Watch outdoor fanatics Molly Armanino and Jake Hopfinger team up to bring some joy to the mountain bike community of El Paso, Texas, and the Wilderness Park Coalition crews that service the trails through Franklin Mountains State Park. and ���the 2024 winner and bike champ, respectively���use a 2024 Toyota Tacoma to pop up a mobile 窪蹋勛圖厙 Lodge that supplies weary riders with some instant giddyup, plus some extra gratitude for the tireless work of local trail-maintenance volunteers who make critical off-road access possible.

Click to learn more about Trail Karma, with , launching on our partner mapping platform now with Toyota���s sponsorship of 20 standout trails across the U.S.���matching donations to these key trail-maintenance organizations up to $100K.

Join the cause, donate and discover classic trails (and open new ones) by supporting the local nonprofits that care for these crucial corridors.

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Standup comedian didn’t set out to make fun of mountain biking, snowboarding, and other recreational activities on his Instagram feed. Like many professional comics, Losse, 44, spent several years recording videos of his observational humor to see what resonated with his audience.

He mused on the banalities of middle-aged life, weather in Seattle, and shopping at Costco. But then, about year ago, Losse posted a from his local mountain biking park, Duthie Hill. In the video, Losse showed viewers the park’s gnarly jumps and massive drop offs, and then pointed out the easy trails that he uses to circumnavigate the hard stuff. “The fire road is running really good���super loamy,” Losse says in his trademark sardonic, dry tone.

A few months later, Losse published another video about the absurdity of snowboarding. “Do you enjoy nature but wish it was more stressful? Try snowboarding at a resort on the weekend,” Losse said into camera.

Both videos generated tens of thousands of likes, as the Instagram algorithm distributed them throughout the outdoor community. After that, Losse began in his standup routine, and also in his videos on Instagram. His angle: joke about the very specific and very absurd elements of cycling, snowboarding, and getting outdoors.

We caught up with Losse to understand why cyclists, snowboarders, and other lovers of outdoor activities enjoy his jokes.

OUTSIDE: How did you decide to start making fun of outdoor recreation culture?
Losse: I’d been doing standup for 12 years and had posted videos of my comedy shows forever without getting much traction. A few years ago I started posting videos of me just talking into the camera���observational stuff. I posted one about the absurdity of Microsoft Excel, and how if you want to get ahead in corporate America you just need to know a few excel formulas. That one was a hit,��and for a while I thought I was going to be the office comedy guy. But it never took off.

Then last spring I got back into mountain biking after a few years off, and I realized that the actual media around mountain biking���trail reviews, especially���leaned so heavily into the gnarliest and most extreme terrain. It’s all just rock rolls and huge gaps and features that felt so unattainable. I thought it would be funny to make fun of those. It’s like, I don’t want to ride the trail named “Predator” at Tiger Mountain, I want to know how to ride around that trail without hurting myself.

I made the video about going around the gnarly trails. Honestly, I just thought it was stupid and only funny to me. I didn’t think anybody else would like it. But it turns out a lot of people who love mountain biking aren’t trying to attain mastery. My video struck a chord within the community and got distributed by the algorithm, and it got huge pickup. My buddy joked that I picked up a mountain bike and became an influencer within 60 days.

What elements of outdoor recreation are inherently funny?
There’s a super-obsessive part of biking culture that people don’t really talk about. There’s gear obsession, Strava obsession, and a fixation on parts upgrades and how they will make you better. It’s ridiculous, and all of know it is, but nobody acknowledges it. If anything, I’m shedding light on this collective mental illness we all share. You don’t find that in snow sports quite as much, but in cycling it is very apparent. You buy a new bike and the first thing you do is upgrade the parts. I need new handlebars and new grips. There’s an entire industry built around people being insecure about what they are riding.

Your humor is very much focused at the core audience of these sports, and not at casual followers of outdoor rec. What’s the challenge in reaching hardcore groups?
I feel like it would be easy to make videos where I make jokes about mountain biking in such broad terms that anybody could like it. But that would be boring to me. I just don’t think it’s as funny as being super specific to the things that people obsess about in these sports. Because those are things that I am guilty of. I don’t want to talk shit about activities that I’m not also doing. For instance, I made a video where I joked about gravel biking. I did it because at the time I was building up a gravel bike.

I do think it’s what makes my comedy different. It’s reverential. I am making fun of hyper-specific actions done by people in a group that appeals to people in that sport. And I’m trying not to be corny.

How do you straddle the line between joking and being mean?
My comedic sensibility is that I won’t make fun of something that isn’t part of myself. I don’t seek out communities to make fun of that I’m not part of. That helps. I think that when you make fun of a community you’re not part of, it’s easier to be mean. It’s less reverential, and people can tell.

But not everyone knows that I’m making fun of activities I love. I made a joke about gravel biking���do you like mountain biking but wish it were less fun? Try gravel cycling!���and people were pretty fired up. A lot of folks didn’t appreciate that one. There are very specific communities within cycling, and some of them take themselves way more seriously than others. Most people who get upset don’t see that it’s satire, or they aren’t familiar with me and don’t know that I also do it. So I try to always nod my cap that I love the sport I’m making fun of. I want the community to be clear that they’re not being attacked by an outsider.

What’s the difference between telling jokes in front of a live audience and telling them on Instagram?
My stand-up humor is more autobiographical and observational. It’s a lot about stories growing up in Washington State, being married, and other normal topics. I tell stories about riding my mountain bike, but they are longer, and tend to take weird twists.

Making jokes online that connect with people is hard. I explain that it’s like trying to get struck by��lightning. It’s pure luck. Luck and repetition. I’ve found that, since getting a bigger audience, you find your lane and stick with it. And mountain biking and snowboarding became my lane in a very unexpected turn of events.

