I never have to think twice when asked what my favorite race is. It’s on a course that doesn’t suit me—and I haven’t been able to race it for the past three years—but there isn’t another race quite like the Tour of Somerville.

We asked our athlete, Finn Gullickson, what his favorite ride is. No strings attached, not his favorite workout, not his favorite “epic day out”, just his favorite ride. Finn is a professional on the road with the Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling Team. He is a young up and comer, and we are lucky to be working with him. Sorry, I’m rambling, on to the good stuff. Here’s what Finn had to say about his favorite ride. The following is all written by Finn, and we hope you enjoy it!

My favorite ride starts with a solid smash to get to the world famous “Schelde Pelo” group ride on time. The group ride departs from Ghent at 9 am and we (ideally this ride is done with at least 1 good friend) meet up with the ride at the Zingem bridge at about 9:20. After a forgotten water bottle, inner tube, or mid ride snack, we usually end up having to race to the bridge so we don’t miss it. The group ride itself is pretty mundane, just going up and down the Schelde canal, but go mid week and the ride becomes a smash fest. After about 2
hours, the average speed is almost always around 40 kph, while the average power is at a nice mid zone 1 number (sometimes, upwards of 100 people show up to this group ride, offering plenty of places to
hide).

We love asking our athletes what their favorite ride is. Not necessarily their favorite workout, but their favorite fill up the bottles, stack the pockets with food, and head out for a fun day. For some athletes it’s a ride they do weekly, for others it’s a ride they did once and they’ll never forget. Below is what Matti Rowe had to say about his favorite ride.

Hola desde Colombia, Catalyst blog readers!

Today is my 17th day in Colombia, and the 1st stage TTT of Tour Colombia 2.1 was this morning. To say I have been enjoying my time here would be an understatement. Despite some time when I was very young, South America is somewhere I have explored very little in my life, and Colombia is entirely new to me.

Collegiate athlete? If not, ever wonder what it’s all about? Well Evan Bausbacher is the 2019 Collegiate National RR Champion, and took the time to give us a bit of an insight into his cycling journey.

Evan, tell us about yourself a bit. How long have you been riding? How did you get started? What do you love about riding? What do you hate about riding, if anything?

Going into the year I wanted to be at my best at the Baby Giro in June. However I assumed that maybe I would be playing a domestique role more than a leadership role. After only a few races in the u23 ranks in Europe I knew that I probably had a good shot at leading the team. This only motivated me more in training. Nate didn’t want me to get too carried away and sucked into the GC mindset and possibly sacrificing chances at stages or at least racing aggressively. I was already set on at least going for GC to start the race and seeing how it played out. We raced in Tour de Yorkshire at the beginning of May. Lining up next to WorldTour riders and then making the front selection over the final climbs gave me more confidence heading into the start of my big build towards the Baby Giro.

As much as I love riding from home in Knoxville, I always enjoy making the trip to Waterville, NC to grind up and down a few mountains on the gravel bike. As I was working my way back to fitness last fall, the varying terrain makes those long solo rides so much more enjoyable. As we’ve gotten more into racing season, I occasionally use these mountains as organic intervals, just riding hard up the climbs and easy in between, which has been a stimulating way to build form without having to think too hard.

Over the weekend Evan Bausbacher represented the University of Texas at the USA Cycling Collegiate National Road Championships in Augusta, Georgia. It was a hot and challenging day out in the road race, with a very sweet finale when Evan took home the win! He worked hard all winter and spring to be ready to fight for the stars and stripes. Read about the race through his eyes, and then follow up for our analysis of his race data.

Bassett, you're a young fella but have simultaneously been at this for awhile. Give us a little bit of a run down of how you got into the sport, and what has kept you in it?

Yeah, I think I’m coming up on ten years of full time bike racing. I always rode with my dad growing up- I convinced him to let me ride 100 miles when I was 11. One of my dad’s students at the University of Tennessee invited me to a cyclocross race and he was the coolest guy I’d ever met so I had to try that out. Pretty soon I was racing road as well and was lucky enough to find some really good teams and get to some sweet races with trade teams and the national development program. I’m definitely a competitor, probably to a fault. I always have an idea of what I can achieve in the back of my mind, so it’s a gratifying process to figure out the steps I need to take to get there. I’m pretty into the technical aspect of the sport as well- I spend a lot of time getting the equipment where at needs to be and enjoy that as well. I also love all the friends I’ve made in the sport. We all love an excuse to jump in a van and run around with our buddies.