Even by the standards of WorldTour racing, Dennis van Winden’s career has seen a lot of highs and lows. Starting out on the legendary Rabobank development team as a teenager, he landed a spot on the WorldTour team and was starting to distinguish himself as a promising new talent when a catastrophic health incident changed his trajectory. Now, he coaches a long roster of American talents through Orange Seal Academy, including Cole Paton and World Cup rider Savilia Blunk.

In this final episode of the year, Payson answers your questions about training, the 2023 season, UCI points, mustaches, and much more.

This week, cycling trainer Derek Teel returns to answer more questions about strength training for endurance cyclists. He goes over the importance of mobility, how to do a proper push-up, and the equipment-free exercises everyone should be incorporating into their pre-ride routine. He also talks about some of his own endurance efforts, including double Everesting, in which he climbed over 58,000 feet in 27 hours, Everesting Roam, in which he climbed over 29,000 feet over 326 miles.

Derek Teel began his career as a downhill mountain biker, only to pivot toward personal training when he became fascinated with his team’s trainers and nutritionists. Over time, he found a way to combine his two passions, and his company, Dialed Health, was born, a strength training program geared specifically toward cyclists.

Katie Burrell has been called the “action sports cult antihero” for her wildly popular videos satirizing the outdoor industry. Through YouTube videos and Instagram reels, the comedian has poked fun at everything from know-it-all mountain bikers to couples having relationship meltdowns in the middle of hiking expeditions. Now, she’s written, directed, and starred in her first feature-length film, ‘Weak Layers.’

After finishing high school in his native Australia, Angus Neaves devised the ultimate gap year plan: a 9,000-mile solo bikepacking trip from Mongolia to Scotland. After seven months and 16 countries, he finally completed the journey this week and joined Payson to talk about it.

This week, photographer and adventurer Chris Burkard returns to the show to talk about moving to Iceland and his experience racing the Tour Divide this summer. Having spent the last decade exploring and documenting Iceland, Chris finally made the big move with his family.

For the past couple of weeks, Iceland has been shaking with earthquakes as an underground river of magma moves toward the surface. Over the weekend, more than 800 earthquakes were detected in 14 hours in the Reykjanes Peninsula in the southwest of the country, and nearly 4,000 people were evacuated from the small town of Grindavík. One of the people who has had a front-row seat to these events is Thrainn Kolbeinsson, a photographer who Payson worked with on both of his island crossing films.

If you haven’t already heard of Asa Vermette, chances are, that’s about to change in a big way this coming year. The 16-year-old Durango native has been making waves in the downhill scene since he was 14, showing up at pro races and beating some of the sport’s top riders for the podium. He won most of his races this year, including the Enduro National Championship where he beat 3x world champ Richie Rude.

It’s our final recap episode of the season, which means we’re not only looking back at the seventh and final round of the Grand Prix, but the 2023 Grand Prix as a whole. Payson first sits down with Velo Reporter Betsy Welch to talk about the dynamic race at Big Sugar. With podiums in both the men’s and women’s fields that looked significantly different from usual and plenty of on-course carnage, they break down the biggest stories of the weekend.

Sofia Gomez Villafañe has many accolades to her name. Olympian, winner of the Cape Epic, winner of Unbound, and winner of Leadville are just a few of her claims to fame, and she also happens to be this year’s winner of the Life Time Grand Prix after clinching the overall victory in just five races. Payson caught up with Sofia a few days before the seventh and final round of the series in Bentonville, Arkansas for a wide-ranging and long overdue conversation.

The second-ever Gravel World Championships took place in Veneto, Italy earlier this month, and we’re bringing you a full episode about it. Payson chats with Keegan Swenson about his fifth-place finish in a field dominated by Europeans who were well-versed in the kind of tight, twisty terrain that the course had to offer.

As new addition to the Grand Prix series, the Rad Dirt Fest was an unknown quantity for many of the racers last weekend. Alexey Vermeulen and Lauren De Crescenzo came away with the wins, shaking up the standings and setting the stage for the final race in Bentonville at the end of the month. In this recap episode, Payson catches up with Velo reporter Betsy Welch to talk about the race.

Cole Paton returns to the show after a transformative year in his career. When this conversation was recorded earlier this week, he was sitting in second place in the Life Time Grand Prix and had just won the Marathon Mountain Bike National Championship the week before.

In our latest recap of the Life Time Grand Prix series, we’re covering Chequamegon, the punchy, 40 mile mountain bike race in Northern Wisconsin. This year’s event saw new riders at the front of the pack and drama in the sprint finishes.

Last week, Lachlan Morton finished the 2,670-mile Tour Divide in just 12 days, 12 hours, and 21 minutes, more than a day faster than the officially recognized record. He also did it in the midst of the Life Time Grand Prix, between Leadville and Chequamegon.

PC: @_ryan_hill

This week, Payson is joined by one of the Australian riders in this year’s Grand Prix, Brendan Johnston. Brendan dominated the marathon mountain biking scene in Australia for several years, winning the national title no fewer than four times and winning 19 consecutive races between 2015 and 2017. He’s also dabbled in road racing, finishing third at the 2022 National Championships in a stacked field. After juggling cycling alongside a full-time career, Brendan decided to focus on riding this year and moved across the world to compete in the Grand Prix.

This week, Payson catches up with one of the fastest racers in this year's Grand Prix, Zach Calton. So far this season, Zach has placed 6th at Leadville and 9th at Unbound, and is currently sitting 8th overall in the Grand Prix standings. He also happens to have a full-time job off the bike.

Payson caught up with fellow Grand Prix racer Maude Farrell at Leadville a couple of weeks ago to talk about how her season is going, why she went to Leadville even though she chose to skip racing it, and how she juggles professional racing with a full-time career at the electric vehicle company Rivian. They discuss the challenges of trying to have it all—professionally, athletically, and personally—and do a deep dive into the state of the electric vehicle industry and why there’s no silver bullet when it comes to making transportation more sustainable.

There was one story that dominated Leadville this year. Keegan Swenson smashed the course record by more than 15 minutes and finished nearly 25 minutes ahead of second place. On the women's side, Sofia Gómez Villafañe won a tight battle among the top five, followed closely by Ruth Winder.