Episode 3 | Nicola Cranmer trains Olympic Hopeful Cyclists in Virginia’s Blue Ridge.

Rider-Up

In Episode 3 of the Rider-Up podcast, Dan Lucas and John Carlin interview VBR Twenty24 creator and Executive Director Nicola Cranmer. Nicola recruits the top women cyclists in the United States to join the team -- and many have succeeded in their ambition to represent the United States (and other countries) as Olympians -- with 13 winning Olympic medals!

Nicola Cranmer (left) With Dan, John, and World Champion Amanda Coker, recording the Rider-Up podcast.

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The Following is a web-generated transcript of the interview with Nicola Cranmer.

Please excuse any spelling or punctuation errors.

Announcer: On this edition of the Riderup Podcast.

Nicola Cranmer: I would definitely call us the Olympic Development Pipeline.

Speaker D: Nicola Cranmer talks about how she's helping to train us Olympians.

Nicola Cranmer: The athletes have, uh, won all they've been in the program over the last three Olympic cycles have won. I think it's 13 Olympic medals.

Speaker D: It's all coming up on the Rider Up Podcast.

Announcer: welcome to the Rider Up Podcast, where we talk about how much we love bicycles. Dan's a crazy downhiller, and John will be walking with a cane in a few years. But nobody loves cycling more than these two. Coming to you from Virginia's Blue Ridge, let's meet the hosts, Dan Lucas and John Carlin.

Dan Lucas: Hey, I'm Dan Lucas. I'm a mechanic. I love writing downhill, and I love coaching kids. I'm a dad and just a cycling journey.

John Carlin: All right. And I'm the same. I'm John Carlin, the co host of the Rider of podcast A Baby Boomer. And I ride mountain, road, travel bikes. And my wife's Peleton. Uh, and you can follow me at Sark Fighter, uh, on Peloton, by the way. Also, I'm, uh, a blogger, a YouTuber, and in, uh, my real job. I'm, uh, a professional journalist and a board member for Virginia's Blue Ridge. But, Dan, we have such an exciting opportunity today with our guests.

Dan Lucas: Absolutely. Nicola, uh, Cranmer with Team 2024 is here, and we get to pick her brain about everything from past to present to future, what Team 2024 has going on and what we can expect to see.

John Carlin: But Nickela Cranbert, Team 2024, she is the person who essentially selects trains and places, American women on the Olympic team.

Dan Lucas: Yeah. It's a, uh, huge opportunity for us. She lives here in Virginia Blue Ridge, which is wild, and she's chosen it to be her location, her base of operations. It's a fantastic opportunity.

John Carlin: And so she's going to talk to us about why she came to Virginia's Blue Ridge. She's going to tell you listeners all about the riding opportunities here, and then we're going to learn about the team, and we're going to ask her about she has a person on this team who is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Dan Lucas: Yeah. It's really cool to be a part of, to hear her stories and to, uh, kind of get that first hand knowledge from her of, uh, what some of these women are going through, have gone through and expect to achieve. It's pretty awesome.

John Carlin: All right, so our interview with the Nicola Krammer is coming up next year on the Writer Up Podcast.

Speaker D: We'll get back to the Rider-Up Podcast in just a moment. But first, a quick note about Virginia's Blue Ridge. You'll hear Dan and I talk a lot about Virginia's Blue Ridge in the podcast, because that's where we live and rise. Virginia's Blue Ridge offers what we lovingly call a Metro mountain mix, a place where you can play in the mountains while enjoying the arts and culture in and around Roanoke, Virginia, home to many museums, restaurants, festivals, shopping, and so much more. We hope you'll bring your bike, go for a ride and check out all the region has to offer. Um, go to visitvbr.com for all things Virginia's Blue Ridge.

John Carlin: Welcome back to the Rider-Up, podcast. And Dan, joining us now. We have an amazing guest today, Nicola Cranmer, who is the founder and executive director of, uh, the Virginia's Blue Ridge 2024 Women's Cycling Team. And this is an amazing opportunity. Welcome to the podcast.

Nicola Cranmer: Thank you. It's great to be here.

John Carlin: So, Dan, what do we want to know first?

Dan Lucas: Oh, man. I stayed up late last night writing a note on my phone with a lot of questions because, uh, I'm excited to learn more about Team 24 and what you have going on for the, uh, juniors and the adult athletes that are going to be calling this area their training home in this year. Kind of, uh, your Homebase.

John Carlin: But let's not undersell this. We can't call you and I know we can't call you the Olympic Training Team. For all intents and purposes, you're the Olympic Training team for the United States women's team.

Nicola Cranmer: Well, yeah, I would definitely call us Olympic development pipeline before. Okay. We've been able to bring junior athletes through the ranks to become Olympic medalists, but also we've had juniors on the team and had them as professionals and sent them to Europe, and they raised for other teams and gone to the Olympics. But the team ourselves, while they've been in the program over the last three Olympic cycles, have won. I think it's 13 Olympic medals for the US, actually, a couple for Canada, too.

John Carlin: Well, we'll take that. North America. Go North America, right?

Speaker UNK: Yes.

