Everybody, Ted King here. Welcome to King of the Ride podcast, episode number 120.

That's a nice round number. Gosh, it's been, it's been fun recording these podcasts. So whether

you're a new listener or a long time since 2017, thank you for being here.

It's been fun for me and hopefully fun for you.

This is a fun job.

It's fun and unique and different to connect with folks with whom the threat of the bicycle is woven into their lives.

Our guest today, Tanner Putt, certainly has lived that.

Fairly recently, he was given the title of Director of Road at USA Cycling, which, as you're

going to hear about today, is a very esteemed, very diverse, very exciting position to be in.

Now, honestly, anyone who rides a bike probably is something of an interesting story and would

be a worthy guest on the show.

Tanner already was worthy, with the majority of his

life spent in cycling, as I've known him as a bike racer, a very successful one in the U23 and domestic

scene, especially. I've known him as a neighbor way down the road as he lived a few years here in Vermont,

but it was when I was reading a recent outside magazine article about Americans racing the Tour to France,

and in particular, the atypical pathway that seemingly every American has to make

in order to travel from the United States to that start line at the tour, that I knew I had to talk to Tanner.

He's quoted in the article about,

oh, trying to carve out that pathway, make it a little bit more streamlined,

make it, quite frankly, makes sense because it's circuitous, it's nebulous, and it's all

quite fascinating, just like this conversation. So stay tuned because it's a good one.

Two things I want to wrap up with real quick, both under the arch of 2024, is shaping up to be a

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