Dirty Chain Podcast Episode 24: Jeremiah Bishop - Professional Endurance Mountain Biker

Pro mountain biker and Canyon ambassador, Jeremiah Bishop, joins the Midpack to talk about his recent ride up Mauna Kea, the world's largest volcano in Hawaii, the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo, and creative ways for us all to stay motivated and inspired.

Sheldon Little:

So in episode 14, we sat down with mountain biker Mark Kransz, and he was just getting ready to head down for two weeks to his training camp with Jeremiah Bishop in Virginia.

Trevor Gibney:

Yeah, and through that conversation, Sheldon and I were talking and thinking about how great it would be if we could have our own conversation with Jeremiah Bishop, pick his brain about a couple of things. So we reached out to him, and he was gracious enough to give us some of his time, and man, that guy... He's very personable, we barely had to ask him any questions. He was ready to talk.

Sheldon Little:

So, let's jump in.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Cool, so I guess we're having coffee together. It's pretty good, I've got my Raw Talent Ranch mug. A friend of mine owns a touring center. We do this yearly retreat to the Raw Talent Ranch, which is this bike-cabin place at 3000 feet, up in West Virginia. A friend of mine, who is an old courier, runs this bike camp, and usually the pros in Virginia will all congregate. We normally don't see each other a whole lot, because of busy season, but Ben King, Joe Dombrowski, and Tim Rugg, and Andy Anderson's been there, Bryan Lewis, Kemp Baker, Gordon Wadsworth, some of the other mountain bike guys. We get together and Jay's wife, Audrey, makes these mugs, and Chelsea makes t-shirts for each year. It's my favorite mug of all time, it's handmade.

Sheldon Little:

Coffee and beer are the most important parts of cycling, right?

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah, I'd say they definitely are highly traditional.

Trevor Gibney:

We are catching you in the morning, have you already gotten a five hour training session in?

Jeremiah Bishop:

No, I actually slept in for a change. I'm surprisingly polar as far as my mornings. I'm either up at five in the morning, or 4:30 in the morning, in the car or off to the airport, or training. If it's a chill day, then I'll relax and sleep in, enjoy sitting on the back porch, and learn to be able to turn it off sometimes. [inaudible 00:09:31] cyclist to go and climb that volcano a few weeks ago, and he just released the video. It's called the Impossible Hill Climb, and it's awesome.

Sheldon Little:

I actually watched your video last night.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Oh yeah? Cool.

Sheldon Little:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Bishop:

It was amateur level [inaudible 00:09:48] editing, but his is going to be a lot more entertaining, a lot better developed. It's like when you've got a film project and you've got Scorsese, I don't know, you've got a pro. I'm like, "I know my video is going to suck compared to his, but I can ride my bike and he can try to keep up with me on the bike, and it's just not going to happen." So it's kind of the same thing.

Sheldon Little:

When you were talking about that 13% grade as you're just one hand on the handlebars, of [inaudible 00:10:22].

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah, I've got good balance and I've been riding for a long time, and practicing riding with no hands, riding track stands, stuff like that, has actually helped. I have not crashed with a camera in my hand yet, I'm sure it's going to happen, but glad it hasn't happened yet.

Sheldon Little:

When you were doing that, what kind of camera were you using, and did you have a mount, or were you just straight-up holding a GoPro in your hand?

Jeremiah Bishop:

I actually shot... It's interesting because I had this new GoPro8 Black, which is incredible. But the battery ran out, I'm an amateur, I'm a hack when it comes to videography. I didn't know you were supposed to have back-up batteries. Vegan Cyclist pulls out this bag and its got different kinds of gimbals, he's got two drones. He's like, "Yeah, I use this one for the follow, and then this one is a little lighter so it's better in the wind." I'm like, "Dude, I got this camera I just got." And the other one that I actually really liked shooting with, just because it's so small, is this Session.

Jeremiah Bishop:

So the Session is super cool because you just have that button on the top. They discontinued it, which is a bugger, but really glad I got it. Because the touchscreen too, with the gloves, is really tricky to trying to swipe and stuff.

Sheldon Little:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Bishop:

This one I just have the audio recording, "GoPro, start recording", and then it'll record while I'm actually riding, which is super cool. And the shot quality is pretty good, it's got image stabilization. This is a bigger camera, you can do stills a little bit better, you can change the shot width and things like that, a little bit better. I'm using a head strap for my chest cam, that's how basic my setup is. He's got all of the stuff, and luckily he brought some extra cameras. Learning some tricks from him, for sure. He definitely has his stuff dialed.

Trevor Gibney:

So in terms of just that volcano ride itself, I don't remember if it was your Strava title or Tyler's Strava title, but it was impossible, or was one of the hardest rides you've ever done. Was that a hyperbole, or was it actually one of the hardest climbs or rides that you've ever [crosstalk 00:13:00]

Jeremiah Bishop:

100%.

Trevor Gibney:

Yeah?