This interview was edited for space and clarity.��

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When a Reddit thread surfaced about a man who went on a solo cross-country e-bike tour, two questions demanded answers: Who was this adventurer, and what kind of bike did they use? After all, while reliable e-bikes have proliferated on urban commutes and mountain bike trails, only the best can successfully endure a grueling 5,500-mile journey from coast to coast.

The cyclist was 55-year-old Ed Ditto from Tennessee, and he was riding an .

Cruising across the country on an e-bike wasn���t Ditto���s first encounter with long-distance routes. He grew up backpacking with his father and even completed a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2023, and for years has been passionate about immersive travel. And he���s done a lot of it. Ditto retired early���at age 36���freeing up time to pursue his love of whitewater kayaking, ultrarunning, and exploring new places without the pressure of time.

Ditto���s Aventon-powered journey began at the Yorktown Victory Monument in Virginia and concluded at the Astoria Column in Oregon. Along the way, he connected the dots between urban centers like Chattanooga and St. Louis and scenic highlights like Yellowstone National Park and Breckenridge. The route offered sweeping views of the Mississippi River, climbs over Rocky Mountain passes, and a front-row seat to the diverse landscapes of the American heartland.

Choosing a bike for the journey was just as important as choosing the route. Ditto says the decision was influenced by positive feedback from the community. ���It was good review after good review���both in the trade press and from individual owners across various forums,��� he recalls. ���I found a local dealer, took the Aventon Level 2 for a test ride, and it just felt right. I���d tried other bikes, but this one stood out as the best option. Plus, it seemed versatile enough to handle more than just urban commuting.���

He upgraded the e-bike with essentials to help meet the challenges of a continent-spanning ride. The kit enhancements included:

• Swapping the stock 12-32T 8-speed cassette for an 11-46T 9-speed for better climbing gears. This also meant upgrading the shifter and rear derailleur and lengthening the chain.
• Purchasing two extra batteries and a spare charger.
• Installing a custom Old Man Mountain front through-axle with an integrated attachment point for a front rack.
• Switching to Schwalbe Marathon E Plus 2.00 tires for added durability.

The package successfully got Ditto across the country, collecting memories, views, and interactions he���ll carry with him for a lifetime. He recalls the final moments of his trip:

���On the last day of my trip, after five months riding westward, I crested the ridge above Cape Lookout, Oregon, pulled off at an overlook, and saw the Pacific breaking against the beach. I realized I���d made it. I stood there straddling my bike, balancing its weight, and trying to feel anything like triumph. But I only remember feeling exhausted.

���There were other people there, all watching the ocean, except for one guy. He came over and asked how far I���d ridden, and when I told him I���d crossed the country, he did what you���d expect: He gasped, said ���Wow,��� congratulated me, asked a bunch of questions, etc.

���This had happened to me dozens and dozens of times as I made my way across the U.S.���all these people who were flabbergasted that you could walk out of your house, get on your bike, and just start riding. A hundred, 500, 5,000 miles���amazing, they���d say.

���And then another guy approached and reacted like the first, and then a family walked up. I suddenly found myself surrounded by people praising me, telling me what an extraordinary guy I was for doing such a thing.

���It freaked me out a little. I���d been alone way too long by then, maybe gotten a touch agoraphobic. So I disentangled myself in the nicest way possible, rode down the ridge to the beach, leaned my bike against a fir tree, and walked out into the ocean with all my clothes on. That was it. Virginia to Oregon. Coast to coast. Done.

���A few days later, after recuperating at a beachside AirBnB near Astoria, I rented a van, loaded my bike, and headed back east. Eventually, I stopped for gas and caffeine. Unhooking the nozzle from the pump, it hit me: Back to the world of the mundane, man.

���Maybe I should���ve ridden home.���

is here to inspire adventures, both big and small, in all terrains of life. No matter what we look like now, a year from now, or a decade from now, this is what keeps us moving forward. Redefine adventure and learn more at .

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From the top of California���s 2,579-foot Mount Tamalpais, one can gaze out at a commanding view of San Francisco, the Pacific Ocean, and the Golden Gate Bridge. But it wasn���t the overlook that lured 200 mountain bikers to the mountain on the crisp morning of Saturday, November 2.

The cyclists had ridden to the summit on paved and dirt roads in an organized protest. They wanted to show local authorities that mountain bikers deserve to ride on the local trail system���the same dirt paths where mountain biking was born nearly 50 years ago.

���I���m here to free Mount Tam,��� Andy Scott, a 59-year-old cyclist from nearby San Anselmo, told 窪蹋勛圖厙. ���It was once inhabited by all users, and now only by a limited few.���

Mountain biking has been prohibited on the trails since the mid-eighties, but recent efforts to open the trails back up to cyclists have been gathering steam.

The protest, which was labeled “Liberate Mount Tam” by its organizers, came on the heels of a controversial lawsuit and subsequent court order that had stymied their access to the trails. In April, the Marin Municipal Water District, the government agency that manages much of the public land on the mountain, approved two pilot programs to allow cyclists access to 6.6 miles of trails on the peak.

The approval came after six years of planning, community outreach, studies, and lobbying by local cycling advocacy groups. The trails were set to open to mountain bikers Friday, October 4.

But the afternoon before the opening, a judge issued a temporary restraining order that halted progress. Three local environmental groups���Marin Conservation League, California Native Plant Society, and Marin Audubon���filed a lawsuit to block the plan. They argued that the Water District failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act, which requires public land managers to investigate and then publish the impact of a wide range of projects, from trail building to forest thinning.

The lawsuit did not sit well with the mountain bikers or the cycling advocacy groups.

���The Marin County Bicycle Coalition has gone out of its way to collaborate with Marin Conservation League and others over the years in an earnest desire to hear and understand their concerns,��� said Krista Hoff, the off-road director of the local advocacy group Marin County Bicycle Coalition (MCBC). ���They are not interested in equitable access.���

But officials from environmental groups disagree, and say they are simply doing what���s right to protect Mount Tamalpais���s ecology from damage. ���The Marin Conservation League’s interest is in moderating growth in intensity of recreation so that it does not cause further impacts,��� says Nona Dennis, president of the Marin Conservation League. ���All recreation has an impact on the environment.���

The development is just the latest skirmish in a decades-long war that cyclists have waged to legally ride the trails in mountain biking���s birthplace.

