Episode 44
“I want to make what I love. I want to work in what I love. And what I love is just cycling.”
This week’s podcast guest has arguably the best hair T-Town has ever seen. Join Joan this week as she sits down with Clever Martinez to discuss his racing season for track and crit, his goats (yes, you read that right– goats!), Clever Athletes, and his new merchandise line.
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.
Joan Hanscom:
Welcome to the Talk of the T-Town podcast. I’m your host, Joan Hanscom. And I’m very happy to have with us this week a very talented and well, multi-talented bike racer, Clever Martinez. Welcome to the show. We’re thrilled you joined us. For our listeners, Clever, you are a road racer, a crit racer, a track racer, and a man of many talents. So welcome to the podcast. We’re thrilled to have you.
Clever Martinez:
Thank you. I’m really happy to be here and thank you for having me.
Joan Hanscom:
So, Clever, you are from Venezuela?
Clever Martinez:
Yes, that’s right.
Joan Hanscom:
When did you arrive in the US? What brought you here?
Clever Martinez:
So I came here last year. Well, first of all, I’m sorry my English is not perfect. I’m trying to learn. I’m still learning.
Joan Hanscom:
You’re doing great.
Clever Martinez:
I’ll try to do my best.
Joan Hanscom:
You’re doing great.
Clever Martinez:
So I came here last year to race this crit season, but because of pandemic and all that problem, we were not able to race any of it. So I got stuck here because all those airports shut down and nobody was able to leave or enter the country for months. And I just decided to stay here and try to give my best shot to this year. And here we are.
Joan Hanscom:
I’d say you had a pretty successful season. You raced here at the track in the UCI racing, where you were definitely a factor in the races here. But if my quick scan of road results tells me anything, you also did Tour of America’s Dairyland and Intelli Cup, which is my favorite week of racing in America. I lived in Chicago for many years and that was always my absolute favorite week of the year was Intelli Cup.
Joan Hanscom:
So you had some great results there. You raced in Florida. You’ve raced all over the east coast this year. So I think road results shows 44 different road events that you took part in. You had some great results. What’s your favorite? I’m putting you on the spot. What’s your favorite race? Right on the spot.
Clever Martinez:
That’s a hard one. But I think I really enjoyed so much to race in Wisconsin, Tour of America’s Dairyland. I think that’s what I enjoyed most because it was a great result for me and the guys and it was special, because that was the first time ever I raced a stage race here in US. And I think that one and I got to say Cry Baby Hill, Tulsa Tough, Oklahoma is so crazy. It’s just unbelievable. I love it.
Joan Hanscom:
So I’ve lived all over the place in the US. I’ve lived on the east coast. I’ve lived in Colorado. I’ve lived in Chicago. So I’ve lived everywhere but the far west coast, and crit racing in the Midwest, so whether it’s Wisconsin or Chicago or Oklahoma, crit racing in the Midwest is absolutely the best thing ever.
Joan Hanscom:
People, they have lawn parties, they set up in front of their house. They decorate, they do all the stuff and it’s so much fun. And as a bike racer, there’s nothing more energizing than having people the whole way around the course just losing their minds cheering.
Clever Martinez:
It’s a huge thing. I mean, it’s a community. They have these races for decades or years or whatever. And I think it’s part of their culture.
Joan Hanscom:
I like that Legion is putting an emphasis on making crit racing a thing again, because in America I think crit racing is our bread and butter. It’s what our athletes excel at. It’s what our communities allow us to have. We don’t have the opportunity to do big road races, like a Paris-Roubaix here. The US people aren’t so keen on shutting down the roads for big, long road races in that way. So we have crits and we do them really well. But when they’re done really well, they’re so fun.
Joan Hanscom:
And I think I saw you race, Maura and I both, Maura here on the pod, we were at the Eastern crit, which was super good to see here. Another new crit coming online, a Twilight crit, it was fun. Did you have fun at Eastern?
Clever Martinez:
Absolutely. That was a fast one. And I think that the course was perfect and people all around the course and that was special.
Joan Hanscom:
Pretty great for a first time event to have that success off the bat. But you were here racing on the track. So tell us about racing on the track, because this is after all a track podcast. So tell us how your track season went?
Clever Martinez:
To be honest, my first reason, I wanted to be here the most because of I wanted to race track, not because of crit. I’ve never raced crit in my life. This is my first season ever racing crit, but I’ve been racing my whole life track. So I stay here because of the T-Town track season. And because of T-Town season, UCI season is a month long and I got to do something before and after. I got to keep doing something and I did crits.
Clever Martinez:
But the main reason for me at least was to be able to stay here and race track because, you’re not asking me, but so many teams are reaching out and asking me for race. What’s my plan for next year, blah, blah, blah. When you come race with us and blah, blah. So every single time I told them, well, my main goal is to make it to Olympics Paris 2024 and whatever the schedule, the race schedule that you guys have, I don’t want to be 100% in it because I wanted to be able to race track.
Clever Martinez:
And the biggest one for me at least is here in T-Town because it’s close to home. It’s the closest one, close. I’m an hour away from the track and then after that an American championship, south American games and all that stuff that come after that. And that’s to be honest, my main goal for next year, track. And I did enjoy a lot. It’s just make me happy to race track here and to be able to share races and that could community in T-Town is just beautiful.
Joan Hanscom:
Well, we were definitely glad to have you here too. You brought a lot of really great energy to the track this summer, which we all appreciated because the staff, it was long hours with nationals championship on top of UCI. And so to have a happy smiling face who was happy to be racing on the track made for us to be feel good too.
Joan Hanscom:
But it’s exciting to hear that that’s your focus for 24. I think the track season for next schedule, our UCI dates were in before May 1st. So we have C2s and C1s because the rule changes for track next year by the UCI. So we’ve got more racing on schedule for next year. And we are very hopeful that with the COVID thing, more athletes who are normally here, because what we had here this summer was not a normal T-Town summer where we didn’t have Australia, we didn’t have New Zealand. We didn’t have any of the European folks here.
Joan Hanscom:
We’re hoping that next year we go back to something that looks more like a normal T-Town summer post-COVID. And the level of competition will be smoking hot. We still had great competition this summer. It just wasn’t as many athletes. So hopefully in 2022, God, I can’t even keep track of the years anymore. Hopefully 2022, we go back to looking a bit more like our normal UCI block, but we definitely want to have you here and be part of that.
Joan Hanscom:
So, for a person you said who’s never raced crits before you seem to take to them quite well.
Clever Martinez:
I think every time I lined up in a race, I will try to do my best, even if it’s not my special. I think crits went very well for me this year.
Joan Hanscom:
Yes. I’d say so. You got a fast finish on you there, Clever. Clever can sprint as we saw a lot, which was great. You definitely raised the level of competition locally, for sure, which was fantastic. There was some good battles out there on the road this year.
Joan Hanscom:
But then, because you have a great Instagram feed, so we’ll put that in the show notes for people to check out your Instagram feed if they don’t follow you already. I reached out to you because I saw you made a post about you were going to pursue a project or projects that you had been thinking about for a while and you’re wearing a hat that says Clever on it. So we have, I think, a line of Clever merchandise and then a Clever coaching product. So tell us about your plans here, Clever, because it’s pretty interesting.
Clever Martinez:
So this is a project that I’ve been thinking about two, three years I’ve been thinking and thinking and thinking. But it came down to the time that I was waiting to that moment to be perfect to get ready to have everything ready to offer. And I think that will be never it’s going to be perfect. Never ever you’re going to have something perfect to offer. So I took a step and I just show the logo and the idea, the global idea to the world and I was expecting feedback. I wasn’t expecting that huge feedback that I had. So many people reach out and told me, “Oh, you got my support and whatever you have in mind, just let me know, whatever.” And I think that’s what I needed.
Clever Martinez:
Okay, now I know people like the idea and that made me focus more in everything about it. So basically right now, it’s quite little merchandise offer for public, but I’m working right now in the design of a couple of collections that not just merchandise, caps or shirts or shorts or whatever, but in cycling apparel.
Clever Martinez:
And then after that, not just cycling apparel, but also all everything that any cyclists need. For example, if you think in bicycles, so what I want to do is okay, if I need a bicycle, okay, Clever has a bicycle. That website has bicycles to offer. If I need to fix my bicycle, Clever fix bicycles. So whatever I need, a helmet, a kit, even coaching. It’s like a hub.
Clever Martinez:
So I was thinking, so too much people work in those works that they hate. And I want to make what I love. I want to work in what I love. And what I love is just cycling. It’s not hard for me to be involved in cycling every day, all day long. And I think this is a step by step project, slowly but surely. And I think for next year, this is going to be something real for me and to help people.
Joan Hanscom:
You’re off to a great start because it’s really eye-catching. You know how you go through Instagram and you do this, you scroll real fast. And I was like, “Woo, go back.” It’s really eye-catching. So I think you’re onto something. And then I showed it to Maura and I think Maura agreed. We both were just like, “Oh, wait, that’s something.” It definitely had that stop your scroll, go back and look again factor, which doesn’t happen very often. You’re pretty much just scrolling. So I think you’re into something there, which is pretty exciting.
Joan Hanscom:
And I know I told Maura that I’ll be getting out my credit card and shopping to support because I thought it was pretty rad and it’s great. So, I will proudly fly the Clever flag on my head. It’s terrific. Talk about the coaching a little bit. Talk about the coaching plans.
Clever Martinez:
So back in Venezuela, when I was living in Venezuela, I used to be high school coach. So I worked in Venezuela eight years in high school being a coach, a cycling coach. So I was part of the development program, but at the same time I got my own business apart. And I used to coach people and I used to do all these, I don’t know how to say in English, but I used to coach and I’m trying to learn English because this another country and to coach someone, you need to at least be able to say what you need to say.
Clever Martinez:
But not just me and along my career, I had pretty good coaches that stick around, that today I keep talking with them and I keep asking for advice and I think I want to involve them and a couple of them speak, not just Spanish but English and Portuguese. And I think here in United States, that will be a good thing to do if I can catch some people to help. I don’t want to sell something just to make money.
Clever Martinez:
But if you follow the season and if you follow the results and if you see Clever at the top every race or doing something good, at least. So a lot of people started to wonder, dude, this guy is doing something good. He’s doing something different. And a lot of people reach out, “Hey, I want on the bikes, I want to blah, blah, blah.” So that’s why I think that’s a good idea. And not just me, like I told you, I don’t want to be the biggest coach in America, but I have a pretty good team to put the work and I think that will work properly.
Joan Hanscom:
I have to ask, do you coach your wife? Because your wife is, I love how she races. So I raced against her.
Clever Martinez:
Well, that’s a good question because she’s been asking me for coaching the whole season and to be honest, I didn’t. But I got to say she has been working out with me every single day since last year.
Joan Hanscom:
So we’re doomed is what you’re saying? The rest of us ladies, we’re doomed.
Clever Martinez:
So, the fact that she’s following me and try to do the same amount of work that I’m doing, of course in her level, in her power zones and that make her to do great this season. And this is her first time ever racing bikes. She never raced bikes before, until this season.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, that’s depressing for me. Now I’m depressed.
Clever Martinez:
She’s already got three. And she needs eight points. I don’t know how that works. That point to upgrade.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s complicated.
Clever Martinez:
She needs eight points, eight more points to upgrade.
Joan Hanscom:
She’s fun to race against though, because she’s very aggressive. She doesn’t sit back and just have a tea party. She goes for it, which makes it more fun to race against.
Clever Martinez:
Yes, because she doesn’t have that skills to keep herself safe in the pack, close to each other and she needs to, or even go away. But she feels that pressure to be close to each other because she never raced before. And that’s scary for her, that huge packs. But she’s going to get used to.
Joan Hanscom:
Yes. Well, she was really aggressive in the races I did with her, which was, like I said, it was really fun for the rest of us because sometimes it can be just a little bit of a tea party and she definitely doesn’t race that way. So if you’re rubbing off on her, that’s good. The Clever method. We’ll call it the Clever method, which is awesome.
Joan Hanscom:
See, this is material you can use, Clever. So going back, so your plan is to stay here next year and race a whole bunch on the track, to fill in with crits where you can. Did you end up signing with a team or are you going stay with a group you’re with now? Or what’s your plan?
Clever Martinez:
Yes. Like I told you, I’ve been talking with all those teams that have been reaching out. And I think, I can’t say who’s my team for next year yet. I think because I haven’t signed it yet. But I still have a couple of contracts on the table and I’m pretty much settled for next year. But I think I can’t say anything yet, because I haven’t signed. I don’t know how these work. This is my first time.
Joan Hanscom:
Best not to say anything until ink’s on paper, but we’ll have to stay tuned. We’ll follow along and wait for the big announcement to see where you land next year. But you’re going to come back to the track, which is good. Which is very good.
Maura Buettel:
We’re certainly happy to have you back.
Joan Hanscom:
And then you never know, maybe we’ll have you do some coaching here at the track. Who knows? See, there’s opportunity there, Clever. Very good, seem thinking. I like it.
Clever Martinez:
I’m taking notes.
Joan Hanscom:
So about the merchandise, which is very clever, not to make a bad pun. But is it available now? Can people go on your website and shop now?
Clever Martinez:
It is, absolutely. It is, so I think none of the athletes or at least cyclists have a ton of money to just go to and I don’t know, make a ton of merchandise and sitting on your house and then put it in the market. But my first step and I’m starting with this drop shipping business model. So everything that you see in the website, in the store, it’s available. So when you buy something, that order needs to be fulfilled and it takes a little longer than normal because every order is make it by the time you buy. So every piece of merchandise that is right now in the store needs to make, it needs to be printed, needs to be embroidered and it takes at least five days to make it and then ship it. But everything that you see in the store, cleverathletes.com, it’s available right now.
Joan Hanscom:
Now I like the logo. So did you design the logo or did somebody design it for you?
Clever Martinez:
No, I’m not an a designer. So I had an idea and I reached out to my friends in Venezuela that I know they’re pretty good at design and I told them, I want to do this and this is my idea, blah, blah, blah. And then they came out with this and I would just love it. Perfect.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s real good. So tell us your inspiration. Tell us what you were looking for when you did it, what you asked them for.
Clever Martinez:
So I told him I wanted to make a logo for a project that I had in mind and they asked me, “Okay, what do you want to do? What do you want to sell? What do you want to blah, blah.” And then I told them I want to make a apparel collection and then this and then that. I told them about the coaching stuff and all that. And so they asked me for how do you get there? And why are you there and what are your plans? What’s for next year? And what’s for the future?
Clever Martinez:
And after I told them how did I get here and blah, blah. And they came out with these Cometa. I don’t know how to say. You know this space stuff that comes close to the earth every-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, like a comet?
Clever Martinez:
Comet. Okay. Like the comet. So everyone who has friends that came here and try to do something, they’re doing this, but it’s slow, but you went there and you’re already doing this and you’re already doing that. And have a plan and that’s quick, that’s this guy came from nowhere and then it’s a light-
Joan Hanscom:
I love it.
Clever Martinez:
And I was like, yes, well if you say so. Yes, that’s how I came and I just love it.
Joan Hanscom:
I love that. I love understanding the inspiration behind it, because like I said before, it’s super eye-catching. And so to understand the thought process behind it is super cool.
Clever Martinez:
They gave me actually a book that has all this history that I just told you. And why is this? Why the color, why the perspective and all that stuff?
Joan Hanscom:
So all your brand guidelines. Nice. There’s clever brand standards. I like it. That’s awesome. That’s so great.
Joan Hanscom:
So what else do you want our listeners to know, Clever? What should our listener base know about you?
Clever Martinez:
Well, I want you guys to know that I’m really happy to be here. I’m really happy to share this conversation with you guys. I’m so grateful.
Joan Hanscom:
Clever, do you live on a farm?
Clever Martinez:
I live in a farm, yes.
Joan Hanscom:
That’s amazing, because your Instagram feed, there’s you and goats or you and sheep.
Clever Martinez:
Yes, we got 12 sheep.
Joan Hanscom:
Wow. I love it.
Clever Martinez:
Yesterday I was training far away from here and I saw a sign in another farm, baby goats for sale. And it was like, what? And I’ve been following this Instagram page that have all these baby goats stories and reels. And I just love them. And yes, that’s a job. That’s a thing. To have sheeps and goats and everything. Take care of them.
Joan Hanscom:
That’s awesome.
Clever Martinez:
Yes, it’s a pretty cool farm and it’s cool because I used to live. So when I first came here, I was living in Florida and then I came up New York and I was in Queens. That’s New York City. And I was living there seven, eight months. Well, no, about a year. I was in Queens about a year. And then I came here to New Jersey Warren Township and it’s just us.
Clever Martinez:
It’s just where I came from in Venezuela, I used to live, not in a farm, but in a farm town. And this is just where I came from. It’s, “Oh, I’m home. Now I’m home.” And I love it because you find traffic light every, I don’t know, 10 miles here.
Joan Hanscom:
I was going to say the riding is much better than in Queens.
Clever Martinez:
Yes. Absolutely. You can ride 50 miles without traffic lights. And in Queens, you’re going to stop every, I don’t know, two minutes because of the traffic light. And that’s just beautiful. I love it. I love to be able live here.
Joan Hanscom:
So have you seen there’s an Instagram feed for, do you know who Thibaut Pinot is? He’s a French world tour rider and his Instagram feed is Thibaut Pinot and his goats. So you’re not the only bike racer who likes goats. Thibaut Pinot has goats and you’ll have to follow along with his goatly adventures because he too is-
Clever Martinez:
I’m following.
Joan Hanscom:
So Clever’s got his sheep, Thibaut’s got his goats, but it’s awesome. I have to say, your Instagram feed is delightful because it is sheep running around and Farmer Clever.
Clever Martinez:
And we had a baby sheep. It’s called Cliff, little Cliff. He’s just crazy. And he just learned how to eat from the grass and the feed and he just can’t stop. And his belly is the double of him. He can’t stop. It’s crazy how-
Joan Hanscom:
Cliff’s going to need a diet. So back way back a million years ago, when I was in grammar school or middle school, my mother sent me to a class about weaving, textile class. And so we had to make yarn from we sheared the sheep ourselves in class. And then we took it and we spun the wool into, we dyed it with flowers and then we spun it into wool. And then we did weavings with it. It was really cool to go step by step from actual on the sheep to making a thing. But shearing a sheep is not easy. Do you have to do that or do you have somebody else do that? Shearing a sheep is hard. They’re wiggly little creatures.
Clever Martinez:
No, I don’t do that. No.
Joan Hanscom:
Okay. It’s hard. Speaking as someone who’s done it, it’s not easy.
Clever Martinez:
I’ll try.
Joan Hanscom:
There you go. Now the challenge has been issued, go out and try to shear your sheep. It is not easy. They are very wiggly little creatures. I’ve done it. And also it is smelly.
Clever Martinez:
Yes. Tell me about it. We clean that barn every week. Crazy.
Joan Hanscom:
That’s so funny. Well, Clever, it’s been a delight to have you on the show. We’ll have you back next year when you’re here racing and we can get you on live and in person here when you’re at the track and do a live in person version of the pod.
Joan Hanscom:
But we wanted to share out with everybody that you’re doing cool things and you’re not just fun to watch race bikes, but you’re actually doing some great stuff. And we wish you all the best with the merchandise and with the coaching and with aggregating all the rest of it, because I think you’re onto something. And so thank you for coming on and spending this time with us. It was delightful to have you.
Clever Martinez:
No, please. It was my completely pleasure to be here and share with this conversation with you guys. I just so amazed. And by the way, this is my first time ever doing something like this.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, right on. Well, we are glad that we got to be your first podcast. We’re going to put all the links to your stuff in our show notes. And so we’ll get the word out about the very clever merchandise and we’ll drive some sales for you. Thank you again for being on.
Joan Hanscom:
This has been the Talk of the T-Town podcast with our guest, Clever Martinez. Make sure you check out his Instagram feed and all the good stuff that we will have for you in our show notes. If you enjoyed the show, please give us a like or hearts or thumbs up or stars, wherever you consume your pod. Thanks for listening. Bye-bye.
Joan Hanscom:
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 at thevelodrome.com where you can check out the show notes and subscribe so you’ll never miss an episode.