Episode 72
“Each of these guests offer their own story in a way that, again, like Andrew said earlier, pulls back the curtain on experiences that we necessarily don’t get to hear about or see in everyday track news or just conversations with people. Everyone has their own story, their own insights, and that informs who they are as a person and how they race.”
For the final episode of the ’22-’23 Talk of the T-Town season, Andrew and Maura sit down and recap their favorite episodes. Through their conversation, they discover a common thread running through: each of these guests gives us and you insight into something we traditionally don’t hear about in every day news; pulling back the curtain, if you will.
The Talk of the T-Town will resume with the ’23-’24 season this fall. We’ll be hard at work with events and racing this season, and working to get you the best interviews with those who come visit us this summer!
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Transcript
Andrew Paradowski:
Hello everyone, it’s me, Andrew Paradowski here along with my co-host Maura Beuttel.
Maura Beuttel:
Hi.
Andrew Paradowski:
For this episode, which will be the last one of the ’22-23 podcast season we thought we’d do something a little special. Over the last year, we’ve had some extraordinary guests with compelling stories to tell. Here are a few of our favorite moments. So sit back, grab a post ride coffee, and enjoy the show
Maura Beuttel:
Broadcasting to you from the Valley Preferred Cycling Center, this is the Talk of the T-Town podcast where we discuss all things track cycling.
All right, so one of our first recaps of our podcast season this year is our podcast with Joe Truman. He is from Team GB on the sprint squad. They joined us for our block of UCI racing. And Joe was kind enough to come sit down and chat with us for a little bit. One of the things that jumped out to us about Joe specifically, is he has some really interesting experience that only a handful of riders get to have. He was invited to go to the Japanese Keirin school or Keirin school, whatever the official pronunciation is for it. Apologies for butchering it, if anyone gets super upset about that. But I just thought it was a great insight to have because Japan is such a closed off country to begin with and the fact that we had someone here that got to experience it firsthand, and what it was like, and just how different it is from the traditional Keirin in racing and the races that we put on here. So we’ll let you listen to Joe talk about what his experience was like here.
Joe Truman:
That’s just like the most opposite you can imagine to any UCI racing. You’re on steel bikes, you’re racing outdoors, you’re in colorful kit, like horse racing sort of kit, big mushroom helmets. You’re allowed to hook up to other riders and like head butt and shoulder barging, and that’s the reason people wear sort of American football armor almost on their shoulders. A lot of crashing. You race in all weathers. I remember one of our first races, I was in the start gate looking up to term one and you’ve got a waterfall coming down. Term one, and you race in all weathers because obviously the people are betting on it and they can’t cancel those bets.
Maura Beuttel:
So one of the crowd favorite races here at T-Town is the Keirin. And personally, I really enjoy watching it. Who doesn’t like seeing a motorcycle go around the track pacing these riders. Personally, it’s a little bit of an inside joke with the track that we always root for Bob Bice who is motor pacing it. We want Bob to win, but he always pulls off and if he just stayed on a little longer he’d make it. But the other reason that the Keirin necessarily isn’t my favorite is that it’s kind of scary to watch. These riders are going so fast. Traditionally it’s one of the crashiest races that we have here in T-Town, right Andrew?
Andrew Paradowski:
Yeah, that’s true. You’ve got six riders a lot different than let’s say a match sprint where you only have to worry about where the other person is on the track. There’s certainly a lot more potential for something to go wrong, but a lot of these guys and women that race here are pretty experienced and they do a pretty good job of recovering quickly from bumps and stuff like that. So we never want to see it. It does happen sometimes, but certainly the experience that Joe talked about having gone to Japan and learn how to race with the big athletes there with all the jostling and bumping I’m sure goes a long way to preventing that for him.
Maura Beuttel:
Yeah, we were very lucky to not have any keirin crashes this summer. Knock on wood, we won’t have any again this summer. I think Joe attributes a lot of the psychology and how he races the Keirin, he took a lot from his experience in Japan. And in the podcast he talks about how there’s two or three ideologies of how you can race it and that’s pretty much what you stick with and what they bet on in Japan. But yeah, it definitely simplified things a lot for him and you can check it out here.
Andrew Paradowski:
So how would you say that experience in training informed your Keirin racing under the UCI style of racing?