How Mountain Bikes Were Chased Off Mount Tamalpais

In the seventies, a rag-tag group of local cyclists including Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze, Wende Cragg, Charlie Kelly, and Otis Guy modified beach cruisers and rode them down the trails and fire roads on Mount Tam. The group ��� and their adventurous rides helped launch modern mountain biking.

But many Marin County locals didn���t like cyclists riding the trails. Citing environmental and safety concerns, well-organized groups attended town meetings and wrote to their elected officials, asking to ban the new form of recreation. By 1984, local authorities officially shut down Mount Tam���s trails to cyclists.

���We really couldn���t understand the hostility from the land managers,��� Otis Guy, who is now 71 years old and was at the recent November protest, told 窪蹋勛圖厙. ���We care about these lands. We should be considered an asset, not a threat.���

Similar rules spread across California and the country in the eighties and nineties. Disputes over trail usage often pitted mountain bikers against hikers and equestrians, with the latter user groups regularly gaining the upper hand. In Marin and nearby Alameda County, rules restricted bicycles to dirt maintenance roads, which are 12-to 15-feet wide, and usually steep. The single-track trails, meanwhile, were off-limits.

The loss of trail access prompted in 1988. Called the International Mountain Biking Association, or IMBA, it advocated for cyclists��� access to trails, and showed local mountain biking communities how to build and manage trail systems.

Local cycling advocacy groups like Access 4 Bikes and MCBC also pressured Marin officials to allow cyclists onto the trails. These groups helped mountain bikers gain access to other trail systems in Marin County in the early 2000s. But the dirt trails on Mount Tam remained off-limits.

���We���re still fighting the same stupid battles today,��� Guy said. ���IMBA showed the world years ago how to build trails, and it���s been done with no [negative] impact across the country. But Marin County is a different place.”

A Process That Took Years to Complete

The pilot program to allow mountain bikes on Mount Tam took six years to come together.

Biking advocacy groups also worked to nominate cycling-friendly managers onto the Marin Water District���s board of directors. Since 2020, Bill Keene, a board member for the cycling advocacy group Access 4 Bikes has knocked on approximately 2,000 doors in Marin County to stump for bike-friendly candidates for the water board.

Both Access 4 Bikes and the Marin County Bicycle Coalition persuaded their members to attend local hearings, board meetings, and community hikes, and to write letters on behalf of cyclists. The advocacy work paid off. In April, the board voted unanimously to approve the two pilot programs for the 6.6-miles of trail: one for regular mountain bikes and another for e-mountain bikes.

Officials from bike advocacy groups told 窪蹋勛圖厙 that the local environmental groups were part of the planning process and had years to raise concerns. ���They were at the meetings, they had a seat at the table,��� Guy said. ���This is how cooperative people and processes work.���

But representatives from environmental groups told 窪蹋勛圖厙 that the Marin Water District failed to provide detailed reports on how mountain biking would impact the flora and fauna on Mount Tamalpais during this process.

Dennis told 窪蹋勛圖厙 that the Marin Water District also failed to disclose which trails or roads would be open to cyclists until 2024.

“The first two to three years were mostly talk, with no reference to any specific roads or trails on the watershed, nor even tentative improvement proposals” Dennis said.

The lawsuit claims that the water district���s land ���contains critical biological resources, including dozens of rare plant species and plant communities,��� and that ���the addition of mountain bikes and e-bikes to these trails and roads has the potential to harm these resources.���

Dennis said that the Marin Water District failed to acknowledge that some e-bikes motors emit a high-frequency noise that can disrupt bat colonies. And the plan didn���t explain how the increased use would impact the northern spotted owl, a threatened species.

���A CEQA review would have included such analyses, and furthermore, would allow for public comment,��� she said.

The Marin Water District declined a request for an interview. But in a press release, a spokesperson for the water district said it took the requisite steps asked for prior to approving the mountain biking pilot program. ���The District worked hard to assess watershed trail conditions, monitor trail use data and engage with a range of user groups in order to design trial programs that allow for expanded recreational interests without compromising our number one priority���protection of our community���s drinking water and the biological diversity that exists within this incredible natural resource,��� the release said.

Keene, who oversees advocacy for Access 4 Bikes, said the lawsuit caught the cycling groups by surprise. ���Marin Conservation League indicated they would not sue,��� he said. ���Pilot trails were selected to avoid environmentally sensitive areas and the litigants know this.���

But Dennis said her group made no such promise. Instead, she says her group sent a letter to the Marin Water District prior to a hearing in early September warning of a potential legal challenge. When the Water District approved the pilot program, Dennis said her group felt like it had no other option.

���The MCL Board determined we had only one recourse: that is, to join the other two non-profits as a co-plaintiff,��� she said. ���In our view the district���s failure to conduct adequate CEQA review before opening the trails to bikes, was an abuse of CEQA.���

The Pilot Programs Are Stalled but Not Dead

窪蹋勛圖厙 attended the November 2 rally on Mount Tamalpais and spoke to more than a dozen cyclists in attendance. At the November 2 rally, many of the cyclists expressed their dismay.

���There are dams on Mount Tam, there are miles upon miles of roads, there was a train to the top,��� said Vernon Huffman, president of Access 4 Bikes. ���You can���t tell me that this place is free of human impact and that bikes are an environmental harm.���

But for the time being, the status quo remains on Mount Tamalpais. No e-bikes are allowed anywhere in the watershed���even on fire roads���and bicycles are forbidden on the singletrack trails. The pilot programs are on hold indefinitely. In December, a Marin County judge strengthened the environmental groups’ position by issuing preliminary injunctions on both the e-bike and singletrack pilot programs.

