Velo Podcast

Unbound gave us some incredible racing and smashed previous course records, but it wasn't without controversy. With higher speeds, larger fields, and more competition than ever before, the Unbound pit zones were hectic and dangerous, especially with pros and amateurs alike taking a free-for-all approach. Should Unbound add more rules to keep racers safe, or should they move to a fully unsupported format without pit zones? Alvin, Josh, and Levy also dig into all the new prototypes, including the unreleased Cervelo, something that sure looks like a new Specialized Diverge, and Factor's wild-looking aero machine that takes its DNA from their track bike. Alvin has also been riding DT Swiss' new F132 ONE gravel suspension fork and it sounds like he's a believer.

Fresh off his record-breaking win at the 350-mile Unbound Gravel XL race, Rob Britton chats with Levy about his strategy, how he fuels for an ultra, and why an aero bar and suspension fork make so much sense. They also get into stopping for pee breaks, those low moments before being reborn with the sunrise, and how he mentally recovers from such a massive effort.

Unbound has become the epicenter for not just the latest gravel bike tech but also some of the most interesting equipment choices of the year. Alvin Holbrook spent the week in Emporia, Kansas, tracking the race and also tracking down prototype bikes from Orbea, Pinarello, and Specialized. He also found Lachlan Morton's Cannondale Topstone with its water-carrying Tailfin rack and custom front bag, some unreleased rubber from Pirelli, and what most of us would consider a reverse tire set-up that ended up winning the race.

Today's show takes a deep dive into two new bikes at opposite ends of all the spectrums: State's no-fuss 4130 All-Road sells for under $1,000 USD, and Cannondale's Topstone Lefty Gravel bike that employs a single-sided suspension fork and 30mm of rear-wheel-travel via a clever system combining built-in frame flex with a single pivot. Alvin, Josh, and Levy also dissect Zwift's new outdoor ride-tracking feature that may (or may not) eventually challenge Strava as many people's go-to app, and Alvin reports back on how using shorter cranks for the last five months has propelled him to new heights and watts... or maybe not?

This week's episode sees us go behind the scenes with Amy Charity, SBT GRVL co-founder and retired professional racer, to find out what it takes to organize one of North America's premier gravel races. Did you know that you can never have too many outhouses? Levy and Will take notes on how to find four hundred volunteers, and how to deal with permits, police, and politics while putting on an event that's both fun and safe. Additionally, we dig into the changes made to SBT, what the future of gravel racing looks like, and more Topics covered: Too Many Races, Too Few Weekends: Gravel Racing’s Crowded Calendar is Headed Toward Collision APPRVD! SBT GRVL Secures Green Light for 2025 Velo Podcast: $16K Cannondales, Thoughts From The Traka, and DT Swiss’s Not-So-Secret Weapon

New Tech Alert: A speedy all-road bike with all the tire clearance, an unreleased (and still embargoed) gravel bike, and a clever gravel suspension fork from DT Swiss make this a gear-focused show. Senior Tech Editor Alvin Holbrook chats with Levy about riding Cannondale's completely redesigned Synapse that offers massive tire clearance, a best-in-class storage box, and integrated lighting that (might) finally make sense. Further, he explains how one battery powers all of it and the AXS derailleur. The price? $16,499. He's also spent some time on a new gravel suspension fork from DT Swiss that features integrated brake hose routing and aero-ish shaping, and even got to use one while racing a very wet Traka 100 in Spain just a few days ago. Topics covered: First Ride: The New Cannondale Synapse Road Bike Gets Gravel Tire Clearance and Integrated Lights Canyon’s Unreleased Gravel Suspension Fork Surfaces Again at The Traka The Bikes of the 2025 Traka Gravel Race

This week's show sees Alvin, Josh, and Levy step into a parallel timeline where they have the power to create the bike of their dreams without those pesky engineering limits we have to put up with here. Impossibly good tire clearance, ultra-light aero everything, more frame storage than a steamer trunk, and gravel bike geometry that's not trying to kill you is all too much to ask for in the real world, but it's entirely possible in today's podcast. The crew also talks about riding Kona's MTB-influenced Ouroboros Carbon, the pros and cons of the new Coros Dura computer, and what should be done to the "fan" who rode alongside the race leaders at last weekend's Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes.

