Episode 50
“I’ve always considered myself more of just like a bike racer. I try not to keep myself in like a box.”
What is your first goal that comes to mind for racing or training? For this week’s guest, it’s always the same: don’t die. Join Joan this week as she chats with Chris Meacham, a Doylestown Bike Works athlete and forensic engineer. Joan and Chris discuss everything from balancing track and gravel racing, fitting in training around work schedules, summer plans, how Chris’ work aligns with cycling, and much more.
Thanks to B Braun Medical Inc. for sponsoring the Talk of the T-Town Podcast. BBraun is a global leader in infusion therapy and pain management, B Braun develops, manufactures and markets innovative medical products to the healthcare community. They are also strong believers in supporting the quality of life in the communities where their employees work and live.
Transcript
Joan Hanscom:
Welcome to the Talk of the T-Town podcast, where we discuss all things track cycling. Broadcasting from the valley preferred cycling center, I’m your host and executive director Joan Hanscom. Welcome to the Talk of the T-Town Town podcast. I’m your host Joan Hanscom. Sitting in my apartment in sunny Nor Cal in Santa Cruz and this week I am joined by Chris Meacham. Chris Meacham is a graduate of Appalachian State University.
Joan Hanscom:
He is a bike racer for Doylestown Bike Works. He has in the past done things like race with Chris Horner on the Safeway Airgas team. And in real life, his day job, he is a forensic engineer. But important to our listeners, he races at T-Town Town on the track as well. You may remember Chris from his cameo appearance when we were discussing with Brian [Boger 00:01:15] and [Ge 00:01:16] Nelson, our record attempt on the high wheel bikes. Chris has been part of that crew, so we thought we’d bring Chris in to have a solo chat without the Ge and Brian show this time and just catch up with Chris and see what he’s up to. Chris, welcome to the podcast.
Chris Meacham:
Thanks for having me, Joan. I’m excited to talk about whatever we’ll stumble upon.
Joan Hanscom:
Whatever wacky path we go down.
Chris Meacham:
Exactly.
Joan Hanscom:
You’ve done a lot of bike racing. You’ve been at the pro level with arguably people of a world tour level. You’ve raced at the track. You raced collegiate. You raced professionally, now you’re racing what I’d say is on a strong regional program with Doylestown. Yeah, you race an interesting schedule I think. This year, and we’ll dive into this a little bit more, you’re going to mix it up. You’re going to do some new things. Is this correct?
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. I can start at the beginning of last year. My roommate, Matt Moosa, he’s the owner of Moose Packs. He was doing a bunch of gravel races and I was always kind of like a tester of his bags that he made, being his roommate. Because we would train together and stuff and bring them through a lot of abuse I would say. He brought me on as like an ambassador, I guess. We started just going to a bunch of gravel races and trying to talk up his product. That’s kind of how I accidentally got into gravel racing, but indirectly. Now I’m purposely going to these gravel races to race.
Joan Hanscom:
Nice. I don’t think we’re breaking any big news, but you’re going to be doing it on a BMC URS. Which is of course a weird convergence of my current life and my former life.
Chris Meacham:
Right.
Joan Hanscom:
But I know we’re excited to have you giving the bike a good test.
Chris Meacham:
I know. I’m so excited for that.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. It’s going to be fun to see it out in the wild. With the COVID we haven’t had domestically too many folks out racing at your level on them, so it’s pretty exciting to see what you’re going to do. You’re in some good company now. We’ve got Lex Albright. We’ve got Starla Teddergreen. Again, I’m breaking news here. I guess I’m telling stories out of school. Brent Bookwalter is going to be on our bikes. He’s coming back into the BMC fold, so it’s kind of a fun group are going to be putting that bike through its phases here domestically and I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do with it. But that’s another story.
Chris Meacham:
I’m so excited. I’m so excited to get on a bike. Because I was doing these gravel races sort of as I knew I wasn’t ever in contention because I was either doing them on my mountain bike or my road bike. The Giant TCR is a solid bike, but it’s certainly not a gravel bike. I was taking it through some pretty treacherous single track at some point, like mud bogs. It was getting to the point where I was like, okay, I need a proper gravel bike. I need to take this more seriously. This is coming together perfectly. Coming with the supply crew. Sorry.
Joan Hanscom:
I’m curious. Yeah. Yeah. The supply of bikes is challenging for sure. I’m curious Chris, because you’ve come from a, I think as far as I know, you’ve raced a bunch on the track. You’ve done a bunch of crit racing, which are short events, generally speaking. They’re not 200 miles. It’s a very different discipline. It’s not on perfectly smooth pavement. It’s a lot more distance. It’s a big change from example, from a scratch race on the track.
Chris Meacham:
Totally.
Joan Hanscom:
Tell me a little bit about how you’re approaching that. Because you’re going to keep racing on the track, I understand.
Chris Meacham:
Totally. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
How’s the balance work there between track racing and gravel? Certainly Ashton Lambie has shown us that it can be done at a high level.
