Bike Talk with Dave: All things bike! Bikepacking, cyclocross, gravel, mountain bike, road & events

Crystal Anthony has been racing professionally for nearly a decade in cyclocross, mountain bike and gravel. With 21 UCI cyclocross wins, her transition to mountain bike racing came naturally. Today, in addition to racing in her fourth season of the Lifetime Grand Prix (where she currently sits in 15th), she shares her knowledge and experience with others through her coaching business (www.crystaljanthonly.com) as well as leading wo...

Christopher Blevins, Specialized Factory Racing, was the first UCI Mountain Bike Short Track (XCC) World Champion! He's also won his fair share of UCI Mountain Bike World Cups as well. Most recently (as of mid-April 2025) the UCI XCC World Cup season opener in Brazil. He's raced in two Olympic games and is a multi-time national cycling champion in a variety of disciplines, from BMX and road to mountain biking, short track to marath...

Levi's Gran Fondo, specifically, The Growler 138-mile elite road race, marks the first time since the USA Pro Cycling Challenge that U.S. road racing has been broadcast live. On April 19, the Growler, both men's and women's fields, will be streamed, for free, on the Levi's Gran Fondo website https://www.levisgranfondo.com/ beginning at 11:00 am Pacific Daylight Time. In this episode we talk with Grand Tour veteran and Tour of Calif...

The fourth annual Rattlesnake Gravel Grind, held in Sweetwater, Texas on March 22, was a hot, dusty and windy affair with repeat winners in both the men's and women's fields. Lauren Stephens and Joe Laverick repeated their victories from 2024. The infamous Bike Talk with Dave microphone emerged shortly after the podium presentation where Lauren as well as the top four men shared their thoughts on the day. (Top four men: Joe Laveric...

Justin McQuerry and Chris Mehlman are pros on dirt! Justin recently accepted into the Lifetime Grand Prix, Chris an all-pro endurance mountain biker and gravel racer share their thoughts on the training, nutrition and equipment needed to have a great day at your next gravel or mountain bike ultra! The conversation opens with talk about this weeks sponsor: the Rattlesnake Gravel Grind, held each March in Sweetwater Texas. Sign up fo...

Vance Fletcher has kept cycling central in his life for most of the past 15 years; as a competitor, race director, volunteer and now as the Regional Director for the Central U.S. at USA Cycling. USAC Race Directors, connect with Vance for help at your race on Linkedin. Or plop down your thirty bucks to race the Outland and Back Loop Cross at https://outlandgrvl.com/

BIKEIOWA is your home for all things bike related: News, Events, Tr...

This weeks guest, Kurt Refsnider, is one of the greats when it comes to super long, difficult, mountainous and often cold and snowy bikepacking adventures. He’s been to Nome Alaska on the Iditarod Trail, finished the Tour Divide in 15 days and has reached Master of the Universe status on the Arizona Trail! We also talk about his podium finish at the U.S. Cyclocross National Championships!

In his years of bike packing, he figured ou...

Fitz Cahall, host of the 17-year-running podcast Dirtbag Diaries and Climbing Gold with Alex Honold, is now author of the recently published States of Adventure. Released in 2024, States of Adventure brings to print, in both words and photography, 30 stories from the 17-years of Dirtbag Diaries. As an adventurer himself, Cahall spends his free time rock climbing, back country snowboarding and bike packing through his local Cascade ...

John Howard was a pioneer in American cycling, representing the U.S. in the 1968, 72 and 76 Olympic Games. As a four-time U.S. Road Racing National Champion, he was one of the first Americans to race in Europe. He also stood atop the podium at the 1971 PanAmerican Games. After his days road racing, he turned to triathlon, winning the fourth edition of the Ironman World Championships in 1981 and followed that in 1982 by taking secon...

Scott Sumpter, originator of BIKEIOWA.com, is a prolific winter fat biker yet still enjoys being warm and not loosing his digits to frostbite! As such, he has put much thought and research into the science of keeping your hands and feet warm - and discovered that the material your handlebars are made of matters to your hands! In his recently published article; "Convection Convection, what's your Function" he explores the heat condu...

Kallie Stewart, of the Boone Factory Racing Team, is one of the top downhillers in the country. At age 14 she won the U.S. National Enduro Championship and at 15, she won the Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series for her age group. As one of the fastest downhillers in the country, in 2025 she'll be lining up with the pro women in the Monster Energy Pro Downhill Race Series! She's a wonderful human who travels the country with her mom ...

The Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships, SSCXWC, brings together the greatest well-rounded riders in the world to test their mettle through Feats of Strength and the most demanding cyclocross the host town can find to dish out. In the words of Sarah Sturm from 2022 in Durango:

"Single Speed Cyclocross World Champs is the not-so-underground, fringe, party event that calls itself a World Champs and, in many ways, it is. But...

Erik Schlimmer is no stranger to long, difficult days either on foot or on the bike. As a mountain biker, he raced at the top level in the early 1990's, then turned to long distance bike packing adventures, but not just his love of long distance hiking got in the way of his cycling - so did life and some time served in the military. He found himself going years and years without riding. Until recently, that is. In 2023 he took a tr...

In an era that is becoming increasingly friendly to online ordering for bikes and bike parts, and increasingly hostile to brick and mortar retail stores, Clint Mongan has carved out a niche, selling high end full suspension mountain bikes to an ever growing list of clients out of a small, remote shop in an unassuming little town in south-central Iowa. He's also the owner and manager of Boone Factory Racing, supporting some of the t...

Jenna Rinehart, a Midwest mountain biking icon, a competitor in the Lifetime Grand Prix (get to know her in Episode 141!) just returned from racing in Belgium at the UCI Gravel World Championships and was kind enough to stay up late (past 7 pm #jetlag) and download her European Vacation and what it was like racing in the third ever UCI Gravel World Championships.

Jenna and her husband, Justin, own and operate Nicolette Bike and Ski...

"Pay Nothing. Give Everything" is the moto of the Limestone 77.7 State of Iowa Single Speed Gravel Championship Race held on Oct. 5 of 2024. The race is promoted by CK (Chris Kyle) and is almost as grass roots as you get - except for the details - CK and friends cover the cost of the event - numbers, insurance, food and water at the aid stops and prizes- and as such, he charges zero to enter. Two courses are offered - a 37.5-mile f...

Enticed by the mountain bike trails she could see underneath her skis as she ascended the lift at her local ski area, Jenna Rinehart went from carving turns on on snow to carving turns on dirt. In her early mountain biking career, she often stood atop the podium at what is now one of the oldest mountain bike races in the country: the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, as well as many other midwest mountain bike races. In 2011 she and h...

This week we’re going back to Gravel Worlds - and not to hear race highlights or the story of a big victory by gravel national champ Lauren Stephens or norwegian Simon Svendsen - this isn’t even a story about the marquee 150-mile race - but this week we’re talking with a couple of guys who did the Privateer 75-miler - and did they win? Nope - 19th and 20th overall - But this IS a story of friendship, of hard work and overcoming adv...

The Trans Rockies Race Series is celebrating 20 years of multi-day, multi-stage cycling and ultra-running races through the Rockies. We talked with the series promotor Aaron McConnell about the 10-race series which includes mountain biking, running and gravel stage races as well as gravel and road fondos. The Series spans the Rockies from British Columbia and Alberta Canada down through the Colorado and Utah mountains, deserts and ...