Salty Dogs Cycling

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
What is up, Cycling Oklahoma?
Thank you so much for tuning infor another wild episode.
This one, it comes at you fromall angles.
It's super fun.
I had a great time sitting downwith Brent Jonathan, uh, the
salty dogs racing, and we had agood time.
I learned a lot about how theygot started, kind of what their
vision is, what their plans arefor the future.
And man, do these guys like torace bicycles.

(00:24):
They race maybe more thananybody I know.
So uh it's good.
There's a lot of mom jokes, andso if your mom is the one that
gets offended by this, or youare offended because your mom is
attacked by this episode, pleaselet me know.

SPEAKER_01 (00:38):
We can arrange some revenge for the amount of times
that someone's mom is brought upin this episode.
But I hope you enjoy it.
It was fun.
We laughed a lot, we had a goodtime, and uh, they're two great
guys who really just love bikesand just want to race and have
fun and grow the sport.
So, you know, if you see themout there, say hi.

SPEAKER_00 (00:59):
They have some good-looking kits, they are
doing things for the rightreasons and just really enjoying
life.

SPEAKER_01 (01:04):
So um, I hope you can follow along with their
journey, and they have some funthings planned for like kind of
a club side and some race teamside and stuff like that.
So follow along on Instagram.
I'll put the their link in theshow notes, and they have a lot
of a lot of cool stuff going.
So enjoy this one.
And of course, you know whobrought you this episode.
It's rideomba.org.

(01:24):
They do all the amazing thingsfor our trails here, uh,
especially on Oklahoma CityMetro.
They take care of other trailsaround our wonderful state.
And uh, you know, it's$50 ayear, people.

SPEAKER_00 (01:34):
Sign up$50 a year.
You spend$50 at lunch.
So go sign up, support RideOMBA.
That helps fund our trails.
You know, dedicate some timethis winter to keep trails
clean.
Uh, and I know they're alwaysbuilding new things.
So um please go check them out,help them out, rideomba.org.

SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
And of course, more overhead doors.

SPEAKER_00 (01:52):
You know, you setting up your pain cave in
your garage this winter, and itsucks because it's so cold and
your garage doors aren'tinsulated, give more overhead
door a call.
Let them check it out, come putyou in a new garage door, and uh
your pain cave won't be quite asmiserable.

SPEAKER_01 (02:06):
So thank you guys so much for rideomba.org and more
overhead door for supportingthis adventure.
And we have a lot of goodepisodes lined up to be recorded
within the next two to threeweeks.
And if the last episode with meand Drummond and how we might
get canceled, if that spurredsome conversation in your head,
if you agreed with it,wonderful.

(02:27):
If you didn't agree with it,even better.
Send me messages on Instagram.
You can send them to mepersonally, send them on Cycling
Oklahoma because we have somerecording, we're recording some
episodes coming up with somerace directors and some other
things.
So hopefully we can get somequestions answered.
We can give some constructivefeedback, like true feedback,
instead of saying, I don't likethis.
That doesn't help anybody.

(02:48):
But if you say, I don't likethis, and here's an idea or a
suggestion, that would be muchbetter.
So uh stay tuned for more funepisodes of trying to shake
things up and really more thananything, just trying to
organize things in our amazingstate.
We have great races, we haveincredible riders in our state,
and we have a lot to show off tothe world.
And we really would like to seeOklahoma cycling put their best

(03:08):
foot forward.

SPEAKER_00 (03:09):
So we're trying to help that, trying to encourage
that, and we're trying to justbe in the middle to facilitate
whatever we can to help uhcycling in Oklahoma be better.

SPEAKER_01 (03:16):
So thank you so much for tuning in.
Uh, if you'd like to support thepodcast, get in touch with me.
We'll figure something out.
Uh, or you know what, if justworst case scenario, I want you
to share an episode with afriend and uh let them listen
because the more downloads weget, the more leverage we have
to talk to folks about somesponsorship and we put those
dollars right back into ourcycling community.

SPEAKER_00 (03:35):
They do not go into my pocket.
So thank you guys so much forlistening.
Enjoy this one, it's fun, anduh, you know what, just love
each other, go ride bikes, goplay, and I hope everyone has a
wonderful, wonderful week.

SPEAKER_01 (03:57):
If your lips aren't touching it, we have the
recordings of the perfect intro.
Something in this moment.
You might be excited to hearthis.
So already it's man, we'restarting to get all hot.
We are 10 seconds in.
So welcome to the podcast.
10 seconds, two beers.
That's true.
That's true.

(04:18):
Uh I don't know how this isgonna go now.
So we'll see.
It's gonna be great.
It's gonna be great.
Keeping you on edge.
Uh we're here with the saltydogs.
I don't know.
I don't know the story, which soI'm excited.
I mean, we've talked roughlyhere and there at crits and when
you guys were kind of gettinggoing and cooking hot dogs and
all that kind of stuff.
So I'm excited to hear thestory.

(04:38):
Uh, I don't know, I don't Idon't know what you guys have
planned.
Yeah, I don't think you guysreally know what you have
planned.
Yeah.
We're gonna hope to figure itout over the next two hours.
So you guys introduce yourselvesand let's jump off from there.
Well, my name's Jonathan Gardnerand uh started riding bikes in
May of 2023.

(05:00):
Oh, you're super new.
Yeah, okay.
What'd you do before that?
I just went to the gym andworked out.
I was kind of a gym rat, youknow.
He missed his opportunity, man.
Just trying to get huge andrealized that that was just
swole and it just not happenedfor me.
Yeah, you know.
Wow.
So only a couple oh wait, you'veonly been in this for like two
and a half, two years, roughly.

(05:20):
Yeah.
Wow.
Okay, it's good for you.
No kidding.
What made you choose a bike?
You know, I just decided that Ineeded to make a change in my
life, you know, and go aftersomething that you know seemed
hard, seemed difficult.
You chose the right thing again.
Something that was totallydifferent, you know, something I
didn't know anything about, thatI had to face like all of the

(05:44):
cultural indoctrinations, if youwill.
There are plenty.
And it was just something that Ithought, you know, this is gonna
be hard.
But I went to a bike shop, Ijust literally pointed at a bike
that I thought looked cool.
I didn't know anything aboutmechanical or electronic
shifting, and I just picked abike and just started riding it.

(06:05):
Man, so did you have any likefriends that did it or anything
like that that even like sparkedthis idea?
I knew nobody.
And it was just out of all thethings you could have picked in
endurance sports or any othersport, did you like there what
was there, there was noconnection between the two?
So full disclosure, you know, Ithought what I was gonna do that

(06:29):
was hard that I needed thistransition point for, I thought,
you know, I'm gonna dotriathlons.
Yeah, that's so suckered in.
I thought, well, the first thingI should do is get a bicycle and
I'll start riding a bicycle, andthen in six weeks or so I'll
jump off and I'll start running.
And I did that for a little bit,and then it was time for me to

(06:50):
go swim.
So bad that was second or thirdweek of riding bikes, Jonathan.
How many miles did you ride?
That second or third week.
I was probably I was in thehundreds for sure.
Like second or third week?
Yeah, how bad did you havesaddle sores?
Honestly, though that didn'thappen until did you have later

(07:12):
on?
But did you were you likebruised?
No, I was so terrible over here.
Yeah, I just know Ryan's soconcerned because I just know
how miserable that could be.
Actually, I'm still nursing onefrom mid-May.
No, it was just something that Ithought I'm gonna jump on the
bike, then I'll start running,and then I'll start swimming,

(07:34):
and we'll just go through thisprogression and see how it goes.
And I realized when it was timefor me to go swimming that this
isn't gonna work very well.
Like it was just not somethingthat I felt comfortable doing,
and then I was doing it.
That's about whenever I metBrent and Brendan at my group
ride, and it was one of the bikelab routes, and I just it was

(07:58):
the closest shop to my house,and so I rode down there one day
and caught up with those guys,and I thought, you know, you
guys just ride, you know, don'tslow down for me.
If I get dropped, it is what itis.
But I just want to I just wantto partake in what it is that
you guys are graving.
And it was so fun, like theywere so gracious, you know, and

(08:20):
just kind of like dropped, butin a hot zone, but like he was
there, yeah.
Like, how long you've beenliving, man?
Like oh like two weeks.
Like what wow, okay.
So you're just out of knack forit from the get-go.
It was just something I had noidea that you know the endurance
thing was inevitably in mygenes.
Like, I never did cardio at thegym, like it just wasn't fun.

(08:43):
I didn't want to waist high.
Yeah, you've been all max like70 or something.
I don't know.
Yeah, just one of those peoplethat just like it's just
natural.
Oh I hate people like you.
Or yeah, start at the bottom andI'm still like just above the
bottom, and I work real hard atit.
Just ride more, right?
That's what they say.
Uh-huh.
But then there's people likethis.

(09:05):
Well, uh-huh.
Good for you.
That's awesome.
So you just fell in love with abike.
Truly, yeah.
Truly so, yeah.
Like it was just something thatgetting out there, and I'm one
of those guys, like, even tothis day, like, I've never worn
earphones, I've never listenedto music.
Like, and I was telling my wifeabout that the other day, you

(09:26):
know, how guys have these littleshocked earbuds and stuff like
this.
And she's like, You riding allthese hours and you listen to
nothing?
Uh-huh.
I'm like, Yeah, I've got plentyof stuff going on in my head
that I can parse my room.
Yeah.
But it's so great.
Like, it was just a nice outletjust for mental health, just to
push myself physically.

(09:48):
It was an area that I've neverexperienced that before.
Did you grow up playing othersports?
I did some recreational stuff.
I played baseball whenever I wasin middle school and nothing
really past high school.
It's kind of whenever I got intomusic and things like that.
And so it just sports kind oflike took away uh a back seat,

(10:10):
you know, around 10th grade, andI just the only activity that I
really did was, you know, justgoing in the gym.
Where did you grow up at?
I graduated from Choctaw HighSchool.

SPEAKER_00 (10:21):
You said music.
So were you in, did you have aband?
Were you into I know you domusic or audio stuff now?

SPEAKER_01 (10:27):
What's what's the music background?
Yeah, so whenever I was about15, 16 years old, uh, played in
a band and our parents took usto the recording studio.
And I got in there and you know,we had written a couple original
songs and we started recording.
And I remember the engineerlooking over at me and my guitar
rig, and he was like, You gonnaplay that?

(10:49):
Kind of like giving me thislittle side eye about my rig.
And I was like, Well, yeah, youknow, it's just a cheap guitar,
solid state amplifier, you know,nothing sexy when it comes to
tone.
But he was a tone guy, okay.
And so he hands me a Paul ReidSmith, a rat distortion pedal, a
Vox AC30 tube amplifier, andman, it felt amazing.

(11:13):
And we recorded our songs, butit was in that process that I
realized, man, what he's doingbehind the glass on the
soundboard, it just it sparkeduh innate interest in me that I
wanted to pursue.
That's cool.
And so from about 16 years oldon, I was just pursuing high
fidelity sound, how to capturesignal flow, how to optimize

(11:38):
everything from home audio toprofessional audio studio
recordings and things like that.
So you just got hooked.
It was very similar to theaddiction of cycling.
Yeah, no.
Once you find once you get thatlittle like you're like all in.
I just get locked in.
Yeah.
I have no like moderation bonein my body.

(11:58):
It's either all or nothing.
Sounds like someone in endurancesports.
Yeah, makes sense.
Yeah, yeah.
I like it.
So let's hear your background.
Yeah, uh Brent Wilson here.
Um, been cycling since oh man,when was that 21 or so?
And you guys are so like suchfresh phrase.
Yeah, we have no idea what we'redoing.
Hey, good for you.
He's kind of what we that'scoming to back.

