Is there even an “American” cycling podcast that comes close to this? I’m glad these guys pay enough attention to American cycling to talk about it. The US just doesn’t care about it, outside of the cycling community nobody even cared that Sepp won the Vuelta
Living in britain ill tell you this, most of the guys i talk to about hill climbing its about the atmosphere, anyone can rock up and its a lot more focused on improving yourself, 99% of people arent aiming to be a hill climb national champ etc they just wanna beat their mates, have fun and they bring whatever bike they like :) no one is forcing you to ride a specific bike :)
sounds like a ton of fun. Around where I'm at in the US, we basically only have gravel/mtb/cross races but nothing like TTs or hill climbs that I think would be a lot of fun.
I own a 2021 Izalco Max 9.7. I also own a Liv Langma Advanced Pro SL0 rim brake which is much lighter but not faster uphill. This bike downhill, I'm usually faster than anyone I ride with even though I am one of the lightest riders in the bunch. Sprinting and out of the saddle, it responds faster than any bike I've ridden. Cornering is confidence inspiring with this wheel base and low BB geometry. Steerer tube is 90mm as opposed to the higer Giant/Liv which so you're in a better position in my view. The stem integrates cables and hoses so it's tidy enough in my view allowing me to dial in position exactly how I want. I wouldn't be surprised if I could put wider tyres on it but I haven't tried. It's German: its a sensible bike. It doesn't stand out in any particular way, but I can't fault anything except the boring paint job (though I have a blue one with white print, so a bit more interesting than black).
As someone who has rented bikes in Mallorca & Girona on numerous occasions, I think it's Bike rental companies buying all the Focus bikes 😂 reliable, decent looks, fits nicely in that mid to high end category.
If you go to Germany and surrounding countries they are everywhere. PON bikes own Focus, Cervelo, Cannondale, and a bunch of brands. Huge manufacturer.
Don't underestimate the influence of the algorithm on your life and how it narrows your view of the world. this is probably why GCN made a german, a french, a spanish and an italian channel. im european and none of them come up in my feed either but they're out there...
My feed brings me a fair amount of non-English language cycling material but compared to things like GCN, Cycling Weekly etc. they all seem to be much more modest--even GCN auf Deutsch is just two presenters, with some of the features paralleling what is going on in the English version. GCN used to have Jeremy Powers so there was some US coverage but I am surprised how little content there appears to be coming from America. And those British hill climbs are just so eccentric that the RUclips audience has to be far greater than just the British!
The national hill climb is probably the pinnacle of crazy UK events. Nothing like coughing up your lungs in front of a big crowd on a cold Sunday morning. What is also cool is how some of the lightest bikes were put together on small budgets i.e. not $15,000 super bikes. Just bits and bobs brought second hand etc
Collegiate racing in the US is organized. There are cycling conferences and race series. You have to do well enough in your conference to qualify for nationals. Sepp Kuss was a collegiate MTB national champion; I believe Dylan Johnson was as well. My kid goes to a school that just won the MTB omnium - their 2 time defending national champion cross country rider was hurt and only finished 4th this year
Hey guys, as others have pointed out: collegiate cycling in the USA is not an officially sanctioned NCAA sport. It's actually run directly from USAC and any school/college/university in the country can form a club. There are also a number of "Varsity" programs where the schools provide direct funding to the team and some even employ coaches and give scholarships (Marian University is the biggest example). There are a number of conferences and the clubs organize racing within each conference (super hard in the US and very expensive). There's even a separate category system that is A/B/C/D where the A racers are the top. At least for road (which, by my understanding is the biggest by far), A racers have to qualify for a slot at nationals by participating in local conference events.
Former president of a collegiate club in one of the East Coast universities circa 1997-2001. As others have noted, it has and mostly still is a student club sport. The school has some funding allocated toward student clubs that get divided up by membership numbers. We sourced our own shop sponsor/bike sponsor (usually equipment at cost), and have several fundraisers to raise money for travel, kit costs, etc. By and large the largest expense was putting on the road race and mountain bike race annually, and the school funding helps to defray this cost; with the limited field size by default, the entry fees on top of the schools money doesn’t even cover all the costs. As far as USAC is concerned, it was primarily the participant insurance that was the main benefit for them to be involved, as my understanding was the conference by default was the entity covered by the promoter insurance under USAC.
I highly recommend spectating a Colorado collegiate mtb weekend. It was so much fun to race, we made a mess of each location, and it was nice to be involved in a sport that got us out on bikes with friends. The guys racing cat1 are full pro level some even being affiliated with professional teams or cycling orgs in the US.
My thirst thought was Addict RC, too. I really like the lines of the new Izalco - modern, clean and not flashy at all. I also like the aero looking but adjustable cockpit. Where they f*cked up is with the colors. It's ok to have some basic color schemes but if you want to buy something flashy there is zero choice. This will put off a lot of potential buyers. 32 mm tire clearance is also a must!