John Carlin: So you have just moved your base of operations here to Virginia's Blue Ridge. So how do you, uh, like it so far?

Nicola Cranmer: I love it. Apart from the fact that I never know how to dress.

John Carlin: Well, the weather has been sketchy so far.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah, but it's great. It's so beautiful. I feel very comfortable here. I've been made to feel very welcome here. I mean, honestly, I've been all over the world cycling and traveling with my team around the US, and I've never felt such a welcome from, um, a community. And I can put my hand on my heart and say that it's been amazing.

John Carlin: Wow. We are so happy to have you here. I'm wearing my VVR board member hat right now. So I want to say we're just so excited to sponsor you and to be able to have you set up your base of operations here. So tell us about just generally what your training program is going to be here, but what are your aspirations for these women? Uh, right now, what's going to be wheels on the ground for you guys?

Nicola Cranmer: Well, we are adjusting to a new schedule. First of, um, all the last two years have been an odd couple of years in bike racing, as it has been for everything. And when our races shut down, we had to adjust and just kind of recalibrate what we were doing and how we were activating in communities and for our partnerships. So we were traditionally just strictly more of a road team with track racers that raced on the road. During COVID, we switched, um, to gravel. So the team competed in a lot of gravel events, which was an absolute blast. It just took us all over the country into different venues and small towns that we never would have been to. But now with Tokyo or, sorry, Paris, um, coming up in 2024, we're just going back to the road a little bit. We have a hybrid schedule. Some of our track athletes will be racing criterias, but they'll also do a little gravel, kind of mixing it up. And we're in the phase where we're just trying to keep the athletes, the professional athletes, engaged and psyched. Um, about Paris, for the juniors, we've got a huge event, uh, coming up here in Roanoke in June, which, uh, is the Amateur National Championships. And what that means for junior cyclist, because it's also the Junior National Championships is if you're in the 1718 age category. It's a very important event here, because if you, uh, win the time trial or the road race, that's an automatic qualification for the World Championship team, which then you'll represent your nation and go to Australia and race against the rest of the world. So we've got a lot going on right here in town in the next few months.

Dan Lucas: That's wild. That's something where we are hosting right here in Renault.

John Carlin: It's amazing.

Dan Lucas: I said it last week, our last podcast, but I'm going to say it again. I'm telling you, we're on the edge of the wave. Like, it's getting ready to start crashing down with more and more cycling events and exciting, uh, developments. And we might know some stuff on the inside, which is really cool, but just be prepared. I was looking at the Team 2024 website to kind of be prepared, uh, for this. And I see that you have a road, you have Esports road, you have a development, um, team. You support mountain bike, Para cycling, which is awesome. Um, is there a limit on what you'll do?

Nicola Cranmer: Well, not really. I do like to make it hard for myself because it's definitely a challenge having multi disciplines with scheduling and equipment and all of that. But we, um, don't actually have a cyclocross team at the moment. I used to have a cyclocross team, UCI level, but right now I'll stick with what we're doing. It keeps me busy enough.

Dan Lucas: Got. You so selfishly. I'm going to ask you, would you ever consider supporting a women's downhill mountain bike? Mountain bike?

Nicola Cranmer: Yes.

Dan Lucas: Well, you could say no.

Nicola Cranmer: Because I don't say no. I am always open to opportunities, and it wouldn't be a hard no.

Dan Lucas: Forte. What I like is downhill or Enduro riding. And I am on a, um, single minded mission to get more representation, uh, in that side of the sport, in the gravity side of the sport. So when I, uh, was typing up questions last night, this is why I was like, I'm going to hit her with this immediately.

Speaker UNK: Okay.

Nicola Cranmer: I used to respond.

Dan Lucas: Tell me more about that. Yeah.

Speaker UNK: Really?

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah. So when I moved to America from England in 1986, I moved to Marine County in California. Mountain biking birthplace and mountain biking. And I was really lucky just to get swept up in that momentum. I wasn't a cyclist at that point. I was into horses.

Dan Lucas: Okay.

Nicola Cranmer: But I met some guys, worked in a bike shop, and they were mountain bike racers. And it was very. Just early days. And they introduced me to some now legendary founding fathers of mountain biking in the area, like Gary Fisher and Mark Slate. Charlie Cunningham.

Speaker UNK: Wow.

Nicola Cranmer: I mean, many people.

John Carlin: The big names, the innovators.

Nicola Cranmer: And so these were my people. All of a sudden. My first team was, um, DFL, which is, um, X rated name in the Bay Area. And they still exist. They are just a club of guys and some women and, um, just kind of a renegade team outlaw team. And they put on, um, some fun cross dress Cyclocross series in San Francisco and things like that. But they're amazing people. And then I raced for, um, WTB. And they actually used to make bikes. I was on a prototype called the Phoenix and raced for them, uh, for a couple of years. And then, um, after that, I decided and I wasn't training to be a professional cyclist or anything. I just used to ride my bike a lot. So I moved up through the ranks, and then it was like beginner sport expert, pro, and raised cross country. And then I, um, thought I really fancy doing downhill. And so I raced for ProFlex, a company out of Rhode Island Moonsocket or something like that. And I still have my bike, believe it or not, in my mum's attic. So, um, at the time, it was like pretty technology forward. But when you look at it now, even then, I raised the Kamikaze on it. And when I did my practice run, the thing was going to fall apart. I mean, it was so clanky and had a last emergency suspension, which really wasn't suspension for that kind of descent.

