Welcome to the Ask a Cycling Coach podcast presented by Trainor Road.

Today we're going to talk about what it takes to go from a good to a great cyclist.

And we have, honestly, one of the more broadly experienced athletes currently racing right now at the front of, certainly the off-road scene, but just in cycling in general, Alexi Vermeulen.

Alexi from the Cooldown podcast, Rides for Envy, Shammy Butter, the Feed.

Also, you may know him because of Willieie the sweet dog that he has that rides his bike with him lexie what's up man that's a spectacular intro

thanks for helping me on yeah yeah of course man of course uh for those that don't know when i

mentioned the cool down podcast he does a podcast directly after not just the Lifetime Grand Prix events,

but like the larger gravel events that he and Keegan are doing, he and Keegan sit down

afterward. And they have basically just like a full unraveling and uncovering of what

happened in the race from their perspectives. It's always very different than what we see.

We miss the nuance. You guys uncover it. It's cool.

Yeah, it's fun. I think it's just raw. And I think sometimes people don't think we're all friends out there and we really are. It's just a blast. You know, you finish the race and it's a fun way to decompress. I feel like we always did this afterwards, just not publicly. So. Yeah, yeah. It's, I think that's why it works. It feels very natural, you know, it's very cool.

It is very raw. The camera cuts I think that's why it works. It feels very natural. You know, it's very cool.

It is very raw. The camera cuts out. We just start over again. That's it. That's it. And we'd be remiss not to mention Avery, who also is a big part of not only all the content you create, but also has been on the cool down show Avery Stum. If you are ever looking for a very, very talented creative in this space and you're a brand in cycling, reach out to Avery. He's incredible. His plate might be full, though. He's got a lot going on. Okay, Alexi, I bet that most people know you, but we're going to run through some ridiculous rapid fire questions so then people can get to know you really quick then we're going to get into the listener questions that people have submitted um

i've earmarked some of these one of these is over a year old by the way they asked if we ever had

you on the podcast and so i just had it earmarked and i've brought it back up uh i should have had you

on a filing system i'm impressed i'm good organization impressive. Organized chaos. I think when I say organized, it's probably disorganized everybody else. So, um, okay, most important questions. Let's go through them. Sox over or socks under those leg warmers? Under. Ooh, okay. Piece of access. I can take it off. It's true. That's true. I got flamed at Leadville. Some guy was like, ooh, Jonathan, you don't look very pro having arm warmers over your jersey sleeve. And I was like, well, you know, that's fine. I'm okay with this. I'm going to be getting rid of those things and, you know, don't want to have to deal with moving sleeves around. So, yeah.

A pragmatist. Okay, traditional V-O-2 Max, like those three to five-minute jobbers or 30-30s. V-O-2 Max. Ooh, the traditional. 30s, 40-20s, whatever variation you want, I'm not a fan. Really? And I have them on my schedule this week and I've,

I have them today. We can just keep this podcast going and be great for me. Yeah. Okay, breakaway or

sprint finish? Break away. Yeah. It's a spectacular feeling you get in that one moment,

even if you know you're going to win, the minute you turn on and see the finish line, it's special. Oh, yeah. Feels good, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Highest FTP of your career, or highest that you've heard of for another rider, if you don't want to share. No, for me, I was like 63 kilo, and I did, I'm trying to remember, I know what the 20 minute was.

The 20 minute was 410.

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