The Slow Ride: A Cycling Podcast · WideAnglePodiumNetwork

Why Not Bryan?

·1 hr 29 min·5 clips

Pro cyclists took a wrong turn, racing down the wrong side of the road in a dangerous mix-up.

Episode 519 opens with suspicious optimism. The panel wants bike racing to feel newly magical, then runs into the small problem that almost nothing seems different. The same people are still fast, which puts the recap right in Slow Ride territory: excited, doubtful, and already making jokes at its own expense. Puck becomes the heart pick. Lorena Wiebes, after winning three of four stages and climbing well, is treated as the much better bet. Then the kit court gets called to order. The Team Phoenix women's kit comes off far better than the men's denim-looking version, because yes, superficial analysis counts here. The race talk moves quickly. Tim says he rode in Florida, which lands hard with cohosts stuck in the Northern States. Alligators get mentioned. So does the Dirty Pecan, his 80-mile gravel ride on clay roads through Northern Florida. Nobody finds the math soothing. His 38-mile tune-up, reported nap, and night of car camping all get entered into evidence against his confidence. Tim says he is ready. The others sound concerned in the exact way cycling friends do when they are also having a great time. The episode stays loose and specific: race chatter, kit judgment, weather envy, mileage suspicion, and event lore all jostle for space. Nobody pretends this is polished analysis. It works more like a rolling group chat, with enough cycling fluency to care about Wiebes and Puck, and enough nonsense to turn one Florida gravel ride into a tactical emergency.

As heard by us

Cycling talk with quick reactions, shared recall, and enough loose edges to keep it lively.

It treats the return of bike racing as a welcome reset, moving from early-season results to the women's side, where Puck Peters and Lorena Wiebes both come up, then on to the Team Phoenix kit and a gravel ride set for next weekend.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play for episode 519's cycling banter, where kits, legs, and early-season racing get treated like sacred evidence.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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