Lily Williams - Olympian USA Cycling / Rally Cycling

The Gravel Ride. A cycling podcast

This week we sit down with Olympian Lily Williams who will represent the United States on the Women's Pursuit team. While track cycling is not our typical fare, Lily has a cyclocross background (and a maybe a gravel future). In addition to representing our country, Lily is the Communications Director of Bike Index.

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Automated Full Episode Transcription (please excuse the typos):

Craig Dalton: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the gravel ride podcast. I'm your host Craig Dalton.

[00:00:10] This week on the podcast, we've got Olympian, Lily Williams, joining the show. Lily's got a bad-ass background as a cyclist particularly as a cyclocross racer after a career as a collegiate runner.

[00:00:24]Team. Lily races professionally on the road with the Rally Cycling,

[00:00:28]And caught the attention of USA cycling and was brought to Colorado Springs for some performance testing on the track. I'll let her explain what happened next but a pretty amazing journey from someone who just found cycling after college.

[00:00:41]Like many professional cyclists, Lily also holds down a full-time job, full disclosure. We work together at the nonprofit bike index. And we'll talk a little bit about that. And the mission bike index is on.

[00:00:54]Before we get started, I needed to thank this week sponsor Athletic Greens, who also happens to be a sponsor of USA cycling.

[00:01:04]Athletic greens is N S F certified for sport. Meaning they take their product seriously. Consistently testing and auditing it to ensure what's on the label is actually in the pouch. As you can imagine, that's critically important for Olympians and professional athletes and gives us average athletes the confidence to know what's going in the body.

[00:01:27]I'm actually drinking my post ride athletic grains right now, my personal way to prepare it. I like two big heaping scoops of ice, and then a heaping spoonful of Athletic Greens.

[00:01:39]Athletic Greens is a complex blend of 75 vitamins minerals, and whole food sourced ingredients. Athletic greens is green powder engineered to help fill the nutritional gaps in your diet. Their daily drink improves everyday performance by addressing the four pillars of health energy recovery gut health and immune support

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[00:03:05] That's up to a one-year supply of vitamin D as an added value. When you try, they're delicious and comprehensive daily, all in one drink. You'd be hard pressed to find a more comprehensive nutritional bundle anywhere else. Again, that's athletic greens.com/the gravel ride. Would that business of supporting our sponsors behind us. Let's jump right in to my conversation with Olympian Lily Williams. lily. Welcome to the show.

[00:03:31]Lily Williams: [00:03:31] Hey Craig. Thanks for having me

[00:03:33]Craig Dalton: [00:03:33] Our weekly calls. Aren't enough , Lily and I work together at the nonprofit bike index.

[00:03:38] So we are in frequent communication.

[00:03:40]Lily Williams: [00:03:40] It's true, but nonetheless, I'm happy to be here.

[00:03:42] Craig Dalton: [00:03:42] And in the context of this conversation, huge congratulations for being selected to the Olympic team for the United States.

[00:03:49]Lily Williams: [00:03:49] Thank you. Yeah. So exciting. How many people have told me I'm fulfilling a dream and I'm just like, forget how

[00:03:56] cool it is.

[00:03:57] Craig Dalton: [00:03:57] I think it's absolutely amazing. And I'm one of those people who constantly feels the need to remind you what an amazing journey you've been on.

[00:04:04]Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate it. Thank you. For the

[00:04:08] listener. I want to be clear, unfortunately, this is not the Olympic gravel cycling team.

[00:04:12]Lily Williams: [00:04:12] Not yet, but what might

[00:04:15] Craig Dalton: [00:04:15] happen?

[00:04:15] This is the Olympic pursuit team on the track.

[00:04:19]Lily Williams: [00:04:19] Yes. Yeah. Which is about as far from a gravel race as you can get. But that doesn't mean I don't have a passion for all things off-road as well.

[00:04:27] Craig Dalton: [00:04:27] Is this true? And we will get to this Lilly. There is a tie into gravel cycling and dirt riding. For Lily. And we'll get to that.

[00:04:36] In fact, where I wanted to start the conversation. I know you were a division one runner in college and transitioned and went into grad school, found the bike, but why don't we start there on your journey about where you started riding the bike, what you started getting excited about. And then we have to, for the listener, figure out a way to show them how you ended up.

[00:04:56] Being on the Olympic track team of all things.

[00:04:58]Lily Williams: [00:04:58] Yeah. That might be worth some explaining. Yeah, so I started, I got my first bike as an adult, I think my sophomore year of undergrad. Maybe no, it was my freshman year of undergrad and I just had a bike that I was riding around campus. And then I was running track and cross country for my university.

[00:05:14] And anytime we had an off week, I would ride my bike around town. So I definitely really enjoyed. Riding the bike, didn't wear a helmet or flip flops. Wasn't a cyclist, just was a person, bobbing around getting to the grocery store. And then I moved to Chicago for graduate school.

[00:05:30]And that's where I really started writing. I started working at a bike shop and got a road bike and pimped out my computer so that I could get to and from class, which was downtown and I lived in the north. Northern part of the city. Yeah, I really started as a commuter, even though I was an athlete before in a different sport.

[00:05:48]And then, because I was working at a bike shop, my coworkers coerced me into trying to become an athlete again. So that's where it started in 2016. So as I

[00:05:58] Craig Dalton: [00:05:58] understand it, your collegiate running career was. Maybe challenging for you in terms of what you thought it was going to be and what it turned out to be.

[00:06:07] Were you looking for another athletic career at this point?

[00:06:11]Lily Williams: [00:06:11] No, my collegiate sport experience was pretty terrible. And a lot of it was just like me not knowing how to balance being basically a full-time athlete, which is what division one athletes are and getting, going to school and not failing.

[00:06:24]And I also just yeah, socially, there's so much fun things to do at school. And you just find a way to prioritize the thing you like the least, which at that time was sports for me. So I was pretty ready to not be an athlete ever again. When I went to grad school and that lasted all of four months before I found cycling.

[00:06:42] Craig Dalton: [00:06:42] So you found cycling at the, you said in the context of a road bike, but quickly discovered that cyclocross was an interesting part of the sport for you.

[00:06:51]Lily Williams: [00:06:51] Yeah because I was living in Chicago people may know that the Chicago cyclocross cup is a pretty big deal. There's a bunch, I can't remember how many, 10 ish race, weekends, all within driving distance of city throughout the course of the fall and winter.

[00:07:06] And the money's really good and the it's just a really good time. And the competition is pretty good. And quickly started borrowing a demo bike from the shop that I was worked on. Shop that I was working at and was taking it to cyclocross practices in town just after class, just to, I don't know, just hang out with people and have a good time.

[00:07:28]And then doing the races to have a good time as well. And I started having a lot of success in cyclocross, at least locally which kind of motivated me to want to try to do some of the bigger events as well.

[00:07:40] Craig Dalton: [00:07:40] And so you use that. Springboard. And I think you had mentioned there was a really good shop in Chicago land that leans into cyclocross and had a good team that you could get to be a part of.

[00:07:52]Lily Williams: [00:07:52] Yeah, 100%. So initially I was aware being at Turin bicycle, which is a shop in Ravenswood, which is the neighborhood I was living in. And then I did just a season with the club team based out of Turin which is called bonkers cycling. And. Then I also did a few races for Northwestern because I was at Northwestern for school and was able to compete and cross and on the road and cyclocross for Northwestern.

[00:08:18]And then that would have been in winter of 20 16, 20 17. And then my partner and I at the time wanted to do a full UCI calendar of cyclocross the next winter. And we approached the pony shop, which is in Evanston, which is the city immediately north. Of Chicago and they hooked us up.

[00:08:37] They helped us get all of our equipment and kit and race entries and everything. And we just jumped head first into a full UCI calendar. And it was awesome. Like we got on some podiums and we got UCI points and it was really fun, a fun program. That's still going by the way and is growing.

[00:08:54]Craig Dalton: [00:08:54] That's amazing. I remember getting introduced to the idea that Lily is going to be my coworker. And I think our coworker south basically said that Lily she's based in Chicago, she likes, she races. Cyclocross was very sort of unassuming introduction. Given what you've subsequently been able to achieve.

[00:09:15]Lily Williams: [00:09:15] Yeah Seth and I, we just bombed around town and had a good time. And at the point that I knew Seth in Chicago, we didn't really I did not have any aspirations to be a professional athlete. I was really just looking to meet new people and enjoy like exercising for fun, crazy concept. And yeah, over the years, even since you and I have been working together, I think it's changed quite a bit into something a little more serious than what it was initially.

[00:09:39]But yeah, I thought I was going to full gossipy, a cyclocross, a pro, and race in Europe and be sick over there. So things have just changed drastically, as you may assume, have assumed.

[00:09:50] Craig Dalton: [00:09:50] And after those results in 2018, you signed on board with rally cycling on the road.

[00:09:57]Lily Williams: [00:09:57] Is that right? In 2017, late 2017.

[00:10:01] So I had already done. Oh man. I'm like already losing sense of the timeline. It's been four years and I can't even remember what I've done. In, so even before I had really done a full UCI cross calendar, I had been racing on the road and doing all the professional road races. And so in 2017 I reached out to Hoggins Berman Supermint and then signed with them for 2018.

[00:10:26]As my first pro road contract. And then, so before I ever raced with Superman, I did after I signed, but before I raced, I did a full winter of cyclocross racing for the pony shop. Yeah. And then the following the subsequent year, I continued with the pony shop and did another full season of UCI cyclocross and one of my first UCI race.

[00:10:44]And then after 2019 Superman, I signed with rally cycling for 2020 cause Superman folded.

[00:10:54] Craig Dalton: [00:10:54] Gotcha. And at what point did you start getting the interest from USA cycling to introduce this idea of riding on the track?

[00:11:01]Lily Williams: [00:11:01] Yeah, so it seemed so you got a new women's endurance head coach for the track program after Rio.

[00:11:09] And his name is Gary Sutton. So he's our coach now. And he was just bringing people in from the road since he got to the U S so the team was really strong. They were defending world champions, Olympic silver medalist. But Sarah Hamer, who was one of their key riders retired. And there were just a few spots that they needed to fill.

[00:11:25]So he was bringing people in just based on who was doing well on the road. So in late 2018, so this would have been after cyclocross nationals, two of 2018. So the first one was in January and Louisville, Kentucky, or excuse me, Reno, Nevada. And then the second one was in December in Louisville. I flew two days after Louisville out to Colorado Springs to do some testing as one of many people.

[00:11:50]And then realized I might be able to be good enough and then started pretty heavily coming to the track starting early 2019. So I was coming to Colorado Springs for camps once a month, at least before my first race in July of 2019,

[00:12:06] Craig Dalton: [00:12:06] the identification testing look like. So you go to Colorado Springs and they make you do something.

[00:12:10] What do they make you do? And what are they looking for?

[00:12:12]Lily Williams: [00:12:12] I was like, yeah. So I was trying specifically for the team pursuit. Like I knew that going in because I'm literally,

[00:12:20] Craig Dalton: [00:12:20] why did you know that? I'm just curious.

[00:12:21]Lily Williams: [00:12:21] I guess I didn't really know that I just assumed that, but I was a 1500 meter runner in college, which is a four-ish minute event, like four minutes.

[00:12:30] 20 seconds or whatever. And then the team pursuit, the world record is like a four, 10, great Britain has it. So I knew that there was an event that was similar to what I would be doing. And then I came to USA to the us Olympic training center and did some power or testing on a watt bike. So I did like a sick test, 32nd test, four minute test, just to see where you are.

[00:12:53] I think my six second test was the worst test they'd ever recorded. And then my four minute test was like the best test they'd ever written. So they were like, there's something here. We don't know what it is. And then when I got on the track, so I actually wrote the track. They put me on a pursuit bike.

[00:13:08] So with the arrow from run end and I was doing pursuit specific efforts, just like riding the bike behind the motors. The motor and then like doing some flying 32nd efforts, ish, just to see how quickly I can cover ground without falling off the bike was of course I'd never written one before.

