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Bikes or Death

Ep. 29 - Bikepacking Summit Series - Lael & Rue

Bikes or Death

Patrick Farnsworth

Sports, Health & Fitness, Wilderness

4.8563 Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2019

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

 

At the Bikepacking Summit I had the honor of sitting down with Lael Wilcox and Rugile Kaladyte (Rue) in their first interview together. After they found themselves in the middle of drama on the Tour Divide this year it was nice to chat with both of them to hear their thoughts on riding and documents bikepacking events. Personally, I'm grateful for what they are trying to do through documenting this great sport that we love. Inspired to Ride spurred a new generation of bikepackers and Tour Divide participants, myself included. I am grateful for the efforts they have been making to tell the stories of events like the Tour Divide or the Navidad 1000. Those stories inspire and inspiration leads to more people on bikes and that's something we should all be rallied around.

Having been fortunate enough to spend time riding, socializing, and interviewing both Lael and Rue I have seen first hand their love for this sport, the community, and their desire to share these stories in the most respectful way possible.

Yesterday Pearl Izumi launch Rue's new film I Just Want to Ride documenting Tour Divide 2019. It is worth a watch and then a rewatch. How cool is it to be able to watch the dots, see some social media post from time to time, and then watch a film about the event and see first hand some of the conditions and challenges that the riders were facing only five months ago!? Thank you Lael and Rue for keeping the course in the face of adversary. As you will hear on this episode there is nothing easy about documenting an event like this and to do it under such scrutiny from the community you love added a whole new level of difficulty. The new film is a beautiful look into the lives of the ultra endurance riders we love and the routes we aspire to ride. I look forward to future projects and more content like this. Maybe in the future people will put down their keyboards and go ride their damn bikes!

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, friends and welcome to the Bikes for Death podcast. My name is Patrick and I'm your host.

0:04.9

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

0:10.2

And this week I have a very, very special episode for y'all. This week's episode was recorded with

0:16.7

Lael and Rue at the Bikepack summit in Elijah, Georgia just last month.

0:23.8

To my knowledge, this is the first ever interview with both of them at the same time.

0:31.1

So this was a really special opportunity and y'all know I'm a huge Lao fan uh been watching her for a long time and have

0:41.1

been being inspired by her for a long time and um have been equally enthusiastic about rue and the

0:48.0

things that she's doing um to help make the sport of bike packing more accessible through social media and video and

0:59.0

ride-ups and whatnot.

1:01.0

As a fan of the sport, this is a great time to be alive.

1:06.4

There are so many events.

1:08.4

There are so many organizations advocating for for routes and for access. There's

1:15.1

people out there producing amazing content and it's all going to bolster this this lifestyle

1:23.7

and this idea of living purposely and exploring the world via your bicycle and

1:30.8

seeing some amazing places and meeting new people and getting to taste and experience different

1:37.9

cultures. And to me, I think that is that's vital. I mean, look at the world we live in.

1:45.3

We're inundated with media and information and advertising and ways that you can spend

1:52.7

your money or your time.

1:54.6

And we need good content.

1:56.8

We need people who are out there seeking to inspire others to go out and ride their bikes or just get outside and enjoy it.

2:04.9

So I know that Leon Rue found themselves at the cross hairs of some scrutiny before the Tort Divided even started.

2:16.1

I'm sure you are all aware of that.

...

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