Hey everyone, I'm Chris Hall and this is the downtime podcast where we're going to be taking

you deeper than ever into the gravity base side of mountain biking and this week we've got something

brand new for you. More and more people are enjoying consuming podcasts in video format. So from now,

I'm planning to bring you as many of the episodes as possible in video too. So as you can choose how you can shoot it. If you're into just the audio, then that will still be just as it was. But if you fancy watching the episodes too, then you can do that by heading over to my YouTube channel. You're going to find all of that over at YouTube.com for slash at downtime podcast. Or I'll also link it in the show notes of the episode. I feel like I'm right at the beginning of a very long learning curve with the video side of stuff and I'll be doing my best to keep growing and improving that side of things as we go along. As always, I'm very open to feedback so just hit me up in the comments or on email. Before we get stuck into this week's episode, here are a few things you can do to support the show. Downtime T-shirts and hoodies are available over at downtimepodcast.com for slash shop. If like me you've got a bit of a soft spot for print and for just £20 a year, you can subscribe to our bi-annual mountain bike journal, Downtown EP. It's made in collaboration with the incredible team over

at Miss Spent Summers, and it takes the topics and themes from the podcast and brings them into

a stunning print format featuring Mountain Biking's most talented writers and photographers.

You can subscribe over at downtimepodcast.com for slash EP. If you want a little bit more

downtime in your life, then you can join my newsletter where I'll provide you with a bit of behind the scenes info on the podcast, interesting bits and pieces from around the mountain bike world, some mini reviews on products that I've been using and like, some partner offers and more. You can do that over at downtimepodcast.com for slash newsletter. Otherwise, don't forget to follow the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. You can do that by hitting the button in your podcast app now or there's buttons for all the major platforms over at downtimepodcast.com for slash follow. If you've already done all that, then you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook too where we're at Downtown Podcast. All the links for all of that are in the show notes for this episode over on Downtimepodcast.com. And don't forget, if you want, you can watch this episode over on YouTube.com for slash at downtime podcast. All right, this week, I'm joined by Jesse Melamid. Last week, Jesse announced that he'd be joining the Canyon Collective team for 2023, so we sat down to find out a bit more about it. Before we get stuck into the

team change, we find out about what Jesse's learned about bike setup and how that's enabled

him to get a setup that suits his ride and start and enables him to push harder without taking

more risk. Here how that set up panned out throughout 2022 and how he ultimately took the 2022

overall title.

With his engineering background and analytical approach, Jesse always delivers on the detail.

So without further ado, here's Jesse Melamed.

Jesse Melamed, welcome back to the downtime podcast.

It's been a little while.

How you doing? It's been a while, yeah. things are good we're uh in the middle of winter um looks like it's sunny out today

which is kind of nice it's been a bit hard for us but otherwise otherwise pretty good yeah good stuff

let's not mess about let's just get straight into the technical stuff you're an're an analytical kind of guy. You like to understand what it is you're up to.

And last time we chatted was early 2021. And we talked about some of the crashing that you've been doing over the previous couple of seasons.

And you didn't say specifically at the time, but like reading between the lines,

it feels like front end grip was a big struggle for you at that point

...