Joe Truman:
Yeah, I think for me it simplified it a lot. I always went into UCI races with a million ideas and obviously, you can’t really do that because anything can happen when the bike pulls off. And out in Japan, it really is simplified, there’s three main tactics. You’ve got Sanko, Macari, and Oicami. Sanko is basically you’re going to do a long sprint, you’re going to go off at least 400 meters to go, you’re going to be on the front and hit it pretty hard. Macari is when you’re going to leave it to about 200 meters to go and you’re going to do a bit of swinging and try to protect any riders in front of you and hold off riders behind. And Oicami is basically you’re going to have a last ditch fight for the line. And the other guys usually that wear all the body armor because they’re the ones going for your guts and doing little dangerous moves. I just think for me it’s simplified a bit because I can look at it as am I going to sit unaware or am I going to go early.
Andrew Paradowski:
Well that certainly was a great way to start the show, Maura. Thanks for introducing Joe as our first recap of the season. It’s always great to have someone like him to come on the show with a great story, great fish out of water story, going to Japan and learning all he can there, even though he was the only one from I guess his team or his group going there, and then being able to parlay that experience into a great season for him.
Maura Beuttel:
The accent doesn’t hurt either.
Andrew Paradowski:
The accent does not hurt. No, certainly. And you’ll see as we go through today’s episode that he won’t be the only one with a non North American accent on the show. Our listeners tend to enjoy those episodes a bit more and it, of course, is nice to hear that sing song accent on the radio.
Maura Beuttel:
Yes, certainly. And if you liked what you heard from Joe and anyone else that we’re going to recap on the show, you can find all of our episodes on any streaming platform that you like as well as on our website.
Andrew Paradowski:
Moving on to our next recap for this episode, I want to introduce someone who was probably my favorite podcast to have hosted here, Kaio Lart from New Zealand. Probably one of the most personable, affable young gentlemen you’d ever get a chance to meet. For those of you who were able to make some of the races this summer, you’ll know that he was a crowd favorite, and just an all around great person, good to talk to. You could sit there for 30 seconds and feel like you’ve been best mates for years having just talked to him only for 30 seconds. And the kind of guy that likes to get involved with almost everything you listen to his podcast. And you’ll hear stories about ballroom dancing, and chasing down transit buses, and all this kind of stuff. So he really does to experience the world and will never miss a chance to jump at trying something new.
Maura Beuttel:
Yeah, certainly it was great. The one C1 that we were running last summer, Kaio raced in the morning, put up a really great show, unfortunately wasn’t quite fast enough to make it back for the evening races. But I’m sitting down there watching racing, getting the checks ready to go, getting all the ducks in the row for the evening and Kaio rocks up to the officials and I’m like, Oh no, riders walking up to the officials what’s going to happen? And so polite, so kind, so genuine and he was like, “Hey, I’ve really taken an interest in officiating at home and this is a great event for me to be at. I’d love to see how things operate on an international level. Would it be okay if I shadowed you for the night?” And they were like, “Oh my god, a rider’s like being nice and wanting to see how things work.” And it’s great to see that he’s interested in that side of the sport and not necessarily just like, I’m going to race my bike and that’s what I’m here to do. It’s the whole big picture side of it.
Andrew Paradowski:
Right and it certainly shows that if you do step into someone else’s shoes, you get to see how much effort and work it puts into what it takes to put on this whole event. Not just the racers, but the organizers, the officials and the sponsors and everybody, there’s so much that goes into it and certainly does eliminate that. Let’s take a listen to Kyo talk about it.
Kaio Lart:
Yeah, it goes without saying that most people respect the work that the volunteers and commissars do, but until you sit with them and actually realize how stressful it gets sometimes, you don’t really realize it. Like us riders, we just try to pin our numbers in the most arrow trendy position possible. Turns out you can’t say that if you’re a comm. What other things, there was trying to get start sheets out, trying to get result list out, or points races in the middle of a points race, things that you, as a rider, you just expect to happen immediately. “Why isn’t there numbers on the lap border? Why can’t we see it straight away?” And there’s a whole load of decisions that have to be made behind that.