(12:18):
You have no scars.
Yeah, well, we do have scarsroad ride, kind of scars, no
mental scars, yeah, wrist,broken wrists, whatever.
Um, it's been a fun journey.
Um, no, so uh kind of you know,kind of covet covet cyclist a
little bit from a buddy of mine,Matt, who was like, Hey, let's
do this doathlon.

(12:39):
I was like, Well, I kind of run,I kind of have this mountain
bike, I never ride, and found aroad bike to borrow and and went
out and did the martial car tome.
Yeah, looking back at thosepictures is quite funny.
But uh yeah, every once in awhile I get to see my first.
So my very first triathlon wasin El Reno, which is where I'm
from.
And if you're from a small townand you've ever been decent at

(13:01):
sports in a small town, like ifyou do a sport again in a small
town, you're like, hey, we'regonna put you on the front page
of so the front page of the ElReno Tribune is my picture for
my very first triathlon.
Oh boy, that picture is does notis not it's not pretty, it's not
pretty big baggy jersey.
I wore cycling shorts andjersey.

(13:23):
I did have a jersey, had like agym workout shirt.
They were probably the samesize, they probably fit the
exact same because that'sexactly how mine.
Yeah, yeah, it's not good, it'snot pretty.
I loved it.
Uh, and then so I started ridingthis road bike around, and I was
like, man, this is this is fun,kind of like the wind in your
face, and it really reminded meof racing cars, you know, taking
corners and like the kind oftechnique and everything that

(13:46):
you know riding your bike'spretty technical.
Um, just kind of fell in lovewith it from there, kind of rode
casually in 21, and then in thewinter time, um, because it gets
dark at five o'clock, I startedgetting on YouTube and found
Northhouse cycling.
And um, I was like, You can raceyour bike, what is going on
here?

(14:06):
Like taking corners and carbackground, racing background,
like that's what I want to do.
So kind of ramped up that effortand and kind of got into it.
Um, got addicted.
There's so much to be said abouthaving that competitive spirit
and like being able to do that.
I think as adults, it's veryhard to find for sure outlet.

(14:27):
Yeah, um, you know, you're likeeverybody played baseball or
football or some type of sportum growing up, and you kind of
lose that as you get older.
Yeah.
Um, and then you re-find it andyou're just like this scratch
the scene.
You're like, man, this is sofun.
It is.
That's the addictive part.
Yeah.
And I just kind of uh whippedballs the wall a little bit

(14:47):
after that first year and 22riding.
So I must have met you shortlyafter you started.
Yeah, I think I got a fit fromyou.
Like, you have to go to thiszealous guy.
I'm like, okay, who's this dudeand shuts down his business?
And he's like, I don't likedoing this anymore.
So I wish.
Yeah, yeah.
Uh yeah.
Um, yeah.
So we haven't been doing itlong, but man, kind of like

(15:09):
Jonathan's kind of got you'reall in, you know, you're not
guaranteed anything.
So go and enjoy it and have funwhile where'd you grow up at?
I grew up in Enid.
Okay.
Uh went to OSU.
Um, I've been in Oklahoma City11 years, and not for much
longer.
Yes.
I know.
Making fun of you about that.

(15:29):
Yeah.
So big transition.
You're off to uh Colorado.
You know, just uh really thefocus is to get the high offset
training, and that's all I'mdoing that for.
You love climbing so much.
I love climbing.
My body type is meant for pureclimber.
When I see you, I'm like, man,this guy, he's like a goat.
Yeah, yeah.
He's climbing.
That's what everybody says.
Some muscle lean into it.

(15:50):
Just following your calling.
Oh, there you go.
Nah, just what's the what's thecar racing thing?
Man, I I've been doing thatsince you know, uh illegal
street racing in high school andstuff with a little Honda Civic,
okay, souping it up.
But I've always beenmechanically inclined and um
I've done some stuff at Hallett,Wheel of Wheel Racing, like the
road racing kind of stuff.

(16:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Built a car in my garage.
Did you ever run into Raw whenyou guys were out there?
You know, I think we may have upat Stroud, but we didn't know
each other.
Yeah, I had like a little RX8.
I don't know what he had at thetime.
But uh I know he had he was aBMW guy, I think.
Yeah, a snooty guy who drivesBMWs.
How many BMWs?
Yeah, well, I race BMWs.

(16:31):
Yeah, yeah, I've had a few.
Um, but I know Todd Swain fromTulsa.
He that I met him racing cars.
That's fine.
Yeah, he had a civic day.
Yeah.
Um, does you see the correlationbetween the two?
Do you bring those across atall?
Oh, yeah.
Like like positioning and likewhere to exert, and like it's
really a mental battle of what Ido impacts the person behind me,

(16:53):
or like you can let off the gasquicker, like tap your brakes,
and they have to react to that.
Um, a little bit differentbecause the fuel tank's a little
bit different scale.
Like, I can only go so hard.
So, but the strategy's stillthere, you know.
Positioning is really important.
That's probably kind of coolthat you get to like have that
same feeling, but not you don'thave to have the car and all the

(17:14):
expenses and all the crap thatgoes along with that.
The expenses, that's kind ofwhere I kind of fell out of it.
Was it was so expensive to dothat, then I got really
expensive doing what I do nowwith because I mean yeah, what
we do is not cheat.
No, so that's true story.
Yeah, so well, I guess whatleads us here is salty dogs and
how in the world that came aboutand like the story of salty dogs

(17:37):
and all that kind of stuff.
Because when I saw you guys forthe first time, it's kind of
when all things were going, youknow, through the ringer or
whatever you things werechanging.
Let's say things were changing.
Yeah, and is that when you werebad at us because we didn't have
vegan hot dogs when we werehanding wheeler?
Yeah, pretty much they weren'tall beef.
Yeah, yeah, they they werealmost vegan, because you know,

(17:59):
the hot dog isn't just shy ofbeing vegan, but yeah, so like
and I saw you guys all show upand you guys have this new kit
because you know the shop it theshop had changed and the team
had changed and all those kindsof things.
So I didn't know what wouldhappen with that team because
you guys all race together atBike Lab, right?
Correct.
Yeah, so we we did a lot ofracing last year.
Uh me and Jonathan, Brendan, wewere very similar schedule what

(18:22):
we did this year of racing umand going around and all that
was through Bike Lab.
That was through OK.
Yeah, they supported us reallywell.
You know, Tony, you know, kindof showed me a lot of ropes from
the beginning when I startedwatching YouTube videos back in
22 and 21.
Um, so like having that supportwas quite amazing, and and you

(18:44):
know, last year was great.
Um, unfortunately, you know,times kind of changed.
And I think me and Jonathan, wewe were uh chatting a little
bit, like, hey, you know, likewe see some opportunities here.
Um, we like kind of how muchmore control can we have over
this?
So we kind of talked about, youknow, just for fun on long road

(19:04):
trips a little bit last year.
Um, nothing more, just to passthe time where you don't listen
to music while driving for somereason.
We're insane.
That's my fault.
Yeah.
So um, especially from a anaudio guy.
So strange just wanted to bequiet.
Yeah, like but yeah, what so wewe end of last year, kind of we

(19:26):
heard some rumblings and maybemaybe nothing was gonna happen.
And we're like, this seems likethe time to do it.
And the people we talked to werelike, yeah, you probably should
not start a cycling team.
It's a bad avenue.
So um just depends on what yourwhat your uh version of success
is.
Yeah, and I think with me andJonathan's background of of

(19:47):
being a little bit differentthan normal of uh in the
community and cycling is youknow, business and engineering
as fun as that can be, is uhyeah, let's see what we can do.
And we stood up pretty quick.
I think like two to three weeks,we got uh you know, website
build, LLC, kind of all thebylaws of like an actual
business of what it would belooking like, but then also like

(20:09):
a kit and like branding of ofgetting those relationships
built up.
Um you guys came at this as likea from a to a bit as a business
side, like that's how you cameat it like from the beginning.
Yeah, which is definitely waydifferent than it just seemed
like the right way to approachit.
Like I love organization, I lovethings being above board, being

(20:30):
clear, defined roles andresponsibilities.
And so with Brent's background,engineering, project manager,
like we just really jive in thatregard.
And so it just, you know, I waslike, I don't really need
another LLC, but if we're gonnado this, like let's just do it
right, right?
Let's let's not just do anythinghappily, yeah.
And so that was kind of the pushwas you know, kind of seeing the

(20:54):
writing on the wall, but alsogoing, hey, maybe if we have a
little bit of control, we cankind of funnel this in a way
that can be something that wewant it to be.
We kind of saw a need, and itwas it just seemed like the
right time.
Did you guys what was the fromthe at the beginning?
Um because you guys are still inthe early, early stages of this

(21:15):
whole adventure.
Absolutely.
Um, when you guys weredaydreaming on that car ride,
what was the like, man, thiswould be cool if what was what
was that grand picture?
What was the what was some ofthe daydreaming possibilities
that you guys were looking at?
The ones that you want to share.
Sure.
Because I know you probablystill have plans that you don't

(21:36):
want to share yet, because whoknows?
But uh, what are the things thatyou guys are like, man, this is
kind of what we want to do andhow we want to do it?
I think for me, like being ableto have a bit of control in what
we stand for, what the image is,like how we conduct ourselves,
and really the message that wewant to share with the cycling

(22:00):
community.
Like the cycling community tome, being a new guy, like it's
been really pretty amazing, youknow, to uh jump on a group ride
and the next thing you know,you're talking with these guys
in the group and learning alittle bit about them, and
they're very, very successfulbusinessmen.
Yeah, usually or Jimmy Joe overhere, right?

(22:25):
Or they just started, and it'sjust so I think it's pretty
beautiful, honestly.
Like the dichotomy of whatcreates the Peloton so eclectic,
and it's just so different, andit can be guys like me that just
started that don't know thatyour sunglasses go on the
outside of your strap.
Depends.
Or like no, no, it depends.

(22:48):
Uh-huh.
It depends.
Unless you're a triathlete,okay, and then they go under the
strap.
Oh, see, I didn't perceive thetriathlete in this situation.
No why if you take your helmetoff, they go they go underneath.
If you take leave your helmeton, they go over.
That's how it had to explain tome one time because I just put
them on and where they end up iswhere they end up.

(23:08):
And then I had it explained tome.
I was like, noted, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (23:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (23:11):
Uh-huh.
Okay.
On that same front, this istotally off subject.
Uh, leg warmers, socksunderneath or over the top?
I can't figure that out.
Well, but socks.
What do you mean socks and legwarmers?
They shouldn't touch.
Leg warmers?
Oh, all full leg warmers.
Full-length leg warmers.
So you wear warmers.
Three three quarters.
Three quarters.
Okay.

(23:33):
He does that.
Indoors.
He does indoors if it's under40.
Yeah.
Well, my toe, it's not my kneeknees that are cold, it's the
toes and fingers.
A lot of trainer rights in hisfeature.
Okay.
I need gloves.
Sorry to straight.
Okay, go ahead.
But just being able to like havethe have a bit of say in what do
we represent?

(23:53):
You know, how do we want to dothis?
And again, we don't knowanything about a starting a
cycling team.
It's just something that we lovedoing.
And you get like-minded peopletogether, and you think about
how people sort of influencedyou or talked to you that was
like, I really appreciate howthat person gave me this little

(24:13):
bit of insight.
You know, whether it's likefiguring out how to clip in, you
know, at the start line, whichsometimes I still can't figure
out to just like hold the wheel,you know, or like how to think
about slingshotting down a ahill to get momentum for a
climb, just all these littletechnical elements, like it just

(24:35):
seems like there's so many bitsthat you can like piece together
that's constantly learning.
Are you guys wanting to continueto clearly to expand your
knowledge because you guys arestill young and new into this
world and bring people along?
Or are you guys focused on like,hey, we have our group of guys

(24:56):
and we're just gonna continue tosee how far we can go as a group
and continue as people pop in,then they pop in.
But like what's kind of the goalthere?
Yeah, I Jonathan and I have beendiscussing this quite a bit uh
recently, and we have, you know,what's nice about having this
ownership of this is we can beflexible and maneuverable and
and and do what we want to do ona pivot whenever we want.

