March 3, 2025 • 43 mins
A former pro cyclist shares her journey through the highs and lows of competitive cycling, discussing the importance of nutrition, training, and mental resilience. Katie's insights reveal the complexity of preparation and life after competing.
• Exploration of the unique challenges and experiences of pro cyclists
• Importance of nutrition in maintaining energy and performance
• Balancing various training demands for optimal performance
• Coping strategies for the mental aspects of cycling
• Transitioning from competitive cycling to managing teams
• Importance of community and support in the cycling world
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Is anybody there?
What's up, deadhackery?
Welcome to part two, the finalepisode of my discussion about
cycling.
That's right, my good friendKatie was gracious enough to sit
(00:23):
for well over an hour and talkabout cycling, the sport of
cycling, what it takes to be acyclist, a professional,
semi-professional.
Here On this episode, though onthe final one, we are
discussing nutrition, training.
And then you know, life aftercycling, right, what do you do
once you know that you no longercan compete at a high level in
(00:47):
cycling?
So we get into all of that inthis one.
But before, guys, I give youthis episode, make sure you guys
do me a favor.
Go on my youtube channel, hitthe subscribe button, go ahead
and grab this episode once youlisten to it, and go ahead and
send it to somebody else so thatway they're able to enjoy it as
much as you are.
All right, right Now, withoutfurther ado, I'll give you the
(01:08):
episode.
Uh, all right.
So I got a couple of questionshere and I wanted to.
You know, like, what does um?
You know, like we talked aboutthe training like, um, how do
you balance the endurance,strength and recovery?
Like, how, what's the, what'syour the, the that balance look
like.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah.
So, um, in a typical trainingweek you would always have at
least one recovery day, or um,if it had been, let's say, a
super strenuous week beforehandin training and I had a long
work week, then my coach wasalways wonderful of giving me an
(01:47):
extra rest day whenever Ineeded it.
Strength training with cyclingprobably should be happening
more year round, but because thesport requires so much time
investment on the bike duringthe season that a lot of
cyclists spend most of theirtime strength training in the
(02:09):
gym in the off season which forus is, you know, late fall
through early winter, and peoplecan get pretty heavy in the gym
and spend a lot of time there.
And then, once your trainingreally ramps up, then it's just
a lot of time there.
And then, once your trainingreally ramps up, then it's just
a lot of on the bike, strengthtraining and less gym work.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Okay, so it's like it tapes, or it tapes off as soon
as the season's about to start.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Right Correct For most athletes.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Okay, all right.
So nutrition plays a big rolein your performance, like, I
mean massive role, right?
Yes, what does your, a typicalcyclist, you know in your, in
your sport, in your level?
What does that diet look like?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Okay, so I'll give you two different scenarios,
because they're kind of extremeopposites.
I would say or at least this iswhat worked really well for me
Stage racing so for example,like a race we would do in
Ireland every year was six dayslong, seven stages was six days
(03:23):
long, seven stages, and all ofthose stages, except for two,
were long road race days with alot of climbing.
And if I was not intakinganywhere from 60 to 80 grams of
(03:44):
carbs an hour while I'm racing,starting from the beginning,
then I would find myself in asituation where all of a sudden
you hit the wall and you run outof glycogen stores and energy
stores just in your body.
Those types of races the goinggets real tough, like halfway
(04:10):
through towards the end, and ifyou haven't been fueling
properly up until then, you kindof reach the point of no return
.
And then that evening we hadwonderful staff on our team who
would make us food and we atelike you have to eat a lot
(04:35):
because you know if you burnedlet's say you know 1500 calories
or 2000 calories in a race.
You know 1500 calories or 2000calories in a race and you have
to make up for that, plus allthe muscle damage that you're
trying to repair overnight andyour body is continuing to burn
(04:55):
calories.
Till the next day You're eating.
I mean, sometimes it's almosthard to eat enough and you
really have to train yourstomach over time before you get
to race day to be able tohandle that amount of food, that
amount of calories and thatamount of carbs consistently for
hours on time to be able tofuel yourself.
(05:17):
Through races doing, let's say,a one day crit race that's an
hour long, your fueling strategyis going to be a bit different.
Because you haven't fueledenough.
You know right before the startor the night before then
(05:38):
there's really not much you cando.
Let's say you know 45 minutesinto the race and you've only
got 15 minutes less.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
I mean I wouldn't hardly take in many calories in
just a 60 minute race, becauseyou either come prepared or not.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah At that point.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
You're like yeah, you're ready or not?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, yeah, it's not like I'm feeling for the third
hour that I know I'm going to beracing really hard in.
You know.
I know I'm going to be racingreally hard in.
You know, in a road race I justcome prepared to the start line
.
I might have a bottle, onebottle of whatever type of fluid
and electrolytes I'm intakingand that's it for the crit race
(06:16):
and then obviously recoveringafterwards.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
But Interesting yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Very different fueling scenarios.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
That's a lot of an hour.
Yeah, scenarios, that's a lotof.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
It's like an hour yeah, it's a lot, but we had uh
amazing nutrition sponsors wherein one bottle um I could easily
have 60 grams of carbs and itand it would be easily
digestible carbs so you'reconstantly drinking, always
eating something, and but you dohave to train your stomach to
(06:46):
be able to take in that manycarbs, not much food per hour,
okay.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
So, uh, speaking of, and I I'm I'm sorry, I apologize
ahead.
Okay, oh, no, okay, this is thepart that no one you know.
But you're in a race, you gotto go when nature calls, you got
to go.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, one, you know, but you're in the race.
You gotta go when nature callsyou gotta go.
Yeah, uh, I remember one racethat we were doing in vermont
where it seemed like everyone inthe peloton had to use the
bathroom and we took a naturebreak, like the peloton decided
as a group that this washappening.
We're stopping, we're going.
Yeah, I mean, men have theability to kind of pee off the
side of their bike.
Women can't really do that butmost of the time that doesn't
(07:34):
happen, like you just comeprepared or you're you're
chasing back on if you reallyhave to stop oh my god, yeah,
okay, I'm sorry, I've alwayswondered.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I yeah, I'm sure a lot of people, a lot of people
wonder the same thing too, solet's be honest about that right
.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah, I mean, if you're racing for three or four
hours, it's a fair question, butmost of the time, like I don't
know, I just, you just becomeprepared.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, yeah, and you're burning so much calories.
Yeah, like that point like uh,you know, oh, you're burning so
much calories.
Yeah, like that point like ah,you know.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Oh, you're sweating so much that, no matter how much
liquid I took in some at theend of some of these long races
where it was, I don't even haveto be that particularly hot, but
you're just working so hard Iwas still felt dehydrated at the
end, even though I'd had fivebottles, you know, fluid.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Okay, I have a have a couple questions here now and I
want to move on to your, yourmental aspect of this, because
you have to train your mind youdo to do all of this, like you
know, like how do you handlethose psychological demands of
like, of racing, because thatthat's a lot.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
It is.
Cycling is, I think, uniquelypsychologically hard at the pro
level If you're doing stageracing because it is day in and
day out and you're on the bikefor, like I said, three or four
hours um for each of the races.
(09:07):
And we did have a, a sportspsychologist, that helped our
team um one full year and thenfor half of a year the following
year after that, um year afterthat.
(09:29):
That taught you how to reallyfocus your mind away from what
is happening within your body,because not many sports are
going to have you racing forfive or six days back to back,
all out for many hours, and soit can wear on you if you are
(09:49):
unable to put your mind in apositive space and try to not
focus on how much your body ishurting.
