The Marginal Gains Podcast, presented by Silca is the show that makes a big deal about the little things, and how those little things...can be a big deal. Josh Poertner of Silca, along with Hottie and Fatty, talk about all aspects of cycling — design, manufacturing, marketing, riding, racing, management and more, all from a thoughtful perspective. It's a podcast for the thinking cyclist.
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Leadville — The 100 Mile Mountain Bike Race Podcast, p/b Shimano is the show for people racing (or just interested in) The Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race. Fatty (a 25-time LT100 finisher), Hottie (4-time finisher 5-time crew chief), and a host of experts answer your questions, give you training tips, detail the course, and tell the stories about the highest and hardest one-day mountain bike race in America: The Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race.
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The Pinnacle Podcast is conversations with athletes who love what they do, as well as with the nutrition experts at GU Energy. Whether you're looking for information or inspiration, you'll find it at the GU Pinnacle Podcast.
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We are on the ground at Sea Otter chasing Marginal Gains. A top theme at this year's show is something we have been discussing in our episodes: the wider tire revolution. Older XC tires have found new life on gravel race bikes and tire makers are responding. We hear from two major players on the tire side of things. Plus Dylan Johnson weighs in on …
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Levi Leipheimer & Melisa Rollins: The Growler from Pro and RD perspectives
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39:51
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39:51We've done plenty of interview episodes before, but this one's a little different. The twist here is we have pro cyclist Melisa Rollins joining as co-host in hopes of improving her chances at Levi Leipheimer's The Growler, a race that boasts the world's largest payout in a one-day race: a $156,000 purse, split evenly among men and women.…
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AJA 40: How will new tariffs affect Silca, bike retailers, and customers?
1:03:06
1:03:06
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1:03:06We had a whole suite of super nerdy and fun questions ready to ask Josh...and we will still ask them, next time. But we also wanted to know Josh's thoughts about how the newly-announced tariffs might affect Silca, the businesses it buys from and sells to, and its customers. The resulting unscripted conversation is a must-listen.…
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The Meteoric Rise of 2024 Unbound Champ Rosa Klöser
58:28
58:28
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58:282024 Unbound Champion Rosa Klöser’s trajectory to the top step started with a stolen townie, and has kept surprising —and impressing — ever since. You're going to love this conversation with this analytical, detailed, smart, and fast fellow marginal gainer.
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After 190 episodes of the show that breaks down, builds up, gets you ready, and freaks you out for the highest and hardest one day mountain bike race in the country, we've reached our red carpet, our 6th and Harrison. We want to wrap up by talking about other places you can learn about this race, our top advice, and our favorite episodes. Everyone,…
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Two of the big, recurring themes on this show have been fueling and hydration. It’s an eating and drinking contest disguised as a bicycle race after all. In this interview, Hottie is joined by Andy Blow of Precision Fuel to take a sweat test and get some insights into the hydration equation.
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This is a little different from most Ask-Josh-Anything episodes. Here, we ask Josh to answer the questions he gets most often. What we got was an insightful hour of experiences, career advice, and thoughts on the culture within pro cycling teams. This is seriously an episode you do NOT want to miss.
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TrainerRoad's Jonathan Lee puts the "smart" in smart trainers
55:06
55:06
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55:06Jonathan Lee is Communications Director and one of the OG’s at TrainerRoad, one of our favorite tools for marginal-gaining our bodies. TrainerRoad is all business (or at best, Type 2 fun) about making you the strongest, fastest version of yourself...or at least, it was that way until recently. Hottie and Fatty talk with Jonathan about TrainerRoad's…
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AJA #39: Short cranks, bar tape and tandems
55:26
55:26
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55:26Short cranks are all the rage right now, and it just wouldn't be right to let this cycling trend go by without asking Josh to weigh in on its actual merits from aero, weight and engineering perspective. We've also got practical answers for your tire inserts and rolling resistance questions, measuring CRR, old-school cables and bar tape strategies, …
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Sofia Gomez Villafane: Making a Statement & Backing It Up
56:25
56:25
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56:25We could have talked with Sofia Gomez Villafane for hours about nothing but her head-spinning palmares: Olympian, winner of Lifetime Grand Prix Series in 2023 and 2024, Leadville, twice at Unbound and Sea Otter, Belgian Waffle rides, and so much more. But the fact is, her wins are just the exclamation marks to the powerful voice Sofia is bringing t…
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AJA #38: Waxing Long, Waxing Cold, and Avoiding Speed Wobbles, and Taping to be Aero
57:08
57:08
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57:08The Marginal Gains crew thought we'd throw a real curveball this episode and make every single question about cycling...and relevant, even. Wacky, huh? We talk about how the Silca Endurance chip might affect your lube schedule, the challenges of riding with a waxed chain in very cold weather, strategies you can use to reduce / remove speed wobbles …
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Tinker & Test: Chase Wark Brings Innovation (and hugs and hotdish) to Pro Cycling
55:47
55:47
