Professional mountain biker Payson McElveen sits down with some of the biggest names in sports and adventure to get an inside look at what sets them apart. With no script, the casual conversations are as diverse as the guests, with topics ranging from harrowing tales of survival, to debates on current events, to everyday tips and tricks and everything in between. As Payson travels the world for his two-wheeled day job, listen in as he rubs shoulders with and learns from some of the most inspiring athletes, entrepreneurs, academics, and others as they chase and inspire greatness.
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Alison Jackson on collecting stories and finding her winning attitude
If you’ve seen two-time Olympian Alison Jackson in the media, chances are she was either dancing, standing on top of the Paris-Roubaix podium, or both. The EF rider won Roubaix in 2023 and quickly became a fan favorite for her joyful social media presence and finish-line celebrations. She caught up with Payson in Girona this week shortly after breaking her arm at a race, and somehow seems to be as optimistic as ever. She talks about growing up on a bison farm in rural Alberta, why she goes out of her way to seek novel experiences wherever she goes, and how she’s managed to prove that power numbers don’t hold a candle to a winning attitude.Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
Tsgabu Grmay on 12 years in the WorldTour and fostering talent in East Africa
Growing up in Ethiopia, Tsgabu Grmay was inspired to start riding by his father and older brother, who were both cyclists. As a teenager, he was selected to go to the UCI’s World Cycling Centre in South Africa and signed with his first UCI team in 2012. Since then, he raced 12 years on the WorldTour with teams including Lampre-Merida, Trek-Segafredo, and Jayco-AlUla. He retired from road racing at the end of 2023, but joined Team Amani as a rider and coach. This year, he’s on the roster for the Life Time Grand Prix. A lot of former WorldTour riders who turn to gravel are looking for a smooth offramp to retirement, or, at the very least, are hoping to professionalize the sport and bring more teams into the fold. But Tsgabu is fired up about all the things that make gravel different from road racing. He sat down with Payson in Girona this week to talk about his childhood in Ethiopia, the challenges he faced when he moved to Europe and joined the WorldTour, and why being on Team Amani and fostering cycling in East Africa is even more of a dream come true than racing the Tour de France.Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
Geerike Schreurs on her years as a WorldTour soigneur and signing to SD Worx-Protime
Geerike Schreurs spent nearly a decade as a WorldTour soigneur, taking care of some of the best riders in the world. Now, she’s their teammate. The Dutch rider officially signed to SD Worx-Protime to race a combination of gravel and road this season, and even though she had a breakout season last year and snagged second place at Unbound, she says that this is the first time she’s finally feeling like a pro.Payson caught up with Gee in Girona earlier this week to talk about how she made the transition to racing after so many years as a soigneur, what the team got up to during the non-training part of training camp, and her friendship with Anna van der Breggen. She also explains why being a soigneur is more physically challenging than being a pro cyclist, and discusses a gruesome injury she sustained last summer that she’s still navigating.Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
Emilly Johnston on joining Scott-SRAM and throwing tricks in the middle of Worlds
Emilly Johnston was wondering if she was going to have a team for her first Elite season when she got a call from Scott-SRAM team director Thomas Frischknecht. Shortly after she signed a contract with the team, she placed third at Worlds, rounding out a triumphant 2024 season that marked her as one of the most promising up-and-comers in the women's field. Emilly sat down with Payson in Girona earlier this week to talk about landing a spot on her dream team, the chaos of racing last year’s combined U23 and Elite World Championship, and throwing down tricks mid-race. She also talks about sharing an apartment with two of cycling's most fashion-forward men (longtime teammate Bjorn Riley and XC photographer Piper Albrecht), and why they describe her first and foremost as “very Canadian.”Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
Thomas De Gendt on transitioning to gravel and 12 years in the WorldTour
Throughout his 12 years in the World Tour, Thomas De Gendt was known as one of the preeminent breakaway specialists of the century, winning five Grand Tour stages including the infamous Queen Stage of the Giro on the Passo dello Stelvio. Recently, he announced that after 16 years as a pro on the road, he would be switching to gravel. This week, Thomas sat down with Payson in Girona to talk about his illustrious road career, including that now legendary surprise stage win at the Giro in 2012, stumbling upon the benefits of altitude camps long before they became standard practice, and how the collapse of a team nearly forced him into retirement when he was at the top of his game. Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
Riejanne Markus on Lidl-Trek, speed skating, and race radios
Riejanne Markus is a Dutch WorldTour rider who is currently racing with Lidl-Trek. She went professional over a decade ago and has moved from strength to strength, nabbing three national titles and finishing second overall at last year’s Vuelta a España. Riejanne sat down with Payson in Girona this week to talk about her decision to join Lidl-Trek after four years with Visma-Lease a Bike, growing up in an athletic family (her dad and younger sister are speed skaters, and her other sister, Femke, races for SD Worx), and why she’s still a staunch defender of race radios. She also talks about the highly publicized defeat of the Dutch team at the road World Championship last year, and how she broke the news of her team transfer to longtime teammate Marianne Voss. Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
Bond Almand on smashing the Pan-Am record self-supported
