October 27, 2025 • 65 mins
I sat down with Luke Fetzer, a 5-time national champion who’s already carving out his place in American criterium racing at just 19 years old. What stood out to me most wasn’t just his results—it was how grounded and self-aware he is for someone still figuring life out.
We talked about what it was like growing up in his parents’ bike shop, watching them close it after nearly 30 years, and how that shaped his perspective on work, risk, and legacy. Luke shared why he left one of the biggest teams in the country to bet on himself, what “champions do everything right” really means to him, and how he’s learning to balance ambition, gratitude, and patience.
It’s an honest, down-to-earth conversation about identity, drive, and becoming the kind of man you want to be—on and off the bike. By the time this episode airs, Luke will have just turned 20, so go wish him a happy birthday and check out his journey in the show notes.
Luke’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/sendy_mcgee/
Episode #200 Survey: https://forms.gle/s72MemFFdHuL7g8DA
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
How's it going everybody? And welcome back to another
edition of the Stupid Questions podcast.
Today in the pod, we're going tobe talking with Luke Fetzer.
He is A5 time national champion,champion in EU 23 category of
professional cycling in the Criterion world.
He is focusing right now. Super awesome guy, really
amazing conversation. And it was fun to talk to
somebody who is as young as he is, but also has a pretty clear
(00:23):
direction on what he wants in life.
So yeah, I really appreciated the conversation with him.
Make sure to check out the show notes for his stuff.
If you want to follow him and his journey.
I think he's definitely going places.
By the time the episode airs, actually, he would have just
turned 20 years old. So maybe go wish him a happy
birthday. But yeah, check out the show
notes for other stuff. Episode 200 is coming up.
If you want to submit some ideasfor their ways to support the
(00:44):
podcast. It's all below in the doobly
Doo. So thank you so much for being
here. And without further ado, when it
introduced you to Luke Fetzer, have you ever done a podcast
before? Once once I was on Criterion
Nation, so second podcast. Nice.
How long ago was that? See, that was in July.
(01:05):
OK, nice. Yeah, it's been you've been
getting some notoriety. How how do you how do you like
doing podcasts? I guess is your only second
experience. So a little bit of an unfair
question. I like it.
I like, I like talking to like meeting new people, sharing my
story and like, like being able to tell people my my story from
a first person point of view rather than someone else telling
(01:27):
my story. Yeah, cool man.
That's awesome. Well, First off, I just want to
say thank you so much for takingthe time.
I'm sure you're busy. Sounds like you had some family
downstairs. I was on your microphone there
for a second. So are you, are you staying at
your parents house? Is this your grandparents house?
Where you at right now? This is my parents house, I'm
only 19. I I still live in my with my
(01:47):
dad, my #1 supporter. Nice, that's awesome.
Is he is he a cyclist as well? He is, yeah.
My dad, he started riding when he was 12, so that was like 83.
He moved to California in 96, met my mom, and then they
started a bike shop together in 98.
(02:09):
And this is the the last year ofoperation.
They're, they're shutting down on New Year's Eve.
So it's been almost almost 30 years.
Yeah, wow. So you're 19?
So they've been doing that longer than you've been alive.
So your whole life has been circled around this bike shop
then, huh? Yeah, it's been my whole life.
Like we, I literally lived in the bike shop when I was young.
Yeah, I was born and raised there.
(02:31):
And even though I played all thetraditional American sports
growing up, cycling was like I hadn't, I had no other choice
but to go into it. I was, yeah, I was given
everything to succeed in the sport.
So what's the temperature in terms of just like the feelings
for you, like your family with the bike shop closing?
(02:52):
I mean, obviously, you know, on New Year's, like that's a,
that's a significant date, I guess to like to start new
beginnings, but to also close this chapter.
Like what's everybody feeling about this?
We're a little bit sad, yeah. I mean, it's been my dad's whole
life, since he was 2025. And so he's he's ready for the
(03:14):
the next chapter of his life. He's he's been through
everything there. And so he's ready to kind of get
away from the the chaos that is a a local bike shop.
You get a lot of characters and it's a lot of stress.
And he's just, he's ready to move on.
Yeah, I'm a I'm definitely a little bit sad.
(03:35):
Like it's, it's nostalgic. I grew up there.
But yeah, I'm I'm sure I could always walk in there once once
we do sell and it'll still be still be in my second home.
Yeah. Well, I was going to ask like
it, it is going to be a sale like someone else is going to
take it over. Is that what's in the plan or is
there not a buyer quite yet? Not a buyer quite yet.
(03:55):
The building's being sold, and so that's why the shop's
shutting down. Yeah, yeah.
Dang, so that's that's a huge change, yeah.
Yeah, the the landlord's cool. He's not pushing us out.
It's just more it gives my dad areason to step out finally.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. How old is your dad?
My dad is 560, he's 532071, yeah. 71 Nice.
(04:19):
So yeah, So what? He's still still races.
OK. So I was going to ask, what's he
going to be doing after? Is he going to like kind of
quote, UN quote, retire, just maybe get back to bike racing or
what do you think he's going to do?
I think so. I think he's going to enjoy life
for a bit. He's just going to ride his
bike, travel, see the world a little bit, yeah, go to these
races without having the stress of the employees calling about
(04:42):
whatever it may be. And so he's just going to enjoy
life for a bit, move on. So your mom are your parents are
still together? They're not, no.
OK, so she doesn't have anythingto do with the bike shop then I
would assume? Not anymore, but she did when
they first started. Yeah, for sure.
(05:02):
Yeah, that's a that's a huge undertaking.
Entrepreneurship is no joke. Do you consider yourself to be
an entrepreneur you think? Oh, that's a good question.
I took an entrepreneurial class in school, so OK if that counts.
Not quite, but. Yeah.
It takes it takes it takes time.But I guess more of what I'm
(05:23):
asking is like the the tendencies, you know, because
obviously there's risk involved being an an athlete, like
especially a younger athlete, like you're starting to feel the
ropes for sponsorships and servepeople reaching out podcasts or
wanting to have you on. Like you have to say yes and no
to different types of stuff. So that I would think that
there's definitely entrepreneurial tendencies, but
do you enjoy that aspect of, youknow, the personal brand or you
(05:45):
being a business? Yeah, yeah, I love it.
Yeah. The, the, I think the definition
of an entrepreneur is someone that takes risk on themselves.
And I mean, I'm definitely taking on traditional path,
trying to be a pro cyclist in America, trying to make an image
for myself at 19. It's not what most kids do.
(06:08):
Most kids go to a four year college right away and then they
try and make something of themselves after that.
But I came straight out, straight out of high school and
I wanted to kind of make an image for myself in the US and I
love it. I love growing into this person
that I'm becoming, saying yes tothese podcasts and saying yes to
these opportunities. I'm trying to say yes as much as
(06:32):
possible. The the the world is my oyster
and I have so much, so much in front of me that I could do, and
I'm trying to take as much of anadvantage out of every
opportunity I get. Yeah, great answer, man.
So that mindset of like taking advantage of all the opportunity
and you know, like you said, theworld is your oyster.
There's lots of things before you and you're saying yes to a
lot of things. One lesson that is difficult to
(06:55):
learn, I would say is like how to say yes, say no to things.
I don't think you necessarily need to do that.
It's not what I'm hinting at. But have you had things cross
your table where you're trying to decide, oh, do maybe I say no
to this? Have you had any of those
instances yet? Yeah, I mean, this year was
probably one of the biggest decisions I've had to make
(07:17):
coming into this season. In early January, we were signed
with Legion of Los Angeles, which used to be the pinnacle of
American crit racing. They were the biggest team and
me and my right hand man, Lucas Burgoyne, we were signed with
them until January 15th. I was a little bit discontent
(07:38):
with the offer that I was getting.
And we had this other team, Dallas based team, Cadence
Cyclery, come to us and say, hey, we could provide you this,
we can give you this and that. And there's basically everything
that we wanted. And I had to make the big
decision of do I want to switch?Do I want to say no?
Could this be an opportunity forme to build my own brand instead
(07:59):
of going under the Legion umbrella?
And so that was the first time Istill said yes to Cadence, but I
had to say no, no to Legion. So far you feel like that was a
good decision. I think so.
I think so. This year we've in my mind
(08:20):
became the, the best crit team in the US.
We've won 39 races. We have dominated the, the crit
scene. I would like to think we're the,
the, the face of the scene. And at 19, I'm, I'm building a
name for myself and building a brand.
(08:41):
And it's, yeah, I think the bestdecision I could have made.
Yeah, cool. For going back really quick to
the entrepreneurship and just the riskiness of, you know, the
life decisions that you're making, which you're young, you
have the ability to do that, which is awesome.
Your dad's super supportive. Do you think that the decisions
that you're making and the just mentality that you have toward
(09:06):
this lifestyle and trying to figure it out and make it in
this sport, especially in America, because cycling is so
much different than Europe? Do you think that your tolerance
for the risk and the decisions you're making is more of a
nature or more of a nurture thing for you?
Oh, I don't even know how to answer that.
I would say more of a a nature thing like I've I've I've got
(09:30):
people around me that support meand only want to see me succeed.
It's rare. I mean, people always say like,
oh, your your dad's only person that wants the only man that
wants you to be better than he is.
And thankfully I have people around me that want me to be
better than them, even if they aren't my dad.
And so I have people coaching meand, and wanting me to make the
(09:52):
best decision and guiding me in the right, right path.
And so it's kind of just nature for me to to go the way I've
gone. Yeah.
So with that you, it sounds likeyou have a lot of really good
mentors and people surrounding you who are pushing you and like
helping to I guess guide you in that direction.
And there's a difference to be said, I think, between like
pushing and guiding. But for you, because you know,
(10:14):
you're talking about building a name for yourself, building an
image, a brand, you know, that'skind of the front facing stuff.
But internally like who do you say that Luke is?
Like who is Luke? I'm just a little little
California beach bum who likes to surf and likes to race my
bike like there's there's not much else to me.
(10:37):
Yeah. Luke Fetzer is a a boy that
loves his boys like I'm I'm I want to see my boys achieve.
And that that partially makes mysuccess and and my team success
is that I'm willing to lay myself out there for my boys
because if they win, I win. Yeah, for the most part, Luke
Fetzer is just a little beach bum biker kid.
(11:00):
Yeah. So let's pretend for a second
that the opportunity to race vanished and you're not even
going to be able to surf what? What do you think would circle
more around your identity or what would you circle around
that would become your identity more if you think?
I love motorbikes. I freaking love motorbikes.
I just, I just bought and now I'm going to sell it.
(11:21):
I bought my first sport bike. What is that?
It's ACBR 600, okay, yeah and it's super fast and I'm gonna
kill myself and so I have to getrid of it.
Good. I already owe like, yeah, I
already owe like $1000 in speeding tickets.
And so I got. It how many points do you have
on your license? Too many, too many, the
(11:42):
insurance is gonna go up. Yeah, I think it's already gone
up. If you're 1000 bucks in speeding
tickets thing that's that's crazy.
Yeah, yeah. California cops, especially in
Orange County, do not like sportbikes.
Like they see one and they just,they go after him right away.
And if, if even if he's not speeding, they find something.
And so I got to, I got to sell that.
(12:03):
If I, yeah, if I didn't ride, ifI didn't surf, I would probably
ride motorbikes if I couldn't doanything physical.
I really want to be a pilot growing up my, my main goal, I
had a really good mentor. His name is Daniel Willett.
When I was like 14, he raced forLux as well, the premier junior
(12:24):
team in the US at the time. And then he went to the Air
Force Academy and now he's a, a Lieutenant in the Air Force and
he flies at T Sixes. And so he's always been like
he's a, he's a fighter pilot trainer in the Air Force.
Like, that's one of the best role models for a a young man.
And he kind of set me on the path.
I wanted to go into the Air Force Academy to become a pilot.
(12:46):
And yeah, I couldn't do anythingphysical, ride my bike or surf.
I would probably want to become a pilot.
Good money. You could see the world, see
everything from an aerial view. I think it's, I think it's one
of the coolest things ever. Yeah.
Do you have siblings? I do, I have one older sister,
25. So you guys are just six years
apart. Do you find that that gap
(13:07):
enabled you guys to be closer orwas it harder being close when
you're younger? Like what's your relationship
like with your sister? I hated her when I was young.
Well, like I would, I would fight her all the time.
She she's got some some physicalproblems.
She has a cystic fibrosis and soshe would need to take a lot of
steroids, which would make her very angry really quick.
(13:31):
And I was this little 7 year oldkid with scraggly blonde hair
who just wanted like, I just want to see my sister and I
wanted to play. And I like, it was way too much
for her. And so we kind of hated each
other because of that. But now, like, that's my best
friend. I love my sister more than
anything. Like, she lived down in San
Diego. Go see her all the time.
She comes up here. She was just here this weekend.
(13:54):
She's yeah, she's she's great. I love my sister now, but we
used to hate each other. Yeah, it's similar with me and
my sister. So I have two younger sisters,
one's four years younger and one's like 12 years younger.
So it's quite a big gap there. But especially with the sisters
four years apart, I was the older 1.
So it's a little bit different. But we, I don't know, we, we
quote UN quote hated each other for different reasons.
(14:16):
I mean, we loved each other, butwe fought to tooth and nail.
I would build all these crazy jumps that I was too scared to
do and make all these crazy contraptions and would kind of
instill false confidence in her like, oh, you can do it.
So really, honestly, I look up to her so much now because she
went through so much that I would never have done.
But the sibling relationships are always super fascinating to
me. Yeah, well, that's a that's a
(14:36):
good Big Brother thing to do. You got to, you got to push your
little sister to be tough. You don't want your sister to
come out like a little little Daisy.
That's what a good Big Brother would do.