And for me, instead I wouldfocus on other small goals I
would have throughout the race.
So let's say I need to be onthe front of the peloton at this
(10:11):
point in the race because I'mgoing to work for my teammates
as much as I can or I don't know.
A lot of times too, I justfound that there was so much
going on around me and I wouldtry and stay away from people
(10:32):
that I knew were super unsafe.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Like I didn't want to crash.
Yeah, that would take my mindaway from just how hard it was.
But for me to.
I will never forget my coachEmma telling me to don't be
afraid of big mountain climbs,like when you would get to.
(10:58):
Because for me, that was alwayswhere my mind would start to
freak out.
Because I'm just not.
I'm not the best climber.
I'm super tall.
I don't weigh a hundred poundsbecause I'm not five foot one
you know, like these small girlsare gonna fly past me.
But she said you can climb andyou have to make them drop.
(11:20):
You don't just give up.
You make people drop you likeyou go all in.
And that mindset helped me somuch on big climbs that I was to
be with these people until theyliterally like I'm going to
make you drop me.
(11:40):
And so you know, small thingslike that were super helpful for
me.
But every athlete who has theirown different type of mental
challenges based on theirstrengths, I'm sure have a ton
of different strategies to getthem through hard, hard race
days.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Did you do the throughout the training and, uh,
during racing and all that didyou do?
Any kind of meditation Are?
You one of those that believein in meditating.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I probably should have.
We had a girl on the team oneyear.
That was really good at it.
Um, and she would be super zenand in her own space, um, and
she now is a phenomenal cyclistreally yeah, she's great.
Uh, she did a lot of racing ineurope and she actually got to
race the welta one year, um, andso she was really good at it.
(12:33):
I never was.
I probably should have tried.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I was a person that's going to be jamming out to some
loud music in my headphonesbefore I got into some race.
Yeah, it's not for everybody,right?
It's just, it really isn't.
So that's cool, though I meanLa Vuelta, that's a Spanish race
, correct?
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Yes, correct.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, that's correct, I'm learning some stuff, see,
um, okay, so and and and.
Then just to put it into, youknow what other people don't
understand as well as in innormal races not normal, I'm
sorry, in professional raceslike in the tour in la vuelta
and tour de ronda and thingslike that there's always a bunch
(13:15):
of cars all the way.
In the tour in la vuelta andtour de aranda and things like
that, there's always a bunch ofcars all the way in the back yes
right, and also your coachesand all that do you got.
Did you have that as well?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
we did.
Yes, we were um lucky enough tohave team car uh, team
directors, people that were justhelping out the team giving
feeds um, and the last year thatI actually helped run the team,
I was also in the team carhelping out our star athletes.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
We're going to talk about that here in a second, but
a lot of the strategy goes onin the car, like you guys are,
there's discussion going on inthe car about the strategy
throughout the race of our game.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Absolutely Yep, because in a lot of the big
stage races you're allowed tohave a mic in your ear and so
your team car can be talking toyou.
Okay, race officials, thatwould be on motorcycles in the
(14:18):
race If someone on our teamneeded something, and you're not
the first car in the line ofteam car so you can't see what's
going on.
They're going to becommunicating with us of what we
need to do to help our rider.
There's a lot going on in theteam car.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Interesting, so okay, all right, I like that.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
That's again.
These are the little thingsthat no one you know really
knows about, because you guysare.
It's such a different worldthan a normal person like myself
, because you guys are allsuperhuman, uh, you know that,
able to do these stage races,and I'm like I can't do that and
you, if you think about it too.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
If you're racing for four hours, you are unable to
carry enough nutrition in yourkit and on your bike to get you
through that race, and so yourely on your team car to help
you throughout the race so youhave some, you have someone
going back, absolutely get,absolutely, and then come back
(15:18):
in Correct, I got you.
Yep.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
And then the drafting right, because, like I mean,
you can, you can go into carsand all that.
How long is that how?
How long can you stay behindthat one car drafting?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, that one car drafting.
Yeah, so you're allowed to hopfrom car to car, um, to get back
up to the main peloton, um,there's, if you're in like the
cavalcade of cars, then as longas you're moving up once you're
done at your team car, thenthere's really no like set rule.
(15:56):
You can't.
Just you know if they see youback there, yeah yeah, if you're
like sitting back there justtaking a, you know like five,
ten minute break, you knowyou're gonna get in trouble for
that, but if you're moving upand they see that you're
actively trying to move up, thenthat's all that really matters.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Okay, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I like that.
How big was your team?
So we had a team of six andseven girls at one point.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Oh wow, yes, Pretty big team.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, I mean we were.
I would say we were more oflike medium-sized team because
we gave so much support withflights, kits, bikes, you name
it, and all the team staff andflying the team staff wherever
we were going.
It's expensive.
(16:53):
Cycling is incredibly expensive, it's expensive.
It's cycling is incrediblyexpensive, and we get, you know,
the Airbnb that we'd stay at,we buy all the food, we get the
rental car, the gas, I mean, youname it.
And so, because we wanted tooperate our team as closely to a
pro team as possible, wecouldn't support, say, 15 or 20
(17:17):
girls like some other teams mayhave.
We had a smaller group ofselect girls that we felt could
work really well together, thatwe could fully support
throughout the seasoninteresting.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I like that.
Uh, okay, so that's actuallynot bad at all.
Um so, technology, because thatplays a big, huge part now yeah
in cycling and not justtechnology, like you know,
electronics or anything likethat, but like technology in the
bike, because the bikes havebecome so, so different than
(17:52):
what they used to be.
They're so lightweight, um, Iknow, and they may not do this
in your races, but I know insome of the races, like the tour
and things like that, that theyactually have to put actual
weights on to meet a certainweight restriction, I guess.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yep, and I never had this problem because I ride a
large bike, because I am so talland it's naturally going to
weigh more than a small bike.
But some women who ride supertiny bikes would have to put a
weight somewhere on their biketo make it legal.
Yeah, I did not have thatproblem.
(18:29):
But a lot of road bikes thesedays that used to be like
standard geometry with what wewould call round tubing, so you
know how the bike frame weremade out of round tubes.
A lot of road bikes these daysare made out of more aerodynamic
(18:52):
geometry and aerodynamic tubing, so that I mean including the
wheels, the tires, yourhandlebars, helmet, skin, suit.
Everything is super aero andincredibly faster than
technology from 10 years ago.
(19:15):
I mean some of the road bikesare so aero that they're like
almost time trial bikes withroad cycling geometry so fast
yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
And they're carbon fiber framing.
Well, most of the even thewheels, are carbon fiber
nowadays.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yep, they all are.
If you're going to be racinglike some top in road bikes,
everything's carbon fiber.
Yeah, god, I'm so jealous,including the bottle cages,
everything.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Even the bottle cages .
Yeah, and even the bottle cageswere designed specifically so
that way it was aerodynamic,that everything fit together.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yep, everything's aero.
These days, aero is everything.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I really would like to see how a, an engineering
team, goes through the wholeprocess of you know cause, like
I mean, everything had to befitted specifically for one you
know writer.
So, seeing that process of like, all right, we're going to get
you as aerodynamic as we can, weneed you to come into the wind
tunnel and then do all this, allthis experiment.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, dynamic as we can, we need you to come into
the wind tunnel and then do allthis, all this experiment.
Yeah, I wish I could have goneinto a wind tunnel because me
being so tall, yeah, I am surethat there was something I could
have tweaked on my bike to bemore aerodynamic, but we weren't
.