Beware: this episode of Velo Podcast is a packed one. Amstel Gold has to be one of the best races of the year, and this year was no exception. While everyone thought Tadej Pogačar was gone, he sat up and started to soft pedal. And instead of blowing it all up at the last climb, Amstel Gold ended up being decided in a three-person sprint. The first two names–Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel–are to be expected. But Mattias Skjelmose? He seemed surprised to even be there, much less that he won. In this latest episode of the Velo Podcast, we talk about Skjelmose winning Amstel Gold, Mischa Bredewold taking the win at Women's Amstel Gold. They also preview Liège-Bastogne-Liège and discuss Remco's 100-percent win record at The Old Lady; two starts, two victories! Can he do it again against the likes of Pidcock, Pogi, and Van der Poel? Levy is a believer, whereas Hoody has his money on a certain Slovenian. And in the tech world, Levy and Tech Editor Alvin Holbrook talk about the newly-released Factor Monza aero bike, his latest gravel bike in for test, and Silca’s Tariff-Limited Electronic Pump. We told you it would be a packed one! Topics of discussion: ‘Terrible Cold’ at Flèche Wallonne Reminds Peloton That Mother Nature Is Racing’s Toughest Rival Pogačar and Vollering vs. the Pack: Can Anyone Stop Another Rout at Liège-Bastogne-Liège? Giant-Killer Mattias Skjelmose Stuns Pogačar and Evenepoel to Win Amstel Gold Race The Factor Monza Road Bike Promises Pro-Level Aero and Stiffness at a (More) Accessible Pricepoint This Week In Tech: Silca’s Tariff-Limited Electronic Pump, Strava’s Strike on Fake KOMs, and Smart Kids Bikes Cannondale Revives The SuperX Name for Its New Go-Fast Gravel Bike 5 Trends and Takeaways from the 2025 Sea Otter Classic

Josh, Alvin, and Levy unpack a massive week in tech that includes self-inflating tires winning Paris-Roubaix under a mountain biker, Pogačar's fresh V5RS, and an aero road bike that promises forward thrust in any wind conditions. The guys also dig into Allied's new Able that combines speed and tire clearance, the smart geometry of Norco's redesigned Search, and why (or why not) drop-bar mountain bikes make sense.

There isn't anything else like the Queen of the Classics and, if this season so far is anything to go by, we've got an exciting weekend of racing in front of us. The women's field will face the thirty cobbled sectors under the sun on Saturday, while there's a chance of rain and mud for the men on Sunday as Tadej Pogačar aims to be the first reigning Tour de France champion to win the Hell of the North in decades. Velo's Andrew Hood, Jim Cotton, and Mike Levy sat down to chat about how to ride the cobbles like a pro, Roubaix bike setup, favorites and wildcards, the chances of anyone beating Kopecky in the velodrome (slim), and how van Aert, Pedersen, Ganna, and Van der Poel could tag team Pogi.

This week's Velo Podcast brings Mike Levy and tech editor Alvin Holbrook together to talk about our favorite trade show: the Taipei Cycle Show. Velo had Jessie-May Morgan, Shoddy Dave Everett, Alvin, and a video team there to wander all four floors and never-ending aisles that are always packed full of everything from the interesting, exciting, exotic, and maybe even useful to the just plain questionable, and a bunch of stuff in between. This week, we're talking about some crazy carbon fiber wheels with Mother of Pearl finish on them, whether we should be considering aero crankarms for the gainz, or what about a different crankset that claims to add 50 percent more power to your pedal stroke? Also up for discussion included some wild new bikes that may or may not exist, and we need to know if the relatively inexpensive Wheeltop and L-Twoo wireless drivetrains from China have finally gotten good enough to consider buying. If you care about seeing what the future of the bike industry looks like–and what bikes, components, and accessories from Asia look like–you won't want to miss this one. Topics of discussion 5 Interesting Wheelsets from Taipei Cycle Show Wheeltop’s Budget Wireless Gravel Groupset Looks Ready to Challenge SRAM and Shimano Randoms, Part 1 Taipei Cycle Show on video, including those cranks claiming 50 percent increased power We Got Our Hands On the Chinese Bike That’s Sponsoring a WorldTour Team Overfast Brought a Wild New Aero Crankset and a Sub-1000-Gram Road Wheelset Forbidden Fruit: Tech Finds at Taipei Cycle Show That Could Rival the Industry’s Best Why This Carbon Fiber Kids’ Bike Signals the Future of Bike Tech

Can a $600 pair of shoes really be worth the price? Surely not... but also maybe, depending on who you ask. Today's show sees tech editor Josh Ross and Mike Levy talk about Specialized's new S-Works Ares 2 shoe, as well as how to test expensive bikes and gear, and how relevant that pricey equipment may — or may not — be for many riders who have different priorities.

Here's a burning question we've had for quite some time: should your bike complement your strengths or shore up your weaknesses? Wait, hear us out! We thought about the best bikes we've ridden, and there's always something in common: they make us feel superhuman. But what about that that bike makes you feel that way? Is it how it makes up for your weaknesses on the descents, or is it how it only amplifies what you're the best at? We have a bit of an argument here, with some of us believing a bike needs to focus on rider weaknesses, while others would rather their bikes help them feel better about what they're doing. Along the way, we talk about Litespeed's new titanium road bike, which they claim is the lightest titanium frame yet. Then, we get nostalgic about old Cannondales as we talk about the latest Topstone Carbon ahead of its launch Ah, and as we should, we talk about a big crash that happened while filming our first-ever Velo Field Test. Don't tell us we don't make sacrifices for this job! Listen to the latest episode of the Velo Podcast below.