And it’s obvious when you think about it, but when you’re in the middle of the heat of a race, you don’t really have that obvious thought pattern. And to have actually have some evidence behind it yourself, to make you process those decisions whilst you’re racing is good. And I guess being able to deem also, where am I making a dodgy decision, am I going to send it under this rider, and is it going to get me disqualified, or is this thing going to slip? You get to learn where those boundaries are in racing.
Andrew Paradowski:
See now Maura, wouldn’t it be great if we could get every rider to sit down and just spend an afternoon with the officials to really understand what goes into making those decisions, so that sometimes maybe they might step back and be like, “Oh, maybe I won’t be so upset about that decision because it kind of makes sense.”
Maura Beuttel:
As much as I would love that, and you would love that, and it would benefit us, I don’t think the riders realize how much it would benefit them too.
Andrew Paradowski:
Absolutely, for sure. The other thing that I liked about the interview with Kaio is that it went into off into some weird directions and some interesting places. And, of course, as we mentioned with Joe’s podcast, Joe Truman, Kaio does have a kiwi accent and it’s interesting to listen to. And listening to this one quote that we’re going to pull out for you later, it’s got a real flow and a real New Zealand casual flow to it. So it’s certainly an interesting part to listen to, but it also highlights what you hear from a lot of the athletes here, not just Joe or Kaio, but even athletes that travel from outside of town, even from the west coast or the east coast of the US but from different countries, they have different experiences. And that culture shock that you get from going to a new place and not having the things that you’re used to and all that kind of stuff. Let’s let Kaio tell it.
What would you say is your biggest challenge or possibly a culture shock or something that you found interesting and unique when you came here to the US?
Kaio Lart:
Everyone says, yes, when you say thank you or something like rather than you’re welcome. That’s the one that gets me the most. Driving on the wrong side of the road, that’s always a laugh. The amount of times we’ve pulled out of the car park here and just ridden straight down the wrong side of the road and then everyone looks at you funny. I don’t know, I guess the language a wee bit as well, talking to the kids out there coaching today, I’m calling them mate, and you’re a good bro, and things like that and they just look at me blankly. And I’ll be, “Oh, all right. Yeah, I guess just couple of things like that. Maybe we are a bit casual, but yeah, it’s a bit different but similar, in a lot of ways, I guess. You can see where everything’s built its own little ways of going around.
Andrew Paradowski:
Yeah. For sure. Is there anything that you missed from back home?
Kaio Lart:
Oh, a pie. There’s no pies here.
Andrew Paradowski:
All right.
Kaio Lart:
No mince pie.
Andrew Paradowski:
What’s a pie to you?
Kaio Lart:
Well, I don’t know. You got some pastry and then you got some mince inside of it.
Andrew Paradowski:
So you mean meat?
Kaio Lart:
Yeah.
Andrew Paradowski:
Yeah, yeah. So most people here when you think pie, they think like apple pie, cherry pie, right.
Kaio Lart:
Yeah. Yeah. The amount of times we’ve asked for pies and people have pointed us to sweet stuff, we’re like, “No, no, we want a mince pie.
Andrew Paradowski:
You want a meat pie.
Kaio Lart:
Yeah.
Andrew Paradowski:
Nothing like listening to some kiwi banter like that. Although I do have to counter that we had an even more kiwi banter moment post recording of that podcast, don’t you agree?
That’s right. Yeah. For those of you at home, you get to listen to our finished, polish edited version of this show, but sometimes after we meet with our guests and the mics are turned off, we just continue chatting for a bit. And there’s a couple of times where we wish we hadn’t turned off the recording button because we get some real golden juicy stuff. With Kaio, it was interesting because even had we recorded it, we probably wouldn’t have been able to broadcast it. Isn’t that right, Maura?
Maura Beuttel:
Yeah, some of the language was certainly more colorful than us Americans like to use. But it’s just funny that the culture shock goes both ways with Kaio and the Kiwis and the Aussies coming here, that obviously, coming here is completely different than what they’re used to at home. But also they’re living up in Kutztown and they’re going out, they’re getting ice cream after a long ride, they’re just hanging out having a good time and there’s also that culture shock for the people here, having this group of boisterous boys saying lots of fun, colorful things that you’re not necessarily used to and they don’t necessarily mean the same things here as they do there.