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55:47Chase Wark shares his unique journey in the cycling world, from his unconventional bike setups to his passion for community-building through cycling events, Chase's story is one of creativity, resilience, and a deep love for the sport. Josh Poertner and Chase Wark discuss innovative bike setups, aerodynamics, and the importance of tinkering with eq…
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AJA #37: Oval Chainrings, Squeaky Wheels, and Everesting Hypotheticals
52:31
52:31
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52:31If the premise of these Q&A episodes is that you can Ask Josh Anything, and we continue asking questions forever, shouldn't we really change the name of this series to "Ask Josh Everything?" The answer to that question is, of course, "it depends." In this installment, Josh addresses the surprisingly contentious oval chainring, speculates on why a s…
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Marginal Gains Scorecard with Dylan Johnson
1:05:09
1:05:09
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1:05:09Dylan Johnson is back with a follow up to the testing he and Josh did in the spring. The race season started with the two of them in the wind tunnel looking for Marginal Gains that could be used in the Lifetime Grand Prix and the other off-road races Dylan had on his calendar. Dylan reports back with his "on-course" experience and a look at how oth…
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AJA #36: Pre-wax prep, traction problems, and aero for the flexibility-challenged
52:35
52:35
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52:35Is it a coincidence that Fatty picked all the questions for this episode, and that all the questions in this episode are topics Fatty finds either interesting or personally relevant? Probably not! But if you're wondering if chain waxing makes sense for dusty trail conditions, are curious how much (if any) the outside temperature should affect your …
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Zwift & Marginal Gains, with Zwift Product VP Mark Cote
58:00
58:00
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58:00Zwift VP of Product Mark Cote joins the Marginal Gains crew, picking up where we left off in our last conversation: the wind tunnel. This time, his time in the tunnel is all about future-looking features for Zwift, and this peek at what's to come is not to be missed. From there we talk about everything in the present and future state of Zwift and M…
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Paralympic Track Racer Bryan Larsen: Excelling after Injury
59:53
59:53
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59:53Bryan Larsen tells us his only real talent is that he's too dumb to quit. We strongly disagree, but take his point: Bryan is no quitter. In this episode, Bryan talks us through how he took the constraints given to him through birth and accident, and used passion, perseverence, and a love of marginal gains to reinvent his racing career.…
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S7E26: What it takes to win the LT100, with Melisa Rollins
1:11:06
1:11:06
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1:11:06Melisa Rollins joins us for an hourlong deep dive into what it's like to love this race as much as we do, and to truly give it everything you've got. For everyone who has turned themselves inside out racing the LT100 and wondered, "what if?," this episode is for you.
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S7E25: Tales from the Trail, 2024 Edition
1:16:16
1:16:16
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1:16:16After the race, it's time to share stories. While we can't tell everyone's, we CAN share quite a few. In this episode, we hear from nervous racers before the gun goes off (and how their races went), how the new course segments, shuttling and crewing rules worked out, have a great finish-line conversation with the LT100 racer on a handbike, talk wit…
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AJA 35: Hookless rims & PSI limits, tire pressure on worn tires, Ti quicklinks, CRR on wet roads
51:32
51:32
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51:32We're so excited to kick this 35th episode of our "Ask Josh Anything" series with a discussion of the announcement of Silca's partnership with Visma Lease-A-Bike. Fatty does his level best to pitch having Hottie in the team car, hot-waxing on the move. We move from there to the challenges of high pressure with hookless rims, and how it has put Josh…
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S7E24: Waldmuller Part 2 — Racing Against All Odds
59:52
59:52
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59:52As we get close to the main event, we complete our conversation with Jeff Waldmuller, whose story should inspire every racer on the course. Be sure to listen to last week's episode (S7E23), and then enjoy this one as you put your feet up and rest up for the big race.
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We've got 2 great interviews in this episode. First, Andy Blow—Founder/CEO of Precision Fuel & Hydration—joins us to talk about his well-considered framework for endurance fueling, as well as how you might want to include Precision products (available on-course this year) in your plan. And then, part 1 of a two-part interview with Jeff Waldmuller: …
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It's one thing to tell people abstractly how they ought to do the LT100. It's a completely other thing to actually describe your own plan. In this episode, Fatty & Hottie detail how they're going to walk the walk in 2024, from bike setup to clothes setup to nutrition to split times to crewing plan.
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S7E21: You've Got Questions, We've Got Answers
53:40
53:40
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53:40When should you come to Leadville for the race? How should you manage the course and crewing changes this year? How do you stay warm before and after the shotgun blast? Where should you burn matches? What do we wish we knew the first time we did this race? We answer all these questions and more with listener (and host) favorite and 21-time finisher…
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Gravel Racing is moving face and Amy Charity is one of the movers. Amy is the founder of SBT GRVL in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The race started on the back of a napkin in 2018 and has quickly become one of the premiere off-road events in the U.S. After a few short years of success, Amy expanded SBT to Europe and Australia. But before the dirt ro…
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