Shows / With Pace
With Pace
Professional mountain biker Payson McElveen sits down with some of the biggest names in sports and adventure to get an inside look at what sets them apart. With no script, the casual conversations are as diverse as the guests, with topics ranging from harrowing tales of survival, to debates on current events, to everyday tips and tricks and everything in between. As Payson travels the world for his two-wheeled day job, listen in as he rubs shoulders with and learns from some of the most…
Episodes
- With Pace
Big Sugar recap pt. 2 with Henry Nelson
Henry Nelson had a breakout ride at Big Sugar earlier this month, going solo towards the finish and looking like he might be the first to cross the line. It…
- With Pace
Big Sugar recap pt. 1 with winner Stella Hobbs
The final round of this year’s Life Time Grand Prix saw several upsets in the pro field, including Stella Hobbs’ win in a breakaway. She joins Payson from her…
- With Pace
Cole Paton on his Little Sugar win and his new tractor
Cole Paton’s win at Little Sugar last week was just the latest in a series of big events that have shaped his life on and off the bike this year. Over the…
- With Pace
Sepp Kuss on racing all three Grand Tours this season
Sepp Kuss is back on the pod after yet another historic season racing all three Grand Tours, and after his stage 19 win at the Giro d'Italia this year, he is…
- With Pace
Jacob Hora, the 21-year-old shaking up the ultra endurance mountain bike scene
Most high schoolers spend their time hanging out with friends and worrying about college applications. Jacob Hora spent his time getting trench foot in Central…
- With Pace
Mārtiņš Blūms on Chequamegon and pursuing gravel alongside XCO
Fans of XCO World Cup racing might have been surprised to learn at the beginning of the year that Mārtiņš Blūms was headed for the Grand Prix. The Latvian…
- With Pace
Sarah Sturm on motherhood and the future of US gravel
One month after giving birth to her daughter, Sarah Sturm is back in the studio with Payson to talk about what has changed and what has stayed the same in…
- With Pace
Quinn Simmons on Leadville, the Tour, and his Dauphiné stage win
Quinn Simmons made headlines last month when it was announced that he’d be jumping into Leadville just a couple of weeks after racing the Tour de France. He…
- With Pace
Leadville 100 recap with Cobe Freeburn and Lauren Aggeler
This year’s Leadville 100 was unlike any other, with wildfires last month necessitating a reroute of the iconic course and cool temperatures and rain…
- With Pace
Cam Jones on racing the Grand Prix as the defending champion and his Leadville strategy
A lot has changed for Cam Jones since our last episode with him a year ago. Back then, he’d just had his breakout ride at Unbound, winning the biggest gravel…
- With Pace
Chad Cheeney on tracklocross and Sepp Kuss’s Tour de France crash
For the past 20 years, Chad Cheeney has been one of the most influential people in U.S. cycling, even if you’ve never heard of him. As the co-founder of…
- With Pace
Matt Wilson on winning Tulsa Tough on a gravel bike and his breakout year
If you were racing with Matt Wilson last year, it was pretty clear that he was one of the strongest in the bunch, but through mechanicals and various other…
- With Pace
Tom Evans on his Hardrock 100 training camp and early military career
Tom Evans is one of the best ultrarunners in the world, having won both UTMB and Western States. Now, the British runner has his sights set on the Hardrock…
- With Pace
Levi Leipheimer on reckoning with the past and his life after the WorldTour
This week, Payson sits down for a candid conversation with Levi Leipheimer. They discuss his long road to processing his time in the WorldTour in the early…
- With Pace
Nino Schurter on retirement, gravel, and his unprecedented longevity in the sport
Nino Schurter hardly needs an introduction. Widely considered the greatest XCO mountain bike racer of all time, he's won 10 World Championships, nine World Cup…
- With Pace
Unbound recap pt. 2: the age-group race (with Will, Emily, and Justin)
In the second part of our Unbound recap, Payson speaks to three age-group riders who finished in the middle of the night during torrential rain and…
- With Pace
Unbound recap pt. 1: the pro race (with Danni Shrosbree)
This year’s Unbound was humbling. Mud, thunder storms, and mechanicals galore plagued the racers and culled the pro field. To recap the carnage, Payson is…
- With Pace
Unbound course preview with four-time winner Dan Hughes
Dan Hughes is a certified Unbound legend, having won the very first edition way back in 2006 and another three times for good measure. He’s seen the race go…
- With Pace
Sam Shaw on setting a new FKT on New Zealand’s Great Tracks