Andrew Paradowski:
Using words that would be just casual slang in New Zealand would be super offensive in this part of the world. So for those of you who know Commonwealth languages, you might be able to guess what some of those words were. Yes, we can’t share them with you here.
Maura Beuttel:
No.
Andrew Paradowski:
But just know that-
Maura Beuttel:
We’re a family show.
Andrew Paradowski:
We’re a family show, but just know that as much as we try to capture all the interesting things, sometimes they happen after we turn the recording button off.
Maura Beuttel:
Yes.
Andrew Paradowski:
Moving on to our third guest for today’s episode, we’re going to talk about Maggie Coles-Lyster from Canada. It was a great podcast to be the host on because, for me especially, she was one of the few riders that came here this summer from Canada. And everyone knows I’m where I’m from.
Maura Beuttel:
No.
Andrew Paradowski:
Yes. Eh?
Maura Beuttel:
About.
Andrew Paradowski:
About. And having watched these kids grow up, they were kids when I first saw them racing, young teens, and getting better, improving and now they’re here at the pro level racing here in T-Town, but also at the Track Champions League and at World Championships and stuff. So it certainly is exciting for me to having watched their careers and then getting a chance to sit down with them and talk to them. Maggie was a great interviewee. I know this pod did pretty well on our charts, so here she is talking about some of her experiences now as an elite racer at the Track Champions League.
Maggie Coles-Lyster:
And everyone who was there just wanted to win and wanted to do well and so we had a super motivated group. But during the week we’d go hang out with Jene Polente and Grant Koontz and go adventure around the different cities we were in and go for dinners. And so outside of the racing, the whole vibe of just going hotel to hotel with all these international riders, just getting to spend time with them outside of national team cliques and all that kind of show and just asking each other questions.
Andrew Paradowski:
That’s one of the great things about doing a show like this because it allows us to pull back the curtain and see what it’s like within the lives of these racers when they’re not out competing on the track and what’s some of the things that they go through and both positive and negative. And Maggie had a really great story, positive outlook on all this kind of stuff, wouldn’t you say?
Maggie Coles-Lyster:
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Paradowski:
Yep. And it was interesting because, I actually can’t recall if we did mention it on the show, but she was phoning in from Europe and she was there doing some training for some of the road teams. So not only she a track cyclist, but she’s a road cyclist, and she gave us a little bit of insight into what was happening with that, and how some of the finances and the politics of being a professional cyclist can be certainly difficult. But she really is there just to race her bike and-
Maura Beuttel:
Bikes. And she was over there for road and she races in Europe on track.
Andrew Paradowski:
Yep, there you go.
Maura Beuttel:
That’s two kinds of bikes.
Andrew Paradowski:
That is two kinds of bikes. But at the end of the day that’s what it all comes down to, is just there can be all this stuff going on in the background and it could be a big production like the Track Champions League. But at the end of the day it’s just another race and like every other racer, she’s just there to race her bike.
Maggie Coles-Lyster:
In Track League, there is a lot on the line, there’s a lot of money, there’s a lot of people watching it. But at the same time it’s really just a bunch of people out there wanting to race their bikes and try different things and just try to win a race. Which that sounds very trivial, but I feel like that’s a rare thing, there’s always something bigger at play than just going out and just trying to win a race.
Andrew Paradowski:
There you have a folks, Maggie Coles-Lyster, a wonderful young woman from Canada talking about some of her experiences racing and what it’s like to be a professional. Hopefully, we can get her back on the show one day to recap after she’s had a chance to add to all of her palmaris.
Maura Beuttel:
Yeah, we’d certainly love that. That goes for anyone that we’ve had on the podcast, we’d certainly love to have returns and updates on how things are going. But I think Maggie’s podcast and the quotes that we pulled transition quite nicely into the next one that we’re going to recap and Maggie even kind of introduced him for us already. So the next person that we’re going to recap that I was lucky enough to host this podcast was with Grant Koontz of Team USA. He also races for Star Track. It’s been really cool getting to know Grant personally over the last two, two and a half, three years that I’ve been working at T-Town now, and just to see how much he’s improved. And Grant’s big goal here, like most athletes in the sport from when you’re a young age and people ask you, “Hey, what do you want to do? What you want to be when you grow up?”
