The Rundown: Sixty-five days. That is how long it had been since the last show when the guys finally got back around the table for Episode 380, recorded on St. Patrick's Day with Lance in a green thong and Jake buried under the longest stretch of work he can remember. They catch up on Lance's five weeks of racing in Arizona, a skate-park lead-out that sent Ian to the ground, a listener question about riding in Mallorca, and a full preview of Milan-San Remo. Jake, Lance, Ian, and Matt are all back. Pour a coffee, settle in, and hit play above. Here is what went down.
Dialed Podcast 380 Recap
The Long Way Back
The episode opens exactly the way you would want after two months away: a little chaotic and not the least bit polished. It is St. Patrick's Day, Lance is wearing a green thong and proud of it, and the guys spend the first few minutes circling the elephant in the room before Jake names it. The last podcast went out on January 10th. That was 65 days ago. If you have been waiting for a new one, this loose, punchy open is the show settling right back into its groove.
The Backpedal: Five Weeks in Arizona and a Skate Park Lead-Out
Every episode kicks off with the Backpedal, where the guys recap what they have been up to since the last show. Lance had the most ground to cover.
He spent five weeks in Arizona living out of his van in Gary Allen's driveway, riding with the Dogs of Tucson, climbing Mount Lemmon three or four times, and racing his legs off. He got pulled from a crit for the first time in his life, set power PRs and still got dropped in fields stacked with former national champions, and worked his way from 30th back to seventh at Belgium Waffle Ride Arizona after a flat that needed two plugs before the sealant would finally hold. His honest summary: old-man-who-used-to-think-he-was-an-athlete watts, and a great time doing it.
Back home, the local season opened with two races in a weekend, and Lance brought the highlight. Asked to lead out the short course at the Real West Gravel race in Pendleton, he scouted a line straight through a roadside skate park to skip a pinch point. He sailed up a ramp and bunny-hopped through clean. Ian, following his wheel on faith, transitioned out of the skate park and onto his backside, lost about a hundred places, and spent the rest of the day chasing. Lance went on to finish fifth overall in the short course and second in his age group.
Matt had been in Boise running track-coaching duty and squeezing in swims, runs, and lifts, with a new electric bike waiting at home to build up for a sponsored review. That kicked off a point the guys make every chance they get: if you buy a direct-to-door bike, bring it by the lab and let someone check it over for safety before you ride it. Loose bolts, a fork on backward, brakes set up wrong, they see it all, and a five-minute look can save you a trip to the ground.
The Leadout: Power Meters and Trusting Your Numbers
Ian raced for the first time in a while at Pendleton and came in 15th out of 188 starters, then won his age group, which he was too modest to mention until Lance did it for him. The interesting wrinkle was his power data. On his gravel bike he runs single-sided Garmin Rally pedals, and he has a real left-to-right imbalance, so the meter doubles his stronger leg and flatters the number. His new road bike has a dual-sided meter, and the two read about 20 watts apart for the same effort.
That sparked a quick, useful take from Jake. If you want your true output, dual-sided matters. But if you are training with one consistent meter, the absolute number matters far less than staying honest with the same tool over time. Zones are relative. The trouble only starts when you try to compare a workout on one bike to a workout on another and the two meters disagree. We carry Garmin power meters and head units at the lab if you are weighing single-sided against dual, and we are happy to talk through which one actually fits how you train before you spend the money.
EPO Chain Mail: A Mallorca Trip Worth Planning Around
The EPO Chain Mail segment is where the guys read listener mail, and a good one came in through the contact form on the website from a rider in Connecticut. He had been invited to ride Mallorca in a couple of weeks, knew he was short of full fitness, and wanted to know how to train for it and how to handle the logistics of long rides on the island.