Our team was not lucky enoughto get into a wind tunnel, but a
lot of athletes do get to dothat, which is super cool.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
That is super cool.
Yeah, you know you saidsomething that in that I wanted
to ask you.
As far as tweaking, you knowsome things here and there like
obviously also position, youworked on positioning yourself a
lot all the time.
I'm sure that was a constantthing to do.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yes, so it took me a while to get the most efficient
position on the bike that I mean, I probably had the same same
position on my bike maybe thelast couple of years.
But if you're in a raceposition, I mean you think about
a lot of cyclists riding downthe street, they're pretty like
(21:26):
upright.
But if you're racing, I meanyou're, you're really down down
low because you want to be, asthis is super, not air, but it
takes a lot of, takes a lot ofcore, it takes a lot of back
muscles, it takes a lot of backmuscles, it takes a lot of upper
body strength, like everythingyou can think of, to be able to
(21:46):
hold a super aero race position.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
So over time I know my fit definitely changed,
especially as the bikes changed,but it was something that I
tweaked for a long whileInteresting.
I have a couple more questionsfor you because I'm'm finding
this super fascinating.
Good, I'm glad, yeah, because,well, I mean, let's be honest,
like a lot of people don'treally get to see or or hear
these things nowadays, like theyjust see cycling like, oh my
god, they're super fast, theycan do this, but they don't know
(22:17):
what.
You know the work that you haveto put in right.
You know to get to be like, yep, that's a fast person, yep, so.
So, just like every sport, inmy favorite sport, uh, there was
huge controversy when it comesto doping and all that.
I'm sure this is also a bigpart, a big no-no, and you know
(22:39):
the, the things that you guysdon't talk about, but doping is
part of the, the, the sport aswell.
In cycling, yeah, how is thatmanaged?
Is it managed at your level?
And, you know, is it noticeable?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
obviously, yes, it absolutely is managed um,
because there have been some bigdoping controversies in cycling
over the years and you know, atyour local races small regional
, local races there's not goingto be any sort of doping control
.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
But at your big national events, if you're on
the podium, you are gettingtested, and they also will
randomly pull race numbers forpeople to come and get tested.
So a lot of people are beingtested.
This is every day, um, and I've.
I was at a race where thewinner was found to be doping.
(23:29):
This was, yeah, back in 2019, Ibelieve, um, and so they they
do find those people and you can.
Also, if you have good evidenceand reason to suspect that some
athlete is doping, you can alsoreport that to USA Cycling and
they can do anout-of-competition test.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
And that has happened .
Speaker 2 (23:51):
That definitely has happened, yeah so they're really
trying to crack down on it.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I was going to say you guys are also policing your
own sport as well.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, some people do I mean sometimes it's pretty
noticeable, but a lot of peoplethat get reported to usa cycling
.
This might sound bad, but it'sgonna be like maybe the older
men that are racing in themasters category.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
They're still trying to live it up like.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
You're 20, you can't race like that, so you're doping
and you don't have to be in thepro fields to get drug tested.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Okay so see, now I'm, you know I'm going into the
weeds here.
So doping, what does that looklike in your sport?
Obviously, you have you know.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I did not.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
No, no, no, not you no.
But I'm talking about, like, isit blood transfusions, Is it,
you know, injections, what youknow?
What did a lot of those peopleget caught with?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Oh gosh, I mean, there are so many ways that
people can dope these days, andthere's also ways that people
could get caught doping withouteven realizing it, like I found
out that if you drink too manyRed Bulls, you can have
something in your system Shut up, uh, yeah, so, um, like my, my
(25:24):
husband won a big race uh onetime where he had to go through,
uh, a doping test, and you know, they made him pee in a cup and
they test for all differentkinds of things.
Sure, uh, what they test for?
I mean, I don't know everythingspecifically but I mean, there's
(25:45):
a million way, I'm sure, likeat the super um world tour level
, there's probably somequestionable things that are
going on that we don't even knowyeah it's possible, like you
know, in our world so what wasthat one cyclist from?
Speaker 1 (26:06):
who lance armstrong the biggest yeah, biggest doper
of all time.
Yeah, no, no, it was after him.
Uh, who was?
He was racing with him, but, um, oh my lord, uh, it was.
Uh, it was from Team Astana.
Oh God, what was his name?
The name is escaping me now.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Then he blamed it on steak.
It was a Spanish racer.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
I know why can't I think of his name?
Because we watched adocumentary with him in it not
that long ago.
Oh, see If my husband was herehe would know.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
I know what you're talking about um, I know, you
know what I'm talking about yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
There's all different ways people can try and dope in
this sport.
And because it's so uniquelychallenging, especially at that
level where you're racing for 21days yeah you know, max effort
at some point in all of thosedays, people are looking for any
way to gain an advantage andtrying to push the limits with
(27:09):
things that may not be illegalat the time but then at some
point becomes illegal my god, Ican't remember the name now and
it's gonna really make me mad,because it's like I remember it
was a spanish guy and then hewas.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
He was caught doping.
Um, I can't remember his name,but I'll find it don't you worry
uh, okay, so, uh, when did youknow right?
This is the part where you'relike, okay, my career is coming
to oh yeah, an end to a time hascome.
(27:45):
Yeah, it's like it's time forme to hang it up.
Yeah, um, did you realize it?
When did you realize it?
And, like you know, what wasthat?
What did you go through allthat?
When, when, that, when thatrealization finally came?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I probably should have stopped a year earlier.
I will say um looking back atit now, there were a couple of
things that really pushed me todecide it was time to stop and,
instead of racing, help manageteam um the last two years, um,
(28:23):
I I didn't realize at the timethat I was racing with a
full-blown Epstein-Barr viralinfection, which happens from
stress, really, and I'm sure,yeah, the stress of cycling plus
our former workplace.
(28:44):
That shall not be mentioned.
Uh yeah had probably a big playinto that.
And so a lot, of, a lot of racedays.
Um, you know, I I can't explainhow awful I felt and how much
harder I would have to work tooutput the power that I wanted.
And and then, when I was racingthe national crit race one year
(29:12):
, I had a tachycardia event,which is where my heart spiked
to like I think it was 225 iswhat they said and they had to
do some crazy things for it tomy heart rate to regulate.
And then I went to acardiologist and wore a heart
monitor for a while and I mean,I basically found out that I
(29:37):
needed to take in a lot moreelectrolytes because I'm just
aging, I'm getting older, like Idon't function, like I'm 25
anymore, and you know, myhusband and I we also wanted to
start our own family, and it'sreally those three things over
the course of two years thatmade me realize that it was time
(30:03):
.
I had fun, I loved what I didand I just couldn't.
I started to not be able torecover as well as I used to
because I was just well, it wasa lot of the Epstein-Barr viral
infection, but it was just justgetting older At that point it's
like my body can't handle this.
Yeah, I mean it was fun, butthat's when I decided it was
(30:27):
time to move on.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Okay, all right, so you, but then you moved on from
from the, the, the participatinglike as far as like the actual
racing, but you really didn'tmove on from racing still,
though you were.
Then at that point you weremanaging the team.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yes, I was helping to manage the team.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
How was that?
Speaker 2 (30:49):
It was great.
So cycling gave so much to mylife and enriched it in so many
ways and I've met so manywonderful people and traveled to
so many cool places and it gaveme a real direction in my life
a lot of times and I reallyneeded direction that I wanted
to give back to the sport andcontinue to help up-and-coming
(31:12):
athletes who wanted to dabble instage racing and really be
treated as much of a, as much oflike a pro as we could, and so
I helped manage our team.