No logo, who came up with that idea 🤔 looks a lot like the last generation i own. Costs of course more than earlier, with a cheaper wheel set mounted on. Does not trigger me to get a new Izalco
It's dull AF and I have no plans to every try it, but watching Ronan's everesting record setting video, including the cunning bike mods that made it a winner was really fun. Hill climb esque bodging.
I'm a little further along now. NCAA has NOTHING to do with collegiate cycling. There are very very strict eligibility rules for NCAA sports and most of the top collegiate riders will have already violated those rules before even getting to college because they will have won some prizes as a junior rider. Collegiate racing is just a fun thing we all like to do in the winter where the racing starts in late february and the races are a little cheaper and a little more grass roots vibey. Haha it's even more complicated than I've been able to mention above when you get in to the individual regional conferences but yeah, collegiate racing is all about fun. A few top riders might get noticed by a team for their collegiate results but generally its just a fun thing we do in the winter and it's cheaper than regular USAC races for the most part.
Bought a Scott Addict RC with the trad stem and switched it over to the integrated carbon bars a few months later. It was a revelation. Looks much better, weighs 250 grams or so less, and just dials in the whole bike. A no brainer upgrade.
I would say pro vs amateur is more of a monetary thing than a performance thing, at least how its understood here in the states. if you have a bunch of sponsors and dont need a job on the side, youre pretty much pro in a lot of peoples eyes
The USAC Amateur Nationals were totally just won by professional athletes who were not on “Pro” team. For example: Legion is a UCI Continental team, so they race in the USAC Pro National championship race, HOWEVER the Miami Heat and Austin Aviator teams that are also a part of Williams Racing Development are “USAC Domestic Elite” teams that technically sit one step below UCI Conti team. So those racers, and others like them, get a salary to train and race their bikes, but they were not on a UCI Conti team, they were competing in “Amateur” nationals. Now those rides will have to race Pro National championships and I think that is great.
In a world of gimmicks, bling and fancy paint jobs, the new Focus stands out because it is so understated… and the fact that it’s not trying to hard makes it cool.
Nice chat guys; as for the color scheme of the FOCUS (I mean the black one) - I would be the potential purchaser. Due to its plain black scheme. My Aethos is the black one and I taped over the little toptube "specialized" label to hide it... I am 43, want no flashy design. Do not race.
Focus as a German brand without a lot of reach is in a bad spot in the market. They are somewhat known for their Cyclocross bikes but most things they sell are probably e-bikes and gravel bikes sold in bike stores to customers that are not aware of the entire market.
Agreed. Or people like me who don't care about marketing spin. Mind you I bought mine three years ago and pricing was definitely cheaper for 12s electronic shifting (compared to other brands).
Cycling is not an NCAA sport, so there's no funding allocated for it. This means that cycling is considered a "Club Sport" at the college level and requires an external organization like USA cycling to sanction the races. Thus, the number of collegiate cycling nationals. Additionally, due to the age range and level of racing at the highest collegiate level, there is a certain level of talent identification and acquisition that USA cycling benefits from.
It depends. There is a varsity category that can be well funded. See Fort Lewis College, for example Edit - I may have misinterpreted your comment. Of course there is no NCAA funding and nothing like football. Different schools offer different levels of support. My kid's school has pretty decent support for A category racers. Lower categories are definitely more for fun
I think you guys underestimate the market for a bike that sits in the middle. A lot of cyclists will just have one decent bike. So something that is relatively good at everything and bad at nothing will be very appealing. This looks like it can do bunch rides, fondos, crits, climbing days, etc. It’s like the next step up from an endurance bike. A big market is there, but given there are a lot of great bikes in that category, I agree that it does nothing to stand out.
UK is by far the most represented in RUclips cycling. Seems like they have the biggest channels, but also the most channels. Almost daily I get these small vlog channels popping up on my recommended
Focus used to be everywhere in the UK because they had one of the lightest and best spec’d bikes available under the old £1k cycle to work scheme threshold. If you wanted a road bike on the c2w scheme you were getting either the focus cayo or the boardman team carbon. Don’t see them much nowadays. That new focus izalco looks just like the outgoing cannondale supersix evo to me.
Why so much UK content? The UK is just the most creative place in the world. Take music of my youth. Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Floyd, Led Zep, Bowie, Queen. No one else gets close. I won't go past 1976, but you get my point. We make the stuff people want to consume. I see you guys as at the same level as Cade, but he has 264k subscribers, you have 46.2k. It's The Police vs Men at Work.
Pro is a paid athlete, no questions asked. I do gym for 3 months over winter, mainly because I get the reward of a sauna and steam. But it makes a massive difference to my strength and ability on the bike.
The things FOCUS part 1 My roadie at the time had 19 logos labels of the brand & bike! a lil reminder to you and me what i was riding just in case id forgotten , i ended up hating it! repainting it, and have just 3 logos now .... good to see they like my way Part 2 As a fan of FOCUS ( got 4 of them xc (now ol pubbike) xc, trail, road) I got into them because being left of the big boy brands, slight intrestingness in tech going on, and good value for money ( at the time ) Nowadays i dont know what they stand for, what genre do they want to be in, Ive now got wandering eyes & lookiing outside my bubble, they offer far better / compelling cases for me moola
Grand fondo national champion? What? I guess I've missed out on some radical transformation. They used to be fun rides posing as races, filled up by Freds with lots of experience riding centuries, who want a selfie with some ex-pro.