Jeremiah Bishop:

Without hesitation. When you do something... I was hoping to do the official world's hardest hill climb, because I'm on Strava, and people really look at that, and I'm like, "Well, I know my form is good and I know that if I do this segment, if I have a good run at it, I have a very good likelihood of getting this Strava segment." The guy who took it is a pro-track racer, very, very solid Olympic rider, but he's also not a climber. I'm really good at the high elevation stuff, and so I'm thinking like, "Okay, we can do that or we can do the longer one, and then once we get to this last two hours of the climb, I'll go really hard. See if I can take the upper half."

Jeremiah Bishop:

If I can take the upper segment, then I can prove that if I wanted to, I could have taken the other segment. But dude, by the time I got there, I was just smashed, and all I could think about was trying to keep moving. And I picked it up a little bit at nine to 10 000 feet, I started to drive the pace and give it a good hard push, but I just couldn't... I couldn't go any harder, I was just pegged just trying to keep the gear turning.

Sheldon Little:

Did you guys do this at the beginning of the vacation, or at the end?

Jeremiah Bishop:

Well, it was actually the middle. It was the middle. Not a stranger to planning these big trips, and the jet lag's a big factor, it was crazy. We were only in Hawaii for a week and we were on Kauai with family, and my wife. She was not too happy about me leaving. [crosstalk 00:15:04]

Trevor Gibney:

I was wondering how that went.

Jeremiah Bishop:

It did not go really well, especially... I thought I was going to be able to take an Uber, and there's no Uber in Kauai, they will pick you up to get to the airport to do this puddle jumper flight to Honolulu, and then Honolulu to the Big Island. And I was like, "I'm going to have to take the rental car." So I'm leaving her there with no rental car.

Trevor Gibney:

Oh, no.

Jeremiah Bishop:

So, did not go well. I actually would have a good reality TV, YouTube, if I could record that interaction, but let's just say it wasn't pretty.

Sheldon Little:

It took you, what, about nine and a half hours to do the climb itself?

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah, the actually elapsed time was 9:38 or something like that. I had to do the math on it because the Garmin I was running, died. These things, if you're running navigation on them, don't last super long. Maybe I saw it was 90% charged, or I don't know. There's so much stuff to figure out when you're... You're charging your light, you're charging your GoPros, you're charging your Garmins, your phones, it's a lot of stuff to be on top of, and I think that was one of the things that I didn't think, "Okay, well, what if this takes nine to 12 hours?" And when you add the navigation, that's what killed it, it was the navigation.

Sheldon Little:

Yeah. What was the time that you guys were shooting for? Were you thinking that similar timeframe of nine and a half hours, or were you planning...

Jeremiah Bishop:

No, I was thinking seven hours. Honestly, in my head, [crosstalk 00:00:06] are totally blowing this out of proportion. And we're talking to Alex Candelario, which you probably saw in the documentary. The guy is silver medal at Road National Championships, and an Olympic-caliber cyclist, and he's going, "Yeah, take 12 hours." And I'm like, "Dude, you are just yanking our chain. There's just no way that a 60-mile ride is going to take us 12 hours. We're not walking." Well, let's just say there's some things that really became crystal clear about this thing, and started to make a hell of a lot of sense. It's just insane.

Jeremiah Bishop:

You wouldn't believe it, Trevor, we hit this first pitch, and not since Costa Rica, there's only one other place in the world, never race mountain bikes. So when you race mountain bikes, you will climb stuff that is just more mind-boggling. Racing in the Alps, the Pyrenees, in Costa Rica. You'll climb stuff that they won't pave. There's just logging roads and just wicked steep stuff. Usually, I really usually dig the steep stuff, I've no problem with it, but this was ridiculous. Pitches of 40%, you put a suitcase on it and it just starts to slide down the hill-type of pitch. And you know how video doesn't do it justice, and even if [crosstalk 00:18:34] did look steep, it actually did look steep in the video.

Jeremiah Bishop:

I was pretty flabbergasted because we descended in the dark, and all you see is Alex engages the four-wheel-drive, you see all these scratch marks on the guardrail, and the ground is scraped up on the switchbacks from the bottoms of cars, and the pavement's really, really rough. And I'm on a 40C [inaudible 00:19:00], and I'm slipping out. I'm running a [Nabi 00:19:06] 40c tire [crosstalk 00:19:09] And the rear wheel's spinning on the concrete. It's a rough way to start a big climb like that. So very, very slow going, and you have these challenges, these hurdles, and I think Vegan Cyclist, his video is really good at breaking it down. He had these graphics for each section. He should have had embarrassment beaches, the first one though, I think you missed that one where he falls over in the sand. Sorry Tyler.

Jeremiah Bishop:

That was really, really funny. But then you have the Waipi'o Valley climb, and you've got a flat section of pavement where it's 2%, no big deal. But you're going and going and going, and then you've got that jungle, and then you've got the grasslands, and then you've got the rubble, which is almost a single track, a double-track jeep road with all these big rocks in it, which comes out really well. It does convey actually pretty well in the video. And then you've got the volcanic area, where it's above treeline, it's all blackened and orange, and just really freaky lunar landscape. But then, saying to your point, Trevor, about how this thing really accumulates, and I started to think about it a little bit in the week coming up to it, and I was like wow, running at full gas, averaging 265 watts at Leadville for six hours, that's the all-time record of Leadville, within a couple of minutes of that.