Bike racing is back! With the UAE Tour and Volta in the rearview mirror, it's time to jump feet first into what looks to be an epic Classics season that kicked off with Omloop and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne. Then, it was off to the rolling white roads of Italy's Chianti region for the Strade Bianche, where the women's race climaxed with a duel between Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen up the steep final wall better known as Via Santa Caterina. And if you were watching the men's race and waiting to see if Tadej Pogačar could best last year's 80km solo breakaway for victory, he did exactly that but in a very different way, overcoming what looked like a serious crash to notch up his third Strade victory. Today's podcast sees Mike Levy chat with Andrew Hood and Jim Cotton about what makes the Classics so special, how Pogačar could win Milano-Sanremo, and why more people need to think like Tom Pidcock.

Some of the Velo team is in the midst of gearing up for a field test, where we're testing all-road bikes and comparing them against a traditional racey road bike and a gravel bike. Between all the testing and riding we're doing, it's got us wondering what the heck is an all-road bike, anyway? Yeah, yeah, all-road bikes are supposed to bridge the gap between the race road bikes and the performance gravel bikes. They tend to offer more upright body positioning, handling that skews toward safe rather than agile, and often include some sort of feature that promises to dampen road vibrations. But where did the all-road name even come from? How did we lose the phrase 'endurance road bike' along the way? And perhaps most importantly, is a gravel bike the right bike if you're looking for an all-road bike? Along the way, we chat about Jim Cotton's excellent story on how breathing sensors are poised to blow up bike racing and why a breathing sensor is a much more reliable indicator of effort and output. We also dig into why Lidl-Trek raced on a SRAM gravel groupset at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. We dug in on this latest episode of the Velo Podcast, and we hope you enjoy digging in, too. See the latest in cycling on Velo: velo.outsideonline.com

Today's bikes are really, really good. That doesn't mean we don't have major pet peeves, however. Proprietary seat posts and stems, are an easy one, as are companies cheaping out on bolts and bearings. But we went further, talking about the bike industry's propensity to push bikes on us that don't help riders address their weaknesses, and perhaps most importantly, how we wish the bike industry solved these issues. Look, we said the bikes are good. We didn't say they were perfect! In the news, we talk about Devinci's latest Hatchet Pro gravel bike that is a whole lot more racey than we'd expect. Is Hope Tech's new carbon gravel crank with a foam core going to be any good? And we talk about why Josh isn't going to stop waxing his chain any time soon. All that and more in the latest Velo Podcast. See more: velo.outsideonline.com/featured

If you grew up or currently live and ride bikes in a town with any sort of population, we bet there’s either a group ride of some sort that just happened or will be happening in a few days. Maybe it starts from the local bike shop, or maybe it starts from the go-to coffee shop. Some rides are a chill Sunday spin that's gone on uninterrupted for the past two decades, while others are the three-hour World Championship ride with 50 of the local meatheads. We do our best to define these group tries, describe what motivates these rides, and how to find your ideal group ride, even if that means starting one yourself. Of course, we also dig into the news. That means talking about how the UCI handed out a last-minute ban on a Kask helmet visor that the Ineos Grenadiers have used for years, and talking to the team to find out what happened. Then came the sealant conversation. Silca is so certain of its sealant working headache-free that the brand has promised to pay a $500 Bad Day Bonus to its sponsored athletes who get punctures that don’t seal. We dove into why it is so confident in its new Ultimate Sealant. All of that and more in the latest podcast! See more from Velo: https://velo.outsideonline.com/featured

Host Mike Levy has a hot take — or is it Senior Tech Editor Josh Ross who has the hot take? Find out this week as we debate the merits of aero road bikes. And first, we take a closer look at Classified's patent on a self charging shifting system that could make the burgeoning alternative drivetrain maker's offering a whole lot simpler to live with.

Mike Levy sits down with Dan Sommer, owner of Jack's Cycle, to talk about the realities of running a bike shop.

If you're listening to this, there's a pretty good chance that you love to ride your bike. That can manifest itself in all sorts of different ways. Some of you like to do shuttle runs with your buddies on the weekend or go to the bike park. Some of you like to pedal up the hill. Some of you like to go down the hill. Some of you like to race your bike for a few hours. And some of you… Well, some of you like to race your bike for over 4,000 kilometers through sand, snow, hopefully, more than a little bit of sun, and everything else in between. Today, Mike Levy talks to Meaghan Hackinen. Meaghan won the 2024 Tour Divide, and she's also a two-time 24-hour world time trial champion, which sounds absolutely insane. We're going to talk about those things, and we're also going to get to sleeping alone in grizzly country, waking up to a scorpion, strategies for doing these ultra-distance events by yourself, and I might have even slipped in a UFO question or two. Meaghan Hackinen isn't just an adventure seeker; she's a heck of a writer, too. Find her latest work here: meaghanhackinen.com Read an abbreviated transcript and see a whole bunch of photos here: velo.outsideonline.com/gravel/gravel-culture/velo-podcast-meaghan-hackinen/ See more on Velo: velo.outsideonline.com/featured