(25:20):
Um, we definitely see value inthe community aspect.
We want to be able to give backas much as we can and be a place
to, you know, kind of theunwritten rules and like bring
people into the realm of we loveracing, we love traveling, we we
want more people to do that.
So um we do see ourselves askind of like um stepping stone

(25:41):
into that in in the sense ofwe're racing and people enjoy us
and like they see our values andwhat we stand for, like riding
hard, racing hard, but like atthe end of the day, we're as old
men and lycra, sweaty and likesmelly, and yeah, but let's go
have a beer and hang out actinglike it it's not all seriousness

(26:01):
as long as you never forget thatpart.
Yeah, it's definitely somethingthat's the part with cycling,
and you guys being new in it,you're gonna have seen it the
way that I because I mean I'vebeen in a long time at this
point, but I still come into afresh eyes because I remember
the scars that I got coming intoit new because I didn't grow up
in this world and how snobbythey can be, how big of just
jerks they can be, and like justso clickish, so high school.

(26:22):
Like it's it can be it,especially especially the world
that you guys are living inright now, the crit racing road
world, like it can be reallyjust we've seen that.
I mean, with us travelingnationally and everything, we've
seen that, and and I think youknow, we have our race team for
sure, and like we are gonna beexclusive and like have a set

(26:42):
group, and it's not gonna be allwelcoming, but uh not to say
that like you come up talk to usand like we're gonna shoot the
crap with you and and have agood time and like help you out,
like well, I I I remember you'retalking about like what got us
started in this and theownership of the fact, like what
we're doing is I think it'squite unique in the sense of you

(27:03):
know we're going all aroundnationally doing all these
racing, like as like thesemiddle-aged cat three guys, like
it's kind of it it we understandit's ridiculous.
Like, yeah, it's not lost on us,that's that's a fact.
But embrace it, fair.
I love it.
But like the people we meet,like in the middle of the race,
one of my good friends, uhRobin, uh, he loves up in
Washington and like uh Seattle,and like I met him through all

(27:26):
this stuff, and like how did Imeet him?
Because I was yelling at him notto come up underneath me in the
middle of a corner.
And he's like, I was like, getbehind me and I'll show you kind
of like flow through this cornerso we're not killing ourselves
coming out because we're justtailgunning, which is my
favorite thing to do, and likecoach hates it, but uh you know,
like kind of the ownership ofthat is kind of what I want to

(27:48):
see.
Like, we're kind of doingsomething a little bit unique
doing all these things, but umgetting back to what you asked
is uh like you want to be morethan just a cycling team that
travels to races around thecountry, yeah, yeah.
We will we want to stand forsomething and like we're gonna
race hard, but we're gonna havea good time doing it and not
take a seriously computecommunity involvement for sure

(28:12):
and and grow people that arefresh into the sport as well,
yeah.
Yeah, I mean it it's so farreaching, like it's hard to see
kind of impact and it surprises.
We were talking about this theother day, like man, we got hit
up on Instagram by somebody fromCalifornia moving to Oklahoma.

(28:33):
Hey, what's going on?
Like, we see you guys out here.
I wanna I wanna do all thisstuff, and like Ryan, that was
crazy.
Like, how did you find us?
Like, well, we just saw you,like, and it looked cool, and I
think that's the great liketouch points that you guys are
gonna have going out, andsomething you have to remember,

(28:54):
you know, like right, especiallylong term as you guys get better
and better and better and biggerand bigger.
Like, well, some of you guyswill get better.
Yeah, um, so but like thatyou're ambassadors not only for
your team and salty dogs andyour each other, but like for
the state, be for kind of forwhat you guys have a mission to
do.
Yeah.
Um, and so you will run intorandom people.

(29:16):
You guys are going to Chicagoand going to Wisconsin and going
to these places and racing.
Well, that represents our scenehere, you know, of how you guys
act and behave and talk and youknow, in just like that.
Maybe somebody's moving here,has family here or something,
and they look you guys up.
And so it's kind of I hope thatthat is a long-term legacy that
you guys leave because I knowthere's a lot of people that

(29:38):
maybe have that and thingschange as they gain success or
just or just get into their ownniche.
You know, some people don't doit on purpose, they just get
into their own niche and theyget into their own tunnel and it
just happens.
You don't mean for it to happen.
Right.
So having something like thatthat it amazes you, yeah.
I hope this continues in fiveand ten years from now, it's
still the exact same excitementof like this is so cool.

(29:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
We want this to be long term.
We don't want this to be, youknow, what is the long term for
this?
Oh, I mean, do we have toanswer?
No.
Well, but like right now, whatdo you think?
Like you just want to have arace team and just continue to
uh see what happens, or do youor do you haven't really gone
all the way through that?
I think we kind of talked aboutthat a little bit.
We've kind of taken it day byday.

(30:20):
Yeah, I mean, it's like therespect for the sport, like you
were saying, Ryan, to be anambassador of not only our city,
right, as we represent, like therepresentation thing is is very
humbling to think about becauseyou're like these guys from
Oklahoma City, you know, andyou're on these national races

(30:41):
and there's people that are thatare watching.
And I think that I kind offorget that sometimes because
I'm like, man, I just I justkind of started this.
Like, yeah, I'm not trying totake myself too seriously, but
I'm trying to get better.
I want to push and I want togrow because I feel like there's
always gonna be this margin forimprovement.

(31:03):
And so thinking about that andthinking about long term, like
there's things that I want toaccomplish for myself
personally, goals um as far ascycling goes.
And I think that there's alsolike some goals that we want to
establish as far as what doesthis salty dogs team represent
long term, and part of that forme has to do with being active

(31:28):
in all the established grouprides for one, and maybe even
starting a new one.
Oh gosh, doing some being a partof some of the other ones.
Shout out to the get F.
Uh, that is amazing.
I don't it's is this y'all'syour no, I I don't know who
started it, but I believe Pauland Demzi and Heather put this

(31:52):
thing together Sundaysoverholster bolt house.
Okay.
Um no ride, no route, excuse me.
Um just show up at the skitpitted.
It is a how long do you guys go?
What don't look at me whenyou're asking this question
because we did I'm off season.

(32:16):
We did about four hours lastyear or last month, and last
Sunday.
Last Sunday.
Gosh, that's how bad it was.
The week before that was it'sit's about a four-hour ride, but
and hard full guests.
Tiffany Paul, like dude, reallystrong.
Evan showed up, Dang Z, likeEmerson, like it's so funny

(32:37):
story.
I don't show up, so it could betime.
I was like, I got a message onInstagram.
Hey, we're gonna do this ride.
And I feel like Paul usuallyrides his gravel bike, and so I
thought, perhaps I should showup on a gravel bike, perhaps I
should show up with two waterbottles, a use way, perhaps I

(32:58):
should be ready for anything.
And I did, and they were all ontheir road bikes.
Oh no, and it was about fourhours of me trying to just dude.
Your power must have been offthe charts.
Oh, it was it was pretty insane.
Like wear as much air aspossible, like it is okay.

(33:20):
So let's take a step back.
I want to hear I want to hearthese three stories real quick.
You started cycling in 2011,yeah.
And now you said you're a catthree.
Yes, okay.
From when time you startedracing to cating up to a three,
what was that journey like andhow how long did that take?
Um, it was a little oh thatreminds me.
Um, started getting into wheelerand that journey from as a cat

(33:43):
five, like how to hold a wheel,like that was a learning
process, but uh something I umdon't recommend doing when you
are cycling or doing anyendurance sport is to give blood
and then try to race like thenext six weeks because a bad
idea.
Yeah, so I was like, why can't Ihold any wheels?
Like, this is I know what Ishould be doing.

(34:04):
I've watched all these YouTubevideos, like yeah.
So um I started racing a littlebit more in the summer, and you
know, stayed cat five and TulsaTough was like so scary for me
because that's like I don't evenwant to do it, but cat five,
Tulsa Tough could that there'snot many things on the planet in
endurance sports scarier thanthat situation.
I think I think that's chaos.

(34:25):
Any county where Tulsa is scary,throwing a bunch of people that
don't know what they're doing.
Yeah, yeah.
So there um that first year kindof just was like kind of uh
you're sandbagging a little bit,and Chris Stevens would give me
crap about it.
And then that fall and uhWheeler I started doing a little
bit better, so I I counted upthat next year, and um that was
uh what 23, I think it was.

(34:47):
Yeah, I think so like last yearwas whenever I saw some major
progress.
And I even said stuff to youlike, yeah, the hell what what
happened here?
You came out of nowhere in myDMs at night at mid Sunday, I
was stalking.
No, that that that was the firstyear I kind of like took it real
serious as a cat of nowhere.
I went up to Chicago, I wonintelligentsia uh Omnium as cat

(35:10):
four.
Dang, um, that was what was thechange?
Was it just like in training, infocus, and just skill set, just
more time?
Racing here, it's everybody kindof gets to a level where they're
kind of the same.
It's a mentality, like racing islike 50 to 70 percent mental,
and it's it's hard, but thatthat year I was just locked in

(35:32):
of you know, this is me, this iswhat I'm gonna do, and nobody
can meet me or whatever.
And I deserve this, like it'ssuch a total mind shit.
You're just all in, all in.
And you're in training and withnutrition, with everything.
Uh yeah, I quit drinking for acat four, you were as much as
you could be.
Yeah, yeah, and and focus onthat.
But it was a lot of I didn't, Iwas just doing myself.

(35:55):
And I think I think the bigshift was just the mental of I'm
gonna go for it.
There's so many, no, just likeas you're in the Peloton, it's
so easy that mindset, and I havea bad problem about this of like
sitting in the back of toe gunand you're like, okay, this is
fine.
I don't want to go use energy, Idon't go.
And I heard something there, ithurts out there, yeah.

(36:15):
But you know, you ride so much,your mentality is like, I
deserve to be here, and uh, Imean, that's what we were
talking about.
Mark at the beginning of uh theyear, he cat up from cat four to
cat three.
It's like Mark, you deserve tobe here.
That's such a thing.
Like, it's easier, like, oh, I'mcat three, I'm so scared.
But um, yeah, that was a bigleap.

(36:37):
And then I messed around lastyear, I went it was 25, so 24.
I was a cat three.
I got close to having toupgrade, probably racing so
much, more so than yeah, howgood I was.
But um I think cat two is just alittle that's when it gets real.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(36:57):
That's when it becomes a job andnot so much.
19-year-old kids or whateverthat they're they're on their
way up to try to beprofessional, yeah.
And that's a little bitdifferent.
Yeah, I mean, just from theoutside, I've never knew I've
done a handful of crits and I'velearned my lesson of like it's a
matter of when, not if, and Idon't like that situation.
I don't enjoy any of that.

(37:18):
And this year's been good to usbecause except for Mark.
But uh, but so but the thing is,I watch all my buddies and all
of a sudden they're like, Oh, Ijust want to cat up, I want to
keep going, I keep going.
And I see the threes is likewhere everybody like really has
a lot of fun, like it's reallyhard, but you can still have a
life, but you can like racereally hard, competition's
really good, you're still goingfast, doing all this stuff.