Wiggins 2012 season and the TDF in Yorkshire changed everything in the UK. Scene is vibrant and varied today. Hill Climb and TT scene is beloved in the UK, we also have the best crit series in the world, not to mention big names at world tour level
I thought most of the aero gains on the cock pit came from removing the cables, not from having a one piece handlebar and stem solution. To me it seems like Focus have made it both more aero and kept the it easy to adjust.
Interesting to hear you alls thoughts on collegiate nationals cause for us its super normal. We have collegiate races and a nationals to go along with it because that's pretty much how it is for every other collegiate sport.
US Collegiate cycling isn't quite like the mainstream collegiate sports in the US. It's a mixed bag of less than a couple dozen NCAA teams and per USA cycling ~200 college club teams. So, there are very few programs which have scholarship athletes, and I am not sure if any of those teams have "full ride" scholarships (meaning tuition, room and board, typical of say football, swimming or basketball). Most of the racing is at a conference level among the 11 or so conferences. Interestingly, these athletes may also hold a professional license.
good pod guys, I knew the college cycling would seem weird 😂 a bit on it…So cycling is not sanctioned by NCAA. All teams are ‘club’ teams essentially and it is sanctioned by USA Cycling. There are a couple of minor sports in the US that operate in this kind of way. For cycling it’s just another category, with many times separate events for those racing in college. Structure is totally different to football, basketball, etc. Obviously some nuances i’m glossing over but that’s the gist.
Great show guys. As I understand it from the LR discord, GCN did approach LR for a permanent role, but sounded like they undervalued him. Benji of course moonlights in Belgium a lot.
collegiate cycling is USAC’s attempt at getting 18-22year olds into cycling. People can get full scholarships to be cyclists in college. This can act as a replacement for U23 devo teams, keeping riders stateside.
I’d love to see the boys in the Nero speed suits tackle a local club run UK hill climb. It’d be awesome content to see outsiders give it a go and I’d be interested to see and hear their take on the ride and the scene
Open your eyes lads.... GCN Japan has been on RUclips since 2018... Albeit they only have 112k subscribers but have posted 1.5K videos that average between 10-20k views... With those numbers, you might conclude that there's a good reason why there aren't more "large" Asia based channels...
@palimpalim7447nah you’re right. Maybe the ultimate? We don’t really have Scott’s where I live. I agree it looks 100% like a 2020-2023 carbon aero bike.
I think what you have to keep in mind is that Focus can undersell itself. Focus is part of Derby Cycling, which is owned by the Pon Holding (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pon_Holdings), who also own Cervélo and Cannondale among others. And in comparison to their bikes, it could make sense to have a "boring" bike. In any case, I would love to hear you guys chat about the Pon Holding or in general, companies behind bike brands and what it does to the competition between brand.
Yeah the rival ain't the best price, but, the other options are great value compared to giant prices, that the brand is 100x bigger, and could easily make prices like Decathlon Van Rysel, they don't, because they like the money... The old izalco was perfect tbh
I race Collegiate in America, and as far as I know, the NCAA isn't involved with it, just USAC and the separate conferences. The collegiate racing structure is pretty confusing because it is a mix of "club teams" like the one I'm on, and "Varsity" teams that are typically much larger and are run more like a basketball or football team from my understanding. College athletics are huge here, and I think a lot of collegiate cycling races are based around having the students do a lot of the organization and management of the races, almost all the mountain and road races are run by the individual colleges.
My off-season thing every year is, I should try to PR Alpe du Zwift. I did it a bunch in 18 and 19, probably to get elevation when I was trying to get the Tron bike. But I’ve only done it like once a year since and never actually go and try to kill it.
The Focus looks like a stereotypical American action movie's German villain had his interior designer draw up the aesthetics of the bike. The person who will ride it is the type to wear white bib shorts. They will also have platinum blond hair.
Agree 100% When you have amateurs wearing the stars and stripes jersey and claiming championship status its time to make it a proper pro+ama championship
Gents, now that I live in the US now and know a little bit about how the institution we know as the NCAA, more than likely, the youth that compete in Division 1 university sport may have the opportunity, if the school and sports program is big enough and is super flush, to earn a full scholarship which pays for uni fees and all you have to do is study and concentrate on your sport. This may be the reason for not having broader Para categories even with extensive and inclusive laws for persons with disabilities. Since the student-athletes at the Division 1 level are part of the top 10-20% of athletes in the country, you are correct to a point, for many, this is the pinnacle of their sporting career; for a select few, they can carryon being elite cyclists at the National and/or International level-similar to the NBA or NFL, tens of thousands of students play at the uni level, less than 1% make it to the pros..