Exactly. So let me ask you this question.
As you started to grow up, you know, you grew around the the
bike shop, you mentioned playingother sports.
When in your mind did it start start to become clear that like,
(14:58):
oh, I think I like cycling the most or this is the thing that I
want to lean into the most? Freshman year of high school.
Like I know the exact day my my dad let me play all the
traditional sports, baseball, basketball, soccer, football,
basketball was the 1st to go andthen soccer and then football
and then baseball was all that'swhat's left.
(15:19):
And freshman year there was freshman tryouts and I went and
wasn't as good as the other kids, but my dad was like, OK,
they're both sports are getting expensive.
You can make the team and you could you could go on the team
or you could choose cycling. Like it's just too expensive.
You have to choose one. And I was like, well, I don't, I
(15:41):
don't know anybody in the baseball world.
Like I have like multiple world champions walking to the bike
shop every day. My dad has connections and all
these companies and all these friends and my dad's the bike
shop owner in town. Like I kind of kind of
gravitated towards that because of that.
And yeah, so freshman year I decided no more baseball, no
(16:05):
more sports, like going to dedicate myself fully to
cycling. Did like independent PE freshman
year. And then sophomore year I hit,
COVID hit when I was a freshman,so I'm halfway through online.
Everyone went online and it was kind of perfect for me because
nobody was out on the roads, no one was out in the trails.
And I would just go ride all dayevery day with my friends.
(16:27):
And that's when I really startedto fall in love with it,
bringing up I kind of didn't want to ride.
It was like just something my dad made me to do.
And then once COVID hit, I was riding with my friends every
day, having so much fun. And yeah, sophomore year decided
I kind of want to focus more on training for these races.
And that's when I started to getserious, serious with sophomore
(16:52):
year. What do you think changed in
terms of, you know, because you mentioned when you were younger
your dad made you do it and you're like, I don't want to do
this. And I think there's a lot of a
lot of areas of discipline in life where our parents make us
do something and then we get a little bit older and it's
something kind of changes withinus.
But what do you think changed within you?
Like you mentioned COVID, so there was that opportune thing
not in as many cars, but what else changed do you think?
(17:15):
Definitely just being able to ride with buddies.
Once everyone went online I likeI would always go to the beach
with my friends because that's what everyone does in the going
to beach. You go to the beach after
school. I never wanted to ride because
all my friends were down at the beach.
And then once COVID hit, we all had time to ride and go to the
beach. And so just being able to ride
(17:35):
with buddies like my, my best friend lived four blocks away
and now he's on the best U23 mountain bike team in the US.
And so we've kind of grown up together, blossomed together in
the sport. Iron sharpens iron, you know,
having having friends to push meand me pushing my friends,
(17:59):
that's what kind of made my mentality switch.
Yeah. So what is what is your current
belief internally for what you think you are capable of?
Like what do you hope for the future?
I want to be the best quit racerin the USI want to be the the
(18:20):
the face of this sport. I always, I always look to, to
Justin Williams as a mentor and someone that I aspire to be.
I mean, he was a Red Bull sponsored athlete.
He drive nice cars. He's got the nice shoes like I,
I want to live in LA like he did.
And he's someone that, that I aspire to be because he was, it
(18:42):
was the top of his game. He ran the sport.
He was the face of the sport. And that's what that's what I
want to be. So your friend, we talked about
him a little bit, Lucas, becauseI think I reached out to you
first and then you were like, hey, you should talk to Lucas as
well. Is that how it went?
I'm pretty sure, Yeah. Yeah.
So he is the 2025 like pro crit champ and you guys are pretty
(19:04):
close friends. And like you said earlier, like,
you know, some someone on your team wins, you win.
That may not always be the case in terms of your guys's, you
know, being on the same team. How does that dynamic play out
and the way that you guys interact with each other?
Well, this year I think he won probably 28 races and I won
(19:27):
four. So I know like Lucas is the
better cyclist, like he could beat me 10 times out of 10.
And so that dynamic really helpsus in these races.
Cycling is a it's a team sport, even though only one person wins
and you need your team to dedicate themselves fully to you
(19:49):
on on some days they'll be a chance that I can win and he'll
fully back me at that chance. But for the most part, the
dynamic is me helping him, whichI'm totally fine with.
He's a great guy. I love working for him.
I know he could pull it off. I know he could go lock it in
for me. If I if I bury myself for him,
(20:10):
he's going to bury himself for the win.
And it's not just it's not just the winning like Lucas is also.
Great on the mic. He really gives us props after
the races. He's great on social media.
He's like, he's someone that makes you want to work for him
rather than, you know, there's alot of guys that don't want to
work for their teammates becauseeither A, they don't like them
(20:31):
or B, they just don't see any, any benefit.
Yeah. Yeah.
That that. What is the best way to say
this, that structure, that hierarchy that you're talking
about, you know, with team? Because it sounds like he's not
just a good cyclists and a champion, but he's also like a
leader for the team. How does a team do you think
(20:55):
from your limited experience, obviously, and I don't know
this, you're more way more experienced than I am.
But how does a team establish a culture like that where there is
a mutual respect, like a willingness to, as you say, bury
yourself so that they can bury themselves to do their job and
vice versa? Like we're what?
What fosters that kind of an environment?
(21:16):
I don't know this, this all cameorganically.
Like I was never like, oh, want to be on a team Lucas, because I
think we would get along so wellor even Richard on our team.
I was never like, I want to be on a team with Richard.
Like we would work so well together.
It kind of just comes together and we're all young and we're
all friends and we all just likeI said, I'm like Luke Fetzer is
(21:38):
a boy that loves his boys and we're just friends riding bikes
around. And that that kind of helps to
our success because we all just we're all just friends.
Ryan bikes around and we just love hanging out with each
other. And if we get to win, we get,
yeah, I don't really know how tohow to word that, but.
(22:01):
I think you answered it well. I think you really hit the nail
on the head when it comes to like you're saying, you know,
the boys, that mentality of you guys being friends.
I think before anything else, you have to be friends.
Because if you if you're not willing to be friendly to
someone, I think it's harder to go beyond just like mutual
respect. Because like anyone, anyone
who's a man, like a true man or a true woman, whatever.
(22:24):
I think that can have a level ofrespect for somebody who stands
across from them, whether on thesame team or it's opposite teams
or whatever the profession or sport or whatever.
But to have that friendship, like there has to be a level of
chemistry and understanding of each other, isn't seeing each
other as a human and an individual rather than just like
teammates or opponents. That allows you to have that
(22:46):
depth to to be able to go into battle, quote UN quote with that
person to sacrifice yourself. You have to care about something
more than just what's what's on the jersey.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
So what do you think? Like do you have, and I don't
ask this question because I think you need to have one, but
I'm just genuinely curious, do you have any type of a Plan B
(23:09):
for your future? Like you know, we mentioned a
little bit about flying or anything like that, but do you
have any type of a fall back plan?
A little bit. I mean, cycling is is so
dangerous and it could, it couldend like that.
I could, I could crash and breakmy hip and then I can never ride
again or something. And I definitely don't have that
(23:30):
bomb proof of a, of a Plan B, Plan B.
But I feel like, I feel like I've got people around me that
will support me no matter what Ido.
And I, I, I have a mentality of just being able to put the right
foot forward every morning. And so if cycling does go South,
(23:53):
as long as I make the right decisions every day and go in
the right path and keep my head up and my nose out of the dirt,
I'll always guide myself in the right direction.
I, I am in, I am in school rightnow getting my associate's
degree. And right now that's my, that's
(24:14):
my Plan B. It's kind of just something to
to do while I'm on the road, butit'll it'll only push me in the
right the right direction once Ido finish that.
You think so? I I I hope so.
Yeah, who, who, who is that? Like, do you, if you were to
make the decision right now, no matter what, no other
(24:36):
influences, do you think that you would stay in school?
I'm not trying to get you in trouble, but I'm like trying to
see where the motivation lies. No, no.
If I had no other, well, I so I did take it.
I took a gap year and then it wasn't, it wasn't my parents
(24:57):
telling me to do that or my parents telling me to start back
up at school. That was that was kind of my own
decision. I was like, man, I'm, I'm
traveling all the time. I have nothing to do except
scroll on TikTok like I need something to do keep me busy.
And I have felt like, like school is it's keeping me busy,
keeping me occupied, giving me something to, to do and make me
(25:19):
feel accomplished a little bit. And so in my 19 year old brain,
I don't want to stay in school. Like I just want to go ride my
bike and go to the beach. But I know that's not realistic.
I'm no, I'm not going to get youanywhere in life if I'm spending
all day at the beach. But I do love having, having
(25:41):
something to, to do every day asas training as it can be.
And as much as I do procrastinate, it gives me give
me purpose. Yeah, that's a good answer.
Yeah. So my wife, I almost dropped out
of college multiple times. I took an entrepreneurship
class, started a business, and then I talked to her constantly.
Like, I think I'm going to be done with this.
(26:02):
And I didn't have my parents, specifically my mom, around to
like pay for school or encourageme in that way.
So, you know, is it obviously a different situation?
I think if my parents were helping to provide the finances,
but we're also like the room andboard like like you're staying
home or whatever, I think that Iwould respect that a lot more.
But I almost quit multiple timesand I to be honest, not even
(26:25):
sure 100% if I was to go back intime, if I would still stay in
school. But it did teach me one really
valuable thing and give me one valuable thing.
It taught me the importance of like seeing something through to
completion, which was very hard for me to do at that point, my
life, I don't think I'd ever done it.
And then too, I met my wife in college.
She can't really put a price on that.
But I, I, I guess what I'm saying is I admire, you know,
(26:48):
your mindset around that becauseit sounds to me maybe a little
bit like there's some parental influence.
Maybe some others are like, Hey,you got to finish, finish school
and if it's keeping you off yourCVRA little bit more and you're
not going to kill yourself like that, yeah, that's also good.
But I respect that decision, yeah.
Yeah, there's there's definitelysome like late nights after
races when I have homework and Ijust really don't want to do it.
(27:11):
And I'm like, dude, it's like I want to drop out.
Like I I'm racing bikes making money, like I should drop out.
I need to focus on this, but I always get it done and I always
see it through and as difficult as it may be sometimes I'm I'm
not failing classes and so I have no reason then to drop out
quite yet. Yeah, well, it sounds like it's
(27:32):
still sharpening you like in thedisciplinary areas like doing
things when you don't want to dothem, growing the amygdala, but
you know as an inter humor inputs it.
Yeah, it's a very important yeah.
So that's awesome. Yeah, I also feel like the more
classes I take, the better cyclist I become, which is crazy
because I would think like, oh, the more classes, the less time
(27:53):
I have to train, but the more classes I'm taking, the less
time I have to screw around. And so I'm like, I'm having to
plan my day better. I can't procrastinate.
I can't stay up late. I can't like I can't extend my
rides super long. Like I, I just have to stay
strict to my, to myself and my, my plan.
And so I do kind of like loadingmy plate up a little bit more
(28:14):
than I could eat. That way.
I I have to stay locked in? Yeah, good for you.
That's not that's not an easy mindset for, I say a lot of
young guys like your age, young girls, too.
But that's, yeah, today's world affords so many opportunities to
procrastinate or just kind of screw around and waste time.
(28:34):
I mean, I still procrastinate. I'm like, I'm a chronic
procrastinator, but it makes me it makes me procrastinate a
little bit less. A little bit less so.
What else have you learned aboutyourself, you know, in this time
of, you know, being a professional cyclist, like
taking it seriously? What else through your life have
you learned about yourself that has come to light?
(28:56):
I've learned so much about myself.
I think cycling is one of the only sports that you can really
be with yourself for hours on end and you learn so much about
how your mind works. You learn so much about yourself
on a 7 hour ride alone, like last last winter and probably
(29:19):
this winter, my coach is having me do like 7 hour rides and I'll
I'll do those by myself. And you have no other choice but
to think about your problems. You have no other choice but to
fully think those inner thoughts, which is something you
don't really. Yeah, you don't really get in in
(29:39):
this busy age. Like, sure, maybe some runners
can get that, but the impact of running is so heavy.
And so I feel like that would kind of jar your brain a little
bit. Cycling is such a such a fluid,
low impact sport that you have so much time to think.
So I get a lot of alone time andthat kind of brings up thoughts
(30:05):
of, you know, just going that one mile farther, not being a
little. Can I curse on this?
You can do whatever you want, yeah.
Yeah, like, like don't be, don'tbe a bitch.
The pain, the pain is temporary.The success is forever.
Like I always that that's something my dad always said.
(30:26):
One thing that has stuck with methat he said growing up and
becoming a a cyclist is champions do everything right.
And that always replays in my mind when I'm like, I don't want
to do that last interval or I don't want to don't want to get
out of bed early to do this right.
I don't want to eat that food. Like I don't want to make my
bed. I I only made my bed for this
podcast but like. Thank you.
(30:50):
Like champions do everything right, and that's one thing I've
I've came to learn. Can I put this?
Back on that, actually a little bit, because like you're saying,
like champions do everything right.
Do you truly believe that? I think so.
I think so. I mean, everyone's got their
flaws, but I think, I think TadePoljkar wakes up in the morning
(31:15):
and does everything right. You know, he, he'll have his
morning, morning routine of making his bed, eating the right
meal, eating the right drink, drinking the right drink, taking
the right vitamins, doing the right training ride.
And I, yeah, I truly think that,that I think it's more champions
do things that they don't want to do and that that forces them
(31:38):
to be better. Yeah.
Another, another thing that thatI saw it on like an Instagram
reel. It was like, what what makes
champions different from me? And it's not, it's not what
champions have is what they don't have is that they don't
have an off switch. And that's one thing I've really
(31:59):
looked to to my teammate Lucas for the the pro champ.