Speaker UNK: No.

Nicola Cranmer: And a German fork, which just bottoming out. It was so noisy. I was so terrified when I got to the bottom.

Dan Lucas: There's some real deep cuts in the story. If you guys don't know what a. I guess I say Garmin, but fork or, uh, a pro flex is or the, um, DFL team. Go Google some of this information, because there's some really cool history in what Nicholas saying. I love it.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah. So I know downhill mountain bike.

John Carlin: Okay, great. What's Gary for sure. Like?

Nicola Cranmer: Oh, he's also. Yeah, he is.

Dan Lucas: I met him at, uh, Seattle.

John Carlin: Really? Okay.

Nicola Cranmer: To get him out here, he's always been a character. He's flamboyant.

Dan Lucas: Absolutely. And then he's wearing a full Tweet suit, diamond sunglasses, and he had his mustache all waxed up. And he was super warm and genuine and really nice for me, just walking up and saying, oh, my gosh, Jerry Fisher, kind of shake your hand. It is incredibly nice.

Nicola Cranmer: One thing I do want to mention about those early days in mountain biking in the Bay Area was the Kosky brothers. And they go pretty unsung, and they look up the Kosky brothers, and they were actually really responsible for a lot of the advances in mountain biking back then. And, um, they didn't have such a sort of forward presence as some of, um, the others did, like the WTV Group and Gary Fisher. But, um, yeah, you can't kind of talk about those days without mentioning them.

John Carlin: Yeah. I wrote a Gary Fisher Paragon for a long time. 26 inch hardtail.

Dan Lucas: My first legitimate mountain bike was a Gary Fisher Tasahara.

John Carlin: Okay.

Dan Lucas: That was my gateway bike.

Nicola Cranmer: Mine was an Ivy Avion.

Dan Lucas: Oh, wow.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah.

Dan Lucas: Very cool.

Nicola Cranmer: Yes. Which was then a very small company.

Dan Lucas: Yeah. Very small.

Nicola Cranmer: Yes. Scott and West Seaglar.

Dan Lucas: Um, I love hearing your backstory, and we're going to talk a little bit more about Team 24. But I'm geeking out on your backstory with, like, you were in the right place at the right time in the cycling industry. And it's really cool how that has shaped your future now, because you came for, uh, something totally unrelated horses to cycling horses.

John Carlin: And then you were a rider, but then all of a sudden you looked around at some point and said, there's an opportunity here to get women involved and to train women for the Olympic team, or potentially.

Dan Lucas: Yeah. And now you're doing that. It's wild. I love connecting those dots, uh, and seeing what it's taken to get to this point. It's, uh, really cool.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah. And mountain biking back then and moving a little, uh, forward to the 90s, they have huge sponsorship. I mean, it was on TV, like, Grenadig was the main sponsor in Volvo, was huge sponsor of mountain biking. And then it just fizzled out. And I left the sport of cycling for a few years in the late, um, 90s, early 2000s, and then picked it up again and started riding on the road. My passion was definitely mountain biking. And my ex husband, uh, his sister wanted to ride a century, and she was not a cyclist. And she said, oh, can you start riding with me and show me what to do and build me up to this century? So I just started writing and inadvertently got fit and joined a local road team. And it was a co Ed team. And that's what inspired me ultimately to start a women's team, because the women were doing really, um, well on the team and winning local races, and they were hard races in the Bay Area. It was web core days and tip code days and really strong athletes. And, um, the men were doing okay, but they were getting all the support, and it just pissed me off. I said, I'm starting a business team. I don't even know what it meant. And the words left my mouth. And then now I better figure out what to do. So I did. And that's how it started.

John Carlin: Very organically, because I can remember, like, Connie Carpenter back in the day, won a gold medal, and she's married to Davis Finney, who I got to do a broadcast, uh, with once. But, um, the American women have done quite well, um, I guess probably since you took over and started before then, too.

Nicola Cranmer: But there's so many. I don't attribute people's success to me. I just basically am a platform for opportunity is how I look at it. I mean, there's so many other things that go into being a champion, being a gold medalist. And it's definitely not just about me. It's about a whole team of people around, uh, those athletes. But I have continued to just be a platform for really high performance athletes to script their own season. Just have a little bit more latitude than another team would mix it up a little. We're not just a road team. It's, uh, Jennifer Valente, who is a three time Olympic medalist. Just recently, two in, um, Tokyo. She wants to do a gravel race. Awesome. She wants to do a mountain bike race. Great. I mean, after the Tokyo Olympics, her and Jasmine, during one of our Canadian athletes, um, I said, what do you want to do after Tokyo? Do you want to shut it down for the season? Do you want to do another bike race? They both independently came to me, and they haven't talked to each other and said, we want to do Leadville. I'm like, okay, all right. We have track tracers, both of them.

