The Rundown: This one gets personal. After race recaps and the spring classics, the guys open up a listener question about the best and worst days they have ever had on a bike, and the stories are gold. Hypothermia, blurry vision, a road-sign collision in a parking lot, a Barton Park race nearly missed over forgotten shoes, and a perfect day in Tenerife. Then they tackle the big one: how cycling has both enriched and complicated their lives. Pour a coffee, settle in, and read on for the highlights. Then hit play above for the full conversation.
Dialed Podcast 364 Recap
The Best and Worst Days We Have Ever Had on a Bike
Some episodes are about gear, some about racing. This one is about the rides that stick with you, for better and for worse. A listener in San Francisco asked the guys to share their most memorable days on the bike, and what came back was equal parts cautionary tale and love letter to the sport. It builds into an honest conversation about what cycling gives and what it takes. If you have ever wondered whether all the hours are worth it, this is a good listen.
The Backpedal: Spring Form and a Dead Shifter Battery
Ian has been riding plenty and it shows. He finished close to the front of a 68-rider 1/2/3 field at PIR, beating the other nine masters in the 50-plus group, and credited smart positioning as much as fitness. He also previewed the Gorge Gravel Race course on his BMC gravel bike, with Lance trying (and failing) to teach him to rip the technical sections, since Ian cheerfully admits he is terrified of crashing. Lance logged a strong winter, 207 hours and 3,400 miles on the year, but was feeling a little flat heading into the weekend and downgraded himself to the short course at the Gorge.
Jake had the best story of the segment. Back on the gravel bike for the first time in months, he dropped down the big hill from his house, went to shift back up, and the left shifter battery died, leaving him stuck in a 46x10 with a long climb home. He ground all the way back up without clipping out, swapped the battery, and still made the ride. Then he put in a serious Tuesday gravel night, holding Paul's wheel through the finish at a two-hour normalized power north of 300 watts. The form is clearly trending up.
The Leadout: Amstel Drama, Pogacar at La Fleche, and a Big Payday
The Ardennes classics delivered. Amstel Gold produced a genuine surprise when Mattias Skjelmose and Remco Evenepoel reeled Pogacar back, and Skjelmose out-sprinted both for a monument he could hardly believe he had won. La Fleche Wallonne went more to form, with Pogacar timing his effort perfectly off a Brandon McNulty leadout to win on the Mur de Huy. The guys also flagged how Remco's return from injury has made the racing genuinely more exciting, including a sprint win over Wout van Aert the week prior.
On the domestic side, Levi's GranFondo in Napa drew the strongest non-European pros to a brutal 140-mile, 14,000-foot day with a 25,000 dollar winner's purse. Keegan Swenson took it in a near-six-hour effort, and the post-race talk turned to the staggering numbers these riders put out, with Matt Beers reportedly hinting at an FTP over 500 watts. The crew got a kick out of the pros' fuel strategy too: pancakes, syrup, cream of rice, and thousands of sugary calories per ride.
Best and Worst Days: The Stories
This is the heart of the episode. Lance went first with a worst-day classic: a brutal, wet, hypothermic Gorge Gravel Grinder long course years ago that left him with vision so blurry he walked into a street sign and had to lie in his van for hours before he could safely drive home. It is the day he swore off long courses for good. Ian matched it with the legendary Kings Valley Road Race where he finished hypothermic and shaking so hard he could not pull the safety pin out of his jersey, with Jake talking him down in the parking lot. Matt added an Ironman Whistler where sleet at the start sent half the field to the ambulances, and a plastic trash bag under the jersey saved his day.
The good days balanced it out. Lance and Ian both pointed to a magic day in Tenerife on the Masca loop, 75 miles and nearly 11,000 feet of climbing with two of their closest friends and legs that felt unstoppable, including a quiet moment of climbing in rhythm that Ian called beautiful. Jake's favorite was less a single ride and more a lesson: his first team training camp in Palm Springs, over 500 miles and nearly 30 hours in a week, where he came out the other side stronger every day. He also told a roller-coaster Barton Park story, arriving late with forgotten shoes, borrowing a teammate's, fixing a cleat mismatch at the line, time-trialing two and a half laps to catch the field, then flatting on the second-to-last lap and clawing back as many places as he could. The lesson, as he put it, is to never give up.
The Topic: How Cycling Enriches and Complicates Life
The conversation widened into the real cost-benefit of the sport. The downsides are honest: the time it eats, the money it drains, the constant pressure not to lose fitness or get injured, and the genuine danger of sharing the road with distracted drivers. Matt made the case that you could stay fit on a 500-dollar bike and that the smartest riders often do, even if none of the four of them practice that restraint.
But the upsides ran deeper. Lance described how cycling gave him a life after retiring young from dentistry, a community and a purpose he is not sure he would have found otherwise. Ian framed it as wellness over fitness, the social world around the sport being the thing that makes him feel well. Jake tied it to mental health, the ride as a reset that has pulled him through hard stretches for decades, and credited Strava as the unlikely app that connected the four of them in the first place. The throughline: the investment is real, but so is the return.
One Last Thing
Ian put in another plug for his Barton Park Road Race on May 10th, with Skratch Labs, Silca, and Kask among the sponsors lining up prizes, and a standing need for a few more volunteer drivers. Lance flagged the Gorge Gravel Race that weekend out in Wasco, which had not quite sold out for once. And Jake shared that Factor had just launched the Monza, an aero race bike with a full build at 6,999 dollars and 34mm tire clearance, with three of them landing at the lab that week.
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