Vital Mtb - Speaking Of Mountain Biking

Welcome mountain bikers! It’s been a long two weeks. I’m glad you’re back for our third episode of Vital MTB’s The Inside Line podcast. My guest this week is Craig Glaspell, but most of you probably know him as Stikman. Stik has a LONG history in our sport as a mechanic, team manager, husband to Leigh Donovan, rumor and gossip mill instigator, marketing guru, but most importantly, he’s possibly mountain biking’s number one fan. When I was new to the sport, I remember hanging on every post of his MTB rumor blog stiksandstones.com, and then getting within a digital arm’s reach of his history through banter and battles on Ridemonkey back in the early 2000’s. His posts were always insightful, but man, he could really get under my skin and it’s safe to say I didn’t like him back then. My ignorance combined with his ability to troll me at the time is now a something I look back on fondly. Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of spending some time with Stik, but this interview we had back on December 14, really sho

Hello mountain bikers! Welcome to episode 2 of Vital MTB's The Inside Line. We're overwhelmed by the reception and the kind words you all had for episode 1 with Eliot Jackson. We really appreciate the support and excitement for what we're doing. We are excited to bring you episode 2. I sat down with Brian Lopes last week and we had a great discussion about some of his history, the heyday of mountain biking, his move to Ellsworth bikes in 2017 and why it seems like some of you just love to hate him in the internet comments. We currently have four other interviews with MTB athletes and industry personalities that are waiting to be broadcast, but I felt like my talk with Brian needed to be bumped to the front of the queue due to some time-specific topics. Sit back, grab the popcorn and enjoy. I learned a lot about Brian that I didn't know before and I hope you do too. Every other Wednesday we will launch new episodes of The Inside Line. Please tune in while at work, on the trail or on the roa

Welcome to Vital MTB's The Inside line, a podcast about the personalities in our great sport of mountain biking. We're excited to kick things off with an episode featuring American downhill racer, Eliot Jackson. On December 1st, we met up with Eliot in a quiet, distraction-free house near Santa Barbara, California. He was staying there to focus on training for the 2017 World Cup season. I learned that Eliot happens to be a podcast fan and to my surprise really loves road riding. We discuss growing up racing motocross at a near-professional level with the likes of Ryan Villopoto, how he dropped out of full-time school in 7th grade to pursue racing, the fact he considers himself a nerd who loves reading, problem solving and statistics, his transition from the Pivot Cycles World Cup DH team to Giant Factory Racing for 2017 and just what makes calculated crusher tick. We hope you enjoy getting to know Eliot through this interview as much as we did.