John Carlin: Did they win?

Nicola Cranmer: No.

John Carlin: Really?

Nicola Cranmer: That's a whole different type of training. That is, like, insane. But Jasmine did get a top ten. They're going from 250 meters. Track racing, relative racing to Leadville.

Dan Lucas: Yeah. Leadville is the monster. There's a bike sitting in the fit room behind us, and I just put together for a guy who's going to race light bill this year.

John Carlin: Is that the s works? That's a beautiful S-Works. I noticed it didn't have a price tag on it, so I thought it might not be for sale. I probably want to know.

Nicola Cranmer: We can talk about that later. We have another athlete on the team, Melissa Rollins, who's currently competing. Well, she'll start this weekend at Sea Otter in the Lifetime Fitness Grand Prix, which is half gravel, half mountain bike. Six race series, and there's something like 40, um, thousand dollars price for the winner overall. But her family, and you look up her family, they're just, uh, like a legacy, Leadville family. Her dad. I think I'm going to get the numbers wrong, but you get the idea. I think her dad has raised Leadville maybe 21 times per month is 16 times.

Dan Lucas: That's why.

Nicola Cranmer: And she's done it three times, I think. And she got fifth or 6th last year. She's improved her time every year by an hour. So I expect to see her on the podium this year. Right.

Dan Lucas: Awesome.

John Carlin: What's her name?

Nicola Cranmer: Melissa Rollins. And her dad runs the Leadville podcast, which is a great podcast. Okay.

Dan Lucas: Check it out. Very cool. Yeah. I'm looking at you have quite a list, uh, of Olympic medals, uh, to the team.

Speaker UNK: Armstrong.

Dan Lucas: Kristen Armstrong. We have Lauren. I'm going to mess up, uh, all these names. Tomaya, Jasmine Durry. Yeah, right. There's some gold, um, silver and bronze. Right there. Kristen again with the gold, uh, in Rio. Uh, Jamie Whitmore with the gold. In Rio. It just, um, keeps going on. And most recently, team, uh, 2020 in Tokyo. Jennifer Glente. Uh, with the gold, we have Annabelle, uh, and Lee Davidson was on the, um, team. That's incredible. You have some big-name athletes that have put in you were saying, uh, your platform, and I like the term foundation. You're the thing everything's built off of. And I think that's incredibly important. I think you're selling yourself a little bit short to an athlete, uh, to be able to have a firm foundation to stand on. I'm a big visual guy, and that's what I like to see.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah. After Kristen won her first gold medal in Beijing, she and I met before that, and she said, I love what you're doing with junior athletes, and I want to be a part of what you're doing. So she became a part of our program right after that. And she was retired, of course, because she wanted to have a baby. And then she decided to come back. And this is the first time she's, like, cycling's version, um, of Tom Brady.

John Carlin: Right. Retire, come back. Retire, come back.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah. And she decided to come back. But at that point, as a previous Olympic gold medalist, uh, or the reigning Olympic gold medalist, actually, she could have gone to any team. Um, and I think one of the things that I am most proud of about our team is the fact that we really embraced balance. And she looked at us. I mean, she could have got paid a lot more to race in Europe, but she would have been racing. She would have had to leave her family and go race in Europe. And she didn't want to, uh, do that. And she knew that she didn't need that to accomplish another gold medal. So she became an athlete on my team, and she was amazing. And at the time, she worked full time in health care in Idaho, and she had a son, and he came on the road with us when she came back, and she, um, was still. Yeah, he was a baby. He couldn't even walk yet when he came on the road with us. And it was actually great to have him around, but she chose our team because of the flexibility. She could control her schedule. She could be at home. She didn't have to race much. Basically, we looked at the selection criteria for the next, um, Olympics, which was London, and, uh, work backwards from there. And it's like, okay, what is in that selection criteria? What does she have to nail, um, to get to that Olympic squad?

Speaker UNK: Right.

Nicola Cranmer: And there were a few things, and she went out, and it didn't go as smoothly as planned, but we knew we had a definite plan, and we just call it mapping and just kind of going to that ultimate goal, working backwards and then trying to sort of nail those key events, um, on the way. And like I said, it didn't work out so smoothly, but we got there in the end. But she chose the team for that.

John Carlin: So you're hooking us a little bit here. It didn't work out so smoothly. Were there training? Hiccups. Did she get sick? Was there an injury?

Nicola Cranmer: Oh, yeah.

John Carlin: All the above.

Nicola Cranmer: Um, arbitration and USA Cycling leaves, which is obviously the governing body of cycling, they kind of leave the door open for people to challenge, um, the selection. So even though your country selects you to go and represent them, other athletes have the opportunity, um, to say, I don't think that's fair. I think I should go.

Dan Lucas: Got you.

Nicola Cranmer: So the process of going to the Olympics is stressful enough in itself, never mind throwing in some arbitration, and it happens every cycle. Throwing in arbitration along the way is just something that the athlete has to deal with and pay for, by the way.

John Carlin: So I'm thinking we're going to select a marathon runner.

Nicola Cranmer: Right.

John Carlin: Okay, so we have a trial, and the top people go who finished first and second in the trial. But in cycling, it's not like that.

Nicola Cranmer: That's an interesting point, because the selection criteria has too many openings and variables in it, because it's not an Olympic trial. Whereas in the old days, like Connie Carpenter won an Olympic trial and went to the Olympics, it's not like that. Even though it says, um, winning National Championships and time trial is not in the selection process, but finishing top three world Championships the year before is. But if no American finishes top three, and then Kristen Armstrong's fifth, which is what happened. In one case, that door is open because, um, it doesn't say just because you're a top American, it says top three things like that.

Dan Lucas: Reading the rules and interpreting them the right way.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah, exactly.

John Carlin: But she got to the team.

Nicola Cranmer: She got to the team, yes. And nailed it. And I was there, and it was amazing to be an Olympics in my home country, and it was an incredible experience. And Lucas was there as well. One of my favorite moments in my history in cycling was in London, because the whole reason she started this goal for London was because her husband said, oh, wouldn't it be cool to have your kid on our son on the podium? And that was a whole other story in itself of trying to actually get she won the goal, and then we're like, oh, we better get him. It's not that easy. It's not the security around Hampton Court and the podium presentation and trying to get in. Um, and there's special forces, and, I mean, it was insane.

Dan Lucas: But we got in there best team manager. How many diapers did you change personally?

John Carlin: There you go on the Writer podcast.

Nicola Cranmer: I have a great photo, too, of after the medal ceremony, we had to go to press, and Kristen's in a taxi with me. She's got a gold medal dangling around her neck, and she's changing her son's diaper.

John Carlin: And you have that picture?

Dan Lucas: I do.

John Carlin: If you share that with us, we could put it in the show notes. Would Kristen be okay with that?

Nicola Cranmer: You can, uh, just see what she's doing.

John Carlin: But still, I mean, who wears a gold medal and changes the diaper?

Nicola Cranmer: I know that's got to be it was business as usual.

Dan Lucas: You might stop being a mom.

Nicola Cranmer: Right back to being mum.

Dan Lucas: You don't stop being a mom. That's awful.

John Carlin: Let's talk a little bit more about. So now you're here. Your base of operations has moved to Virginia's Blue Ridge. You'll be here for three years at least. So if someone's thinking about getting in their car and riding their bikes here, which you described, and you've been all over the world. So what is the terrain like here that you like and describe it to somebody who's never seen it before from your new eyes perspective with the world perspective.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah. Well, it actually reminds me of England, but not everyone's been to England, but there's nothing flat here. Uh, which I quickly discovered. Uh, I am more of, like, a flat lander, but the punchy Roley Hills, which there are plenty of, literally everywhere, are perfect. Um, the road surfaces, for one, are really good. I think it's because it's not that, um, populated here, so there's not a lot of cars messing up the country roads here that beat out.

Dan Lucas: Good job.

John Carlin: Nice job. As long as, uh, you like chip seal surfaces, they're great.

Nicola Cranmer: And a big shout out to VDOT for putting up the signs during our junior camp, which is amazing.

John Carlin: The safety sign up.

Dan Lucas: Yes.

Nicola Cranmer: Which, I mean, the girls were so touched that it made them feel really special when they saw it. Our junior girls, it was amazing. So, yeah, just beautiful countryside. The cars have been really, um, gracious and when we were riding through some of the smaller towns, people were waving at us. It was very different and very welcoming. The media has done a really good job of, um, alerting the community that were in town, so I appreciate that. So people are wondering what just happened. This bunch of riders just rode by but I love it here and, um, it's great training roads already, actually, since we've announced, um, being here, a Canadian team messaged me on Instagram and said we saw that you were riding in this area and how great it was. And so we've done a little mini training camp here and they messaged me on Instagram yesterday and asked for roots.

Dan Lucas: Great.

Nicola Cranmer: So, yeah, they're here actually riding now and experiencing what we experience.

Dan Lucas: That's funny. A place I used to work would host a, uh, group from Quebec, Team Centrifuge and the gentleman who runs Asians Market for. And they would come down because it's still snowy road terrible up there and they wanted the early season training and they chose it's in Craig County and Boba Talk County is where they ruined the most. But they would come down for four to six weeks and they would have people, uh, coming in and out the entire time. Some would stay the whole time and some would go back to Quebec and they're everyday people and they're juniors, um, and they're immense elite athletes that are racing in World Cups and stuff like that too. And so it's cool because you can see this evolution of people learning how good it is.

Nicola Cranmer: It will happen. A lot of Canadians go to Tucson at the moment, but the riding isn't as good there. Um, it's pretty limited. You've got guaranteed weather down there, but the roads here are endless. I mean, um, we were based at campbessel for our junior camp recently, so we did all rides out from there and it was perfect. We ended up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Finn Castle area and Springwood Loop and it was honestly absolutely amazing riding and all the girls were explaining that every day. Oh, this is so beautiful. It's so green here and there aren't even leaks on the trees at my wife come back in a month.

John Carlin: It'S going to be even more amazing.