Jeremiah Bishop:

That's really hard, you're just completely destroyed, and you fall over in the grass afterward, and have to recover, because your tank is so empty. And then you add Pikes Peak Hill climb to that, and that's what [crosstalk 00:21:11] looking when you finish. When I turn that corner and you look up, and you can just see the switchbacks and the snow cap just two hours up the hill, that is a mind bender. You turn that corner, you feel like you've just finished Leadville 100, and you turn the corner and you look up and you go... Your heart sinks, and you're like, "[inaudible 00:21:37]. It's going to be rough."

Jeremiah Bishop:

Because it's coming at hour at eight and nine, their links become such a big factor, because your tank is empty, there's no way you can eat enough to keep up with that calorie expenditure. So pacing, super critical.

Trevor Gibney:

So obviously, you're still riding strong, your fitness is strong, but your career as a cyclist has developed and changed a little bit. You've put in quite an impressive time as a racer and a rider, and I know that you do coaching, and now you're an ambassador. Do you see your role as a cyclist fundamentally different in those roles? Or is it philosophically, do you see it all the same, or approaching it the same way?

Jeremiah Bishop:

I'm approaching it the same way as I have for the last five years. The racing was such a big part of my life for so long, that I had the World Cup racing career, and we would have interviews or interact with media, and having social presence, and reaching the fans is important.

Trevor Gibney:

Sure.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Then I turned it all to endurance racing, and that's a little bit more like sharing the adventure for the sport of mountain biking. And then now, as an ambassador for Canyon, able to tell the stories, I'm able to do the races, getting people excited about long rides and adventure. I'm also doing advocacy work, things like Luv Trails, which is a micro-donation app for people with cell phones that want to donate when they're out on the road, traveling the races and things like that, to local trail groups. And just staying involved in, and sharing stoke for the sport. And I think that really, because that's always been a part of what I do, Canyon appreciates the value of the authenticity of it. It's just something I do and believe in, and if I wasn't working for Canyon tomorrow, then I'd be doing the same thing.

Jeremiah Bishop:

I'd be trying to make ends meet, but yeah, I'd be doing the same thing. I'd be creating routes, posting the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo or hosting a mountain bike race, doing videos. And that's just part of what I do.

Trevor Gibney:

Obviously, motivation, when you are looking toward a race or a huge endurance event, the motivation is obvious. Competing, finishing, but where's the motivation as you are an ambassador, as you said, spreading the stoke of cycling, what gives you that motivation?

Jeremiah Bishop:

When I see people smile. I want to see people try something new or start riding, or get involved with trail work. Those things are really awesome, the things that I'm most proud about are getting kids into riding, like we have the Virginia High School Mountain Bike Association in the spring, then NICA we have in the fall. I've been helping a little bit just to cheerlead those efforts, and I'll show up at races and things like that, ride with the kids. Yeah, those are the things I'm most proud of, honestly. The races I'm very proud of as well, but it's a different feeling. I enjoy that part of it. That's a motivator.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Obviously, this time period with coronavirus and things shutting down as far as events go, it's a big challenge, because most of the fun that I get out of it now is attending races, or going to demos and trying to interact with people through a regular Zwift ride, was one of the goals that I had actually before this. I was like, "Well, maybe I'll do a Monday, or something that's consistent." So that's what I'm doing, I'm doing a Monday open Zwift ride. It's totally a social ride, it's a coffee ride, so it's with Team DIRT, so dads who ride inside... Dads Inside Riding Trainers, is what it stands for [crosstalk 00:26:03] acronym.

Jeremiah Bishop:

But this group has grown, there's a surprising number of dads that are on Zwift, they've got regular nine-to-five jobs, they are super time primed. So when they get off of work, they're with their kids, taking their kids to soccer, doing whatever. So their time to load up the stuff and drive to the trailhead and ride, is really limited, so that's the week... You go Friday to Sunday routine, and then they do this series of Zwift rides. Some are hard, some are easy. Monday, 6:15 AM, I'll be doing the Monday Blues ride for Team DIRT, so I'm a guest there. I'll have my headphones on, and I'll be on Discord, and we'll be chatting and just talking, and just hanging out, chatting up bikes, talking about beer, talking about [crosstalk 00:27:00]

Sheldon Little:

... The important [crosstalk 00:27:00]

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah, the important stuff. People need a good distraction. It's really neat we've got these tools in place, and there'll be negatives, of course, with this thing, but there will also be positives. And chatting with you guys now is just, it's so cool that we can do this type of stuff, and it keeps us connected. I think it's an important... Sorry, my Garmin's beeping at me. Yeah, so it's super important, I think, just to stay connected. So I'm going to do the Monday ride, I'm doing the Thursday ride, we've got a gravelers ride with Peter Stetina. So I did the [crosstalk 00:27:38] Cyclist 100 Mile ride the day before yesterday, I'm still feeling it. I was dying. They averaged 25 and a half miles per hour, 26 miles per hour.