(37:41):
Then you go to cat too.
And it's like, yeah, if you'renot putting in like 15, 20 hours
a week and you're not ready tolike go suffer for really long
days and be really miserable,you're not gonna have success.
Yeah, I don't know about that,but push back on that then.
What how do you see thatdifferent?
I I think if you're targeted inyour training, we race for less

(38:02):
than an hour.
So why do you have cat two?
Yeah.
Cat two, you're not racing lessthan an hour.
Less than an hour?
No, yeah, no, you're gonna bedoing P12 races.
You're one hour long, an hourlong.
Okay, maybe say you say you'rean hour and ten minutes, right?
Say you're an hour, but thathour is sure significantly

(38:22):
different than a cat three race.
So for your trainingsignificantly during our races,
the shorter races are typicallyharder than the longer races
because it's chaotic, it's fullgas.
So I mean, I've not racing I'veracing a I've racing a one
couple of one, two, threes.
Um, and when I don't getdropped, it's it's uh it's uh it

(38:44):
kind of as long as you're notfollowing moves and trying to be
active and trying to like butthat's fun.
Right.
That's why I tend to gutyourself to hold onto the back
is not as fun as guttingyourself and being there at the
end.
It lols.
It it's definitely like I cansit in this pack, I'm not over
the limit of any sense, but forme to follow that move and try
to do a breakaway, those peopleare serious about this.

(39:07):
I'm not at that level, so Ican't go ride with that.
But I can ride in this group andwe'll go chase them and I can
take a pull up front.
Um but that's not why you do it.
No, that's why I race cat three.
Right.
But that's what I'm saying.
That's why cat three, I think,is such a good sweet spot for
guys who like to race and liketo have a life.
I do you do road races?
I I I I do them.

(39:29):
Well, I guess see, I guess wedon't want to have anything
around here.
Yeah, we do the Texas one, likewe we've kind of targeted that
one at uh what's it called?
Pace Bend.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Um a lot of fun.
It's always early in the season,so I cramp out.
That's tough.
Yeah, that's a tough one.
Yeah, Jonathan almost won thatlast year on Sunday.
Yeah, that was well.

(39:50):
Let's hear your journey fromstart to threes.
Because clearly it was like in ablink of an eye.
Yeah, it was it was exciting.
I mean, just I think having thatdrive, you know, we we say all
the time, like you gotta havethat dog in you.
And it just it feels likesomething that I feel not to be
this dog that sleeping rightnow, yeah, grew over here, but

(40:13):
just that that fight, you know,like to what Brent was saying
about having this idea thatyou're supposed to be there, you
know.
And we had a conversation with afriend of ours from Brooklyn,
Claudio.
Shout out to Claudio, yeah, andthis this just happened.
It was beautiful to watch, andthis is what I feel like is part

(40:33):
of I don't want to say ourcalling, but it I feel like it
might be.
Okay, he was he does all theseraces, he trains hard, like he
shows up for a lot of nationalraces.
And he's like us in the sense oflike the way he travels, yeah,
it's crazy.
Like we see him all the time,and it's a long drive, you know.
He shows up and uh he was justhaving this issue with like he

(41:00):
would race hard, and uh he wouldfinish like 30th, 40th, you
know, and so we're up in uhChicago, Chicago, and he comes
over and we're just going overvideos, we're talking, you know,
watching all of our our GoProfootage and like what do we do
here?
What should we have done?
And I was like, Claudio, you youjust gotta know that you're

(41:23):
supposed to be here.
Like it's in you, man.
Like you've got the training,you've got the experience,
you're supposed to be rightwhere you're at.
And he he said, honestly, guys,like I feel like sometimes I'm
not like supposed to be here.
I was like, Man, switch thatmindset.
Literally the next day.
It was so quick, it was amazing.
It was like a light switch.

(41:44):
I was like, damn it, now I haveto risk it plug.
This ninja is going at it, andit was just like it was so
fulfilling.
Like, that was honestly, thatwas a really special moment to
be in the next day race and getbeat by literally.
I think I had a problem clippingin and I was like chasing
Claudio for a bit.

(42:04):
It's like, oh my gosh.
But the transition for me, likeum from cat five to cat two now.
I don't know if I told you this.
What?
But uh breaking news.
Yeah, should do the soundeffects.
Okay, yeah, man.
JG's a cat five now.
Um I'm sorry, started as a catfive.

(42:26):
Now you're a cat two.
Oh we could talk about this.
You may be off team.
We're we're all cat three guyson the team.
Uh-huh.
Sounds like he's racing solids.
You gotta change the bylaws.
You know, it was something thatI it was a goal that I had once
I started activating a coach.

(42:46):
And you know, he's drilling me.
He's like, what do you want todo?
Like, what are your what areyour goals?
Yeah, that's why you don't havethat's why you don't hire a
coach.
They just make you better.
I know so much.
It is.
They push, they yell at you.
Oh, but he calls me out.
Like, and it the great thingthat I like about that is that
what I love is thataccountability, yeah, right?

(43:07):
To go, man, today I'mstruggling, like getting
motivated.
And he's like, you know, Iunderstand you have a lot going
on, you have a busy work life,you have a busy family life, but
you said that these are yourgoals, yeah.
And so you need to get out thereand ride.
And some days he's like, youknow what?
Yeah, you've had enough, likeyour TSS is fine for the week,

(43:30):
but just take the day off.
And so my transition has justbeen learning to race, you know,
learning how to race.
Um, I had to learn the hard way,and I'm still learning, but you
know, I don't need to be activeall the time.

(43:51):
It is not a statement of pride.
It shouldn't be to have thehighest normalized power at the
end of the race.
So that's the worst thing.
Yeah, the highest normalizedpower very most often does not
win.
What's so fun?
I'm gonna take over here realquick, is me and Jonathan, we've

(44:12):
been racing so much this year,and like we've been racing as if
and we we don't really know whatwe're doing.
So we've kind of like, oh, let'slike we know in our mind, and
like there's been so many timesin the middle of the race, like
we activate and we act as a teamwith no plan.
Like it works out so well.
But as a year has progressed,like we started like, let's look

(44:32):
at our powers and like, whoa,mine's way lower than yours.
Like, what happened here?
But I finished better, you know.
Um, but there's so muchdichotomy.
Jonathan is a way different typeof writer than I am, similar
with Mark.
Like, they're like he goes asthose get F rides that's four
hours long.
I'm like, you know, that'sthat's a little bit too much.

(44:52):
Let's sweep the sprint, youknow.
Yeah, um, but through the courseof that is learning each other,
and like I think through thecourse of the years, like we've
raced so much better as a team.
Like, what's the one down in inTexas?
We did oh, that flower moundcrit flower mount crit.
That was a blast.
The way me and him, although theresults were very similar the

(45:15):
both days, we activated and likelet's strategize how to do this.
Like, let's be active.
And and the guy was just sostrong and like we knew not to
let him go.
But we played off each other sowell.
Of there's so much to but teamdynamics are massive, yeah.
But not as cat threes, but alsolearning well.

(45:35):
Well, we I mean, I got secondboth days, and John I got, I
think, fourth both days orsomething, and but just learning
like your own individual likecapability, right?
Right, what your strengths arefor me, there was there was a
handful of races that it seemedlike the last 90 seconds of the
race, or the last two last wasjust like I am just so close,

(46:04):
you know, and it was like it,you know, to your point, Brent,
like it kind of started like inSt.
Louis of man, we were active, wewere chasing down attacks, we
were pulling stuff back, we weresending our own racing at the
front, like that's what we weresupposed to race and not just
racing, and yeah, we're we're inthe top eight wheels the whole

(46:27):
race up the hill, 50 minutes orsomething, yeah.
And it was like that for a lotof a series, and there was that
moment, you know.
I got an absolute stellar leado,you know.
This man just like buries it,and we get up the hill, and I
literally have two left-handturns in a straightaway.

(46:47):
He's third wheel, third wheel atthe time going into the second
to the last corner.
Yeah, and it was just like, ohmy gosh, like I just lost it.
The tank went from like fumes tonothing in just an instant, and
I was like, okay, I gotta, Ineed to dial this in.

(47:07):
Yeah, I need to work on thisbecause I found myself doing so
much extra work in the earlierpart of the race, and I thought,
you know what?
I need to I need to save alittle bit.
So I started thinking about thisidea of I've only got so much
cash.
Yeah, right.
I gotta go grocery shopping,right?
And I can't overspend, I can'toverspend myself in the first 15

(47:31):
minutes of a 45-minute race.
So I'm budgeting.
Right, I'm budgeting.
I'm budgeting my efforts, andyou know, you gotta kind of take
that mentality of just thinkingabout everything in race, but
also nothing at the same time.
Yeah.
And that's really been a fun uhthing to learn because you know,

(47:53):
I'm very analytical, I'm verytype A, I've gotta have things
in a certain way.
And so, like I I really kind offigured out like I just need to
not think so much about thisrace.
I need to be able to react, Ineed to be able to be there when
I need to be, but I also justneed to race.
I think that comes with justexperience, then where it

(48:13):
becomes like a natural, like itjust happens naturally instead
of overthinking it.
Yeah, which comes fromexperience.
Like you can't you can't do thatif you don't know what to do,
and then it just becomes a likeyou said, a reaction and it
becomes like instinct.
Because you're thinking, youknow, I'm up here top five
wheels, like if an attack goes,like, am I the first to follow

(48:33):
that?
Or do I want to watch two orthree guys follow it?
Then let's say that we shoot toget a breakaway, you know.
Like, is it too early for thisbreak?
Is it something that I shouldhave maybe waited?
So I found myself like in a two,three-man break that gets pulled
back because there's nocooperation.
Obviously, it's kind of just gowith three main dynamic, you

(48:56):
know.
Yeah, there's there's and that'sthe I think that's the beauty.
That's the hard part of cyclingfor people that are in the
sport.
So when you watch like the Tourde France, you watch it and
you're just like, oh, it's justa bunch of guys riding around
countryside in a group group.
But what she and that's how Ifeel when I started watching it
because I didn't know how allthis stuff worked, but then once
you get into it and you startwatching, you're like like the

(49:17):
chess game that happens insideof a race is so cool.
And then like to watch how itall plays out and like the
strategy that each rider has oreach team has and how they're
deploying it, and how theeverybody's like counteracting
that, like that's the fun stuffto watch.
And once you get into the racesand can do that, then that's
when it becomes like not just anendurance event, it becomes like

(49:38):
a full body event.
And you know what's great aboutthat is like you have these pros
and stuff that are doing it, andand we're going to we're we're
on the same course as them,right?
So we see them race later in theday, but as a cat five, you can
still do similar strategies,right?
And and it's the same, it's justlevel competition, right?
Which is as a sport, is probablyquite unique, yeah, super cool.

(50:01):
Um, I mean baseball fields,whatever, but yeah, um you're
not doing the same thing as thepros, which is yeah, you just do
it as at your level instead ofat their level.
That's something I always askdrum, and we talk about that.
I talked to the fast guysbecause I'm like, we're mountain
biking, we're doing all thisstuff and doing and I was like,
okay, what was your heart?
You know, like what was liketalking about that because

(50:21):
there's no way I can't comparepower, like that doesn't equate.
But when I look at it, I'm like,you know, a lot of times, so
take it to mountain biking, thecat threes that win and the cat
twos that win, like they'repegged a lot longer and a lot
more than the other guy, thanthe cat ones.
Some of it's inefficiency,right?

(50:42):
But some of it is also likethey're riding as hard as they
can.
Their heart is just not as hard,right?
But they're riding really hard.
And so it's very interesting tosee that in a sport, especially
like in crit racing and stuff.
You see, like the cat threes.
If you went back and looked atthe heart rate and and their FTP
percentage and all that kind ofstuff, the cat fours, cat

(51:03):
threes, like those guys areracing probably closer to their
limit than the one-twos are.
One, because it's longer andit's more of an endurance event
than a short sprint event, butalso like it's just the way that
it sets up, right?
A little bit.
But I think that's so cool thatwhen you look at it as a
spectator, you're watching,you're like, oh, these guys are

(51:24):
just not going very fast.
And those guys are going realfast.
But those dudes are peggingthemselves, like they are
drilling as hard as they can andjust trying as hard as they can.
It just may not look like it asa bystander because the speed's
not the same.
Oh, the look on their faces, butinternally it's the same more.
Yeah, for sure.
Which is such what makes thatsport so cool.

