The Rodeo Labs Podcast Rodeo Adventure Labs, LLC

On this second of three episodes about out Traka Adventure, we switch up formats a bit and bring you along on an audio adventure. Mixing audio that we recorded on the trip with recollections from back home, we hope to create a bit more of an immersive experience, something more like it was to be there yourself. One thing is for sure: Nothing about this trip happened as we imagined, and every step of the way we had to adapt and improvise to keep the adventure alive.
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The Traka is the biggest gravel race in Europe and it offers a wide range of distances including 200km, 360km and 560km. The Rodeo Labs gang were set on the big one: 560km, or 348 miles, of Spanish gravel.
Nevertheless, the rain had other ideas, with torrential downpours causing the race organizers to cancel the 560km distance. The Rodeo crew were gutted, but are still determined to make the most of the trip and have set-off for their own version of the race, because that's Rodeo! That is what we do.
Here is our conversation from before the race when rain was still only a rumor. Come back later for a report from Spain, but for now let's delve into the Traka and the ins and outs of this type of bike race.
Host and producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins
Guests: Stephen Fitzgerald, Cade Reichenberger, Nick Gilroy and Luke Hall

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in this episode of the Rodeo Labs Podcast, the gang is talking about the trial and tribulations of their Unbound's. That is it. That's the description. We hope you enjoy this conversation.
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Welcome to the Rodeo Labs Race Director Round Up! Over the next few weeks, as the gravel race “season” gets underway, we have decided to take on a mini-series focusing on gravel racing through the collective eyes of gravel race directors from across the country. Race directors are both the tastemakers and the police of the nucleus concept of “the spirit of gravel.” While race directors have a fantastic platform to voice their perspective for their own races, that voice is often limited to those narrow confines.  The goal here is to use our podcast, as a small journalistically minded outlet with no skin in the game, to give them a collective platform to share their interpretations of the state of the sport. 
Part three is just two conversations, but they are with two folks who are undoubtedly two of the most influential promoters in gravel. First up is Michael Merckx (6:15) of the BWR series. Michael started BWR as an extra long cyclocross race over a decade ago in Southern California.  Since then, BWR has become an international brand, with events planned throughout North America for 2023. Then, Stephen joins me to interview Amy Charity of SBT GRVL and FNLD GRVL (46:00). Amy, and her GRVL brand, started in 2018 and immediately made an impression with the SBT GRVL event in Steamboat Springs. This year, Amy is bringing the GRVL brand international with FNLD GRVL in Finland. The race is a new venture for an American gravel brand and is supported by F1 star Vallteri Bottas. 
Both of these conversations are unabridged, with the only editing meant to boost sound quality and clarity. We found that the quality of the interviews was interesting enough to run in full, so excuse the length. We won’t blame you for splitting it up! If you do, we recommend taking the break at minute 46 when the conversations swap.


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Welcome to the Rodeo Labs Race Director Round Up! Over the next few weeks, as the gravel race “season” gets underway, we have decided to take on a mini-series focusing on gravel racing through the collective eyes of gravel race directors from across the country. Race directors are both the tastemakers and the police of the nucleus concept of “the spirit of gravel.” While race directors have a fantastic platform to voice their perspective for their own races, that voice is often limited to those narrow confines. The goal here is to use our podcast, as a small journalistically minded outlet with no skin in the game, to give them a collective platform to share their interpretations of the state of the sport. 
Part two of the Race Director round up focuses on the directors of the “mid majors” in gravel racing. These races are the bread and butter of the discipline. They are the independent heartbeat of dirt road racing. Often, the promoters are the heartbeat as well – investing so much of their time and money into the ventures that are never guaranteed to pay off. With this investment, and with those race promoters shaping their races from their own personality and geographies, the different races offer both comparisons and contrasts. This offers us at the Rodeo Labs Podcast a chance to get a little non-linear with our stories. 
In this episode the over five hours of recorded conversations with the race directors of these independent “mid major” races. Thank you to all who agreed to chat, and, for those interested, attached is a list of the race directors and their races. 
Rebecca Rusch — Rebecca’s Private Idaho 
Jess Cerra and Sam Boardman — The Last Best Ride
Andy Chasteen — Rule of Three
Fabian Serralta — Gravel Locos 
Whitney and Zack Allison — Foco Fondo
Gordon Wadsworth and Emily Hairfield — The Appalachian Journey 
Bobby Wintle — The Midsouth

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Welcome to the Rodeo Labs Race Director Round Up! Over the next few weeks, as the gravel race “season” gets underway, we have decided to take on a mini-series focusing on gravel racing through the collective eyes of gravel race directors from across the country. Race directors are both the tastemakers and the police of the nebulous concept of “the spirit of gravel.” While race directors have a fantastic platform to voice their perspective for their own races, that voice is often limited to those narrow confines. The goal here is to use our podcast, as a small journalistically minded outlet with no skin in the game, to give them a collective platform to share their interpretations of the state of the sport. 
In part one, Logan introduces the series through a field dispatch from the Gravel Worlds gravel race in Nebraska last summer and the dialogue that followed. The first conversation was with Andy Jones-Wilkins, who is not only Logan's father, but also an accomplished ultra-runner and pundit. Using the conversation with Andy as a framework, Logan sat down with Jason Strohbehn, the race director of Gravel Worlds and the co-host of the Gravel Family Podcast, to learn more about the race and start at the question that is guiding the whole series: what is the state of gravel bike racing? 
Thanks to Jason and Andy for the conversations and follow the Rodeo Labs Podcast on your favorite podcast player for the rest of the series! 
Thank you to Drew Van Kampen for the transition tunes and thank you to Pure Gravel for the cover photo!

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