SPEAKER_04 0:00

To start this thing up? We are ready.

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Should I try to connect uh Wayne and then?

SPEAKER_04 0:03

Not yet. Not yet. Let's get him in a bit. Nice little opening. Good job, Tom. Well done, Tom. Well done. You ever see this video? No, worry about it. Check it out. Good morning, everybody.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Woo!

SPEAKER_04 0:25

Great song, Tom. Yes. Star South Queen. Jeff, I'm good. Queen in the house. We have an amazing guest here. We're gonna have two guests today. We're super excited about the podcast. Always. How are you guys doing? Great. You're good? Good? Big recital day for Jeff and I. We gotta get to the high school.

SPEAKER_06 0:42

Glenn and I are in a dance recital today. Nice.

SPEAKER_04 0:44

You're doing Jeff and I dance with passion. I do the one thing where I like tap up in the air. I believe they have an adult one, don't they? They do. I was gonna dance. You and Jeff should do it. I was gonna do a dance and then told Ella found out I was gonna be in the same recital as her. She's like, if that comes to my recital, I'm gonna quit. Anyway. So we have an amazing guest. We have uh cyclist, former racer, New Paul's resident, uh uh founder, right, founder of the ride, organizer, event director of the ride for mental health, Mac Doris. How are you, Mac?

SPEAKER_01 1:25

I'm doing great. Thanks so much for having me.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

Yeah, we're we're super excited that you're here, and you have a great ride, which we want to hear all about, and it's for an amazing cause. It really is.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Well, we're trying. You know, this is our tenth year of the ride, so it's uh it's kind of a uh a neat year to be sort of celebrating. Every year is it's uh it's a long time. Nice. Uh and we want to just keep building year over year.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

How many uh how many riders of first year? I know you told me upstairs.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

We had a hundred riders of the first year, and I think I knew every one of them. Uh yeah, I like that. Every one of them. Basically, you know, we just bribed everybody to show up the first year. And we did it, we did it in six months. We didn't we didn't have any idea about doing a ride until January of 2017, and uh the ride happened in June of 2017. So it was a lot of it was a lot of work since I'd never done or organized any kind of a bike ride before. It's but you had been in a lot of bike rides. I've been in a lot of bike rides.

SPEAKER_04 2:19

You kind of knew what you were doing a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

So let's a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

Before we talk about the the ride, maybe we could talk a little bit about Max riding past.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

How about my past past? How'd you get into riding? Oh my god. Um my brother managed a ski shop that to to sort of get by in the summer, they sold some bicycles. Where was this? This was outside Philadelphia in Abingdon, Pennsylvania. Mean streets of Philly. And and I grew up outside Philly. Um but uh but I still like the next a little bit. Yes, yes. And and and so he called me one day and he said, you know, there's some kid here who who who's a racer and he's like 15 years old, but you ought to ride with him, like you ride bikes. Like I was in college then. I thought, sure, like a 15-year-old kid, I can go, you know, kill this guy. And so I meet this kid, Tommy, and and we go for a little ride, and and in the first like 15 yards, he's off. And I'm like, what's going on? What's going on? He's gone, you know, in in like the first 10 seconds. And and and then, you know, he he looks back and I'm nowhere to be seen. So like he waits, I catch up, and boom, he goes again, you know, and it's like, what the F? Like, I don't know what this is about. This is not like bike riding. But for some reason, I got a kick out of it and I kept riding with this kid, and then I went into some like spring races and stuff, training races, and uh, you know, started as a cat four. This is back when I was in college and uh moved up to cat three, just doing crits. Uh, can't climb hills uh to save my life.

SPEAKER_04 3:49

Um I'm sure you're pretty good now.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

I I'm I suck on hills. Um I have Crohn's disease, I'm anemic all the time. You know, I've lost like three feet of small intestine where they absorb iron and stuff, but but uh I've got a lot of good excuses basically.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

But it was all great right there. You're done. We're Jeff and I are like on board.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

My whole racing career was basically find a really good wheel in the last corner. You know, it's an amazing strategy. Suck that guy's what Jeff and I do. And hang on, and maybe you'll get top five, right?

SPEAKER_04 4:16

But listen, my goal is not the first, like the last corner. It's like the first corner. Yeah. It's like this is a 60-mile run. It's I'm on this guy's wheel like mile two.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Well, you gotta remember, crits back then for threes and fours were like, you know, 20 miles, 20 mile races. Yeah. Right around the block, you know.

SPEAKER_04 4:33

Still a fun race.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

They're they're really fun, yeah, really exciting. I mean, like, like you got to pay attention, right? You got a hundred guys like you know, handlebar to handlebar, wheel to wheel. Yeah, and that that's that's something I loved about racing. I just love that. But I could never make the jump to the cat twos, which were big jump. Our crits were 25 miles an hour, the cat one-twos uh were 30 average average. You know, we'd go to Somerville, but but they didn't even have a race for three fours, but but I went every year to watch the one-twos. And you know, that's 200-person field going 30 miles an hour around a four ninety-degree corner left turns for 50 miles and they average 30 miles an hour. And then there are guys who break away, and then they usually get caught.

SPEAKER_04 5:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Um, but they can pedal through the corners, right? The breakaways, but the the mob can't. Right, yeah, yeah. Yeah, right. Because you could have a huge crash. And there's always a crash in the big field, and a whole bunch of people go down. But you know, it's it's crazy how close that is.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

Grabbing someone's wheel SOS, going down Springtown Road, unabashedly, I'm on someone's wheel, going down Lucas Turnpike. They're like, drafting's illegal. I'm like, don't worry about it, buddy. Oh, yeah. We're okay.

SPEAKER_06 5:46

Ice front.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

After one of our group rides here, I I went down Springtown Road and I was exhausted. And I saw I saw this guy up ahead of me, and he looked like a real rider. I'm like, oh man, all I have to do is get on this guy's wheel and he's gonna take me seven miles back to Newports. I'm just gonna say that's a good thing. Yeah, I love that. And and I catch up to the guy, and you know, he looks like pretty serious. He's got like a jacket, it's unzipped, he's got shaved legs, the whole deal. And and I'm thinking, wow. And I I kind of go up to him, I say, Oh, like you race? And he goes, Yeah, I'm a six-time national champion. I'm like, whoa, six-time national champion. I don't know who this guy is, right? Turns out he was like 13 years old. Enzo Edmonds. Enzo Edmonds. From Brooklyn, same age as Enzo Hincappy, Georgia's son. So they've been racing against each other for a while. Okay. And um, so the kid's from Brooklyn, but his family has a house up here someplace uh up by Germantown or something. And he was riding to have lunch with a friend of his 50 miles one way. I was gonna run 13. Uh and he's mostly a sprinter. So like he's been racing a Trixler town lately and does pretty well in the sprints. I think he was on a U.S. junior team that won uh a pursuit, a team pursuit championship, world team pursuit championship. That's great. Uh pretty recently, like a year ago. Wow. Pretty good. So you this just happened to you. Yeah, yeah. So I just like you came account upon a six-time national champion. It's very funny. Which groups for you?

SPEAKER_04 7:11

Which groups do you go out and ride with?

SPEAKER_01 7:13

The slowest ones.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

Um Alfonso.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Alfonso, the old guys. Yeah. Um, you know, we've had some quick guys. John Budnik is very Yeah, John Budnik.

SPEAKER_04 7:22

Yeah, he's he's I saw he signed up for your ride. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Andre?