I got a lot of the sponsorshipmoney brought into the team and
I'd be in the team car helpinggirls.
I would help any way I could inteam housing.
(31:36):
Afterwards I did a lot of thesocial media for the team, for a
lot of our sponsors, and justdid whatever I could to help
some girls who were supertalented.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
That's interesting.
Let me ask you this and thenyou know I'll let you go,
because we've been here for overan hour, but I could keep
asking.
I got, I got questions galore,girl, don't you worry.
I got questions on questions.
But you say something is and isthe sponsorship like like, did
the sponsors approach you guys?
(32:11):
Did you approach?
Did you guys approach thesponsors like Like, how, how
does that work?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
So we had a big sponsorship deck that we would
hand out to different companiesthat we would love to partner
with, and our sponsorship deckwould talk about you know the
team, our culture, how yourinvestment is going to help
athletes, what you're going toget out of the investment.
(32:38):
And we would approach companies, individuals, product sponsors
that we would want to beinvolved with, and if they were
interested and saw a potentialfit, then me and the team owner,
Shane, were the main ones whowould sit down and have
(33:00):
sponsorship talks with them andnegotiate basically what the
deal would be for them to comeon board to support the team.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Gotcha, and then their name, their fancy name,
will go on the kit.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Absolutely On the kit all over social media on our
website.
I mean on the kit all oversocial media on our website.
I mean, you know, depending onwhat level of sponsorship they
signed up for, or if it was alarge sponsorship, because we
did have some very largesponsors we would customize a
plan for them to get what theywanted out of the team, as well
(33:35):
as what we did too gotcha, yeah,interesting, yeah again the
things that no one tells youabout there's a lot that goes on
behind the scenes to getsponsors or that no one knows
about yeah, because it it takesa lot of uh a lot of
communication before you getreally big sponsors on board,
(33:57):
because it's not as large of asport like baseball, that's just
super televised and you get alot of viewership through tv.
You know that's not really apart of cycling, um at least you
know live streams yeah, thatare for some races.
So there's.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
We had to become creative in ways that we would
partner with our big moneysponsors I wish they would be a
lot more popular here in the usbecause it's such a fascinating
sport.
You know, like I said at thebeginning, I said it's like you.
You know I won't retainanything.
I'm lying, obviously I, I I'm afan of this sport.
(34:39):
I really am.
Yeah, because it's such a.
I find it so fascinating thatto see these Athletes that have
these God giving abilities to dowhat I cannot do, it's simple
truth.
I can't.
I mean, I love, I love it.
I wish I could.
You know, I already have twobad knees, I'm already out.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
You know what.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I mean I'm done.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah Well, I tried playing softball one year and I
was not very good at it, so I'mnot good at baseball.
Softball, like I found it wasvery uncoordinated with objects
coming towards my body, so Ijust rode a bike and I was on
Give me your bike, give me yourbike.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
I like this.
Yeah, but you know, I wish thatalso, that a lot of these
cycling events were not behind apaywall, right?
Yeah, so that way people canenjoy it, because I mean, you go
to Europe and then it'severywhere, it's everywhere.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I know, I know, I know the investment in Europe,
but also just the cost of racingin Europe, is significantly
less than the cost of racing inthe US.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Because of the popularity.
Right here in the US it's likethis is an elite sport.
You're going to have to pay forthis.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Well, and it seems like when we were in Europe, the
communities where the races arehappening just really get
behind the sport and the raceand help make it happen, Whereas
here in America it's like, hey,you have to pay up for us to
make this happen.
So it's a totally differentculture in Europe than compared
to America.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
One of these days we'll get there.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
I know hopefully.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Yeah, I know right, one of these days I still have
hope that we can.
So are you done with that partof the world now?
Have you seen?
Just hung it up?
You're retired.
You're done with.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I mean I couldn't ride while I was pregnant and
just had my baby, and so I'm.
I have ridden the trainer a fewtimes now that I'm able to, and
I would like to do some gravelracing again whenever I can,
whenever my daughter's a littlebit older and I get a little bit
(36:51):
more freedom.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm probably probably notgoing to do much.
Road racing.
Gravel racing is like a a partyon dirt.
Uh.
It's super fun style of racingand it's not quite so serious
okay it's also not quite sodangerous.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
So but that's the thing people think.
I look, I've seen it and itlooks fun, and you know.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Yeah yeah, it's, I've done some gravel racing.
It's very fun and if you crash,I mean typically your crash is
not going to be nearly as bad asin a road race or a crit race.
There's a lot of dirt, a lot ofgrass, you know.
I mean there can be some awfulcrash.
But I would love to do that,you know, maybe a couple of
years in the future, but I'm notdone writing when, when I can
(37:39):
get outside and ride again, I'mdefinitely going to love it,
love it, all right.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Is there anything that I haven't asked you Cause I
mean, I think I've asked you alot of questions here and we
could be here for another hourbecause I have a whole bunch
more.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Yeah, I would just say, if you are listening to
this podcast and you are in acity where you have a criterium
race that is near you becausethey do happen all over the US
all summer long go to it.
They are so fun.
(38:12):
There is loud music.
Usually the announcers aregreat, they're funny.
There's always beer.
Um, it's like I said, it's likenascar on bikes, or a spandex
rodeo, like a lot of people callit, and it's super fun to watch
they go all day long, withvarious levels of racing
(38:33):
throughout the day, with thepros racing last.
I promise you you will have funwatching it and you'll be
surprised, um, at what you willwitness, especially towards the
end of the race when people aregoing all out to win.
So just go see it if you seethat there's a criterion or a
(38:53):
bike race near you I thinkthere's actually one here in
Raleigh Carolina, so there'sthat.
I didn't know that, yeah, andthere's one in oh gosh, I don't
think Winston-Salem is that faraway from you guys, right?
Speaker 1 (39:08):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
There's a big one there at Winston-Salem too.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Winston-Salem for me is about, I want to say, about
an hour, half, two hours fromhere.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Yeah, I mean, they have a huge race there.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Do they?
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yes, I do know, I've been there.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Kate, thanks so much for doing this.
Katie, Absolutely.
Where can people find you onsocials if they want to follow
you?
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Because I know you got your own socials that they
want to follow you, cause I knowyou got your own business going
on right now.
Uh, so actually you know what?
What is your business?
Speaker 1 (39:47):
now.
I currently run Airbnb that weown, yes, here in Columbia,
south Carolina.
All right, so there you go,you're.
You are very busy, you're a mom, and you're running your own
business.
Uh, that's awesome.
I love that.
Thank you so much, um, and Idon't know for, for the people
that are listening to thispodcast, I want to ask you guys
now uh, I've done tennis, I'vedone cycling.
What is the next sport that youguys want me to look into so I
(40:10):
can, um, so I can interview themand so I can learn more about
other sports other than yourtypical basketball, football,
baseball, because baseball,cause I mean, there's so many
sports out here in the U S, Iknow, right, I kind of want to
have someone who does not tennisalready did tennis, maybe golf
(40:30):
or pickleball, you know swimming, because we have so many
Americans that are good atswimming.
They are true story.
That is true Skiing.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Yeah, that too so there you go.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
See, we're going to get some people on this podcast
that are other sports.
So again, thank you, katie, andfor you guys, again on the
podcast, if you want me to lookat any other sport, put it in
the comments, make sure you letme know.