Nicola Cranmer: Exactly. So, yeah, I would say if you need climbs, you've um, got climbs here. Obviously you don't have like mountaintop finish type of climbs, but you've got some serious climbs here and you just go out on a two hour ride and you think you're going on a sort of a more flat route and you've done 2000 piece of climbing without hardly even knowing it.

Dan Lucas: I think that's, um, a pretty typical Roan? Ochre. If you ride mountain, um, or you ride road, you're going to get a minimum of 1500ft, probably at about every ride.

John Carlin: I have a loop from my house. It's 14 and a half miles, and it's 1400ft of climbing. Yeah, that's when I have a little over an hour to ride in the middle of the day. That's just like my training loop. And you just can't avoid declining.

Nicola Cranmer: No, I think it's great because you just inadvertently get a little fitter by doing Hills and you have no choice. And I haven't explored the gravel roads yet. I've been on some, uh, mountain bike trails up Explorer Park, so I'm really excited to do that this summer and get out on some ride with me.

Dan Lucas: I'll take you out to Carbon and shave some good stuff.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah, I actually went out there.

Dan Lucas: Okay, great. Yeah. You can literally throw a rock in any direction. You're going to hit a good trail or a good road or some good gravel. And out west of us in Craig County, there's, uh, some epic gravel. I don't know if you've met Gordon Wadsworth yet. He's a local pro in the area. Fantastic guy. And you want to find some good roads, good gravel roads. Talk to him. He'll get you set up and get you straight. Yeah.

John Carlin: His nickname is Quadsworth.

Nicola Cranmer: Oh, I've heard that.

John Carlin: He's amazing.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah. And Emily one or two. I want to connect with her. And they're doing some gravel stuff out here, and she also made a cake for one of our girls.

John Carlin: Uh, how cool is that? There's so much to talk about. We're going to have to have you come back. You have a Nobel Peace Prize nominee that you are training with your team. Should we just go into that real quick? It's a bottomless pit of stuff I want to ask you, and we only have so much time.

Dan Lucas: I think I got three questions out of the probably 20 I have here.

John Carlin: Okay, so how often Nobel Peace Prize? What? Tell that story.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah. So this is an interesting story. And of course, we don't know how it's going to end yet, but two years ago, a gentleman in Boise, Idaho, where I was living, and I still have a place there, reached out to me and, uh, Afghan gentleman and said, uh, hey, would you and Kristen consider coaching, um, women's team in Kabul or just helping them, which is in Afghanistan? And we said, yeah, we didn't, um, know how that was going to look. So we tried to formulate a plan, and, um, we said, oh, maybe they can all get on Zoom sessions with us or actually join in our junior Zoom sessions because they weren't at a professional level. This was a group of women that were doing, uh, some local races and training together in Afghanistan. So they were lacking equipment and coaching and guidance. Even though they had a coach there, they really needed more. So we were trying to figure out, um, how to do that. And even when we were having meetings on WhatsApp, um, with the leadership there the women that were trying to encourage us to participate. We faced challenges. I mean, just the Internet wasn't working so well, we couldn't even have a WhatsApp call. So forget having a Zoom video session. So we were kind of muddling through all of this. And then we were talking about sending a couple, um, of bikes to the top. Girls there because they were on equipment sometimes didn't fit. There was a lot of issues with. There were, um, plenty of people that wanted to help this group of women, but they would ship things over and then whoever would take them. I knew the girls wouldn't even see them.

Dan Lucas: Oh, my gosh.

Nicola Cranmer: So, uh, there were all these limitations and hurdles. So it kind of stalled out a little bit, to be honest. Although I stayed in touch with everybody, just on WhatsApp message, asking how they were and everything, and just giving them little tips.

John Carlin: These are women cyclists in Afghanistan.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah.

John Carlin: Where women are not highly regarded.

Nicola Cranmer: No.

John Carlin: What you're doing here is not just helping some athletes in a third worldish country.

Nicola Cranmer: No.

John Carlin: So what were the political ramifications and what ultimately happened then when the Taliban came into.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah, so these women had to ride. I mean, literally, they were faring, um, for their lives just riding a bicycle. And to us in the Western world, it's a rite of passage, just learning how to ride a bike. We all do it, and we take it for granted. And these women were not allowed to ride bikes and not allowed to show any skin on a bike or anything like that. And they would get rock thrown at them and abuse yelled at them by men. So they had to truck out of town to ride in, um, the desert. But then you were kind of moving into Taliban country when you were out of the city. So that was just another risk. But they did it anyway. Um, and they were determined that Ripsar was the captain of the team. Ripsar Habib, who I had met on WhatsApp? And she used cycling as a platform to just. And she wasn't thinking this in global terms at the time. It was just, I want to show other Afghan girls that women can ride bikes. Women don't have to just be shut in the kitchen and Cook all day and have babies, which is literally their role there. Although in recent years, there were advancements, like, women could attend University. Um, she went to University for five years, and that's another, um, pretaliban takeoff pretaliban. And there were women in sport marketing, um, women in the media. And so things were, um, slightly advancing for them. And then, of course, Taliban came, um, back. And really quickly, our conversations went from how can you get better in cycling to how can you get out of Kabul? Because she would be a targeted female as someone that was so outspoken. So her team was nominated for a Nobel, um, Peace Prize. Her and her team for what they did for women's rights, for Asian women. And in a really short period of time. So they're very bold, brave women to stand up for their beliefs in, um, that environment. And it just went from bad to worse. During her exit, she was literally at the airport when the ISIS bomb, the suicide bomber went off. Um, so she was there. And her story of just being there at the airport at that time where they, she had to wait for days outside the airport. There were multiple gates to go through, not just before they uh, shut down the evacuation. There were still um, multiple gates. And she kept saying multiple gates. I said, what does that mean? She said, well, you would have to go through like, because there are still US forces there, but you would have to go, um, through Taliban gates first. And so you'd have to get through there and then you'd have to get through to get to an airplane, to get to an airplane, literally. So it's interesting because when she describes the process, she uh, used a tactic where she acted hysterical. You have to hear it from her. But she wasn't. Just because she tried to like, please let me through.