He he does not have an off switch.
He's just go, go, go, go, go long ride, long ride.
Doesn't matter if he's sick. It doesn't matter if he didn't
sleep. Help.
We we did a ride in Miami. He got an hour and a half of
sleep and we did a four hour ride and he was he's he's a
champion that doesn't do everything right, but he doesn't
(32:24):
care about the circumstances andhe just does it.
He he doesn't have an off switch.
He's not like, oh, well, I didn't, I didn't eat properly
today or I didn't fuel properly today.
Like he's the I got this, this thing that I've been saying
since I won my national championship.
I don't like Mama didn't write no bitch and his mom, Lisa
(32:45):
Burgoyne did not raise a bitch. Like he is just a he's a tough
man that doesn't care about the circumstances and he's just kind
of, he's going to do it no matter what, no matter what you
say. Yeah.
Interesting, it'll be fun for meto interview him because I'd
love to hear his story in depth too because it sounds like he
probably had some harder stuff that he had to go through as
well. Is he raised just by his mom?
(33:08):
No, he he's got 2 parents, his mom, his mom does work with
sexual assault victims. And so he's, he's seen some
stuff hurts and stuff he did grow up in, in inner city
Houston. He was, even though he was a, he
was a world record runner when he was young.
Anything from the 500 up, he's probably either had or still has
(33:32):
the world record. He was a, he was a quick little
little boy and he has had, I don't know, kind of tougher
upbringing, but he switched fromrunning over to cycling when he
was like 14. He got injured, I think he broke
(33:53):
his foot. And the doctor was like, hey,
like you just need something stiff under you.
And cycling shoes are carbon, they're stiff.
So why don't you start, start cycling?
And like 2 weeks later he won his first national championship.
Oh my goodness. So he's, he's definitely
naturally gifted, but he's also got a great mentality where he
(34:18):
doesn't, he doesn't care the circumstances.
He's he's going to do the training, Yeah.
Take every right step that he can.
So what are your thoughts on like the on David Goggins then?
I'm sure you're familiar. With that, I love Goggins.
I love Goggins. Sounds like he's.
Right in the. Rally Yeah, yeah, Before my my
(34:40):
first world championship, our our national team coach Gavin
Mannion, he pulled up a Goggins video and Goggins is like
running through the desert. He's like bottom my feet OK,
hurt, knees are burning, pavements hot as fuck.
I don't care. Y'all like you guys don't get
you guys don't care. And that that mentality of like
(35:04):
other people don't care that I'mstruggling.
Like 1, my competitors are hurting as well.
And two, the people on the sideline, like they don't care
if I didn't get sleep. They didn't care if I didn't eat
right. They don't care that I'm
injured, like they just want to see me finish.
That's that's like no one else cares about my struggles.
And so I'm still going to do thework I love.
(35:24):
I do love that Coggins mentality.
Yeah, it's a hard mentality to to adopt and hold, I'll say that
much. So what is your relationship
with like rest and recovery? Because I imagine your 7 hour
rides, you're not going out there crushing just you know, I
don't know, four times an hour it zone Infinity, you know, like
what what do you, what is what is your rest and mentality
(35:47):
mentality protocol look like? I, I love sleeping.
I'm like I'm the big, I'm the I'm the best sleeper you'll ever
meet. Like I I'll zonk out in 2
seconds but that's not it like that.
And I think the beach is like a ice bath.
Those are the only two recoveries.
(36:08):
I really don't, I don't really stretch.
I don't really use foam rollers.I don't really go in the sauna.
I don't really use a actual ice bath other than the ocean.
My mentality is yeah, yeah, right.
And it like it's got, it's got salt in there, saline.
And so it must be like a salt bath.
(36:30):
Other than that, like I just, I,I sleep right, I eat right.
Those are my 2 recovery tricks. My mom is a my mom's a private
chef and so she's always broughtme up to eat right, eat healthy.
And I don't know this, this, this life of a crit racer on the
(36:50):
road is, is taxing and not everything's perfect.
I feel like for a lot of the European world tour pros,
they've got tons of people on their on their bus on their team
that are there to support them, make sure they have their
pomegranate or they're they're tart cherry just right after the
race and they have the recovery and then they have their post
(37:12):
race meal and then they stretch and then they go in the ice
bath. Like these big teams have so
many people there to support them.
And as a small budget American team, we don't have that.
And we kind of just, we just we're easy like we aren't
stressing about our recovery. We'll, we'll finish the race and
(37:37):
then we'll go get Chipotle like 3 hours later.
And although it's suboptimal, like we're still going to win
the race afterwards. Like as, as Goggin says, like
you don't care, like no one elsecares about, you know, if I'm
optimally eating a meal right after, after training or racing,
like we're, we're, we're kind ofshow ponies.
(37:59):
And so we got to, we got to do the race and then we got to, we
got to be the showman after the race.
And then we got a, you know, it's a small rant team.
And so when we have to drive thecar home and then we have to
clean the bikes. And so our, our rest and
recovery isn't perfect. We try and make it as perfect as
(38:20):
we can, but it's it's pretty subtle optimal I would say.
Yeah. I think it's important, but.
Yeah. Sometimes you just can't get it
all. Yeah, I was going to say, you
know, not to not to pokey, but like the the mindset of like
champions do everything right. I think it really comes back to
(38:42):
like what you're talking about the things you have control
over, the things you can control, do those to the best of
your absolute optimal ability. And the other things like don't
stress what's outside of your control.
Because like you said, you don'thave a team of mechanics ready
to take your bikes right after the race and tune them up and
even hand you a new one here in a little bit later.
Or, you know, you have to go give a speech or get ready for
awards and you're not able to eat right away or whatever it
(39:04):
is. Like there's a lot of things
that you have to kind of be relaxed about.
And that mentality of stressing what you cannot control is, you
know, terrible. But being able to let go of the
stress and the things you just can't control, like that's,
that's an art form. Yeah, what good is stressing
going to do? It's only, it's only going to
stress you out. It's going to stress your
(39:24):
system, it's going to stress your your recovery and you're
not going to you're not going torecover as well mentally or
physically if you're stressed out.
And so sometimes you just got tojust got to tug it out.
You just got to deal with it. Yeah.
So let me ask you this question.What do you think is something
that feels really important to you right now that maybe you
think might not matter as much afew years from now?
(39:57):
Man, that's a this podcast is called Stupid Questions, but
that's a really good question. I feel like I don't know in my
in my mind, like racing is the most important thing to me.
And there's a lot of people thatcould not care less about racing
bikes. And I think it's so important
(40:18):
and I have to wake up and do everything right so that I could
be the best person I can in thissport and in racing.
But to some people, they could care less.
One thing, one thing Lucas says on the way to and from races,
he's like, hey, look at look at all these people driving on this
highway, like they don't care what you just did.
And so even though racing is themost important thing to me right
(40:39):
now, my life is changing so quick.
In three years from now, it could not matter.
Like, I'll cherish these memories forever.
But what, what we're talking about now and what is my whole
entire life right now in a in a few years could not matter.
So. So you're a five time national
champion? Yes, Sir.
(41:00):
What does that mean to you? And then the second part of that
question, after your most recentlike championship win, what did
you feel and what did you think about yourself?
You know, when the day kind of is over, when the fanfare is all
kind of done, you know, you're kind of alone with your
thoughts. What are you thinking about with
yourself like and how you view believe in yourself?
(41:24):
Well, what these, what these jersey mean to me is I don't
think it, it means as much to menow as it did to me when I was
young. And I was wanting one of those
so, so bad. Like I was, I was 10 and I had,
I had that jersey as my wallpaper on my phone and I
wanted one so bad. That's all I wanted.
(41:44):
And then now I have 5 of them. And so it's, it's, it's
rewarding when all the, the fanfare is done, when all the
pictures are done, when the Instagram hype wears off, it's,
it's so rewarding to myself and to my family.
They've dedicated so much to me in this journey.
(42:06):
So the, it's, it's less about the prizes and the gold medals
in the jerseys now, as it is thejourney and the, the people that
I meet along the way and the, the man I'm becoming today that
that's, that's the most rewarding part.
And although I will have thoughts of, you know, what am I
(42:28):
going to do when this is over? When is this going to be over?
And how long can I keep doing this for?
Right now? I'm, I'm, I'm loving the journey
and I'm loving the chase and I'mloving waking up every day and
having these new opportunities. And so once, yeah, once the
Instagram hype is done and the fanfare is over, I'm just, I'm,
I'm thankful every day for whereI'm at and what I'm doing.
(42:50):
And having the ability to to keep doing what I'm doing.
Are you a good cyclist? Yeah, I think yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm a good cyclist. Yeah, so you believe it?
I believe it, yeah. I got to tell myself that.
You got to be confident. Yeah.
(43:10):
Well, are there any moments likewhere your inner critic steps
out and and says differently, like when you're speaking to
yourself internally? All the time there's been a few
like I just there's been a few track races where I'm like, is
this really for me? Like, is this sport for me?
Like I'm getting, I'm getting wiped.
(43:31):
I'm like, I think I'm good and I'm just getting my ass handed
to me. And so, yeah, the inner critic
is like, like I told my dad this.
I'm like, dad, like, is this sport for me?
Like, did you just see that performance that was horrible?
Like, am I, am I built for this?And then two days later, I win a
race. I'm like, OK, all right, yeah,
(43:52):
I'm, I'm. I'm built for this.
What is your dad say in the moment when you've when you've
said that to him? He says, he says it's just
temporary like that. And he's really good at, at
hyping me up. He he, he'll go back into the
past and be like, oh, like May, OK, that was just one time.
But you remember that time you did that?
(44:12):
You remember that time that you were 14 and you rode 130 miles?
You remember when you beat that guy or you won that race?
You did it in that fashion. I'm not.
Wait. Yeah, yeah.
Wait, wait. I kind of maybe I am a beast.
Thanks, Dad. Yeah, it's good to have a father
in that, in that place, or really any mentor.
But I think it probably especially means something extra
(44:36):
when it is your father and he's able to remind you because it's
so easy to forget what we've done or where we've been, good
or bad. Honestly, you know, when we're
kind of caught up in the moment of in the wrong way, like, you
know, with that inner critic voice and just the self doubt,
it really, it's almost like a form of self hatred because we
tell ourselves things inside ourown heads that we would never
(44:57):
say to someone to their face, let alone like the little kid
that lives within us that, you know, was like when we were five
or six years old. Like that's it's still very much
a human within us. It is a it is one of my favorite
things proving that that inner critic wrong.
When when in my mind, I'm like, I don't feel good today.
Like I don't think I could do that well.
(45:19):
Like I I just won a race up in Boise.
I won it solo. And that morning I was like,
like, I think I'm getting sick. I don't think I'm going to do
well. Like I can't believe I flew all
this way. And then I win the race like I
love, I love proving myself wrong.
That's one of my one of my favorite things.
(45:39):
Yeah, yeah, cuz as humans, like,yeah, it's such a good point.
We're such pattern recognition. I don't know, robots like we
love to see the patterns and it's like, oh, we're not feeling
good here. So then therefore this is the
outcome. But then when you're able to
break that mold and then have that as a remembrance, like
that's a powerful tool to use inany high performance situation,
(46:00):
whether physically or honestly, even mentally.
Yeah. That's really cool that you've
had those experiences, though. And I feel like only as you get
older, you'll have more of thoseopportunities to lock in those
David Goggins moments where you push through, you know, because
nothing else really matters except what's going on up here
in that moment. Yeah, it's cool.
So let me ask you this. Are you?
(46:22):
Are you a religious person? No, no, I'm not.
I do. I do like the the religious
beliefs of most of the time it'sabout being a better person,
making the right decisions. I got I have nothing against it.
My my first coach and one of my biggest role models is probably
(46:43):
the most Christian man you'll ever meet.
Like he lives in a little shack on Christian property.
He doesn't care about his his belongings, but he's he's
devoted to God in Christ and he's got good morals and he's a
he's a great person and great moral model and takes care of
me. And so I have nothing against
(47:05):
nothing against religion. Yeah, I think.
I think it is a good part of sport especially.
Yeah. Are you?
Yeah, I grew up. Yeah, I grew up Christian, took
some time away to kind of figureout what I believed and why I
believed. And as I came back around, like,
yeah, it's definitely a lifestyle that I, that I choose
(47:27):
to live now. It gives me a lot more meaning
and purpose when I'm thinking about it.
Just as I've gotten older, you know, my wife's pregnant right
now, you know, as I've, I'm justin a different phase of life and
I've seen things happen in my own personal, I guess why I
would call my journey to where it's undeniable to me that
something exists beyond myself. Like whether you call it a
(47:49):
higher power or God or whatever it is, like there's something
there that I think has a creative power to, to give life.
And then we also have that same power through our words and lips
to like give life or death to other people.
So I can't deny it. So that's kind of that's kind of
where I sit. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, Congrats on the Congrats
on the pregnancy. Thank you.
(48:09):
Well, how do you, how do you feel that that religion either
like inspires you or or guides you in in sport because you're
obviously an athlete as well? Yeah, it's a good question.
So this past weekend, So yeah, 2days ago I did Iron Man in
(48:29):
California. And so, you know, you do the
swim, you do the bike, and for the longest time, you know, the
swimming and the biking. Swimming comes pretty naturally
to me. Biking comes relatively natural,
like I have to work at it, but like I'm lighter and for
whatever reason, like it just itclicks a little easier.
The run has always been the hardest thing for me to like put
(48:50):
that together. Running by itself, I feel like I
can run pretty well. Running off the bike and running
fast like that, That's like a harder piece to to puzzle
together. So I got onto the run this past
week and I was about mile 11 of the marathon and I was noticing
I got starting to slow down someand my knee was hurting a little
(49:11):
bit just from IT band previous injury.