(51:45):
But it's hard to understand thatas a spectator and as someone
who's not ever done that.
Right.
Like how many opportunities doyou get to experience what a
professional does as you can godo the same thing on the same
course.
And you suffer the same day,yeah, right.
And and they just sufferfashion.
It is pretty cool.
Yeah, it is pretty cool.
Um, well, let's get into acouple of things here.

(52:05):
Um we'll say just gettingstarted.
Yeah, we'll save Brennan's momfor later.
Oh, um that's a lot to talkabout.
But have her.
It's usually so I guess onefirst thing I'll so I guess one
thing that I do want to know iswhere did Salty Dog name come
from?
Oh boy.
You know, we just I don't knowif it's like our uh age

(52:26):
demographic or whatever, butlike calling each other dog has
just been something I kind ofgrew up doing.
It's not dog, you know, justlike saying the dog are you?
I'm 44.
Okay, yeah.
Uh how old am I?
37 now?
You're way too young to beforgetting your age, sir.
No, it doesn't count anymoreuntil you hit 40.
You know, 21 masters, 25 forinsurance.

(52:49):
Yeah, you're gonna be able to dothat.
Maybe masters, okay.
Maybe masters from NationalChamps next year.
So where did the salty dog namecome from?
Just from I don't know.
Like, really, I I think we justum had a group chat and I think
we labeled it as salty dogs,like it's just like super
random.

(53:09):
Simple as that.
Like, you know, we call eachother dogs, like you know, and
and you know, the euphemism ofbeing a dog is like gritted out,
like kind of kind of reminds youof cycling of like you gotta be
in the paint, can't even likeyou just you gotta have that dog
in you eating.
You can be like a weiler dog, oryou can be like a waiter dog,
yeah, you know, or you can belike this guy whose arms go all

(53:32):
different directions, eyes godifferent directions, one ear
works, one ear doesn't, youknow.
But he's a dog.
Yeah, like he'll keep running ashard as long as he can.
That's it, he will if he'schasing a squirrel for sure.
And I I think that's uh I thinkI really like the name because
it can be kind of serious, butit's also playful of you know, I

(53:52):
think that sums us up quite wellis we we try to do we're serious
about what we do, we're allorganized because of who we are,
and uh but at the end of theday, we're just out here having
a good time and having fun.
And like also, I mean, I thinkit's kind of I don't know if it
clearly it may just have workedout in chance, but it lends

(54:13):
itself to good like branding.
That's really why we did it.
We were such four speakers, weknew exactly what we're doing.
We're so good at social mediaand marketing, yeah.
Yeah, it leaves you some goodfor like branding and like your
image of stuff that you can doand merchandising and those
kinds of things, yeah.
Which I know that's somethingthat you guys are kind of

(54:34):
interested in.
Yeah, um come here.
I mean, I'll tell a quick storyand then I'll let you get into
it, Jonathan, a little bit aboutthe future.
Is we've been across the countryand like you know, the first
first design of our kits is likevery let's get this out here.
We have weeks to do this beforewe get down the pace bin to have
some organizations.

(54:54):
The blue and gold ones, yeah.
They were simple, clean, simple,classical showed all the salt.
Yeah, it was great.
So yeah, we did not know thatwas gonna happen, but um you
know, it's very classical look,it's clean, but we recognize in
the Peloton, like you you can'tsee each other at all.
So we're like we need a littlesomething more.
Um, and and with ourrelationship with you know,

(55:16):
Velostar locally and gettingconnected with all that stuff
with William and any Italianbrand basically is uh kind of
got with Giordano.
Giordano cut over, we'll try tothat.

SPEAKER_00 (55:30):
Yeah, fifth, we'll I'll put it in if I can.

SPEAKER_01 (55:32):
And we started to get a little bit creative as we
had some time to play aroundwith kits.
Um, and and I think we did areally good job.
Uh, I did a really good job.
I'm gonna oh jeez.
Oh, there we go.
I'm kidding.
Okay, fluff is ego.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Thanks.
But you know, it's it's kind offun, it's a fun kit, and and

(55:53):
people recognize that.
And we've we've talked to kindof two edges of the spectrum is
the name salty dogs.
Like how the people are like, isthat the navy?
Are you guys from the navy?
Like if you guess is a seamanterm of you know being on a ship
or something, yeah.
We're like, no, like, and thenthere's an alcoholic drink named
after the salty dogs.
I don't remember what it is, butmaybe we need to investigate.

(56:14):
That's what we should say.
I mean, that should be your teambreak.
One of my favorite stories is inSt.
Louis was uh we were just beingactive.
Let's race at the front, and uhafter the hill, uh, I was doing
a cooldown lap and I startedtalking guys like oh you you
want our margarita pre.
I'm like, man, I I'm like deadtired.

(56:35):
I did the sleet out forJonathan, like I got light,
whatever.
And um, so we actually saw himthe next day at the last race,
and we went over there and westarted talking to these star
yelling, salty dogs, salty dogs.
Like we just start talking, wegot a hangout with them.
They're from Tulsa, they're justcycling fans.
Okay, and you know, they inTulsa, Tulsa Tough, and they're

(56:56):
like, we want Gateway to be thesame thing.
And we we stayed way too latebecause we had to drive back to
Oklahoma.
Then oh, it was also becausethey were serving lunchboxes.
Yeah, oh yeah.
It was they're like, we needthese after racing for an hour.
Um they're like, no, we we lovedyou guys, we love the kit, like
we loved your name, like we'reall about it.

(57:18):
Can we buy some stuff from you?
And we're like, not yet.
Give us a few weeks, yeah, yeah.
And a few months later, here weare.
So if if you wanna Yeah, so itkind of ties into that idea of
having that communityrepresentation, and so we're
gonna have a club kit that's alittle different than the race

(57:40):
kit, uh, still with that samesalty dog logo and branding.
Persona.
Yeah, and and still be fun,still be recognizable.
But the idea is that you know,we can have something available
for those that maybe they're noton the race team, maybe they
just they ride their bikes.
And so we want to have anopportunity for them to be a

(58:04):
part of that, support us as ateam in our endeavors to support
other community outreach events.
And so that money will just goright back into the fund, and
that money will be put out towhatever you guys are supporting
your adventures plus othercommunity involvement adventures
that you guys are involved in.
Absolutely.
And on that topic, yeah, becausewe have some connections with

(58:28):
folks that already have reallygreat infrastructure and
community connections.
There's an organization that'scalled Kids Action, and they're
based out of Shawnee, uh,Pottawanomy County, and they
send out 12,000 applications tostudents all over the county.

(58:48):
And the county or the state.
All over, I think it's all over.
Pottawanomy County.
Okay.
And so it's applications that goto middle school, elementary
school kids.
And uh it's basically anapplication to receive a bike.
Oh, okay.
And so Kids Action has spun offof a bikes for kids outreach.

(59:11):
And personally, like I'mconnected to the guy, Travis
Hearst, who started it.
Okay.
And so I've been supporting himthrough my businesses, just
giving them a little bit offunds to kind of help purchase
the bikes.
And I got a call from him thisyear, and he was telling us
about this Petalpalooza event.
Yeah.
I was like, well, this soundslike a lot of fun.

(59:32):
How can we help?
What are your needs?
What are some things that wouldbe beneficial?
Right.
Because we could do, I startthinking about all these
opportunities, and I don't wantto overwhelm or I just want to
do what is necessary.
And he was like, Well, we needhelmets.
We need iclocks, some bottlesare great.

(59:52):
And so we just reached out toEric with Velostar, and he came
through, brought a truckload ofhelmets.
Awesome.
Super deal, awesome connection.
And that's really like what Ilove about that opportunity is
just being able to be thatmiddle guy that goes, Hey, you
know what?
You need something.
I know somebody that hassomething.

(01:00:12):
That's the best.
That's the best.
And I want to connect you guyswith that.
That's the best.
Connecting is the best.
And it was so great.
We had such a blast.
We did this, it was like asix-mile ride with these kids.
Thank you for it.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:23):
It was amazing.
I was like, you guys lost.

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:26):
But it was fun.
There was snow cones and facepainting and all these things.
But we were fixing bikes andlike, and then we went and rode
like some mountain bike coursecross four seconds.
That's fun.
That's fun.
It was so fun seeing the kidsout there and like crashing all
the time.
Like, oh no, yeah, get up here.
You know, they just keep goingon.
That's awesome.
But they had a great showing.

(01:00:48):
They did a great job ofmarketing it.
They had a good turnout.
And later this year, like inmid-December, they're gonna give
away about four to five hundredbicycles.
Wow, that's amazing.
And it's fantastic to just knowthat there's somebody that's got
a heart for that.
And it's like, how can I comeover and like do a little super

(01:01:11):
bounce?
You know, and just kind of likehelp propel what you guys
already have going.
And I think that's reallyspecial.
Like it's a good opportunity forus to engage with something
that's already going.
We don't have to that's thething.
You don't want to reinvent thewheel, you might just support
the things that are already.
Absolutely.
Yeah, we we talked about alittle bit like how can we do
this?
What can we do for thecommunity?

(01:01:32):
And we're small, like how can wesupport something you know,
super balance other than that?
I've never heard of that before.
I like that.
That's pretty good.
It's the trampoline, yeah, yeah.
That's good.
And and how can we lend aneffort to you know support
what's going on in the communityand not just with that, but
other things as well.
But I love that.

(01:01:52):
And that's part of what youguys, your merch and stuff like
that, the and the funds that youguys raise, doing whatever you
guys do, that's what that ishelping support.
Yeah, it's not just going backinto the mostly kids stuff,
yeah.
Yeah, that's awesome.
I love that.
Yeah, that's a I mean, as far asa mission for a group and for a
team, I mean, it's hard to tobeat that, you know.
Yeah, to be better than that.

(01:02:13):
Oh, oh, thanks, right?
I mean, really, I mean the thingis like, I mean, I don't know.
I feel like in my life, likeeverything revolves around
serving others, everything,everything should revolve around
serving others.
My day job is I we have amission to like that we have to
do to like keep the lights onfor you know the overall
company, but that's not ourmission.

(01:02:35):
Our mission is something else inour local community that we do,
and we do that through secondchance employment.
So the BBB is the tool that weuse, but that's not our mission,
is not BBB.
Our mission is second chanceemployment, and that's how we
can directly affect ourcommunity locally, and we do
that, and we like to supportthat and we like to be
evangelists for that, and we dothat.

(01:02:57):
I would say, gosh, probably halfof our staff is second chance
employment at this point.
And if I, you know, that'sprobably not good to say on the
podcast, HR-wise.
I almost only hire people fromsecond chance employment.
And if I have my choice, I wouldrather only hire some somebody
from second chance employment.
And that's just in mydepartment, but our office is

(01:03:20):
similar.
Um, but you know, I think onceyou find your mission, you know,
and then stuff that you talkedabout, you know, smoke, the guy
that yeah, the guy that's paddleboard, you know, his mission has
become helping different abilityathletes cross a finish line
that they would never get tocross by themselves.
Yeah, and that became hismission.
And so it's that's you knowwhat's funny about that is I

(01:03:42):
listened to that podcast, it'squite amazing.
Like when a stand-up guyfinished Kona with carp.
Oh so huge.
He pivoted, right?
Like having that, like he didn'tknow what he's gonna do, right?
And like kind of with what we'redoing here with Salty Dogs is
kind of an idea, and and Jothand I are both like able to go
with the flow in the sense oflike say where it takes where

(01:04:02):
can we make an impact?