And the big answer with that shining gleaming look in their eyes, “I want to be an Olympic gold medalist. I want to represent my country on the world stage, bring home some nice shiny gold hardware.” And that’s the ultimate end goal, right? And Grant is on his way to get there. And I think it’s a great progression story, talking to Grant, and knowing that he started out as a roadie, and not necessarily as much potential to reach Olympic grounds that way, but there is in track. And just the hard work and perseverance that he’s put in going there. He used to live in his car and now he’s able to wear that Team USA kit and get to represent his country at Nations Cups and whatnot. But yeah, listen to Grant talk about it a little bit here.
Grant Koontz:
My plan was always to shoot for the Olympics and that starts with aiming for UCI results, basically. So we started the season back in February and I went to Switzerland and got to race in Europe and had some ups and downs there. And it’s been a long season of ups and downs, but it definitely climaxed, I guess at T-Town this summer. And I was able to come out and … there’s so much UCI racing on home soil and that’s such a huge blessing for the whole UCI track scene and much less the Americans that are trying to chase it. It gets really expensive to go to Europe over and over and over again. And so to have so much UCI racing here is very, very helpful.
Maura Beuttel:
In this next clip that we have from Grant, he shed some light on what it’s racing over in Europe after his successful summer here in T-Town and highlighting differences between what it’s like over there and what it’s like here. And T-Town offers that summer camp, you get to make friends, fun summer of training and racing under the lights, in front of a crowd. And you have the beautiful sunset in the background and the warm, humid air on your skin and it’s a good time. And getting to see, even posting on social media of all the athletes of Maggie, and Grant, and all of them traveling over Europe for the Track Champions League and getting to see them hang out, it’s like, “Oh look, they really are still friends outside of this concrete oval that we have here.” But yeah, highlighting the differences between what it’s like to race in T-Town, but also what it’s like to race in the Champions League and how you can’t necessarily compare the two.
Grant Koontz:
It’s not any better or worse, it’s just different. And I think a lot of times we get in these ideas in our head that Europe is where all the real bike racing is. And I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I do think they have the resources and they have the public, I guess, persona of being a bigger show because there are more people who care about it over there. But what we have in the T-Town area is a little pocket of American track cycling that’s sustained our country for years and years and years and I don’t think that can be understated either. So yeah, it’s not better or worse, it’s just different.
Andrew Paradowski:
You know, Maura, it’s great to hear that even though some of these riders have moved their careers on to the big show in Europe and racing things like Track Champions League, that they still have a little place in their heart from where it all began here in T-Town and these little tracks that help US riders train and race and grow to the level that they need to race in Europe.
Maura Beuttel:
Yeah, we’re certainly happy to consider everyone that races here a part of the family. And we’re always super excited to see what they have going on, but knowing that eventually maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed that they’ll always come back home to us.
Andrew Paradowski:
Absolutely. For our next guest, I thought we would change it up a little bit. So far we’ve heard mostly from athletes, well entirely from athletes, but that hasn’t been the case for the entire run of the pod. We’ve had track directors on, we’ve had members of our own staff on, and we’ve had a third party organizer who comes to the track to put on the Lehigh Valley Hincapie Gran Fondo. We started that this past year and we were hoping to continue working with this group for many years to come. But let’s hear from Joe Cottington, a fellow organizer as I’ve been for many years, so it was certainly a pleasure to talk to him for a bit. And there was a nice little clip in there about talking about what it was like coming to the Lehigh Valley and what makes doing the Grand Fondo here so specialist. Let’s take a listen.
Joe Cottington:
One thing we do that’s a little different is we look for world class unique. Using Lehigh Valley as an example, it’s the finish on the velodrome. That was what we wanted, then we built the course from there going backwards. Then we wanted to try and incorporate some of the uniqueness of the area with all the covered bridges. And then we started riding around and noticing all these little great chamine or pava sections, which are little dirt sections, gravel sections to give that feel of what a [inaudible 00:23:23] cobbled section would be, or [inaudible 00:23:25] when they say a chamiine, which literally means a goat path.