The injunction doesn���t entirely kill the program, but it will prevent it from happening in early 2025.

Whether or not this setback deters the mountain bikers��on Mount Tamalpais is yet to be seen. Hoff wrote a letter to the Marin Independent Journal saying she was hopeful that ���the case will be decided in favor of more equitable recreational opportunities for people who ride.���

Atop Mount Tam on November 2, Keene and Huffman stood in the bed of a pickup truck and addressed the cyclists from a bullhorn.

���This is the way to take back Tam!��� they yelled.

The crowd responded with a chant that pinged across the parking lot ���Liberate Tam! Liberate Tam!���

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As athletes look to eat healthy while saving money, Costco has become the place for scoring mammoth deals on groceries. After all, who doesn���t love affordable groceries?

And yes, Costco has plenty of affordable healthy groceries. It might seem like they���re hard to find amid the colossal tubs of M&Ms and lifetime-supply jugs of ranch dressing, but nutritious options at lower price points are plentiful. You only need to be strategic about what you buy.

I worked my way through the Costco product lineup to round up the healthiest Costco foods for athletes. Add these to your shopping list the next time you are ready to push around that oversized shopping cart.

The best healthy Costco foods for athletes

Kirkland Signature Organic Peanut Butter����

The post The Healthiest Costco Foods for Athletes, According to a Registered Dietitian appeared first on 窪蹋勛圖厙 Online.

Every single bike brand will tell you that more women on bikes is an important goal. Then many of those same brands will offer smaller bikes with build kits, specifically handlebars, that aren���t appropriate for smaller riders. The practice is even more common in the world of gravel cycling.

The details that set the stage

That���s the gist of the article but before we get rolling, I need to go a little deeper. That first paragraph rests on a number of assumptions and needs some explanation.

The first thing I want to address is how this intersects with women and cycling. I���m obviously not a woman and it���s not my place to say what women need. How this issue affects women is only half the point though.

The truth is I entered this conversation with my own needs centered�� because the things that affect us personally tend to catch our attention. I ride a size 54, or medium, and over the years I���ve covered a number of gravel bikes with handlebars that aren���t right for me.

In the past I might have requested the correct size or simply dealt with it. It���s no big deal when a bar costs under $50 and takes maybe 30 minutes to swap including new tape. Now bikes are getting more integrated and things are getting more complicated.

When I reviewed the and the recently, I made a point to call out the sizing issues. As a refresher, Pivot makes things extra confusing by using odd names for the frame sizes. Despite that bike being a small, I tested both of those bikes in essentially the same size and what would typically be called either a medium or a 54. In that size, Pivot uses a 42cm bar while Mondraker specs a size 44cm. There���s also the Revel Rover that uses a 44, the Trek Checkpoint with a 42, the Salsa Warbird with a 42��� I���m sure I could go on.

As I wrote up those reviews, I asked the brands about the chosen sizes. The answer was, and is almost always, that it���s an adventure bike and the wide bar is there for stability.

Personally, the whole thing didn���t feel right to me. I know my shoulders measure 38 cm and if I ride wider bars my shoulders ache as the hours start to drag on. It never seemed to make sense that something was supposed to change on an adventure focused bike.

Let���s swing that back to women though. At 5��� 9��� I happen to be exactly average height for US men. Average height for US women is only 5��� 3.5��� and the situation for bar size vs frame size doesn���t get better as you go to smaller sizes. That means women are going to feel this inappropriate match up more often than men.

Maybe I���m totally wrong though? There���s certain reviewers that spend time calling for larger bars on every bike. I wonder though, are they mostly men riding larger bikes? With all this swirling in my head, I went searching for an expert.

Missy Schwab is an elite cyclist and fit expert

I knew that I didn���t want to sit and discuss what women need with another man. I also knew I wanted someone who was an experienced bike fitter and an elite level cyclist. The woman I found was Missy Schwab.

Schwab is a ���6x national champion in track cycling, holds 2 US track records, and won a bronze medal at the 2015 UCI Track World Cup in Cali Colombia.��� In 2016 when she wrote her bio she was ���ranked #1 in the United States in the sprint disciplines��� though she narrowly missed actually competing in the 2016 Olympics due to a training crash.

At this point, most people would call Schwab retired. She runs and she���s got ten years experience as a bike fitter for athletes of all levels. Still,�� in case you thought retirement made her slow,she recently grabbed a second place in the 2024 USA Cycling Elite National Championship for Women���s elite team sprint.

I did also reach out to Trek, Mondraker, Pivot, and Enve to get a sense of the strategy involved in picking the stock bars for each size. Specifically I wanted to know if any of the brands in question used the kind of data that Colnago used in sizing the new . Only Enve responded and I���ve got that info down below.

Now I understand that this was a lot of setup but it���s important to place the problem and explain how it affects me as well as other small riders.

Yes, different bikes call for different bar widths

As I said, the basic premise of the response I typically get from brands is that the bars chosen for a size have to do with the use of a bike. When it���s an adventure bike, you will see wider bars for added stability. This was also the gist of how Enve responded.

To be fair to Enve, as the only brand that responded, it���s important to note that the brand sidesteps the issue by allowing riders to choose the bar width at time of purchase. If you are looking at a size 49 Enve MOG, you can select the stem length, handlebar width, and handlebar model ���depending on your riding style and preferences.��� However, the G-series bar only goes down to 42 cm so I wanted to know why.

Enve responded with a short bit of info pointing to the focus of the G-series bar. Saying, ���the Gravel Bar prioritizes handling and control, rather than chasing any aerodynamic benefits.��� While pointing riders to other flared options in smaller sizes saying ���for those seeking a fit and feel more in line with a road bike, that���s where our SES AR and SES Aero handlebar options come into play.���

Schwab agreed with this premise. Although she competed in track, she also told me she regularly rides a mountain bike and was clear ���you���re not going to have the same width handlebar on a track bike that you have on a road bike and that will also come across to gravel.��� She explained that she rides a size 54 frame also and runs 36 cm on the road but 30 cm on the track. Just as many brands have stated, different disciplines have different requirements.