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:04):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:04:04):
Um, like we love this, but like overall, it's
like we want to be beneficial tothe cycling community here or
anywhere, really.
And we just love it so much, andwe want to keep it going, yeah.
And I think you keep it going byfinding a mission outside of
you.
And yeah, and I think everythingkeeps going if you find a

(01:04:25):
mission outside of you, youknow, like whatever that looks
like, you know, like yourbusiness, you support these
other organizations around thecommunity to help them get that
ounce, you know, that doublebounce that they need.
That's super bounce.
That's it, that's super bounce.
But that's what helps fuel you,and you're like, man, this is a
really shitty day at work.
But then you get to gocontribute some of the funds
that you've made to anorganization, you can see these

(01:04:46):
kids be so happy and get theirfirst bike, and you're like,
it's worth the grind, you know,but not outside of like you're
taking care of yourself and yourfamily.
Like, I think if more peoplewould just take their passions
that they love and that whateverit is that makes them so happy
and figure out a way to serveothers with that, man,
everything's better.
Everything is better.
I need Ryan to follow me aroundand be a hype man.

(01:05:08):
Like it's true.
That's a great point.
I mean, that's exactly what Iwas sitting here thinking was
like the idea that we have thispassion for this recreational
thing that we take a littleseriously, but not too
seriously.
Yeah, you should take itseriously.
It's a hobby, but it's anexpensive, competitive hobby
needs to be serious when it'sserious, uh when it's ridiculous

(01:05:30):
when it is, right, and a goodtime a hundred percent.
And for that thing to be able tobe something that you can use as
an avenue, it's this conduit tobe able to provide this other
opportunity to see, you know,this is a thing that I do that I
love doing, that I commit a lotof time and effort to.
But there's also this otherelement to it that I I can bring

(01:05:54):
uh somebody else into thiscycling adventure.
Or just yeah, and you know,whether it's a young child, you
know, to just show them, hey,you know, riding bikes can be
fun.
You can do a lot more than justride around your neighborhood.
You can just do you guys knowAlyssa Lutz?
Yeah.
So, like with Bike Club, she'stold some great stories about

(01:06:15):
similar ideas and similarthings.
Where she's like, you know, wegive this kid a bike.
He gets they go through theirprogram through the school year,
and then they show up at the endof the year to get their bike,
and the family comes and they'relike, you know, we all ended up
getting bikes, and so now we allgo out as families and we ride
together as a family for youknow evening activities.
That's beautiful, and all thatstarted with this little kid

(01:06:35):
getting a bike at school, youknow, or that kid has now like
got friends because they werelike that kind of outside kid in
class and stuff like that.
But when they go to this,everybody's there riding
bicycles together.
So you never know the impact youcould have.
No, and and the bicycle to me,and we talked about it on Smokes
Podcast, like the bicycle has atthis point in my life, right now

(01:06:55):
today, has given me most of thethings that are important to me
in my life, which is verystrange and weird because I
didn't even that's weird, right?
Own a bicycle, like you know,until I started to do the craft.
I think even people outsidelooking into it, like how
intense we can be sometimes.
There's so many benefits themental health side of it, you

(01:07:18):
know, the physical health sideof it, but the community aspect
of it like it gets slapped on sohard that it it's it's it's hard
to see.
Yeah, but there's so muchbenefit from it.
So much.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:31):
I have my few like my I have my high school
teammates that I'm still intouch with, but we're like
texting buddies, you know, wesee each other.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:40):
And then um, I have my college teammates and we get
together once a month for beers,and we're all still really
close.
But we're close in that way.
But everybody else that I'm likeclose, close with it's from the
bicycle.
Yeah.
Well, there's something specialthat happens to when you're in
Mexico and well we'll talk aboutone letter.
I think, yeah.

(01:08:00):
Is that where because mom comesin?
Well, she comes in a lot ofplaces.
We're gonna make a seriouscomment.
R I guess.
But the idea of putting yourselfthrough physical pain, we're so
immature.

(01:08:21):
Yeah.
Um but pinning yourself, likewhenever you're out there like
going for it and just pushingyourself, and you know that
you've got a handful of brosthat are out there with you, you
know, it's like it's a specialbond.
It's trauma bonds.
I was gonna say you've bonded.
Yeah, it really is because onlyso many people understand what
that's like in the feelings,right?

(01:08:43):
Yeah, that's a good pointbecause a lot of people that
gosh, I mean, I'm 44 years old.
You think about like what'swhat's a day in the life of a
normal 44-year-old guy, and thisone's trying to ride his bike
for two hours, really hard andgetting really hot and really
miserable and feeling likeyou're gonna puke, and but
you're seeing amazing thingsgoing amazing places.

(01:09:05):
Like I'm I can't imagine.
I mean, you just you guys bothstarted just a couple years ago,
the amount of places that you'veseen on a bicycle that you would
have never seen in your life inthe sense five years ago input
that comes from just like evenwhen around in Oklahoma, like
the rural roads.
There's roads that you wouldhave never seen in your life.
Oh my gosh, here forever.
Yeah, you're just like wow Ididn't know this is the coolest.

(01:09:25):
Yeah, it is so cool.
I mean, that's what like we guysdid the Lockhart thing, right?
Yeah, it was so fascinating.
Like, I knew there's a cemeteryup there.
I need some more of those, yeah.
Yeah, it is cool.
Yeah, I I mean there's so muchhistory around us and so many
things to see.
And if you didn't have abicycle, you never see them
anywhere everywhere.
It's not just like here, likeit's pretty cool.
Yeah, I know the bike's a great,it's a great tool.
It's a perfect speed to view theworld.

(01:09:47):
Oh, look at you.
Oh, that's going on ourcalendar.
Oh, we need to do that.
Calendar, uh, yeah.
Well, we got some good pictures,so Jonathan.
Um, I thought this was back tosmaller.
No, this is yeah, we yeah.
Uh I digressed a little bit.
Did you pose for some calendarshapes?
Well, there might be a story.

(01:10:09):
There might be gosh.
There might be a handful ofphotos that haven't been posted
to social media just yet.
Well, we hired a photographerwhen we first got started down
in Austin.
And it was like, we got a newkit, we need some images, like
some good ones.
Took some amazing photographs ofJonathan changing in his van.
So um we uh are open tofundraising, so be look be on

(01:10:34):
the lookout for that.
They those are those photos canbe purchased.
I mean, sure.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
I like it.
I mean, Jillian might buy a fewand give hang out to the office
and you know, some clientevents, yeah, giveaways, yeah,
uh auction it's we're all aboutyou know being creative over
here, right?
I like it.
It's creative marketing,creative marketing.
We're open to a click is aclick, right?

(01:10:57):
Yeah, the 12 we get is prettygood.
You might get 15 now.
Yeah, yeah.
So we're um so you guys race aton and you travel everywhere.
25 has come to a close, right?
We're done uh for the most part.
Yeah, uh 26.
I mean, there's probably stillanother race available.

(01:11:18):
We still got the festive 500.
Yeah.
So what's 26 look like for youguys?
Well, take a step back realquick, and this is off the hit.
I probably did 60 some racesthis year.
Oh yeah, you know, multi-daythings and like doubling up.
Jonathan probably did a littlebit more because he's only gonna
do masters.
And for so for 2026, um I thinkit's probably gonna be similar.

(01:11:46):
Okay.
I think there's a recent shiftof me um going to be moving.
Um, but you have to look at thatas an opportunity, right?
Like I'm going to Denver, andthat's going to be a we have
connections.
We had a guest rider fromDenver, like just from uh people
we've met, like Ryan, when yougo race across the country, you

(01:12:09):
keep racing with the same peopleover and over again, and the
connections you make is quitephenomenal.
Yeah, it really is.
Good friends is quite cool.
Um, but maybe a little expansioninto there and you know, see
what happens.
So how many guys you have on therace team right now?
Yeah, yeah.
There's three guys.
There's three guys.
Okay.
We have a guest rider fromCalifornia, um, true dog, RJ.

(01:12:32):
Um, but he's he's with a team,but like when we go race
together, like he came down toTexas with us in the beginning
of last year, did uhintelligentsia.
He won a cat too race onintelligentsia, which is pretty
simple.
Wow.
Are you guys looking to expandthat roster from three to more?
Potentially.
Okay.
Uh it needs to be a good fit,right?
Like that we're gonna be veryselective in that sense.

(01:12:54):
You can actually go to ourwebsite and or our Instagram,
there's a link to it.
Um hasn't really beenpublicized, but uh you can sign
up and join.
We've had a few people reach outto us.
Um, I don't know how they foundus, but um yeah, I've shown it's
interested.
We can reach out to you guys,but it is gonna be like a legit
like, man, we're we're gonna besuper, super selective, and it

(01:13:16):
has to be perfect all the wayaround because you're not trying
to get numbers, you're trying toget the fit.
It and that's part of what wekind of alluded to earlier is
that you know racing together isa dynamic, right?
And so that hang time isimportant.
Like you've got to have thatthat trust, you've got to
because you're following awheel, you're real close, and

(01:13:36):
you're like on the edge, and sothere's a part of this like kind
of friendship, sort of like hangtime that really has to be in
place.
And so to that point, there'sbeen people that we've raced
with that have seen that, andthey were like, guys, I want to
I want to jump in on this, Iwant to be a part of that.

(01:13:58):
And so yeah, we've had a handfulof conversations with different
guys from all over, honestly.
So potentially different staple,yeah.
Yeah, and so that's really fun,and that's definitely something
that you know we don't want,it's not gonna just be JG,
Brent, and Mark.
Yeah, you know, there's gonna bemore people to this thing, and
that's part of that expansion.

(01:14:19):
But like to Brent's point, likewe want to think about it, we
want to make good decisions andyou know, make this thing be
something that's like going tolast.
And so I think that's why we'regoing to evaluate, you know,
versus rushing into two aspectsof it is like you know, we're at
our age, what we're doing racingand masters now.

(01:14:40):
Cat two, gosh, Jonathan.
Come on, bro, that makes me haveto re-evaluate.
Um, and then also like, youknow, who do we want to race
with?
How can we do teamwork stuffwhere we are?
But then also we like we wantsome younger guys on the team to
like the exposure to go nationalof what we do, like we can

(01:15:01):
support you in the sense ofwe're going to these anyways,
let's get you some experience,and it's it's like a cram
course, right?
Like when you go do 40-50 racesa year, like the experience
level just yeah, that's forsure.
Um, so that aspect of it, but atthe same time, we have people
who are are our friends and andwant to go ride on group rides

(01:15:25):
and stuff together, kind ofthat's where that salty dog club
comes from, of like kind of doesthe same thing, but maybe not
racing, yeah.
So very exclusive selective.
Um as a qualifier, I would saythat if there are cat five guys
or gals that want to race andthey're serious about it because

(01:15:48):
we were in the same position,you know, and so I think about
what would it be like for me ifI was a cat five and I
experienced salty dogs, right?
And I want to create that spacewhere somebody could come in as
a five or a four, you know, andfeel like they can get not only
experience, but like I want toshare.

(01:16:08):
I don't know a lot, but likeI've learned some, and that's
from literally just doing a lotof races.
And so if we can share that withsome of the newer people that
are into the racing scene, likeI'd love to do that.
So you guys are looking for Imean, if they're the right fit,
they're the right fit.
It doesn't matter the categoryracer, it doesn't matter any of
that stuff.
It's just like we just want theright people, we just want the

(01:16:30):
right people to do the right no.
When Lucas uh applied, we'relike, we might consider him.
So he might be a good fit.
He might be a good fit.
Maybe not, you know?
But you guys are just lookingfor a fit more than uh a power
number.
Oh, sure.
Yeah, because when you race acrit, you want your power number

(01:16:51):
to be low, right?
As we discussed.
So do you do you're still tryingto find 40 40 NP higher than me
and weighs less than totally notright.
Yeah.
Well, okay.
I we this is off topic, but ontopic, I guess, is I absolutely

(01:17:12):
love the fact that there'sdifferent types, genetics play
such a huge part in this, right?
Like the slow twitch, fasttwitch, the course design.
Yeah, and it doesn't matter.
Like there's so anybody can wina race on any day.
That oh, this is not a breakawaycourse.
Oh, that solo rider because noone chased them down.
You know, that must get hit by acar, a pace car.

