Radio host and podcaster Cam Marston recently invited Rodeo founder Stephen Fitzgerald onto his show to talk about the behind the scenes of Rodeo, how it came into existence, and what it was like transitioning out of a more traditional career and into running a bike company and community. Check it out via the embed here or search for What’s Working With Cam Marston on your favorite podcasting platform:
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Spotify’s marketing team, take a bow.
Once again, you’ve done it, you mastered viral marketing. Now, December is marked by the bombardment of Spotify branded music tastes. As much as I try to be the grinch, I like it. I like it a lot.
Alas, my contrarian flare persists, and I have journals to write. So instead of a simple Instagram story share and per a budding tradition, here is my 2021 playlist. Five of my favorite songs from 2021 paired with my top five rides. I highly encourage you to listen as you go! Each passage was written while the tunes played on loop. My apologize to my roommates. Enjoy!
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Evan and Bo have wrapped up their final dispatch from their two month ride across, around, through, and into Armenia. It’s been so inspiring to follow along on this journey with them through words and photos. It seems that Rodeo and Armenia have been woven together through our experiences there, and we can’t wait to see where inspiration takes us next. In the meantime, enjoy this final post.
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Tom and I are not alike.
He’s into obscure Welsh rock. I’m into hip hop, I think. He went to law school. I was done after high school. He leans to the left, I lean to the right of whatever left means. I don’t think he’s religious at all. If I didn’t have faith I think I’d be dead. Tom likes a very tall riding position with an absurd stem because ergonomics. I like a low, sleek position, because vanity. Tom was a pipe smoker once upon a time. I’ve literally never smoked anything, ever, not even the tires on my car.
The roads out east go on all day long, and would continue into the next day were you were curious, and fit enough. Over each roller is another. Once at the top of any given roller you are denied parole and sentenced to ten more, your good behavior ignored by the cows, horses, and deer that decide such things out here.People used to try to live out east when living meant a lot more than it does now. Nature dehydrated their houses, money, and spirit and left only dust. People still live out east, but in an F350 / Dodge Ram sort of way. Still living, but probably a little less so than their predecessors. As a city dweller I’m in a unique position to judge hearty country folk because I know how to blow out my lawn sprinklers on my own. No sprinkler companies service my lawn thank you very much. I’m a survivor.
Tom and I rode all day long, into exactly the last light of the day. This was an important ride for me and Tom, on a friendship level. I’m quite burnt out on work, life, and everything in it. I wanted to cut our loop short because of fatigue. Tom wanted, needed to do the whole loop. Soon he will take a stint off the bike to battle cancer. Him needing to do the whole loop was enough reason for me to need it too.
We talked and rode bikes all day. Tom cares about people. I care about people. Tom loves his kids. I love my kids. Tom is a giver, and that’s a goal for me. Tom wants the world to be better. I want the world to be better. Tom loves, loves, loves crazy rides. Ditto. The crazier the better. I want people in my life that I can just talk to, all day long. Tom does too. Guards come down.
Tom and I are very similar. We figured that out a little bit more while riding together, out east.
By Logan Jones-Wilkins
I try to avoid cliches.
After copy editing last year with a classically gnarled old-school journalist, I have been on the prowl to slash and burn the cliches I have in my writing. I think I am improving. Nevertheless, sometimes those cliches are cliches for a reason and I’d be a fool to let a good trope pass me by. So, as I have emerged from my forced concussion sponsored reset, I am going to have a little fun with some lazy formatting because it’s what I want to do. Sue me.
In my ruminating on my summer in Ecuador, the old Clint Eastwood cliche keeps seeping in. It was good. It was bad. It was ugly. And I just couldn’t help but share this worn triumvirate in the third installment of Ecuador shorts.
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Andrew Maher, an avid cyclist an technology podcaster stopped by last month for a sit down talk about what Rodeo Labs is up to in regards to social media and communicating with customers. It was a fast paced conversation, and Andrew may or may not have added to that by speeding up the speech a bit. That allowed us to cover a lot of ground. We also talked about the supply chain problems of 2021, how we have handled those setbacks, then got nice and abstract as we explored just what exactly innovation is here at Rodeo. If you’re interested in our back story and how things work behind the curtain do have a listen here or on your favorite podcasting platform:
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Words and images by Evan Christensen with supplemental images by Stephen Fitzgerald
When I walked through Tom’s door and saw a flood of bikes and bags and cameras sprawling over the floor on the other side, I knew I was walking into another adventure entirely. Bo and I had been alone, just the two of us, for months up to the point. We’d ridden with other people for two days at the most, and in the three months riding to Armenia together we had developed a harmonious rhythm. It had been dug deep and as we fell deeper into that entrancing rut we rode through splendor and excitement and pangs and a new world at our own pace. We were happy with it. I felt like it could have gone on forever.
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The following is an except from my upcoming article on the larger political and economic story from Ecuador. Although it may not be a cycling specific piece, it is the perspective of the region and the context of the cycling. Enjoy and look out for the full story soon.
Situated one ridge over from the outskirts of Quito, Ecuador, deep in the towering shadow of the mountainside staircase of an unnamed mine, sits San Antonio de Pichincha. In an arid landscape, defined by human domination of the landscape, the town is hardly reminiscent of the bustling metropolis to the south.
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Over the month of August, I spent my time backpacking through the country of Ecuador on a research grant from the University of Richmond. While the subject of the research was not a cycling story, the scenes from the road were on their own, little nuggets of intrigue. Here is the first!
The absurdity of Guayaquil, Ecuador is hard to understate. In the dense neighborhood and enclaves, the worlds of many fuse into a convoluted web of urbanization. As I wheeled to a halt at the sudden terminus of a bike path on the outskirts of the city, that chaos was inescapably and suddenly present.
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The big mountain, the big city.
I’ve never done research on a place I’m traveling to. I’ve never read the top 10 lists and taken notes or looked into the history or geography or culture. I’ve always followed my gut and shown up jet-lagged and blind and let the bike and whoever I meet along the way lead me through discovering a place. I don’t often regret not making it to the most known places. I’ve found stumbling through a place is how to really get to know it’s charm.
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