Cycling and gym is the best I've ever felt as oppossed to just cycling. In the off-season it's more gym, in the summer it's more cycling, but at least 5 to 6 times a month at the gym (or 8 to 10 in the off-season). Since I've been doing that I've also stopped looking like a lollipop and I feel much better. I also got more strength and psychologically I feel more balanced bcs let's be honest, especially road cycling is just legs; the upper body is just getting thinner and thinner and has zero exercise and thus zero muscle tone and strength. So yeah, go to the gym in the off-season and keep going in the summer too! You'll look and feel better and the only downside is being a little slower up hill, but that's not as important as the advantages in my opionion.
I always meant to take up strength training in the gym but was forced into it by lumbar spine issues. I knew it would be helpful on the bike, but the difference is much bigger than I expected it would be!
USA college sports are going through a real transformation, particularly with football and basketball. Money is proliferating into the sports, with "amateur" athletes getting paid. I'm unsure as to how that is trickling down into cycling, tennis, track, and other sports, but the gambling industry is way into college sports right now. Cycling is likely not much afflicted by what's happening with football and basketball.
Designing a bike for a big 2nd/3rd tier brand has to be so hard/designed by committee/board. Want to be be current. But not rocked the boat. Have to sell just enough. Look at that bianchi, I think it’s pretty cool because it’s so different. People hate it. And I’ve never see one in real life. Specialized has done incredible marketing. People love whatever they do. SL8 is so boring. Even more so in person. Def looks slower than the sl7. I think there is a space for a modern high performance bike that looks for the PNS niche. But I think that group of riders is smaller than we think and wouldn’t make bunch of a dent in sales. They look big because they are all big online (Instagram etc) this is also hard because it’s easy to buy a even $200 jersey. 5k+ bike, harder sell
Love you Aussie guys but it always makes me laugh how much you underestimate British hillclimb champs! Pretty much every major club will have some chat about the hillclimb champs and many even host their own hillclimb races! It’s a huge part of our cycling culture. Please come to the UK and race a major HC, you’ll catch the bug!
I think the hill climb coverage is due to the fact there is little going on outside of CX this time if year & the bikes create content in a dead part of year. Also the customised aspect is throw back to the old days in the modern world of integration.
In the US this is what to love about riding a bike. Replace performance, with detours. Measure the ride in moments, not seconds, and let's revel in that sweet instance of balance when the universe decides to hold us afloat. And let's not forget, that the ride is meant to be enjoyed. Pro bike racing is never going to sit in this beautiful Country.
Why am I learning that USAC got rid of amateur nationals from an Australian cycling podcast? 😂
Because you're to busy doing Gravel?? 😂
Because USA cycling sucks
Lol
Because US podcasts are only talking about are tires and rolling resistance? 😜
Is there even an “American” cycling podcast that comes close to this? I’m glad these guys pay enough attention to American cycling to talk about it. The US just doesn’t care about it, outside of the cycling community nobody even cared that Sepp won the Vuelta
20:07 Always an entertaining pod when Chris does his “froth voice.” Froth-voice Chris and Backwards Hat Dylan need to have a podcast together.
Make it happen, Nero Show!
Living in britain ill tell you this, most of the guys i talk to about hill climbing its about the atmosphere, anyone can rock up and its a lot more focused on improving yourself, 99% of people arent aiming to be a hill climb national champ etc they just wanna beat their mates, have fun and they bring whatever bike they like :) no one is forcing you to ride a specific bike :)
sounds like a ton of fun. Around where I'm at in the US, we basically only have gravel/mtb/cross races but nothing like TTs or hill climbs that I think would be a lot of fun.
Absolutely correct. Same as local TT scene.
I own a 2021 Izalco Max 9.7. I also own a Liv Langma Advanced Pro SL0 rim brake which is much lighter but not faster uphill. This bike downhill, I'm usually faster than anyone I ride with even though I am one of the lightest riders in the bunch. Sprinting and out of the saddle, it responds faster than any bike I've ridden. Cornering is confidence inspiring with this wheel base and low BB geometry. Steerer tube is 90mm as opposed to the higer Giant/Liv which so you're in a better position in my view. The stem integrates cables and hoses so it's tidy enough in my view allowing me to dial in position exactly how I want. I wouldn't be surprised if I could put wider tyres on it but I haven't tried. It's German: its a sensible bike. It doesn't stand out in any particular way, but I can't fault anything except the boring paint job (though I have a blue one with white print, so a bit more interesting than black).
So you're saying this Focus has no focus?
As someone who has rented bikes in Mallorca & Girona on numerous occasions, I think it's Bike rental companies buying all the Focus bikes 😂 reliable, decent looks, fits nicely in that mid to high end category.
If you go to Germany and surrounding countries they are everywhere. PON bikes own Focus, Cervelo, Cannondale, and a bunch of brands. Huge manufacturer.
Oh yeah, all the Germans in Alcudia on the red and blue ones, good call
The hill climb champs are a one off, mad, event which is why we love it. It's like a real life round of Takeshi's Castle or something. :D
Fondo nats in the USA is segment racing, not the start to finish timing you guys probably assume BTW.
Don't underestimate the influence of the algorithm on your life and how it narrows your view of the world. this is probably why GCN made a german, a french, a spanish and an italian channel. im european and none of them come up in my feed either but they're out there...