And that's just a whole other thing.
But I realized that when I out loud, I started talking to
myself like saying like this is a gift and I know God loves me
and I love my wife. And like, I was thinking about
my, you know, not, not born yet,you know, baby girl and, and
that stuff. But as I was saying those things
(49:32):
out loud, like I naturally, I realized like looking down at my
watch, like my pace actually started to quicken by like a
significant amount, like 30 seconds per mile.
And my heart rate's still the same.
And you know, I think that is just like was such a really good
example for me to realize that what I say and what I believe
matters. So when you ask like, how does
(49:53):
it relate to sport? You know, I, for a while I all I
wanted was to like get my elite card and, and triathlon and I
got like really close a few times and some people were
really naturally gifted and theyjust get it.
But for me, I didn't have that, didn't grow up doing sports.
So I really focused on that for a long time.
And then for the past couple years or so, I've been self
coached and I've been progressing, but I don't have
(50:14):
the same like pressure on myself.
And I kind of use it as an opportunity, like you said, when
you're going out seven hours, hours on a bike, you're doing
this peddling motion and you're processing things in your brain
that require the right and left hemispheres.
And when you actually are peddling, you're activating both
sides of the brain. So there's all this processing
and going on. And I think to answer your
(50:34):
question specifically, without going too much overboard here,
it's just that it makes it so apparent to me that there are so
many parallels in the different verticals of life for how
religion and more importantly, like where spirituality, where
God, where creation exists. So for example, whenever I go
(50:55):
through something hard mentally,if I go through that thing in
the moment for the first time, it feels so incredibly difficult
and I don't know how I'm ever going to make it through.
But then you make it through, whether you were a failed or
successful at kind of getting through that trial and it got
something else comes back around.
You've built up like a level of endurance to be able to see it.
And it's the same for cycling. When you go out for your first
(51:16):
ever hard ride, you can barely look beyond your wheel because
you're just so in the moment of like this hurts so bad.
And then, you know, you go on your 103 mile ride, I assume
after you had a lot of like endurance built up, then you can
start to have a wider perspective and like, oh, the
birds are singing. Oh, this is a beautiful ride.
Oh, this guy in front of me, like we're having a good time,
right. So your perspective widens for
(51:37):
similarly in a spiritual respect, I would say like in a
religious respect, through all the things that I've gone
through, that same kind of parallel has has happened where
my perspective has widened my ability to discern and see God
in different ways is opened up. So that's kind of a long winded
(52:00):
way to say like it just makes it, it makes it so true to me.
Like where I see it, like where it's almost black and white,
where there has to be a creativeforce behind all of this.
The way the the systems and processes for every physical,
mental, spiritual, whatever battle we go through, they all
are very similar. So yeah, that's my long.
That's great. Yeah, that's great.
Yeah. I've never been brought up
(52:20):
brought up religious. Like my dad was brought up going
to church once in a while and hestill kind of believes in Christ
a little bit, but like having, having these role models in my
life that are Christians definitely just kind of pushed
me to think about it. My, my last girlfriend was, she
was a Lutheran and she once got me to go to church.
(52:44):
I thought it was super powerful and I did really enjoy it and I
did think about think about joining the church.
But the, the one thing that really made me want to want to
convert to Christianity was right before nationals this
year, the first national for U23nationals.
(53:06):
I, I don't really pray at all, but I was throwing up and I
think that's the closest you getto God.
You're never closer to God than when you're throwing out.
You're like, I just want this tobe over.
This sucks so bad. Like literally anyone help me?
Like if there's a gun out there to help me stop throwing out.
But during that I was like, I don't, I don't care about God
(53:30):
keeping me safe or God letting me win.
Like all I asked for was the best outcome and the best
outcome was I won. That's and and that is shaped
into an amazing 2025, an amazingyear for both me and Lucas and
the team. And the year really took off
after nationals, after we both won.
(53:51):
I won EU 23. So you won the pro champs and
all I asked for was the best outcome and I I truly think we
got that. So that's beautiful, man.
If I may share just really quickbecause it sounds like, you
know, you're trying to figure itout in your journey and I think
that's awesome. Just if there's anything you
remember from this conversation,if you do decide to go that down
(54:12):
that path, church is your community for sure.
Like that's a community, but your relationship with God, like
if whether it's Christianity or whatever, you end up kind of
going down and having that relationship with like an all
powerful creator. That's an individual thing.
Like like you said that prayer. So whether you see, you might
join a church someday and somebody does something just
(54:32):
completely heinous, who's a leader, and then you would be, I
think, challenged and internallyin your heart to be like, oh,
I'm throwing this away. Like, if they did that, I
couldn't do that. Don't let anyone ever be your
standard for what right and wrong is, just like, let them be
an example for what to do and what not to do if it's good or
bad. Yeah.
That's great. Yeah, that's some good advice.
Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome.
(54:54):
That's cool, man. Thanks for asking that question.
By the way. No one's ever asked me that
before, so that's neat. So let me ask you just a couple
more questions here to kind of wrap it up.
If you walked into a room with all of your friends and and the
people you've ever met, who is the person that you'd walk up to
1st and why? Who?
(55:15):
Alejandro Che. OK, he he's.
My he's my, he's my best friend.He's he's the funniest guy I've
ever met. He he's gotten second to me at
four of my 5 national champs andthe only one, he didn't get
second to me yet. We won together, we won Madison
(55:36):
national championships together,which is a AA2 man championship.
And he's he's just the funniest person ever.
He gives the best advice. He's my best friend.
And so, yeah, if everyone I evermet in my entire life was at a
bar, I would go see him right away.
That's awesome. I got a backup question to that
(55:59):
for you. Something I like this sport is
bridled with older, older people.
And one thing I always ask them is like, how did you know your
wife was the one? And some people say it's that I
don't need her is that I choose her.
That's the best thing I've heard.
Do you think it's that if there was a bar full of everyone
(56:22):
you've ever met in your entire life, you would choose your
wife? Do you think that's how you know
she's the one? Do I think that's how I know
she's the one? Man, that's a That's a hard
question. Like everyone I've ever met, I
think to this point I would say yes, but I don't think that that
has to always be the answer. I don't think that's always
(56:43):
true. And I'll say why I've been
married now for going on nine years, 8 1/2 years.
Congrats. Yeah, thank you.
And our first three years of marriage were actually really
tough. My wife went through a really
bad depression. I was an entrepreneur, told her
I wasn't going to be travelling much that year.
And I travelled literally 2 weeks after we got married.
(57:03):
I was gone to the Philippines for like a week and a half.
And then I was going to China for a business and I was just,
you know, it was it was not great and I was very immature.
But now Fast forward to today. We've been around this cycle
many times of hard season working through it, thinking
that it might be over kind of a situation to like, oh, we made
this. And now like every time we go
around that circle, our confidence in our marriage and
(57:24):
just the experience we have witheach other, it deepens.
I could I could have married a lot of other women out there.
For sure. There's there's people out there
today, you know, even if my wifewas to somehow pass away like
someone that I could marry. But I think what really matters
truly at the end of the day is do you respect that person?
Do you like that person? And I had to learn that honestly
(57:47):
over time, like how to really like my wife.
I loved my wife. I mean, when I saw her with it,
from the very first moment I sawher, before I knew her, I knew I
wanted to have a relationship with her.
She seemed like a spiritual person and I didn't even talk to
her. And so, like, I borderline
stalked her and we got to know her over the years and, you
know, and, and convinced her. She put me in the friend zone,
dude. Like, I, you know, yeah, like,
literally, I was in the friend zone for a few months and then
(58:09):
she finally let me out. And her parents and her friends
were like, you should date Seth.And so I had to really work for
that love, truthfully. And I would have it no other
way. But, you know, I think that you,
you could marry anyone who you choose and you could make it
work. Now you there are different
levels of difficulty for marriages based on how similar
(58:31):
your foundation is. But yeah, if you as long as
there's no abuse, any of that crazy stuff, like any two people
I think can coexist together andbuild a love.
So that's that's my hot take. I don't.
I don't know if that makes senseat all, but.
Yeah, no, it totally makes sense.
Like you could, yeah, you could love almost anyone and you could
(58:51):
make a, a, a happy relationship with almost anyone out of just
being a kind person, as long as you weren't hitting them or
you're loyal to them. Yeah.
Exactly but. Yeah, because partially that
that that you choose them and you have a special connection
with that one person over anyoneelse.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good question.
(59:13):
Maybe you should start a podcast.
I thought about it. I thought about it but.
Do it even if it's just for fun.Even if it's just for fun.
Yeah, I mean, you do, you have alot going on, so obviously you
have to weigh your time and whatyour priorities are, but I think
you'd be good at. You seem to have a pretty, so
you're 19. I remember when I was 19, I was
in a much crazier, stupider place.
(59:33):
So you got a good head on your shoulders, it seems, and got
good mentors around you. And you're, you're doing hard
things. So that's like super encouraging
to see someone who's behind my generation doing, doing things
that are worth being done. So that's, it's cool.
I'm, I'm, I don't know you superwell yet, but I'm proud of you.
Thanks man, that means a lot. I love those words.
Yeah, for sure. So let me ask you one final
(59:57):
question. If you wanted to give yourself
like a note in five years, like so let's pretend you're about to
write a note and you want yourself to read it in five
years. So what do you think you would
say to yourself? I would first ask this question.
I would ask if I made it to the Olympics, that's my, that's my
(01:00:18):
like, shoot for the shoot for the stars, land on the moon.
That's my, that's my goal. And then I would, I would more
ask questions rather than like leave them a note and tell them
advice because I'm, I'm learningsomething new every day.
I really want kids. I would ask if we had, if we had
(01:00:39):
kids, if we got married. I want to have kids by the time
my dad's 60 and seven years 7. I got 7 years.
I, I could be an Olympian and have kids in seven years.
So that's that's that's that's where where my site to aim.
Yeah, I would ask. I would ask more questions
towards my future self rather than try and give advice or
(01:01:02):
leave a note. Yeah, yeah.
Good. Answer.
I think I yeah, yeah, that's my answer.
Yeah, that's a good answer. What, are you dating someone
right now? I guess.
No, not right now. OK.
But you're thinking about marriage and stuff like that's,
that's pretty deep stuff to think about.
Yeah, I mean that that's always been my like, like there's girls
(01:01:24):
that want to get married and have kids and be a housewife,
that that's, that's their goal. Like my goal is to, to give a
woman that like I want to, I want to be a provider and like
let a woman be womenly. Like I want that girl to want to
be married. I want that girl to have kids.
I want that girl to not worry about providing for a family.
(01:01:45):
Like I want to, I want to be that man I like.
I feel like that's so rewarding.I saw another real like I'm on
reels all day and I saw a reel that was like you're you're not
a man when you move out of the house or you're not a man when
when you sleep with your first woman or something like you're a
man when you start providing forsomeone.
(01:02:05):
And I think that's the most you have you said you have kids or
you're about to have your. First kid?
No, I don't. I'm going to have my first kid.
Yeah, like I think. Congrats, that's going to be
awesome. And I think that's going to be
the most rewarding thing is having having a child and having
a wife and knowing that I've gotten to the point in my life
that I can provide for someone else.
(01:02:28):
Like I'm not, but I'm strugglingto pay the gas for my truck
right now. Like I, I want to make it to a
point in my life where like I don't have to think about those
things. Like I don't, I can just get my
like make sure my wife is buyingthe groceries and make sure that
my kid is being kept care of andin a safe home with warm food.
(01:02:48):
That would be the most fulfilling and the most
rewarding thing. Well.
That sounds like that's that's who Luke is right there.
That's the answer to the first question.
That's like the thing that makesyour heart sound.
Yeah, no, you answered good thentoo.
But I'm just saying like that. I think that's you touched that
right there. What is super deep?
Like, I don't think there's any higher calling for a man than to
(01:03:10):
be a father and for a woman to be a mother.
I truly believe that. I think that is the highest
calling that we could ever do. I'm not saying that there aren't
other high callings, but I thinkthat's it.
That's my piano. Yeah.
Coleman. There's a, there's a lot of
people that are super successfuland they could have all the
money in the world, but they don't have kids.
And there's people that are super successful and they do
(01:03:31):
have kids and they're like, I would trade all this money just
to just to have these kids. Like they're, they're so
fulfilled by having children. So yes, yeah, it is, it is our
highest calling. And although like the baby may
cry and throw up on your face like they're, they're still,
there's still more fulfilling than anything else in this
world. Yeah, so old man.
(01:03:53):
One day. One day.
Yeah, one day, indeed. Well, Luke, man, it's an honor
to get to ask you these questions and get to know you.
I really mean what I said. Like, I'm proud of you, but it's
really cool to talk to somebody who is as young as you are, but
to have, like, a lot of the lifeexperience and wisdom that
sounds like he's been bestowed upon you from some of your own
experience, but a lot of cool people around you as well.
So I'm excited for you. And it'll be fun to track your
(01:04:15):
journey. But yeah, just thank you so much
for taking the time. And may you find lots of gas
money laying around. Yeah, thank you, Seth.
Thanks for having me on. Thanks for all the great
questions is I was I was expecting actual stupid
questions. This was this was a great time.
Good. Thank you.
Awesome. Thanks, man.
(01:04:35):
Thanks so much to Luke for coming on the pod.
Really enjoyed that conversation.
Yeah, for a young guy, like, I know I keep saying that, but I
think it's just because I'm comparing myself at 19 and 20
years old to him and he is leapsand bounds ahead.
But he's really mature for his age, at least by my standard and
observation, and just really appreciated him asking me
questions, opportunities to share and just to get to know
(01:04:57):
him a little bit. It's really cool to get to know
people outside of their sport a little bit and like, why they
choose to do what they do and how they do it.
