Episode 37
“I’ve gotten to the point now that we’re so in sync and everything’s good and we know the sounds of the bike. We know when something’s broken. We know the sensations.”
Have you ever put so much torque on your handle bars that the next thing you know, they’re flying off the bike and over your head? Joe knows. Join Joan this week as she sits down with Joe Christiansen, multi time national champion, tandem pilot and Star Track athlete, as they discuss everything from piloting tandems, Japanese Keirin, racing crits, how Joe got into track cycling, and how a Colorado boy came to be a part of a New York based track program.
Instagram: @joe_christiansen Michael Stephens @freelancepirate
Star Track Cycling: http://www.startrackcycling.org/
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, executive director here at the Valley Preferred Cycling Center. And I’m excited to welcome this week’s guest, Joe Christiansen. Joe is a Star Track athlete, he is a tandem pilot, he’s a multi-time national champion, and he is an aspiring Keirin racer, a story we’ll get into a little bit more in the pod. But we’re thrilled to have him here. He’s been here all summer at T-Town tearing up the track, and we thought it’d be excellent to have him in and shoot the shit with us a little bit about his summer here in T-Town. So Joe, welcome to the pod.
Joe Christiansen:
Hi, thanks for having me.
Joan Hanscom:
So, it’s been a long summer here at T-Town, and you were here for nationals. You’ve been here racing a whole bunch. How’s your summer been?
Joe Christiansen:
It’s been really good. I always come out to T-Town and spend like I think this is probably my sixth year, and this year I didn’t think I was going to be here. I was hoping to be at the Paralympic Games as a tandem pilot, but things didn’t work out and plan B is good. It’s like being a T-Town is always fun, so it’s been a good alternate.
Joan Hanscom:
If you can’t go to the games, you might as well be at T-Town, right? So talk to us about that. Talk about what’s going on with the para-cycling and with your tandem piloting, and talk about that because I think that’s something that might be unknown or interesting to our listeners. Talk about that a bit.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, even a lot of people that know me or I’m friends with, it’s kind of like the last two years I’ve had a hiatus from the elite cycling side just to be a tandem pilot. And it’s something that me and my tandem pilot, Michael Stephens, we were just grinding super hard these last two years, so we weren’t really putting it out there much. I guess we should have more shared that story. But yeah, basically two years ago, I was offered to pilot a tandem for Michael Stephens. He’s a visually impaired para-athlete. And at the Olympics, there’s the Paralympics right after and there’s tandem is one of the events, Tandem Kilo. So we were trying to make the game, and just some weird circumstances happened where he initially didn’t get classified. The USA challenged it and it got overturned, but we weren’t able to race World Championships when we were supposed to qualify and some other factors. And we just didn’t qualify basically, but we gave it a good go. We were both living in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center and kind of doing that the last while.
Joan Hanscom:
You talk about that, the classification, because I think that that’s something, there are different types of classifications and there are different levels of para-athlete competition. So, can you explain that a little bit to our listeners?
Joe Christiansen:
Totally, yeah. So in para-cycling, there’s depending on your I guess disablement, there’s a bunch of different categories, C1 being the most impaired and then C5 being the least impaired. You’ll have somebody with one arm, and then another person will have one leg, and then other people have cerebral palsy. Some people have neurological disorders of some kind. So they fall into a category and basically you have to go and you get classified. You go in front of this panel. They are doctors and they see all the different, just all your paperwork and stuff and read through it all. And then you’d go through these tests and stuff.
Joe Christiansen:
Well, for blind, there’s the same thing. There’s three different categories. They all compete together and it’s not factored or anything. It’s just like B1, B2, B3. I don’t even know why they do it because there’s no difference between … In competition, they don’t make a difference. But yeah, you have to get classified as visually impaired. Yeah, basically, the event we went to, we qualified for World Championships. We were there, just the panel was only two, and one of the people said it was fine, the other lady said it wasn’t. So yeah, they kind of like just … It was neutral, can’t compete at this event until he sees another panel. And then, yeah, basically, COVID happened shortly thereafter, so we were in limbo for like a year and a half. We were training like it’s no problem. He’s going to gt classified, because everybody’s saying it shouldn’t be a problem, all the doctors and everything. So yeah, it was kind of insulting for him to be like he can’t see it.
Joan Hanscom:
Right, right. Yeah, that’s definitely got to be sort of a tough pill to swallow, right, when you’re like, “No, I definitely can’t see.”
Joe Christiansen:
No, I live with it every day, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Pretty sure I can’t see. So, yeah, that’s got to be a tough one, especially when you put in all that much work. So how was the living in Colorado Springs at the center? Was that a-
Joe Christiansen:
It was really cool. It was interesting. I mean, being there during COVID time, I think everything was definitely way more restricted than usual. The dining hall wasn’t quite the same, like not serving meals.
Joan Hanscom:
I was going to say the dining hall is the highlight of the training center. We would go there for lunch. I used to work at USA Cycling, so we would go in and like, ooh, lunch at the center was always good.
Joe Christiansen:
Oh, totally. For a while, like the first part of it, I was living off-campus still and they were just giving you pre-packaged meals, and it’s just not the same when it’s not hot and fresh right there.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, I can’t imagine.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, there was definitely some unique challenges. Track time initially was getting like-
Joan Hanscom:
It was pretty limited, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Super limited, and we couldn’t train with the people that were living at the center. It was separated, like people off-campus and then on-campus. And then eventually, I moved on campus. They got on top of it pretty early on. We were starting to get tested every day. They had like a PCR machine there.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, wow.
Joe Christiansen:
So we were getting tested all the time. Yeah, it was quite the experience. I lived in Colorado Springs for like, oh, I guess six years now. So I was training there for awhile, but yeah, to be involved in the para stuff was definitely a completely different experience.
Joan Hanscom:
Interesting. And so now, are you guys hoping for Paris instead?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah. We’re definitely going to give-
Joan Hanscom:
It’s short.
Joe Christiansen:
We’re going to give it a go, at least we’re going to try World Championships this year. [crosstalk 00:06:54] I really want to get him to World Championships. He deserves it. He’s one of the fastest riders in the world and we haven’t been able to prove ourself on that world stage yet, but in training and smaller events we have. So, I’d really like to get him to the World Championships. And like you said, it’s only three years away, so we’re just going to have to see from there.
Joan Hanscom:
Right, right. Yeah, it’s a strange thing with the quad is not a quad anymore.
Joe Christiansen:
I know, yeah. It’s going to fly by so quick.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s like, woo, it’s right there.
Joe Christiansen:
It’s amazing.
Joan Hanscom:
Right, look how close we are already, right? It’s just like, oh wait.
Joe Christiansen:
I mean, qualification, at least for able-body Olympic stuff will start next spring.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, all the points start mattering right away.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, exactly. It’s always two years out kind of the battle starts. So yeah, not a huge turnaround time, which I guess can be good and bad. If you need more time to get into that shape, then it’s a little rough, but if you’re already there, right back on it.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, it seems like you guys were closed. And then everything is all good now with the certification, so you don’t have a problem?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, he’s been classified. Everything’s fine there. It just came down to we have an amazing team here in the USA. We qualified eight spots, so there’s eight athletes between all disciplines. There’s trike, there’s hand cycles, and then there’s all the C1 through 5 categories as well as the tandem. And that’s all together. There’s eight spots for the entire game.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, wow.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, I mean, it was one of those things. There’s like probably 10 people that could win a medal at the games and only eight that can go.
Joan Hanscom:
Right, only eight can go. Yeah, it’s super interesting because it was really hot. For the Olympic games, Tokyo was really hot. Heat was a factor. And I know we when I lived in the Springs, it was like the Wounded Warrior maybe was at, they had the Wounded Warrior Games at the Air Force Academy, and we worked the cycling events. The overheating for the para-athletes was a huge concern.
Joe Christiansen:
Oh, definitely, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Because the folks who are at the far end of the injury spectrum, they were all wounded from the military.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, there’s a lot of-
Joan Hanscom:
The heat impacted them very differently than a normal, not normal, normal is the wrong word, an able-bodied person like just the heat impacts. So it was something that we had to be hype-cognizant of on the race course, was like, how do we keep people cool? How do we keep bodies regulating core temperature correctly? So it’s got to be a big concern going into Tokyo of the heat like it was two weeks ago for the games-
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, I think it still is.
Joan Hanscom:
… where it was a real issue in the road race at the games. It was definitely a factor, so it’s got to be a huge thing to think about for everybody going now.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, I think it’s still super humid and hot there, and that’s definitely a thing. People that have TBIs and other neurological things just can’t regulate, like their system doesn’t regulate right. You’ll see some para-athletes, they’re just drenched in sweat, just they sweat profusely, just yeah, from traumatic brain injuries and stuff. So, that definitely I’m sure is a factor there for the road race especially. it’s hot in the track in Tokyo, too. It’s one of the fastest C-level tracks in the world-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, it was crazy fast time.
Joe Christiansen:
… if not the fastest C-level track in the world.
Joan Hanscom:
Interesting, interesting.
Joe Christiansen:
It’s definitely going to be a factor in the road race, keeping everybody cool. It was really cool last night to see, I don’t know if you caught it, the first track session of the Paralympics.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, we had racing here last night, so we were a little occupied. No, that’s cool though. It’s cool that it started and, yeah, hopefully everybody that did get one of those eight spots does well.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, absolutely.
Joan Hanscom:
I’ll have to follow along.
Joe Christiansen:
Last night, Shawn Morelli won or, sorry, she got second in the women’s team pursuit for C4 and C5.
Joan Hanscom:
She kicked my ass a lot in races in Colorado.
Joe Christiansen:
She’s fast. She’s pretty incredible, yeah, so that was super cool to see. And then a newer rider, Clara Brown.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh yeah, yeah, we had her on one of our Instagram Lives.
Joe Christiansen:
Oh, okay, awesome, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, she’s awesome.
Joe Christiansen:
She ended up fourth last night-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, nice.
Joe Christiansen:
… in the pursuit, so yeah. I mean, it was an awesome first showing.
Joan Hanscom:
Cool, very cool. Yeah, Shawn, I remember the first road race I did in Colorado, I remember walking onto the line and she just looked strong, and I was like, “Oh, dang, like she’s going to kick my ass.”
Joe Christiansen:
Oh, yeah, she’s incredible, yeah. Exactly, she gets into some elite races and messes people up.
Joan Hanscom:
She was fast, so that’s super cool.
Joe Christiansen:
She’s a multi-time gold medalist at the games and the World Championships.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, yeah, she’s super strong. So it’s cool to hear that she’s still doing it, because I lived in the Springs in ’16, so it was a while ago.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, absolutely.
Joan Hanscom:
So the fact that she’s still competing is pretty rad.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, I think this is her third games.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, that’s awesome.
Joe Christiansen:
Maybe even fourth, it might be. It’s been a lot.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, she’s cool. That’s awesome. So you didn’t go to Tokyo, so you’re here T-Town. But you guys put on a pretty rad sprint tournament exhibition for us at Tandemonium, which was also sort of a weird victim of COVID in its way. Tandemonium had been inscribed as a para category for UCI, and then it turns out that a lot of the para-athletes who were going to Tokyo were told not to compete or race before going to Tokyo.
Joe Christiansen:
Totally, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
So that definitely cut down on our number of athletes available to compete in the inscribed UCI events. So you guys came out and did a pretty rad sprint tournament exhibition, and that was fun. I think the crowd was into it, man.
Joe Christiansen:
I’m glad. I was trying to make it entertaining and have some really good sprint races.
Joan Hanscom:
It was really good, and the crowd was like ooh-ing and ah-ing over you guys, because the tandems go so fast. They go so fast. Is it terrifying?
Joe Christiansen:
Oh, it’s honestly pretty scary.
Joan Hanscom:
I believe it.
Joe Christiansen:
There’s a couple of things, is like bikes aren’t meant for two people. Bike parts break. It’s not meant for that much power. So you’re constantly like you’re going faster than a regular bike. You’re going like 70K an hour everywhere. And then you’re snapping chains.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s got to be terrifying.
Joe Christiansen:
You’re bending chainery. It’s just ridiculous. I’d hear some of these tandem pilots kind of bragging about the stuff they break, and I was like, “Ah, these guys, they just are bragging about it.” No, it’s so real. You just absolutely demolish everything. That’s honestly the biggest struggle, is like the amount of days we lose training just to like-
Joan Hanscom:
Mechanicals?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, mechanicals. One time, probably a month and a half into doing the tandem, just getting used to it, we’re just getting pretty fast, we were doing an excel. So we were rolling in at 30K an hour and then we do a hit, and I probably got a couple of pedal strokes in, and during those kind of standing or slower excels, you’re really putting a lot of torque on the bars. The steer tube just fully snapped. Bar were just gone. We’re going like 45K an hour, and literally just bars fly over my head. And I’m like-
Joan Hanscom:
What do I do?
Joe Christiansen:
I was like, “Mike, we are going,” you know, you just like absolutely yell at him.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, shit.
Joe Christiansen:
We were going down and we were kind of like sitting there, like there’s nothing I could do. I went to go grab the steer tube, but it’s carbon fiber. It’s just completely-
Joan Hanscom:
Shattered., right?
Joe Christiansen:
… destroyed. But we’re still moving forward and I’m just like trying to fall with the track, to the right so we don’t fall down track, but that’s kind of like pointing us up. So we’re eventually, we’re probably like 50 meters riding like this, and I’m like, “All right, we’re going to make it to the rail. We’re leaning enough that we’re going to make it to the rail.”
Joan Hanscom:
Oh my god.
Joe Christiansen:
And eventually, yeah, like still at speed, it would be like just lunge for the rail. And we both lunge, we grabbed the railing and we didn’t crash. But that was a good awakening of just-
Joan Hanscom:
Holy crap.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, you get off and you’re just shaking, all the adrenaline.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, I can’t imagine.
Joe Christiansen:
Once a week, there’s something like that, you have a chain break, or it’s just ridiculous.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, man. Well, I can see it though, like just in the exhibition, you guys were putting out some major torque on those bikes. And you can’t steer them quickly, right? It’s not agile handling.
Joe Christiansen:
No, no, no.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s like steering a giant, lumbering-
Joe Christiansen:
Totally, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
… tractor-trailer truck versus driving in a little Porsche, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, exactly. Everything is slower. The speeds are high.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s slower, but the speeds are higher, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, exactly. Your reaction should be quicker, but it’s not. It’s the opposite. Yeah, it’s interesting, compared to most para events, you basically, physically you have two able-body elite athletes. They can’t see, but he’s lifting more weight than I am. He’s stronger than I am in some regards. So I mean, yeah, the speeds you get up to are pretty crazy, and yeah, being able to hold it in the corners just with that much more weight and you’re going similar speed, just like the G-force you’re hitting, it’s really hard to hold down and be able to keep in the corner.
Joan Hanscom:
We had Matt Rotherham on the pod earlier, and he was talking about, I mean, obviously, Matt makes his tandem go pretty fast.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, absolutely, the best in the world.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, Matt’s no slouch on the tandem. And he was talking about essentially that, that pulling Gs, of how crazy it is the speed that they’re at, and there’s moments of like, oh boy.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, you definitely feel it like, yeah, entering the corner, even if you’re going the same speed as you would as a sprinter on the individual bike. It’s not the same. It’s a very different rush. Every corner you go through, you’re like, okay, thank God.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, whew!
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, I’ve gotten to the point now that we’re so in sync and everything’s good and we know the sounds of the bike. We know when something’s broken. We know the sensations. We’ve got it really dialed, but still every now and then something-
Joan Hanscom:
Something terrifying happens.
Joe Christiansen:
Something breaks. Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Like the handlebars disappear.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, totally.
Joan Hanscom:
Wow, that’s nuts. So yeah, okay, that’s scary. We’ll keep that in mind now when we watch these events unfold over the next week or so on TV, because that’s terrifying.
Joe Christiansen:
Totally.
Joan Hanscom:
Vaguely terrifying. So last week, you came out and you raced the B crit and you beat up on poor [Mora 00:17:21] here.
Joe Christiansen:
I know that was my first crit ever.
Joan Hanscom:
Was that your first?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, that’s why I was in the B category. I was telling them, I was like, “Okay, I was just here a national champion and I’m still one of the better racers.” And they’re like, “Well, you never raced a crit.” Okay, I’ll race cap 4, cap 5.
Joan Hanscom:
So, poor Mora. You beat up on poor Mora.
Joe Christiansen:
Oh, I’m stoked on it. It was points race, too.
Joan Hanscom:
So it was your first crit.
Joe Christiansen:
First crit.
Joan Hanscom:
Ever.
Joe Christiansen:
Don’t do a lot of endurance stuff in general, but yeah, I was like, okay, I’m going to.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s fun though, isn’t it?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, totally.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s super fun.
Joe Christiansen:
I mean, I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time. That’s every sprinter’s retirement plan. Like okay, once I can’t get any faster as a sprinter, I’m going to go race crits.
Joan Hanscom:
Crits are fun.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, I guess I’m at that point, I’m going to go race credits for a little bit.
Joan Hanscom:
Crits are fun. Crits are fun.
Joe Christiansen:
No, it was so fun. Definitely, I’m trying to get like catted up so I can race some of this fall stuff, you know?
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, because there’s stuff coming up, right. This weekend there’s racing on Sunday.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, next week’s like Tour of Somerville. There’s all kinds of stuff. But yeah, I’m going to try to race again on Sunday, yeah, the crit over there and just like, yeah, have fun with it for a little bit here.
Joan Hanscom:
There’s still like right now there’s some good racing still to be had here on the road. So this is our last week of the track, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Joan Hanscom:
We finish up. This weekend is the end of the track season. And then there is still crits though, because we have the crit on Sunday here and then there’s the Somerville weekend, so that’s three days of crits, maybe.
Joe Christiansen:
One of the bigger ones, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Maybe don’t do the Eastern crit, because I hear it’s a little technical, a little bit. So you might want to skip that one. But Somerville, you’d smash. And then the week after that, there’s Lower Providence. You can come out and crit that. And then there’s Buck County Classic, so you could come out and crit that. Look at all the racing you can do.
Joe Christiansen:
I know a lot of the spring stuff ended up getting delayed to this time of year.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, got pushed, right, all the Somerville weekend.
Joe Christiansen:
Like Speed Week, for instance, was like that. It happened last week. It’s usually in May or something like that.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, April.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, there’s definitely some more. Exactly, track seasons kind of coming to a close, and this is the time of year that I’d usually put in some base miles, just like that fitness work even as a sprinter. So yeah, good to get on the road a little bit and have some fun with it.
Joan Hanscom:
Fun, fun, fun, fun. Come out and crit with us. That will be a good time. Just don’t beat up poor Mora. First crit and she has to race against you.
Joe Christiansen:
First crit.
Joan Hanscom:
That seems not fair to me.
Joe Christiansen:
It seemed not fair across the board. I am sorry to everyone. I felt like the biggest sandbagger ever, but, hey, that’s how it is. I got to get catted up. I texted USA cycling, was like, okay.”
Joan Hanscom:
That’s funny.
Joe Christiansen:
Got to go through the motions just like everybody else.
Joan Hanscom:
That’s funny. Well, it’ll be fun. I’m looking forward to this Thursday, going out there again and getting my teeth kicked in. So, you know, that’s how it goes. Good times.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, totally.
Joan Hanscom:
So yeah, so you are shooting for World Championships on the tandem.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, we don’t know when they are yet.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, I was going to say that.
Joe Christiansen:
They always announce it like three months before. I feel like, you know, para sometimes it seems like a little bit of an afterthought to the UCI, like all that stuff. It’s just like last second they announce whether they’re doing an event, But usually it’s-
Joan Hanscom:
And it’s so hard now with COVID anyway. [crosstalk 00:20:27] What countries can you go to? Where can we travel? Who’s having events?
Joe Christiansen:
Totally, yeah. Like this year, World Championships got canceled.
Joan Hanscom:
Moved, yeah.
Joe Christiansen:
That could have been the deal breaker for us, being able to race in a World Championships.
Joan Hanscom:
Right. And now, what did I just see? Worlds went from Turkmenistan to Roubaix? To the Roubaix Velodrome?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, exactly.
Joan Hanscom:
I think everything is still, as much as we all hoped that 2021 would be, it was behind us, it’s definitely not behind us. So, we’ve got all that weird juggling of stuff still happening in the COVID thing.
Joe Christiansen:
Definitely like we were talking about, about going to Japan and racing Keirins, I mean, depending on where you are in the world, all these different events are getting canceled [crosstalk 00:21:12].
Joan Hanscom:
So this is a good story. This is an excellent transition. Thank you for that. You had been, along with one of your Star Track teammates, Josh Hartman-
Joe Christiansen:
Josh, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
… been hoping to go to Japan to do a mini version of Keirin school and then race some Keirin’s in Japan, which I believe there’s Keirin, the UCI version of Keirin. And then there’s Kiron, the betting version of the sport in Japan. I just listened to a great podcast about this. Maybe on Rouleur they talked about, yeah, the Rouleur podcast had a really interesting show devoted to the Japanese-
Joe Christiansen:
All that.
Joan Hanscom:
… betting culture around the Kiron.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, I know there’s some new book coming out about it, too, from back in the day.
Joan Hanscom:
It was super cool to hear them talk about it and how the athletes who are part of that industry, because it is an industry, they go to Keirin school and then they do it as a profession. And they said that there was people still racing in their 50s-
Joe Christiansen:
Oh, totally, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
… as part of this. And it’s just they grow up and it is a career path.
Joe Christiansen:
It’s kind of an honorable path. You go through a school. It’s like any other like martial art or sport there. I mean, all the sports are kind of like that. You go through this school.
Joan Hanscom:
The academy.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, you’re going like literally through an academy. You’re on the bike, but a lot of is like in the classroom, you’re going through stuff. And I believe this school’s like two years and then you can be a Keirin racer. And there’s all these different categories that starts low. As you get faster, you get catted up, and I mean, obviously the money gets bigger and bigger. But yeah, it’s a big part of their betting culture. Their culture I think has a lot of gambling, but Keirin is definitely one of the favorites. So it was after World War II, they had to bring money into the country to rebuild it, and so yeah, they started the Keirin leagues.
Joan Hanscom:
My very, very rudimentary knowledge of this is that in those leagues, right, everybody races on the same equipment, like the bikes are very specific, sort of like the great leveler, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Totally, yeah, it’s all steel.
Joan Hanscom:
Right, it’s all one very specific type of bike that everybody races essentially the same equipment, maybe different colors, but it’s essentially the same.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, you have to be on the same gear. You’re all running the same gear inches. You’re all on steel frames. You’re all on the same wheels.
Joan Hanscom:
Really, you’re just betting on your pony, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, exactly.
Joan Hanscom:
You’re betting on which person has the best engine, not the best technology.
Joe Christiansen:
Totally, and I think it’s really cool. I’ve been to an event in London that was replicating that. It was at Herne Hill Velodrome and everybody was on the same exact steel bike, same equipment, same gear inches, same everything. It made a difference. The field was definitely like, it definitely leveled out. You don’t have any of these super bikes. Some people have them, some people don’t.
Joan Hanscom:
Personally, I would love to see that happen for junior racing here in the U.S.
Joe Christiansen:
I think so, too. I think its-
Joan Hanscom:
Because I think our sport broadly speaking, not just track, but all of it, all of bike racing, it becomes an arms race, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Totally.
Joan Hanscom:
I saw it a lot when I was working in cyclo-cross. You’d have the kid who had one bike, who had just like a normal bike, one normal cross bike, regular clincher tires, whatever. And then you have the kid who had a pit bike, carbon pit bike, zip 303s, the tubular everything, the top of lines ram. And then you had the kid who had just one bike with his clinchers. And it became an arms race. And I think that that can sometimes be a limiter in our sport. And I think track in particular has the opportunity to not be an arms race. If we could just get this-
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, it’s something that you could totally make neutral. You could have everybody’s on this aluminum bike. We have a couple of manufacturers here in the U.S. that everybody gets that bike.
Joan Hanscom:
Up to a certain age group, right?
Joe Christiansen:
I think 16 and under. You could do 14 and under for the younger, but 16 and under, it would make sense, because it is interesting. It changes, I think you become a better racer, like everybody’s on the same exact stuff. And so juniors are limited gear-wise, which definitely helps with that. But yeah, nobody needs the fancy wheels at that age and just get used to really tactical racing. I mean, everybody-
Joan Hanscom:
And have fun. It’s about fun then, it’s not about-
Joe Christiansen:
Not just money, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Which disc wheel do I need and which carbon fiber rocket ship do I need? Yeah, there’s a point for that when you get into the elite pathway, but man, wouldn’t it be cool if we had all the juniors racing on the same equipment?
Joe Christiansen:
Definitely, it’s not a bad idea. And like you said, track is that pathway. I grew up mountain bike racing. That’s my whole background. I think it would be a lot harder to do it there, just because of the reach, but tracks a small enough community, A, and B-
Joan Hanscom:
And the bikes lend itself to it, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, it’s a simple enough thing.
Joan Hanscom:
Right, and so I think it would be … Gosh, I would love to see that happen for junior racing. I’m going to be very unpopular. People are going to be sending hate mail into the podcast about that. But I do think it would help grow the sport at the very beginning levels, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
It would make it easier for people to come into the sport if there was not an arms race to begin with. I think we see it here in our programs where a lot of the kids in the programs here start on our loaner bikes at the track and it’s all sort of a very level playing field. And again, it’s just up unto a certain point. I’m not saying that people who are going for elite junior 17/18 racing UCI categories shouldn’t have all the best tools because you should.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, because you’re just having to start competing against the best in the world.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, but up until a certain point, at that entry pathway or entry categories, like maybe up until a certain category for juniors, it would be great to see where it’s just kept at level. So, that was a sidebar.
Joe Christiansen:
Well, it was a good sidebar.
Joan Hanscom:
A Keirin sidebar.
Joe Christiansen:
I mean, it is related, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
But the Keirin sidebar, whenever I go down these rabbit holes, like, but you were going to go to Japan, and you got COVIDed.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, same thing. All visas got canceled. Last week, we got the email that pulled the plug. We were going to do the fall league. They’re kind of doing this new league there. I think they’re calling it Peace to Six. I don’t know why. But instead of being on steel bikes and stuff, they were trying to make it more entertaining and faster for younger gamblers. The betting population is aging up, basically, and Keirin revenues are down every single year. You look at it even compared to like 2010 to now, it’s like way down.
Joe Christiansen:
So, yeah, they’re trying to make it more entertaining. It was going to be on a 250-meter velodrome and they were going to start using carbon bikes as well as it was going to be more of like a six-day atmosphere, like flashy lights and stuff. But betting integrity was similar. You quarantine in a hotel for three days. You have no outside contact. They don’t want the entirety of the bets to go away, like people to be talking on their phones, like, “Oh yeah, this guy’s going to win this week,” telling their friends and stuff. So they literally, they put you on, like, I think it’s Wednesday, they put you into a hotel.
Joan Hanscom:
You’re in isolation.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, you’re in isolation. You have no wifi, you have no cellphone. They take your phone from you.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, wow.
Joe Christiansen:
All you have is you just have books.
Joan Hanscom:
Ooh, books, wow.
Joe Christiansen:
Then [inaudible 00:29:03] a hotel, like everybody’s sleeping on cots together.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, wow.
Joe Christiansen:
Everybody’s kind of together and sense that camaraderie.
Joan Hanscom:
Like a dormitory style.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, dormitory style, and then there’s a little shop where you can buy little snacks and stuff, but then they feed you a certain amount of food each day.
Joan Hanscom:
Wow.
Joe Christiansen:
And so it’s that for the whole week in the racing, There’s usually two or three days of racing. So it was going to be similar to that. Everything just got postponed to January, so hopefully it ends up working out.
Joan Hanscom:
Fingers crossed.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, hopefully.
Joan Hanscom:
Fingers crossed then.
Joe Christiansen:
Just a super cool opportunity. I’ve been out here grinding super hard on the track to get back into individual shape. It’s different than the tandem.
Joan Hanscom:
Right, that’s a shift.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, a major shift.
Joan Hanscom:
Super cool. I hope it happens.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, me, too.
Joan Hanscom:
So you were going to do an abbreviated version of Keirin school before that.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, so every year they invite Europeans. Usually they only invite like maybe six to eight outside of Japan, like six to eight riders. This time around, they’re inviting a lot more for this new league. So, that’s the reason we got the chance because I’m certainly not in the top six to eight Keirin riders in the world. But they’re taking people from kind of like every country.
Joan Hanscom:
All over?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, that’s so cool.
Joe Christiansen:
Getting them in there. The other thing about that besides trying to attract younger gamblers is there they have all these Keirin racers, but internationally, they’re not that competitive. Part of it’s these racers don’t even want to go out and race UCI stuff because there’s no money in it besides there. There they can make an amazing living, and going and traveling the world racing is not going to make them any money. They’re just losing money. So, that’s part of it. But part of it, too, is everything’s usually on an outdoor velodrome that’s like 333 meters. It’s just not the same kind of racing. And on the steel bikes, there’s a different rhythm to it.
Joan Hanscom:
That podcast that I listened to was definitely drawing the distinction between the UCI version of this sport and the Japanese Kiron betting.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, totally, a little more contact, more team tactics. You have eight writers and each person kind of pairs up with somebody and they’re kind of working together a little bit. You have your line.
Joan Hanscom:
I think they were saying how like sometimes the younger riders had to work for the older riders-
Joe Christiansen:
Oh, totally.
Joan Hanscom:
…. because that’s part of their initiation, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Joan Hanscom:
They have to learn the art of the Keirin and then they work for the older, more experienced rider and there’s a whole-
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, you’re kind of like protecting your man, because it’s full contact, that stuff, whereas UCI, I mean, now it’s so restricted, which makes sense because now the speeds you’re going are so fast that it’s like-
Joan Hanscom:
It’s so fast.
Joe Christiansen:
It is very dangerous if you crash. You end up crashing at like 75 or 70K an hour. It’s like crashing on a motorcycle. You slide. You lose all your skin. just like the speed you’re crashing at is crazy. So there’s a reason the UCI stuff isn’t like that, but nonetheless, yeah, it is a very different sport. So, I think they’re trying to develop more Japanese riders for the UCI track. After the Olympics, they want to win a medal in their sport. They invented the Keirin. That’s definitely part of it is they’re trying to make their Olympic program a little more successful, and by getting all these Japanese riders international experience, bringing in international riders.
Joan Hanscom:
So cool. That’s so cool. Well, I hope you get to go.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, I hope it all works out, too. We’ll see.
Joan Hanscom:
Well for so many reasons, right? We want you to get to go, but if you get to go, it probably means things are improving with the COVID situation. So, that’s good for all of us.
Joe Christiansen:
Totally, yeah. I really hope so.
Joan Hanscom:
So if you get to do that, that’s January, and then you can see we have Para Worlds. And then what’s the rest of your trajectory of your … How long are you going to be in Pennsylvania? What’s the rest of your trajectory here? Will you go back to Colorado?
Joe Christiansen:
Right now, I am in Pennsylvania for the time being. I moved out of Colorado Springs and I came out here. We were going to go to Japan, like I said, for a while, and then I was going to probably go back to Colorado Springs and do the para stuff again. So right now, it’s kind of up in there. I’m going to be in Pennsylvania for the next couple of months training here while the weather is good.
Joan Hanscom:
You can’t beat the roads here.
Joe Christiansen:
No, exactly. It’s one of the tracks that’s open and, yeah, the road training is amazing.
Joan Hanscom:
The road training here is like, I mean, having lived in the Springs myself, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Oh yeah, it’s terrible.
Joan Hanscom:
The road training here is so much better than what you have in the Springs. I mean, the Springs was awesome in many, many ways, but their road cycling not one of them.
Joe Christiansen:
It’s honestly the saddest part. The rest of Colorado is pretty amazing. You have Boulder, Golden, Evergreen. And then you get in the mountains, it’s incredible. But like Colorado Springs, there’s like one loop and it’s awesome. It’s a cool-
Joan Hanscom:
Right, we’re going to go Gold Camp Road [inaudible 00:33:46].
Joe Christiansen:
Exactly, you have Woodman, Gold Camp. I mean, there’s actually some really good gravel now, like there’s Rampart and all these other tracks.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh my god, Rampart Rager was such a fun race. Oh god, I loved that race.
Joe Christiansen:
Oh, yeah, that stuff’s awesome. Those are my favorite routes. Honestly, I road bike on all those gravel roads. But yeah, the road riding there is not the same. Like, honestly, Ive-
Joan Hanscom:
It’s not good for training. Well, Woodman, right, you can just do the hill over and over again. That’s good for training.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, nothing’s super sustained.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s definitely not.
Joe Christiansen:
And it’s a busy city. I mean Colorado, the whole West is just like-
Joan Hanscom:
Awesome, lots of mule deer.
Joe Christiansen:
Oh, yeah, everywhere.
Joan Hanscom:
Also lots of deer.
Joe Christiansen:
The West is just booming, so everybody’s moving to Colorado and it’s getting like traffic-wise on the roads is getting way busier. I mean, out here, that’s like one of the reasons I always love coming here is like even as a sprinter, just the roads are amazing. I’m going on just the greatest rides out here.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, the road riding here, you cannot beat. I will say. I did vacation in April in California and it was essentially a bike trip, go ride bikes with friends, and I was like the weather was amazing, right. It was you can’t beat the weather in Redlands in April was pretty stellar. But the riding itself was like, oh, I kind of like the riding better back home. We don’t have mountains here, but the riding itself is just like, oh, clippity-clop.
Joe Christiansen:
You’re on all these back roads always.
Joan Hanscom:
But the back roads.
Joe Christiansen:
Here, I mean, specifically in the valley, you have incredible farm roads, flat stuff, and then you have awesome hills. You have these awesome forested little mountain roads.
Joan Hanscom:
And lots of gravel, too, lots of gravel.
Joe Christiansen:
Gravel, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, the riding here is stellar. So yeah, glad you’re sticking around.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, definitely get in, like I said, all that base work here, all that fitness work.
Joan Hanscom:
We’ll drag you out for some rides.
Joe Christiansen:
I know.
Joan Hanscom:
So poor Mora sitting over here, I took her out for her four-plus hour ride the other week.
Mora:
Last Sunday.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, last Sunday. So Mora had not done a road ride longer than two hours, right, Mora?
Mora:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Joan Hanscom:
So two hours is her longest.
Joe Christiansen:
Maybe later.
Joan Hanscom:
She just got her bike. So two hours is respectable when you’re just starting out, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
So I was like, “Well, yeah, I’m going to ride on Sunday, but I’m doing four hours.” And she’s like, “Okay, I’m game.” We’re going to go do a fondo in October, so she’s got to start getting her mileage up. And then I did terribly in the crit across the street, and so my coach was like, “Yeah, we got to throw a little of zone four into your workout for Sunday.” So, I was like, “Yeah, I’m still going to ride on Sunday, but, oh, the first hour and a half, we’re going to do a lot of sub-threshold work.” And she was like, “okay.” And so very gamely sat on my wheel while I did my 15 minute blocks of sub-threshold work for an hour and a half. And then I was like, “Cool, we can ride four hours now, right?” And she was like, “I hate you.” [crosstalk 00:36:39]
Joan Hanscom:
She stayed on my wheel. That was amazing. So then we have, so poor Mora, she got dragged through all of my stupid interval workout and then very gamely hung on for the entire duration of the four hours and 20 minutes of our ride.
Mora:
It was the Pop-Tarts.
Joan Hanscom:
It was the Pop-Tarts.
Joe Christiansen:
I would absolutely be hanging on as well. I have a great hour, 45 in me maybe. Right before two hours, I’m starting to balk. I can go good, like really solid for a bit, but, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
I introduced Mora to the joy of the mid ride Pop-Tart.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, you definitely need like a whole meal.
Joan Hanscom:
I was like, “Mora, we’ll get you some sugar. It’ll be fine.” But yeah, so you can come ride with us.
Joe Christiansen:
Okay, sweet.
Joan Hanscom:
We’ll take you on some different roads from what you’re probably used to. What on earth? So, that’s cool that you’re sticking around for awhile like that.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, I’m excited. I mean, this weekend, the Keirin race too this weekend, like super stoked on that. Like I was saying, just like-
Joan Hanscom:
Keirin cup.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, Keirin Cup, I mean, I’m really excited. The money, money, money, money at the Keirin Cup.
Joan Hanscom:
[inaudible 00:37:45] bills, you all.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, for the UCI stuff, I was not in great shape just because of the tandem stuff, like I said. I can hold power really good. You have all this strength from the tandem. You’re doing a standing start. You’re doing similar times to somebody individually, but you have two people, like the amount of weight. So it’s just like crazy strength and ability to hold the power, but like acceleration and quickness is just like non-existent. These Keirin events, I was just like, people would excel and I’ll catch them eventually, but the move is not there. So just getting back into shape, doing that, and the last five weeks, like big block here. So yeah, excited to do Keirin.
Joan Hanscom:
Like you said earlier, the speed is crazy though, right? So, Pete Taylor who runs the program you’re in-
Joe Christiansen:
Star Track, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
Star Track, he and I, whenever there’s Keirin on the program, we both are kind of like, “Oh, I don’t want to look, I want to look, I don’t want to look.”Because as the event director, it’s terrifying, right, because I don’t want to see anybody get hurt at my races, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Totally.
Joan Hanscom:
This matters to me. I want everybody to be safe and have fun. I don’t like having to call the ambulance. And then I’m like, oh, Kierin’s really scary. I don’t want to watch it.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, Keirin and Madison, and you have both this week, the two events that you’re pretty much guaranteed to crash in.
Joan Hanscom:
Well, the Madison was good last night though. We had Madison last night and people were looking good. Like Madison exchanges were happening nicely last night. So yeah, so I’m feeling okay about that. But the Kierin’s are so fast. It’s so scary, just like you said. Something goes sideways at those speeds and it’s like-
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, that last UCI that in the 7 through 12, the Canadians both did their collarbones and ribs. [crosstalk 00:39:30]
Joan Hanscom:
That was sad and scary. But happily, they’re both fine.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, definitely.
Joan Hanscom:
But it always looks gnarly, man, and the sound is not happy. So hopefully, we all get through happily now this last one.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, definitely fingers crossed. Let’s knock on wood.
Joan Hanscom:
Knocking on all the wood in the office here.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, really, final weekend, let’s just make it through it.
Joan Hanscom:
Exactly.
Joe Christiansen:
Have fun.
Joan Hanscom:
Have fun.
Joe Christiansen:
I’m sure it’s going to be some of the most brutal race of the summer with it being a good prize purse.
Joan Hanscom:
Let’s hope. Let’s hope it’s exciting for the fans and everybody has a good time. And by the time this podcast airs, we’ll know, but right now we don’t. Right now, who knows? Hopefully, you’re going home with a big fat check in your pocket.
Joe Christiansen:
Sure hope so.
Joan Hanscom:
What else? What else should we talk about? What else is on your mind?
Joe Christiansen:
I guess, for most sprinters in general, everything’s a little up in the air with there’s a new sprint coach, Erin Hartwell. So I guess that’s probably definitely part of the talk of the town here. Everybody’s excited to see where the program goes. He’s definitely the man for the job and has a great track record.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, did great things in Canada, did great things in Trinidad.
Joe Christiansen:
Trinidad, I mean, yeah, he’s always been an awesome coach and just like one of those, probably one of the harder coaches out there.
Joan Hanscom:
Are you going to contemplate switching from para and tandem to individual?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, there’s definitely, I mean, Michael knows, we talk about it. If I need to end up going individually again, totally can do that. So it’s kind of on me. Like I said, I really want to make sure we get him in the World Championships and the World Tandem. And also the tandem is honestly more, I feel like I’m doing something with that individually, eventually, you’re like, okay, cool like another nationals. I don’t know. It’s nice to have teammates.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, for sure.
Joe Christiansen:
I mean, when I’m doing team sprint, it feels more like I’m willing to sacrifice because you’re helping your teammates out [crosstalk 00:41:29] and that’s how it is on the tandem every day. You have somebody behind you that’s relying on you. So that’s pretty cool, So I definitely enjoy doing that. But yeah, super up in the air. My plans are changing by the day here.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, right, well, you’ll have to come back and update us then. You’ll definitely have to come back on after you go to Japan.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, totally.
Joan Hanscom:
Because we’re going to want to hear about all that and how that went.
Joe Christiansen:
Absolutely. I’m really excited to share that with everybody. It’s been a long time.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s just something that people don’t know about, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, totally.
Joan Hanscom:
Maddie was the first, right?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, Maddie’s the first female. Back in the day, there was a couple of U.S. males that did it, but probably not since like ’98 or something like that there’s been a U.S. male.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, it’s been a while. So it’d be super cool.
Joe Christiansen:
I think it’s awesome, and Maddie, you’ve had her on.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah.
Joe Christiansen:
I mean, just such a cool experience. Maddie’s such a legend this last couple of years just killing it.
Joan Hanscom:
So we’ll have to have you back on and talk about your experience there and what it was like after you’ve been through it.
Joe Christiansen:
Totally.
Joan Hanscom:
And sort of pull the curtain back on that, get us a little backstage view of what that was all like for you. It’ll be super cool. Right on.
Joe Christiansen:
Another thing, this is my story of how I got into track cycling started here.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, really? Okay.
Joe Christiansen:
Even though I’m a Colorado boy and I was a mountain bike racer, so I grew up racing mountain bikes, I don’t know, most of my teenage years I was racing mountain bikes and I was pretty decent. And in 2017 they had Mountain Bike nationals-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh yeah, right up the street.
Joe Christiansen:
At Bear Creek here. So yeah, I was racing there. That year I went through a growth spurt. I went from, I don’t know, like being 5’11” to 6’4″, and suddenly like you weigh way more. I was climbing, just like so good at climbing. And suddenly you’re like, whoa, not so good at that anymore.
Joan Hanscom:
Wait a second.
Joe Christiansen:
And everybody, a couple of my coaches through the years, like “You should try track, man.” And especially at the short track and I mean even like probably the cross-country race, I’m always taking the whole shot off the line.
Joan Hanscom:
A good pound, right.
Joe Christiansen:
I’m the dude at the front for a little bit, and then, yeah, I just had that power. And I recognize T-Town. That’s definitely, even if you’re any kind of cyclist, you know the name, but I didn’t know where it was, and somebody was like, “Oh yeah, T-Town’s just down the road here.”
Joan Hanscom:
You should check it out.
Joe Christiansen:
Okay, cool. So yeah, I came over and checked it out. I think Don was out there and he gave me a tour, of course, because I was out there. Yeah, we came out, watched Friday night racing, my dad and me. I was 16 or 17 at the time.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, that’s super cool.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, I just remember seeing some of the Trinidad guys, just some of these big dudes, and I was like, “Whoa, okay, there’s a lot of tall guys out here, a lot of big cats out here.” So yeah, pretty much immediately just, yeah, I was like, “I’m going to do track.” After watching racing here-
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, that’s so cool.
Joe Christiansen:
And it was like one of those just perfect Friday nights, huge crowd out here. I was like, “This looks so fun.” So yeah, definitely that was a huge part of the reason I ended up doing track period.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, that’s so cool. That is a very good story because I sort of do love that about track cycling. We were just having this conversation with John Croom that cycling is, in other disciplines perhaps more than track, but there’s an emphasis on at the elite level a certain body type of you have to be a skinny, little climber or whatever.
Joe Christiansen:
Right, just a sack full of sticks.
Joan Hanscom:
And I sort of love that track cycling is the opposite of that. Well, it’s not the opposite, but I mean, you definitely can accommodate more body types on the track. And I think it just it comes without some of that baggage or body typing that happens in other aspects of our sport that I would so desperately like to see change, broadly speaking.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, it is interesting. There’s definitely a lot of huge dudes and then there’s like short guys. They’re just compact and quick, even in the sprinting. It’s interesting.
Joan Hanscom:
Right, you could be tall and succeed. You can be small and succeed. It’s different. It’s a different-
Joe Christiansen:
On the road, honestly, it is in necessity. You can’t succeed unless it’s all about watts per kilo, and especially like Grand Tour races. Traits are different, but for these tour races, yeah, it kind of is. But track, there’s so much to offer in terms of the range of events you can choose from. I mean, 1K time trial is like a middle distance running event, and then you have like the Flag 200 and standing starts and Keirin, which are all like even from standing starts to Keirin, a completely different body type is going to be good at that. Somebody that’s super quick and truly fast twitch versus like Keirin and kilo, it can be somebody that’s more like a middle distance, mixed. Then you have pursuit and then Madison. You just kind of have it all. So I think that that’s why it appeals to just like a wide range of bodies and a wide range of people. Diversity-wise, track is hands down in the U.S. like the ticket.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, agreed.
Joe Christiansen:
Out here at nationals, you would just have all these kids from Detroit, you have all the New York kids. You just have such a range of athletes.
Joan Hanscom:
Definitely, the vibe is very different. The participant base is very different, which is super cool. That’s what makes it very cool.
Joe Christiansen:
Totally, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
That diversity is super cool about track, and you really don’t see it in a lot of the other disciplines [crosstalk 00:47:06].
Joe Christiansen:
And you especially see it here, like on the East Coast.
Joan Hanscom:
Definitely.
Joe Christiansen:
You’re so close to these major urban centers.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, which makes it super cool, and it’s one of the things that I think is really attractive. And again, that’s where I think you look at track just does have this potential to be the right gateway into the sport for so many people. The more track can take down those barriers to entry, I think the better. And barriers to entry can be economic. They can be you feel physical, like “I’m too tall to do this thing on the bike,” well, no, you’re not. There’s so many ways that track can be the gateway into the sport.
Joe Christiansen:
Oh, totally agree. I think that it creates a lot of good habits as a rider.
Joan Hanscom:
Absolutely.
Joe Christiansen:
I mean, just from a pure athletic standpoint, you’re creating people that have really good cadence, that have really good pedal efficiency, really good positioning on a bike, and they know how to handle their bike. They know how to ride among other riders. But beyond that, just like you’re saying, like the program I’m a part of, Star Track, it’s all about these inner city kids. So, tons of them with like Asian background from Flushing, Queens, and just other urban kids, and they’re out there on the track, and it’s like so-
Joan Hanscom:
And that’s amazing though, because if you’re from an urban area, the roads may not be the best option.
Joe Christiansen:
Oh, exactly, there’s no option there, no.
Joan Hanscom:
But then the track provides a place where, yeah, you can enjoy bikes and it’s safe, right, because it’s you’re on a track. You don’t have cars. You don’t have urban traffic. You don’t have all of those issues that you face with living in a city area. I know, I live downtown Allentown. I don’t ride my bike downtown Allentown. The roads don’t lend itself to that.
Joe Christiansen:
Totally. In the cities, and I mean, that’s where at the end of the day, that’s our population. That’s where you’re going to get the biggest chance of having good athletes and just having a lot of athletes. It’s going to come from the cities.
Joan Hanscom:
A lot of athletes, volume, yup.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, a lot of cities, they have good bike paths and stuff, but it’s just not the same. Definitely having a track is huge. Like in New York, Kissena Velodrome, it’s not even a great velodrome. It’s got some jumps in there, some big bumps, but it’s so awesome that it’s there.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s there.
Joe Christiansen:
And it gets used like crazy. I mean, there’s so many people out there, like Star Track, I think there’s like 180 kids.
Joan Hanscom:
I know, that program is incredible. What they do in that program is so incredible.
Joe Christiansen:
It’s amazing.
Joan Hanscom:
I love Pete’s point that we’ve never advertised for kids because we have so much demand for the program.
Joe Christiansen:
No, you want more, yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
I just think everything that Star Track does is amazing.
Joe Christiansen:
Absolutely. It’s a great, like we were talking about, every-
Joan Hanscom:
So you’re a Colorado person. How’d you end up at Star Track?
Joe Christiansen:
When I was 18, my first nationals, after being at a Mountain Bike Nationals here in Pennsylvania, it was in Los Angeles. There was track nationals the next year and I was given my first go, and I flew there by myself. My mom was coming in later and I was commuting from the hotel, like on my fixie, from hotel to the track. And Pete one day saw me kind of and was like, “Yo, you need a ride or anything?”
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, amazing.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, we were just chatting, Pete and me, and he was helping me out a bit when I was there because I was brand new, had no clue what’s going on, didn’t have a skin suit. So many people helped me out at that time. I remember somebody gave me one of Justin Williams skin suits. That was my first skin suit.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, wow.
Joe Christiansen:
They were like, “You ride like you’re the quick man, like Justin. Here, have this skin suit.” But yeah, Pete reached out and, yeah, we just kind of became friends. And then another teammate of mine, Dominic Suozzi, and then like Josh, a couple other guys were part of the program and they needed somebody for Team Sprint.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, all right.
Joe Christiansen:
So, I did Team Sprint with them once, and then we just became such good friends, and I started helping out a little bit with the kid stuff. And Pete wanted and Star Track wanted to make more of an elite program. They saw the potential in us.
Joan Hanscom:
Cool.
Joe Christiansen:
So yeah, they’ve been just huge supporters.
Joan Hanscom:
That’s awesome.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah. I mean, connecting me with my best friends, like Josh, I didn’t know Josh before Star Track. He kind of grew up in that program. He was out here racing with them and we became good friends. He moved out to Colorado Springs with me and, yeah, stuff like that.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, right. That’s so cool. Yeah, I was curious, like how did he end up on Star Track?
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, it’s definitely a weird one.
Joan Hanscom:
Oh, it’s cool.
Joe Christiansen:
Definitely like the other side of the country.
Joan Hanscom:
It’s definitely cool though. All right, we covered a lot of ground.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah.
Joan Hanscom:
We covered a lot of ground. It was good.
Joe Christiansen:
I think so. Yeah, it was good.
Joan Hanscom:
I’m excited to have you back on though, to hear the next thing, because you got a lot in the hopper.
Joe Christiansen:
Yeah, definitely talk more about para and the Japanese Keirin stuff. But yeah, everybody definitely go watch the Paralympics right now that’s going on.
Joan Hanscom:
Yeah, tune in.
Joe Christiansen:
It’s pretty awesome to watch, very inspiring.
Joan Hanscom:
Right on.
Joan Hanscom:
Well, thank you for joining us this week. It’s good. I can’t wait to have you back. And on that note, we’ll say goodbye and say that this has been the Talk of the T-Town podcast. If you like what you hear, please leave a positive review or share with your friends so that we can continue to grow our audience. Thanks so much and tune in next week.
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.