The Rundown: The guys regroup after weeks of racing and training across Arizona, then dig into a packed listener mailbag: how to train smart without a coach, the new Silca sealant that might finally kill the inner tube, and what old-school bike tech is still worth keeping around.
Dialed Podcast 358 Recap
Arizona stage racing, AI training plans, a tube-killer sealant, and the gear we refuse to give up.
Backpedal: Three Weeks in Arizona
Ian and Lance recap what Lance called maybe the best three-week training block of his life. They tackled two big stage races, the Valley of the Sun near Phoenix and the Tucson Bicycle Classic, each drawing massive fields of eight hundred to a thousand riders, including deep junior, women's, and 60-plus categories stacked with ex-pros. Both guys finished solid mid-pack against open fields full of climbers, then capped the trip with a six-day team training camp out of a catered Tucson house, highlighted by a ten-minute personal best up Mount Lemmon and jumping into the chaotic two-hundred-rider Tucson Shootout. Lance closed his run with a hard crash pre-riding the Cactus Cup, walking away with a cracked helmet, bruised ribs, and a dinner-plate contusion, which scratched him from that race.
EPO Chain Mail: Training Without a Coach
A listener asked the best strategy for a time-crunched rider using AI training platforms without a coach. The crew pointed to TrainerRoad and CoachCat, both of which can backfill an entire plan around a target event and adjust a day's workout on the fly, plus the TrainingPeaks plan store where you can buy a structured block, including plans built by the guys' own coach, Ian. The bigger principle: start with the end in mind and reverse-engineer the plan so you arrive at your event fresh, and remember that different riders respond to different approaches, with some thriving on sweet spot work and others on a more polarized model.
Silca Ultimate Sealant 2.0
The gear highlight was the reformulated Silca Ultimate Tubeless Sealant. The new version keeps the fiber-based plugging material but in a finer form that can be injected straight through the valve core without clogging it, a major fix from the first generation. Silca reports it sealing punctures up to six millimeters across nearly every time, and it can last a full season in the tire rather than needing a refill every few months. The table's verdict: if those claims hold, this is a genuine case for abandoning inner tubes for good.
Old Tech Worth Keeping
A fun listener question on old tech the guys still favor drew honest answers: Ian keeps a mechanically shifted rain bike precisely because he never has to worry about charging a battery, Jake prefers a return to threaded bottom brackets over press-fit, and everyone agreed on the comfort of an old saddle that just fits. The crew also fielded a question on jumping from cold to hot-weather riding, where the answers came down to aggressive hydration, electrolytes, dialed nutrition you bring with you, and a cooling base layer for sun protection.
Hot Seat: Strade Bianche
With Strade Bianche on deck, the guys called it Tadej Pogacar's race to lose given how strong his whole team looked early in the season, while giving Tom Pidcock an outside shot thanks to his descending and bike-handling skills. They also flagged Mathieu van der Poel and a resurgent group of Americans, including Magnus Sheffield and Neilson Powless, as riders to watch through the spring classics.
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