Chris Meacham:
Right. I’ve always considered myself more of just like a bike racer. I try not to keep myself in like a box. I go into every season just training and/or riding how I want to. I have a lot more direction this year than last, because I’m being coached by Bill [Alston 00:05:59]. So that’s been very, very helpful. But with the track being about an hour away from me, I figure it’s never a bad thing to have speed in my legs. I try to get up there as much as I can.
Chris Meacham:
A lot of my goals haven’t been track oriented probably since I was a junior. It’s a lot of fun and I love making or thinking about it in a serious way. But it’s not like I’m at the beginning of the season saying like, I need to be a track racer for the season. But it definitely doesn’t hurt any of my form. Last season, my main goal was not dying at Leadville I think. Being an East coast-
Joan Hanscom:
Not dying is a really good goal. A solid goal, yeah.
Chris Meacham:
Being an east coaster, I think I’m literally at sea level right now. I had to do it at least once, to see what I was dealing with to kind of have more aggressive goals. I got that out the way. Racing on the track, trying to get ready for endurance mountain bike races is definitely like a wide array of preparation. But my training usually just consists of going out and just doing longer rides kind of fast.
Chris Meacham:
I think that’s almost like what gravel racing is, except if you’re mixing it up at the end. I think if anything, gravel racing the longer harder stuff, offroad. That kind of appeals to my training style anyways. It’s almost like I’m coming back to what I had been preparing for when I was either doing road racing or crit racing.
Joan Hanscom:
Gotcha. How did you prepare for Leadville? I’m curious because of course, I lived in Colorado for a while and I lived in the Springs, which is above 5,000 feet. But I would go from the Springs to Leadville for example, Breckenridge, where you’re starting at 10,000 feet. Even for somebody who lives at altitude, it’s a big jump. Did you do the go in real early, like three weeks early? Or did you do the go in super late and just like deal with the altitude that way? If you haven’t experienced it, it’s crazy how you get to 12,000 feet and you want to die.
Chris Meacham:
Oh totally. Bobby Lee did it before and we spoke super briefly about what it would be like. Our director, Brian Boger also spoke with him about what it’s like going from sea level to Leadville. You’re kind of screwed either way. If you don’t live there. I think if you lived there for maybe a year, in Leadville, then you might be better off. But basically I just did the show up a couple days before.
Chris Meacham:
I think this upcoming year, I don’t know if I’m selected yet, but this upcoming year I would plan on getting there even more so like the night before the race starts. If I can control it. Just with work, I don’t know if I can swing being out there for a few weeks. But basically my training consisted of, like I said before, just kind of going hard for a really long time. I think like on my mountain bike going from different single track, kind of linking them together with road segments and stuff.
Chris Meacham:
Obviously it was more structured than that. But the rides that would most closely mimic Leadville were just longer. I think my one ride was like 158. It was from Doylestown to Gettysburg, which is pretty great. I averaged like a pretty good clip doing that, so I’m trying to compare it in my head. I’m like, this might be close to Leadville. I’m not really sure. It’s like nothing can really compare to it.
Joan Hanscom:
Right. Right. That’s a tough one to simulate.
Chris Meacham:
Exactly. Just going longer. Trying to get the endurance in. Trying to overall just improve my fitness in any way that I can. Because I don’t know, you can’t-
Joan Hanscom:
It’s funny. When I worked at USA Cycling, I distinctly remember Jim Miller who’s their head of high performance. Jim was in my office and we were just shooting the shit one day. He’s sitting in the chair in my office, the guest chair my office and he asked me, “How’s it going? How’s your training going here in Colorado?” This is before I knew I had the external iliac artery stuff going on too. I was just like, “Man, it kicks my ass every day.” Jim’s answer was, he’s like, “You never have a super good day on the bike here.” He’s just like, “That’s just how it is at altitude. You never feel like you’re having that super good day on the bike.” I was like, “Cool.”
Chris Meacham:
That is not motivating.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, exactly. I was just like, oh great. Okay. But yeah, he was just like, “Yeah, you never feel super good.” Then he was like, “Yeah, but when you go home, like when you go back down to sea level, it’s going to feel amazing.” I was like, “Yeah, all right.”
Chris Meacham:
Point your fitness. You’re like, awesome. I feel like shit now.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. It was pretty funny. I was like, all right. If there’s a person who know the drill on that, it would be him. So yeah, it was pretty funny. It always stuck in my head. It sounds like a solid plan though. You’re doing the best you can barring moving to elevation.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah, basically I’m excited to again, grant I get picked again. I’ll just know how to race it this time. I’ll know how to pace myself a lot better. I know hydration and nutrition is three to 10 times more important than it is at sea level. I’ll keep those things in mind. Hopefully I gather enough fitness to be on a better page than I was in 2021. That’s really all I’m kind of shooting for.
Joan Hanscom:
That’s your big goal for the season if you get in, is Leadville?
