The Pinkbike Podcast

Sarah chatted with Christopher Blevins right after he got back from his whirlwind of a trip to Brazil where he won the first Olympic cross-country race of the season. The 26-year-old American former Short Track World Champion last won a World Cup XCO back in 2021 in Snowshoe, but he came out with all cylinders firing in Brazil with the goal of qualifying for the Paris Olympics and getting as many points for the United States to secure two spots for the men's team. From getting stung by the most poisonous caterpillar in the world, to recovering on downhills, dealing with cramps, life on Specialized Factory Racing, to what he thought of the cross-country race courses in Brazil, this was a really interesting conversation. We also got into why he switched to mountain biking from BMX, his creative pursuits outside of cycling, and being a mountain biker right now in the US.

We discuss our picks for this weekend's race, explain why your season won't be as easy as you think, and who are the likely winners.

While Henry enjoys riding shorter travel cross-country bikes, he doesn't follow the pro circuit all that closely. In this episode, Sarah gives Henry an idiot's guide to XC and why there's more to it than meets the eye.

We chat about how he got into riding as a teenager, how he bounced back and forth chasing summer in the UK and New Zealand for years, his time as a World Cup mechanic, why he left GMBN, some of his endurance feats including an attempt at the FKT riding across all of New Zealand and riding 1,000,000 feet in a year, and much more. Henry's an incredibly introspective person and so this was a really interesting conversation.

Romain Dompnier and Madison Wallinger explain what goes into a season of in-depth mountain biking coverage, the power of archetypes and how race coverage can help the sport grow.

Remi Gauvin has seen it all in racing, from their early days as a promising junior to climbing the ranks of Enduro. In this chat we cover his roots in downhill, what it really takes to do both disciplines and how the sport is changing - for good and for bad.

Tara Llanes has been wildly accomplished at the high levels of multiple sports - BMX, MTB, and wheelchair basketball, not to mention wheelchair tennis - and she also has a whole lot more life experience to share. In 2007, in what she thought was her second-to-last race before retiring from her career as a mountain biker, a devastating crash changed things for her. She spent the next several years going through intense processing, a move to Canada, some serious mental low points, a growing interest in tennis, and much more before she found herself on the basketball court to improve her speed as a wheelchair tennis player. Wheelchair basketball stuck. Tara clearly knows how to train hard, and that continues to take her far. She's now preparing for her second Paralympics, this one in Paris, and plans to then step away from high-level competition - retiring the right way this time. Brian and I sat down with Tara in Vancouver, where she lives, to talk about that whole process. While we imagined this episode would end up the same length as most of our podcast episodes, we just kept finding more conversation. Tara is clearly smart, capable, an incredible athlete, and seriously strong as a person, and we were glad for every minute she spent with us.

Amy Ertel and Steve Vanderhoek are two people who bring a lot to our sport: both in terms of their excellent riding and when it comes to their jobs and risk preparedness. Amy is a nurse, Steve is a firefighter, and both are extraordinary riders.

Dario and Brian are joined by Alvin from our sister publication Velo to discuss the products we saw, the factories we toured, and the food we ate at this year's Taipei Cycle Show.

Could you choose your bike out of a lineup? If so, how? Whether it's strange suspension setups, cockpit changes or just particular tires, we all have things that make our bikes our own.

Eliot Jackson has been a busy guy after retiring from World Cup DH racing. He's a Red Bull commentator, an ambassador for various cycling brands, the founder of Grow Cycling Foundation, and the organizer of a brand new event called Aspire. As you can imagine from listening to him on live broadcasts, he's a really fun guy to chat with and Alicia, Brian and I were lucky to catch up with him earlier this month before he headed to Australia to commentate at Red Bull Hardline. Our free flowing conversation ranges from his early days as a racer and how Pinkbike founder Karl Burkat mentored him on the business aspects of the bike industry, to diversity in the bike industry and the opening of Grow Cycling Foundation's Inglewood Pump Track in Los Angeles County in California.

Sarah Moore is incredibly important to the Pinkbike, cross-synergized ecosystem of symbiotic workflow, not least because she guides so much content and new coverage. Here, she and Henry talk about her racing World Cups, "what's good", women in the industry, and the slightly more light-hearted side of breaking both arms.