Trevor Gibney:

Oh my God.

Jeremiah Bishop:

[inaudible 00:27:53]. So it's a little bit faster than real outside, but literally, it felt like trying to hold four hour century pace, it was crazy fast. I'm trying to do a consistent ride per week, so catch up with me, I'll have the plan for next week's race figured out by end of today, and then I'll make a post about it, just so you can watch or tune in.

Trevor Gibney:

I think it's interesting, you were talking, just in terms of connection and that we can still find ways to connect with each other, despite being disconnected, and how that is motivating in itself, staying connected in creative ways. Are you still coaching? And I'm wondering how you're trying to share this motivation or motivate your athletes and stay connected to them? Is it through things like Zwift, or through video conferencing?

Jeremiah Bishop:

I'm still doing the same as I always have done, the real difficulty, Trevor, as you were talking about, is as athletes, we're so motivated by the events. If you got Gran Fondo in New York coming up in three weeks, dude, you are stoked, or if you've got Trans-Sylvania Epic, got my little TSE trophy from last year-

Trevor Gibney:

Awesome.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah. Like this charity, Pennsylvania charity. But if you've got an event this coming up, it's super easy just to hunker down and throw some serious [inaudible 00:29:35] motivated, is break it down into blocks coming into each of these things. But that theory applies even with sub goals. So let's say, Sheldon, what's your best FTP of the year usually?

Sheldon Little:

I don't want to talk about this year. Maybe we'll talk ever.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Ever, all time.

Sheldon Little:

It would have been 395.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Awesome, that's really high. So if you look at the difference between where you are and where you were then, those things can become goals. And what's interesting is if you break it down and say, "All right, well, hopefully we'll be doing some races by the end of the summer, and then regardless, I'm going to try to go for my course PR on the Big Bear Loop or on the Shenandoah Mountain trail. So if there's no racing, then I'm going to go out and I'm going to do my hardcore four hour rides fast as I can, and see if I can break that time."

Jeremiah Bishop:

Well, then you can create really good benchmarks coming into that, and then you might have a hill climb that you do your test on, or a stretch of road that you do your test on, or some kind of sub goals. I've got Shenandoah Mountain trail I'd like to do, I've got the Ring, Massanutten Ring, which is on the dirty to-do list, and those things are filling in for now. I'd like to win a Zwift race, but yeah, you can still build to your best. The thing is, when you're trying to beat other people in a race, it's a lot more immediate feedback, you know what I'm saying? But if you [crosstalk 00:31:32] and you did 400 watts for 20 minutes for your best ever FTP, you would feel like... That puts you in a very, very small club of the fittest riders in the world that can do that.

Sheldon Little:

Oh, to be clear, I was talking 3.95 watts per kilogram. It was not a 400 watt [crosstalk 00:31:56]

Jeremiah Bishop:

Okay, I thought you said 395, I was like, "Holy crap, this guy's fast."

Trevor Gibney:

Thank you. Sheldon, I'm so glad you said that, because I was like, "You are a lying son of a bitch, man."

Sheldon Little:

[crosstalk 00:32:06] I was like, "That sounded wrong." No, 3.95 watts per kilogram.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Got it. Which is still very good by the way. But I was like, "Dang, we better get [inaudible 00:32:19], we got to sign him."

Sheldon Little:

That's great.

Jeremiah Bishop:

It's all relative. It's about doing your own thing, and one of the goals that I have, I know it sounds silly, is to do a manual. And I am so close at age 44 to doing a manual, I've got it down to 15 feet, but I want to be able to ride it all the way down the block.

Trevor Gibney:

That's awesome.

Jeremiah Bishop:

I know it sounds like a silly goal, but guess what? I'm totally fired up about this. [crosstalk 00:32:51] going to happen. Other things I have the time for, one of the things that I feel like, a mountain biker, it's important to do trail work once a month. But I was so busy working, like you get home from demo and then you're so tired from loading the truck, unloading the truck, you've got tent weights, each one's 30 pounds. You drive your tail off and then you get home, you unload everything, and you're bridging bikes in really weird places, and you're just exhausted. It feels like CrossFit for an hour, each side of the trip.

Jeremiah Bishop:

And then you have to train the next day, and go to the gym, all ready to do some very specific work. The trail work was the last thing, and so, I haven't gotten around to that. I'm going to do some trail work today, and what are your motivators? And tap into your motivators to give you that little extra oomph for the trainings. The next time I'm out there, I'm going to be thinking about trying to finish the Massanutten Ring. I'll be out there training, I'll be like, "Okay, well, I'm going to push and just keep it going." It's not going to last forever, this is going to be a period in history and we're going to get through it. I think there will be some precautions for quite a long time, but I think we will be able to have some forms of races.

