In this conversation, Ted tells Payson about the rollercoaster of the past two years, including some unexpected upsides. This year, however, he’s back to racing, and he’s chosen a schedule that looks a lot different from his pre-2021 events lineup. The past two years have been a series of stopping and starting, from hospital visits and rehab to short-lived comebacks. Some of those hurdles have been public, such as the numerous broken bones, while others have been largely private, such as an unexplained blood clot that has left him on blood thinners for the foreseeable future. Instagram: King returns to the show to talk about the string of setbacks that left his career in limbo for the past couple of years. This year, he’s racing in the Life Time Grand Prix, which brings a whole new set of unknowns. In 2021, he jumped into Unbound and landed in the top 10. When he picked up cycling to pass the rehab time, he fell in love with the sport and never looked back. During that time, he raced for Stanford, nabbed a world record, and chased the Olympics before injuries sidelined him. Instagram: Wertz spent eight years as a top-level rower before transitioning to cycling. They also discuss the new format and how the altered points system, which allows athletes to drop two races from their final score, might affect tactics. She, Payson, and Betsy do a rundown of the riders, focusing on the ones that are new to the series. Michelle has been instrumental in bringing the Grand Prix to fruition and facilitates the application and selection process. In this week’s episode, Payson sits down with Michelle Duffy, Marketing Director for Life Time’s athletic events, and Betsy Welch, a journalist and senior editor at VeloNews who spent last year chronicling the series in detail. It's shaping up to be an exciting and dynamic field, and it all kicks off this weekend. There are world-class triathletes, road racers, and engineers veteran gravel racers and those who have just taken up the sport in the last couple of years. There are some familiar faces as well as plenty of new riders with impressive resumes. This year brings a host of new competitors from across the globe, from South Africa to Tasmania, Alabama to Switzerland. The seven-month series will encompass seven races and involve 70 of the best gravel cyclists in the world. The 2023 Life Time Grand Prix is about to be officially underway. Instagram: Lyssna Lyssna igen Fortsätt Lyssnar. Mountain biking at Sea Otter and elevation at Leadville are two of the events he’s most excited about, and he tells Payson about how he's training for them, and whether he'd ever be interested in dipping his toe in professional road racing. This year, he isn’t looking forward to the events that his 6 foot 5, 200-pound frame is most suited for, but to the races that pose new challenges. He talks about how much he enjoys getting out of his comfort zone, how he's tried to bring the team spirit of rowing into his gravel training, and how he hopes to prove that bigger racers can perform at the highest levels of the sport. With only a year and a half of racing under his belt, he’s aware that he doesn't have the experience that his competitors have, but with years of rowing, he’s got the power numbers and the mentality to make up for it. In this conversation, Brennan sits down with Payson in Monterrey, CA to talk about his rowing career, finding his way into cycling, and why he was hooked on gravel from the start. Brennan Wertz spent eight years as a top-level rower before transitioning to cycling.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |