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Grant Koontz: Raising the Level

Grant Koontz

Episode 67

“The whole level is being raised by a specific few individuals, and I hope to be one of them, that kind of helps raise the level of all of North American track cycling.”

This week’s guest is another that joined us for a large block of racing in T-Town this summer, and he’s another athlete with a great haircut. This week, Maura sits down with Grant Koontz and talks how Grant found cycling, his aspirations to represent Team USA on the Olympic level, racing at the UCI Track Champions League, what’s next, and much more!

Instagram: @rakoooontz/

Website: https://findtheroadlesstraveled.wordpress.com/


Grant Koontz
Grant Koontz with Pete Taylor – Star Track

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

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. Hi everybody. Welcome back to this week’s episode of Talk of the T-Town. I’m your host Maura Beuttel, and our guest this week is someone that I am lucky enough to consider a friend, have gotten to know this past summer. He spent a large time of it racing here with us before heading out and racing across the world, and I’m sure he is very happy to tell us about his experience with that while he’s on the pod. So without further ado, our guest this week is Grant Koontz. Thanks for coming on the pod, Grant.

Grant Koontz:

Yeah, appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

Maura Beuttel:

Oh yeah, anytime. So we’re doing this over Zoom, and Grant is out in Colorado and I’m here in our lovely studio in Trexler Town. So it’s a little colder and snowier out there. I imagine you’re spending lots of hours inside on the trainer and not out in the snow.

Grant Koontz:

Yeah. I’ve ridden probably six times on the trainer this week, and it’s been just really cold and now it actually wasn’t that snowy until last night and now it’s like 10 below zero and eight inches of snow. So yeah, more trainer time coming.

Maura Beuttel:

Yay. I know we love that. But yeah, so thanks for taking time out of your busy training schedule to come on the pod and sit down and chat. So I know from getting to know you over the summer and whatnot, you didn’t necessarily start out with cycling. You started out doing a couple other things. So if you kind of want to give us a little bit of background about yourself and how you found yourself to be in the sport that you are now.

Grant Koontz:

Yeah, so I grew up in Texas, so I wasn’t super familiar with cycling. I’m not from a cycling family or anything, so I just grew up playing ball sports, soccer, baseball, basketball, football. I was a swimmer and then eventually… I basically didn’t hit puberty until I was probably 16. So I quit football and all the sports that required height and all the sports that I actually loved and decided to try to find some sports that small people could play because I was convinced that I was just going to stay small my whole life.

So yeah, basically I quit all the ball sports, I quit football, I started diving and I started cycling. So those were the two sports that I kind of picked up. And it was also not a coincidence that both of those were Olympic sports. The Olympics has always been an allure for me, and that was my opportunity, kind of a breaking point to pursue that dream, or at least get it started.

Maura Beuttel:

Right. So now obviously you’re pursuing that Olympic dream in track cycling, but you didn’t start out on the track, right?

Grant Koontz:

No, no. I started out on the road and we actually did have a track, but I’m from Houston, so we have Alkek there, and I rode that track one time when I was kind of coming up just for fun, and I have a mostly road centered background. When I went to college, I tried to make it my goal actually to race every discipline at the national level. And so I went to Mountain Bike Nationals and got my butt kicked and I went to Cycle Cross Nationals and got my butt kicked. And Road Nationals was a little different and I won my first national title in a collegiate race in Road Nationals in 2015 I think. And so that was kind of what made me realize that I could potentially have a future in the sport.

Maura Beuttel:

Right. Then you eventually made your way over to riding around in circles.

Grant Koontz:

Yeah, yeah. It actually didn’t happen until 2019, and I had just done pretty well at the Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas. And Clay, the old national team coach had me into one of the talent ID camps in April. Honestly it’s kind of serendipitous because I was on probably the best form I’ve ever been on, and I came into the camp and looked special. So the rest is history, basically. I started training with the national team shortly after that and at the time I didn’t have a road contract, so it all fell into place. I’ve kind of been pursuing track cycling ever since then. But I raced probably half of the 2019 season and trained at the national team and then Covid hit, and so I didn’t race for almost two years and then had my comeback at nationals last year.

Maura Beuttel:

Yeah, no, certainly. You had a great season with us this summer racing UCI and racing nationals here. I mean, I know we were all certainly cheering for you down on the infield. So I know you had some pretty big wins this summer, if you want to expand upon those a little bit.

Grant Koontz:

Yeah, so it all kind of culminated. My season actually started back in February and thanks to Pete and Star Track, really Pete and Mike and Dave, all the guys over there, they really believed in me from the start. Just a little bit of background, that first talent ID camp that I went to in April of 2019, one of the Star Track coaches, Dave was there. So that was kind of my introduction to the whole program.

And then later that summer I ended up staying with Pete for a week at his house in the dorm room style. So it ended up just that relationship with Star Track started back then. And then it culminated last year when I wanted to come race nationals, and Pete again was like, yeah, I didn’t have a team or any support or anything, any guidance. So Pete took me under his wing and allowed me to come out and stay at his place and stay with the team. And that became a lot more of an official relationship this year.

So that all culminated with UCI ambitions. And so 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. 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, I mean 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. So that’s where it all started and got some good UCI results starting with the C2s and then going into the C1s. Got a few UCI Omnium podiums, and that again was confidence inspiring.

So then I decided with that momentum to go to Columbia to go to the World Cup in Columbia and continue a bit of form there, and then came back for nationals and won three national titles at nationals. So it’s definitely been a crescendo over the whole year, and it definitely started with a rocky first week at T-Town, and then a little bit better the second week. And then I started to come into my own and it all kind of started at T-Town. Yeah.

Maura Beuttel:

Right. Yeah, no, I think that’s something that we hear from a lot of people that it starts here. But just to touch on the relationship with Star Track, they’re a super integral part of our track community here with the amount of kids that they bring and getting kids on bikes. And having that elite team now with you on it and all of the other kids, it was great to see on Saturday’s Masters and Rookies to see you guys come out and help coach the kids and give back to the sport a little bit. So do you want to talk about that?

Grant Koontz:

Yeah, that was super fun. Of course the program is mostly based in New York and I live in Colorado, so I don’t get to interact with the kids as much as I would like to. So any chance I get, it’s really cool actually, because Pete doesn’t really require us to do any of that and leaves it on us. And I really appreciate that freedom. It allows us to, I don’t know, have our own incentives to come out and help with the kids. And so it was just an off Saturday I think, or maybe a Sunday that we had some racing out in T-Town for all the kids, and a bunch of them came out from New York and it’s like herding cats sometimes, but there’s also some kids that are actually really passionate and really talented and have the pieces in place to go as far as they want to in the sport really.

So it’s fun to be able to show them what’s possible, and that T-Town is a great place to start and a great place to finish too. It has everything from racing with 10 year olds to racing at the elite UCI level and chasing UCI points for Olympic qualification and everything. So it’s really, really special for that whole program to have T-Town so close to be able to chase those results.

Maura Beuttel:

Right. And I think expanding off of that goes well into one of the next topics I wanted to talk about, is that your support system is so integral in getting you to where you want to go and where you need to be. So it’s really cool to see that you get to be a part of that support system for the next class of athletes that are coming up. And so you have your support system of all of the fellow athletes that you race with, you have Pete, and you have everybody else in your life. So who would you consider to be, I don’t know, the top two or three people in your support system, and how has that helped you get to where you are today and who you are as an athlete?

Grant Koontz:

I mean, it’s hard to narrow it down to just two or three. It’s really taken a village to make it all come this far. And I think in recent years and especially since the track transition, probably the top three are my partner Daphne. She’s been super supportive and has helped me a ton just be able to, I guess, stabilize my life and encouraged me behind the scenes. And I think that’s been hugely important.

And then the one two punch behind the scenes of my coach, Mike Norton and Pete Taylor, I think all three of those people have been hugely important to, I mean, it sounds cliche to say that I wouldn’t be here without them, but I really wouldn’t be. There’s not a whole lot of support, especially in the track scene, even worldwide. It’s not just here, it’s mostly national federations. And if you’re not good enough for the national team, then good luck.

Luckily Pete has seen that as an opportunity for not only the Star Track program and helping mentor the youth, but also to help the top end of the sport. And when I first connected with Pete, I wasn’t really good enough to really make the national team and to really race at that level. And so Pete and Mike together helped me I guess go from just above average to actually being able to compete with Team USA. And that’s been hugely important and obviously critical to chasing that Olympic dream. And yeah, it’s been super special.

Maura Beuttel:

Yeah, no, that’s [inaudible 00:12:31]-

Grant Koontz:

Lucky to have all of them.

Maura Beuttel:

… Super great to hear it. I mean, hey, sayings are there for a reason. It’s not cliche to say because obviously it’s true, and someone out there said it and it just is very applicable. So going to talk about the national team, what’s your experience been like with them and traveling and going to the Champions League and all of the different Nations cups? How was that?

Grant Koontz:

It’s definitely been a step up. And like I said, T-Town, it’s been a hugely confidence inspiring experience to go out and race there. I mean, the guy that I was racing against all summer, Dylan, ended up being World Champion at the end of the year. So the whole level is being raised by a specific few individuals, and I hope to be one of them, that kind of helps raise the level of all of North American track cycling.

But yeah, the first Nations Cup that I ever went to, again thanks to Pete, we have UCI status as a team so I can go and compete without the national team. I don’t think it can be understated that that was hugely important. Because again, I wasn’t quite up to snuff to race with the national team. I went to the first Nations Cup this year in Milton, and it was an eye-opening experience to say the least, and I felt confident going in, but then I didn’t even make it through the qualifying rounds to make it into the Omnium. That was obviously hugely disappointing and I was sad and I had all the feels, but it basically ended up being a huge motivator for me. And coming back to T-Town, that was all before T-Town, actually, the Milton Nations Cup.

I kind of came into that pretty fresh and I came into it fresh off of some pretty good training, but not the consistent racing that I felt like I needed. So fast forward and I went basically a month in T-Town racing, the UCI stuff there, and I went to the next Nations Cup in Cali Columbia and I ended up sixth in the Omnium and I won the first scratch race of the event and it was a hugely different experience. There was a little bit of a disparity I guess in the level of talent that went to Columbia versus Milton, but it was still a massive leap forward.

I raced for Star Track in Columbia as well, and I also stayed in the same hotel as Team USA and Gary Sutton was down there with us and had offered basically Team USA support for me while I was there. So that was my first little introduction. It was again hugely beneficial to have dual support. So I had Pete watching me from the back and then Team USA pioneering from the front. That essentially was a tryout it felt like for the national team. And then I raced the national team for the rest of the year after that. So that was again the UCI status and the trade team status that we had with Star Track. And that was really the gateway for me to be able to make it onto the national team and then compete at that same level even before I was ready. I think that was, again, super motivating, super encouraging, and crushing at times. But in the grand scheme, it pushed the level up just higher than it needed or higher than it was before. And then I ended up going to Pan Ams with the national team and won the scratch race there.

To go from not even on the team to winning a Continental Championship in a few weeks, that was a big leap forward for me. And then again, snowballed to go all the way to the World Championships and got six at the points race there. And again, Team USA support has been, I was always critical of it when I didn’t have it, and it’s easy to be critical of things from the outside and just being essentially jealous or envious of what you don’t have and what you could have and what everyone else is getting. And it’s easy to just play that game in your head, especially. And I think now that I have boots on the ground and I’m involved with the team and involved with all the staff, and everyone just wants what’s best for us and everyone is totally on board with trying to make us as best as we can be and trying to get us to the Olympics. So everything’s kind of snowballing basically and it’s really inspiring.

Maura Beuttel:

Right, exactly. Just one step in front of the other, all the puzzle pieces come together in front of this beautiful picture, and I can’t even imagine how great it felt to put that USA kit on and be able to represent your country. I’m sure that’s just a top tier moment.

Grant Koontz:

It’s been a long time coming. Yeah, I actually was doing some math just a few days ago, and I’ve been trying to get on the national team on the road side especially since 2014, since I was racing U 23s and I had won that National Collegiate title. And I immediately thought, oh, I deserve a spot on the national team now. So I’ve really been trying to push that envelope for years and years and years. And then when Clay opened the door for me at the national team in 2019, I jumped at the opportunity and I just still wasn’t good enough. I was able to go train with them and I was able to get my foot in the door, basically, but I wasn’t good enough to earn the kit. And so finally this year again I started out not good enough, and it was again super motivating and hard, challenging to make it all come together. But then once you do finally earn the kit and you’re part of the team, it feels like a huge accomplishment. And even though the Olympics are the end goal, I feel like I can’t lose at this point.

Maura Beuttel:

No, that’s certainly a great attitude to have. But knowing everything that you do now and all of the work that you’ve put in, what advice would you give to younger Grant?

Grant Koontz:

I always played the game of I came into the sport pretty late, and I didn’t even start, I got my first road bike at 16, which it felt late at the time because by the time I was even remotely decent at racing my junior and national team opportunities were gone. And it felt like if I wasn’t on some elite junior team or the junior national team or the U23 national team, it felt like those were the steps I needed to make to be successful. And I think I would just remind myself that success, it comes with time and it doesn’t necessarily come on a strict timeline like I thought it did. Not making the junior national team or not making the U23 national team or not even going to Europe, honestly, this was my first season that I ever raced in Europe and I raced over there a lot.

Europe has always been a goal of mine, and I never thought it would be on the track, if I’m honest. I thought it would be on the road. So I think just being open-minded about what success is and I guess what your goals are and just being fluid with what your abilities are and how that lines up with what you want to do and who you want to be. You just have to be open about it. If you get super close minded and you’re like, “This is what I have to do, this is when I have to do it, and if I don’t, then I fail.” And that’s how a lot of kids burn out. And I think just my ability to float through different disciplines and different circumstances and different setbacks, I think just keep plugging away, I would say is the biggest motivator.

Maura Beuttel:

Right. I mean, hey, thinking about that, yeah, coming into the sport late, you missed those early opportunities that you thought that that’s the pathway that you needed. But the other side of it is you’re not burnt out because you’re just coming into it and you’re fresh and you’re like, this is new and exciting and I have all of these big plans and this is what I have to do to achieve them. And I’m not going to put myself in a box because if I put myself in a box I’m only limiting myself to what fits in these four walls, and you don’t have that so that’s great.

Grant Koontz:

Yeah. Yeah, it’s been super fun and I think it’s just super easy to get caught up with this is what has to happen, and if it doesn’t happen then it’s all a wash. And I don’t think that’s ever really true in anything in life, if you try something and fail, it’s not a wash. You still tried. And so that’s what I’ve tried to keep the attitude as. Is even if I go through all this and if I don’t win any more national titles or I don’t win another Pan Am Championship, or I don’t win worlds or I don’t go to the Olympics, it’s all still worth it. The life experience that I’ve had and the people that I’ve met and the places that I’ve been, it’s all the life that I want to be living and that’s I guess the bigger picture of it all.

Maura Beuttel:

Right. Well, you’ve had a pretty busy year and you said first time racing in Europe this year on the track. What is the atmosphere and general attitude towards track over there compared to over here? We like to get opinions from people because obviously it’s a very different experience in Europe than it is in America.

Grant Koontz:

It is. I think coming from a ball sport background, playing football and being in stadiums and stuff, I actually really like racing outdoors. And I know that’s not a very popular thing with most track riders. They really like racing indoors, 250, keep it contained, but racing outside and racing under the lights in T-Town is honestly one of the most fun experiences even compared to Europe. Europe is very clean and very contained and all the tracks are a little bit different, but you’re still on 250s. And I actually love the variability that T-Town kind of allows. Both physiologically and with the weather and with the wind and all, and even the temperature, you kind of get into these routines in Europe where you just do this and then you do this and you do this. But when you have these outside factors that are out of your control, I think it actually really opens up again that open-mindedness of if we’re delayed two hours, I still have to compete. It doesn’t matter [inaudible 00:23:16]-

Maura Beuttel:

Hey, if it’s nationals and it rains all day, and we’re not starting racing until 10 o’clock at night.

Grant Koontz:

Yeah.

Maura Beuttel:

That’s how it has to be.

Grant Koontz:

Exactly. And then I won that night, I didn’t race until 11:00 PM and I honestly was on the fence if I was even going to start because the Omnium was the next day and I wanted to focus on that one. But at the end of the day, that mental resilience of being able to be adaptable is I think hugely important as an athlete and as a person. And I think in Europe everything’s a lot more strict and everything’s on time. Everything’s temperature controlled, everything’s climate controlled, everything’s just bang, bang, bang. And I actually appreciate the nuances of variability that US track racing has to offer.

Maura Beuttel:

Yeah, I think you’re definitely in the minority compared to everybody else on that. So if you had to say compared to racing under the lights in the Track Champions League for UCI or racing under the lights on Friday nights at T-Town, which do you prefer?

Grant Koontz:

Honestly, they’re so different. I wouldn’t say I prefer one over the other, which is again probably an unpopular opinion. I really appreciate that kind of Friday night football type vibe that T-Town has to offer. And it’s very different than basically going to a German techno club and racing in between the songs. It’s really cool both ways, but honestly T-Town feels like home and the whole Champions League experience was hugely beneficial, and that level of competition just week in and week out was, I can’t even stress how much that helps people develop, myself in particular. And I think honestly having UCI races in T-Town week after week, that consistent racing, it’s just so important. I think the party atmosphere of the Champions League was definitely a unique experience and it was super fun, but I don’t think it’s any better or worse than what we have in T-Town, which is pretty special.

Maura Beuttel:

Right. Yeah, no, that’s cool. And you can totally tell me if I’m wrong, but the comparison that popped into my brain with you calling T-Town home with racing is that the UCI racing that we have in T-Town and then the UCI racing that went on with the Track Champions League, it’s like, okay, UCI racing in T-Town is like you’re at home, and then going over to Europe, it’s like going to college, you’re going and it’s this big party. And yeah, there’s still some of the same people from home and there’s new people that you’re getting to meet, but it’s just a whole different experience.

Grant Koontz:

Yeah, very much so. And again, it’s not any better or worse, it’s just different. And I think a lot of times we get 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.

Maura Beuttel:

Right. Interesting. I like it. So we’ll take a little break from those kinds of questions and we’ll go into a little bit more off the fly. So what is your favorite track race?

Grant Koontz:

I actually really like the Team Pursuit. Okay. I like the bunch racing and stuff. I would say my favorite to watch is the Madison. My favorite to be in is the Team Pursuit because of that team atmosphere. I think it’s pretty unique in cycling and it’s not like the whole team’s working for one, the whole team’s working for each other, and I think that’s pretty special.

Maura Beuttel:

Yeah, no, definitely not something you see all the time in track cycling. What is your favorite race to watch? Any discipline exactly.

Grant Koontz:

Probably on the road it would be Strade Bianche. I think that’s one of the coolest races in the spring. And it’s cool that it’s a World Tour Race now and it’s a big deal. So I think it’s always variable and hopefully will be officially a spring classic soon.

Maura Beuttel:

Who is an athlete that you look up to in the sport? Again any discipline.

Grant Koontz:

There’s a lot. Let’s see. That’s a really tough one actually. I think Jen Valente is one of the big ones for me, and I think it’s because she is American and she’s done it her way and she hasn’t necessarily gone that route of everything has to be in Europe and we have to move to Europe and we have to do it their way. She’s very much kind of done it her way, and I think that’s actually really special and unique, and she’s found success at every level doing it. I mean, in the last year and a half she’s won Olympic Gold, World Championship and Champions League, so that’s like the trifecta of track cycling. And she did it all in the same go. So I think it’s been really cool to see that you don’t have to fit that mold again. And she didn’t, she made her own mold, which is cool.

Maura Beuttel:

Right. And it’s cool to see that you look up to her and you watched her do all this stuff, and now you’re on the national team with her, so you get to know her on a personal level too, which a lot of people don’t get to do that.

Grant Koontz:

Yeah, we get to hang out question a lot of Champions League. Hanging out with her in Europe was super fun and we really did get to bond over that experience. It was super cool to just get to pick her brain day in and day out and figure out what makes her tick and what pushes her and what challenges her. Yeah, it’s cool.

Maura Beuttel:

Yeah. Two more. What is your favorite pre-training snack and post-training snack?

Grant Koontz:

Pre-training, it’s usually something sugary. Daphne really likes to bake, so she has all these really good banana, almond, walnut, chocolate bread things.

Maura Beuttel:

Sounds lovely.

Grant Koontz:

Just all sorts of different baked goods. So I think usually I’ll have breakfast and then a coffee with some baked goods that Daff made, and not much can beat that. And then after I’m very much a smoothie person. I love smoothies. In the summer I probably have two smoothies a day, and then the winter I back it down to one. But I really love all kinds of fruit smoothies and chocolate, peanut butter, banana smoothie, everything, anything that makes it taste like ice cream.

Maura Beuttel:

There you go. Enlighten us, what is the go-to smoothie? The top tier?

Grant Koontz:

My go-to is actually, I have a pretty… It’s just a convenient I guess ingredient list, but I do like a mixed berry with banana and milk and a scoop of protein powder, a scoop of creatine. Lately I’ve been lifting in the gym and so I’ve been doing some collagen in there as well. And then frozen spinach and frozen kale.

Maura Beuttel:

Nice.

Grant Koontz:

Mix all that together. It’s healthy, but it taste like ice cream.

Maura Beuttel:

Yeah, we’ll throw the recipe together in the show notes so if people want to eat the Grant Koontz smoothie there it is.

Grant Koontz:

For sure. I usually eat about a liter and a half a smoothie when I do it, so maybe tone down the recipe for everyone else, but.

Maura Beuttel:

Oh, and what is your favorite music to listen to while you train?

Grant Koontz:

That definitely varies a lot. It literally varies from classical piano to rap, but.

Maura Beuttel:

Quite the range.

Grant Koontz:

For the most part… Yeah, last night I did two and a half hours or three hours on the trainer actually, and I was really feeling The War on Drugs. It’s one of my favorite bands and it’s kind of an eighties vibe alternative band, but they’re modern, they make music today. I almost got to go see them live but I was at a training camp at the Olympic Training Center, so I had to miss their concert this year. But yeah, they’re definitely one of my favorite bands and have a good vibe, both fast paced and slow paced depending on how I’m feeling, they got a lot of different stuff going, so.

Maura Beuttel:

Very nice. Very nice. And we’ll end it out with this question. Where would you like to see yourself in 10 years? What would you like to accomplish? No limits.

Grant Koontz:

I was actually thinking about this a little bit on the trainer yesterday about how lately it’s kind of felt like we’re all hands on deck just to qualify for the Olympics. And I think that’s cool because we haven’t done that in years past, in recent memory. I actually have been meaning to look up when the last time a men’s team pursuit qualified for the Olympics, but it’s been a while, so that’s always been on front of mind. But then I kind of felt like I was aiming too low and I felt like just because I’ve never seen an American male specifically medal at the Olympics, or I’ve never seen a men’s endurance rider really dominate at the highest level, Gavin’s as close as we’ve got and he’s definitely an inspiration to me as well.

I really think shooting for an Olympic medal is not out of the question. And I think if push comes to shove, I’d love to again make the Paris Olympics, have the experience and then really aim to win an Olympic gold medal at the LA Olympics, I think would be super special. And I don’t have a preference on which event, whichever event allows itself, but yeah, definitely I think an Olympic medal at the Olympic or at the LA home games and then maybe retire after that. Have a family. The whole bit. So we’ll see. That’s the dream.

Maura Beuttel:

I think the sky’s the limit for you, and I think gold is a good color for you, Grant.

Grant Koontz:

I hope so.

Maura Beuttel:

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the pod today and answer our questions and have our little population of people that listen to this get to know you a little bit better.

Grant Koontz:

Yeah, it’s been a pleasure. And again, I can’t wait to come out to T-Town again this summer. It was a little bit of a bummer actually when I found out that Nationals was in Carson, but still got the UCI racing out in T-Town, and I look forward to spending some summer nights in Pennsylvania.

Maura Beuttel:

Heck yeah. Well, we can’t wait to have you back.

Grant Koontz:

Going to be good.

Maura Beuttel:

Yes. All right, everybody. Well, this has been this week’s episode of the Talk of the T-Town. You can find some more information about Grant in the show notes, and please be sure to like, subscribe, leave a comment to help us grow the pod on whatever platform you use to listen. Thanks for listening and we’ll catch you next time.

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