My feed brings me a fair amount of non-English language cycling material but compared to things like GCN, Cycling Weekly etc. they all seem to be much more modest--even GCN auf Deutsch is just two presenters, with some of the features paralleling what is going on in the English version. GCN used to have Jeremy Powers so there was some US coverage but I am surprised how little content there appears to be coming from America. And those British hill climbs are just so eccentric that the RUclips audience has to be far greater than just the British!
The national hill climb is probably the pinnacle of crazy UK events. Nothing like coughing up your lungs in front of a big crowd on a cold Sunday morning.
What is also cool is how some of the lightest bikes were put together on small budgets i.e. not $15,000 super bikes. Just bits and bobs brought second hand etc
Collegiate racing in the US is organized. There are cycling conferences and race series. You have to do well enough in your conference to qualify for nationals. Sepp Kuss was a collegiate MTB national champion; I believe Dylan Johnson was as well. My kid goes to a school that just won the MTB omnium - their 2 time defending national champion cross country rider was hurt and only finished 4th this year
“Them on a damp road, reviewing a bike, that’s a GCN video” lmao 🤣
Hey guys, as others have pointed out: collegiate cycling in the USA is not an officially sanctioned NCAA sport. It's actually run directly from USAC and any school/college/university in the country can form a club. There are also a number of "Varsity" programs where the schools provide direct funding to the team and some even employ coaches and give scholarships (Marian University is the biggest example). There are a number of conferences and the clubs organize racing within each conference (super hard in the US and very expensive). There's even a separate category system that is A/B/C/D where the A racers are the top. At least for road (which, by my understanding is the biggest by far), A racers have to qualify for a slot at nationals by participating in local conference events.
Former president of a collegiate club in one of the East Coast universities circa 1997-2001. As others have noted, it has and mostly still is a student club sport. The school has some funding allocated toward student clubs that get divided up by membership numbers. We sourced our own shop sponsor/bike sponsor (usually equipment at cost), and have several fundraisers to raise money for travel, kit costs, etc. By and large the largest expense was putting on the road race and mountain bike race annually, and the school funding helps to defray this cost; with the limited field size by default, the entry fees on top of the schools money doesn’t even cover all the costs. As far as USAC is concerned, it was primarily the participant insurance that was the main benefit for them to be involved, as my understanding was the conference by default was the entity covered by the promoter insurance under USAC.
I highly recommend spectating a Colorado collegiate mtb weekend. It was so much fun to race, we made a mess of each location, and it was nice to be involved in a sport that got us out on bikes with friends. The guys racing cat1 are full pro level some even being affiliated with professional teams or cycling orgs in the US.
My thirst thought was Addict RC, too. I really like the lines of the new Izalco - modern, clean and not flashy at all. I also like the aero looking but adjustable cockpit. Where they f*cked up is with the colors. It's ok to have some basic color schemes but if you want to buy something flashy there is zero choice. This will put off a lot of potential buyers. 32 mm tire clearance is also a must!
If a Cervelo S5 full on aero maschine can take 34mm tyres, there is no excuse. Even if most use only up to 30mm. 32mm is minimum standard now.
No logo, who came up with that idea 🤔 looks a lot like the last generation i own. Costs of course more than earlier, with a cheaper wheel set mounted on. Does not trigger me to get a new Izalco
Without a doubt, my favourite cycling related vlog/podcast/whatever. Keep up the awesome work and poignant conversations!
Awesome, thank you!
I´m 100% with Cris when it comes to EVERESTING,
though i really love climbing
It's dull AF and I have no plans to every try it, but watching Ronan's everesting record setting video, including the cunning bike mods that made it a winner was really fun. Hill climb esque bodging.
The hill climbing season is so popular as it’s such a spectator friendly event and by extension, easier for the 1 man show vlogger to film.
I'm a little further along now. NCAA has NOTHING to do with collegiate cycling. There are very very strict eligibility rules for NCAA sports and most of the top collegiate riders will have already violated those rules before even getting to college because they will have won some prizes as a junior rider. Collegiate racing is just a fun thing we all like to do in the winter where the racing starts in late february and the races are a little cheaper and a little more grass roots vibey. Haha it's even more complicated than I've been able to mention above when you get in to the individual regional conferences but yeah, collegiate racing is all about fun. A few top riders might get noticed by a team for their collegiate results but generally its just a fun thing we do in the winter and it's cheaper than regular USAC races for the most part.
Bought a Scott Addict RC with the trad stem and switched it over to the integrated carbon bars a few months later. It was a revelation. Looks much better, weighs 250 grams or so less, and just dials in the whole bike. A no brainer upgrade.
If you want a great winter project in the gym, learn how do Olympic weightlifting properly and see what it does for you.
I would say pro vs amateur is more of a monetary thing than a performance thing, at least how its understood here in the states. if you have a bunch of sponsors and dont need a job on the side, youre pretty much pro in a lot of peoples eyes
Cosmo's HTRWW was one of the best recaps of cycling races in the early days. Shame it is gone now.
