With Pace

Sepp Kuss checks in from Grenoble, France on a rest day between stages 15 and 16 of the Tour. Since he was last on the show in December 2019 (Episode 41), Sepp’s star in the pro peloton has continued to rise. In August, he won the final stage of the Critérium du Dauhiné, just days before starting his first Tour de France, where he continues to prove his standing as one of the ProTour's most promising young riders. In this episode, he talks about the whirlwind of the past year of racing and how’s he’s managing to stay sane amidst the pressure and media attention. He also talks about being the number one mountain domestique for Jumbo-Visma teammate and the Tour's current leader, Primož Roglic; what it's like racing against fellow American and former mountain biker Neilson Powless, and how he anticipates the final stages will unfold. They also discuss his favorite mid-race snacks, the hotel room appliance he can’t live without, and why his parents insist on recapping each stage of the race for him. Instagram: @withpacepodYouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

Nichole Baker returns for the last episode in this four part series to talk about her nonprofit organization, Path of Logic. Founded in 2016 after Nichole’s eye-opening trip to Haiti (which is detailed in Part 2 of this series), Path of Logic supports the research, supply, and staffing of pathology labs in southwest Uganda, which provide services for several million people. Nichole talks about how she used the disastrous experience in Haiti to inform the creation of Path of Logic, and explains why she's chosen to putt her efforts towards a community so far removed from her own country. She explains why the preparation she did for her first trip to Uganda was a big mistake, how she gained the trust of the local medical professionals in spite of some early missteps, and how she and her team cut the hospital’s turnaround times for patient diagnoses from 47 days to just 13. She also talks about the tenacity and realism required to create permanent change, why her personal connection to cancer diagnostics and the people she works with in Uganda is so vital to the success of Path of Logic, and where she hopes to take the organization in the future.  Instagram: @withpacepodYouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

In this third part of our ongoing series, Nichole Baker talks to Payson about some of her most thrilling and harrowing adventures by bike. From screaming monkeys, tree climbing tigers, and unexpected snowstorms at 13,000 ft., her stories in this episode span a range of continents, physical demands, and levels of discomfort. She talks about uncovering a mythical trail in the Colorado backcountry, trekking across the Himalayas, and finding herself in the middle of a Ugandan hostage exchange. She explains why making the outdoors accessible to those who are new to adventuring is important, what she always brings with her on backcountry expeditions, and how she’s built the confidence to go on solo bike packing trips in some of the most unforgiving environments the world has to offer. She also talks about how the death of a loved one led to her discovery of cycling and her work in cancer diagnostics, and the social media post that made her want to stop telling her story until now. Instagram: @withpacepodYouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

Nichole Baker returns to the show to talk about her rocky introduction to international charity work while on a trip to Haiti in 2016. Tasked with setting up a pathology lab and teaching local pathology students in Cap Haitïen, she arrived to discover that her students were on strike, her translator didn’t speak English, and the lab had no electricity or running water. Nichole talks about this rude awakening to the realities of foreign aid work, where many organizations are ignorant of the communities they are trying to help and end up doing more harm than good. She also talks about the chance encounter she had with an executive of one of the biggest cruise ship companies in the world, where she learned about the underhanded and predatory nature of the tourism industry in Haiti. Other stories include a mugging attempt, two American lab technicians who bailed on their trip just two days in, and the culture shock Nichole experienced while driving home from the airport upon her return to America. Instagram: @withpacepodYouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

Nichole Baker is an adventure athlete, philanthropist, and medical professional (who also happens to be Payson’s girlfriend). Her work as a pathologist’s assistant and athlete has taken her all over the world, including to Uganda, where she founded a nonprofit that supports pathology students and medical facilities. In this conversation, Nichole talks about how she became a pathologist’s assistant after an unconventional and at times difficult childhood. She talks about dissecting body parts, saving lives by identifying disease in patients’ tissue before it spreads to the rest of the body, and how the pandemic has caused a life-threatening decrease in cancer diagnoses. She also talks about her brief stint as a deputy coroner, when her job was to show up at crime scenes by herself and retrieve bodies. She talks about picking body parts up off the side of road, and one of the times when an autopsy turned a straightforward accidental death into a homicide investigation. Instagram: @withpacepodYouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

Eliot Jackson is a downhill mountain biker who rides for the Giant Factory Off-Road Team. He’s competed on the UCI World Cup circuit and on the Crankworx World Tour, finishing 3rd at Crankworx Rotorua in 2017. In this interview, Eliot talks about his many interests off the bike, and how his passion for computer programming has led to his latest venture, Reggy, which he describes as a combination of Strava and Airbnb. He also talks about the surge in attention he’s received from brands following the current spike in social justice awareness, and why he tries to keep social media at arms’ length. He also talks about his data analysis project of Pinkbike’s entire back catalogue, and how his recent role commentating for Crankworx got off to a rocky start. Eliot's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eliotjackson/Reggy's official website: www.goreggy.comEliot's article in Outside: https://www.outsideonline.com/2415055/eliot-jackson-mountain-biking-protestingEliot's blog post about the Pinkbike data project: http://www.eliotjackson.com/2017/11/21/pinkbike-exploration/Instagram: @withpacepodYouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

Mark Twight returns to the show to talk about transitions, decision paralysis, and, of course, the nuances and science of athletic optimization. Throughout his varied career, Mark has been a pioneering mountaineer, photographer, writer, and trainer to military personnel and some of Hollywood’s most famous actors. In this episode, he reflects on psychological impact of leaving his celebrated climbing career for an unknown future at the age of 39, and his struggle with finding new avenues of fulfillment. They talk about the modern predicament of having infinite options, and why getting uncomfortable in conversations with those around you can help resolve inner conflict. They also get deep into the weeds of exercise science, and Mark shares some of his philosophy on appearance vs. fitness, performance vs. health, and why deadlifts should be a thing of the past. Instagram: @withpacepodYouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

Sean Hopkins is a quality engineer at SRAM. He joins Payson to talk about how he fell in love with bikes while growing up on the south side of Chicago, being stopped by the police as a child on suspicion of stealing the bike he was riding, and the pattern of obstruction he faced as a junior racer that eventually led him to quit racing altogether. He tells Payson about discovering a love for writing and reading as an adult, his recent article in Bicycling Magazine, and how his grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer's brought about his passion for film photography. They also talk about how he’s feeling as a person of color during this moment of widespread reckoning with racial inequality, and the 1980s cult film that inspired his Instagram handle.Instagram: @withpacepodYouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

Koen de Kort is a professional road cyclist who currently rides for the UCI WorldTeam Trek-Segafredo. After 15 years on the WorldTour, he is one of the most respected road captains in professional cycling, making tough tactical decisions during races and maintaining the focus and collaboration of his teammates. In this interview, Koen talks about why he ended up in this role, and why it fits his style of racing. He also talks about the self doubt he struggled with early in his career during the era of pervasive doping, and what it was like to lead out some of the best sprinters in the world such as Marcel Kittel. He also talks about learning the hard way that injuries can’t be rushed, and how his love of Australian cafe culture has led to his latest off the bike venture. Instagram: @withpacepodYouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc

Rachel Olzer is an activist, evolutionary biologist, and mountain biker, who has become a leading voice in the current wave of racial justice advocacy taking place across the world. As a transracial adoptee growing up in an all white family, she had to navigate the cognitive dissonance of a grandmother who vocalized deep-seated racism and a family whose conservative politics were directly at odds with her own experiences as a person of color. It wasn’t until she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota for college, however, that she encountered systemic racism and segregation on a large scale, in spite of the city’s reputation for being a liberal stronghold. Her Instagram post detailing her observations of moving from the south to the supposedly radical north went viral, and she is currently writing a series for Bike Magazine about elevating the voices of the BIPOC community within cycling and the outdoor industry. In this interview, Rachel talks about internalizing racism from an early age, the recent conversations she’s had with her brother that bring her hope, and why we should shouldn’t stop talking to our friends and family who express racist opinions. She also talks about her work in evolutionary biology and how the mating behavior of male crickets relates human immorality, why she feels conflicted about virtue signaling, and why her experience living in a mostly white neighborhood in Minneapolis caused her to move across town. She also shares her quarantine must-haves, and explains why you should approach your social justice work like bike racing. Instagram: @withpacepodYouTube: Payson McElveen Email: howdy@withpace.cc