So we created these segments that are dirt and that to give that experience of what a Perry Rabe would feel like riding the cobbles. In other areas, we just try to find unique spots in the community and then figure out how to make a route work to where we can get to those locations and make something really awesome for them to do that they don’t get to do any other day. In Merced, we found three roads that no one’s allowed to ride, but we got permission for our riders to ride on them this day, on the event day. So little things like that, that we try to make it very unique and very exciting.
Maura Beuttel:
Yeah, Andrew, I think I can certainly speak from experiences to the caliber and quality of events that Hincapie puts on. As a year, two years ago now, I had the chance to go down to Greenville and Ride, I think it was their 10th anniversary Fondo that they put on. And just the roads that they chose and the entertainment that they had afterwards and the food, it was just such a great experience and made it worth traveling to go to. And even if it was right in my backyard, the Lehigh Valley is, it’s something that I’d certainly want to participate in.
And I think the neat thread that ties Greenville and the Lehigh Valley together is it’s the whole Hincapie brand, George Hincapie, that’s what it’s built upon. Is that the roads that we rode down in Greenville were the roads that George rode to train for the tour. And then what the Lehigh Valley has to offer is that classics style feel like George is so well known for. And we have those pava roads and the little hills to climb, and then we have that classic Perry Rabe finish on our track.
Andrew Paradowski:
Yeah, I can’t forget about that velodrome finish. And that certainly was one of the highlights for a lot of the riders to do that and make it feel like they are doing that classics ride. One of the things that we do, as many of you know, on the podcast is we’ll do a rapid fire question just to get some interesting facts out about the people. And there’s one question that I like ask asking a lot, and it’s about “what’s your favorite quote,” expecting somebody to answer with a quote from a movie star or an athlete or some well known quote. But Joe spun it in a different direction for us, which was interesting and it’s something I can relate to as a fellow organizer, but he used a quote from one of the participants from the Lehigh Valley event last year. Let’s take a listen.
Joe Cottington:
My favorite quote from Lehigh Valley, Simmons was like, “You can’t come up with a course that I haven’t written already.” And we come up with this and they come back with, “I didn’t know half these roads existed.” So it’s just a very unique experience at Lehigh.
Andrew Paradowski:
Well, that’s a very good tagline for sure. All right, Joe, so thank you very much for coming on the show today. I know you said it a few times already, but one more time for the folks at home, where do they go to find out more about the upcoming Lehigh Valley Hincapie Gran Fondo?
Joe Cottington:
It is Hincapie.com and then you can click on the Grand Fondo Hincapie link and believe it or not, Lehigh Valley is front and center once that page comes up. So you can go right there, click the register, find out about all the events going on that week. And June 3, 2023 we look forward to seeing you there.
Andrew Paradowski:
So there you have it folks. Joe and the team at the Hincapie Gran Fondo series are always working really, really hard to make sure that they’re putting on a great event for you, even if you are a local rider. And even if you did ride it last year, come again this year because there’s going to be a brand new set of roads for you to try out. And as a special deal to our listeners, there’s going to be a code when you log into that website that Joe just gave you, type in LHV23, LHV23 to get 20% off on your entry.
Maura Beuttel:
All right, folks, we’ve made it to our last recap to cap off this episode as well as our 2022-2023 podcast season. This episode was probably my favorite one of the season so far. And it was great to just sit down and have a conversation with a friend. So this was with Emily Schelberg. She is pretty new to the sport of cycling within the last two or three years, and it seemed like she lived about nine different lives before coming to track cycling between being in the Marines and being on the US skeleton team. She’s a full-time nurse and CrossFit and all sorts of other wonderful accolades. She’s a strong lady.
But yeah, so coming into track cycling as a lot of you know, it’s a very niche sport. There’s lots of different terminology and all of the rules that you could ever imagine and all the different equipment and bikes and whatnot. And within the last two years, she’s really been killing it. She was at Master’s World’s and has a couple gold medals to her name and some rainbow jerseys, which is always fun. But listening to her talk about what it’s been like to get into track cycling, she used probably one of the best analogies that you could to get into track cycling in general. So give it a listen.
Emily Schelberg:
I knew nothing. I didn’t know what I was doing, literally. The first time I came out on the track, I was terrified to even get up on the curb and Missy was like, “You’re not going to slide. I swear you’re not going to slide.” And I’m like, “I don’t believe you.”
