Ever wondered what life is like as a professional cyclist? Australian ex-professional cyclist Mitch Docker takes you inside the world of Professional Cycling. Bringing you the stories behind the individuals in the sport - from the pros in the peloton to staff behind the teams - to commentators & legends, plus training insights & debriefs on major races throughout the year. It’s all here! Newly retired from the professional peloton, Mitch is exploring his new pelotons - all the pelotons that exist outside of the world tour - bringing you new stories from within the cycling community. His spin off series, Talking Luft - a bit like the DVD Extras - is where cycling style & culture takes centre stage. Talking cycling caps, bikes, kit, coffee stops, training loops and all the best things about riding a bike. Listen to all episodes here weekly! Find all our episodes, merch and more at lifeinthepeloton.com
Episodes
Wednesday Aug 21, 2024
Josh Poertner
Wednesday Aug 21, 2024
Wednesday Aug 21, 2024
Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP
This week’s episode of Life in the Peloton is a treat for all the tech fans out there as we’re talking to Josh Poertner. Currently, Josh is the owner of iconic cycling brand Silca, where he has been doing some really cool stuff in the past few years, but he’s also one of the minds behind some of the most interesting changes in tech in pro cycling in the last decade.
Coming from a motorsport background, Josh was introduced to cycling through at Zipp where (amongst other things) through his work with Fabian Cancellara at CSC, he changed the way that, my favourite race, Paris Roubaix is raced, showing the world that the cobbles could be conquered on carbon wheels.
These days it might not even sound that revolutionary to think about tackling a race like Roubaix on deep section carbon wheels, but as someone who raced it back in the late 00’s on 36 spoke box section rims this was a real revolution. Small changes like this make huge contributions to the speed of races and the way that the peloton moves these days.
To be honest the wheels at Roubaix, although a huge talking point for me obviously, are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Josh’s work in pro cycling. His is one of the minds that has led to the revolution in aerodynamics, lowering rolling resistance, ceramic bearingsand a host of other seemingly small but game changing ideas that has sped up the sport in the past decade.
I was pumped to sit down and talk with Josh about all of this, and of course recount the pretty funny tale of when we first met in 2019 and he had to go and pick up the race bike I’d left on a baggage carousel the day before Roubaix!
Sit back and have a listen and get to know one of the people who has really changed the sport for the better!
Cheers!
Mitch
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