Dan Lucas: Didn't work.

Nicola Cranmer: And so she just said, I was uh, acting hysterical until they got tired of me and couldn't stand me being there anymore and let me through, just go, yeah. But I said to her, I said, we only know what we know here. And she's there face to face with Taliban, like, having conversations with them. And I said to her, we just all have this image of what they are. But these are humans. These are people too. You can't lump them all together, right? There are individuals, there are people that, that's just their way of life, that they were born into.

John Carlin: The Taliban.

Nicola Cranmer: Yes. And you take a man that he's a father, he's a husband. I mean, we're talking like, just because we don't agree with the life that they all lead as people, it doesn't mean that we should judge all of them. And I said, did you have any interactions with the soldiers? The Taliban soldiers? And she said, yes. She said, this one man when she was going through one of the gates, actually the final gate before she got into where the armed forces were on the US side, um, as well as US British friendlies, alleviating people friendlies.

John Carlin: Okay.

Nicola Cranmer: He knew that the ISIS bomb was going to happen because somehow they know, right? And ISIS, apparently it's a lot worse than the Taliban. So she said, yeah. She said, I had a conversation with this man, uh, and he was terrified because he had to be there in his position, doing his job, knowing that any person that walked by with a backpack could have been a suicide bomber. And she said, yeah, he was humanized in that moment, for sure.

John Carlin: Never would have thought of that.

Dan Lucas: Just imagine living in a place and being afraid for your life or your family or whatever, to just go ride your bike. Right. And then having the courage to not only do that to be successful, make your way out.

John Carlin: Which is wild, but she's in the United States now.

Nicola Cranmer: The old thing is, the serendipitous thing is she's in Virginia. So the process is she got out, and then she went to the Middle East, where she, um, was held for a few days, and then she went to Germany. And then she was kept for a couple of months in a military base, which was horrific experience for her. You're with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of refugees.

John Carlin: Refugees.

Nicola Cranmer: Uh, and you're in a giant tent. The conditions are poor, but she was still also at the same time, I was communicating with her at this point because there were a couple of individuals, um, this woman, Leanne, who used to work for, um, Outright Foundation, I think she said Google Now was sending SIM cards to her, and she actually helped get Ricksunrun an evacuation list to get out to begin with. And so we stayed, um, in touch. And I haven't bought up our team at this point. And she was already in, uh, the military base for a few months, and we were communicating. And I thought to myself, you know, I knew at this point she was coming to Virginia because her brother lives here. He fled to Taliban a while ago. He was the Mayor of Kabul.

John Carlin: Oh, my gosh.

Nicola Cranmer: Oh, wow. Yeah, I just found out. I said to her, I knew she was coming to Brute. And I said, hey, I know this sounds so frivolous at the moment because you're dealing with just these massive life challenges, but would you want to be on the team? I don't even know how you ride, but we can work with at least you would have something mentally to look forward to. I'm like, I don't know if I should bring it up or not, because it just seems silly. It's so insignificant compared to what she was going through. But it turns out when you talk to her, that moment was very pivotal in just uplifting her spirit and having her feel like there was, uh, light at the end of the tunnel, like something to look forward to. And who knows if she's going to be an Olympic level cyclist at this point. I mean, we have a long way to go.

Dan Lucas: Doesn't matter, right?

Nicola Cranmer: But at least she's here. She came to junior camp. She has a long way to go.

John Carlin: How old is she?

Nicola Cranmer: 23.

John Carlin: 23. Okay, phenomenal.

Nicola Cranmer: So we might be looking at La 2028.

Dan Lucas: What? Um, a great story and a great ending to that story. Um, I got to say, it's been really awesome. Um, to talk to you and listen about this uh, and I kind of alluded to this before, but I want more representation in cycling. Um, for women specifically. Yeah, sure. And, um, very near and dear to my heart. I have two little girls, a girl dad. And my older one is this weekend on this proud dad competed, um, in her first downhill, uh, race. She did great against the boys. Against all boys. There's no other females in, um, her class, and she did awesome. And I was so proud. And so when John said, we get to talk to you on the podcast, I was very excited to hear because what, um, you've done is great. And I don't think I, uh, would have the same appreciation, not being a girl dad. But now being on this side of things and seeing it, it is vitally important that we support these programs to get more ladies in the sport and, uh, represented at, uh, the highest level, at all levels, but also at the highest level. I appreciate what you're doing, and I might have to pick your ear about my little team and see if you have some, uh, advice you can give me.