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. I really want to do Steamboat, but it doesn’t look like I got picked for that. That would be crazy though, if I could do those back to back. That would be huge, huge goal. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, right on. That one just from a logistic standpoint, that event. That combination is intense. Just getting from A to B. But we’ll keep our fingers crossed that Leadville’s in your future. I know because you are a full-time bike racer. Well, you’re a professional bike racer with a full-time job I should say. I am a hack of a bike racer with a full-time job. I know it’s hard to fit the training in. How are you doing it? I see you on the lifts occasionally. How are you managing? Particularly now that winter has found the east coast.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. With the last couple weeks, I’ve been trying to not have COVID. My training has been like whenever I feel like I have a sore throat, I shouldn’t ride today. Because I don’t want to kill myself and then wake up the next day and be sick.
Joan Hanscom:
I want to go and say, so far, you’ve named two big goals, which was don’t die at Leadville and don’t get COVID. You have like a solid life plan here. You’re like, don’t die-
Chris Meacham:
I just want to get the bases covered.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. You’re solid on the basics of not dying. I like it.
Chris Meacham:
Right. Yeah. Brian Boger, the director of our team. He’s also like one of my best friends. Our discussions usually start off with like, okay, so what’s our main goal here? Don’t get kicked out of the race. Main goal number two. We sort of put the big goals first. Yeah and then go into more specifics.
Joan Hanscom:
I wish that’s how I was doing goal setting for my races. That’d be like, yo Bill, what are my goals for this? Don’t die. That’s a good one to start with. Yes. I like that. Don’t die. You’re very handy.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. I guess I should be more specific. The training around now is kind of, I get home from work. I try to do a relatively hard-ish hour on a trainer because it gets dark at like 4:30 here, which is just miserable. Then on the weekends, a few hours a day. Trying to mix it up. In the Northeast, we have such nice tiny back roads and gravel roads. I try to mix it up. I destroy my road bike as best as I can. It’s like my motivation for the week comes from my riding on the weekends.
Joan Hanscom:
I can relate to that 110%. Because that’s what I’m doing too. I moved to California and I’m still riding many days a week. But it’s for the same reasons. Just because you’re in California doesn’t mean it stays light any longer. Winter is winter.
Chris Meacham:
Exactly.
Joan Hanscom:
It gets dark early and got to be peddling. Zwift it is. That’s a shout out because Zwift is sponsor our pod. Oh yeah, no, no I’m doing a lot of the same, which is funny for my goal races. It’s a good tool I guess, but it definitely makes you look forward to the weekends when you can get outside. But you guys are getting spanked right now with nasty weather. If you ride the off road, it’s a little easier than if you’re trying to be on the pavement.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. With just the snow, the roads are even more narrow. I don’t know. It’s raining right now and there’s snow on the ground, I can’t imagine the worst thing for riding conditions.
Joan Hanscom:
That is just the worst. It is what it is.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. Forecasted.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s cold. It’s miserable. Your bikes get real dirty. It’s the worst.
Chris Meacham:
It’s going to be like 12 degrees or something in the next couple days. Trainings a lot of fun in the Northeast. Get a lot done. By the time it starts getting nice, everyone is just exclusively riding out. Actually. It’s funny. It’ll get up to like 40 and people are like, “How couldn’t you be riding outside right now? It’s so it’s so nice out.” I’m like, “Well, 40 degrees is, I wouldn’t really consider it nice. But it’s better than it was.”
Joan Hanscom:
Doesn’t quite suck as bad as 20, but so not fun.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. Yeah. Ge’s that way. He’s like, “Yeah, winter finally hit.” I’m like, “Winter hit a month ago. Are you kidding me? I’ve been inside for.” He tries to be hard.
Joan Hanscom:
I saw Ge post that and I was just laughing. I was like, oh, it’s got to be back there if Ge’s cracked and getting on the trainer. Although I think he rides a fair bit on the trainer too.
Chris Meacham:
I think he does. He rides more than he lets on. Also his wife. She’s recovering with a broken foot right now, so I think she might get on his Zwift account too. We’re unsure about it. But we’re looking into it.
Joan Hanscom:
That’s tanking his numbers. It’s going-
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. His mileage is going way up.
Joan Hanscom:
Mileage is going up but somebody pedaling with a broken foot can’t be putting out the normal Ge wad.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. Average speed is like 10 miles an hour. But he and his wife are putting in good mileage.
Joan Hanscom:
All right. Good to know. Speaking of Ge, because why not? Because Ge brings me joy. What’s the latest on the high wheel bike? Did it ever get finished?
Chris Meacham:
I’m not an official releaser of information regarding this project. But from what I could see, it’s a lot of just sorting out compatibility issues with the tires and the rims. Because if the tire and it just needs to seat a lot deeper in these rims than they are right now. Or also it’ll just roll off just like a tubular, except for this, it’ll roll off a lot easier than a tubular.
Joan Hanscom:
I think one, one could safely say, falling down track on a high wheel bike is not desirable at all.
Chris Meacham:
If I had to guess, your head is like 15 feet off the ground when you’re up on one of those bikes. It’s probably less than that. But I think at 15 feet. If you’re falling down and you take the radius from the track all the way down to the apron, your head is going to hit the ground pretty hard.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. We want the tires to stay on the wheel, for sure.