Jeremiah Bishop:

We might have mountain bike races that are time trials in the end of the summer, we might have more Zwift races, but there will be some racing, trust me. And the people who stay in shape for it, are going to be so glad, because when the races start again, it's going to be like popcorn popping. It's going to be so fun, and I can't wait to get back to racing. It's the best, it's so awesome. Campfires afterward, beer, Shenandoah 100. That's the stuff I live for, so got to just make it back to that.

Sheldon Little:

I know the question that a lot of Midwesterners prior [inaudible 00:35:06] was, in your original plan for the season, was Margie in the cards?

Jeremiah Bishop:

The Margie was on my schedule actually this year.

Trevor Gibney:

Really?

Jeremiah Bishop:

I, again, have a love-hate relationship with that race.

Trevor Gibney:

Most people do.

Jeremiah Bishop:

I actually like the trails there a lot, the trails were awesome. The thing with the Margie-Gessick is, like a lot of other ultra endurance challenges, you crush yourself pretty hard. It's really, really hard, so it's one of those things that you're like, "Oh, buddy, it's going to hurt." And you can think about it a lot as it gets closer. As they've built more good trail there, the trail is just always slightly different. They route it a little bit different or they added a little more single track, and they're stoked about adding single track. I'm usually stoked about adding single track, but that race is just going to get even harder if they add much more single track to it.

Jeremiah Bishop:

But yeah, it's a super cool place, and I really love the lake. It's like an inland ocean, the rocks and the lake, it's really a beautiful place. I didn't expect it to be such a highlight. But what you were saying, Trevor, I think the other thing is absence makes the heart grow stronger, the love of racing right now. If you spend any time racing or going back in your mind through the pictures of racing that you did in the past, right now, I really forgot that I had this sitting in a box next to my computer, but I've got my Leadville belt buckle.

Trevor Gibney:

Nice.

Sheldon Little:

What year was that one?

Jeremiah Bishop:

It wasn't last year, because it was the 25th. I think this is the 24th, so 2018. Not being able to race really makes you appreciate how cool it is, and how awesome these things are, and so I think we'll see a lot of people who are really fired up. The other thing that's a strange phenomenon, I don't know if you guys noticed this there, and I'm going to have to ask the guys at Strava, but it seems more people are riding bikes. Just normal people, I've never seen this many people on the $800 mountain bike, just cruising, smiling and enjoying spring.

Sheldon Little:

I went out yesterday, and half the ride was on the road and then half the ride was on this long, paved, river trail. I hit this paved river trail, and it was like Iceman last year. Since Iceman, I don't think I've said, "On your left" so many times, and it was people walking their dogs, people out on, like you said, these $800, the Walmart bikes. There were just people everywhere, and it was like, we're trying to be social distancing, especially up in here in Michigan now, I don't know how it is down South right now, but we are on basically full lockdown, and it was like, "What?" It was a concert just got out, there were just people everywhere.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah, you have to learn pretty quick, and I think it's important. There was a comment on the Strava's Facebook page, [inaudible 00:38:41] comment [inaudible 00:38:42] how about traffic at trail areas, because they've got the data. So they could say, "All right, everybody seems to be going between nine and 10 AM, that's when the peak hours are at this bike pass." And that'd be really useful information. As you know, no one wants to ride when it's raining out, so any places like that, that are common trailheads, I'm not going to go to during a sunny mid-morning. It's just overrun, not overrun, but pretty busy. And right now, it's not too hard to spread out if you just go at the right time, and I'm sure if you're out at five in the morning, you're not going to see anybody.

Jeremiah Bishop:

The same thing if you go to the right places. So I'll do the bike path spin if it's a misty Tuesday afternoon or something, on the way back into town, but yeah, some of the areas too, it's fun to just go and seek out new areas. So one of the other things that I'm doing, just to keep fans engaged, keep the Canyon love out there, is doing some contests. I've got this really cool contest with Ride With GPS, and you can also do it on Strava or even Trailforks, it doesn't matter what platform you use. But it's a route-planning contest, and it doesn't need to be the most amazing route ever, it's just a random drawing.

Jeremiah Bishop:

I'm going to draw two prize boxes, one of the prize boxes is going to have one of my custom autographed monogram jerseys from Cutaway, so I'm the only person in the world that has this jersey, it's got the stars and stripes on the sleeve. Should be pretty cool, a little collector's item, some Canyon hat, Canyon t-shirts, stickers. I have two swag boxes. One will be like some stock Canyon swag, I also have some of my autographed posters.

Trevor Gibney:

Nice.

Jeremiah Bishop:

And I'll have something else surprising in there too, I'm not going to spoil it, but I've got another little trinket in there, but you'll just have to see it when it shows up for whoever wins this thing. Anyway, so the idea is Roads Less Traveled. So it could be a road or trail, a way to link things that no one's done before. So if you live in an urban area, maybe there's an abandoned railroad track that you know about, but a lot of people don't ride, and you'd link in two trail areas, and then you come back through under a tunnel, like a crazy figure eight. But it's a new route [inaudible 00:41:25], so the idea is, it's not about going crazy with it, it could be a 12-mile route, but just a really unique couple features or a unique composition. So it's a fun lockdown project.