Nicola Cranmer: Oh, for sure. And that's one of the things about Virginia's Blue Ridge and visit Virginia that I am super grateful for is that they chose a women's team, and they're very diverse women's team at that. I mean, they could have picked a men's team, which is most people's default.

Dan Lucas: Uh, probably a whole lot of those laying around waiting to pick up a sponsor.

Nicola Cranmer: Yeah. And, uh, they chose a women's team, which, of course, is very, um, to me, it's the best thing that could have happened to us. It's such an incredible sponsorship and partnership, and I feel like I have all these additional staff all of a sudden who are really invested in what we're doing and a community that's supportive. And, I mean, I went into literally to target and sleep feed, and nobody knows me here except the press. So far, people said to me, oh, I saw your teams in town. It's amazing. Uh, how can we help? And they were very sincere about it, and it's very welcoming.

John Carlin: We're very excited to have you. Um, thank you, Nicholas. Thanks so much for joining us.

Nicola Cranmer: You're welcome. Thanks for having me. Good fun.

Dan Lucas: Thanks to Nicola for spending time with us, being so gracious with her time and her stories. It has been, uh, fantastic to hear from her. If you see Nicola out riding her bike, if you see the team out riding their bikes, if you can stop. They're pretty fast, right? Say, uh, hey, welcome them to the area. They're excited to be here, and they're a great, um, addition to the case. Blue Ridge.

John Carlin: We're just so excited. And as you've said, the wave is crashing. The cycling opportunities is here. We can't call them the Olympic team, but the Olympic, uh, hopeful team.

Dan Lucas: The Olympic Hopeful team.

John Carlin: This is where they have chosen to ride their bikes. And having Nicola here and have that resource and all the things she's doing is just great. Good luck, by the way, to your daughter.

Dan Lucas: Yeah.

John Carlin: With her downhilling proud dad.

Dan Lucas: She raced in the zero to twelve Cap 23 category, uh, at Wind Rock Bike Park for the downhill Southeast, uh, this past weekend, it was her first time at Wind Rock, first time on that track, and she put a good run together. She tried hard all weekend. Um, she swallowed all that nervous energy and fears, and she performed, and I could not be more proud of her. So downhill team is going, uh, great. We'll have an update on the next episode.

John Carlin: Real quick.

Speaker D: Before you go today, I want to give you a quick update on some of the cycling events happening here in Virginia's Blue Ridge. Um, I'll admit some of these are ways out, but if your calendar is anything like mine, trying to schedule all your cycling activity and everything else life is throwing at you, you might want to pencil some of these in early, whether you want to participate or whether maybe you just want to be a spectator. But here they are real quick. The Karelian Clinic, Iron Man 70.3, Virginia's Blue Ridge. That's coming up on June 6, 2022. And no matter what time of year you come, if you're into the cycling side, you might want to just come and do the I think it's a 56 miles ride from, um, Carbons Cove, which is a road bike, uh, ride and takes, uh, you, uh, up through the town of Buchanan and then the major climb, which is becoming more and more famous or infamous out of the town of Buchanan to the Blue Ridge Parkway and then back into downtown, uh, Roanoke. So that's a ride that you might want to do any time of year just to say you did it. But anyway, the event itself is June 6, 2022. On June 29, Virginia's Blue Ridge is hosting get this, the 2022 Amateur National Road Championships. So that's something to look forward to. Come out and enjoy the races. Don't forget the visit. Vbr Gran Fondo is on October 9 in beautiful Bodhaw County. I've done it many times with several different distances. Depending upon your ambition. I'll be doing the 50 miles this year, and the Creature from Carbons Cove Mountain Bike Race is coming up on October 16, 2022. We'll have links to all the cycling activity in Virginia's Blue Ridge, as well as a deep dive into local cycling. Some of the places you might want to go, stay, do whatever. If you're listening from out of the [e-mail]. And while you're at it, why not to check out my personal cycling [e-mail]. And you should definitely listen to our previous episode where Dan and I interviewed World champion and Team 2024 member Amanda Coker, who is just amazing. But among all of her accolades. She holds the record for riding the most miles in a year by any human averaging over 230 miles per day. She rode over 80. 0 mile in a single year. She broke the record by over 10,000 miles and I think she averaged 20 miles an hour riding that many miles a day. Many people would work up to a, uh, double century and say they did it once. She did 230 miles every day. I'm just saying thanks again for listening to the Rider Up podcast presented by Virginia's Blue Ridge America's East Coast Mountain Biking Capital All the information is in the show notes of the Rider Europe podcast for Dan Lucas I'm John Carlin and we hope to see you on your bike here in Virginia's Blue Ridge.