Chris Meacham:
Yes. Seating is the first, second and third following my motto, don’t die kind of thing. It’s very important. They’re trying to sort that out and also the bike shop is just, it’s just crazy right now with, like I mentioned before the supply chain stuff. Ge is always doing a million things at once. I think that project, although we’re super stoked on it and trying to make it happen, I think it’s just put a little bit by the wayside. But whenever I talk to Ge, it’s a topic.
Joan Hanscom:
That’s so funny. Well, we want him to do it. We want it to happen. I want him to break the record.
Chris Meacham:
We truly tried the best.
Joan Hanscom:
I know. It’s like, what can you do if you can’t get the tires to work? This is not exactly like current technology. We’re going in the way back machine to make this work.
Chris Meacham:
Right. That’s I think why we were so full of confidence. They’re like, what? They put these together in the 1800. How couldn’t we do it present day? I think we just kind of got caught like, oh wait, we don’t know this or we need to think about this a little bit longer.
Joan Hanscom:
That’s funny. Speaking of thinking about things and I’m going on the sidebar tangent. It’ll come back around somehow. You are a forensic engineer by day.
Chris Meacham:
Right. Yes.
Joan Hanscom:
What is a forensic engineer?
Chris Meacham:
Basically like accident reconstruction.
Joan Hanscom:
Okay.
Chris Meacham:
Basically with car accidents. I do bike accidents as well. Just trying to figure out why things happened, how they happened. Try to figure on them next time kind of thing. More specifically the human factors. Which is within the accident, the decision making that led to the accident. It would be more so like a psychology engineering type of thing.
Joan Hanscom:
You understand how interesting that is when you tie it back around into the goals you have so far expressed today.
Chris Meacham:
Right.
Joan Hanscom:
Don’t die.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Don’t crash.
Chris Meacham:
Right. So my life is-
Joan Hanscom:
You have a very complete picture.
Chris Meacham:
Right. I was totally the risk taker in college. Then when I got this job, I was like, okay, we need to reassess. I should stop taking risks. That was the first thing. Second thing, I really haven’t sorted that out yet. But when you’re surrounded by that stuff every day, nine hours, you go to hop on your bike and you’re like, well, maybe I should take the bike path. Maybe I should take this little side street that cuts off like a little section of highway that I would typically ride. It’s all these little modifications where I’m like, okay, rule number one. Don’t get hurt. What am I going to do now? I don’t know. It’s not maybe like more boring. I think I’m just like before I do things, I just think about it. What’s the goal here? I don’t know.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. That’s super interesting though. I love that. Because your goals make me laugh because they’re always what’s in my head. But your goals are coming from your profession. Your one profession is informing your passion, which is pretty cool actually. But yeah, it’s funny.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely want to perform at these races. I’ve always been, I don’t know, when I think about a gravel race, I think of a really rainy, disgusting road race that has a little dirt sections like that and something like that. I’ve always liked the type of race where you’re surviving, I guess. That always has appealed to me. It’s not risk taking, but more so just like not using the brakes and corners and stuff when you definitely know you’ll be okay.
Chris Meacham:
I think I’ve kind of thrived in those types of races. Not every time, but I’ve found that in the past I have kind of a mudder if you will. As far as like horse races. Yeah. From horse racing, I guess that’s how you would refer to me as. But like my best results in crits, definitely a rainy crit. Trying to think of other. Like that one year it rained at Bucks county. The crit that was fantastic. Just no brakes. Cutting the corners. Obviously I’m trying to do it safely, but at the same time, I’m like, well, if I’m passing all these people then and they crash, I’m passing them. So it’s okay. I will not crash.
Joan Hanscom:
What’s funny is, so gravel. Well, up to a certain point, I like hard conditions for gravel because I feel as though I’m very good at just putting my head down and plowing ahead. It’s more of a stubborn factor for me though than being gifted. But you could not catch me dead in a rainy crit anymore. I have an ex teammate who man, if it was a rainy crit, I knew she was going to win because she loved it. My teammate Katie, she’d be like, “It’s raining today. Today is my day.” She just loved it. I was like, oh, it’s raining today. I’m watching.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah, exactly. The first lap peel off like-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh no, not even that.
Chris Meacham:
I think some people… Oh geez. Yeah, Ge wears three different bass layers because he just knows he’s going to slide out of one term. Not knows, but he’s preparing for. He’s been racing for so long. But yeah, some people just put on a different set of lenses, metaphorically and physically when they start those races and it’s just like different bikers are just so cool.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah I get that way for the gravel thing. If it’s miserable up to a certain temperature that is, I can just be like, okay, sure. I can just grind it out. I get it for gravel. I don’t get it for crits. But did you do unpaved last year? No.
Chris Meacham:
No I didn’t. No.
Joan Hanscom:
It was miserable. That one was definitely-
Chris Meacham:
I didn’t miss anything, I don’t think.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. It was awesome day. It was a super fun. I had a stupid grin on my face the whole damn day.
Chris Meacham:
Oh that’s nice.