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)…
- With Pace
Maddie Munro on battling the mud to her first World Cup podium
The first World Cup of the season took place in a new country (South Korea) and featured treacherously muddy conditions that forced riders to navigate large…
- With Pace
Lauren Stephens and Levi Leipheimer on Levi's GranFondo
This week, we continue our recap of Levi’s GranFondo with this year’s winner, Lauren Stephens, who checked in from the Tour of the Gila to talk about running…
- With Pace
Brennan Wertz on his unexpected Levi's GranFondo podium
Brennan Wertz wasn’t expecting much at Levi’s GranFondo last weekend. At 6’5” and over 200 pounds, he isn’t the type of rider who usually excels at races with…
- With Pace
Sea Otter recap with Sarah Sturm
The 2026 Life Time Grand Prix is officially underway after an action-packed day at Sea Otter. In the injury-ridden men’s field, Bradyn Lange surged to victory…
- With Pace
Morgan Aguirre on preparing for her first Grand Prix season
It’s been more than two years since we last had Morgan Aguirre on the show, and since then, a lot has changed for her. After two strong seasons racing gravel…
- With Pace
Mike Woods on his unlikely WorldTour career and multi-sport retirement plans
Mike Woods' career in the WorldTour was practically a fluke. After earning a full ride to college for running, he quit the sport over a series of injuries and…
- With Pace
Samuele Bressan, Head of Global Marketing for Pirelli's cycling division
During Payson’s trip to Italy last week to race The Hills, he stopped by the headquarters of his new tire sponsor, Pirelli, for a tour of the factory floor…
- With Pace
George Hincapie on Modern Adventure Pro Cycling and his storied racing career
After more than three decades in the sport, George Hincapie has started a new venture this year as the founder of the UCI Pro Road Team Modern Adventure Pro…
- With Pace
Alex Miller on growing up in rural Namibia and joining Swatt Club
Alex Miller is a two-time Olympic XC racer from Namibia with multiple road and XC marathon national titles. These days, he lives in Girona and races for Swatt…
- With Pace
Luke Lamperti on opening weekend of the Belgian Classics and chasing marginal gains
The last time we spoke to Luke Lamperti was two years ago, when he was just starting out as a WorldTour neo-pro with Quick-Step. This year, he’s switched to EF…
- With Pace
Sahara Gravel stage 4 recap with Leoni Kolberg
To close out our Sahara Gravel coverage, Payson sat down with race volunteer Leoni Kolberg, who has spent the past four years riding around the world, often…
- With Pace
Sahara Gravel stage 3 recap with Eddy Le Huitouze
Stage 3 of Sahara Gravel took the riders away from the Atlas Mountains and towards the Sahara Desert, with 95 kilometers ending in a tailwind. Payson is joined…
- With Pace
Sahara Gravel stage 2 recap with Nicolas Roche and Marta Torà
Stage 2 of Sahara Gravel comprised 105km and 1800 meters of climbing. To recap the day, Payson is joined by former WorldTour pro Nicolas Roche and mountain…
- With Pace
Sahara Gravel stage 1 recap with Lizzie Hermolle
Stage 1 of Sahara Gravel was 99 kilometers in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. Payson is joined to recap the day by UK Gravel National Champ and today's…
- With Pace
Caleb Swartz on transitioning from cyclocross to the Grand Prix
Caleb Swartz started racing cyclocross when he was eight years old, but the discipline has been dwindling in the US since the 2010s, and the writing has been…
- With Pace
Allied FITZ is here: CEO Drew Medlock and Director of Product and Engineering Sam Pickman on the new trail bike
You might have heard that Allied just released a new feather-light trail bike this week. The FITZ is new territory for the brand, so it seemed like a good…
- With Pace
Riley Amos on his first year as an Elite and his love of product development
Most riders spend their first year in the Elite ranks just trying to find their feet, but Riley Amos was determined to be different. He had good reason for it…
- With Pace
Haley Smith on becoming a privateer in 2026 while doing her PhD
Haley Smith has been on one factory team or another since she was in her teens. In that time, she spent a decade as a World Cup XC racer, went to the 2021…
- With Pace
Mads Würtz Schmidt on his transition from WorldTour to gravel
Mads Würtz Schmidt might be a newcomer to gravel, but he’s already established himself as one of the best in the world. The 31-year-old Danish rider went all…
- With Pace
2025 in review (with Nichole Baker)
We're back from our holiday break, and Payson and Nichole are here to recap a packed 2025. They offer a peek behind the curtain at their year, from the…
- With Pace
