Sam Shaw on setting a new FKT on New Zealand’s Great Tracks

With Pace

Payson McElveen

Photography, Interviews, Adventure, Basketball, Mountain Biking, Outdoors, Entrepreneur, Athletes, Culture, Current Events, Inspirational, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture, Sports, Gravel Biking, Gravel Cycling, Celebrities, Cycling

4.8 • 767 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sam Shaw isn’t your average FKT setter. The Kiwi rider has raced XC, gravel, and Enduro over the years (he was on the podium at XCO nationals just this year), but since getting married and starting a family, he’s worked full-time off the bike as an ecologist and carpenter. Last year, he set the fastest known time between Auckland and Wellington, beating Lachlan Morton’s record. Earlier this month, he set the FKT on the Great Tracks Traverse, a 240-mile route that covers New Zealand’s Paparoa ...

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Pace McElvin and this is the WithPace podcast.
0:11.8	There's like a climb for two hours which I tried to ride at the steady state and then I got to the tops and it was a clear night sky
0:20.9	with like a full moon.
0:22.3	If you turn the lights off
0:23.4	you could see like everything
0:25.1	which is really cool
0:26.5	and then you kind of descend there
0:28.6	and it's actually way harder
0:30.1	than I remember it in vain
0:31.6	and it's really technical
0:32.6	and that's when you're like
0:34.3	fuck this is such a stupid mission
0:37.3	like out here at like 1.30 in the morning.
0:45.8	Hello, everyone. Welcome back. I have bags under my eyes. I haven't shaved in days. And the podcast
0:52.8	is a day late.
0:54.6	We didn't get one out last week.
0:56.4	But the good news is that means it's going to be a double episode week this week.
1:02.6	It's been a nutty week.
1:04.1	We got to Bentonville on Monday with the main intention of racing rule of three this weekend.
1:10.8	But there was so much going on beyond that.
1:13.6	On Wednesday, I had not one but two shoots.
1:18.7	On Thursday, we had the second edition of Chase and Payson,
	...

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