The Adventure Stache

Riejanne Markus is a Dutch WorldTour rider who is currently racing with Lidl-Trek. She went professional over a decade ago and has moved from strength to strength, nabbing three national titles and finishing second overall at last year’s Vuelta a España. Riejanne sat down with Payson in Girona this week to talk about her decision to join Lidl-Trek after four years with Visma-Lease a Bike, growing up in an athletic family (her dad and younger sister are speed skaters, and her other sister, Femke, races for SD Worx), and why she’s still a staunch defender of race radios. She also talks about the highly publicized defeat of the Dutch team at the road World Championship last year, and how she broke the news of her team transfer to longtime teammate Marianne Voss. Instagram: @theadventurestacheYouTube: Payson McElveen

Bond Almand was just 20 years old when he rode the nearly 13,500 miles of the Pan-American Highway from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina in 75 days, beating the previous record by nearly 10 days. That feat is even more impressive considering that the last rider to hold the record was a professional racer who did it with a support crew, while Bond did it all self-supported between semesters at Dartmouth.Bond sat down with Payson to talk about confronting months of intense loneliness, riding without a shirt for a week, clenching his teeth so hard they cracked, and getting to hug his dad at the end of the journey. He also talks about the beauty of the Andes, riding at 62mph in the dark on a road full of potholes, and the assumption people make about the ride that he wants to dispel. Instagram: @theadventurestacheYouTube: Payson McElveen

In an extended outtake from our previous episode, Payson and Hannah chat about how they're preparing for the upcoming season, whether they're changing anything, and how they're balancing the Grand Prix schedule with non-Grand Prix events they love.Instagram: @theadventurestacheYouTube: Payson McElveen

This week, Payson is joined by Hannah Otto to run down the women's roster for the 2025 Grand Prix. They talk about the five new riders, the riders who won't be returning, and how the slimmed-down field might affect the overall series. They also go deep into the weeds on whether the Grand Prix is now geared toward mountain bikers (spoiler alert: they're biased), talk about why they want more rules rather than less, and speculate about how all the drop races and surgeries in the women's field this past season might offer a glimpse of things to come. Instagram: @theadventurestacheYouTube: Payson McElveen