Hi there. Welcome back to King of the Ride podcast. I'm your host, former professional road cyclist, current gravel cyclist. I am Ted King. Welcome to King of the Ride.

And welcome to what's become an annual tradition, the catching up with Roger Brown. Now, if you're new here, Roger is one of the most frequented guests on this show as a result

of this particular segment.

He is a co-owner of mine at Untapped.

He is a neighbor.

He's a dear friend.

He's the father of four young kids, a husband to our friend Jenny.

He's also a four-time unbound rider completing two-200s back in 2021 and

2022. He did as much on what I call the least amount of training of anyone, and I mean anyone,

who has towed the line amid the four to 5,000 people starting unbound.

And apparently, he's not yet learned his lesson because year over year, he continues to sign up and do it again.

He then decided up the ante jumping into the XL, the 350-mile race last year, 2023.

That was the mud year, of course. That was something of a true epic overnight adventure.

He had a great ride completing a very respectable 225 miles of the 350-mile route,

which of course left him hungry for more here in 2024, just two and a bit weeks ago.

So I like catching up with Roger because as much as I'm focusing my attention on the front of the

race, on my selfish pursuit of trying to do well, of trying to get a result, of trying to win.

Roger represents a whole lot of what unbound and gravel in general is all about.

He's excited about the opportunity to get out and ride. He fits in his training, if you can call

that. He fits into the occasional rides when he can in between baseball practice or dance recitals,

much more often with his kids' priorities taking precedence. Anyway, I love these conversations because I

get to see the couple days of Emporia with a different perspective. So, we go. Hey on a side note, in an effort to

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