He walked so Lanterne Rouge could run
I think this new Izalco Max is aimed at the minimalist
My thoughts too, I wouldn't want giant logos on my bike riding around advertising for them after I've already bought one.
The USAC Amateur Nationals were totally just won by professional athletes who were not on “Pro” team. For example: Legion is a UCI Continental team, so they race in the USAC Pro National championship race, HOWEVER the Miami Heat and Austin Aviator teams that are also a part of Williams Racing Development are “USAC Domestic Elite” teams that technically sit one step below UCI Conti team. So those racers, and others like them, get a salary to train and race their bikes, but they were not on a UCI Conti team, they were competing in “Amateur” nationals. Now those rides will have to race Pro National championships and I think that is great.
Fernwee does some PR for Focus - suspect he’ll document getting one soon.
And he and his crew do some work with Pas Normal Studios too (not so much since partnering with Maap).
The bike industry is becoming the car industry where aerodynamics, features and regulations are bringing everything into generic formats.
Wind tunnel testing makes everything end up being the same shape.
Hello and welcome to the Zero show. Because bike sales are 0
If they put a Standert logo on the downtube of that Focus frame then it would sell like hot cakes to the "if you know, you know" crowd 😅.
Check out the Ventum NS1 2022 model (a bike I own) and tell me how it's any different than the Focus 😂
In a world of gimmicks, bling and fancy paint jobs, the new Focus stands out because it is so understated… and the fact that it’s not trying to hard makes it cool.
Nice chat guys; as for the color scheme of the FOCUS (I mean the black one) - I would be the potential purchaser. Due to its plain black scheme. My Aethos is the black one and I taped over the little toptube "specialized" label to hide it... I am 43, want no flashy design. Do not race.
Ben Delaney is the only American youtuber doing road/gravel type content I can think of.
Focus as a German brand without a lot of reach is in a bad spot in the market. They are somewhat known for their Cyclocross bikes but most things they sell are probably e-bikes and gravel bikes sold in bike stores to customers that are not aware of the entire market.
Agreed. Or people like me who don't care about marketing spin. Mind you I bought mine three years ago and pricing was definitely cheaper for 12s electronic shifting (compared to other brands).
That bike actually reminds me of the last gen SuperSix Evo
Cycling is not an NCAA sport, so there's no funding allocated for it. This means that cycling is considered a "Club Sport" at the college level and requires an external organization like USA cycling to sanction the races. Thus, the number of collegiate cycling nationals. Additionally, due to the age range and level of racing at the highest collegiate level, there is a certain level of talent identification and acquisition that USA cycling benefits from.
It depends. There is a varsity category that can be well funded. See Fort Lewis College, for example
Edit - I may have misinterpreted your comment. Of course there is no NCAA funding and nothing like football. Different schools offer different levels of support. My kid's school has pretty decent support for A category racers. Lower categories are definitely more for fun
I think you guys underestimate the market for a bike that sits in the middle. A lot of cyclists will just have one decent bike. So something that is relatively good at everything and bad at nothing will be very appealing. This looks like it can do bunch rides, fondos, crits, climbing days, etc. It’s like the next step up from an endurance bike. A big market is there, but given there are a lot of great bikes in that category, I agree that it does nothing to stand out.
Jennifer, are you still using this burner account?
UK is by far the most represented in RUclips cycling. Seems like they have the biggest channels, but also the most channels. Almost daily I get these small vlog channels popping up on my recommended
Focus used to be everywhere in the UK because they had one of the lightest and best spec’d bikes available under the old £1k cycle to work scheme threshold. If you wanted a road bike on the c2w scheme you were getting either the focus cayo or the boardman team carbon. Don’t see them much nowadays.
That new focus izalco looks just like the outgoing cannondale supersix evo to me.
Why so much UK content? The UK is just the most creative place in the world. Take music of my youth. Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Floyd, Led Zep, Bowie, Queen. No one else gets close. I won't go past 1976, but you get my point. We make the stuff people want to consume. I see you guys as at the same level as Cade, but he has 264k subscribers, you have 46.2k. It's The Police vs Men at Work.
Pro is a paid athlete, no questions asked.
I do gym for 3 months over winter, mainly because I get the reward of a sauna and steam.
But it makes a massive difference to my strength and ability on the bike.
The things FOCUS part 1
My roadie at the time had 19 logos labels of the brand & bike! a lil reminder to you and me what i was riding just in case id forgotten , i ended up hating it! repainting it, and have just 3 logos now .... good to see they like my way
Part 2
As a fan of FOCUS ( got 4 of them xc (now ol pubbike) xc, trail, road) I got into them because being left of the big boy brands, slight intrestingness in tech going on, and good value for money ( at the time )
Nowadays i dont know what they stand for, what genre do they want to be in, Ive now got wandering eyes & lookiing outside my bubble, they offer far better / compelling cases for me moola
Grand fondo national champion? What? I guess I've missed out on some radical transformation. They used to be fun rides posing as races, filled up by Freds with lots of experience riding centuries, who want a selfie with some ex-pro.