Joan Hanscom:
It was terrible conditions. Yeah. But it was-
Chris Meacham:
I had a few teammates who did it. They looked like they had been to war afterwards. I would love to do it this year. I don’t have the date in my mind. This summer I’ve just have so much crap. I’m literally getting married in July. There’s just-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh congratulations.
Chris Meacham:
Thank you. That’s the most important thing. I can’t miss that.
Joan Hanscom:
That goes against don’t die.
Chris Meacham:
Right, exactly. Yes. The fiance/wife would definitely kill me. But Wilderness 101 is that weekend. I usually try to get to that race. Horrible mountain bike race out by Penn State. Horrible is in very, very hard and fantastic. But anyways, it’s going to be a hectic year. Would love to do unpaved. Not sure when it is though. Also, all my friends are getting married, so it’s just a shitty time. June 4th. That sounds like a good time.
Joan Hanscom:
June 4th. Yeah. June 4th. There you go.
Chris Meacham:
All right.
Joan Hanscom:
Put it on the list. You never know. You might have a way in.
Chris Meacham:
It’s possible. We can talk about that when we sort out our schedule.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. What other ones? If your professional life allows for it and your wedding timing allows for it, what are the other events on your list that you’re looking at this year? Well this is a track podcast force and foremost. Elite track nationals are coming to T-Town. Going to do it or no?
Chris Meacham:
It’s hard not to.
Joan Hanscom:
I know the dates are TBD.
Chris Meacham:
Given the dates to be determined. Given my bike set up. Given those types of things, if they’re a 100% golden, then yeah. Because if it’s in T-Town, being supported by a sponsor of the track, I could not do it and they’re fun. Good quality racing crowd.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. Cool. Cool. Cool. You heard it here. If it works, Meacham’s doing nationals. We like it. What other events besides, are you looking at anything in the fall? Anything along the, I don’t know Iceman or any of those type events come the fall? Or is it Leadville and then the rest are all sort of added bonus?
Chris Meacham:
Right. Those, I have to sort out the logistics for those races. But I know Gravel Locos now has a race in Colorado. I know I got the text today that we’re going to go do that, which is going to be a lot of fun doing the Gravel Locos in Texas. Which is going to be fun. The day actually before a wedding that I’m in here. That’s going to be logistically fantastic. Then [Ruddicks 00:27:16] going to be great and I’d do that again. All these races going to be fantastic. I don’t have to specify. I’m going to do that. That’s going to be a lot of fun. That’s in Montana. I want to come out to a couple rides out in California. If you guys will have me, that would be a lot of fun.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah.
Chris Meacham:
Because I know there’s just a ton so, I can make at least one or two work.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. We want that. Plus you get to see some nice weather.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. That would be nice. Not humid. It’s either freezing or humid here.
Joan Hanscom:
I’m not going to try to make you feel bad, but it was 70 degrees today here and perfectly sunny and delightful. Now I say this, having we’ve gotten like 33 inches of rain since October 1st, so it has not been perfect weather here. But this weekend was delightful. I’ll take it. It has been delightful.
Chris Meacham:
How does the environment respond to that when it rains so much? Is it just a catastrophe or is it good?
Joan Hanscom:
Well, because we’re in a drought here, it’s really good. The reservoirs that have been below 50% are now up over 75%, which is amazing towards reducing the threat of drought. Up north or yeah, I guess north, Tahoe and the Sierras have gotten just literally 100s of inches of snow, which restoring that snow pack is incredibly important for the environment. Because as it melts, it’ll replenish all the stuff downstream of it that needs replenishing and really great for the groundwater and all that stuff.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s been funny, literally it’s been raining here for two months straight and not a soul complains about the weather. Because I think everybody here has such an appreciation that, oh, when this doesn’t happen, we have fires that ruin whole communities. I think everybody has that perspective of yeah, it’s raining, but we really need it. As a person who’s used to being on the east coast where everybody grumbles about the weather when it gets shitty, here it’s been raining every day and everybody’s like, woohoo, that’s good.
Joan Hanscom:
That’s been refreshing. But it does have impacts, like the roads here will wash out, because when you get 10 inches in one storm, you’ll have mudslides. You’ll have then stuff come out and wash out the roads. You can be doing a descent and then all of a sudden there’s a sign that says, wash out. You’re just like, oh there’s half the roads gone. You got to be careful of that kind of stuff. So yeah, it does have impacts. It’s definitely one of those things where 10 inches, 12 inches of rain falling at a pop, water always finds its way.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. That’s a lot. I was thinking though, well, it’d be better if it was spread out.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. A little bit more.
Chris Meacham:
But you’ll take it regardless.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. You want those nice long soaking rains that really sink in, not just flood. But I think they’ll take both here at this point because the drought’s been so bad. One of the places that I rode yesterday, I rode up the coast and then up this road called Swantan road and that’s one of the spots where there’s a big, huge burns scar. You can see where it’s that close to town where people lost everything. You do have that appreciation for how close to disaster you can come in the drought. So yeah, we don’t complain about the rain here.
Chris Meacham:
No, I wouldn’t neither. I used to have the training camps out there. Their team was based out of San Francisco. Because I would go from North Carolina, the high mountain, snowy winter to there. That was just beautiful. So nice.