Otherwise, make sure you'refollowing me on all of the
(41:06):
socials that have 216 or look upfor data chronicles, as well as
on youtube, and we will see youguys on the next one.
Bye.
Is anybody there?
What's up, deadhackery?
Welcome to part two, the finalepisode of my discussion about
cycling.
That's right, my good friendKatie was gracious enough to sit
(00:23):
for well over an hour and talkabout cycling, the sport of
cycling, what it takes to be acyclist, a professional,
semi-professional.
Here On this episode, though onthe final one, we are
discussing nutrition, training.
And then you know, life aftercycling, right, what do you do
once you know that you no longercan compete at a high level in
(00:47):
cycling?
So we get into all of that inthis one.
But before, guys, I give youthis episode, make sure you guys
do me a favor.
Go on my youtube channel, hitthe subscribe button, go ahead
and grab this episode once youlisten to it, and go ahead and
send it to somebody else so thatway they're able to enjoy it as
much as you are.
All right, right Now, withoutfurther ado, I'll give you the
(01:08):
episode.
Uh, all right.
So I got a couple of questionshere and I wanted to.
You know, like, what does um?
You know, like we talked aboutthe training like, um, how do
you balance the endurance,strength and recovery?
Like, how, what's the, what'syour the, the that balance look
like.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah.
So, um, in a typical trainingweek you would always have at
least one recovery day, or um,if it had been, let's say, a
super strenuous week beforehandin training and I had a long
work week, then my coach wasalways wonderful of giving me an
(01:47):
extra rest day whenever Ineeded it.
Strength training with cyclingprobably should be happening
more year round, but because thesport requires so much time
investment on the bike duringthe season that a lot of
cyclists spend most of theirtime strength training in the
(02:09):
gym in the off season which forus is, you know, late fall
through early winter, and peoplecan get pretty heavy in the gym
and spend a lot of time there.
And then, once your trainingreally ramps up, then it's just
a lot of time there.
And then, once your trainingreally ramps up, then it's just
a lot of on the bike, strengthtraining and less gym work.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Okay, so it's like it tapes, or it tapes off as soon
as the season's about to start.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Right Correct For most athletes.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Okay, all right.
So nutrition plays a big rolein your performance, like, I
mean massive role, right?
Yes, what does your, a typicalcyclist, you know in your, in
your sport, in your level?
What does that diet look like?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Okay, so I'll give you two different scenarios,
because they're kind of extremeopposites.
I would say or at least this iswhat worked really well for me
Stage racing so for example,like a race we would do in
Ireland every year was six dayslong, seven stages was six days
(03:23):
long, seven stages, and all ofthose stages, except for two,
were long road race days with alot of climbing.
And if I was not intakinganywhere from 60 to 80 grams of
(03:44):
carbs an hour while I'm racing,starting from the beginning,
then I would find myself in asituation where all of a sudden
you hit the wall and you run outof glycogen stores and energy
stores just in your body.
Those types of races the goinggets real tough, like halfway
(04:10):
through towards the end, and ifyou haven't been fueling
properly up until then, you kindof reach the point of no return
.
And then that evening we hadwonderful staff on our team who
would make us food and we atelike you have to eat a lot
(04:35):
because you know if you burnedlet's say you know 1500 calories
or 2000 calories in a race.
You know 1500 calories or 2000calories in a race and you have
to make up for that, plus allthe muscle damage that you're
trying to repair overnight andyour body is continuing to burn
(04:55):
calories.
Till the next day You're eating.
I mean, sometimes it's almosthard to eat enough and you
really have to train yourstomach over time before you get
to race day to be able tohandle that amount of food, that
amount of calories and thatamount of carbs consistently for
hours on time to be able tofuel yourself.
(05:17):
Through races doing, let's say,a one day crit race that's an
hour long, your fueling strategyis going to be a bit different.
Because you haven't fueledenough.
You know right before the startor the night before then
(05:38):
there's really not much you cando.
Let's say you know 45 minutesinto the race and you've only
got 15 minutes less.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
I mean I wouldn't hardly take in many calories in
just a 60 minute race, becauseyou either come prepared or not.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah At that point.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
You're like yeah, you're ready or not?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, yeah, it's not like I'm feeling for the third
hour that I know I'm going to beracing really hard in.
You know.
I know I'm going to be racingreally hard in.
You know, in a road race I justcome prepared to the start line
.
I might have a bottle, onebottle of whatever type of fluid
and electrolytes I'm intakingand that's it for the crit race
(06:16):
and then obviously recoveringafterwards.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
But Interesting yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Very different fueling scenarios.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
That's a lot of an hour.
Yeah, scenarios, that's a lotof.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
It's like an hour yeah, it's a lot, but we had uh
amazing nutrition sponsors wherein one bottle um I could easily
have 60 grams of carbs and itand it would be easily
digestible carbs so you'reconstantly drinking, always
eating something, and but you dohave to train your stomach to
(06:46):
be able to take in that manycarbs, not much food per hour,
okay.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
So, uh, speaking of, and I I'm I'm sorry, I apologize
ahead.
Okay, oh, no, okay, this is thepart that no one you know.
But you're in a race, you gotto go when nature calls, you got
to go.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah, one, you know, but you're in the race.
You gotta go when nature callsyou gotta go.
Yeah, uh, I remember one racethat we were doing in vermont
where it seemed like everyone inthe peloton had to use the
bathroom and we took a naturebreak, like the peloton decided
as a group that this washappening.
We're stopping, we're going.
Yeah, I mean, men have theability to kind of pee off the
side of their bike.
Women can't really do that butmost of the time that doesn't
(07:34):
happen, like you just comeprepared or you're you're
chasing back on if you reallyhave to stop oh my god, yeah,
okay, I'm sorry, I've alwayswondered.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I yeah, I'm sure a lot of people, a lot of people
wonder the same thing too, solet's be honest about that right
.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah, I mean, if you're racing for three or four
hours, it's a fair question, butmost of the time, like I don't
know, I just, you just becomeprepared.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, yeah, and you're burning so much calories.
Yeah, like that point like uh,you know, oh, you're burning so
much calories.
Yeah, like that point like ah,you know.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Oh, you're sweating so much that, no matter how much
liquid I took in some at theend of some of these long races
where it was, I don't even haveto be that particularly hot, but
you're just working so hard Iwas still felt dehydrated at the
end, even though I'd had fivebottles, you know, fluid.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Okay, I have a have a couple questions here now and I
want to move on to your, yourmental aspect of this, because
you have to train your mind youdo to do all of this, like you
know, like how do you handlethose psychological demands of
like, of racing, because thatthat's a lot.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
It is.
Cycling is, I think, uniquelypsychologically hard at the pro
level If you're doing stageracing because it is day in and
day out and you're on the bikefor, like I said, three or four
hours um for each of the races.
(09:07):
And we did have a, a sportspsychologist, that helped our
team um one full year and thenfor half of a year the following
year after that, um year afterthat.
(09:29):
That taught you how to reallyfocus your mind away from what
is happening within your body,because not many sports are
going to have you racing forfive or six days back to back,
all out for many hours, and soit can wear on you if you are
(09:49):
unable to put your mind in apositive space and try to not
focus on how much your body ishurting.
And for me, instead I wouldfocus on other small goals I
would have throughout the race.
So let's say I need to be onthe front of the peloton at this
(10:11):
point in the race because I'mgoing to work for my teammates
as much as I can or I don't know.