Wiggins 2012 season and the TDF in Yorkshire changed everything in the UK.
Scene is vibrant and varied today.
Hill Climb and TT scene is beloved in the UK, we also have the best crit series in the world, not to mention big names at world tour level
The Matt black Focus with a Gloss black-grey-white Nero camo wrap would look pretty sick!
Now we have to get Jesse and Chris to do an Everest. It's great fun, trust me. Nothing like 200 reps of the same hill...
I thought most of the aero gains on the cock pit came from removing the cables, not from having a one piece handlebar and stem solution. To me it seems like Focus have made it both more aero and kept the it easy to adjust.
Interesting to hear you alls thoughts on collegiate nationals cause for us its super normal. We have collegiate races and a nationals to go along with it because that's pretty much how it is for every other collegiate sport.
US Collegiate cycling isn't quite like the mainstream collegiate sports in the US. It's a mixed bag of less than a couple dozen NCAA teams and per USA cycling ~200 college club teams.
So, there are very few programs which have scholarship athletes, and I am not sure if any of those teams have "full ride" scholarships (meaning tuition, room and board, typical of say football, swimming or basketball).
Most of the racing is at a conference level among the 11 or so conferences.
Interestingly, these athletes may also hold a professional license.
Get well soon!
Favourite show of the week 🎉
CX US nats has all ages, singlespeed, and all genders (W, M ,NB ) over the course of the week at same park. It is a week long party.
good pod guys, I knew the college cycling would seem weird 😂 a bit on it…So cycling is not sanctioned by NCAA. All teams are ‘club’ teams essentially and it is sanctioned by USA Cycling. There are a couple of minor sports in the US that operate in this kind of way. For cycling it’s just another category, with many times separate events for those racing in college. Structure is totally different to football, basketball, etc. Obviously some nuances i’m glossing over but that’s the gist.
I just took a a peek at the focus website and it shows six two-tone colorways. Purple, red, etc.
I'm always excited with new bikes releases... until I see the price!
Great show guys. As I understand it from the LR discord, GCN did approach LR for a permanent role, but sounded like they undervalued him. Benji of course moonlights in Belgium a lot.
Itv did, there are some highlights on their channel (probably geoblocked) with lr in maybe 2020.
collegiate cycling is USAC’s attempt at getting 18-22year olds into cycling. People can get full scholarships to be cyclists in college. This can act as a replacement for U23 devo teams, keeping riders stateside.
Did you see Rob Arnold's take on the new Focus for Ride Media?
I’d love to see the boys in the Nero speed suits tackle a local club run UK hill climb. It’d be awesome content to see outsiders give it a go and I’d be interested to see and hear their take on the ride and the scene
Giant is getting sued since their handlebars snapped and broke a guys back...
Open your eyes lads....
GCN Japan has been on RUclips since 2018...
Albeit they only have 112k subscribers but have posted 1.5K videos that average between 10-20k views...
With those numbers, you might conclude that there's a good reason why there aren't more "large" Asia based channels...
I like the separate bar stem
Looks like Polygon Helios with different seatpost
I'll bet the cockpit dimensions and handling are a hell of a lot better than your typical Chinese carbon bike.
I have a set of DT swiss wheels. They came stock on a 2009 Stumpjumper Fsr. They are still running strong.
i love that constant David A. bashing... cheers from bavaria
That focus is a respray of the previous generation Canyon Aeroad... the one before the detachable handle bars.
Looks nothing like any Aeroad ever
@palimpalim7447nah you’re right. Maybe the ultimate? We don’t really have Scott’s where I live. I agree it looks 100% like a 2020-2023 carbon aero bike.
everesting is cool tbh you can scratch that 2 week 'flyer' type of itch in 10-13 hours. Ill be in oz prob next year this time.. Ill do it w you.
I think what you have to keep in mind is that Focus can undersell itself. Focus is part of Derby Cycling, which is owned by the Pon Holding (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pon_Holdings), who also own Cervélo and Cannondale among others. And in comparison to their bikes, it could make sense to have a "boring" bike.
In any case, I would love to hear you guys chat about the Pon Holding or in general, companies behind bike brands and what it does to the competition between brand.
Yeah the rival ain't the best price, but, the other options are great value compared to giant prices, that the brand is 100x bigger, and could easily make prices like Decathlon Van Rysel, they don't, because they like the money... The old izalco was perfect tbh
Hot tip, the old grey shareholders of DT Swiss care about crushing the competition, not brand exclusivity vibe.
Love the show as always, thanks!
I race Collegiate in America, and as far as I know, the NCAA isn't involved with it, just USAC and the separate conferences. The collegiate racing structure is pretty confusing because it is a mix of "club teams" like the one I'm on, and "Varsity" teams that are typically much larger and are run more like a basketball or football team from my understanding. College athletics are huge here, and I think a lot of collegiate cycling races are based around having the students do a lot of the organization and management of the races, almost all the mountain and road races are run by the individual colleges.
My off-season thing every year is, I should try to PR Alpe du Zwift. I did it a bunch in 18 and 19, probably to get elevation when I was trying to get the Tron bike. But I’ve only done it like once a year since and never actually go and try to kill it.