Sheldon Little:

I'm in Detroit, I feel like I'm going to get mugged trying to make this route.

Jeremiah Bishop:

I bet you could make some of the coolest urban assault rides. Old...

Sheldon Little:

The old Packard facility.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah. I bet the stuff... You could probably cobble together some crazy stairs and loading docks, add some pictures to it, it'd be awesome.

Sheldon Little:

I have a feeling I know what I'm doing this afternoon, because here in Michigan, it is a beautiful day, and as soon as I get out of here, I'm going to kit up and go hop on the bike.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah, I was a courier for one winter, and I just love the graffiti. These abandoned urban spaces are really cool to ride. They're really actually pretty fun to check out.

Sheldon Little:

Detroit street art is pretty amazing right now.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah, I bet it's pretty rad.

Trevor Gibney:

I think what I keep hearing is, I don't want to downplay how hard this is on people, this lockdown, and people that are really having a tough time, but it's forcing all of us, it's forcing you, it's forcing everyone to be a little more creative. And then through that creativity, we can actually come up with some pretty fantastic new things that I hope will continue when we're outside of this, and that creativity will just keep moving.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah, I hope so. I think there's so much positive energy, people are creative in how they reach each other, and even just in our conversation, I was thinking how cool would it be to put together some training videos for some of the NICA kids. These kids are at home and they're either on YouTube, or playing video games. They could be doing some really cool drills and bike games, and that would not be too hard for me to put together. It would be really fun to share some of the stuff that I think is... Helps gamify training. I like to not even call it training sometimes, the stuff that I do is really just, it's like bike practice, it's doing fun stuff on the wobble board, it's doing braking drills on the grass. Sharing that would be super fun, would be easy to do too.

Trevor Gibney:

Well, obviously we could probably talk to you for hours, but we don't want to take up much more of your time. But I do have a very important question, maybe, what is your... Two questions, I guess, but they're related. Your go-to beer after a race, and then your go-to beer as you're just winding down at the house?

Jeremiah Bishop:

I would say those are two different beers. You mean like go-to beer right after a ride?

Trevor Gibney:

Right after a ride, yeah. Anything that's put in your face?

Jeremiah Bishop:

[crosstalk 00:44:47] High Life.

Trevor Gibney:

Nice.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah, it's more like a water beer. I think that Stella is also... That's like the European Miller High Life, it's the super... It says sudsy, low-alcohol beer. You won't completely fall over and get knocked on your ass. And then my go-to beer, at least this week, has been Lil' Hellion by Brothers Craft Brewing in Harrisonburg.

Trevor Gibney:

Okay.

Jeremiah Bishop:

[crosstalk 00:45:16] A couple of them actually ride bikes, but they sponsor the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo. But it's not exactly why I mention them, I mentioned it because they're just really, really good brewers, and they have just a real eclectic mix of different styles of beer, and they're really into the craft of it. Also, Troegenator, that one's really good. It all just depends on where I am.

Trevor Gibney:

Sure.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Bells, if I'm in the Midwest doing a race, [crosstalk 00:45:48] it has to happen, and if I'm in Pennsylvania, some of those beers have to get their playtime. Yeah, it's really great to have some good local breweries in Harrisonburg, we've got quite a few in Virginia, and yeah, Brothers, check them out, really, really good beer [crosstalk 00:46:10]

Sheldon Little:

Yeah, [crosstalk 00:46:12] the subject of consumables, Trevor shames me all the time. In the first time you and I had ever interacted on social media was about baby food. And Trevor does not get the baby food.

Trevor Gibney:

It was baby food packets, I don't understand it. Do you actually use those baby food packets as your nutrition on a ride?

Jeremiah Bishop:

I'm not going to lie, I'm going to tell the entire truth. There's another good thing, Trevor, is this whole coronavirus thing, I will just tell you it is. I'm a little less bashful to be myself and I will open up a little bit.

Trevor Gibney:

Good, good.

Jeremiah Bishop:

I think that is so funny you brought that up, Sheldon. I never had considered baby food before that moment of desperation when I ran out of food at Margie. I was ready to eat mud, but that's all there was. I was like, "Hey, I got some Skittles and some..." No, I think he said, he had baby food, and the other thing was really, really unappealing, like some carrots. One calorie per carrot. So I tried the baby food, and I was like, "Damn, whoa, this is good. It's apple sauce, man, apple cinnamon."

Jeremiah Bishop:

And so I actually eat these, I like to steal some of my kids, they've got these little yogurt packets which I really like. It's actually stuck with me a little bit, and it makes a lot of sense. All these things are in packages, they're really easy to eat, they're usually milled up or really hydrated, so yeah, some of that stuff sticks with you. I like to shake it up a bit. Sometimes Brian Vaughan with GU will send me some stuff, I've been checking out some... This stuff called Flow Formulas, he sent me some samples, really pretty good stuff. The nice thing about not actually having a "sponsor", is I get to eat what I want, which is important when you ride your bike this damn much, to be able to have some variety. Boys and girls out there, make sure you try the baby food, it's awesome.