Bond Almand was just 20 years old when he rode the nearly 13,500 miles of the Pan-American Highway from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina in 75 days, beating the previous record by nearly 10 days. That feat is even more impressive considering that the last rider to hold the record was a professional racer who did it with a support crew, while Bond did it all self-supported between semesters at Dartmouth.Bond sat down with Payson to talk about confronting months of intense loneliness, riding without a shirt for a week, clenching his teeth so hard they cracked, and getting to hug his dad at the end of the journey. He also talks about the beauty of the Andes, riding at 62mph in the dark on a road full of potholes, and the assumption people make about the ride that he wants to dispel. Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
BONUS: Payson and Hannah Otto talk preseason training and race FOMO
In an extended outtake from our previous episode, Payson and Hannah chat about how they're preparing for the upcoming season, whether they're changing anything, and how they're balancing the Grand Prix schedule with non-Grand Prix events they love.Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
2025 Grand Prix preview: Women's roster with Hannah Otto
This week, Payson is joined by Hannah Otto to run down the women's roster for the 2025 Grand Prix. They talk about the five new riders, the riders who won't be returning, and how the slimmed-down field might affect the overall series. They also go deep into the weeds on whether the Grand Prix is now geared toward mountain bikers (spoiler alert: they're biased), talk about why they want more rules rather than less, and speculate about how all the drop races and surgeries in the women's field this past season might offer a glimpse of things to come. Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
2025 Grand Prix preview: Men's roster
Big changes are coming to the Life Time Grand Prix in 2025. Among them are fewer events, fewer riders, less altitude, and an extra mountain bike race. There are new riders, riders who were absent for a season but are coming back, and riders who have featured heavily in the series who won’t be returning. Payson unpacks all the changes on the men's side, including the new riders, the most painful omission on the roster, and why some racers decided to sit this season out. Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
Haley Batten on Olympic silver and why she’s glad she went to college
Haley Batten spent years preparing for the Olympics, and it all came together this summer when she walked away with Silver. She sat down with Payson last month to talk about where it all began, when she was a 14-year-old with a printed resumé approaching pro racers at bike events. Eventually, one of them took notice and gave her her big break. She talks about how she built a career with the help of other women in the sport without trying to copy a blueprint of success, and the times (one of which was very recent) that she thought about quitting. She also talks about coming back from a flat during the Olympics, and why she thinks that going to college has made her more secure than ever in her commitment to professional racing. Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
New Zealand Crossing crew recap
Earlier this week, Payson completed his latest ultra-endurance crossing challenge following his Crossing Iceland and Crossing Tasmania projects from previous years. This time, he connected three of New Zealand’s best-known routes — the Paparoa, Old Ghost, and Heaphy trails on the South Island. With a few unexpected twists, he managed to complete the 241 miles and 24,587 feet of climbing in under 24 hours. Payson sits down with the crew who helped bring the project (and the upcoming film about it) to life. Filmmakers Thomas Woodson and Joey Schusler, editor Aidan Haley, local guide Callum Wood, and coordinator-in-chief Nichole Baker join him to talk about their highs and lows from the trip, mechanicals, wildlife sightings, hallucinations, over-fueling, and much more. Watch Crossing Iceland here.Watch Crossing Tasmania here.Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
Ryan Standish on his viral crash and Kokopelli and White Rim FKT attempt
Ryan Standish has had a tough year. During pre-season training in Madeira, he split open his knee during a crash and had to put his entire season on hold. The crash ended up going viral thanks to the GoPro he was wearing at the time, and he found himself in the middle of an unexpected internet news cycle. Ryan sat down with Payson over the Big Sugar weekend to talk about the crash, how it shaped his season, and the project he undertook recently to combine the Kokopelli and White Rim trails into one 310-mile FKT with 25,000 feet of climbing. He talks about why he decided not to put it off even though he was still recovering from his injury, and the video he produced about the experience.Click here to watch Ryan’s film ‘Why Wait? Attempting a Kokopelli and White Rim Trail FKT.’Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
Kelsey Urban on a bittersweet win at XC Nationals and returning from injury
Kelsey Urban’s time racing the World Cup circuit has been anything but smooth. After years of suffering from a mysterious health condition that mystified doctors and forced her to pull the plug on her 2023 season, she was finally able to begin the long journey back in the UCI points this year. In the first World Cup of the season, she made it clear that she was a top contender by finishing 8th, and she rounded out the year by winning XC nationals in July. Kelsey caught up with Payson in Bentonville after racing Little Sugar to talk about why Nationals was bittersweet, the emotional rollercoaster of watching the Olympics from afar, and her friendship with teammate Jenny Rissveds. Instagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc
Big Sugar recap with Matt Beers and Alexis Skarda
And that’s a wrap on another round of the Life Time Grand Prix. Payson goes over the final points breakdown and talks about the changes that have been announced for the series for next year. He also talks to Matt Beers about their tie-breaking sprint for second place overall, and Alexis Skarda, who, after a five-week break in the middle of the series due to injury, still managed to come away with fourth overall. We also hear from listeners who attended the race.00:00:00 Introduction00:04:07 Listener experiences 00:08:40 Grand Prix points overall and series changes for 202500:26:23 Matt Beers01:13:33 Alexis SkardaInstagram: @withpacepodcastYouTube: Payson McElveenEmail: howdy@withpace.cc