Staying fit in the off season and Privateer Parts with Sarah Sturm
Sarah Sturm is back for another monthly catch-up, and this time, she and Payson are talking gym routines. How much lifting is too much? Should you be lifting…
- With Pace
Kevin Vermaak on founding the Cape Epic and Gravel Burn
When Kevin Vermaak left his job in IT to found a brand-new type of bike race, he had no idea how much money he’d lose up front or how successful the resulting…
- With Pace
Scott Bowden on his Crossing Tasmania FKT attempt
Scott Bowden set out two weeks ago to tackle a 580km route across Tasmania. His goal was to beat Payson’s FKT from 2021, but most importantly, he just wanted…
- With Pace
Ride With Pace: HolySpiritOfGravel
Leni Carrillo, a self-proclaimed "gravel normie" from San Antonio, Texas is the genius behind the HolySpiritofGravel meme account on Instagram. With her…
- With Pace
The 2026 Grand Prix roster with Sarah Sturm
This week on the show, Payson sits down with Sarah Sturm to talk about the roster for 2026’s Life Time Grand Prix, which was released last week and contained…
- With Pace
Gravel Burn recap with Bradyn Lange and Dan Craven
With the inaugural edition of Gravel Burn in the rearview mirror, Payson sits down with Bradyn Lange for an overall recap. Due to illness, Bradyn wasn’t able…
- With Pace
Gravel Burn stage 6 recap with Hayley Preen
Stage 6 of Gravel Burn did not go according to plan. Strong winds led to treacherous conditions, and after Swiss rider Andri Frischknecht suffered a crash due…
- With Pace
Gravel Burn stage 5 recap with Tom Pidcock
Stage 5 of Gravel Burn was slow despite being more than 50% paved, and it finished on a 2500-foot climb. Tom Pidcock took the stage win and joins Payson to…
- With Pace
Gravel Burn stage 4 recap with Lukas Baum and Georg Egger
Stage 4 of Gravel Burn was 111 kilometres of near-constant headwind. Payson is joined by Speed Company duo Lukas Baum and Georg Eggers to get the lowdown on…
- With Pace
Gravel Burn stage 3 recap with Simon Pellaud
Stage 3 of Gravel Burn was rough and tactical. Simon Pellaud, who has raced in just about every corner of the world this season and is hot off his second-place…
- With Pace
Gravel Burn stage 2 recap with Haley Smith
Stage two of Gravel Burn was 108 kilometres from Avontuur to Willowmore and it was much drier than yesterday. Both Matt Beers and Axelle Dubau-Prévot managed…
- With Pace
Gravel Burn stage 1 recap with Axelle Dubau-Prévot and Hugo Drechou
Stage 1 of Gravel Burn is done and dusted -- a cold, rainy 84 kilometers with a spicy 2,000+ meters of climbing. Payson is joined by French gravel national…
- With Pace
Gravel Burn preview
Our daily Gravel Burn recaps start tomorrow, so we're bringing you an overview of the seven-day South African stage race, including a day-by-day breakdown of…
- With Pace
Big Sugar recap with Paige Onweller
The 2025 Life Time Grand Prix finished with a bang thanks to a razor-thin margin in the men’s field and a last-minute course change due to weather. Payson is…
- With Pace
Little Sugar recap with Andrew L’Esperance, points analysis, and listener experiences
The second-to-last round of the Life Time Grand Prix shook up the points chase in a big way thanks to a ruthless course that caused a never-ending series of…
- With Pace
Dylan Johnson on the mental toll of injury recovery and the story behind his YouTube channel
Over the past handful of years, Dylan Johnson has emerged as one of the key voices in gravel through his YouTube channel, where he does deep dives on…
- With Pace
Todd Wells on bringing the mountain bike world championships back to Durango
What do Sepp Kuss, Christopher Blevins, Howard Grotts, and Asa Vermette have in common? They all grew up in the small town of Durango, Colorado. The list of…
- With Pace
Ride With Pace: Ellen Campbell before Chequamegon
In this bonus episode, we’re bringing you Payson’s ride-along chat with Ellen Campbell the day before Chequamegon. They talk about how her Grand Prix season is…
- With Pace
Bradyn Lange on winning Gravel Nationals
Just a few hours after winning Gravel Nationals, Bradyn Lange sat down with Payson at the house they were sharing in the lead-up to the race for a wide-ranging…
- With Pace
Chequamegon recap with Melisa Rollins, last place finishers, and points analysis
In our latest Grand Prix recap, Payson takes a recovery spin with Melisa Rollins, who won the women’s race solo and made the competition for the top spot in…
- With Pace
Will Gilmore, performance coach at the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center
When Payson hobbled his way into the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center in May with a broken hip, he wasn’t expecting to be off crutches anytime soon, but…