Joan Hanscom:
Santa Cruz is nice because I’m three blocks from the ocean as we speak right now. But when I rode today, I was riding up in the Redwoods. Up in the hills and doing some serious climbing. It’s nice that it’s so close. You’re just like, oh ocean. Yesterday I rode along the coast. Today I rode up in the hills and it was pretty great.
Chris Meacham:
That’s awesome.
Joan Hanscom:
Bill complains about the training here.
Chris Meacham:
Good variation.
Joan Hanscom:
The invitation is always open. Come train.
Chris Meacham:
All right. Pack up my new gravel bike and head out there. That would be amazing.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. There you go.
Chris Meacham:
Cross my fingers I get fired and then I’ll come out [inaudible 00:31:31]. It’ll be amazing.
Joan Hanscom:
That is very against your risk of [inaudible 00:31:40], Chris.
Chris Meacham:
You’re right. That’s true. It’s kind of hypocritical, but regardless.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s funny. You’re working with Bill. How long have you been working with Bill?
Chris Meacham:
I guess I can answer that a few different ways. I started racing with him on EC Devo, which is a local track kind of team. Not anymore, but maybe in ’16 I think. It was the end of ’15 and then ’16. Since then, we’ve been kind of racing together and he would be give me training tips and stuff. But when COVID started and I was working from home a bunch, I kind of found myself just kind of like not doing anything specific riding wise. I reached out to Bill, he gave me some structure and that’s when formally he started coaching me, started working together.
Joan Hanscom:
Nice.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. It’s been fantastic ever since. Yeah. He’s very matter of fact.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. That is the truth.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. He’s fantastic. Love him obviously. I ask him a question, he answers it like I should have known this. I’m like, “Yeah, you’re right, Bill. I should’ve known that.
Joan Hanscom:
He’s been my coach since 2010, 11. I’ve worked with him-
Chris Meacham:
So you like him today?
Joan Hanscom:
I think when he does work. He’s the master of the dry delivery.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. Wish I like.
Joan Hanscom:
I do too. But sometimes it’s hilarious. It is. Sometimes you just feel like you’re like, oh duh. Yeah. I should have known that. I’ll ask him a question about something and he’ll be like, “Yeah, that’s because you were doing this.” I’m like, oh right. He does do the dumb slap after a while.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. If I would’ve asked him if it was a good or bad thing that it’s raining in California, he’d be like, “It’s a good thing, moving on.” I’d be like, “All right, sir.” Yeah. That’s my kind of humor, is the dry sarcasm. We work out well. He’s always excited to hear what my new goal is or new like, oh, I want to do this. Tell me how to do that kind of thing. So yeah. It’s cool.
Joan Hanscom:
Well, it’s good it’s a new challenge for him too. I think for him, it’s sorting out the puzzle too. Like, all right, well, how do I break this one down and get him where he needs to be to do it? I think.
Chris Meacham:
Right.
Joan Hanscom:
Of course, Bill, you can’t get a better coach for somebody to do a distance event. Something long, like a gravel event since that’s his wheel house. Yeah. You’re in good hands.
Chris Meacham:
I’ll regularly do these rides. He doesn’t have a Strava and so no one really knows how much he rides. I think he does that on purpose, like it’s a secret thing. I’ll add it up in my head. He’s well, “I rode here and then I went back here and I did this group ride.” I’m thinking about it. I’m like, he did 140 miles today. That’s crazy. Just on a Saturday. He’s a monster.
Joan Hanscom:
He likes the distance. But it’s funny because we were talking the other day and I’m a volume person. Which is what I’ve struggled with since I got here. My volume is way down since I moved out here just because of structure of work and hours and not knowing the roads. Plus it’s like a lot of vertical here. You just can’t ride as long because you’re climbing forever. He’s like, “I rode 14 kilometers more than you this week.” That’s when I knew I doomed.
Joan Hanscom:
Because he might do this, smash out the 140 mile ride. But then he doesn’t ride the other day. He rides twice a week or something. I was like, oh shit. If Bill’s doing more kilometers a week than I am, I am hosed. I am [inaudible 00:35:38]. I was not excited when he gave me that little nugget. I was like, oh no, now you’ve got to increase my volume.
Chris Meacham:
Right. Yeah. I think he was the right person to talk to when I was like, okay, so I have these slightly ambitious goals and I also work. So get me there in like three or four days a week. He’s like, “Done. Got it. That’s easy.”
Joan Hanscom:
There you go.
Chris Meacham:
Cool.
Joan Hanscom:
Sweet. What else? You’re getting married in July.
Chris Meacham:
Yep. That’s going to be fun.
Joan Hanscom:
Is it local or are you doing somewhere else?
Chris Meacham:
Yeah, actually it’s on the Delaware. Do you remember the Bucks county classic road race?
Joan Hanscom:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Oh yeah.
Chris Meacham:
It went down 32, that river road. There was a sprint point right in front of the hotel, right on the river. I’m getting married at that hotel. It’s called the Black Bass.