SPEAKER_04 7:25

Andre's great.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Andre's a great guy. Uh we love Andre because he's always he's like the contrarian. You know, when we are going for a ride and it's Alfonso's ride saying he says, Well, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna go this way up here. We're gonna turn right. Andre inevitably says, Well, no, no, no, we should go left. We should go left because there's some really cool thing. Yeah. Oh, he has to say, like, F you, Andre, we're gonna go right.

SPEAKER_04 7:45

So basically, Andre came to the cabin, I don't know, several years ago. Someone from the ride at the shop, it might have been Lebanonite, said, Hey, do you know Andre? I'm like, Yeah, I know Andre. So, do you mind if he jumps in the challenge? Is it okay? It's been closed right away. I'm like, sure, Andre, whatever. I sent him a call, like, Andre, sign up. And then, like, I they all ride, and then like later the day after the ride, they're like, Hey, F. Andre, don't ever let him come again. I'm like, what happened? Like, he made us do the hundred. Andre's crazy. Like, F. Andre, we don't want him ever coming back.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Well, and he's yeah, I mean, he does the Paris Press Paris stuff. Yeah, he's a tall rider, man. Super strong rider. It it depends a little bit about, you know, and and Andre would laugh himself about this. He he goes up and down a little bit in terms of his fitness. Yeah. And when he's fit, he's like a monster. Do it.

SPEAKER_04 8:33

I've seen him.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

And even when he's not fit, he's a monster on the flats.

SPEAKER_04 8:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

And he just can hammer. The other great thing about riding with Andre is he doesn't seem to mind being on the front all the time.

SPEAKER_04 8:43

I love those guys.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yeah, yeah, me too. It's like most people like they they get a little ticked off and say, Well, it's your turn, not Andre. No, he's like lead dog. He can't help himself.

SPEAKER_04 8:52

You're up front for 15 miles, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah, we love it. But uh sometimes he'll fade a little bit on the hills, depending on the fitness level.

SPEAKER_04 8:58

But so you ride with out of the shop on the ride with the guys.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yeah. Brothers ride on Wednesdays and Fridays. That's set up really. Alfredo. Alfonso's older.

SPEAKER_04 9:09

You guys ride the same time we do the geezer ride, I think.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Uh 9 a.m. is our time.

SPEAKER_04 9:15

We ride at 8, but we see you guys often when I'm riding, because we always are doing gravel mostly. Yep. So when we're riding, and sometimes we have a good group, 12 or 15 guys, and we'll see them going. We'll see the the that ride heading one way or the other. We see them a lot.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Yeah, our Sunday ride's nice. Um, and it we never know where we're gonna go. You know, we show up at the shop and then somehow we figure out who leads that ride. It varies. It's sort of people take turns with ideas about where we're gonna go. It's about 30 miles. Anywhere from 30 to 100. Like, like we know. Well, that's an Andre kind of thing. You know, like where one year all of a sudden we were going up to to Hunter or something, and I for some reason decided to go with them and I was like crazy on the way back.

SPEAKER_04 9:58

But it's like I have something to do.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

We're going to Hunter.

SPEAKER_04 10:03

So should we before we go any further, should we get Wayne in here?

SPEAKER_06 10:06

Yeah, you can call him in right now. You're gonna hear the call and everything go on. So we should wait. Can we can we give a little primer as to who we're calling in? Yes. Do you want to call it?

SPEAKER_01 10:15

I'll introduce Wayne a little bit. Wayne, Wayne, uh again, I mentioned he was racing when I was racing. So this was back in the 70s. Uh he was a three-time Olympian, 13-time national champion, uh, a member of the USA Cycling Hall of Fame, and a two-time winner of the Little 500 made famous by Breaking Away. Listen.

SPEAKER_04 10:37

I'm so excited. Breaking Away is probably a top three movie. Yes, there we go. Tommy on it. It's a great movie.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Wayne too. Wayne can tell you, you know, all about all of the extras that were in the movie because those were all like Cat 1-2 Racers at the time. Wayne, you know, when they were filming it, the movie came out in 1979, was also my first date with my now wife. Wow, we're getting into all the and uh it's amazing she went out with me after that because I know I was jumping up and down, you know, and and out of my seat at the movie theater.

SPEAKER_06 11:12

So you took her to see that movie as the date? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:14

So slide down. It's an amazing movie. And I've actually thought several times, and I actually almost pulled the plug this year, but I was gonna I was gonna show it like two days before the challenge. I know local people showed up. I have a huge blow-up inflatable screen. I was gonna show breaking away in my yard. Bring your food, bring your cigarette, bring your families. But the mosquitoes here, it's like the Mekong Delta. It's like the You need to work the Newball Cinema. Well, I called. They won't do it only in the morning. Dennis. I already called. Oh, you should have it at Deniz's. And uh he's like, I gotta get some licensing. I'm like, okay, uh, what can I help out with there? I'm like, it is a 50-year-old movie at this point. I'm like, I'm not sure how much license. I mean, there's got to be licensing. So fit, you know, so we kind of were talking about that.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Yeah, we should we should try to have that happen for next summer. I mean, that's it's a neat movie.

SPEAKER_04 12:13

And it would get a lot of locals who do the challenge and come out like on the Friday night or whatever. Bring your kids, bring your families.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Yeah, Wayne, I asked Wayne if he was in the movie. I didn't recognize him when I saw it, but um, he said he and Dale were or his brother Dale were away in Germany racing uh when the movie's being shot, so he wasn't in it. But he knows like everybody who was and they still do the ride, right? It still happens, isn't it? Oh, yeah, I think it does. Started in the 50s, I think, to raise money. Yeah, it's a great, it's a great, you know, school thing. I love this.

SPEAKER_04 12:43

All right. Okay. Let's get him in.

SPEAKER_06 12:45

Let's call him in.

SPEAKER_04 12:48

Patching him in. Let's see, hopefully he answers.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:55

Hello, uh, Wayne, Regis Vilvin here. Mac Doris needs your assistance.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Hi, this is Wayne.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Wayne, hey, it's Mac Doris. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 13:15

What's up?

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Welcome to the cabin. Welcome, welcome. I was gonna say the cabin challenge. Welcome to the uh the gunk cast here. We're on with uh three guys who run the gunk cast, uh Glenn LePoltz, the uh the head dog.

SPEAKER_04 13:28

Well, Jeff and I are and Tom. It's it's equal parts. Equal parts. So hi Wayne. Hey Wayne, Jeff, Tom.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Nice to be on talking to you.

SPEAKER_04 13:38

Yeah, man. Welcome to the podcast. Good to hear you. Listen, I am very excited because uh I checked you out. Listen, I mean, nothing like too creepy stalking on the internet, but a lot. But my favorite thing you did, the little 500.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

Oh, yeah, that well, that was one of the harder races of my life.

SPEAKER_04 13:59

Listen, I'm super, I love the movie.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Uh-huh. Yeah. Um, first year I wound up having to ride 144 laps because the rest of our team wasn't too strong.

SPEAKER_04 14:11

Um and real teammates there.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Yeah, this the second year we won, we were two laps ahead, and our team could have won without me. So uh that was pretty much not really a competition. Um I was a lot better, and the team was uh heck, they qualified second, uh, and I didn't even go to qualifications. I went to uh I was just training and going to regular bike races. That's amazing. So yeah, yeah, well, I can I can understand that uh why the rules got changed. And the problem was in 1977, after the 76 Pan Am games, my uh younger brother Dale and I were both eligible to ride for Delta Kai, and that would have definitely not been a race. And so we were both Olympians. And so I get why all the rules got changed, but the Student Foundation also eliminated all category one and two riders, and um anyone who'd ever been a member of a national team, and by taking all the better riders, they created a bloodbath because they lost a lot of veterans from all the teams that were teaching people how to ride in pack without crashing.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

Now there's no more category one and two riders. Tom and Jeff, I guess you guys can't sign up. Well, there still is.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

And when I third my third brother, Joel, um when he pledged another fraternity and was eligible to race, he'd never held a license as a senior. And so there was a rule passed that if you've ever been a member of a junior world championship team, you're ineligible to race. And he's the only person at IU ever to run a foul of that rule. I love it. So there you have it. Um but uh I was just down there again this last year, and um it's become a phenomenal event.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

Tremendous.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

It's no longer around the the original football stadium that was packed and could hold 25 or 30,000 people. They hold it, it's a much larger, rounder track around the soccer field. Is it still cinder or no? It's it's cinder, but it's almost concrete. You the bikes are much lighter, much faster, and the um you can pedal the whole turn at speed, so you can't if you're in front, you don't have to coast the turns, you can't control the race.

SPEAKER_04 17:02

Sweet.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

And uh and accelerate out of the turns. It's more like riding on a can even though it's flat-ish, it's more like riding on a conventional track.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

Just the term control the race is something that we're definitely not familiar with, Jeff.

SPEAKER_06 17:18

No, no, controlling the back, keep keeping up.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

I managed to outsprint a guy that would have been on the U.S. national sprint team. It was really, really fast. And um and I pinned him in and uh and didn't open, didn't accelerate hard until I was in the final lap, and he couldn't get around me. Um and hit a pedal trying to go around and almost took himself out because he tried to pedal where you had to be coasting, and I don't know how he stayed up. But um on the new track, there is no way in a head-to-head sprint that I could have ever beat this guy.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

So that's just you know, it was uh it was I was uh I was supposedly a rookie and I was also an Olympian who'd been racing my bike for eight or nine years. And so I had enough experience to figure out um how to control the race. Um but um anyway, let's talk about this rando because um let's do it. I don't know how much if if you guys are riders.

SPEAKER_06 18:33

Um we are oh well I really maybe not the same caliber of of our guest and and you, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

We ride. One problem. I was really I was really fast and kind of a big deal in U.S. bike racing. Um 40 to 45 years ago. Um and then my brother Dale and I, for about four or five years were the two riders to beat in the U.S. And then and then Greg Lamont in 1979 was still a junior, and he was in the conversation of one of the top four riders, but we were consistently better than he was, and by 1980 Greg was a senior, and he was the team leader for the 1980 Olympic boycott, um, and my brother Dale and I would have been riding support for him in Moscow, and I'm convinced he would have won with our support. But basically, what as soon as Laman was 18 years old, we were the best of the rest, and that was that.

SPEAKER_04 19:45

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Yeah, that well uh the next year Laman came back and annihilated all the Russians in uh in the Tour Colorado when he was a first year pro almost single-handedly with with near zero team support. Um and it was um it was a fairly easy victory for him.

SPEAKER_06 20:15

What a perfect 80 scenario, destroying the Russians.

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_06 20:19

That was the year. That was the year to do it.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

So yeah, that was in 80. That was in 80. He he we had the boycott, so we couldn't, none of us went to the Olympics. And uh it was um it was frustrating that Carter made that decision, but that's what it was. And um of course, Greg went on to live everybody's uh cycling dream, becoming uh two-time world champion and three-time Tour de France winner in spite of nearly bleeding out from a hunting accident where he got shot.

SPEAKER_04 20:56

Yeah, he's had quite a run. And honestly, with all the shenanigans with uh that other American.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Oh, Lance?

SPEAKER_04 21:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Lance is another Lance is another good friend of mine uh that I have known since he was a 14-year-old triathlon and triathlete. I first started sponsoring him the first year I joined Shimano.

SPEAKER_04 21:18

You know, very good. Could we talk about Lance for a second? What? Can we talk about Lance for one second? Sure. So I promote several events, and Lance is always welcome to come to the cabin challenge and ride. So when you see him, tell him it's on the house. He doesn't have to we love to have him here, and I can tell you, doesn't have to worry about anything. It's all for good causes. Amazing Mac wrote it, he'll vouch for the ride, right, Mac? It's a great ride. Yep, and I'll tell you, I would think if Lance rolled in at the ride, it would create quite a buzz and people would be pretty excited to see him. Jeffy would be.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Well, hey, um, email me information on your um event at Wayne Stetton, first and last name at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_04 22:03

I will definitely email you and like and I will I will make an attempt.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

I mean he stays fit and and he's a very complicated guy.

SPEAKER_04 22:12

Well, I certainly can appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

And he lived through a time when it was if you want to compete, it was um dope or go home before they got the biological passports. And there's still people trying to cheat, and everybody that cheats, I believe, is getting caught. I don't think you can get away with it.

SPEAKER_04 22:38

Listen.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

I don't think I don't think there's we've had uh genetic engineering yet because the cost to do that is far too high to justify the returns in a sport like Cyclone.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

Listen, the cabin challenge open arms to Lance and to you also, Wayne, if you ever want to come out and ride. It's a great ride.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

What's interesting to me, uh what's interesting to me is that Lance um, you know, love him or hate him, if you're realistic, he did some people cynics think he used his Armstrong Foundation as a cover for doping. But if you understand the pressures and the time commitment, all of what he did to promote cycling detracted from his performance. And so he eventually did more for cancer survivors in spite of you know being as people hold as a fraud, whatever. He did more for cancer survivors than all the other athletes of the world combined. I would agree.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Yeah, the the Live Strong movement was just huge.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Those those wristbands, those yellow wristbands, those and it continues to have an impact.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

And I have I have one story to just to show how complicated it is because Lance went after people and he destroyed their lives. Um trying to defend himself. Um and so many people will never forgive him for that. But he was in a box that if he just shrugged and walked away and said he didn't dope, he would give up tens of millions of dollars in uh bonuses that his team sponsor had insured with Lloyd's of London. And that would be a tacit admission that he did dope. And so when he defended himself, you know, I think he went a little overboard. Oh, he went way overboard. So that's that's a really complicated situation, but he was in a box no other athlete had ever faced.

SPEAKER_04 24:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

And I can see that. And when Lance says he would in interviews when he would do the same thing, um how it came out, he wanted to race his bike, and he would do the same thing to do what he did to um to be competitive with everyone else that was doing the same thing at the top. That I think is out of context as doing the same thing to destroy people's lives.

SPEAKER_04 25:29

You know, so quickly, I feel like we're on the we're in the inner circle right now, Jeff. Tom, it's amazing. I'm loving it. I know. Let me pivot for a minute and ask and then we want to talk about the mental health ride. We've got to get to that.

SPEAKER_06 25:42

Yeah, let me just ask, just for the listeners, can you share you you know, you were Olympian three time, three-time Olympian? Yes. Which Olympics did you ride in?

SPEAKER_02 25:51

I rode in 72 in Munich. Crazy. Where the Israeli uh crazy team got massacred.

SPEAKER_04 25:59

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

And then in 76 in Montreal, and I um didn't have the results there that I expected. Things things didn't go well for me, and I was fighting injuries. And so in 1980, you know, I was um that was gonna be the year, and uh we had Lamond as our team leader. We were ready to beat anybody in the world, and we didn't get a chance to go. And then by 84, I had a bad crash that uh I tried to come back from too fast that took me out of contention, and uh so the Americans won all the medals that year. They dominated, and um including Nelson on the draft. It didn't matter that in in 84, it was interesting that um the the Russians and the East Germans boycotted Los Angeles. Yeah, but it didn't matter because that spring the American team had gone to the Tour of Texas, they got off the plane in France and they mopped the floor with everybody. The American riders and the racing in North America at the um non-professional level that were still Olympic eligible were it was by far the best competition in the world at that point. And um and then they, of course, all the Americans turned pro, and then by the Atlanta Olympics, professional riders were finally allowed into the into all the Olympic events, and that has been a very interesting sea change. Right now, our listeners. In 1972, when I made this it was you had the pledge that you hadn't trained more than 200 days a year and you couldn't take money. Uh eventually it got to the point where you could be reimbursed for training expenses, and you had guys like Carl Lewis that were multimillionaire, quote, amateurs, and so it was a little farcical, and it was in my mind, it was really good to see all the pros.

SPEAKER_04 28:14

Jeff and I will come in under that too.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

All the best athletes.

SPEAKER_04 28:17

You train less than 200 days? Yes, I could do that. Yeah, no problem. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I gotta take money. Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Well, hey, uh last year, yeah, go ahead. I was talking to Mac.

SPEAKER_04 28:32

How how'd you guys meet?

SPEAKER_02 28:33

Mac told us a little bit how you guys reached out to me on LinkedIn to to try and get me to support his fondo. And I had worked for 37 years as the face of Shimano in the US and product development, marketing sponsorship. And I um I had just switched over to uh work for SRAM the last two years of my career before I retired. And we reconnected and I tried to get sponsorship, but the budgets were full and they weren't adding. And then we talked about me coming up to ride and try and help promote it, and I reached out to my friend Nelson Vales, uh Olympic silver medalist from 84 Olympics and a flamboyant personality, um who is more into he's not into going fast anymore. He's stopping for pictures at every scenic overlook to take a selfie and sign autographs and just talk to everybody.

SPEAKER_06 29:42

Which is cool. Uh what I do.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

Yeah, I mean, it's a completely different mindset. I still try to stay fit. I'm in denial that I'm passing.

SPEAKER_04 29:51

I'm sure you're still a spectacular cyclist.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

Uh well, last year I hung on for dear life for the first 40 miles and wound up uh after everybody wore themselves out and I just survived. I wound up being the first finisher, which uh shocked me. And uh but at the same time I rode with people and helped them and coached them and didn't turn it into a bike race where the objective is to leave everybody behind. So I finished with another strong rider, and uh it was some of the most spectacular roads I've ever written. Empty traffic.

SPEAKER_04 30:35

Did you do the 50 or the 100?

SPEAKER_01 30:38

The 100. I think Wayne, you said it was like the first time you had done 104 and a half years or something.

SPEAKER_02 30:43

Yeah, and uh I was going to break it up into two loops, and then I came in uh leading a group of uh with two other riders, and we waited for a bigger group to come in, and we had about 10 people, and I just thought, well, heck, I'm going good, and uh eating everything I can and using all my experience to uh you know to save energy at every opportunity.

SPEAKER_04 31:14

So how do you work that, Mac? You bring people back to the fairgrounds after the first loop and you send them back out again?

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Basically, the way our hundred works is uh rather than going way out and coming back, uh it's a 50-mile north loop that goes up to the Ashokan and comes back to the start-finish. Okay. So then you just then add the south 50, which then goes down to Wallkill and goes back to the fairgrounds. So basically, after people do the first 50, they usually you know hang out for a little bit at start-finish, get some food, drinks, and stuff, and then and then start the second 50. Last year, I think we had 75 or 80 people probably that did the 100, and we have about the same amount signed up this year to do the 100 on Saturday. We we support the 100 on Saturday when people want to do it.

SPEAKER_04 31:56

So but if people are just doing the 50-50, they do 50 one day, 50 the next day.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Yeah, exactly. I th that's still the most popular thing. Do 50 north on on Saturday and come back Sunday, do the 50 south, and and come to our dinner Saturday evening. It's a it's a nice way to spend the whole weekend. And the dinner's great grounds.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

Do people Hey, I got I gotta add one thing. Okay. For my entire life at all the fondos I've ever ridden. Um Hinkappy, whatever. This is the best post-ride banquet with catered food.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

It is main course, right?

SPEAKER_02 32:34

It is a stand the banquet is a standalone event, and it's well worth it. Um the second day, I was really glad I did the full hundred mile loop, uh, both loops. The second day it rained really hard and then it relented, and we rode in the wet, and we did the real short loop of about 30 miles.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Yeah, we just did the 25. I rode that with you on Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

I rode with Mac. It was challenging, it was plenty challenging enough. So that first um that first loop goes up to the resort, which is a brutally hard climb right towards the last the last mile, you know, goes up over Mohawk on the high fall side.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Yeah, that's where the the you know you probably never rode it, but the the Tour du Pont, you know, that is I remember the Tour du Pont. Uh yeah, one of the stages on the Tour du Pont, uh, Wayne, was up and over that hill, and which I think they've just rated maybe a cat four climb. Um it's pretty pretty tough. I love it. The last mile is tough.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

This year's last mile that Wayne's a catch pitches that were the last mile had pitches that were like 14 or 15 percent. And that was we gotta get Wayne on sugar loaf.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Yeah, and and peakamous. Yeah, yeah. He liked those.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

And then the second loop, you know, it's like, oh, it's gonna be easier. It's it is more constantly relentlessly up and down.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

South 50.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Yeah. It's in the sun, too. It is tough. And so it's the the best part that I enjoyed was that we we would see on a 50-mile loop, we would have fewer than a dozen cars pass us on these routes.

SPEAKER_06 34:20

That's the that's the beautiful thing about riding on the right day around here. You can you can really need to.

SPEAKER_04 34:24

There's some nice loop rides on that South Loop I saw, and some nice roads and show cameras.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

Some really nice pretty stuff. Uh the whole the whole ride. People rave about it, you know, to be quite honest. Um, we have lots of people who say, like, uh, you know, I've done a zillion of these kinds of rides, and this is this is really the coolest ride. Like you guys really have these great routes, and uh and it's well signed, and blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_04 34:47

You got so many people out there riding, which makes it more safe too, when you got groups of people.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Absolutely. Well, you know, my wife and I basically decided on new palts in part because um in terms of a a place to buy, right? A house back in 1990 because well, I dragged her up here for then that year was the Tour de Trump.

SPEAKER_04 35:07

Uh I remember the Tour de Trump.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

DuPont pulled out the last minute, Trump went in and and uh so they kept the race going. And uh and the you know, the just seeing all the scenic stuff that's around here, the gunks is amazing, all the all the hiking, and seeing lots of cyclists. So that was a huge, huge thing for me because if I know if there's a lot of cyclists, chances are the drivers are used to seeing bikers on the right. So and not a lot of cars.

SPEAKER_04 35:33

And so you can just tell when the cyclists draw the cars drive by and next year they're in the other lane and give you a wide berth. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Yeah. The North 50, I I love I I mean, I think the North 50 route, which is very similar to the beginning of the Cabin Challenge original, you know, going up to the Ashokan Reservoir. That's just it's so nice. Doesn't get much better than that. You're in the woods, it's a bunch of up and down. You don't have to worry about any terrible hills until the coming back over the gunks. Yeah. Uh we go up Vly Road uh the way we come back. That's not too bad. I mean, it's a climb, but it's a climb, but it's not crazy steep.

SPEAKER_04 36:10

Uh next year I'm taking the challenge, the original out the high high uh point road, high mountain, high point mountain road. It's like a you come out of show, you know, parallels a reservoir, so it's gonna be up on the top. You look down at the reservoir, it's nice 28A.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

Nice. I've only gone up Peakamoose now twice in my life, Glenn. You know, like I did it once like some years back with the group, but the Sunday group, and it's a terrible thing. And then and then I was in no hurry to go up again, but I'd signed up for year 78, so I had to do it. So that's just no fun. Yeah, nice. Wayne, it's another very steep climbing.

SPEAKER_04 36:44

Actually, I just gotta ask you too. When you guys were riding last year, you didn't like, because I know you wrote a couple articles how you would hang on someone's wheel, you didn't like just kind of have Wayne half a bike in front of you coming around the 25 and they could pull out and just Wayne coming in the 2000s.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

I thought about that gun back. Wayne was giving me a lesson on riding no hands because like that's something that at my age, you know, I just never did it a whole lot as a youngster. And and as he said, uh the beginning of the ride, it was drizzling a little bit. We actually had thunderstorms at like 6 30 in the morning. It was terrible weather. So like 80% of the people didn't show on Sunday because they thought uh weather sucks, blah, blah, blah. But it turned out to be a really nice day. And so he started, we probably both started with a rain jacket or something because a little drizzle. And then, you know, at some point, because he's got this experience, he just sits up, takes off the jacket, no hands. We're just riding along at, you know, 20 miles an hour. I'm like, holy crap, how can you do that shit? You know, like like it's just kind of amazing. He said, Oh, it's come on, yeah. Just sit back. He starts giving me the lesson on no hands. And now, Wayne, I gotta tell you, because of that, every time I go to meet my friends for like a little gravel ride or whatever, I have to ride about seven miles up to the next town, Rosendale. And and uh I get on the rail trail and I sit up and I go no hands for a little while because it's like, you know, you taught me the reminding me I can do that. And uh I don't want to crash, but I'm I'm getting comfortable with it again. I'm not gonna, I don't think I'm gonna take off a jacket though, you know. That's just that's a lot of work. You hit a bump with both hands behind you.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

It's a little bit harder to take off, it's a little bit harder to take off your leg warmers, but I have seen guys in national championship events at 30 miles an hour remove leg warmers that's crazy in the Peloton. So you can velcro closure. I do it in training all the time without having to get off the bike, but yeah, it's a little bit more advanced. I mean, you watch the you watch the good riders and they are so comfortable. The bike is an extension of their body, yeah, and they're so comfortable on the bike, and their balance is so good that um no hands. People, you know, if you lean forward and you don't fully commit, if you're lean forward and your weight isn't balanced vertically over the seat, you cannot ride no hands. You just have to push back, and the inherent stability of a bike, it uh it balances. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. The general before they learn to balance a bike at all, and they're afraid to ride, and they've got training wheels, and and you just uh once you know how to do it, people don't a lot of people that learn how to go around corners well, even good racers, don't really analyze how they do it. They just know that, oh, this is what I do, and um and your body um learns and adjusts.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

But Glenn, to answer your question, I think I was gonna I was able to control Wayne on the 25. I I had that under control. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Oh, yeah, we talked a lot a lot about bike racing.

SPEAKER_04 39:55

I mean, it must be it must have been super excited for people to have Wayne out there riding. It was great.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

It was great. I mean, uh Wayne, I uh you know, look, you you were one of my heroes back then when you know when I was doing Cat 3-4s. I mean, you you and and Dale, you were the guys, like you said. Like, and and I'd see you at all those races at Pittsburgh and so forth. It's uh I'd go watch Somerville, and uh it was it was just amazing seeing the way you got to.

SPEAKER_04 40:18

As soon as you mentioned you like we are the Cabot Challenge, you asked the podcast, you mentioned you might have Wayne come out. I was like very excited about it.

SPEAKER_06 40:25

When you were mentioning your brother, I was thinking of that movie American Flyers. Remember the I've seen the movie, it's great. The the guy and his brother.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

Well, another another great thing, Wayne, is when you were joking when uh that you raced in an era sort of before everybody like when Lamont started it really going to the tour, right? And and you were you predated that. And so it's not like you got tremendous TV exposure and so forth, like Lamond and and the people that that followed.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

And well, first let's let's be clear. Lamond was at a we were big fish in a little pond, and the pond here eventually got to be pretty competitive, but Lamond is a whole different level of talent and ability.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

Yeah, yeah. No, it's all great, but what what I the point I wanted to make was you were joking, I think, at our pizza party on the Friday evening before the the the the ride. You said, you know, now when you go up and you introduce yourself, you say you're Peter Stetna's uncle. Because Peter, Peter, everybody knows who Peter Stetna is, right? But nobody knew really, except old guys like me, who Wayne Stetna was. So it's very funny how yeah uh it's it's it's a great thing that that you make fun of it like that. And uh and of course, you've had such success in racing, and and so you know you you really are the thing, the real deal. So Wayne, are you coming up here to ride the ride this year?

SPEAKER_02 41:49

Um well it's on my schedule right now. So I'm um cool.

SPEAKER_04 41:53

I actually what are you signed up for?

SPEAKER_02 41:56

Well I I haven't gone online to sign up, but I'm gonna try to do the whole hundred weather permitting. And um and then uh I don't know what how far I will ride on Sunday. Um I had a setback on March 17th. Yeah, uh we got 17, we got about uh over six inches of snow, and I lived at the base of Beach Mountain Ski Resort and Sugar Mountain this year. One of the best ski slopes on the east coast. And uh and so uh a lot of times if I drive down out of the mountains, you know, I I I can it's warmer, but I thought, what the heck, I'll go snowboarding. I did a lot of snowboarding 20, 30 years ago, and I had just gotten back into it this year. And wouldn't you know it? I wasn't going fast enough, and uh another snowboarder crashed into me from behind and drove me into the ground, and I fractured my uh right radius.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

Oh dude.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

It's only been in the last two weeks that I've been able to ride without a brace. So I'm struggling to you're you're banged up. Well, I'm struggling to regain the fitness that I had because I spent some time down in Florida around the time just before the Super Bowl when we had that extreme cold weather snap. And I was riding with some racers down there, and I wound up getting to the point where I was doing training rides of 85 to 95 miles, and I was super fit.

SPEAKER_00 43:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

My my uh my oldest son, who's fairly accomplished bike rider um and works for Cervello, he he w he uh was a pro snowboarder for five years in Breckenridge. And uh he was joking that I need to stay in my lane. He's like he can do like 50 or 100 foot drop-ins. He actually broke his back at the X Game's big air venue and uh overshot the landing on a speed check run and it healed up completely. So he has no after effect from that. But um you know, you watch him and on a snowboard, and it's like, oh no, I I don't want to get anywhere close to that kind of stuff. I don't want to I don't want to be and on a mountain bike he'll he'll do a 50-foot tabletop jump without even thinking about it. So I try to get another level of athlete there. He grew up with it as a kid. And uh he he knew all the superstars and world champions as a kid that Shimano was sponsoring, so um yeah, it it's um it's a skill set that you learn early or you don't learn. And uh true. So anyway, this has been this has been a real challenge. I was the last three weeks, almost three weeks, I was in England visiting my daughter and two granddaughters, and uh flew back on this last Thursday, and so I'm on a crash course now trying to get ready to be able to ride 100 miles without nearly enough time to prepare. It will be it will be interesting to see muscle memory if I can find a way to survive. Now that I know the route uh and uh the way the ride went, you know, if somebody is is really a fit rider and takes off at the beginning, that's not my problem. I'm not gonna do I'm not gonna push myself to do that. I'm gonna be trying to pace myself to finish as strong as I start. We'll see. And uh yeah. Um, that's why I need to come in here. And uh I'll be I'll be drifting back on the climbs and trying to maintain contact with the biggest lead group without ever um burning any energy in the wind. Because that's if if you watch bike racing, um if people are on the front, or even if they're just a little bit off the front of the group, they're not really winning, they're just spending more energy. And uh and uh the team leaders don't get the wind or do any work until the final hour. Even sometimes the final uh final five or ten kilometers. If you keep if you if you don't uh if you keep your powder dry, whatever you've got, it's uh you know it helps at the end because people uh get over enthusiastic and uh they they use up all their energy. And if it's hot and it's long and there's continued climbs and you sort of bonk like hitting the wall in the marathon, when you're out of sugar and your muscles, you're done for the day, and you can't eat enough fast enough to put it back.

SPEAKER_04 47:39

I'm gonna definitely make sure to introduce myself to you when I see you out here. I'm probably gonna ride Sunday. I got like 30 graduation parties to go to on Saturday. My wife and I are school teachers. Um but I'll see you Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 47:53

Yeah, make sure to be there at the start early and uh uh on Sunday and and say hi. What do they do on Sunday?

SPEAKER_02 48:01

Sunday, I'm gonna look at that as a as a social, as a completely social group ride to just chat with people and roll along. As Nelson said, as well.

unknown 48:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

Yeah, Nelson Nelson is committed again this year, and as he says, if you you know, if you wanna if you wanna go fast, go ride with Wayne, and that's for day one. If you want to ride two by two professionally, where we talk, as long as it's flat or downhill, because you because Nelson never talks on the uphills. With too busy breathing. Where's the route on Sunday?

SPEAKER_01 48:40

Uh well you can do either the 50s or you can do the 25. And the 25 just goes south of town a little bit. Yeah. Down to walk hill, come back. Yeah, it's it's a simple.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

The 25 itself is a was a gorgeous ride. Yeah, I think that's what I'm doing. We should do that, Jeff.

SPEAKER_00 48:57

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 48:57

And after burying myself on day one, it was a really great um recovery day to um yeah, it's a great recovery.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

It's a great recovery ride. I used to ride the hundred, and and uh I got to the point where you know our hundred group is so slow now, like I can barely make it to the dinner in time. So I'm just doing the north fifty, but I'll I'll start with my friends.

SPEAKER_06 49:22

Uh on the you have a lot of folks that do the full 100?

SPEAKER_01 49:25

Yeah, we'll have one shot. Yeah, yeah, we'll probably have 80 people that do the 100 on Saturday. It's great. Yeah, it's really great.

SPEAKER_04 49:31

So quickly before we get to some questions, Jeff has for both of you guys. So, Wayne, I do a ride called the Cabin Challenge, which I did it the I put it together the first time I was training for Iron Man to do a century. So I currently have a uh 45, a 78, a hundred, and a 118 ride. And there are two of the rides are pretty savage. They're all beautiful. You have an open invite to come to those rides on me. Anytime you want to come up here. And bring Lance. And bring Lance. You guys are welcome to come up.

SPEAKER_01 50:08

It was just last weekend uh this year.

SPEAKER_04 50:11

Yeah. I'll give you a heads up. I'll I'll badger you about it, and uh, I'll put you.

SPEAKER_01 50:17

It's okay if Lance wants to come to the ride for mental health, too. But I know that that's that's kind of tight with the tour, usually, so he's usually says he's busy. And uh Horner, we got to get Horner to come sometime too.

SPEAKER_04 50:28

But this with the cabin challenge, you might like it. I think it's I cap it at 100 riders. Uh it's got a pretty big cult following. Uh I scare people with all sorts of emails about hillbillies and Yetis. People like it. I have great swag, the food's good. You're riding out into the deep Catskill Mountains. Deep Catskills, highlights.

SPEAKER_02 50:46

Well, you have you have incredible terrain for riding there, and it's a lot like the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's exactly what it's like. As long as you know, I mean, the climbs here are bigger, uh longer, but not quite as uh vertically steep as the Catskills. So that's um that's a special area.

SPEAKER_04 51:07

Umite.

SPEAKER_02 51:09

I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 51:11

Yeah. So we have a couple questions for all our guests. So, Jeff? Sure. I guess you guys could answer these individually. We just randomly asked this is a feature of our podcast, which we actually have quite a few listeners, believe it or not, which we joke about having 18, but we have significantly more than that.

SPEAKER_06 51:29

17 for a while, and then we found out there was another big. Our buddy, yeah, buddy Jake was the 18th.

SPEAKER_04 51:35

We were like, All right, Mellinger, love this guy, Mellinger. Probably the best electrician in the Hudson Valley.

SPEAKER_06 51:40

We were joking around, and he's like, I listen. He's like, now you have 18 people.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_06 51:46

Anyway, we have more than that. But um, so guys, yeah, this is just a little, we just asked some personal questions at the end, and and so people can kind of get a little nugget of who you are and uh what you like to do. Um, so kind of nothing to do with the topic of cycling here, but um, when you were a kid, what assuming you watched TV as kids, what what were the shows you liked to watch? What was a what was your favorite TV show?

SPEAKER_01 52:12

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_06 52:13

Uh or one that you watch religiously.

SPEAKER_01 52:15

You know, a show I watched religiously, including in college, was like Green Acres. Green Acres.

SPEAKER_04 52:22

It's the place to be. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 52:25

It's just unbelievable. That in the Beverly Hillbillies.

SPEAKER_04 52:29

Oh my gosh, two of the greatest shows.

SPEAKER_01 52:32

This is unreal. I watched it. And the pig, you know, Arnold the Pig on Green Acres, you like to watch Westerns, you know, really and and and that ties into our social media person, Ashley, who has as one of her pets, a blind pig. Wow. Like wanders around the house. Pigs are supposed to be great pets. Pigs are great. They're smart, very smart. So Green Makers.

SPEAKER_02 52:57

Both of those shows pretty regularly. Um, when you first mentioned that to me, I was like, at my age, it's so long ago, I'm almost drawing a blank. But I grew up watching the Lone Ranger and Daniel Boone. Oh, Daniel Boone.

SPEAKER_04 53:15

Daniel Boone. I love it.

SPEAKER_06 53:17

You know, I've seen those, but they were, of course, all reruns and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 53:20

Oh, listen, not only is Daniel Boone was a great show, I'm a history guy. I taught history, Daniel Boone was a legitimate historical figure, man. Bonanza was pretty good. Dude, best show of all time. Little Joe. Yeah, you are a fan of Bonanza. I love Bonanza. How could you not love Bonanza? Reference that a lot. You know, like Little Joe, right? Haas. Every show was the same. Little Joe got in a scrap in the bar, he got beat up, Haas came down and cleaned house, Adam was in there.

SPEAKER_02 53:48

And then and then he migrated to Little House on the prairie.

SPEAKER_04 53:51

That's right. And then Seventh Heaven, the guy Michael Landon did it all. Little House. God that was on a lot. Great great, great reflections, gentlemen.

SPEAKER_06 53:59

All right, awesome. Um do you guys have any um music that you'd that you would uh refer to as like a guilty pleasure song, something you don't really want everyone to know that you're loving?

SPEAKER_01 54:13

I I don't have any special songs. My my youngest son keeps telling me I'm just buried in the 70s. And I love the 70s. Any songs from any time past the 70s. Um, so you know, I listen to different playlists and stuff uh in a daily mix, and especially if I'm riding indoors. Uh I you know, I got John Prime on stuff, uh Bonnie Reed, people like that. Yeah. Um, but I like a lot of stuff. Little feet, um, a lot of a lot of stuff. Grateful Dead.

SPEAKER_04 54:44

Grateful Dead, a lot of who does it.

SPEAKER_02 54:46

You know, it's interesting to me because I was just looking at uh I made a compile the list of uh the music of the 70s and the 80s. And if um on Sirius XM when I'm driving, I can just leave it on those channels, and if you think about it, it was really a unique time because not only did you have the Beatles and Elton John and uh Fleetwood Mac and I mean the the list is endless of all the incredible artists, whether it was Simon and Garfunkel, Johnny Cash, all John music. Queen of absolutely one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_06 55:40

Robert Queen. Queen's great.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

Yeah, I mean you just we opened the Queen. It goes on and on and on. And as you're seeing the biopics of the music, whether it's um uh uh Bohemian Rhapsody or uh the Elton John or the Elvis biopic, uh you know, younger Elvis before he uh Dolly Parton music, Jolene, Kenny Rogers, it's just incredible music where Kenny. The music there's a lot of there's still some innovative and great music now, and then there's a lot of stuff that I consider to be noise that's not interesting. And from the 70s and 80s, when they keep playing the hits of that, it's an endless shuffle of different music, and none of it's bad.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

You know, Wayne, my my oldest son uh was just telling us yesterday he called and he said he had just gone to see Paul Simon at the Hollywood Bowl like a couple of nights ago. That's great. And he I think he's 84 now, and he said it was amazing. And he said the crowd wasn't just old people, he said it was quite a mix. Um, my oldest son's in his 30s, and he said there are a lot of people in their 30s. So Paul Simon has a lot of drawing power with younger folks.

SPEAKER_04 57:04

We're all going to be Paul Simon at Bethel. I'm taking my kids. They're very excited. I've seen Paul Simon a couple times, but it's been like 35 years, but I'm excited. Good place to see you, Bethel. Tom, what do you what are you putting on over there for us, Tom?

SPEAKER_06 57:18

Little queen to finish it up with. Okay. Nice. So we're queuing some stuff up. Last question, gentlemen. Um, so for each of you, one at a time, um if you had a sandwich named after you, what would be on it?

SPEAKER_04 57:33

Oh God.

SPEAKER_01 57:35

Which, if not, Jeff and I open a deli, we're gonna put too many turkey sandwiches with Swiss cheese and like uh horseradish mayonnaise. I love that, right? So, like that's I mean, it's just a simple sandwich. That's a good sandwich.

SPEAKER_04 57:48

That's like a turkey horseradish mayo on the back.

SPEAKER_06 57:54

What kind of bread are we talking about?

SPEAKER_01 57:55

You know, I like it actually on like a Martin's uh potato roll sandwich roll. You know, like those.

SPEAKER_04 58:01

Okay, I certainly do. Is there any letters or tomato on here or no?

SPEAKER_01 58:04

No tomato.

SPEAKER_04 58:05

No tomato.

SPEAKER_01 58:06

Unless it's around. You know, I'm just lazy. If if I got a really nice like Jersey tomato sitting there or whatever, local tomatoes.

SPEAKER_04 58:12

Not turning it down. I'll put it on. But Max's not driving to the store to get a tomato. Way too late. No, he's he would ride his bike. You'd ride he's not driving.

SPEAKER_06 58:20

All right.

SPEAKER_04 58:20

Um, I could eat that sandwich. I eat I'd eat that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 58:24

Yeah, it sounds pretty good.

SPEAKER_04 58:25

I like the I'm a big fan of the horse. Yeah, horseradish. I love the horseradish male. Yeah, it adds a little zip. You know, you can't horseradish in a lot.

SPEAKER_01 58:32

The other thing I just learned about there's there's this turkey that is no salt added turkey. And as somebody told me, it actually tastes more like like turkey that you eat on Thanksgiving than the regular stuff.

SPEAKER_04 58:43

It's probably the way to go.

SPEAKER_01 58:44

Yeah. It's you probably don't kill yourself quite as fast eating that stuff. Sure. We don't need more salt.

SPEAKER_04 58:49

I ate like 25 sandwiches one weekend after a party that left over cold cuts. I gave like 12 pounds of water weight, and I was so paranoid. My wife's like, you ate 25 sandwiches, you jacked ass.

SPEAKER_01 58:58

Hey Glenn, one thing I just wanted to mention. I I hope everybody knows our website because you can find out everything there about the ride. It's great.

SPEAKER_04 59:06

Great website. I checked it out in detail this morning.

SPEAKER_01 59:08

Why don't we rip it rideformentalhealth.org. You can register to ride, you can register to volunteer, you can see all the different routes, you can get a room at SUNY right on the website.

SPEAKER_04 59:18

Which can we talk about the SUNY and then we'll get to Wayne Sandwich? What the I how many you can stay at SUNY right now?

SPEAKER_01 59:26

You can stay at SUNY. That's one reason why we did the timing of the ride when we did. So a room at SUNY costs 103 bucks. You can pay for it right when you register. Um so you can do it Friday or Saturday or both. And um What dorm they have you in? I saw their Ridgeview dorm. It's got air conditioning, you got two beds to the room, so you can even split the cost with a buddy. So it's it's I just want to stay in the dorm. I just want to hang out in a dorm room again.

SPEAKER_04 59:51

Jeff, you're not you're this is for you're riding now, Jeff. Whatever you're doing. Students are gone.

SPEAKER_02 59:57

That's hey, before before we get any farther, I just wanted to mention if I my memory serves me correctly. I think Mac told me last year that in the last decade he's raised nearly nine million dollars for uh mental health research. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:13

Well, unfortunately, we we need to correct that, Wayne, but but it's it's 1.6 million, but we are over the million.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:19

Yeah, so it's uh a little over 1.6 million that we've raised where and it goes to the uh McCarthy.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:26

McLean Hospital is a big beneficiary of the money. That's an incredible psychiatric place. It's number one rated psychiatric hospital in the country, affiliate of Harvard Medical School. They have a brain bank there with over 8,000 brains. Last year they gave out almost 6,000 tissue samples in response to requests from all over the world uh, you know, for tissue samples from those brains. Like they went to Stanford, Yale, Children's Hospital, Philadelphia, some hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel. Uh it's an incredible facility. But I should also mention we've now given $20,000 to the New Polts Youth Program.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:02

Great.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:03

And we've given $20,000 to the Maya Gold Foundation because they're teaching work, Matt. Of CPR for mental health, high school, area high school kids.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:11

So listen, really incredible organization. If you ever need anything, okay, so I'm a CPR instructor of 35 years. So if you ever want me to do anything for it, I'm in 100%. Uh anything I could do to always help you out in your ride. Awesome. Right? So I'm I'm there totally. And like the whole mental health, it's such an important thing. And I know we we talked a lot about cycling today, so we didn't talk too much about this. But it is really important that you're addressing it. And there are stigmatisms around it, which is a really a shame. It's 2026. And uh it's important that, and I'm really impressed that you got the ride right out there. Well, it really is.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:47

It's crazy, Glen, because when I I went looking for rights for mental health about a year after our son died, um, so early 2017, and I looked across the entire country, and there were basically no real rights to benefit mental health. And so that's really why we started it. Um, and I think we are the premier ride in the country still for mental health, which is kind of crazy. Um, but uh you know, the hope is over time we'll build this up so we have a thousand, two thousand, twenty five hundred people coming every year from all over to do the ride for mental health right here in Newballs.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:20

That's fantastic. Um do you get any kind of you linked in with the county or the state with with um support in that way?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:27

Mostly we're linked in because we have to get approvals from every county, every municipality. Yeah, uh Department of New York State, Department of Transportation. We have to put them on our insurance policies. Yeah, but it goes on and on.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:39

But not the administrative part, but I know.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:43