(01:17:34):
Oh shoot.
We have to tell us we'll get tothat.
Well, I we have so many stories,but Ryan doesn't even know this
one, and then we'll tell you so.
I I just love the fact like I'mlike a spurney boy, like I'm
gonna be lazy in the group untilit matters, I guess, at the end,
and and try to drop some power.

(01:17:55):
And like Jonathan's like abrickway rider, like a long,
long burn guy.
Or do you have like theseclimbers like on Tulsa on
Sunday?
Anyone can win, and it doesn'tmatter, it's just it depends on
the course, it depends on theweather, it depends on all these
different factors.
Like, but it's not just like alevel playing field, it's so

(01:18:16):
dynamic.
This this sport is so dynamic,and you you really don't know
what's gonna happen because whatif someone crashes in front of
you and like takes out thegroup, and like uh yeah, you can
get back in, but like there'sother factors that play in that,
like you just never know what'sgonna happen.
Anybody can win, huh?
Mostly anybody can win, right?

(01:18:38):
It's that mid mindset.
Suppose once you get up to thelike the three, two, three
category, like everybody's likekind of on an even playing
field.
You in the four fives is not aneven playing field because you
got guys coming through thatjust are working their way
through, and then guys that arelike lifelong cat fours and
lifelong cat fives, and theydon't want to go up, and that
they're cool with that.
Yeah, you don't have the abilityandor the time andor the care to
move up, yeah.

(01:18:58):
But then you have people thatshould be cat ones and twos, but
they got to come through therings.
So, yeah, once you get to thethrees, it kind of levels out to
become much more like you stillget those people, but not as
like a big jump.
Yeah, you get a deeper group ofwinners of possibilities.
Yeah, so who got ran over by apace car?
So first race of the year atman, you've had such a bad time

(01:19:19):
in Austin.
It really has been two years ina row.
Maybe I need to stay away fromAustin.
So we're going to Austin nextyear.
Most people do Austin.
Um, I'm gonna ride an aluminumbike.
Yeah, you know, Austin Pace Ben,it's you can do four races.
They do like a premature, likeuh first race of the year at um
what's it called?
Um, the racetrack down there.

(01:19:41):
Driveways series.
If you guys have never been downthere, so fun.
It's a little carcourse, likesuper flowy.
You have to watch out forpossums.
I guess shout out to Toli.
Yeah, yeah.
Such a great vibe.
Like it's like we saw that.
Like, let's how how can we dothis?
It's such a good vibe.

(01:20:03):
But uh, so we were racing and II did well that first day or
two, and then road races happen.
But um what was that Sunday?
Yeah, it was Sunday.
It was the no circuit, circuit.
Then on Sunday, you had adifferent result.
That's right.

(01:20:23):
So Saturday, we are what 60 somemiles or something, and uh just
getting after it.
And um out of this hard rightcorner, you're coming kind of
down this hill, and you sayyou're going kind of fast, and
there's like a pinch point rightturn.
If you really don't need to slowdown, it's also chaotic because
there's multiple raceshappening.

(01:20:45):
Pace cars, so it's like a sixmile six-mile loop, something
like that.
Yeah, six to eight mile looparound this park.
And um, yeah, so there's alldifferent pace cars trying to
get around and like they'llhaunt their horns and you kind
of roll over.
They let them out the fastpeople pass, or we don't pass
anybody.
But out of this right corner,like this this pace it was up a

(01:21:10):
kicker and it kind of got spreadout, whatever.
This pace car from some othergroup came through, and like it
was I think was it right at theend of the race, or there's one
close.
So they took a hard hard rightturn, and this pace car was just
being an asshole.
And uh we're kind of gettingstrung out a little bit, and

(01:21:32):
they're getting after it.
This pace car isn't like 50miles per hour, but they split
up the group with the problem onthat right turn.
They came in the middle of us inthe middle of a turn.
Oh no, did the turn with us, sothis so we were catching up, and
Jonathan got um caught up inthat.
Go ahead.
I got well, so they they createdthis separation, so there's

(01:21:55):
probably like eight or ten guysthat are in our group that
basically got away because wehad to deal with this car,
right?
And so there's one other guythat was just in front of me.
We make the right turn, butwe're kind of yielding to this
car, and the car decides afterwe get through this turn that
they're gonna overtake and andgo.

(01:22:16):
So I'm like on the shieldedside, on the outside of this
rider.
And I have this idea that, like,man, I could pass this guy, he's
shielding me from the wind, butall of a sudden I feel this
vroom vroom out of oh gosh, andI just like hesitated, and all
of a sudden, this car comes upand clips my left wheel, like

(01:22:39):
it's from my right tire.
Hit your back wheel, it clips mypedal.
Oh, your pedal and my shoe.
Yeah, you on the butt, right?
Clipped my backside.
Oh my gosh.
In a race, like a sanctionedrace.
Yeah, so I just like veered overto the right, kept it upright,
but I was like You kept itupright?
Mm-hmm.
I was like, this is so lucky.
This is wild.

(01:22:59):
That could have ended up so bad.
It was pretty it was prettyexhilarating to say the least.
There was a discussion at theend of the race with the
officials, yeah, yeah.
Man, it's not like a Mercedes orsomething.
I don't know.
Oh, wow, that sucks.
I can't believe you kept it up.
Then the next day, like we endedup going the other way, right?

(01:23:20):
So they switched the direction.
So classic move by Jonathan.
Attacks in the feed zone.
And by attack, I mean seated,just set up.
You know, the the 400-wattseated attack that just kind of
goes away in all the slow, likeso five miles out, four or five
miles out.

(01:23:40):
But there's a lot of winds.
I'm giving it all I got, man.
And I'm just like, we're gettingclose, we're getting close, but
it's at that point of the racewhere it's like the turn's not
coming up.
Like, I'm wondering if the turnexists, you know, or stretch.
Yeah, it's like, man, it's Iknow that there's gonna be a
left-hand ripper, and then we'regonna have another little

(01:24:01):
kicker.
And I made that left-hand turn,I look back and I'm like, man, I
got a pretty good gap.
There was one guy chasing TexasGiant.
The Texas Giant.
Shout out to him, Turner.
Turner.
This guy he was he was on formand he came up.
We probably had about a mileleft, I think, about that that

(01:24:23):
little hill.
And he comes over and he's like,Man, easy going, easy going.
And so, like, he climbs up andthen he just attacks me.
And I was like, Man, I I shouldhave dug down and covered that
attack, you know, and and rolledin for at least P2.
But yeah, man, he got you getswept up by everybody, he got
away, and then it was anothersituation with a yeah, another

(01:24:46):
group and another pace car.
Oh my god.
And at this point, like I'm inthe I'm actually in race at this
point.
I'm on the button at this andI'll join sure.
And I'm like, I I'm just likePTSD from the night before, and
it's like just keep it upright.
And so the whole road justnarrowed at like to one lane

(01:25:07):
because the other group we werepassing another group with like
what 500 meters to go.
Cluster, and then we're catchingJonathan, and then we have this
group coming through.
What a cluster! It was it waswild.
Yes.
I got pushed off the road.
I was like, you know, but that'sthe point where over the last
couple of years, like that'swhere a lot of crashes end up

(01:25:29):
happening on that race is thatlast 500.
Yeah, it just gets prettychaotic, especially when all the
groups are finishing at the sametime.
That's nuts.
Yeah, but profs to Jonathan bygetting hit by a car and staying
up.
Good for you.
I'll with all the racing thisyear.
You know, we see plenty ofcrashes.
Um the cat three's been prettygood.

(01:25:52):
Good.
Yeah, it's a good year.
I've been I've seen so manypeople rub elbows and like
people start learning how tohandle their bikes.
People don't freak out.
Yeah.
And once you stop nuts, usuallydon't chill.
Yeah, cat one, two, three.
You don't see like when you seeone, they're usually like
they're just like, hey, we welanded down in a corner, we slip

(01:26:12):
for a hundred yards, and it'sjust bad road rush.
That's usually what it is.
Yeah, usually clip pedal, yeah.
It's something like that.
Yeah, it's not like the cat fourfives where it's like just
complete like explosion.
Yeah, when barricades areinvolved and curbs and trees and
all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, usually one, two, threesare significantly better.
Yeah, yeah, usually.

(01:26:33):
Let's jump into um yard sale.
Okay.
Well, I I just said this year'sbeen pretty good since we talked
about crashes.
Yeah.
Favorite piece of equipment.
No, no, no price on it, but itcan't be.
Boy, let's John Lingo first onthat one.
Favorite piece of bikeequipment.
It can be anything.
I actually had a feeling todaythat you were gonna ask this

(01:26:56):
question.
Uh-huh.
And thinking about likeeverything, like learning how to
race and being in a fair shareof crashes.
I honestly think my helmet Oh,okay.
Because it's been it's protectedmy dome.
Yeah.
Well helmet.
Um, I've actually had a handfulof one feet.

(01:27:16):
I don't know if that's good orbad.
It's a medit helmet, I believe.
And no brain damage.
Well, my wife might disagreewith you on that, but yeah.
I thought you were gonna sayyour Wahoo that tells you you
crashed and haven't crashed andyou're already halfway to Tulsa.
Yeah, that was yeah, a traumaticday.
What's the least equipment?

(01:27:37):
Oh boy.
Uh, let's see here.
Um, I will probably say myGarmin radar.
Oh.
Yeah, out back.
Um, I feel really safe withriding on that on the road.
Okay.
Um, not really from the fact oflike I get notified of when cars
are coming or anything.
It's more the fact like I knowit changes lights, and I know

(01:28:00):
that's from a perception likevisibility standpoint, that's
really important.
Do you see the uh Keo pedalsthat just came out?
No.
Yeah, but they have anattachment that goes on the back
of the pedal.
So it's a light that goes on theback of your pedal.
So you can take it off if youlike racing and weight matters.
It adds like 40 grams, they'rerechargeable and they clip on
the back of your pedals.
I'm like, I mean, that's cool.

(01:28:20):
Yeah, it's I think it's not abad idea.
So my future being an alpinistis I might be interested in
that, but I think I have someother um aspects to work on
before I start worrying aboutclimbing.
Like altitude adjustments.
Oh no, that that's that's gonnahappen regardless, but um
talking about what's your uhfavorite place you've ever

(01:28:42):
written a bike?
That's uh that's a pretty goodone.
Um I did my first year ofriding, really.
I did the copper triangle, yeah,yeah.
Um, which is probably like abucket list for a lot of people
and uh went up there and like itwas fully supported and and

(01:29:06):
yeah, uh did not know what I wasgetting myself into a little
bit, but I was like, I'm fast,whatever.
But um doing the climbs and andeverything, just beautiful, and
just ripping the downhills.
Like I'm pretty good atdownhills because you know, not
the climber.
Um, so that was a lot of fun.
Uh I I mean, I just love themountains.

(01:29:27):
Yeah, so that that definitely uhwas was helpful.
Um yeah, yeah.
What's yours favorite placeyou're ever riding a bike?
Mine was it took place in SantaBarbara.
Yeah, okay.
And this was in 23.
I think I had my bike for maybetwo or three months.
Um, we were on an anniversarytrip, and so we were just out

(01:29:50):
like, and again, kudos to mywife for like, oh, you are
riding a bike now and you wantto fly with it and take it with
it now because everywhere yougo.
But I guess I had this uh I didsome research and I rode from
Santa Barbara to Gibraltar Road.
Okay.
Which is a pretty epic climb.