So, yeah, thanks for being here,a part of that journey and
getting to witness these people's stories.
Thank you so much to Luke. Happy late birthday.
And without, Yeah, I was gonna say without further ado, but
that's why saying the intro, trying to keep this thing
(01:05:18):
authentic. So I'll catch you guys in the
next one. Thanks for being here.
Peace.
How's it going everybody? And welcome back to another
edition of the Stupid Questions podcast.
Today in the pod, we're going tobe talking with Luke Fetzer.
He is A5 time national champion,champion in EU 23 category of
professional cycling in the Criterion world.
He is focusing right now. Super awesome guy, really
amazing conversation. And it was fun to talk to
somebody who is as young as he is, but also has a pretty clear
(00:23):
direction on what he wants in life.
So yeah, I really appreciated the conversation with him.
Make sure to check out the show notes for his stuff.
If you want to follow him and his journey.
I think he's definitely going places.
By the time the episode airs, actually, he would have just
turned 20 years old. So maybe go wish him a happy
birthday. But yeah, check out the show
notes for other stuff. Episode 200 is coming up.
If you want to submit some ideasfor their ways to support the
(00:44):
podcast. It's all below in the doobly
Doo. So thank you so much for being
here. And without further ado, when it
introduced you to Luke Fetzer, have you ever done a podcast
before? Once once I was on Criterion
Nation, so second podcast. Nice.
How long ago was that? See, that was in July.
(01:05):
OK, nice. Yeah, it's been you've been
getting some notoriety. How how do you how do you like
doing podcasts? I guess is your only second
experience. So a little bit of an unfair
question. I like it.
I like, I like talking to like meeting new people, sharing my
story and like, like being able to tell people my my story from
a first person point of view rather than someone else telling
(01:27):
my story. Yeah, cool man.
That's awesome. Well, First off, I just want to
say thank you so much for takingthe time.
I'm sure you're busy. Sounds like you had some family
downstairs. I was on your microphone there
for a second. So are you, are you staying at
your parents house? Is this your grandparents house?
Where you at right now? This is my parents house, I'm
only 19. I I still live in my with my
(01:47):
dad, my #1 supporter. Nice, that's awesome.
Is he is he a cyclist as well? He is, yeah.
My dad, he started riding when he was 12, so that was like 83.
He moved to California in 96, met my mom, and then they
started a bike shop together in 98.
(02:09):
And this is the the last year ofoperation.
They're, they're shutting down on New Year's Eve.
So it's been almost almost 30 years.
Yeah, wow. So you're 19?
So they've been doing that longer than you've been alive.
So your whole life has been circled around this bike shop
then, huh? Yeah, it's been my whole life.
Like we, I literally lived in the bike shop when I was young.
Yeah, I was born and raised there.
(02:31):
And even though I played all thetraditional American sports
growing up, cycling was like I hadn't, I had no other choice
but to go into it. I was, yeah, I was given
everything to succeed in the sport.
So what's the temperature in terms of just like the feelings
for you, like your family with the bike shop closing?
(02:52):
I mean, obviously, you know, on New Year's, like that's a,
that's a significant date, I guess to like to start new
beginnings, but to also close this chapter.
Like what's everybody feeling about this?
We're a little bit sad, yeah. I mean, it's been my dad's whole
life, since he was 2025. And so he's he's ready for the
(03:14):
the next chapter of his life. He's he's been through
everything there. And so he's ready to kind of get
away from the the chaos that is a a local bike shop.
You get a lot of characters and it's a lot of stress.
And he's just, he's ready to move on.
Yeah, I'm a I'm definitely a little bit sad.
(03:35):
Like it's, it's nostalgic. I grew up there.
But yeah, I'm I'm sure I could always walk in there once once
we do sell and it'll still be still be in my second home.
Yeah. Well, I was going to ask like
it, it is going to be a sale like someone else is going to
take it over. Is that what's in the plan or is
there not a buyer quite yet? Not a buyer quite yet.
(03:55):
The building's being sold, and so that's why the shop's
shutting down. Yeah, yeah.
Dang, so that's that's a huge change, yeah.
Yeah, the the landlord's cool. He's not pushing us out.
It's just more it gives my dad areason to step out finally.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. How old is your dad?
My dad is 560, he's 532071, yeah. 71 Nice.
(04:19):
So yeah, So what? He's still still races.
OK. So I was going to ask, what's he
going to be doing after? Is he going to like kind of
quote, UN quote, retire, just maybe get back to bike racing or
what do you think he's going to do?
I think so. I think he's going to enjoy life
for a bit. He's just going to ride his
bike, travel, see the world a little bit, yeah, go to these
races without having the stress of the employees calling about
(04:42):
whatever it may be. And so he's just going to enjoy
life for a bit, move on. So your mom are your parents are
still together? They're not, no.
OK, so she doesn't have anythingto do with the bike shop then I
would assume? Not anymore, but she did when
they first started. Yeah, for sure.
(05:02):
Yeah, that's a that's a huge undertaking.
Entrepreneurship is no joke. Do you consider yourself to be
an entrepreneur you think? Oh, that's a good question.
I took an entrepreneurial class in school, so OK if that counts.
Not quite, but. Yeah.
It takes it takes it takes time.But I guess more of what I'm
(05:23):
asking is like the the tendencies, you know, because
obviously there's risk involved being an an athlete, like
especially a younger athlete, like you're starting to feel the
ropes for sponsorships and servepeople reaching out podcasts or
wanting to have you on. Like you have to say yes and no
to different types of stuff. So that I would think that
there's definitely entrepreneurial tendencies, but
do you enjoy that aspect of, youknow, the personal brand or you
(05:45):
being a business? Yeah, yeah, I love it.
Yeah. The, the, I think the definition
of an entrepreneur is someone that takes risk on themselves.
And I mean, I'm definitely taking on traditional path,
trying to be a pro cyclist in America, trying to make an image
for myself at 19. It's not what most kids do.
(06:08):
Most kids go to a four year college right away and then they
try and make something of themselves after that.
But I came straight out, straight out of high school and
I wanted to kind of make an image for myself in the US and I
love it. I love growing into this person
that I'm becoming, saying yes tothese podcasts and saying yes to
these opportunities. I'm trying to say yes as much as
(06:32):
possible. The the the world is my oyster
and I have so much, so much in front of me that I could do, and
I'm trying to take as much of anadvantage out of every
opportunity I get. Yeah, great answer, man.
So that mindset of like taking advantage of all the opportunity
and you know, like you said, theworld is your oyster.
There's lots of things before you and you're saying yes to a
lot of things. One lesson that is difficult to
(06:55):
learn, I would say is like how to say yes, say no to things.
I don't think you necessarily need to do that.
It's not what I'm hinting at. But have you had things cross
your table where you're trying to decide, oh, do maybe I say no
to this? Have you had any of those
instances yet? Yeah, I mean, this year was
probably one of the biggest decisions I've had to make
(07:17):
coming into this season. In early January, we were signed
with Legion of Los Angeles, which used to be the pinnacle of
American crit racing. They were the biggest team and
me and my right hand man, Lucas Burgoyne, we were signed with
them until January 15th. I was a little bit discontent
(07:38):
with the offer that I was getting.
And we had this other team, Dallas based team, Cadence
Cyclery, come to us and say, hey, we could provide you this,
we can give you this and that. And there's basically everything
that we wanted. And I had to make the big
decision of do I want to switch?Do I want to say no?
Could this be an opportunity forme to build my own brand instead
(07:59):
of going under the Legion umbrella?
And so that was the first time Istill said yes to Cadence, but I
had to say no, no to Legion. So far you feel like that was a
good decision. I think so.
I think so. This year we've in my mind
(08:20):
became the, the best crit team in the US.
We've won 39 races. We have dominated the, the crit
scene. I would like to think we're the,
the, the face of the scene. And at 19, I'm, I'm building a
name for myself and building a brand.
(08:41):
And it's, yeah, I think the bestdecision I could have made.
Yeah, cool. For going back really quick to
the entrepreneurship and just the riskiness of, you know, the
life decisions that you're making, which you're young, you
have the ability to do that, which is awesome.
Your dad's super supportive. Do you think that the decisions
that you're making and the just mentality that you have toward
(09:06):
this lifestyle and trying to figure it out and make it in
this sport, especially in America, because cycling is so
much different than Europe? Do you think that your tolerance
for the risk and the decisions you're making is more of a
nature or more of a nurture thing for you?
Oh, I don't even know how to answer that.
I would say more of a a nature thing like I've I've I've got
(09:30):
people around me that support meand only want to see me succeed.
It's rare. I mean, people always say like,
oh, your your dad's only person that wants the only man that
wants you to be better than he is.
And thankfully I have people around me that want me to be
better than them, even if they aren't my dad.
And so I have people coaching meand, and wanting me to make the
(09:52):
best decision and guiding me in the right, right path.
And so it's kind of just nature for me to to go the way I've
gone. Yeah.
So with that you, it sounds likeyou have a lot of really good
mentors and people surrounding you who are pushing you and like
helping to I guess guide you in that direction.
And there's a difference to be said, I think, between like
pushing and guiding. But for you, because you know,
(10:14):
you're talking about building a name for yourself, building an
image, a brand, you know, that'skind of the front facing stuff.
But internally like who do you say that Luke is?
Like who is Luke? I'm just a little little
California beach bum who likes to surf and likes to race my
bike like there's there's not much else to me.
(10:37):
Yeah. Luke Fetzer is a a boy that
loves his boys like I'm I'm I want to see my boys achieve.
And that that partially makes mysuccess and and my team success
is that I'm willing to lay myself out there for my boys
because if they win, I win. Yeah, for the most part, Luke
Fetzer is just a little beach bum biker kid.
(11:00):
Yeah. So let's pretend for a second
that the opportunity to race vanished and you're not even
going to be able to surf what? What do you think would circle
more around your identity or what would you circle around
that would become your identity more if you think?
I love motorbikes. I freaking love motorbikes.
I just, I just bought and now I'm going to sell it.
(11:21):
I bought my first sport bike. What is that?
It's ACBR 600, okay, yeah and it's super fast and I'm gonna
kill myself and so I have to getrid of it.
Good. I already owe like, yeah, I
already owe like $1000 in speeding tickets.
And so I got. It how many points do you have
on your license? Too many, too many, the
(11:42):
insurance is gonna go up. Yeah, I think it's already gone
up. If you're 1000 bucks in speeding
tickets thing that's that's crazy.
Yeah, yeah. California cops, especially in
Orange County, do not like sportbikes.
Like they see one and they just,they go after him right away.
And if, if even if he's not speeding, they find something.
And so I got to, I got to sell that.
(12:03):
If I, yeah, if I didn't ride, ifI didn't surf, I would probably
ride motorbikes if I couldn't doanything physical.
I really want to be a pilot growing up my, my main goal, I
had a really good mentor. His name is Daniel Willett.
When I was like 14, he raced forLux as well, the premier junior
(12:24):
team in the US at the time. And then he went to the Air
Force Academy and now he's a, a Lieutenant in the Air Force and
he flies at T Sixes. And so he's always been like
he's a, he's a fighter pilot trainer in the Air Force.
Like, that's one of the best role models for a a young man.
And he kind of set me on the path.
I wanted to go into the Air Force Academy to become a pilot.
(12:46):
And yeah, I couldn't do anythingphysical, ride my bike or surf.
I would probably want to become a pilot.
Good money. You could see the world, see
everything from an aerial view. I think it's, I think it's one
of the coolest things ever. Yeah.
Do you have siblings? I do, I have one older sister,
25. So you guys are just six years
apart. Do you find that that gap
(13:07):
enabled you guys to be closer orwas it harder being close when
you're younger? Like what's your relationship
like with your sister? I hated her when I was young.
Well, like I would, I would fight her all the time.
She she's got some some physicalproblems.
She has a cystic fibrosis and soshe would need to take a lot of
steroids, which would make her very angry really quick.
(13:31):
And I was this little 7 year oldkid with scraggly blonde hair
who just wanted like, I just want to see my sister and I
wanted to play. And I like, it was way too much
for her. And so we kind of hated each
other because of that. But now, like, that's my best
friend. I love my sister more than
anything. Like, she lived down in San
Diego. Go see her all the time.
She comes up here. She was just here this weekend.
(13:54):
She's yeah, she's she's great. I love my sister now, but we
used to hate each other. Yeah, it's similar with me and
my sister. So I have two younger sisters,
one's four years younger and one's like 12 years younger.
So it's quite a big gap there. But especially with the sisters
four years apart, I was the older 1.
So it's a little bit different. But we, I don't know, we, we
quote UN quote hated each other for different reasons.
(14:16):
I mean, we loved each other, butwe fought to tooth and nail.
I would build all these crazy jumps that I was too scared to
do and make all these crazy contraptions and would kind of
instill false confidence in her like, oh, you can do it.
So really, honestly, I look up to her so much now because she
went through so much that I would never have done.
But the sibling relationships are always super fascinating to
me. Yeah, well, that's a that's a
(14:36):
good Big Brother thing to do. You got to, you got to push your
little sister to be tough. You don't want your sister to
come out like a little little Daisy.
That's what a good Big Brother would do.
Exactly. So let me ask you this question.
As you started to grow up, you know, you grew around the the
bike shop, you mentioned playingother sports.
When in your mind did it start start to become clear that like,
(14:58):
oh, I think I like cycling the most or this is the thing that I
want to lean into the most? Freshman year of high school.
Like I know the exact day my my dad let me play all the
traditional sports, baseball, basketball, soccer, football,
basketball was the 1st to go andthen soccer and then football
and then baseball was all that'swhat's left.