Joan Hanscom:
Sweet. Oh nice.
Chris Meacham:
Sort of bike race relevant or I like to think so.
Joan Hanscom:
There you go. What else do you want us to know Chris? What else is going on? How’s Brian?
Chris Meacham:
Brian’s fantastic as always. I don’t know how he does everything. He works at a youth center right now. He always has worked at a youth center. Just with all the craziness going on right now, I think he’s going to pull the rest of his hair out. Just because every time I talk to him, he’s like, “I don’t know how I’m doing it.” I think he works like 70 hours this week. He’s another crazy person that works too much.
Joan Hanscom:
We at the T-Town love Brian. He’s such a believer in the track. He just believes and he does so much to try to send people to the track. He’s one of those guys in the community that you need like 10 million more of them because they’re just believers of supporting and getting people out to racing and enabling people to race. I think what Brian does is terrific. He’s all about enabling people to race, as far as I can tell. I think that’s pretty rad.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. When someone tells him that he can’t do something, he continues to try to do it until there’s a literal brick wall in front of them and he can’t try any harder. He is like, ‘Okay, it’s right. I can’t do it.”
Joan Hanscom:
What about Ge? Besides Ge ridings with now, because it’s winter, are you going to bring Ge on any of your adventures next year?
Chris Meacham:
I would like that. We were talking about this mountain bike race. It’s across some, I think like a Caribbean island or something. I’m blanking on. I don’t know. But he’s like, “In two years we need to do this mountain bike race. You need to have a partner and let’s do this together.” I’m like, “Ge, that sounds right up my alley. Such an adventure. Let’s do it.” That’s the most adventurous thing that Ge and I have planned.
Chris Meacham:
However, with Matt and Moose Packs, he’s always looking for a reason to get out. We were kind of planning a bike packing trip hopefully either north of me or south of him. He’s in Austin, I’m in Doylestown. We would try to go to Niagara falls-ish from here. I’m trying to talk him into going from Austin to Mexico. But he’s like, “We’re not riding our bikes to Mexico.” I mean it could be fun. It could be-
Joan Hanscom:
I’m going back to the first dated goal today, don’t die.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. That’s what everyone’s telling me. I’m like, “There’s nice parts of Mexico. What are you talking about?”
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, there are, beautiful. But there was a couple of cyclists, pro cyclists that had a very bad and scary time. That’s of course where what I’m referencing. But-
Chris Meacham:
Oh geez. That’s what I’m trying to get better at the social media thing and trying to become sort of a storyteller sort of, but in my own way. I’m trying to figure that out. I would try to do that on this bike packing-ish trip over a long distance with Matt. That would be, really, really looking forward to that. Just kind of no structure. Just going to have fun with friends. That’s another thing I’m looking forward to.
Joan Hanscom:
That sounds so fun. The notion of being able to just go explore by bike. I have a really good friend of mine did a trip. They started in Canada and then they went across, I think they finished in Montana. But it was this cool thing. They started in BC and then they went across the west. But up high, like along the Canadian border. It seemed like the coolest trip ever. They were fully self supported. They did it in a small group. But they had a lot of things strapped to their bikes.
Joan Hanscom:
Including things like cans of bear spray. While I may not want to do something like that, where there are things that could eat you, it sounded super fun. She said, the people they met along the way were just amazing. Everybody wanted to help them. Everybody was like, “Oh yeah, here let us get you some food or whatever.” They faced some real challenges. Things went sideways at certain points. I don’t remember if it was weather or mechanic issues or both.
Joan Hanscom:
But she said, people were just amazingly nice and supportive and helpful when they needed the help. It seemed like not only was it an adventure by bike where they saw some amazing stuff, but it almost like restored their faith in humanity. I was like, “Okay, that’s rad.” If you could face adversity and have your faith in humanity restored at the same time, that’s pretty cool. Yeah. You just have to see where you end up going.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. I think when regular people see someone, I feel like they see it as like a disadvantaged person when they see someone out on a bike and they want to help them. But when they see someone equally, it’s a normal thing, so they don’t want to help a regular person. But I follow this guy on Instagram, that’s walking around the world. He shares very similar experiences. Everyone wants to help him. Because they’re like, oh, this poor guy is walking around the world. He must be exhausted. I don’t know. That’s kind of cool. Makes me have faith in people.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. It’s kind of cool that people… I think you’re right. I like that you use like normal people. Normal people don’t understand riding your bike for 1,000 miles. They are just like, they don’t ride their bike 10 miles. It’s sort of interesting to tap into what people’s perceptions of human capacity are. Which is funny. Starla Teddergreen who I mentioned earlier, she’s doing an interesting project that I won’t spill the beans on.
Joan Hanscom:
But it’s really about helping people find their edges and push their limits to. Having people sort of set audacious goals for themselves and then how do you find that limit? How do you push yourself? It’s really kind of cool what she’s doing. Stay tuned for her fun announcement. You should follow her on Instagram. Because she’s going to have some cool stuff coming up. It’s just about that same thing about how she’s using the bike to sort define what her limits are.