(01:30:11):
Yeah.
You know, and so we were therein June.
Okay.
So to clarify, I bought a bikein May, and then our anniversary
is in June.
So this was not a couple months.
It was like one month.
Yeah.
She is very understanding.
New to cycling, I ride over toGibraltar Road.

(01:30:32):
And so I say June because it'sJune gloom.
Oh right in Southern California.
So it's cloudy.
It's not the kind of weatherthat you want to just let out.
I think of Southern California.
It caught us off guard,honestly.
It's weird.
But wasn't what was amazingabout that is I rode out there
and I did this climb, and at thetop, it was a completely

(01:30:55):
different climate.
And it was so different.
Like it was cool down below, butat the top it was warm and just
like totally different.
See the fog, and that'd be cool.
It was pretty epic.
That would be pretty cool.
Yeah, that's a good one.
Uh I'm gonna have a follow-up tothat, and it's gonna be just
those random rides where you goexploring nearby and you you go

(01:31:18):
down a road you've never beendown, and you kind of see
something kind of cool.
You know, I live up near DeerCreek right now, and you can go
anywhere up there as long asit's not school time to get hit
by a car.
But uh all the country roads,all the wildlife, and I think
one time I stopped and picked uplike five turtles on the road.

(01:31:39):
I saw this massive snappingturtle one time, but just like
exploring, yeah, and as simpleas that may sound like you never
know where the bike's gonna takeyou.
Those are the best rides, yeah.
I agree.
Uh one place you want to ridedoesn't.
I mean, and it can be a placethat may even ever happen, but
if you could one place to ridein the world, what would it be?

(01:32:00):
I've never thought about this.
I want to go to Europe where Ihear I want to experience riding
in the areas where all thehardmen trains.
Jonathan's favorite topic ishardmen.
So are we still talking aboutare we talking about Brendan's
mom now?
I don't know, but just are youwhat are you talking about?

(01:32:25):
I didn't know where to go withthat.
Are we so many edits to thispodcast?
You want to go to the mountainsin France, or you want to go
through like Belgium and likethe rainy, cold, like just muddy
cobblestone crazy.
I'm here for all of it too.
I want to do cycle cross lastyear with me.

(01:32:46):
I'm not gonna do cyclocross.
Well, okay, so he's likeBelgium, no way then.
Oh, you do on cross?
I did it last year.
Are you doing it that year?
Well, no, it's off season.
I've been moving that soundslike a lot of excuses to me.
Yeah, it's a lot of excuses.
It didn't rain last year forcyclecross.
I was all in.
And that mud came, I was like,I'm all out.
Okay, let's let's rephrase thequestion.

(01:33:06):
If you could do one professionalbike race, what would that be?
One I thought about this lastnight, actually, and I I don't
know why I thought of it formyself.
I I have I have one I would pickgroup A.
For one, there's no climbing.
And I love the like the grit andthe all of the things that go

(01:33:28):
with it, and the tradition andthe history, and just all of
that.
I love that one.
I love the classics.
Classics are my favorites.
So, what would be yours?
I I you know, like out of thoselike big ones, I was gonna could
be any of them.
I I no, but I like the idea ofRubay, and the reason why I
think I like it the most is likeI I know I would definitely
never be able to do thatdistance and like be anything

(01:33:50):
like that, but I wouldn't wantto suffer for that long.
Um I love the technical aspectof it, like oh, the cobbles
versus the road, what tires, andlike that's the engineering of
it, yeah.
And and like that's a whole sideof the cycling community, right?
That I gravitate towards.
I love that because I think Iwould do a little bit
differently than like you know,did the Dylan Johnson side of

(01:34:13):
things, like go big, you know,rolling resistance and
everything.
Um, I'd like to see how thatwould play out.
So what would be yours?
Take a stage of the tour.
Oh, okay.
So then tour would be yours.
I think something like that,just that level, like that uh
historic homage to one of thoseroutes.

(01:34:34):
I think that'd be prettyspecial.

SPEAKER_00 (01:34:36):
Yeah, that's a good one.
What's uh a stream bike?
Do you have one?

SPEAKER_01 (01:34:42):
I don't know.
Like I tend to try to not havetoo many preferences on that
kind of thing.
Like I love my road bikecurrently, SLR, okay.
Um and literally that's thesecond bike that I've owned.
Right.
So I had a Trecomanda.
I'd consulted with a couplepeople that I knew that rode

(01:35:05):
bikes, uh, Jason Stolz, uhfriend of mine, and he was like,
Man, Trecomondo's a goodall-rounder, you know.
And so that was the first bike,and I loved it, it was great,
and still have it andoccasionally ride it.
And I got this zero SLR and itwas a game changer.

(01:35:26):
And so I don't want to think toomuch about like, oh, if I just
had this button, there's there'snot one out there that's like,
oh, that would be I mean, thenew Filante that's pretty sick,
uh is pretty sexy, to be honestwith you.
But to me, I want to stayfocused on like the training
element of it and think that thebike plays a minimalistic part.

(01:35:46):
I agree.
It definitely has like someelements of it, but it's three
percent faster.
Right.
Yeah, but do I have that threepercent?
No, no is the answer.
Do you have a dream bike?
Uh, I think I do.
Yeah, I don't have a particularbrand or anything, but I think
I'd like a handmade titaniumbike.
Um yeah, nice.
I love like the uniqueness andlike the boutique of like and

(01:36:10):
kind of wild side of things.
So it'd be titanium, so no paintjob, but yeah, I like the
bright, flashy 22.
Uh is a number 22 or just 22 andSage.
They're not they're tie bikes,yeah.
But the way they they oxidizethe tie and do certain things to
it, and it is they arebeautiful, so beautiful.
I think they're out of thenorthwest, both of them are out

(01:36:31):
of the northwest.
Yeah, so it's not even like aperformance aspect because
carbon is going to be the bestfor that, right?
But it's just like theuniqueness and pretty good.
I like that.
Yeah, um a couple more favoritebeer.
Oh boy, I mean cold onebeautiful answer.
I mean the one the one afterhard race, right?

(01:36:53):
Like, and and like it's kind offunny, like we've always been
driven towards modellos justbecause uh me and John started
drinking again this year becauseyeah, before then racing will do
that too.
Yeah, so um, yeah, it's good.
You yeah, you don't have one,okay.

SPEAKER_00 (01:37:10):
Um man, I had like three or four of them, I forgot
them because we got off topic.

SPEAKER_01 (01:37:13):
No, well, maybe it was the modellos, yeah.
Um that's that's like themindset about halfway through
the race.
Like, what what am I doing here?
Didn't we like come up with a uha couple of code words?
You know, we we were talkingabout like it's your safe word.
Well, yeah, Brent and I Brentand I have a safe word that's

(01:37:37):
like when you share that whenyou're uh when you're working
together in a race, right?
Like, oh gosh, toward toward theend, like if one of you is
coming up and you're together inthe race, you have to
communicate, right, in the race.
It's huge, but you also want tolet your every next know what's
going on.

(01:37:57):
So we were like, if you're justabsolutely if you're there, but
you got nothing left and you'rejust pitted, just say cabo.
Yeah, and that way, like it'seasy to say, like you know,
comes out even if you're justlike slobber or whatever.
Just uh say cabo and we'll know,like, okay, we'll you're done.
You're ready to go on vacation.

(01:38:19):
That's right.
We're done here.
So we got a few things likethat.
I like it.
To to yeah, I like that.
Communicate.
What's um is there anything youguys want to finish up with?
I I I forgot my questions.
I'm trying to think of them andI can't remember what they were.
You did not do a bunch ofresearch and like figure this
out beforehand, Ryan.
Is that what you're saying?
This is how every episode goes.

(01:38:39):
It involves a bag of beer and weend up where we end up.
Oh, a bag of beer.
That's what I was excited about.
Yeah.
It was the wing it element.
That's that's how that's howlife rolls over here.
I love it.
Yeah.
And we just get where we get.
I love what you guys are doing.
I do.
I I love that you're doing itthe way that you want to do it
and not the way that it's beendone.
We need more cycling teams inOklahoma City.

(01:39:01):
Yeah.
Because when I came into thisworld, like I mean, we talked
about it a little bitbeforehand.
When I came into it, I came intoit from an outsider and I worked
at the shop, so I got to see alot.
But at that point, there were somany different cycling teams in
Oklahoma City, like a bunch ofthem.
And now there's like none.
I mean, really, outside of like,well, I want to say DNA, like

(01:39:22):
who's the other teams?
I mean, there's nothing.
It's right now, it's a reallyhard time in the cycling
company.
Yeah, so cycling everything.
Yeah.
But I love the fact thatsomebody else is coming in and
not stirring the pot, but likejust giving options.
Because back then there was likea group, and there was like they
were just a blanket on the nameof them.

(01:39:43):
Their kits were like lime greenand bright blue, and they were
fossil, they were just olddudes, like uh old dudes, like
everybody was like 50 to 70, butthat was their team.
And then you had Undiscovered,who was like kind of a church
going group, kind of allinclusive, like had some tri
athletes, had some ladies on theteam, kind of welcoming to

(01:40:05):
everybody, but had also like areal race team, then which that
became evoke eventually andstuff like that.
And then you had like your shopteams, yeah, and then you had a
couple like OKC Velo team.
Like, so there were so manyoptions for people coming into
sport where they could find thepersonality that's the team that
fit their personality.
And right now it's pretty empty.

(01:40:26):
Like when you come to Wheeler,it's it's either like it's you
guys, maybe the couple, maybesprinkles of Tulsa, maybe, and
then DNA, but everybody else iskind of solid.
Uh you have what uh oh, what'sthat team Danny rides on?
Yeah, um anarchist or somethingor heretic, heretic racing.

(01:40:46):
Yeah, but that's the thing, it'swe need more.
Great, yeah.
We need more and more.
I mean, the only positive abouthaving a huge group of like one
team is dominating a race is youcan yell at them in the middle
of the race of chasing stuffback.
But then other than that, likeit kind of removes some of the
fun.
It it it's nice when there'smore options for more

(01:41:08):
personalities and more people tofind homes for their hobby.
It's that's what it is, right?
That's true.
So when people can find morelike-minded people, it just
makes everything better.
It makes the sport better, itall grows, races are better,
people stick in the sportlonger, like all of it's better
because there's a community,they have their community.
You guys have found yourcommunity, DNA guys have found

(01:41:30):
their community, but you haveall the floaters in the middle,
and you see so many of them comeand go when you're in the sport
long enough.
And if they just had a place toplug in and stay, you know.
So I I love the fact that a newteam has come about, and I I
love that you guys are doing ityour way, and you're like, Yeah,
I don't know if we're doing itright or wrong.
We're just doing it.
That's all fun.
That's yeah, that's all thatmatters.
Who cares?
Yeah, because if this goes away,if next year's your last year, I

(01:41:52):
mean, okay, you guys had fun.
Absolutely, and you decidedwe're gonna have quite a large
party if that's the case.
So in cabo.
In cabo.
Exactly.
Yeah, you know who will bethere?
Brendan's mom.
I feel like that's a beautifulway to end this episode.
Cheers to Brendan's mom.

(01:42:13):
I can't wait to see thepictures, is all I gotta say.
We can't show those though.
Okay, I just want to see them.
Special edition calendar.
Uh-oh.
Yeah.
Maybe we'll do a uh paid paidlive episode.
Yeah, yeah.
Go to our website, go sign up.
There's gonna be plenty of linksout there.
Ryan's gonna do the links.
We'll do it all.
So thanks, guys.
I appreciate that.
Thanks very much.

SPEAKER_02 (01:42:35):
This is awesome.
Yeah.

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