A lot of times too, I justfound that there was so much
going on around me and I wouldtry and stay away from people
(10:32):
that I knew were super unsafe.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Like I didn't want to crash.
Yeah, that would take my mindaway from just how hard it was.
But for me to.
I will never forget my coachEmma telling me to don't be
afraid of big mountain climbs,like when you would get to.
(10:58):
Because for me, that was alwayswhere my mind would start to
freak out.
Because I'm just not.
I'm not the best climber.
I'm super tall.
I don't weigh a hundred poundsbecause I'm not five foot one
you know, like these small girlsare gonna fly past me.
But she said you can climb andyou have to make them drop.
(11:20):
You don't just give up.
You make people drop you likeyou go all in.
And that mindset helped me somuch on big climbs that I was to
be with these people until theyliterally like I'm going to
make you drop me.
(11:40):
And so you know, small thingslike that were super helpful for
me.
But every athlete who has theirown different type of mental
challenges based on theirstrengths, I'm sure have a ton
of different strategies to getthem through hard, hard race
days.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Did you do the throughout the training and, uh,
during racing and all that didyou do?
Any kind of meditation Are?
You one of those that believein in meditating.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I probably should have.
We had a girl on the team oneyear.
That was really good at it.
Um, and she would be super zenand in her own space, um, and
she now is a phenomenal cyclistreally yeah, she's great.
Uh, she did a lot of racing ineurope and she actually got to
race the welta one year, um, andso she was really good at it.
(12:33):
I never was.
I probably should have tried.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
I was a person that's going to be jamming out to some
loud music in my headphonesbefore I got into some race.
Yeah, it's not for everybody,right?
It's just, it really isn't.
So that's cool, though I meanLa Vuelta, that's a Spanish race
, correct?
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Yes, correct.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah, that's correct, I'm learning some stuff, see,
um, okay, so and and and.
Then just to put it into, youknow what other people don't
understand as well as in innormal races not normal, I'm
sorry, in professional raceslike in the tour in la vuelta
and tour de ronda and thingslike that there's always a bunch
(13:15):
of cars all the way.
In the tour in la vuelta andtour de aranda and things like
that, there's always a bunch ofcars all the way in the back yes
right, and also your coachesand all that do you got.
Did you have that as well?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
we did.
Yes, we were um lucky enough tohave team car uh, team
directors, people that were justhelping out the team giving
feeds um, and the last year thatI actually helped run the team,
I was also in the team carhelping out our star athletes.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
We're going to talk about that here in a second, but
a lot of the strategy goes onin the car, like you guys are,
there's discussion going on inthe car about the strategy
throughout the race of our game.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Absolutely Yep, because in a lot of the big
stage races you're allowed tohave a mic in your ear and so
your team car can be talking toyou.
Okay, race officials, thatwould be on motorcycles in the
(14:18):
race If someone on our teamneeded something, and you're not
the first car in the line ofteam car so you can't see what's
going on.
They're going to becommunicating with us of what we
need to do to help our rider.
There's a lot going on in theteam car.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Interesting, so okay, all right, I like that.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
That's again.
These are the little thingsthat no one you know really
knows about, because you guysare.
It's such a different worldthan a normal person like myself
, because you guys are allsuperhuman, uh, you know that,
able to do these stage races,and I'm like I can't do that and
you, if you think about it too.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
If you're racing for four hours, you are unable to
carry enough nutrition in yourkit and on your bike to get you
through that race, and so yourely on your team car to help
you throughout the race so youhave some, you have someone
going back, absolutely get,absolutely, and then come back
(15:18):
in Correct, I got you.
Yep.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
And then the drafting right, because, like I mean,
you can, you can go into carsand all that.
How long is that how?
How long can you stay behindthat one car drafting?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, that one car drafting.
Yeah, so you're allowed to hopfrom car to car, um, to get back
up to the main peloton, um,there's, if you're in like the
cavalcade of cars, then as longas you're moving up once you're
done at your team car, thenthere's really no like set rule.
(15:56):
You can't.
Just you know if they see youback there, yeah yeah, if you're
like sitting back there justtaking a, you know like five,
ten minute break, you knowyou're gonna get in trouble for
that, but if you're moving upand they see that you're
actively trying to move up, thenthat's all that really matters.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Okay, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I like that.
How big was your team?
So we had a team of six andseven girls at one point.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Oh wow, yes, Pretty big team.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah, I mean we were.
I would say we were more oflike medium-sized team because
we gave so much support withflights, kits, bikes, you name
it, and all the team staff andflying the team staff wherever
we were going.
It's expensive.
(16:53):
Cycling is incredibly expensive, it's expensive.
It's cycling is incrediblyexpensive, and we get, you know,
the Airbnb that we'd stay at,we buy all the food, we get the
rental car, the gas, I mean, youname it.
And so, because we wanted tooperate our team as closely to a
pro team as possible, wecouldn't support, say, 15 or 20
(17:17):
girls like some other teams mayhave.
We had a smaller group ofselect girls that we felt could
work really well together, thatwe could fully support
throughout the seasoninteresting.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I like that.
Uh, okay, so that's actuallynot bad at all.
Um so, technology, because thatplays a big, huge part now yeah
in cycling and not justtechnology, like you know,
electronics or anything likethat, but like technology in the
bike, because the bikes havebecome so, so different than
(17:52):
what they used to be.
They're so lightweight, um, Iknow, and they may not do this
in your races, but I know insome of the races, like the tour
and things like that, that theyactually have to put actual
weights on to meet a certainweight restriction, I guess.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yep, and I never had this problem because I ride a
large bike, because I am so talland it's naturally going to
weigh more than a small bike.
But some women who ride supertiny bikes would have to put a
weight somewhere on their biketo make it legal.
Yeah, I did not have thatproblem.
(18:29):
But a lot of road bikes thesedays that used to be like
standard geometry with what wewould call round tubing, so you
know how the bike frame weremade out of round tubes.
A lot of road bikes these daysare made out of more aerodynamic
(18:52):
geometry and aerodynamic tubing, so that I mean including the
wheels, the tires, yourhandlebars, helmet, skin, suit.
Everything is super aero andincredibly faster than
technology from 10 years ago.
(19:15):
I mean some of the road bikesare so aero that they're like
almost time trial bikes withroad cycling geometry so fast
yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
And they're carbon fiber framing.
Well, most of the even thewheels, are carbon fiber
nowadays.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yep, they all are.
If you're going to be racinglike some top in road bikes,
everything's carbon fiber.
Yeah, god, I'm so jealous,including the bottle cages,
everything.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Even the bottle cages .
Yeah, and even the bottle cageswere designed specifically so
that way it was aerodynamic,that everything fit together.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Yep, everything's aero.
These days, aero is everything.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I really would like to see how a, an engineering
team, goes through the wholeprocess of you know cause, like
I mean, everything had to befitted specifically for one you
know writer.
So, seeing that process of like, all right, we're going to get
you as aerodynamic as we can, weneed you to come into the wind
tunnel and then do all this, allthis experiment.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, dynamic as we can, we need you to come into
the wind tunnel and then do allthis, all this experiment.
Yeah, I wish I could have goneinto a wind tunnel because me
being so tall, yeah, I am surethat there was something I could
have tweaked on my bike to bemore aerodynamic, but we weren't
.
Our team was not lucky enoughto get into a wind tunnel, but a
lot of athletes do get to dothat, which is super cool.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
That is super cool.
Yeah, you know you saidsomething that in that I wanted
to ask you.
