Hello and welcome to a special edition of the Bikes for Death podcast. My name is Patrick and I'm your host.

This is the show that talks about bikepacking, adventuring, and the cool people who participate.

And that is exactly what I have for you today. Not even 24 hours ago, I sat down via Skype with Sophion, who you will know just came off of an impressive lead on the

Tour Divide. He was beating Michael's record, and he made the decision to scratch, which

caused a lot of chitter chatter on the internet. And so I, first of all, I think most of us who watched him were just beyond impressed

and are true fans of his.

And so I wanted to talk to him originally because he just was laying down some incredible times, just

not stopping, not sleeping. I mean, not just like not sleeping, but the dude wasn't stopping.

I don't know when he stopped to pee or go to the bathroom or anything. And so anyway, I wanted

to talk to him for that reason, but there was also just like a lot of shit talking going on

or just a lot of opinions floating around on the internet while he was out there riding his bike,

and I wanted to give him an opportunity to address that.

And so if you stick around through the whole episode, towards the end of it, we kind of get into some of that.

And I really appreciate him being willing to

talk about and address it. He's a super stand-up guy who, I mean, he's just, he's a composed

dude who has a level head and he had some really good things and really good perspectives. So I

hope that's what most people walk away with. It's just a different perspective, a different understanding, wanted to give him an opportunity to tell his story. So that's what we did. So typically my episodes come out every Monday. I'm putting this one out there because there is so much talk going on right now. It's very topical. So I just want to get this information out there as soon as

possible. So, you know, listeners who are familiar with my show will note that the quality and even

the style of the episode is a little bit different. But like I said, this was kind of a special

case scenario and I really wanted to get his story

And one other thing is I am this next week also releasing an episode with Alexandra Huchin

Who is currently in the women's lead on the Tour Divide for the single speed category.

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