Hi there.

Welcome back to King of the Ride podcast.

I am Ted King, ready to deliver you in another great episode.

So we are here in the book-ended, action-packed, tail end of the season.

I just recently bike-packed across Portugal. I dropped in a mountain bike

race yesterday here in New England. I have a handful more events pinging on my calendar here in

2025 before the season draws fully to a close. But I won't be making it to Big Sugar this coming

weekend because I'm off to the mega hopper. That's an ultra distance 420 mile ride

all around Northern California as part of the Grasshopper Adventure series in their foray into

ultra events. But it was amid this busy week that I caught up with Michael Garrison, who is

in route to Big Sugar. Now, I don't know whether to say thank you to Michael, perhaps say congratulations,

maybe to apologize to him, but Michael Garrison, at 24 years old, I think takes home the

title as the youngest guest ever to appear on King of the Ride podcast.

And he's packed plenty of life into those 24 years, as you're going to hear about today.

It's a little bit crazy to me to think that I've been at this gravel gig since about 2016.

So that's 10 years.

And 10 years ago, Michael was 14 years old.

At that point, he was just getting into the sport that's helped steer his life,

steer much of his family's lives. And now at 24, he's already had an illustrious road career.

He's won national titles, won plenty of big races all around the country and around the world.

But he represents this new breed of what it means to be an American bike racer.

He's very handy in a gravel race, having just taken home second place at the U.S.

...