Maura Beuttel:
Right.
Emily Schelberg:
So yeah, it’s just been like that fire hose, it’s just been trying to get comfortable with something new all the time. And every single time I touch my bike, every single time I come to the track there’s something new I have to learn. And case in point, I was out training with the US team and I showed up with wheels that had the wrong tires on it and I was like, I didn’t know there was-
Maura Beuttel:
Oh no.
Emily Schelberg:
Yeah. I’m like, “Oh no.” Right. So there’s definitely a steep learning curve, but it’s just so fun and addictive and the effort pays off and you, it’s tangible. And so it’s exciting to continue to learn new things and to get better and to be part of it. I’ve really enjoyed it so far.
Andrew Paradowski:
You know, Maura, listening to Emily talk about what it’s like to learn all that information in such a short time as like trying to drink from a fire hose certainly painted a vivid picture in my mind of what that would look like.
Maura Beuttel:
Honestly, with all of the information that you have to learn, I don’t know which one’s easier, but with learning all of that information and traveling around the world, getting to do all of this really cool stuff, you get to meet a lot of really cool people. And I think the really lucky thing about the sport of track cycling is that because it is such a niche sport, there is such a tight knit community, family mindset to it. And Emily has been very vocal when talking to me about the family that she’s found and the village that is surrounding her. So listen to her talk about it here.
Emily Schelberg:
I haven’t met anyone in the community who hasn’t been completely welcoming and smiles on their faces. And you can tell too, the attitude around being at T-Town, you can see that these athletes are truly enjoying their experience at T-Town. Yeah, there’s pressure for sure with competition, but outside of your actual race, they’re all smiles and they want to help, and they’re really engaging. The community really is a special thing, I think.
Maura Beuttel:
Yeah, it was really great getting to talk to Emily and have her sum up her experience in the sport as a whole and what her experience has been like here at T-Town. Even me coming into this job and the sport, everyone’s been super welcoming and trying to help me learn stuff. I ask questions when they come up and I’m super great to have you, Andrew, with your wealth of knowledge, be able to answer all of my somewhat silly questions.
Andrew Paradowski:
Anytime. And like you say, it is a community, like Emily says, it’s a community and we’ve had a great community of guests on this show over the past season. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of time to have everyone reappear on this clip show, which is why we put out the six that we had on the show today. But they’ve all been great guests, part of the community, great to listen to. And if you know had missed any of these shows before, please feel free to go back and check them out. But the six that we chose, they certainly do have a thread. And Maura, I think you put it succinctly earlier when we were chatting about it.
Maura Beuttel:
Yeah, on the pun note, I think it wraps up rather nicely. But I think each of these guests offer their own story in a way that, again, like Andrew said earlier, pulls back the curtain on experiences that we necessarily don’t get to hear about or see in everyday track news or just conversations with people. Everyone has their own story, their own insights, and that informs who they are as a person and how they race. And I just love getting to see the why behind what they do.
Andrew Paradowski:
Absolutely. Well folks, that about wraps it up for this episode and this season of Talk of the T-Town. We’re going to be taking a little bit of a hiatus over the summer, only from the show, not from the racing and the activities that happen here at the track. It’s going to be a busy one. We’ve got a lot of great racing coming up and we’re going to spend some of that time pulling racers and coaches and other people that come by that have interesting stories into the studio to make a bunch of recordings this summer, so that we can play them back for you in the fall when we start back up in September with the talk of the T-Town ’23-24 season. So with that, on behalf of myself, Andrew Paradowski.
Maura Beuttel:
And on behalf of myself, Maura Beuttel, we’ll certainly miss you. But until next time, when we catch you in the fall, when we pick back up with the new season of the Talk of T-Town.
Andrew Paradowski:
Take care and enjoy your summer.
Maura Beuttel:
Thank you for listening to this week’s episode of The Talk of the T-Town Podcast. If you like what you heard, please rate us and leave a comment on wherever you consume your podcasts. To find out more on this week’s cast, head on over to our website, the velodrome.com to check out the show notes and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Kaio Lart:
It’s been interesting, you’ve seen four Kiwi boys off into the distance and see what happens, and it’s a bit of a laugh, but no, it’s been awesome.