When the UCI team list was released for the upcoming season, there were many answers to be found about who will be riding what. One inclusion that didn't shed too much like, however, was Aaron Gwin's name under his eponymous racing team. What bikes were they riding? What would this team look like? And will Aaron himself be lining up at World Cups this year or being confined to the commentary box as he rehabilitates from an arm injury sustained early last season? In short, the bikes will be from Crestline, but don't go thinking this is a standard sponsorship deal. It seems to run far deeper, with Aaron taking part ownership in the brand that was founded a mere couple of years ago. Although not their first outing at World Cups, the RS 205 VHP frame was raced under Sam Blenkinsop last year, this does feel like a big step up for a brand that is still so relatively young. Aaron made time for us during a very busy team camp. While it might sometimes seem to be all glitz and glamour in mountain biking, I love the fact that we're still raw enough to sometimes be about propping up a laptop in short-term accommodation as you pack in as much preparation and planning as you can, and answering questions honestly that fans of the sport will likely want to know about. I'm thankful that even as mountain biking becomes more pro the level of access athletes and team owners are prepared to grant media is so great, and it personally only makes me love mountain biking and World Cup racing even more.

Yoann Barelli has done a bit of everything in his time. Whether it's slogging out World Cups as a privateer, moving to BC, or turning pro slightly later than others, his contribution to the sport of mountain biking is undeniable. Editor's Note - Our audio file corrupted, so for the first part of the interview we're using backup audio. If you wish to skip this part go to 40 minutes. Thank you for your understanding.

We talk about signing for one of his dream brands, how he kept his broken scaphoid a secret until he'd signed a contract for 2024 on the dotted line, what riding a bike with telemetry for the first time was like, how many Red Bulls he drinks on race day, being mates with Jackson Goldstone, what he does when his competitors start to complain, and more.

We all had different journeys into mountain biking and at different stages in our lives. Here, Henry, Matt, Dario and Kaz talk through the good, bad, and downright weird bikes that they were infatuated with and why. See the bikes here.

YT Industries saw promise in Vali Höll before she even started racing on the World Cup circuit, signing her on a six-year contract when she was just 13 years old. The Austrian then went on to win two Junior World Cup overall titles as well as two World Championship titles on the YT Tues before moving up to the Elite category. A nasty crash sidelined her for her first Elite World Championships in 2020, but she came back swinging in 2021 as a part of the newly formed RockShox Trek Race Team, winning the overall title in what was her first full year racing in the Elite category. In her three years with the team, she's racked up eight World Cup wins, two overall titles, and two World Championship titles. Now, in what feels like a homecoming, the 22-year-old Austrian has signed with The YT Mob. You can read the official YT Mob press release here. We talk about why Höll signed with the German brand really early in the 2023 season, what she's most looking forward to with the new team, learning to deal with disappointment, what it was like to finally race against Rachel Atherton last season, and more. The podcast is above if you'd like to listen to our conversation. Alternatively, a transcript is below.

In a chat that felt like it could go on for twice as long, Jesse really lifts the veil to talk about so much of what goes into being a pro enduro racer, the risk of moving away from a successful team as well as breaking down some of his highest moments and discussing where enduro sits when compared to other disciplines. Plus, Henry, Christina, Sarah and Matt tune in with the latest news.

After 16 years together, Greg Minnaar's name was synonymous with that of the Santa Cruz Syndicate, but in a move that surprised everyone this off-season, even Minnaar himself, the Syndicate let go the 42-year-old South African. That left the four-time world champion scrambling to find a ride for 2024 mid-October in a year where budgets were tight. While the past several months have been anything but restful, you don't win 23 World Cups without being a hard worker and Minnaar has signed a three-year contract with Norco Bicycles and has been able to pull together a team at the eleventh hour that sounds more than promising. Minnaar will be racing alongside Gracey Hemstreet and Lucas Cruz this season, but his main focus will be setting up the processes and people to turn Norco Factory Racing into a future-proofed, race-winning team and continue to direct the team beyond his eventual retirement. Sarah sat down with Minnaar yesterday to talk about the team he's formed for 2024, riding Norco's prototype bike, and what his goals are for the coming years. The podcast is above if you'd like to listen to our conversation. Alternatively, a transcript is below.