Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter and Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down the route and contenders for the upcoming Tour de France before diving deep on a few recent news topics on the eve of the sport's biggest race. BTP In-Depth Tour de France Preview Newsletter Get access to ad-free episodes with a BTP pr…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter and Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down UAE's dominance at last week's Tour de Suisse and what it could mean for the upcoming Tour de France (26:25) before discussing the last half of the Netflix Tour de France Unchained documentary. BTP In-Depth Tour de Suisse Breakdown New…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter and Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down the recent racing action, from last weekend's Tulsa Tough Critériums to what the Critérium du Dauphiné told us about the Tour de France, before getting into some of the major takeaways at the Tour de Suisse and (38:00) unpacking the fi…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter and Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast unpack the action and bigger-picture questions from the recent Unbound Gravel race before digging into the ongoing Critérium du Dauphiné (48:03) and what it can tell us about the current status and viability of Tour de France GC hopefuls like Rem…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter and Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast welcome back Lanterne Rouge podcast co-host/YouTuber Benji Naesen to get his thoughts on the European invasion at the upcoming Unbound Gravel race, Tadej Pogačar's dominance at the Giro d'Italia and how and if anyone can challenge him at the Tour…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter and Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down the recent USA National Road Race and Time Trial Championships, including the amazing performance of recent BTP guest Scott McGill and the drama surrounding the Olympic Road Race team selection, before breaking down Tadej Pogačar's dom…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter and Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast welcome back pro cyclist Scott McGill of the Project Echelon Racing project to catch up on his last two seasons, discuss his success at racing a rare mixed US-European schedule, his preferred hoagie packing method for long-haul flight fueling, as…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter and Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down the opening five stages of the Giro d'Italia and why the racing has been so unusually exciting. They discuss whether Tadej Pogačar already has the GC competition won, how Geraint Thomas continues to improve as he ages, and whether pure…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter and Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast are joined by the RIDING WITH newsletter/podcast creator Jonathan Kaplan to preview the start list and course for this weekend's upcoming Giro d'Italia, and go into the main storylines, including whether anyone can possibly beat Tadej Pogačar, ho…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down Tadej Pogačar's dominant Liège-Bastogne-Liège victory, what it means for his place in the pantheon of all-time greats and his Giro d'Italia/Tour de France double ambitions, before reflecting on if the trend of a few ultra-talented riders…

With regular co-host Andrew Vontz away on an in-depth investigative assignment, Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter sits down with Israel-Premier Tech rider Riley Sheehan (12:40) to discuss his breakout Classics season, his current tenure at a high altitude camp, how pro riders and teams optimize their training and nutrition, why hi…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down Mathieu van der Poel's dominant ride at Sunday's Paris-Roubaix to win his second straight Roubaix title, complete the coveted Flanders/Roubaix back-to-back and sixth career Monument, as well as dissect how the Alpecin team has become the…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down Mathieu van der Poel's dominant ride at Sunday's Tour of Flanders to win his fifth career Monument, what it means in the context of his career-long rivalry with Wout van Aert, and what the race would have been like with Tadej Pogačar and…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down how Wednesday’s massive crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen, which has sidelined Wout van Aert and Jasper Stuyven, and injured pre-race favorite Mads Pedersen, will affect one of the biggest one-day races of the season, Sunday’s Ronde van Vla…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast discuss how Jasper Philipsen and an incredibly cohesive Alpecin-Deceuninck team defeated the much stronger Tadej Pogačar at Milano-Sanremo before breaking going into Pogačar's training numbers, his ongoing dominance at Volta Catalunya and their tho…

In a departure from their usual format, Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast are joined by Riding With's Jonathan Kaplan, who turns the table on the hosts and asks them a series of questions, including the ever-important issue of Daylight Savings Time, the BTP Podcast origin story, wh…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down what we learned during last weekend's Classics, what they expect to happen during this weekend's flurry of top-quality matchups between some of the sport's best riders (as well as making the questionable decision to spend a considerable …

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast touch on the recent early-season racing, discuss what they expect to happen at the upcoming Spring Classics kick off this weekend at Omloop before attempting to make sense of Patrick Lefevere's strange public lashing out at his star rider Julian . …

Professional runner Aisha Praught-Leer, 2x Jamaican Olympian and 2018 Commonwealth Games Champion (3000m Steeplechase), sits down to talk about her obsession with WorldTour cycling, her thoughts on what the sport could learn from the high-performance training used in professional running and how top-level athletes prepare for a life after sport. Ge…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast dive into the latest rumors on the breakaway One Cycling league while attempting to discern the ultimate vision behind the project before touching on how Red Bull's surprise acquisition of the Bora-Hansgrohe team will affect the immediate future of…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast discuss the trend of major WorldTour stars like Matej Mohorič building top gravel events into their racing calendars and how it could affect the existing ecosystem and if it could potentially spell the end of the privateer model. Then they break do…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast go through a list of topics to kick off the 2024 season, including, but not limited to, Mathieu van der Poel's unprecedented dominance in Cyclocross, Andrew's theory about Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock emerging as GC threats in 2024, and Ineos' tak…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast sit down with recent Paris-Tours winner Riley Sheehan to discuss his breakout 2023 season, which saw him rise from a US-based criterium racer to winning a major professional European race. They also talk about his newly signed three-year deal with …

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down the news that the fantastic GCN+ cycling-specific streaming service is being shut down in December and dive deep into the potential reasons for this sudden ending. They speculate on what platform, if any, will allow Americans to watch no…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast go over the reports that Jumbo-Visma CEO Richard Plugge is leading a new cycling breakaway league and the rumors that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, PIF, is providing financing. They break down how credible the reporting is around the deal, …