Off season and live in Sydney. Well, go surfing, of course
The Focus looks like a stereotypical American action movie's German villain had his interior designer draw up the aesthetics of the bike. The person who will ride it is the type to wear white bib shorts. They will also have platinum blond hair.
Looks good to me!
Does no one think the Izalco Max just looks like the Izalco Max?
Agree 100%
When you have amateurs wearing the stars and stripes jersey and claiming championship status its time to make it a proper pro+ama championship
Gents, now that I live in the US now and know a little bit about how the institution we know as the NCAA, more than likely, the youth that compete in Division 1 university sport may have the opportunity, if the school and sports program is big enough and is super flush, to earn a full scholarship which pays for uni fees and all you have to do is study and concentrate on your sport.
This may be the reason for not having broader Para categories even with extensive and inclusive laws for persons with disabilities. Since the student-athletes at the Division 1 level are part of the top 10-20% of athletes in the country, you are correct to a point, for many, this is the pinnacle of their sporting career; for a select few, they can carryon being elite cyclists at the National and/or International level-similar to the NBA or NFL, tens of thousands of students play at the uni level, less than 1% make it to the pros..
Cycling and gym is the best I've ever felt as oppossed to just cycling. In the off-season it's more gym, in the summer it's more cycling, but at least 5 to 6 times a month at the gym (or 8 to 10 in the off-season). Since I've been doing that I've also stopped looking like a lollipop and I feel much better. I also got more strength and psychologically I feel more balanced bcs let's be honest, especially road cycling is just legs; the upper body is just getting thinner and thinner and has zero exercise and thus zero muscle tone and strength. So yeah, go to the gym in the off-season and keep going in the summer too! You'll look and feel better and the only downside is being a little slower up hill, but that's not as important as the advantages in my opionion.
I always meant to take up strength training in the gym but was forced into it by lumbar spine issues. I knew it would be helpful on the bike, but the difference is much bigger than I expected it would be!
Phuggin hell Phocus phoked up on this one. Boring middle of the road bike Vs Canyon Aeroad… give me the Aeroad, it’s a rocket 🚀 baby! 🤩
USA college sports are going through a real transformation, particularly with football and basketball. Money is proliferating into the sports, with "amateur" athletes getting paid. I'm unsure as to how that is trickling down into cycling, tennis, track, and other sports, but the gambling industry is way into college sports right now. Cycling is likely not much afflicted by what's happening with football and basketball.
Designing a bike for a big 2nd/3rd tier brand has to be so hard/designed by committee/board. Want to be be current. But not rocked the boat. Have to sell just enough. Look at that bianchi, I think it’s pretty cool because it’s so different. People hate it. And I’ve never see one in real life.
Specialized has done incredible marketing. People love whatever they do. SL8 is so boring. Even more so in person. Def looks slower than the sl7.
I think there is a space for a modern high performance bike that looks for the PNS niche. But I think that group of riders is smaller than we think and wouldn’t make bunch of a dent in sales. They look big because they are all big online (Instagram etc) this is also hard because it’s easy to buy a even $200 jersey. 5k+ bike, harder sell
Love you Aussie guys but it always makes me laugh how much you underestimate British hillclimb champs!
Pretty much every major club will have some chat about the hillclimb champs and many even host their own hillclimb races! It’s a huge part of our cycling culture.
Please come to the UK and race a major HC, you’ll catch the bug!
Yeah but they’re not trashing it, they’re just bemused etc.
Focus have said new one actually rides harsher than old version
They claim their fork is XY% stiffer, so it should be harsher.
I think the hill climb coverage is due to the fact there is little going on outside of CX this time if year & the bikes create content in a dead part of year. Also the customised aspect is throw back to the old days in the modern world of integration.
Golf is great off-season hobby
In the US this is what to love about riding a bike. Replace performance, with detours. Measure the ride in moments, not seconds, and let's revel in that sweet instance of balance when the universe decides to hold us afloat. And let's not forget, that the ride is meant to be enjoyed. Pro bike racing is never going to sit in this beautiful Country.
lay off the mushrooms, dude
@@charliedillon1400 You sound like the type that throws your gel wrappers on the ground.
There, I thought my comment was funnier than yours.
There probably should be a Gcn China as there is Gcn Japan. Surprised no mention on Tour of Southland in NZ.
Great work lads, keep up the great work
Love the show as always guys 👌👍
But if it looks cutting edge like a Trek Madone you guys still make fun of it. What bike do you like?
Sorry? My opinion of the Madone was the design is friggen cool.
I would love to see a one ☝️piece integrated bar stem!🙏
You get a Focus if you froth Fernwee and wear a teenie weenie beanie to the pub/cafe. (No judgment, I aspire to this 😂).
Focus is good if you want your mom to say your bike is “neato”.
😂
Ouch
also NCAA doesn't run collegiate cycling
every new bike should have a power meter, even if it’s a bad one🫡
Porsche have hardly changed the shape of the 911 in last 50 years. People still buy them?