end of our cycle cross the competitiveness that was just absolutely silliness. Yes. Um looking up ahead and seeing Jeff Diefenbach and seeing trying to do everything I can to just close the gap a little bit.
SPEAKER_04:He's still doing it. You want to rejoin? He's he'll he'll he'll he'll let you follow his buttons.
SPEAKER_02:I gave it everything I could to keep keep ahead of you. And at the end of the day, we weren't even getting t-shirts, you know. Oh, and we were just being funny and silly and goofy, and yeah, there were other people that we you know that were part of it. And then I remember going to the um the uh race in um Hartford and the Velo 545 had a tent there. Yes, and they said, Hey, come come hang out at our tent. You know, you're not a you're not one of us, but you're one of us. So just come hang out with us. And just being getting to the top of the hill and looking at um um oh god, Jim Godby getting off his bike, sitting down, and going down, holding his bike and going down the hill on his ass.
SPEAKER_03:And I remember watching the footage of that like oh my gosh, there's a lot of things.
SPEAKER_04:It was frozen mud, right? Oh no, it wasn't. No, it wasn't frozen. No, it was not frozen.
SPEAKER_00:It was just mud. That course changed every single day of that event.
SPEAKER_01:It of course changed every lap.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I know.
SPEAKER_04:But it really speaks to it's more than just about the bike, right? Like it was all about the getting back to the tent and laughing our asses off.
SPEAKER_02:And you know, we all wishing we did better, but knowing we did the best. We did the best we did. Nobody broke anything. Yep. We all get to go to work the next day. Yep. And we're not gonna go buy new components because we snapped something or whatever, and just you know, well, they're still out there, man.
SPEAKER_04:When you are ready and you're ready to cat into the next, into the next age group, they'll be there waiting for you. Oh god. All right, well, we should wrap this up with thank you for coming on our show and joining us. And it's been so nice psychic. We really dinner with you. Really didn't. All right. All right, we're back. This is going to be a super long show, and I'm okay with that. We only do it every two weeks. And Alex and Jason are worth it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that was a fun catch catching up on memories with uh all the things that we've done.
SPEAKER_04:It's amazing how mushy they get. And again, all the all the people we've met in the various ways. It's fun to reminisce of. I do miss it. I'm with Jason. I do I miss elements of it. I don't miss my heart exploding. But I do miss the chaos and the silliness. So here's what we want to talk about before we wrap up, which is are Q are e-bikes going to destroy the Strava KOM, QOM system.
SPEAKER_00:Ye y this is it this has been a long term problem, but it has only really started to get a ri be a real problem, I think, because of the widespread adoption of e-bikes. Right. So it was probably a decade ago when I started testing e-bikes at Interbike, and so these were the new novel thing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And we would take them out, and this was in Boulder City, was the outer bike portion where we take them out on the on the courses, and then come back, and it would be like, Oh, you just got the K KOM. And at the time there was no there was no classification of an e-bike, and strawberry and say, Was this an e-bike ride? You know, like it sometimes does. And so, um, yeah, in some cases, I want to say I made the ride private so that it it would then take me and my KOM away. But uh that was sort of the beginning of it.
SPEAKER_04:And it's funny because I have had my a couple of my QOMs taken away from someone I know is on an e-bike, and I know it doesn't mean to take them. They're just not classifying them correctly. And part of me thinks, oh, just get over yourself. You're fine, Kristen. Like you what does it really matter? What does it matter really matter? But like I saw one was stolen from a teenage girl that that probably worked hard to get that QOM, you know, she's super fast, and someone who I know was on an e-bike inadvertently took it. And so then I do think, ugh, it yeah, if we're not careful as e-bike riders, if we're not careful, then it is gonna kind of destroy destroy the system. And it's easily rectifiable, right? Like so if you're on if you're on an e-bike, you do an e-bike ride, you can classify it as such. Right.
SPEAKER_00:And so as I was saying, a lot of times when I get done with a ride, it will ask me, was that an e-bike ride? Now I don't know if that's because in some cases I'm like maybe top 10%, and so it's just making sure.
SPEAKER_04:I'm gonna say yes, because I am never asked that.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I'm asked that all the time. And so I think that must be what it is. It maybe it's when you're in like the the the upper percentage of a certain of the of a lot of the segments, it's just sort of confirming were you on any button.
SPEAKER_04:And maybe as a woman at the K O M, because even if I take the Q M, I'm usually middle of the pack on the K-O-M. Right, on the all. So that would put me outside of the is this an e-bike ride. Oh, that's interesting that you get asked that. Okay, well, it's easy enough, and I guess our ask would be if you're on an e-bike, please try to classify your and you can do this automatically. If you have a Garmin, you can have it set, right? To automatically classify your rides as e-bikes when they come in.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, correct. There's a way now. I and maybe this is a fairly recent feature, maybe the past year, where it will know it will automatically default to a certain bike in my list of bikes, depending on what kind of ride it was. Yeah. And so for some people now, it should be defaulting to your to your e-bike. But whether it's your e-bike in your garage list, I don't know if that automatically classifies it as an e-bike.
SPEAKER_04:So that's well, it's on us not to destroy the KOM, Q O M. It is kind of fun. I will say it's it is satisfying. Well, it's beyond that.
SPEAKER_00:It's it's even it's even top ten, it's just just general the general classification on Strava, which some people really like.
SPEAKER_04:Exactly. As someone who's not that, I mean, I'm semi-competitive, it's certainly not competitive. If somebody steals a QOM from me, I'm not gonna go out and try to get it again. But I will admit it's very satisfying to come in from a ride and have it say, Hey, you were one of the top five, or you got a QOM. It is, it's a nice piece of information. So if we want to protect it, we have to play by the rules. Right. Right. All right, well, we're gonna wrap this very long show up. Thank you so much to Alex and Jason for coming on and sharing their experiences and again letting us camp in their front yard. Cycling Together with Kristen and Steve is a production of Steve the Bike Guy, an independent bicycle shop in eastern Massachusetts and London marketing.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, if you like the show, please leave a review and share with a friend for show notes, links, or to leave a comment, question, or topic, suggestion. Please visit cycling together.bike. And you can follow the bike shop on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at Steve the Bike Guy.
SPEAKER_04:Thank you for joining the ride.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, see you next time.
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