Sheldon Little:

Yes, thank you [crosstalk 00:48:35]

Trevor Gibney:

Yeah, okay whatever, I'll try it. And you did mention the Fondo, do you want to tell us a little bit about your Fondo?

Jeremiah Bishop:

Totally. Yeah, Alpine Loop Gran Fondo, this is the 10th year we've had this thing, and it is like a celebration at... Usually a celebration at the end of the season. If we have it this year, it'll be the celebration of the year.

Trevor Gibney:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Bishop:

[crosstalk 00:49:06] Just ride a bike outside with a group of people. But the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo has been going on now, this would be year number 10, and it's hundred plus miles, it's one of my toughest road training routes. The gravel that we have in this thing, it's a little bit more state-maintained dirt roads, so you don't need a full suspension gravel bike with 2.0 tires, it's totally traditional, drop-bar mayhem. But it's just so cool because you start in the city, we've got this small college town or college... It's a small city basically, 50 000 people, and then you get out into the countryside, the Mennonite countryside of the Shenandoah Valley. It's a [inaudible 00:49:59] green, open countryside. Then you get up on over to Shenandoah Mountain, which is this giant... This wall of a climb, this climb is... To go outbound takes most people about 25 minutes, and then the climb on the way back is a little bit more like 35 minutes to get back over.

Jeremiah Bishop:

But once you get over, you're into wild and wonderful West Virginia, it's just like remote, there are log cabins, forest, deer, bear. It's a magical place out there, I love riding in West Virginia, it's really something. And one of the few places on the East Coast where the population is less than in the late 1800s. Yeah, it's wild, man. A real escape. And then you climb back up into Virginia, we have time segments on the climbs, which I think is really special about our event. It's not a race from start to finish. Before two years ago, I'd never done another Gran Fondo, which is funny, because like, "You run a Gran Fondo, right?" "Well, my wife actually runs it, but I came up with it."

Jeremiah Bishop:

What we created was what, in my imagination, I thought would be a Gran Fondo, right? Well, it turns out the other big american Gran Fondos aren't as cool as I thought they were supposed to be in my mind, as far as like, okay, a Gran Fondo is an Italian cycling-style cycling event that is a festive event. It's about being social, it's about a big challenge, Gran Fondo means great challenge, and it's about doing something with your buddies, and going out and knocking out some monster route. And then you high-five, you have a beer afterward, you have good food, music.

Jeremiah Bishop:

And so that's what we put together in the absence of going to another event, and I'm so glad that I didn't go do some research, and try Levi's Gran Fondo first, or an Italian Gran Fondo first. So what we came up with, was that if we do time sections, then you can ride as hard as you want. So Ben King and Andy Anderson and Ben Wright and myself, and a lot of the other age group contenders, can smash the hell out of each other on the KLM sections, and then on the other side, we stop at the aid stations and hang out. One year, Ben, he found a football, he's like, "Bishop, go long." I'm like, "Okay." [inaudible 00:52:43] We're passing the football back and forth, and yeah- [crosstalk 00:52:46]

Trevor Gibney:

That's fantastic.

Jeremiah Bishop:

... Just hilarious. People were pulling out their camera, they thought it was the funniest thing ever, but that's what we do.

Sheldon Little:

[crosstalk 00:52:52] Usually post this?

Jeremiah Bishop:

September 28th, I believe. Alpineloopgranfondo.com.

Sheldon Little:

Okay.

Trevor Gibney:

Okay.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah, check it out. And the other cool thing, like Trevor was talking about, we have some really cool new tools, so I'm going to do some training rides for the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo on Zwift. We have people from Toronto coming, Miami, we've had people from Europe come, but these people can't really make it to the training camp. We hold one training camp, that's all I have time for usually, it's one weekend in late September. But, man, on Zwift, it could be like, "All right, first Monday of every month, we're going to do a 100K ride with 6 000 feet of climbing on Zwift. We're going to talk about some nutrition, talk about some training tips or whatever on there." So there's all kinds of cool new tools now, and it's forcing us to use them. So kind of a neat thing.

Jeremiah Bishop:

The other thing I was going to say about the Alpine Loop Gran Fondo, we've got a couple cool shoutouts to the charities. We support Prostate Cancer Awareness Project, that's the big recipient of most of the fundraising, and then we also support Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition, all the proceeds from the beer gardens go to SVBC, and they are a powerhouse local club, over a thousand members for building trails, creating bike paths, bike lanes, and it's expanding constantly, it's a really cool crew.

Trevor Gibney:

And then, were there a couple other sponsors that you're going to...

Jeremiah Bishop:

Oh, yeah, we've been long time associated with Porsche, they do our lead out vehicles. It's super cool. We've got-

Trevor Gibney:

Jeez.

