Hello and welcome back to episode 162 of King of the Ride podcast.

Today's episode is riveting.

And just like the race across the sky, it's kind of heavy you at the edge of your seat.

Our guest today is John Gaston, a name you'll know well if you follow ski mountaineering.

Schema for short, the sport of racing both up and down ski mountains all over the world.

And a name you'll know well if you were glued to the Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race just last weekend,

or the year before, or the year before, or the year before that.

You see, and I say this with the utmost respect,

John Gaston was a relative nobody in elite mountain biking

until he linked together four consecutive podiums at Leadville.

Three of those four times,

he's been the last man standing in the battle

with the indomitable Kegan Swenson.

And in anticipation for this podcast, I've been doing more thinking about this episode than

most because what I'm really hunting at, what is boiling around in my brain and what I'm trying

to get out, what I'm trying to get to the bottom of is in a single race,

such as Leadville, that is such a high priority for so many elite racers, so many professionals,

guys and gals who go to altitude for months on end who pick apart every aspect of their

nutrition, their training, their equipment choice. Drop bar, first flat bar. I'm looking squarely at you.

Just the whole suite of nerdy nuances that go into this race, how does he consistently come

out ahead of 99.99% of those cycling professionals in this event?

Oh, and then immediately go into his cycling off season the day after to prepare for his real career, that of a professional skier.

...