As far as tweaking, you knowsome things here and there like
obviously also position, youworked on positioning yourself a
lot all the time.
I'm sure that was a constantthing to do.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yes, so it took me a while to get the most efficient
position on the bike that I mean, I probably had the same same
position on my bike maybe thelast couple of years.
But if you're in a raceposition, I mean you think about
a lot of cyclists riding downthe street, they're pretty like
(21:26):
upright.
But if you're racing, I meanyou're, you're really down down
low because you want to be, asthis is super, not air, but it
takes a lot of, takes a lot ofcore, it takes a lot of back
muscles, it takes a lot of backmuscles, it takes a lot of upper
body strength, like everythingyou can think of, to be able to
(21:46):
hold a super aero race position.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
So over time I know my fit definitely changed,
especially as the bikes changed,but it was something that I
tweaked for a long whileInteresting.
I have a couple more questionsfor you because I'm'm finding
this super fascinating.
Good, I'm glad, yeah, because,well, I mean, let's be honest,
like a lot of people don'treally get to see or or hear
these things nowadays, like theyjust see cycling like, oh my
god, they're super fast, theycan do this, but they don't know
(22:17):
what.
You know the work that you haveto put in right.
You know to get to be like, yep, that's a fast person, yep, so.
So, just like every sport, inmy favorite sport, uh, there was
huge controversy when it comesto doping and all that.
I'm sure this is also a bigpart, a big no-no, and you know
(22:39):
the, the things that you guysdon't talk about, but doping is
part of the, the, the sport aswell.
In cycling, yeah, how is thatmanaged?
Is it managed at your level?
And, you know, is it noticeable?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
obviously, yes, it absolutely is managed um,
because there have been some bigdoping controversies in cycling
over the years and you know, atyour local races small regional
, local races there's not goingto be any sort of doping control
.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
But at your big national events, if you're on
the podium, you are gettingtested, and they also will
randomly pull race numbers forpeople to come and get tested.
So a lot of people are beingtested.
This is every day, um, and I've.
I was at a race where thewinner was found to be doping.
(23:29):
This was, yeah, back in 2019, Ibelieve, um, and so they they
do find those people and you can.
Also, if you have good evidenceand reason to suspect that some
athlete is doping, you can alsoreport that to USA Cycling and
they can do anout-of-competition test.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
And that has happened .
Speaker 2 (23:51):
That definitely has happened, yeah so they're really
trying to crack down on it.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I was going to say you guys are also policing your
own sport as well.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, some people do I mean sometimes it's pretty
noticeable, but a lot of peoplethat get reported to usa cycling
.
This might sound bad, but it'sgonna be like maybe the older
men that are racing in themasters category.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
They're still trying to live it up like.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
You're 20, you can't race like that, so you're doping
and you don't have to be in thepro fields to get drug tested.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Okay so see, now I'm, you know I'm going into the
weeds here.
So doping, what does that looklike in your sport?
Obviously, you have you know.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I did not.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
No, no, no, not you no.
But I'm talking about, like, isit blood transfusions, Is it,
you know, injections, what youknow?
What did a lot of those peopleget caught with?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Oh gosh, I mean, there are so many ways that
people can dope these days, andthere's also ways that people
could get caught doping withouteven realizing it, like I found
out that if you drink too manyRed Bulls, you can have
something in your system Shut up, uh, yeah, so, um, like my, my
(25:24):
husband won a big race uh onetime where he had to go through,
uh, a doping test, and you know, they made him pee in a cup and
they test for all differentkinds of things.
Sure, uh, what they test for?
I mean, I don't know everythingspecifically but I mean, there's
(25:45):
a million way, I'm sure, likeat the super um world tour level
, there's probably somequestionable things that are
going on that we don't even knowyeah it's possible, like you
know, in our world so what wasthat one cyclist from?
Speaker 1 (26:06):
who lance armstrong the biggest yeah, biggest doper
of all time.
Yeah, no, no, it was after him.
Uh, who was?
He was racing with him, but, um, oh my lord, uh, it was.
Uh, it was from Team Astana.
Oh God, what was his name?
The name is escaping me now.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Then he blamed it on steak.
It was a Spanish racer.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
I know why can't I think of his name?
Because we watched adocumentary with him in it not
that long ago.
Oh, see If my husband was herehe would know.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
I know what you're talking about um, I know, you
know what I'm talking about yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
There's all different ways people can try and dope in
this sport.
And because it's so uniquelychallenging, especially at that
level where you're racing for 21days yeah you know, max effort
at some point in all of thosedays, people are looking for any
way to gain an advantage andtrying to push the limits with
(27:09):
things that may not be illegalat the time but then at some
point becomes illegal my god, Ican't remember the name now and
it's gonna really make me mad,because it's like I remember it
was a spanish guy and then hewas.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
He was caught doping.
Um, I can't remember his name,but I'll find it don't you worry
uh, okay, so, uh, when did youknow right?
This is the part where you'relike, okay, my career is coming
to oh yeah, an end to a time hascome.
(27:45):
Yeah, it's like it's time forme to hang it up.
Yeah, um, did you realize it?
When did you realize it?
And, like you know, what wasthat?
What did you go through allthat?
When, when, that, when thatrealization finally came?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I probably should have stopped a year earlier.
I will say um looking back atit now, there were a couple of
things that really pushed me todecide it was time to stop and,
instead of racing, help manageteam um the last two years, um,
(28:23):
I I didn't realize at the timethat I was racing with a
full-blown Epstein-Barr viralinfection, which happens from
stress, really, and I'm sure,yeah, the stress of cycling plus
our former workplace.
(28:44):
That shall not be mentioned.
Uh yeah had probably a big playinto that.
And so a lot, of, a lot of racedays.
Um, you know, I I can't explainhow awful I felt and how much
harder I would have to work tooutput the power that I wanted.
And and then, when I was racingthe national crit race one year
(29:12):
, I had a tachycardia event,which is where my heart spiked
to like I think it was 225 iswhat they said and they had to
do some crazy things for it tomy heart rate to regulate.
And then I went to acardiologist and wore a heart
monitor for a while and I mean,I basically found out that I
(29:37):
needed to take in a lot moreelectrolytes because I'm just
aging, I'm getting older, like Idon't function, like I'm 25
anymore, and you know, myhusband and I we also wanted to
start our own family, and it'sreally those three things over
the course of two years thatmade me realize that it was time
(30:03):
.
I had fun, I loved what I didand I just couldn't.
I started to not be able torecover as well as I used to
because I was just well, it wasa lot of the Epstein-Barr viral
infection, but it was just justgetting older At that point it's
like my body can't handle this.
Yeah, I mean it was fun, butthat's when I decided it was
(30:27):
time to move on.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Okay, all right, so you, but then you moved on from
from the, the, the participatinglike as far as like the actual
racing, but you really didn'tmove on from racing still,
though you were.
Then at that point you weremanaging the team.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yes, I was helping to manage the team.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
How was that?
Speaker 2 (30:49):
It was great.
So cycling gave so much to mylife and enriched it in so many
ways and I've met so manywonderful people and traveled to
so many cool places and it gaveme a real direction in my life
a lot of times and I reallyneeded direction that I wanted
to give back to the sport andcontinue to help up-and-coming
(31:12):
athletes who wanted to dabble instage racing and really be
treated as much of a, as much oflike a pro as we could, and so
I helped manage our team.
I got a lot of the sponsorshipmoney brought into the team and
I'd be in the team car helpinggirls.