Jeremiah Bishop:

... Some [inaudible 00:54:47] for the weekend. Tell you what, I really wish I wasn't so busy loading and unloading all of our stuff. We also have US foods, so the loading and unloading is tons of croissants. We go real Euro with the food as well, so got pellegrino, Belgian waffles, we got pellegrino, we've got a really nice...

Sheldon Little:

Italian baby food.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Jams, Italian baby food, I usually have some really good cheeses and fruit, and we really shake it up. And then we also have a coffee sponsor, it's really cool. Chestnut Ridge Roasters from Harrisonburg. We have an espresso station out there in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia.

Trevor Gibney:

Nice.

Jeremiah Bishop:

There's probably not an espresso machine for 60 miles in any direction, but these guys bring it out there to a local park and hook it up, and so the Fraser brothers with Fraser quarry host this, they also own the coffee company, and man, it's so cool. We even put together this Fondo fits, check out the Vegan Cyclist episode on Alpine Loop Gran Fondo if you really want to know the full story on it, because it's really a fun time. We have a blast. [crosstalk 00:56:07]

Sheldon Little:

... Post a link to that to the podcast page.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah [crosstalk 00:56:12] It's super fun. It's a lot of party, a lot of hanging out, and one bike ride.

Trevor Gibney:

Then our final... I keep saying our final question, but one more question. Is there a quick little bit of dirt that you can give us on Mark Kransz before we close up here?

Jeremiah Bishop:

Mark Kransz, he is an enigma. He's got a ton of talent, and if he just keeps it consistent, the world is his. He'll just be smashing it. He came down here to train with me, and I would ride four hours, he would ride five hours. I would do two hours of intervals and he would do three hours. Yeah, Mark's super talented, great guy, I really love hanging out with him. We've had him at our house over for dinner bunch of times, he eats a lot. [crosstalk 00:57:11] Boy will click back some food [crosstalk 00:57:14] Dinners, and then he's like, seconds, and then there's dessert.

Sheldon Little:

Are you feeding him Spaghetti Os?

Jeremiah Bishop:

[crosstalk 00:57:22] Should be feeding him Spaghetti Os. No, but he's a great guy and super... Yeah, he's very, very fit. He's definitely been smashing pretty good, put me in a hurt locker a couple times.

Sheldon Little:

He and Trevor went out and he stole a couple of Trevor's KOMs.

Trevor Gibney:

Yeah, what a jerk, what a jerk. Just stole my KOMs.

Jeremiah Bishop:

All you got to do is, you just have to sit on his wheel and play the mind games. Tell him you're going to [crosstalk 00:57:53]

Sheldon Little:

You make that sound so easy [crosstalk 00:57:55]

Trevor Gibney:

Yeah, if I can sit on his wheel. That's tough. But, anyways, Jeremiah, man, we thank you so much for your time, it's been cool just to talk to you right now, and for us two get a little bit of motivation. We need everything we can get right now, and then to be able to share this to everyone, and hopefully they'll get something out of it too. So very cool, man.

Jeremiah Bishop:

I like to think that, it's not always easy, I'm not super motivated right now either, it's the honest truth. The situation is tough, but it's also one we're in together. We're all in this together, and we're all dealing with it. My words to everybody out there is that, find your rhythm. If your rhythm is only 75% of normal, that's fine. Don't beat yourself up about that. Do three days a week of quality, and then the rest, it just doesn't matter. Just roll with how you feel, but if you keep yourself honest to that three days a week, you'll come out of this and you'll be like, "I feel in shape, but I've also recharged my batteries." This is not a bad recharge, this is just one of those things that happens, and you have to just roll with it. Don't fight it too much, roll with it.

Trevor Gibney:

Beautiful, thank you, Jeremiah. This was awesome. Enjoy your day, and hopefully you get some good quality riding here soon.

Jeremiah Bishop:

I'm going to hit some trails.

Trevor Gibney:

Fantastic.

Sheldon Little:

That was amazing. I'm going to go explore some ruins of Detroit.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yes, do it.

Trevor Gibney:

I can do a road ride, so [crosstalk 00:59:35]

Sheldon Little:

All right Jeremiah, thank you very much, and we'll talk to you later.

Trevor Gibney:

Have a good one.

Jeremiah Bishop:

Yeah, we'll do it again. Thanks, you guys.

Sheldon Little:

See you, Jeremiah.

Trevor Gibney:

The Dirty Chain podcast is a Michigan Midpack Media production in partnership with KLM Cycling. The source for your bike accessories and necessities.

Sheldon Little:

Connect with us on Instagram and Facebook at Dirty Chain Podcast, email dirtychainpodcast@gmail.com. Call our hotline, (616) 522-2641.

Trevor Gibney:

If you are enjoying the podcast, please leave us a rating and review on whatever platform you use to listen. Thank you to Rob Meendering from episode 21 for allowing us to use his photo for this episode, which we did not screenshot.

Sheldon Little:

Audio editing and original music by Trevor Gibney.

Trevor Gibney:

Sheldon Little handles the social media, graphic design, and of course, bad decisions. And as always, keep your chain clean.

Sheldon Little:

Get your chain dirty. We'll see you in the Midpack.