In a departure from the normal program, Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast discuss their experience racing at the recent BWR Kansas event (Wafer distance), what they learned about prepping for gravel events with vague course instructions, their gear setups and how they view the disc…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast sit down with Jumbo-Visma Managing Director/CEO Richard Plugge to discuss how he transformed the down-and-out Rabobank team into the modern winning machine that is Jumbo-Visma. They go through how he went from being the team's communication officer…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast attempt to figure out what is going on behind the scenes after hearing the news that the Jumbo-Visma/Soudal-QuickStep merger has been called off and that Primož Roglič is headed to Bora-Hansgrohe for the 2024 season. They also give their prediction…

After their special guest had to reschedule at the last minute, Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast discuss the rumors of a potential Jumbo-Visma/Soudal-QuickStep merger and give their final thoughts on Jumbo's recent podium sweep at the Vuelta a España before getting into the weeds …

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down the Jumbo-Visma intrateam drama that has emerged during the final week of the 2023 Vuelta a España, where they are well placed to win the race with Sepp Kuss and sweep the podium with superstar Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič in secon…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down the action so far at the Vuelta a España, and discuss Sepp Kuss surprisingly, and impressively, taking a commanding GC lead, before attempting to predict how the GC battle will play out through the upcoming difficult mountain stages in t…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast are joined by the RIDING WITH newsletter/podcast creator Jonathan Kaplan to preview the storylines for this weekend's upcoming Vuelta a España, from how the GC battle will play out, where the decisive moments will occur, and who will ultimately win…

With the Women's World Road Race Championship coming up this Sunday, the BTP pod is replaying an interview Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast conducted earlier in the summer with Alison Jackson of the EF trade team, and the Canadian national team, about her background and her dream …

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast preview this weekend's upcoming World Race Road Championships and how the pre-race favorites, like Remco Evenepoel, Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, and Tadej Pogačar will fare on the deceptively difficult Scottish course, which takes the pelot…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down their big takeaways from the 2023 Tour de France, examine what Tadej Pogačar could do differently to strike back in future grand tours, and much more. Listen to Andrew and Spencer break down the media coverage of this Tour de France on t…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast take stock of the race on its second, and final, rest day, before going through the major takeaways from stages 10-15, before discussing the two-man race for the GC win and who has the upper hand heading into the final week of racing. Get in-depth …

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast take stock of the race on its first rest day and go through the major takeaways from stages 6-9, before discussing the two-man race for the GC win and who has the upper hand heading into a difficult week of racing. Get in-depth race breakdowns with…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down Wednesday's crazy stage 5, which has turned the Tour on its head and shown Jonas Vingegaard is up to the challenge of defending his 2022 overall title. They also go in-depth on the bunch sprints on stages 3 & 4, advantages some teams may…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast give a brief overview of the course, and leading GC contenders, for the 2023 Tour de France, before diving into a few major storylines and things to watch out for at the three-week race, which kicks off this Saturday in Bilbao. Get in-depth race br…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down and give their thoughts on episodes 6-8 of the new Netflix behind-the-scenes documentary, Tour de France: Unchained. Get in-depth race breakdowns with the BTP newsletter Listen to Andrew's Choose the Hard Way Podcast Hit up Andrew (@vont…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down and give their thoughts on episodes 3-5 of the new Netflix behind-the-scenes documentary, Tour de France: Unchained. Get in-depth race breakdowns with the BTP newsletter Listen to Andrew's Choose the Hard Way Podcast Hit up Andrew (@vont…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast give their big-picture thoughts on Jonas Vingegaard's dominant overall victory at the recent Tour de France warmup race, the Critérium du Dauphiné, before breaking down the first two episodes of the new Netflix behind-the-scenes documentary, Tour d…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down the final weekend of the Giro d'Italia, and give their big-picture takeaways, before discussing how the major June stage races (Dauphine & Suisse) can tell us which major contenders will end up at the Tour de France. They finish up by di…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast drop in to break down the Giro d'Italia at its midway point. They discuss the race's numerous crashes, Remco Evenepoel's COVID-induced abandonment, Primož Roglič & Geraint Thomas' slow-build GC battle & much more. Get in-depth race breakdowns with …

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast break down the upcoming duel between Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič at the three-week Giro d'Italia, which kicks off this Saturday in Fossacesia Marina Get in-depth race breakdowns with the BTP newsletter Listen to Andrew's Choose the Hard Way P…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast give their thoughts on Remco Evenepoel's dominant ride to win his second-consecutive Liège–Bastogne–Liège and what it means for his looming Giro d'Italia duel with Primož Roglič. Get in-depth race breakdowns with the BTP newsletter Listen to Andrew…

In the second part of an in-depth conversation (part 1 on Andrew Vontz's Choose the Hard Way Podcast) Trinity Racing's Cameron Mason talks about his rapid rise through the international cyclocross ranks (he finished 9th at the 2023 CX world championships), how he approaches competition against superstars like Tom Pidcock, Wout van Aert & Mathieu va…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast go deep on Mathieu van der Poel's win at last weekend's Paris-Roubaix and what it all means for the future of the Van Aert/Van der Poel rivalry. Get in-depth race breakdowns with the BTP newsletter Read today's TOL AIRmail newsletter Listen to Andr…

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast share a few lingering thoughts from last weekend's Tour of Flanders, throw out a few predictions about this weekend's Paris-Roubaix before (18:50) Team Jayco-Alula Sport Engineering Director Marco Pinotti comes on to explain how he has transformed …

Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton Newsletter & Andrew Vontz of the Choose the Hard Way Podcast talk to Team Jayco–AlUla professional rider Kristen Faulkner about her rapid rise through the pro cycling ranks, training routines, the season so far, and where she sees her career going from here. Listen to Kristen talk about her journey from grow…