(15:19):
And freshman year there was freshman tryouts and I went and
wasn't as good as the other kids, but my dad was like, OK,
they're both sports are getting expensive.
You can make the team and you could you could go on the team
or you could choose cycling. Like it's just too expensive.
You have to choose one. And I was like, well, I don't, I
(15:41):
don't know anybody in the baseball world.
Like I have like multiple world champions walking to the bike
shop every day. My dad has connections and all
these companies and all these friends and my dad's the bike
shop owner in town. Like I kind of kind of
gravitated towards that because of that.
And yeah, so freshman year I decided no more baseball, no
(16:05):
more sports, like going to dedicate myself fully to
cycling. Did like independent PE freshman
year. And then sophomore year I hit,
COVID hit when I was a freshman,so I'm halfway through online.
Everyone went online and it was kind of perfect for me because
nobody was out on the roads, no one was out in the trails.
And I would just go ride all dayevery day with my friends.
(16:27):
And that's when I really startedto fall in love with it,
bringing up I kind of didn't want to ride.
It was like just something my dad made me to do.
And then once COVID hit, I was riding with my friends every
day, having so much fun. And yeah, sophomore year decided
I kind of want to focus more on training for these races.
And that's when I started to getserious, serious with sophomore
(16:52):
year. What do you think changed in
terms of, you know, because you mentioned when you were younger
your dad made you do it and you're like, I don't want to do
this. And I think there's a lot of a
lot of areas of discipline in life where our parents make us
do something and then we get a little bit older and it's
something kind of changes withinus.
But what do you think changed within you?
Like you mentioned COVID, so there was that opportune thing
not in as many cars, but what else changed do you think?
(17:15):
Definitely just being able to ride with buddies.
Once everyone went online I likeI would always go to the beach
with my friends because that's what everyone does in the going
to beach. You go to the beach after
school. I never wanted to ride because
all my friends were down at the beach.
And then once COVID hit, we all had time to ride and go to the
beach. And so just being able to ride
(17:35):
with buddies like my, my best friend lived four blocks away
and now he's on the best U23 mountain bike team in the US.
And so we've kind of grown up together, blossomed together in
the sport. Iron sharpens iron, you know,
having having friends to push meand me pushing my friends,
(17:59):
that's what kind of made my mentality switch.
Yeah. So what is what is your current
belief internally for what you think you are capable of?
Like what do you hope for the future?
I want to be the best quit racerin the USI want to be the the
(18:20):
the face of this sport. I always, I always look to, to
Justin Williams as a mentor and someone that I aspire to be.
I mean, he was a Red Bull sponsored athlete.
He drive nice cars. He's got the nice shoes like I,
I want to live in LA like he did.
And he's someone that, that I aspire to be because he was, it
(18:42):
was the top of his game. He ran the sport.
He was the face of the sport. And that's what that's what I
want to be. So your friend, we talked about
him a little bit, Lucas, becauseI think I reached out to you
first and then you were like, hey, you should talk to Lucas as
well. Is that how it went?
I'm pretty sure, Yeah. Yeah.
So he is the 2025 like pro crit champ and you guys are pretty
(19:04):
close friends. And like you said earlier, like,
you know, some someone on your team wins, you win.
That may not always be the case in terms of your guys's, you
know, being on the same team. How does that dynamic play out
and the way that you guys interact with each other?
Well, this year I think he won probably 28 races and I won
(19:27):
four. So I know like Lucas is the
better cyclist, like he could beat me 10 times out of 10.
And so that dynamic really helpsus in these races.
Cycling is a it's a team sport, even though only one person wins
and you need your team to dedicate themselves fully to you
(19:49):
on on some days they'll be a chance that I can win and he'll
fully back me at that chance. But for the most part, the
dynamic is me helping him, whichI'm totally fine with.
He's a great guy. I love working for him.
I know he could pull it off. I know he could go lock it in
for me. If I if I bury myself for him,
(20:10):
he's going to bury himself for the win.
And it's not just it's not just the winning like Lucas is also.
Great on the mic. He really gives us props after
the races. He's great on social media.
He's like, he's someone that makes you want to work for him
rather than, you know, there's alot of guys that don't want to
work for their teammates becauseeither A, they don't like them
(20:31):
or B, they just don't see any, any benefit.
Yeah. Yeah.
That that. What is the best way to say
this, that structure, that hierarchy that you're talking
about, you know, with team? Because it sounds like he's not
just a good cyclists and a champion, but he's also like a
leader for the team. How does a team do you think
(20:55):
from your limited experience, obviously, and I don't know
this, you're more way more experienced than I am.
But how does a team establish a culture like that where there is
a mutual respect, like a willingness to, as you say, bury
yourself so that they can bury themselves to do their job and
vice versa? Like we're what?
What fosters that kind of an environment?
(21:16):
I don't know this, this all cameorganically.
Like I was never like, oh, want to be on a team Lucas, because I
think we would get along so wellor even Richard on our team.
I was never like, I want to be on a team with Richard.
Like we would work so well together.
It kind of just comes together and we're all young and we're
all friends and we all just likeI said, I'm like Luke Fetzer is
(21:38):
a boy that loves his boys and we're just friends riding bikes
around. And that that kind of helps to
our success because we all just we're all just friends.
Ryan bikes around and we just love hanging out with each
other. And if we get to win, we get,
yeah, I don't really know how tohow to word that, but.
(22:01):
I think you answered it well. I think you really hit the nail
on the head when it comes to like you're saying, you know,
the boys, that mentality of you guys being friends.
I think before anything else, you have to be friends.
Because if you if you're not willing to be friendly to
someone, I think it's harder to go beyond just like mutual
respect. Because like anyone, anyone
who's a man, like a true man or a true woman, whatever.
(22:24):
I think that can have a level ofrespect for somebody who stands
across from them, whether on thesame team or it's opposite teams
or whatever the profession or sport or whatever.
But to have that friendship, like there has to be a level of
chemistry and understanding of each other, isn't seeing each
other as a human and an individual rather than just like
teammates or opponents. That allows you to have that
(22:46):
depth to to be able to go into battle, quote UN quote with that
person to sacrifice yourself. You have to care about something
more than just what's what's on the jersey.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
So what do you think? Like do you have, and I don't
ask this question because I think you need to have one, but
I'm just genuinely curious, do you have any type of a Plan B
(23:09):
for your future? Like you know, we mentioned a
little bit about flying or anything like that, but do you
have any type of a fall back plan?
A little bit. I mean, cycling is is so
dangerous and it could, it couldend like that.
I could, I could crash and breakmy hip and then I can never ride
again or something. And I definitely don't have that
(23:30):
bomb proof of a, of a Plan B, Plan B.
But I feel like, I feel like I've got people around me that
will support me no matter what Ido.
And I, I, I have a mentality of just being able to put the right
foot forward every morning. And so if cycling does go South,
(23:53):
as long as I make the right decisions every day and go in
the right path and keep my head up and my nose out of the dirt,
I'll always guide myself in the right direction.
I, I am in, I am in school rightnow getting my associate's
degree. And right now that's my, that's
(24:14):
my Plan B. It's kind of just something to
to do while I'm on the road, butit'll it'll only push me in the
right the right direction once Ido finish that.
You think so? I I I hope so.
Yeah, who, who, who is that? Like, do you, if you were to
make the decision right now, no matter what, no other
(24:36):
influences, do you think that you would stay in school?
I'm not trying to get you in trouble, but I'm like trying to
see where the motivation lies. No, no.
If I had no other, well, I so I did take it.
I took a gap year and then it wasn't, it wasn't my parents
(24:57):
telling me to do that or my parents telling me to start back
up at school. That was that was kind of my own
decision. I was like, man, I'm, I'm
traveling all the time. I have nothing to do except
scroll on TikTok like I need something to do keep me busy.
And I have felt like, like school is it's keeping me busy,
keeping me occupied, giving me something to, to do and make me
(25:19):
feel accomplished a little bit. And so in my 19 year old brain,
I don't want to stay in school. Like I just want to go ride my
bike and go to the beach. But I know that's not realistic.
I'm no, I'm not going to get youanywhere in life if I'm spending
all day at the beach. But I do love having, having
(25:41):
something to, to do every day asas training as it can be.
And as much as I do procrastinate, it gives me give
me purpose. Yeah, that's a good answer.
Yeah. So my wife, I almost dropped out
of college multiple times. I took an entrepreneurship
class, started a business, and then I talked to her constantly.
Like, I think I'm going to be done with this.
(26:02):
And I didn't have my parents, specifically my mom, around to
like pay for school or encourageme in that way.
So, you know, is it obviously a different situation?
I think if my parents were helping to provide the finances,
but we're also like the room andboard like like you're staying
home or whatever, I think that Iwould respect that a lot more.
But I almost quit multiple timesand I to be honest, not even
(26:25):
sure 100% if I was to go back intime, if I would still stay in
school. But it did teach me one really
valuable thing and give me one valuable thing.
It taught me the importance of like seeing something through to
completion, which was very hard for me to do at that point, my
life, I don't think I'd ever done it.
And then too, I met my wife in college.
She can't really put a price on that.
But I, I, I guess what I'm saying is I admire, you know,
(26:48):
your mindset around that becauseit sounds to me maybe a little
bit like there's some parental influence.
Maybe some others are like, Hey,you got to finish, finish school
and if it's keeping you off yourCVRA little bit more and you're
not going to kill yourself like that, yeah, that's also good.
But I respect that decision, yeah.
Yeah, there's there's definitelysome like late nights after
races when I have homework and Ijust really don't want to do it.
(27:11):
And I'm like, dude, it's like I want to drop out.
Like I I'm racing bikes making money, like I should drop out.
I need to focus on this, but I always get it done and I always
see it through and as difficult as it may be sometimes I'm I'm
not failing classes and so I have no reason then to drop out
quite yet. Yeah, well, it sounds like it's
(27:32):
still sharpening you like in thedisciplinary areas like doing
things when you don't want to dothem, growing the amygdala, but
you know as an inter humor inputs it.
Yeah, it's a very important yeah.
So that's awesome. Yeah, I also feel like the more
classes I take, the better cyclist I become, which is crazy
because I would think like, oh, the more classes, the less time
(27:53):
I have to train, but the more classes I'm taking, the less
time I have to screw around. And so I'm like, I'm having to
plan my day better. I can't procrastinate.
I can't stay up late. I can't like I can't extend my
rides super long. Like I, I just have to stay
strict to my, to myself and my, my plan.
And so I do kind of like loadingmy plate up a little bit more
(28:14):
than I could eat. That way.
I I have to stay locked in? Yeah, good for you.
That's not that's not an easy mindset for, I say a lot of
young guys like your age, young girls, too.
But that's, yeah, today's world affords so many opportunities to
procrastinate or just kind of screw around and waste time.
(28:34):
I mean, I still procrastinate. I'm like, I'm a chronic
procrastinator, but it makes me it makes me procrastinate a
little bit less. A little bit less so.
What else have you learned aboutyourself, you know, in this time
of, you know, being a professional cyclist, like
taking it seriously? What else through your life have
you learned about yourself that has come to light?
(28:56):
I've learned so much about myself.
I think cycling is one of the only sports that you can really
be with yourself for hours on end and you learn so much about
how your mind works. You learn so much about yourself
on a 7 hour ride alone, like last last winter and probably
(29:19):
this winter, my coach is having me do like 7 hour rides and I'll
I'll do those by myself. And you have no other choice but
to think about your problems. You have no other choice but to
fully think those inner thoughts, which is something you
don't really. Yeah, you don't really get in in
(29:39):
this busy age. Like, sure, maybe some runners
can get that, but the impact of running is so heavy.
And so I feel like that would kind of jar your brain a little
bit. Cycling is such a such a fluid,
low impact sport that you have so much time to think.
So I get a lot of alone time andthat kind of brings up thoughts
(30:05):
of, you know, just going that one mile farther, not being a
little. Can I curse on this?
You can do whatever you want, yeah.
Yeah, like, like don't be, don'tbe a bitch.
The pain, the pain is temporary.The success is forever.
Like I always that that's something my dad always said.
(30:26):
One thing that has stuck with methat he said growing up and
becoming a a cyclist is champions do everything right.
And that always replays in my mind when I'm like, I don't want
to do that last interval or I don't want to don't want to get
out of bed early to do this right.
I don't want to eat that food. Like I don't want to make my
bed. I I only made my bed for this
podcast but like. Thank you.
(30:50):
Like champions do everything right, and that's one thing I've
I've came to learn. Can I put this?
Back on that, actually a little bit, because like you're saying,
like champions do everything right.
Do you truly believe that? I think so.
I think so. I mean, everyone's got their
flaws, but I think, I think TadePoljkar wakes up in the morning
(31:15):
and does everything right. You know, he, he'll have his
morning, morning routine of making his bed, eating the right
meal, eating the right drink, drinking the right drink, taking
the right vitamins, doing the right training ride.
And I, yeah, I truly think that,that I think it's more champions
do things that they don't want to do and that that forces them
(31:38):
to be better. Yeah.
Another, another thing that thatI saw it on like an Instagram
reel. It was like, what what makes
champions different from me? And it's not, it's not what
champions have is what they don't have is that they don't
have an off switch. And that's one thing I've really
(31:59):
looked to to my teammate Lucas for the the pro champ.
He he does not have an off switch.
He's just go, go, go, go, go long ride, long ride.
Doesn't matter if he's sick. It doesn't matter if he didn't
sleep. Help.
We we did a ride in Miami. He got an hour and a half of
sleep and we did a four hour ride and he was he's he's a
champion that doesn't do everything right, but he doesn't
(32:24):
care about the circumstances andhe just does it.
He he doesn't have an off switch.
He's not like, oh, well, I didn't, I didn't eat properly
today or I didn't fuel properly today.
Like he's the I got this, this thing that I've been saying
since I won my national championship.
I don't like Mama didn't write no bitch and his mom, Lisa
(32:45):
Burgoyne did not raise a bitch. Like he is just a he's a tough
man that doesn't care about the circumstances and he's just kind
of, he's going to do it no matter what, no matter what you
say. Yeah.
Interesting, it'll be fun for meto interview him because I'd
love to hear his story in depth too because it sounds like he
probably had some harder stuff that he had to go through as
well. Is he raised just by his mom?
(33:08):
No, he he's got 2 parents, his mom, his mom does work with
sexual assault victims. And so he's, he's seen some
stuff hurts and stuff he did grow up in, in inner city
Houston. He was, even though he was a, he
was a world record runner when he was young.
Anything from the 500 up, he's probably either had or still has
(33:32):
the world record. He was a, he was a quick little
little boy and he has had, I don't know, kind of tougher
upbringing, but he switched fromrunning over to cycling when he
was like 14. He got injured, I think he broke
(33:53):
his foot. And the doctor was like, hey,
like you just need something stiff under you.
And cycling shoes are carbon, they're stiff.
So why don't you start, start cycling?
And like 2 weeks later he won his first national championship.
Oh my goodness. So he's, he's definitely
naturally gifted, but he's also got a great mentality where he
(34:18):
doesn't, he doesn't care the circumstances.
He's he's going to do the training, Yeah.
Take every right step that he can.
So what are your thoughts on like the on David Goggins then?
I'm sure you're familiar. With that, I love Goggins.
I love Goggins. Sounds like he's.
Right in the. Rally Yeah, yeah, Before my my
(34:40):
first world championship, our our national team coach Gavin
Mannion, he pulled up a Goggins video and Goggins is like
running through the desert. He's like bottom my feet OK,
hurt, knees are burning, pavements hot as fuck.
I don't care. Y'all like you guys don't get
you guys don't care. And that that mentality of like
(35:04):
other people don't care that I'mstruggling.
Like 1, my competitors are hurting as well.
And two, the people on the sideline, like they don't care
if I didn't get sleep. They didn't care if I didn't eat
right. They don't care that I'm
injured, like they just want to see me finish.
That's that's like no one else cares about my struggles.
And so I'm still going to do thework I love.
(35:24):
I do love that Coggins mentality.
Yeah, it's a hard mentality to to adopt and hold, I'll say that
much. So what is your relationship
with like rest and recovery? Because I imagine your 7 hour
rides, you're not going out there crushing just you know, I
don't know, four times an hour it zone Infinity, you know, like
what what do you, what is what is your rest and mentality
(35:47):
mentality protocol look like? I, I love sleeping.
I'm like I'm the big, I'm the I'm the best sleeper you'll ever
meet. Like I I'll zonk out in 2
seconds but that's not it like that.
And I think the beach is like a ice bath.
Those are the only two recoveries.
(36:08):
I really don't, I don't really stretch.
I don't really use foam rollers.I don't really go in the sauna.
I don't really use a actual ice bath other than the ocean.
My mentality is yeah, yeah, right.
And it like it's got, it's got salt in there, saline.
And so it must be like a salt bath.
(36:30):
Other than that, like I just, I,I sleep right, I eat right.
Those are my 2 recovery tricks. My mom is a my mom's a private
chef and so she's always broughtme up to eat right, eat healthy.
And I don't know this, this, this life of a crit racer on the
(36:50):
road is, is taxing and not everything's perfect.
I feel like for a lot of the European world tour pros,
they've got tons of people on their on their bus on their team
that are there to support them, make sure they have their
pomegranate or they're they're tart cherry just right after the
race and they have the recovery and then they have their post
(37:12):
race meal and then they stretch and then they go in the ice
bath. Like these big teams have so
many people there to support them.
And as a small budget American team, we don't have that.
And we kind of just, we just we're easy like we aren't
stressing about our recovery. We'll, we'll finish the race and
(37:37):
then we'll go get Chipotle like 3 hours later.
And although it's suboptimal, like we're still going to win
the race afterwards. Like as, as Goggin says, like
you don't care, like no one elsecares about, you know, if I'm
optimally eating a meal right after, after training or racing,
like we're, we're, we're kind ofshow ponies.
(37:59):
And so we got to, we got to do the race and then we got to, we
got to be the showman after the race.
And then we got a, you know, it's a small rant team.
And so when we have to drive thecar home and then we have to
clean the bikes. And so our, our rest and
recovery isn't perfect. We try and make it as perfect as
(38:20):
we can, but it's it's pretty subtle optimal I would say.
Yeah. I think it's important, but.
Yeah. Sometimes you just can't get it
all. Yeah, I was going to say, you
know, not to not to pokey, but like the the mindset of like
champions do everything right. I think it really comes back to
(38:42):
like what you're talking about the things you have control
over, the things you can control, do those to the best of
your absolute optimal ability. And the other things like don't
stress what's outside of your control.
Because like you said, you don'thave a team of mechanics ready
to take your bikes right after the race and tune them up and
even hand you a new one here in a little bit later.
Or, you know, you have to go give a speech or get ready for
awards and you're not able to eat right away or whatever it
(39:04):
is. Like there's a lot of things
that you have to kind of be relaxed about.
And that mentality of stressing what you cannot control is, you
know, terrible. But being able to let go of the
stress and the things you just can't control, like that's,
that's an art form. Yeah, what good is stressing
going to do? It's only, it's only going to
stress you out. It's going to stress your
(39:24):
system, it's going to stress your your recovery and you're
not going to you're not going torecover as well mentally or
physically if you're stressed out.
And so sometimes you just got tojust got to tug it out.
You just got to deal with it. Yeah.
So let me ask you this question.What do you think is something
that feels really important to you right now that maybe you
think might not matter as much afew years from now?
(39:57):
Man, that's a this podcast is called Stupid Questions, but
that's a really good question. I feel like I don't know in my
in my mind, like racing is the most important thing to me.
And there's a lot of people thatcould not care less about racing
bikes. And I think it's so important
(40:18):
and I have to wake up and do everything right so that I could
be the best person I can in thissport and in racing.
But to some people, they could care less.
One thing, one thing Lucas says on the way to and from races,
he's like, hey, look at look at all these people driving on this
highway, like they don't care what you just did.
And so even though racing is themost important thing to me right
(40:39):
now, my life is changing so quick.
In three years from now, it could not matter.
Like, I'll cherish these memories forever.
But what, what we're talking about now and what is my whole
entire life right now in a in a few years could not matter.
So. So you're a five time national
champion? Yes, Sir.
(41:00):
What does that mean to you? And then the second part of that
question, after your most recentlike championship win, what did
you feel and what did you think about yourself?
You know, when the day kind of is over, when the fanfare is all
kind of done, you know, you're kind of alone with your
thoughts. What are you thinking about with
yourself like and how you view believe in yourself?
(41:24):
Well, what these, what these jersey mean to me is I don't
think it, it means as much to menow as it did to me when I was
young. And I was wanting one of those
so, so bad. Like I was, I was 10 and I had,
I had that jersey as my wallpaper on my phone and I
wanted one so bad. That's all I wanted.
(41:44):
And then now I have 5 of them. And so it's, it's, it's
rewarding when all the, the fanfare is done, when all the
pictures are done, when the Instagram hype wears off, it's,
it's so rewarding to myself and to my family.
They've dedicated so much to me in this journey.
(42:06):
So the, it's, it's less about the prizes and the gold medals
in the jerseys now, as it is thejourney and the, the people that
I meet along the way and the, the man I'm becoming today that
that's, that's the most rewarding part.
And although I will have thoughts of, you know, what am I
(42:28):
going to do when this is over? When is this going to be over?
And how long can I keep doing this for?
Right now? I'm, I'm, I'm loving the journey
and I'm loving the chase and I'mloving waking up every day and
having these new opportunities. And so once, yeah, once the
Instagram hype is done and the fanfare is over, I'm just, I'm,
I'm thankful every day for whereI'm at and what I'm doing.
(42:50):
And having the ability to to keep doing what I'm doing.
Are you a good cyclist? Yeah, I think yeah, yeah, yeah,
I'm a good cyclist. Yeah, so you believe it?
I believe it, yeah. I got to tell myself that.
You got to be confident. Yeah.
(43:10):
Well, are there any moments likewhere your inner critic steps
out and and says differently, like when you're speaking to
yourself internally? All the time there's been a few
like I just there's been a few track races where I'm like, is
this really for me? Like, is this sport for me?
Like I'm getting, I'm getting wiped.
(43:31):
I'm like, I think I'm good and I'm just getting my ass handed
to me. And so, yeah, the inner critic
is like, like I told my dad this.
I'm like, dad, like, is this sport for me?
Like, did you just see that performance that was horrible?
Like, am I, am I built for this?And then two days later, I win a
race. I'm like, OK, all right, yeah,
(43:52):
I'm, I'm. I'm built for this.
What is your dad say in the moment when you've when you've
said that to him? He says, he says it's just
temporary like that. And he's really good at, at
hyping me up. He he, he'll go back into the
past and be like, oh, like May, OK, that was just one time.
But you remember that time you did that?
(44:12):
You remember that time that you were 14 and you rode 130 miles?
You remember when you beat that guy or you won that race?
You did it in that fashion. I'm not.
Wait. Yeah, yeah.
Wait, wait. I kind of maybe I am a beast.
Thanks, Dad. Yeah, it's good to have a father
in that, in that place, or really any mentor.
But I think it probably especially means something extra
(44:36):
when it is your father and he's able to remind you because it's
so easy to forget what we've done or where we've been, good
or bad. Honestly, you know, when we're
kind of caught up in the moment of in the wrong way, like, you
know, with that inner critic voice and just the self doubt,
it really, it's almost like a form of self hatred because we
tell ourselves things inside ourown heads that we would never
(44:57):
say to someone to their face, let alone like the little kid
that lives within us that, you know, was like when we were five
or six years old. Like that's it's still very much
a human within us. It is a it is one of my favorite
things proving that that inner critic wrong.
When when in my mind, I'm like, I don't feel good today.
Like I don't think I could do that well.
(45:19):
Like I I just won a race up in Boise.
I won it solo. And that morning I was like,
like, I think I'm getting sick. I don't think I'm going to do
well. Like I can't believe I flew all
this way. And then I win the race like I
love, I love proving myself wrong.
That's one of my one of my favorite things.
(45:39):
Yeah, yeah, cuz as humans, like,yeah, it's such a good point.
We're such pattern recognition. I don't know, robots like we
love to see the patterns and it's like, oh, we're not feeling
good here. So then therefore this is the
outcome. But then when you're able to
break that mold and then have that as a remembrance, like
that's a powerful tool to use inany high performance situation,
(46:00):
whether physically or honestly, even mentally.
Yeah. That's really cool that you've
had those experiences, though. And I feel like only as you get
older, you'll have more of thoseopportunities to lock in those
David Goggins moments where you push through, you know, because
nothing else really matters except what's going on up here
in that moment. Yeah, it's cool.
So let me ask you this. Are you?
(46:22):
Are you a religious person? No, no, I'm not.
I do. I do like the the religious
beliefs of most of the time it'sabout being a better person,
making the right decisions. I got I have nothing against it.
My my first coach and one of my biggest role models is probably
(46:43):
the most Christian man you'll ever meet.
Like he lives in a little shack on Christian property.
He doesn't care about his his belongings, but he's he's
devoted to God in Christ and he's got good morals and he's a
he's a great person and great moral model and takes care of
me. And so I have nothing against
(47:05):
nothing against religion. Yeah, I think.
I think it is a good part of sport especially.
Yeah. Are you?
Yeah, I grew up. Yeah, I grew up Christian, took
some time away to kind of figureout what I believed and why I
believed. And as I came back around, like,
yeah, it's definitely a lifestyle that I, that I choose
(47:27):
to live now. It gives me a lot more meaning
and purpose when I'm thinking about it.
Just as I've gotten older, you know, my wife's pregnant right
now, you know, as I've, I'm justin a different phase of life and
I've seen things happen in my own personal, I guess why I
would call my journey to where it's undeniable to me that
something exists beyond myself. Like whether you call it a
(47:49):
higher power or God or whatever it is, like there's something
there that I think has a creative power to, to give life.
And then we also have that same power through our words and lips
to like give life or death to other people.
So I can't deny it. So that's kind of that's kind of
where I sit. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, Congrats on the Congrats
on the pregnancy. Thank you.
(48:09):
Well, how do you, how do you feel that that religion either
like inspires you or or guides you in in sport because you're
obviously an athlete as well? Yeah, it's a good question.
So this past weekend, So yeah, 2days ago I did Iron Man in
(48:29):
California. And so, you know, you do the
swim, you do the bike, and for the longest time, you know, the
swimming and the biking. Swimming comes pretty naturally
to me. Biking comes relatively natural,
like I have to work at it, but like I'm lighter and for
whatever reason, like it just itclicks a little easier.
The run has always been the hardest thing for me to like put
(48:50):
that together. Running by itself, I feel like I
can run pretty well. Running off the bike and running
fast like that, That's like a harder piece to to puzzle
together. So I got onto the run this past
week and I was about mile 11 of the marathon and I was noticing
I got starting to slow down someand my knee was hurting a little
(49:11):
bit just from IT band previous injury.
And that's just a whole other thing.
But I realized that when I out loud, I started talking to
myself like saying like this is a gift and I know God loves me
and I love my wife. And like, I was thinking about
my, you know, not, not born yet,you know, baby girl and, and
that stuff. But as I was saying those things
(49:32):
out loud, like I naturally, I realized like looking down at my
watch, like my pace actually started to quicken by like a
significant amount, like 30 seconds per mile.
And my heart rate's still the same.
And you know, I think that is just like was such a really good
example for me to realize that what I say and what I believe
matters. So when you ask like, how does
(49:53):
it relate to sport? You know, I, for a while I all I
wanted was to like get my elite card and, and triathlon and I
got like really close a few times and some people were
really naturally gifted and theyjust get it.
But for me, I didn't have that, didn't grow up doing sports.
So I really focused on that for a long time.
And then for the past couple years or so, I've been self
coached and I've been progressing, but I don't have
(50:14):
the same like pressure on myself.
And I kind of use it as an opportunity, like you said, when
you're going out seven hours, hours on a bike, you're doing
this peddling motion and you're processing things in your brain
that require the right and left hemispheres.
And when you actually are peddling, you're activating both
sides of the brain. So there's all this processing
and going on. And I think to answer your
(50:34):
question specifically, without going too much overboard here,
it's just that it makes it so apparent to me that there are so
many parallels in the different verticals of life for how
religion and more importantly, like where spirituality, where
God, where creation exists. So for example, whenever I go
(50:55):
through something hard mentally,if I go through that thing in
the moment for the first time, it feels so incredibly difficult
and I don't know how I'm ever going to make it through.
But then you make it through, whether you were a failed or
successful at kind of getting through that trial and it got
something else comes back around.
You've built up like a level of endurance to be able to see it.
And it's the same for cycling. When you go out for your first
(51:16):
ever hard ride, you can barely look beyond your wheel because
you're just so in the moment of like this hurts so bad.
And then, you know, you go on your 103 mile ride, I assume
after you had a lot of like endurance built up, then you can
start to have a wider perspective and like, oh, the
birds are singing. Oh, this is a beautiful ride.
Oh, this guy in front of me, like we're having a good time,
right. So your perspective widens for
(51:37):
similarly in a spiritual respect, I would say like in a
religious respect, through all the things that I've gone
through, that same kind of parallel has has happened where
my perspective has widened my ability to discern and see God
in different ways is opened up. So that's kind of a long winded
(52:00):
way to say like it just makes it, it makes it so true to me.
Like where I see it, like where it's almost black and white,
where there has to be a creativeforce behind all of this.
The way the the systems and processes for every physical,
mental, spiritual, whatever battle we go through, they all
are very similar. So yeah, that's my long.
That's great. Yeah, that's great.
Yeah. I've never been brought up
(52:20):
brought up religious. Like my dad was brought up going
to church once in a while and hestill kind of believes in Christ
a little bit, but like having, having these role models in my
life that are Christians definitely just kind of pushed
me to think about it. My, my last girlfriend was, she
was a Lutheran and she once got me to go to church.
(52:44):
I thought it was super powerful and I did really enjoy it and I
did think about think about joining the church.
But the, the one thing that really made me want to want to
convert to Christianity was right before nationals this
year, the first national for U23nationals.
(53:06):
I, I don't really pray at all, but I was throwing up and I
think that's the closest you getto God.
You're never closer to God than when you're throwing out.
You're like, I just want this tobe over.
This sucks so bad. Like literally anyone help me?
Like if there's a gun out there to help me stop throwing out.
But during that I was like, I don't, I don't care about God
(53:30):
keeping me safe or God letting me win.
Like all I asked for was the best outcome and the best
outcome was I won. That's and and that is shaped
into an amazing 2025, an amazingyear for both me and Lucas and
the team. And the year really took off
after nationals, after we both won.
(53:51):
I won EU 23. So you won the pro champs and
all I asked for was the best outcome and I I truly think we
got that. So that's beautiful, man.
If I may share just really quickbecause it sounds like, you
know, you're trying to figure itout in your journey and I think
that's awesome. Just if there's anything you
remember from this conversation,if you do decide to go that down
(54:12):
that path, church is your community for sure.
Like that's a community, but your relationship with God, like
if whether it's Christianity or whatever, you end up kind of
going down and having that relationship with like an all
powerful creator. That's an individual thing.
Like like you said that prayer. So whether you see, you might
join a church someday and somebody does something just
(54:32):
completely heinous, who's a leader, and then you would be, I
think, challenged and internallyin your heart to be like, oh,
I'm throwing this away. Like, if they did that, I
couldn't do that. Don't let anyone ever be your
standard for what right and wrong is, just like, let them be
an example for what to do and what not to do if it's good or
bad. Yeah.
That's great. Yeah, that's some good advice.
Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome.
(54:54):
That's cool, man. Thanks for asking that question.
By the way. No one's ever asked me that
before, so that's neat. So let me ask you just a couple
more questions here to kind of wrap it up.
If you walked into a room with all of your friends and and the
people you've ever met, who is the person that you'd walk up to
1st and why? Who?
(55:15):
Alejandro Che. OK, he he's.
My he's my, he's my best friend.He's he's the funniest guy I've
ever met. He he's gotten second to me at
four of my 5 national champs andthe only one, he didn't get
second to me yet. We won together, we won Madison
(55:36):
national championships together,which is a AA2 man championship.
And he's he's just the funniest person ever.
He gives the best advice. He's my best friend.
And so, yeah, if everyone I evermet in my entire life was at a
bar, I would go see him right away.
That's awesome. I got a backup question to that
(55:59):
for you. Something I like this sport is
bridled with older, older people.
And one thing I always ask them is like, how did you know your
wife was the one? And some people say it's that I
don't need her is that I choose her.
That's the best thing I've heard.
Do you think it's that if there was a bar full of everyone
(56:22):
you've ever met in your entire life, you would choose your
wife? Do you think that's how you know
she's the one? Do I think that's how I know
she's the one? Man, that's a That's a hard
question. Like everyone I've ever met, I
think to this point I would say yes, but I don't think that that
has to always be the answer. I don't think that's always
(56:43):
true. And I'll say why I've been
married now for going on nine years, 8 1/2 years.
Congrats. Yeah, thank you.
And our first three years of marriage were actually really
tough. My wife went through a really
bad depression. I was an entrepreneur, told her
I wasn't going to be travelling much that year.
And I travelled literally 2 weeks after we got married.
(57:03):
I was gone to the Philippines for like a week and a half.
And then I was going to China for a business and I was just,
you know, it was it was not great and I was very immature.
But now Fast forward to today. We've been around this cycle
many times of hard season working through it, thinking
that it might be over kind of a situation to like, oh, we made
this. And now like every time we go
around that circle, our confidence in our marriage and
(57:24):
just the experience we have witheach other, it deepens.
I could I could have married a lot of other women out there.
For sure. There's there's people out there
today, you know, even if my wifewas to somehow pass away like
someone that I could marry. But I think what really matters
truly at the end of the day is do you respect that person?
Do you like that person? And I had to learn that honestly
(57:47):
over time, like how to really like my wife.
I loved my wife. I mean, when I saw her with it,
from the very first moment I sawher, before I knew her, I knew I
wanted to have a relationship with her.
She seemed like a spiritual person and I didn't even talk to
her. And so, like, I borderline
stalked her and we got to know her over the years and, you
know, and, and convinced her. She put me in the friend zone,
dude. Like, I, you know, yeah, like,
literally, I was in the friend zone for a few months and then
(58:09):
she finally let me out. And her parents and her friends
were like, you should date Seth.And so I had to really work for
that love, truthfully. And I would have it no other
way. But, you know, I think that you,
you could marry anyone who you choose and you could make it
work. Now you there are different
levels of difficulty for marriages based on how similar
(58:31):
your foundation is. But yeah, if you as long as
there's no abuse, any of that crazy stuff, like any two people
I think can coexist together andbuild a love.
So that's that's my hot take. I don't.
I don't know if that makes senseat all, but.
Yeah, no, it totally makes sense.
Like you could, yeah, you could love almost anyone and you could
(58:51):
make a, a, a happy relationship with almost anyone out of just
being a kind person, as long as you weren't hitting them or
you're loyal to them. Yeah.
Exactly but. Yeah, because partially that
that that you choose them and you have a special connection
with that one person over anyoneelse.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good question.
(59:13):
Maybe you should start a podcast.
I thought about it. I thought about it but.
Do it even if it's just for fun.Even if it's just for fun.
Yeah, I mean, you do, you have alot going on, so obviously you
have to weigh your time and whatyour priorities are, but I think
you'd be good at. You seem to have a pretty, so
you're 19. I remember when I was 19, I was
in a much crazier, stupider place.
(59:33):
So you got a good head on your shoulders, it seems, and got
good mentors around you. And you're, you're doing hard
things. So that's like super encouraging
to see someone who's behind my generation doing, doing things
that are worth being done. So that's, it's cool.
I'm, I'm, I don't know you superwell yet, but I'm proud of you.
Thanks man, that means a lot. I love those words.
Yeah, for sure. So let me ask you one final
(59:57):
question. If you wanted to give yourself
like a note in five years, like so let's pretend you're about to
write a note and you want yourself to read it in five
years. So what do you think you would
say to yourself? I would first ask this question.
I would ask if I made it to the Olympics, that's my, that's my
(01:00:18):
like, shoot for the shoot for the stars, land on the moon.
That's my, that's my goal. And then I would, I would more
ask questions rather than like leave them a note and tell them
advice because I'm, I'm learningsomething new every day.
I really want kids. I would ask if we had, if we had
(01:00:39):
kids, if we got married. I want to have kids by the time
my dad's 60 and seven years 7. I got 7 years.
I, I could be an Olympian and have kids in seven years.
So that's that's that's that's where where my site to aim.
Yeah, I would ask. I would ask more questions
towards my future self rather than try and give advice or
(01:01:02):
leave a note. Yeah, yeah.
Good. Answer.
I think I yeah, yeah, that's my answer.
Yeah, that's a good answer. What, are you dating someone
right now? I guess.
No, not right now. OK.
But you're thinking about marriage and stuff like that's,
that's pretty deep stuff to think about.
Yeah, I mean that that's always been my like, like there's girls
(01:01:24):
that want to get married and have kids and be a housewife,
that that's, that's their goal. Like my goal is to, to give a
woman that like I want to, I want to be a provider and like
let a woman be womenly. Like I want that girl to want to
be married. I want that girl to have kids.
I want that girl to not worry about providing for a family.
(01:01:45):
Like I want to, I want to be that man I like.
I feel like that's so rewarding.I saw another real like I'm on
reels all day and I saw a reel that was like you're you're not
a man when you move out of the house or you're not a man when
when you sleep with your first woman or something like you're a
man when you start providing forsomeone.
(01:02:05):
And I think that's the most you have you said you have kids or
you're about to have your. First kid?
No, I don't. I'm going to have my first kid.
Yeah, like I think. Congrats, that's going to be
awesome. And I think that's going to be
the most rewarding thing is having having a child and having
a wife and knowing that I've gotten to the point in my life
that I can provide for someone else.
(01:02:28):
Like I'm not, but I'm strugglingto pay the gas for my truck
right now. Like I, I want to make it to a
point in my life where like I don't have to think about those
things. Like I don't, I can just get my
like make sure my wife is buyingthe groceries and make sure that
my kid is being kept care of andin a safe home with warm food.
(01:02:48):
That would be the most fulfilling and the most
rewarding thing. Well.
That sounds like that's that's who Luke is right there.
That's the answer to the first question.
That's like the thing that makesyour heart sound.
Yeah, no, you answered good thentoo.
But I'm just saying like that. I think that's you touched that
right there. What is super deep?
Like, I don't think there's any higher calling for a man than to
(01:03:10):
be a father and for a woman to be a mother.
I truly believe that. I think that is the highest
calling that we could ever do. I'm not saying that there aren't
other high callings, but I thinkthat's it.
That's my piano. Yeah.
Coleman. There's a, there's a lot of
people that are super successfuland they could have all the
money in the world, but they don't have kids.
And there's people that are super successful and they do
(01:03:31):
have kids and they're like, I would trade all this money just
to just to have these kids. Like they're, they're so
fulfilled by having children. So yes, yeah, it is, it is our
highest calling. And although like the baby may
cry and throw up on your face like they're, they're still,
there's still more fulfilling than anything else in this
world. Yeah, so old man.
(01:03:53):
One day. One day.
Yeah, one day, indeed. Well, Luke, man, it's an honor
to get to ask you these questions and get to know you.
I really mean what I said. Like, I'm proud of you, but it's
really cool to talk to somebody who is as young as you are, but
to have, like, a lot of the lifeexperience and wisdom that
sounds like he's been bestowed upon you from some of your own
experience, but a lot of cool people around you as well.
So I'm excited for you. And it'll be fun to track your
(01:04:15):
journey. But yeah, just thank you so much
for taking the time. And may you find lots of gas
money laying around. Yeah, thank you, Seth.
Thanks for having me on. Thanks for all the great
questions is I was I was expecting actual stupid
questions. This was this was a great time.
Good. Thank you.
Awesome. Thanks, man.
(01:04:35):
Thanks so much to Luke for coming on the pod.
Really enjoyed that conversation.
Yeah, for a young guy, like, I know I keep saying that, but I
think it's just because I'm comparing myself at 19 and 20
years old to him and he is leapsand bounds ahead.
But he's really mature for his age, at least by my standard and
observation, and just really appreciated him asking me
questions, opportunities to share and just to get to know
(01:04:57):
him a little bit. It's really cool to get to know
people outside of their sport a little bit and like, why they
choose to do what they do and how they do it.
So, yeah, thanks for being here,a part of that journey and
getting to witness these people's stories.
Thank you so much to Luke. Happy late birthday.
And without, Yeah, I was gonna say without further ado, but
that's why saying the intro, trying to keep this thing
(01:05:18):
authentic. So I'll catch you guys in the
next one. Thanks for being here.
Peace.
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