Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of King of the Ride podcast.

This episode comes to you from Durango, Colorado.

Now as Laura and I drive around the country, coast to coast, and eventually once again back to the east coast, this trip

has earned the title Tour to Hazel. Now, we're of course, introducing our daughter Hazel,

most notably to her extended maternal family out in Laura's homeland of Seattle, but we're

also introducing Hazel to friends and family we see throughout the way

it has also recently earned the title of tour day

super cool outdoorsy towns in which we could someday potentially live

now we're in no rush to leave vermont we absolutely love vermont but basically this

trip is hitting the outside magazine top 10 places to live.

So among other stopover points throughout the way, we've hit Spearfish, South Dakota, to Whitefish

Montana, to Hood River, Oregon, to Flagstaff, Arizona, and now this particular pit stop in

super cool Durango, Colorado. I have been to Durango only once in my life,

and that was for a stage of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, which is a sure fireway to not actually

absorb a town. You arrive to the start town, you see a hotel, you race, and then you end up at a hotel

again.

So upon deciding that we were going to head to this corner of the state, I reached out to my gravel frenemy, Payson McKelvin. And it wasn't until Laura pointed out this very morning how

toe-to-to-to Payson and I have gone over our brief time together, or against each other, I should

say.

So with the background in mountain biking, Payson effectively came over to gravel in a big way in 2019,

and we're going to talk about that today.

But specifically, and chronologically, listen to this.

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