Lance, who went over with Ian, did not hold back: Mallorca is now his number-one place to ride in the world. The roads are immaculate, the traffic is light and respectful, the weather is good, and the whole cycling culture is built for it. His practical advice was simple. Rent a bike on the island rather than risk the airline cracking your own, the way one cracked his seat stay on a past trip. Stay on the east side near the best routes. Expect most great rides to run 40 to 50 miles with a few thousand feet of climbing, and know that a flat valley spin is there on a rest day if you want it. For the famous one-way northern coast ride along the MA-10, book one of the cheap shuttle transfers that haul you and your bike to the far side so you can ride the best 80 miles back. And if you have not been putting in 10 to 15 hours a week, start now, because the only thing waiting around the next corner is another village cafe and a two-euro coffee.
The Hot Seat: Milan-San Remo and a Stack of Lucky Escapes
With the season's first Monument days away, Ian put the Hot Seat question on the table: who wins Milan-San Remo? The table landed on Mathieu van der Poel, with Matt taking a flyer on Tadej Pogacar and Jake quietly rooting for a dark-horse Tom Pidcock to sneak back into the mix. The breakdown was the good part. At nearly 300 kilometers the race stays flat until the Cipressa and the Poggio, and the Poggio crests just five kilometers from the line. Last year Pogacar tried to flip the script with an early move on the Cipressa, only for van der Poel and Filippo Ganna to mark him and take it to the Poggio, where Pogacar lost the sprint. With van der Poel and Pogacar both targeting it again and trading jabs about how fast they can climb the Cipressa, the guys agreed it likely comes down to the last 500 meters of the Poggio, and that a full-gas effort from the bottom is the only way to crack the kind of finishing speed van der Poel brings.
Jake's own Hot Seat question turned into a round of lucky-escape stories, and they piled up fast. Lance hit a roadside sapling that stopped him from going off a cliff on a no-signal gravel descent, hopped a curb to dodge a four-rider crit pileup, and skated a fallen cone at 38 miles an hour, getting away with a torn glove. Ian relived a car that turned across him with about six inches to spare. Jake had his own near-misses with cars, one of which tore the boa dial off a brand-new cycling shoe. That thread also touched on satellite safety tech, with the guys comparing Garmin's inReach against the newer satellite messaging built into phones and watches, and why a dedicated SOS button still has its place when you are riding alone and out of cell range.
One Last Thing: A New Studio and the Long Climb Out
Each host closes with a final note. Matt teased a review of the Polar Grit X2 watch and the lightweight electric city bike he is building up. Ian made his pitch for the event the team hosts every spring, the Mike Myers Memorial Time Trial out of Vancouver Lake, switched this year to a road-bike-only Eddy-style format with an open category for time trial bikes and a team time trial in the afternoon. His reasoning was pure Dialed: a time trial bike is a big barrier to entry for a bike most people ride three or four times a year, so an all-road format gets more people racing.
Jake closed with the honest part. The 65-day gap was not for lack of caring. While the guys were off racing and traveling, he was covering the lab solo through Paul's vacation, touring colleges with one kid, and working what he figures was closer to 750 hours over those two months. He owned that his phone has been mostly off and asked anyone he has gone quiet on not to take it personally. The silver lining is real: the new lab space has passed its inspections and is only weeks out, and it includes a dedicated studio built for making regular content, podcasts included. After a stretch this full, that is the guys getting their cadence back.
One quick note for context. Jake mentioned that the team's longtime Factor connection, their rep Joel, lives near Salt Lake, which came up during a college visit. We are a proud Factor dealer at the lab, so if the bike talk has you curious, that is a conversation we are always glad to have.
Listen to the Full Episode
This recap only scratches the surface. The full episode is packed with the kind of unfiltered banter, race breakdowns, and hard-earned wisdom that only comes from four guys who genuinely love this sport. Hit play on the player above, or find Episode 380 of the Dialed Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
And if all the talk of racing seasons and power numbers has you eyeing your own setup, we stock the gear that backs it up at the lab, from computers and power meters to fast tires and race-day nutrition. Even better, come say hi and we will help you sort it out. We are always happy to help you get dialed.
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