We we we unfortunately are not well linked into those organizations yet. And we've reached out from time to time and they have not been all that responsive. Um but I'm sure over time as we build this bigger and bigger, yeah, that we'll get more interaction with those groups. We have a bunch of interaction with NAMI, uh, which is the local NAMI uh group, which is great. Um, that's the main uh mental health organization that we're kind of tied into and we've done some stuff collaboratively with. Yeah. How about Kingston uh uh family services and uh well you know we we donate like we often have leftover food which we donate to family of new palts, for example. Um and uh so again, um there are a number of really good organizations around, and I'm sure over time we'll have more sort of collaboration and interaction with those groups over time.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:37

Um what do you find that that after how many years have you been doing this now? This will be the tenth year. Ten years, ten years in, coming from a very meaningful place when you started this. Yeah. Um what have you found to be the the most meaningful part for you personally?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:57

There's a lot, Jeff. Um, you know, I think it's it's getting to know a lot of the people who come for the event. Uh there's a group that comes from Buffalo, for example. Uh Beth Atwood lost her brother, I think about seven, eight years ago, and somehow she heard about this ride. And she comes with a group of 10 people. They raise tons of money and they come from Buffalo and they do this ride every year. And I I love seeing I've gotten to know her a little bit, and I love you know meeting up with her. And and I I hear so many stories. Um, I knock on the doors of the local retailers, right, to get them to be sponsors. Sure. Just the bonds, $250 level.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:34

And I tell them about our son Eric. And more often than not, they tell me a story about one of their kids or their family. And it's like I have a key to unlock these stories. Um, so those are all super meaningful. Um, just as meaningful, we have 150 volunteers basically. It takes 150 volunteers to make the event work, and that's incredibly meaningful to me that the support that we get and the generosity we get from people from all over. Uh, the head of uh volunteers, Angela de Grassi, comes from Connecticut, and she brings a whole huge group of her friends who donate so much time and effort every year to do this, and they get paid not one nickel. Nobody gets paid a nickel. That's all about that's what it's all about, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:16

All that's incredibly meaningful. The volunteers are so important.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:19

They're great. And uh yeah, we have like eight rest stops, you know, along all the routes, not including start-finish. So we have to staff all those rest stops.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:27

And then supply it with stuff, which is force support.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:31

We have people that, you know, when you check in to ride, we have all those check-in people. Yeah. It just goes on and on.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:38

Yeah, it's it's and you have some good swag, folks. Uh we got a little free swag today without riding.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:43

But when do you put out the call for like sponsors, Matt?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:47

Oh, it starts early. I mean, and and um, you know, January. I mean, basically it's it's getting sponsors to renew.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:55

Um I mean we open registration for the subsequent year in October. And we got 200 people who sign up before January one, uh, because it's a really deep discounted.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:06

So when we go upstairs, I'll write you a check for two fifty and then make sure you put me on the renew list for January for C C Endurance. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah. And then you of course you always let me know what I could do to help out the most.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:18

Yeah, there's lots of stuff. I know. We'll give you a long list, Glenn. Give me a long list. I'll pass it to you.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:23

Give it all to Glenn. Yeah, pass it to me. Um really quick.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:28

We got to get Wayne's sandwich before we're done, too.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:30

I know we're going to. I'd always been thinking. We're going to end with Wayne's sandwich, but but where do you want to see, yeah, as as you look down the road, where would you like this ride to not to end up, but to how how how would you like to see the future of this ride?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:45

I've got all kind of fantasies, all kinds of fantasies about the ride and how it develops. I think the number one goal for me right now is to to keep building it to get to a thousand in-person riders. I think once we get to a thousand in-person riders, I think the ride will sort of snowball by itself. That's um, and we're doing a big um outreach program to New York City corporations uh and large professional organizations uh because if you're familiar with the Chase Corporate Challenge for runners, all of the companies in New York City participate in that. I think in a way you could view this as the Chase Corporate Challenge for cyclists, okay, you know, but it's uh for a real great cause. And um, so getting it to a thousand and then letting it snowball. I also envision like having a concert on Friday evening at the fairgrounds kind of thing, you know, with musicians, well known like like Emmy Lou Harris types, James Taylor. James Taylor was a patient at McLean Hospital years ago. This is amazing. So so why why don't we get some of those folks coming and putting on a concert uh on Friday evening as part of the mental health weekend? Why don't we get rooms at SUNY and have professionals who are doing research come and have little classroom sessions on the new developments on drugs for depression, for example, and different things. You know, what's going on with schizophrenia treatment and things like that.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:01

This is amazing. So I love that you're thinking so big.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:04

How you know eventually I think it should be a whole weekend uh kind of thing with lots of different things going on that would appeal to to people of all walks of life.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:13

Sweet. That's amazing. That's great. I was looking up some local bands to to think about. There's some local bands to talk about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:21

And I will have strong connections in the music industry, so you should always like I keep bugging the city winery guy, you know, and and because he used to be a concert promoter.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:30

Yeah. Um, but of course, uh, I've been ghosted. Loop them in. All right.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:33

Well, I have connected for you. So, all right, thank you for sharing all that. Um I hope it continues to to grow and snowball and and just kind of be gets a life of its own and just grows. The concert aspect I think is really cool. I can draw a lot of people, help raise a lot of money.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:51

Exactly.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:52

Yeah. Um, and I think like Len said, there's a lot of local, pretty big name musicians that if you could somehow connect with them would would probably be all into coming out to support it for the for the reason of of what it's based in, for the you know, to raise awareness and mental health. Um so fingers crossed that you get there. We'll get there eventually. Yeah, I know you will. All right, so uh Wayne, yeah, you're still here. Um I'm glad you are. Yeah. Can you I I hope you've been creating a monster sandwich for us to hear.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:25

But at least I had a lot of extra time to think about it. You know, I I had to go real fast. You went too fast. You went and made the sandwich.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:32

Well, I'm I like a lot of variety, but uh when I'm making my own sandwiches, it's always gonna be some type of um of a natural health food type of bread, um, you know, whole grains and sprouts and whatever. Sounds good so far. I eat a lot of turkey and uh Swiss cheddar cheese, or I make tuna melon.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:01

Sounds like the Mac.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:04

But I'm uh oh uh one thing I wanted to mention because Nelson is uh is coming back, is that I was riding with a friend in Asheville, and there was a bike shop that got hit pretty hard by the flood um at the Hurricane Helene and rebuilt, and they have a uh deli there, and they had a Nelson Vale sandwich. Really? And I'm trying to remember, I I'm not sure what it was. It was uh some kind of uh maybe a turkey melt. And so I took a picture of the menu and I ordered it and uh texted it to Nelson and he totally approved. Nice, he said, yeah, you can put my name on that sandwich. I would eat that.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:49

Nelson should go down there and demand a freebie. Right? That's amazing. Well, listen, gentlemen, we're gonna have to wrap this podcast up, but I can't thank you enough, uh, Mac, for running this ride for such an important uh topic and issue in society, and for being dedicated to doing the the ride and making everybody aware and more aware. And Wayne, thank you for coming into this podcast on a Sunday morning, and thank you for being part of this ride and really lending your celebrity to the cause. I'm sure it's gone a long way to furthering the the ridership and yeah, gentlemen, thank you both.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:28

I don't need an excuse to ride my bike, but I know it's always nice to mean more than just going out for a bike ride, and so you know, you get an opportunity to to make a difference and meet new people and have an adventure in uh riding in a new place that uh doesn't get any better.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:49

Yeah, great. Thank you so much. Thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:52

Thanks a lot.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:54

So long, so well, Wayne.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:00

I want to ride my bad.