The starting point is too wide

According to Schwab the problem is more about the starting point. Even bikes that offer a bar on the smaller side of the trend line are calling for a 42 cm bar on a 54. She���s quite clear that individual athletes will have different needs but is it likely that someone on a 54 needs to move up 4 cm for riding gravel? Schwab seemed skeptical of that idea. Instead she mentioned considering ���maybe a 38-40 bar to have a little bit more width��� in case there���s a need to ���stand up or really pull through.���

Although Schwab was emphatic that different riders will have different needs, I pushed her on that point. For one thing I happen to ride the same frame size as her and seem to have the same shoulder width. More importantly though, a brand has to make a decision for everyone buying a bike in a particular size. I asked Schwab about this and she told me ���as a general rule of thumb every gravel position that I have set up as a fitter I 100% can say that I have recommended a narrower handlebar for every athlete who comes in with a gravel bike. They���re too wide.���

The need for wide bars might point to other issues

Although our conversation was about bike fit and handlebar size, Schwab pointed out how interconnected bike fit and ride performance can be. Specifically she mentioned briefly how the need, or desire, to use wider bars might be a sign of other issues.

The first time this came up was as Schwab referenced her own experience with the precise nature of track cycling. Within that context she pointed out ���in the Velodrome, when we have athletes that aren���t able to handle a narrow handlebar, there���s an imbalance in the shift of power driven through the leg. So if you need a wider handlebar to keep yourself going forward in a straight direction, that to me resembles some sort of instability.���

Then, later in the conversation, this concept came up again. This time I had asked Schwab why some cyclists might choose wider bars despite recommendations. In response, she told me her own experience as she explained ���before I knew any better, I preferred the feel of wide handlebars��� and ���I thought I looked so cool sprinting because I could throw my bike side to side.��� Then, almost as an aside, she told me that at that time ���I didn���t understand how to generate power without yanking on my bars.���

How can individual riders solve this problem?

Although my hypothesis is that gravel brands are failing women and small riders, I also asked Schwab how she deals with the fallout of that.

She told me the path to finding the right bar size isn���t generally an exact science. At the highest levels of competition you���d want to treat it as a scientific problem and ���you���d have to do testing on an athlete, power testing, speed testing, whatever data point you want to pull from��� until you found the right solution. Unfortunately not many will have that path available. Ideally bike brands would do that for us but I wasn���t able to find a brand claiming to do that in the gravel space.

That leaves most riders to find a bike fitter and solve it for themselves. Schwab explained that in her studio, she has ���every size of handlebar��� and that ���we install different size handlebars.��� If that sounds simple, it is. She told me ���a lot of times it comes down to feel for the athlete but it also comes down to visually how the bar centers under them. The relaxation of the angles of their wrist, the ability of them to open their chest and the distance between their scapulas, also like a lot of athletes come in complaining of upper back pain, neck pain, wrist pain, things like that, pressure on their hands. You can root a lot of it back to handlebar size.���

In other words, it comes down to the experience of a bike fitter and Schwab says ���my general rule of thumb when I fit two handlebars is when you���re on the bike looking at an athlete from head on, what is their natural wrist position? Is the wrist straight up and down? Are they rotated out? Is the pressure on their hands distributed evenly? Are their shoulders relaxed? Do I see an equal distribution of the spread between their shoulder blades across their chest?���

That experience then combines with the feedback of the athlete. ���How does the athlete feel and how does the athlete look and are they able to actually sustain that position? Obviously on the track we look for something that is just strictly performance-based. Other athletes you want to look for overall comfort and some athletes just have personal preferences.���

Personally I was also interested to see if shoulder width measurement was a factor. When asked about that, Schwab said ���it can be��� but mostly cautioned that it���s important to consider it on the bike, not standing. She told me that ���I have people who are like when I stand up straight and hold my shoulders back, this is how wide my shoulders are.��� then went on to remind riders to consider ���when you get on the bike how is your position different?���

Conclusion

Although I asked for a number of brands to add a voice, only one did. In the end I spoke to one bike fitter who has one perspective. Missy Scwhab has ten years of experience making athletes faster and more comfortable and she���s also competed at the highest level. She is still only one person. She is also very clear that every person is different and that at least part of bike fit is feel vs science.

That all means you may disagree. Schwab has ���never put a pair of 44s on a single bike in 10 years��� but you and your bike fitter might find that a 44 cm bar works for you and your needs.

Beyond that, all I can tell is my own point of view. I���m 5���9��� and I need a 40 cm, or smaller, bar no matter the use case of a bike. I believe gravel brands are failing women and small riders by not offering bars in reasonable sizes for the frames they pair with. A new rider who gets a bike that doesn���t fit is a clear barrier to entry and should be an easy fix. This is low hanging fruit for inclusion.

Thanks to Missy Schwab who helped make this article��happen. You can benefit from her expertise at .

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Learning to ride a bike can be your first taste of freedom. Suddenly, the world beyond your front door opens up, ready to be explored on two wheels.

But for Marley Blonsky it wasn���t that simple. Back when she was eight years old, trying to ride with her older sister and her friends, she was told she was too slow. ���I always wanted to be part of the club,��� she says. ���It felt like something I was constantly striving for and not really accomplishing.���

As an adult, Blonsky, 38, faced similar barriers���and some new ones she hadn���t anticipated. She found that the weight limits on most road bikes were too low for her; her rides were hampered by broken spokes and cracked saddle rails. Most cycling-apparel brands had limited sizing, so she struggled to find comfortable jerseys and bibs. On group rides, she felt that familiar sensation of being left behind.

So she did something about it. In 2021, along with Kailey Kornhauser, Blonsky founded , a club that welcomes riders regardless of their size, gender, race, or ability. Over the past three years, the group has expanded to ten chapters, with plans to add nearly 30 more by 2027. Each chapter is encouraged to organize rides, collaborate with other bike-advocacy organizations in its area, and host events like gear swaps and fix-a-flat clinics. ���We don���t care why you���re riding a bike,��� she says. ���We just want to empower you to do it joyfully.���

In 2024, All Bodies on Bikes led several bike-camping trips (the one hosted by the Kansas City chapter had 50 riders) and cohosted the biggest finish-line party in gravel cycling: the DFL party (for Dead Fucking Last) at MidSouth Gravel. Looking forward, the organization���s strategic plan includes establishing industry standards for weight limits on bikes and components, pushing brands to represent a greater range of sizes in their advertising, and creating a retail certification for bike shops to let would-be clients know that ���this shop is knowledgeable in working with customers of size and will treat you with dignity and respect,��� Blonsky says.

By creating a cycling community that embraces people of all shapes and sizes, Blonsky has made what can be an intimidating sport more approachable for new riders. She regularly receives messages from people about how meaningful it is to see a diversity of bodies represented in cycling. After years of feeling excluded, the self-identified fat cyclist has found power in throwing open the gates.

���It doesn���t feel like what we���re doing is that radical,��� she says. ���To slow down a little bit, to see folks and meet them where they���re at, it shouldn���t be that incredible of a thing. But it is.���

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Heroes of the Tour de France have a few things in common. Most are white men, and they tend to hail from European nations with strong cycling cultures and robust infrastructure for developing professional racers. Over the event���s 121-year history, riders from France, Belgium, Spain, and Italy have dominated.

Perhaps that���s why fans of the sport were so enthralled by one rider at the 2024 Tour: Biniam Girmay. The 24-year-old comes from Eritrea, a mountainous country on Africa���s Red Sea coast and one of the poorest nations in the world.

At this year���s race, Girmay won three stages and claimed the green jersey, awarded to the best sprinter. These accomplishments etched Girmay into the Tour���s history books. He became the first Black cyclist to win a stage and to claim one of the event���s four jerseys.

Girmay told 窪蹋勛圖厙 that he wants his victories to lead more Black racers to the Tour. ���I hope more professional teams will give opportunities to African riders,��� he said. ���The talent is there, but more investment needs to be done.���

Girmay���s accolades were oft repeated during the Tour���s broadcast, highlighting pro cycling���s notorious lack of diversity. Other Black cyclists have competed in the race, but their contributions were always in supporting roles. In 2015 another Eritrean rider, Daniel Teklehaimanot, wore the polka dot jersey���given to the top climber���for several stages before relinquishing the lead in that competition. Colombian rider Egan Bernal became the first South American rider to win the race overall in 2019.

Professional cyclists of color have also faced blatant racism. In 2017, Frenchman Kevin Reza, who rode the Tour three times, was called a racial slur by Italian cyclist Gianni Moscon during the Tour de Romandie, a weeklong event in Switzerland.

Girmay���s path to the Tour wasn���t easy. Cycling is popular in Eritrea���a by-product of its colonization by Italy in the late 19th century. But because of the country���s largely agrarian economy and paltry racing infrastructure, even the best Eritrean riders rarely reach the big European leagues. Girmay grew up in the capital, Asmara, the son of a carpenter. His father loved cycling and began showing the Tour broadcast to Girmay when he was 11. Girmay began racing mountain bikes at 12, before switching to road racing.

He showed immediate talent, quickly rising to the top of the country���s road-cycling leagues. At 18, he was selected to train and race in the Union Cycliste Internationale���s World Cycling Center in Aigle, Switzerland, as part of a program that offers coaching and racing opportunities to up-and-coming riders from under-resourced nations.

The jump to Europe wasn���t easy. ���The solitude was hard,��� he told 窪蹋勛圖厙. The new climate was also challenging. ���I still struggle to perform optimally in the rain,��� he added.

Girmay learned quickly and advanced rapidly. In 2021, three seasons after moving to Europe, he finished second in the under-23 world championships. The following year, he won the historic Gent-Wevelgem in Belgium. He also won a stage of the Giro d���Italia, becoming the first Black cyclist to do so at one of cycling���s Grand Tours. The 2024 Tour de France, with its history and significance, presented the next barrier. And Girmay broke through.

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As a parent and an American during an election year, I had to make all sorts of crucial decisions in 2024. The��most difficult and important of all was which bike to bring with me on my summer vacation.

Each year at the end of August my family and I travel to Adirondack Park in upstate New York, where the cycling terrain includes paved climbs, gravel roads, and and rocky trails that disappear deep into the wilderness. Every spring, I start thinking seriously about which bicycle will have the privilege of accompanying me. The optimal choice is generally a rig��wide of both tire and gearing, and past standouts have been my A. Homer Hilsen and my LWB.

This year I figured I’d probably just bring one of those two bikes yet again, but at the very last second I made a bizarre and potentially foolhardy decision. Like George Costanza buying an ’89 Chrysler LeBaron because it once belonged to Midnight Cowboy star Jon Voigt, I ultimately went with a 1998 Trek Y-Foil 77, on loan to me from the collection, a historic bike museum and shop based in Washington.

Like the LeBaron, the Y-Foil 77 was also��of highly dubious celebrity provenance, having once belonged to the late writer and bon vivant George Plimpton.

It may seem far-fetched, but Classic Cycle also to “prove” it that it was owned by the Paper Tiger author. Who am I to argue?

As a rider with traditional (some might even say old-fashioned) tastes who likes normal diamond-shaped frames made from metal and who has been one of the cycling media’s most outspoken critics of the carbon fiber hegemony, I’ve always found the Y-Foil to be absurdly outlandish. It was hard to imagine myself even riding the thing, let alone liking it.��It seemed more like a triathlon bike than a road bike, which��圯eew. Yet the more I rode it, the more I began to appreciate it.

Sure, the bike only holds one water bottle at a time, and yes, the void where the seat tube is supposed to be makes it look like a device made to bore holes in giant wheels of cheese. (The unorthodox frame design also makes sure you get every last bit of road spray should it rain.) But I rarely carry more than one bottle anyway. Despite its outrageous appearance it handles just as any well-designed road bike should, plus the beam design of the frame provides just a tiny bit of suspension which makes the ride surprisingly smooth and comfortable.

Trek only sold the Y-Foil for two years, in 1998 and 1999, and since then the bike has acquired a bit of a cult following���partially because they’re kind of rare and some people think they’re cool-looking, but also because of the aforementioned smooth ride quality, which is unusual for a road bike that only clears a 25mm tire. I’d never been a member of the Y-Foil cult, and so I knew little about the bike’s history, apart from vaguely recalling the design having been banned from competition or something.

So I started reading up on their history, and was surprised to learn that not only wasn’t it a triathlon bike, but it had supposedly been designed with Paris-Roubaix and the cobbled classics in mind, and early versions even��had a suspension-corrected fork. This explained the pinched-looking front end of the frame as well as the elongated fork crown, which Paul Johnson of Classic Cycle likens to a pair of high-waisted jeans.

The revelation that the Y-Foil was��designed not for triathlons but for the cobblestones of Europe was almost harder to believe than the whole George Plimpton thing. So to find out for sure I reached out to Trek, who connected me with Jim Colegrove, a now-retired engineer who worked on the Y-Foil.

In the nineties, Colegrove told me, cyclists (or at least bike companies) were having a love affair with beam bikes. Trek was also having lots of success with . So the idea behind the Y-Foil was to bring the design over to the road and to take��taking advantage of beam-maina.

As Colegrove and the team at Trek saw it, when it came to road-oriented beam bikes, 2001 model was the one to beat, though they also felt it had three fatal flaws: lateral deflection (they called it “wag”); bob (the feeling that you’re sitting on a diving board); and weight (the Zipp was quite heavy). So Trek set out to design a Y-frame��road bike that would suffer from none of those problems. At the same time, they also saw an opportunity to incorporate a , which people at Trek were convinced was “going to be a thing,” as Colegrove puts it.

Not everybody on the team agreed, and of course suspension forks on road bikes��didn’t turn out to be a thing at all (at least not until gravel happened). Still,��the 1992, 1993, and 1994 editions of Paris-Roubaix had all been won on Rock Shox forks. Trek planned to offer the new Y-frame road bike to pro teams, and so the suspension fork made it onto the bike. (Or at least the suspension fork compatibility did. Colegrove doesn’t know if anybody actually ended up using a suspension fork on a Y-Foil, and I’ve certainly never seen a squishy Y-Foil either in the wild or on the Internet.)

Alas, just as Trek launched the Y-Foil, the Union Cycliste Internationale, cycling’s governing body, ruled that road bike frames “shall be of a traditional pattern, i.e. built around a main triangle.” This rule meant the pros wouldn’t be able to ride the Y-Foil in any race under the auspices of the UCI, which is to say all the races that matter to people when they’re deciding which expensive road bike to buy.

Colegrove wonders if perhaps the UCI may have made the rule specifically to foil (see what I did there?) Trek in order to protect innocent European bike manufacturers from a big bad American company with the capability of producing futuristic aero bikes at scale. However, it’s worth noting the ruling affected European bikes too, such as, so perhaps they really did just want to uphold tradition and spare us all from a nightmarish all-recumbent pro cycling future.

Of course there was still nothing keeping you from buying a Y-Foil to race��a triathlon, or your local USA Cycling-sanctioned criterium, or just riding it for fun and enjoying the head-turning looks and aero benefits. (According to Colegrove the wind tunnel results showed the Y-Foil to be “significantly” more aerodynamic than a traditional frame.) But the bike industry doesn’t work like that, and since the Y-Foil would never be seen under the winner of the Tour de France it had limited appeal and went into, as Colgrove puts it, a “black hole.”

Despite the aero factor it wasn’t a true triathlon bike, nor would it ever have a pro cycling pedigree. While the bike did make it into production, the last year it appeared in the Trek catalogue was 1999���the same year Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France on a stock Trek 5500 with a diamond frame.

25 years later, all of this lends the bike a certain pathos, and since I was enjoying the bike much more than I thought I would I figured I’d bring it with me on vacation as sort of a consolation prize. Just across Lake Champlain�� from New York State lies Vermont, a land criss-crossed with gravel roads, where the bike could finally taste the terrain for which it had been designed, yet few Y-Foils have ever experienced.

Road cyclists have recently embraced wider tires. With cyclists tackling roads with rougher surfaces, 25-millimeter tires���which is the widest a Y-Foil will allow���are now considered too narrow.

However, I made it through the roughest sections without washout or pinch flat, and otherwise the bike was not only competent but smooth, the beam offering just enough flex to allow me to comfortably shift my weight onto the rear wheel. Having successfully negotiated the gravel roads of Vermont, I rolled onto the ferry to Ticonderoga, NY.

Ticonderoga is steeped in history and the things that made this country great. There’s the eponymous , the eponymous (they weren’t made there, but that’s where the graphite used to come from), and there’s the , which draws Trekkies from all over the galaxy.

At no point in our conversation did Colegrove mention the Star Fleet Insignia serving as an inspiration for the design of the Y-Foil, but I have to wonder if perhaps it crept in there subconsciously.

If you’re a fan of technical innovation you may think we lost out when the UCI banned bikes Y-Foil, and if you’re a traditionalist you probably think we dodged a bullet. I’d certainly count myself as a traditionalist. But more than anything I’m also a bike nerd. I can appreciate and enjoy this relic of what might have been.safe in the knowledge that it is no longer a threat to the supremacy of my beloved diamond frame.

The Y-Foil may not have been a commercial success, but Trek did accomplish what it set out to do, which was design a Y-shaped bike without wag, bob, or excessive weight that performs like a good road bike should. I enjoyed every ride with it on my summer vacation, and by choosing it I don’t think I missed out on a thing��圯xcept maybe that second water bottle.

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These are strange times for Olympians.

An athlete can win medal after medal, but should they be caught on camera in a compromising or hilarious situation, the ensuing tonnage of Internet memes will overshadow those accolades. Want proof? I dare you to Google French pole vaulter or Turkish shooter .

I fear that American Olympic triathlete is headed for a similar fate. I’m here to beg you, people of the Internet, to not let it happen.

Over the weekend, Knibb, 26, dominated the T100 world championships triathlon in Dubai, winning the race by over two minutes. But during the run portion Knibb pooped in her racing suit. Hey, it’s triathlon���indigestion and the occasional mid-race crap are . Knibb had the presence of mind to share her predicament with the cameraman who was trailing her: she asked him to spare viewers the unflattering view from behind. “I just shit myself,” she said into the camera. “So can you not get my ass?” The cameraman complied.

Alas, this short video clip has entered the Internet’s . I first saw it on Instagram on Sunday night, and by Wednesday, stories about Knibb dotted the Internet. Even ���the surest sign that a story has become part of the Internet’s lowbrow sludge.

I understand why: pants pooping is almost always a little funny, and doing so during a world-class sporting competition simply adds to the knee-slapping appeal. Plus, Knibb’s calm, matter-of-fact demeanor in the midst of a could-be crisis moment won hearts. She’s a little like that meme of the dog in the burning room claiming “,” if that dog were also masterfully managing its own PR in real-time.

But as we all know, viral memes have a way of distorting reality and overshadowing facts. And the truth about Taylor Knibb is that she’s probably the most impressive American endurance athlete of her generation. Period. And I will say this��until I’m hoarse: Taylor Knibb is far too impressive of an athlete for a goofy meme to define her online reputation.

Knibb wins triathlons of varying distances, and in 2020 she won Olympic silver in Tokyo. Not to be outdone, in 2024 Knibb qualified for the American Olympic team in both triathlon and road cycling. To the unfamiliar, this may seem pretty ho-hum. Cycling is one of the three legs of triathlon, after all. Isn’t this just like Michael Phelps winning medals in breast stroke, backstroke, and butterfly?

Nope���it’s completely different. It’s more like if Phelps won in the 100-meter freestyle and then donned a sequined outfit and did the Olympic synchronized swimming competition and totally kicked ass at it. No American has competed in triathlon and cycling at the same Olympics ever before. It’s a big deal.��In fact, Knibb was the only American to compete in two different sports at the Paris Games. She also raced the Olympic team triathlon and helped Team USA earn a silver medal.

Within the small community of endurance sports superfanatics���yes, I am a card-carrying member���Knibb’s double-Olympic qualification was mind-blowing.

“Threading that needle of being world-class in triathlon and cycling at the same time is beyond difficult,” says longtime coach Neal Henderson, who trains elite-level cyclists and triathletes. “It’s hard to put into words just how impossible that is.”

Henderson told 窪蹋勛圖厙 that the training demands to be that good in two different sports are��mind-boggling. Elite cyclists and triathletes both train anywhere from 25-28 hours a week. But cyclists dedicate all of that time toward the very specific physiological act of pedaling a bicycle. Triathletes, meanwhile, split those hours between swimming, biking, and running.

And anyone who’s ever done a triathlon knows that running and cycling are not exactly complementary exercises. I’m simplifying here, but pedaling a bicycle requires your leg muscles to generate high levels of power. That’s why top cyclists often have brawny quads, glutes, and hamstrings.

Running, meanwhile, damages big, brawny leg muscles, and saps those muscles of the power required to push the pedals of a bicycle. If you examine the world’s top distance runners���and triathletes���you will see lithe, spindly legs.

“The physiological demands of running has��a negative effect on being able to maintain the muscle mass, strength, and power that make you a good cyclist,” Henderson said. “And in elite sports, you’re talking about razor-edge differences that come from putting huge demands on the body.”

Henderson, who operates the Colorado-based coaching company Apex Coaching, coached Knibb when she was an 18-year-old budding professional triathlete. She had graduated from Cornell as an Academic All American and a top-level cross-country runner, and she had her sights set on professional triathlon. Knibb was the rare teenaged athlete with world-class natural talent, monk-like dedication to training, and personal ambitions that were sky-high, Henderson said.

But even he had his doubts when Knibb told him that in 2024 she hoped to qualify for the Olympics in two different sports. Her travel schedule for triathlon left very little time to train specifically for cycling. And the handful of American women competing for a spot in Paris included talented athletes who have spent years focusing on the sport.

“It seemed unreasonable for Taylor to go to the Olympics in both,” Henderson said. “But if you place reasonable expectations on athletes with unreasonable ability, you’ll never know what they’re capable of.”

Knibb had earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic triathlon team in 2023, and in 2024 a rare opportunity opened for her to go in cycling. USA Cycling, the sport’s governing body, held a in the individual time trial on May 15. The race fell right in the middle of Knibb’s international competition schedule for triathlon, just a few days after a major race in Japan.

After finishing second at the Japanese triathlon, Knibb traveled to Charleston, West Virginia, for the road cycling race. She faced off against the country’s best professional cyclists in the 22-mile individual race. Among the competitors included former world champion Amber Neben, former U.S. road champion Lauren Stephens, and even Kristen Faulkner, who went on to win two cycling gold medals in Paris. Everyone wanted the victory, because a win meant an automatic spot on the U.S. Olympic cycling team.

Knibb smoked them all���she topped Faulkner by 11 seconds to grab the spot.

When I read the news, I just about fell out of my chair. When Henderson learned of Knibb’s victory, he smiled. He knew she was capable of it, after all.

So, if you must, have your little laugh at the video, then take a minute to get to know Knibb for who she really is: an exceptional athlete with huge ambitions, crazy strength, and yes, the ability to stay calm and collected, no matter the situation.

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