Joan Hanscom:
How far she can push her body. But she’s also doing it to help some other people do it. I think our limits are farther than we know. I think that’s what people who are doing things like giving the guy who’s walking around the earth food or helping him out. Because it’s so far outside of what average people think are our limits. That it’s like this automatic respect kicks in of wow. So much respect for doing something that I can’t even conceive of. Your big bike trip, it could be audacious. It could be pushing the limits. It’s kind of cool.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. Also, if we inspire other people to go ride their bike. For example, you see like this crazy Tour de France stage when it’s like a sprint, like it’s crazy, everyone’s bumping shoulders. Regular cyclists are not going to have that type of experience ever. But if they see a video of some people, like guys just going out riding their bikes together, having fun, that’s a thing that’s very attainable and they could go out and do it right now. I think people relate and get a lot more excited about those types of movies and that type of content. I’d love to be part of that.
Joan Hanscom:
Where you could see yourself. To your point, I cannot see myself sprinting with Mark Cavendish on the [inaudible 00:44:16] but I can see myself doing some adventures by bike. Whether that be a gravel bike or just doing something on a mountain bike that I didn’t think I could do. I think there’s a lot of ways to again, push those limits of what you think is possible for you. I think what’s interesting is COVID is such an opportunity for that.
Joan Hanscom:
People do discover the joy of outside and hopefully when the weather gets nicer, you too, Chris will discover the joy of outside again. But I think now is the right time for people to be inspired by something like that. Because they’re outdoor curious or they’ve rediscovered going outside themselves. For people who hadn’t for so long and then in COVID they discovered hiking or they discovered riding their bikes again.
Joan Hanscom:
They’ve dug their bikes out of the basement that they hadn’t touched in years. They’re like, oh, okay, I’m doing this bike thing. Oh, well, this guy’s doing that. I can do that. I think people are looking for that now, whereas they may not have been previously. It’s kind of cool. So yeah. We’ll have to follow along with your biking adventures on your banging new URS.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. I would love to talk more about it. I think we could make some cool stuff. Or I could just go on really cool bike rides. We don’t even have to make anything. Either way, I’m stoked.
Joan Hanscom:
Either way it works. Either way you have it by bike.
Chris Meacham:
A benefit for me. So I’m happy.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. Right on. Right on.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Well this has been thoroughly enjoyable catch up. It’s nice to talk to people in the off season when the, I don’t know. January is always when everything seems possible for the coming race season. You haven’t had a shitty race start yet. You haven’t had events get canceled yet. You haven’t crashed like everything. Everything in January is like blank slate. Everything is possible and wonderful and shiny. Usually there’s a new bike and new kit and you’re just like, yes, here I come.
Chris Meacham:
Nothing can go wrong.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah. People have the optimism. They adversity stuff hasn’t kicked in yet. So you’re always feeling like the bright, shiny, new hope and potential of the new season. That’s a nice time to talk to folks and get caught up and hear what you want to do. Last year this time, we had Elspeth Huyett on and she was talking about how she wanted to win her national championships. Then lo and behold nine months later we had her back on the pod and she done the thing. That’s super cool.
Chris Meacham:
That’s awesome.
Joan Hanscom:
So hopefully you are our Elspeth this year. You’ve said, you have big goals for Leadville and hopefully that all comes to fruition and we talk to you next September. You tell us all about how great Leadville was.
Chris Meacham:
That would be awesome.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah.
Chris Meacham:
Hopefully I have more definitive goals by then.
Joan Hanscom:
Well, I imagine they will emerge. They will evolve. But it’s been delightful to have you on and have a catch up and please tell Brian we say hello and he and the whole crew.
Chris Meacham:
Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate your time.
Joan Hanscom:
So for all the Talk of the T-Town listeners, keep your eyes out for Chris Meacham. He’s going to be doing the track thing, the gravel thing, the mountain bike thing. It’s going to be doing all the bike things. So yeah, come out to the track on a Friday night and cheer for Chris and then follow along on his blue dot when he’s racing in Leadville. We’ll cheer for you all season along, Chris. It’s been super good to catch up and I’m sure you and I will be talking more offline about BMC things as they emerge.
Chris Meacham:
Absolutely.
Joan Hanscom:
Cool. Right on.
Chris Meacham:
Awesome. Thanks.
Joan Hanscom:
So this has been the Talk of the T-Town podcast with our guest, Chris Meacham. If you like the pod, please give us a like, a share, click all the stars, the hearts, the likes. It helps us grow the podcast and helps more people find us. Please help us grow. Thanks Chris.
Chris Meacham:
Thanks. Bye.
Joan Hanscom:
Bye. I hope you don’t get the COVID. Don’t die.
Chris Meacham:
Yeah. Thank you. You too. Keep it healthy.
Joan Hanscom:
Bye.
Chris Meacham:
Bye. Bye.
Joan Hanscom:
Bye. Thank you for listening. This has been the Talk of the T-Town podcast. I’m your host, Joan Hanscom. Thank you for joining us for this week’s episode. Head over to our website @thevelodrome.com where you can check out the show notes and subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode.