Roadmap Episodes: How to make heroes
How does a sport make heroes? How does cycling build superstars? This is the focus of our third Roadmap Episode, digging into the future of pro cycling at a time when the future is anything but clear.
We speak with Justin Williams, who has built his Legion criterium team into a mini media house, and to Helen Wyman, who understands the lessons road cycling can learn from cyclocross. And finally, we talk to Kimo Seymour of Life Time, the company that owns North America’s largest gravel events.
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The Roadmap series
Pro cycling is in a time of intense change, and we believe that in chaos comes opportunity. The Roadmap Episodes delve into cycling’s heroes, its calendar, its power players, and more. We speak with powerful and creative individuals from all over the sport, including Dave Brailsford, Jonathan Vaughters, Rapha’s Simon Mottram, Justin Williams, Helen Wyman, Iris Slappendel, and more.
If you missed any of our earlier episodes, head back and catch up:
Episode 1: Pandemic and pro cycling
In unprecedented times for the sport, when every race on the calendar is postponed or cancelled and WorldTour teams face extraordinary challenges, we’re partnering with Rapha to create a podcast series to consider the future of professional cycling.
This first episode includes insight from Ineos’ Dave Brailsford, EF’s Jonathan Vaughters, and Rapha’s Simon Mottram. We discuss the pandemic’s impact on the race calendar, on teams, and on riders. Is there a silver lining to this cloud?
Episode 2: Bikes are booming, can pro cycling boom, too?
Bikes are booming. Countries are paying for bike repairs; cities are shutting down roads to cars, making them safer for cyclists and pedestrians; bike sales are near holiday levels.
One of cycling’s greatest strengths, and most confounding weaknesses, is the gulf between participants and fans. Can pro cycling take advantage of the bike boom?
This week’s special episode of the CyclingTips Podcast, the second of the Roadmap Episodes created in partnership with Rapha, looks into this question.
We begin with the calendar. Last week, the UCI formally released the 2020 calendar, slamming dozens of races into about three and a half months. It’s a testament to the conflicting stakeholders involved. We hear from EF Pro Cycling’s Mitch Docker and Mike Woods, as well as the Cyclist’s Alliance Iris Slappendel, for a pro perspective.
Then, we look forward. As outdoor racing disappeared, virtual racing took over. We speak with the founder and CEO of Zwift, Eric Min, about his platform’s place in pro cycling now and in the future.
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