I would help any way I could inteam housing.
(31:36):
Afterwards I did a lot of thesocial media for the team, for a
lot of our sponsors, and justdid whatever I could to help
some girls who were supertalented.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
That's interesting.
Let me ask you this and thenyou know I'll let you go,
because we've been here for overan hour, but I could keep
asking.
I got, I got questions galore,girl, don't you worry.
I got questions on questions.
But you say something is and isthe sponsorship like like, did
the sponsors approach you guys?
(32:11):
Did you approach?
Did you guys approach thesponsors like Like, how, how
does that work?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
So we had a big sponsorship deck that we would
hand out to different companiesthat we would love to partner
with, and our sponsorship deckwould talk about you know the
team, our culture, how yourinvestment is going to help
athletes, what you're going toget out of the investment.
(32:38):
And we would approach companies, individuals, product sponsors
that we would want to beinvolved with, and if they were
interested and saw a potentialfit, then me and the team owner,
Shane, were the main ones whowould sit down and have
(33:00):
sponsorship talks with them andnegotiate basically what the
deal would be for them to comeon board to support the team.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Gotcha, and then their name, their fancy name,
will go on the kit.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
Absolutely On the kit all over social media on our
website.
I mean on the kit all oversocial media on our website.
I mean, you know, depending onwhat level of sponsorship they
signed up for, or if it was alarge sponsorship, because we
did have some very largesponsors we would customize a
plan for them to get what theywanted out of the team, as well
(33:35):
as what we did too gotcha, yeah,interesting, yeah again the
things that no one tells youabout there's a lot that goes on
behind the scenes to getsponsors or that no one knows
about yeah, because it it takesa lot of uh a lot of
communication before you getreally big sponsors on board,
(33:57):
because it's not as large of asport like baseball, that's just
super televised and you get alot of viewership through tv.
You know that's not really apart of cycling, um at least you
know live streams yeah, thatare for some races.
So there's.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
We had to become creative in ways that we would
partner with our big moneysponsors I wish they would be a
lot more popular here in the usbecause it's such a fascinating
sport.
You know, like I said at thebeginning, I said it's like you.
You know I won't retainanything.
I'm lying, obviously I, I I'm afan of this sport.
(34:39):
I really am.
Yeah, because it's such a.
I find it so fascinating thatto see these Athletes that have
these God giving abilities to dowhat I cannot do, it's simple
truth.
I can't.
I mean, I love, I love it.
I wish I could.
You know, I already have twobad knees, I'm already out.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
You know what.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I mean I'm done.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah Well, I tried playing softball one year and I
was not very good at it, so I'mnot good at baseball.
Softball, like I found it wasvery uncoordinated with objects
coming towards my body, so Ijust rode a bike and I was on
Give me your bike, give me yourbike.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
I like this.
Yeah, but you know, I wish thatalso, that a lot of these
cycling events were not behind apaywall, right?
Yeah, so that way people canenjoy it, because I mean, you go
to Europe and then it'severywhere, it's everywhere.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
I know, I know, I know the investment in Europe,
but also just the cost of racingin Europe, is significantly
less than the cost of racing inthe US.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Because of the popularity.
Right here in the US it's likethis is an elite sport.
You're going to have to pay forthis.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Well, and it seems like when we were in Europe, the
communities where the races arehappening just really get
behind the sport and the raceand help make it happen, Whereas
here in America it's like, hey,you have to pay up for us to
make this happen.
So it's a totally differentculture in Europe than compared
to America.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
One of these days we'll get there.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
I know hopefully.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Yeah, I know right, one of these days I still have
hope that we can.
So are you done with that partof the world now?
Have you seen?
Just hung it up?
You're retired.
You're done with.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
I mean I couldn't ride while I was pregnant and
just had my baby, and so I'm.
I have ridden the trainer a fewtimes now that I'm able to, and
I would like to do some gravelracing again whenever I can,
whenever my daughter's a littlebit older and I get a little bit
(36:51):
more freedom.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm probably probably notgoing to do much.
Road racing.
Gravel racing is like a a partyon dirt.
Uh.
It's super fun style of racingand it's not quite so serious
okay it's also not quite sodangerous.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
So but that's the thing people think.
I look, I've seen it and itlooks fun, and you know.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Yeah yeah, it's, I've done some gravel racing.
It's very fun and if you crash,I mean typically your crash is
not going to be nearly as bad asin a road race or a crit race.
There's a lot of dirt, a lot ofgrass, you know.
I mean there can be some awfulcrash.
But I would love to do that,you know, maybe a couple of
years in the future, but I'm notdone writing when, when I can
(37:39):
get outside and ride again, I'mdefinitely going to love it,
love it, all right.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Is there anything that I haven't asked you Cause I
mean, I think I've asked you alot of questions here and we
could be here for another hourbecause I have a whole bunch
more.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Yeah, I would just say, if you are listening to
this podcast and you are in acity where you have a criterium
race that is near you becausethey do happen all over the US
all summer long go to it.
They are so fun.
(38:12):
There is loud music.
Usually the announcers aregreat, they're funny.
There's always beer.
Um, it's like I said, it's likenascar on bikes, or a spandex
rodeo, like a lot of people callit, and it's super fun to watch
they go all day long, withvarious levels of racing
(38:33):
throughout the day, with thepros racing last.
I promise you you will have funwatching it and you'll be
surprised, um, at what you willwitness, especially towards the
end of the race when people aregoing all out to win.
So just go see it if you seethat there's a criterion or a
(38:53):
bike race near you I thinkthere's actually one here in
Raleigh Carolina, so there'sthat.
I didn't know that, yeah, andthere's one in oh gosh, I don't
think Winston-Salem is that faraway from you guys, right?
Speaker 1 (39:08):
No, no, no no.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
There's a big one there at Winston-Salem too.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Winston-Salem for me is about, I want to say, about
an hour, half, two hours fromhere.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Yeah, I mean, they have a huge race there.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Do they?
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yes, I do know, I've been there.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Kate, thanks so much for doing this.
Katie, Absolutely.
Where can people find you onsocials if they want to follow
you?
Speaker 2 (39:43):
Because I know you got your own socials that they
want to follow you, cause I knowyou got your own business going
on right now.
Uh, so actually you know what?
What is your business?
Speaker 1 (39:47):
now.
I currently run Airbnb that weown, yes, here in Columbia,
south Carolina.
All right, so there you go,you're.
You are very busy, you're a mom, and you're running your own
business.
Uh, that's awesome.
I love that.
Thank you so much, um, and Idon't know for, for the people
that are listening to thispodcast, I want to ask you guys
now uh, I've done tennis, I'vedone cycling.
What is the next sport that youguys want me to look into so I
(40:10):
can, um, so I can interview themand so I can learn more about
other sports other than yourtypical basketball, football,
baseball, because baseball,cause I mean, there's so many
sports out here in the U S, Iknow, right, I kind of want to
have someone who does not tennisalready did tennis, maybe golf
(40:30):
or pickleball, you know swimming, because we have so many
Americans that are good atswimming.
They are true story.
That is true Skiing.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Yeah, that too so there you go.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
See, we're going to get some people on this podcast
that are other sports.
So again, thank you, katie, andfor you guys, again on the
podcast, if you want me to lookat any other sport, put it in
the comments, make sure you letme know.
Otherwise, make sure you'refollowing me on all of the
(41:06):
socials that have 216 or look upfor data chronicles, as well as
on youtube, and we will see youguys on the next one.
Bye.
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