[00:13:23]So yeah, it was like two or three days. And then they were like, if you want to come back we'd love to have you, but obviously, like you have to want to do it. And at that point it would require me giving up my cross program and potentially missing a lot of road, which I ended up doing. But yeah, so it's been pretty full gas since.

[00:13:39] Probably January of 2019.

[00:13:41] Craig Dalton: [00:13:41] Yeah. I can only imagine how challenging it was getting on a track bike for the first time.

[00:13:46]Lily Williams: [00:13:46] I guess that's not really a true rule. I have written it Northbrook, which is the velodrome. And once again, just north of Chicago, but just two or three times, just for the summer series.

[00:13:55]I borrowed one of the bikes they have at the track. I had no idea what gear was going on it, I think I probably switched the seat height between me and my friend riding the same bike the same night. So I didn't really know what I was doing. I was just like, I'd been on a bike, but not really.

[00:14:12] Then I remember

[00:14:13] Craig Dalton: [00:14:13] you got to try over the course of our relationship. You would ask for things like, Hey, I need to reschedule a call because I'm going to be in Lima, Peru, and then you'd come back and say, oh, we won this medal. And then you said, Hey, I have to go to Berlin and not knowing the track schedule as well as I might know, road scheduling.

[00:14:33] I didn't realize it was the world championship. And lo and behold, I see. Oh, I came back with the gold medal, wearing the rainbow striped Jersey on the track.

[00:14:43]Lily Williams: [00:14:43] Yeah. I remember that night I was in bed in the hotel doing some work and you were like can you just stop and go celebrate for a little bit?

[00:14:51]I'm busy. I have to answer my email. Yeah, it's cryptic, especially in the U S where there really aren't that many velodromes to race on. I don't think people, I certainly didn't know what. What I was doing or what track cycling was about. And it was only until I started going to the world cups, which I got pretty fast tracked into.

[00:15:07] Did I see what a track cycling is and it's the, how it's popular in other countries and what events there are. But yeah, we've gone to some interesting places. We spent 10 days in Cochabamba, Bolivia, which was that like 10,000 feet for a race. So it's kinda cool.

[00:15:23] Craig Dalton: [00:15:23] And for clarity, you race on a four woman pursuit team.

[00:15:28] Can you talk about those team dynamics and what you're looking for? Because I know over the process of the Olympic selection process, there were multiple women vying for spots, and I'm imagining as a coach, you're trying to factor in certain things. I'd be curious, like what things were they trying to factor in?

[00:15:44] And what's important in the dynamic between you and the other athletes.

[00:15:48]Lily Williams: [00:15:48] Yeah, that's a great question. So you're right. It's four people and you basically just want to maximize the four that you have. So everyone in the group is going to be doing something a little bit different from, starting position one to starting position four, or, if you're Chloe you're spending the last three laps on the front, when someone else in line might only be able to do.

[00:16:11] Three laps, total of the race. So you really have to maximize the four that you have in a combination. That's going to be the most effective and that's completely different for every team and is completely different depending on the combination of riders that you have. We set out a schedule the night before, or the morning of the race and say, this is where you're going to start.

[00:16:29] This is how much time you're going to spend on the front. We like go over our communication strategy because things can always go wrong and you have to be able to tell whoever's on the front, what's happening three wheels back. And then we'll have the coach walking the line on a certain pace.

[00:16:43] So we always know where we are relative to the other team. And we always know exactly what pace we're riding to equate or the final time. So for something that's relatively simple there's quite a bit that goes into it. And there were seven women on it. The team pursuit, long team and five women were selected.

[00:17:03]So even though it seems like there were a pretty, if you were on the long team, you had a pretty good shot of making it even getting on the long team was a big challenge because you had to either have podium at a world cup or written a certain time standard. It was definitely a tight selection.

[00:17:19]Craig Dalton: [00:17:19] Within there are limits to figure out how to phrase this. So for clarity, everybody in this particular event needs to finish at the same time. So your time is taken on the last rider going across the line.

[00:17:30]Lily Williams: [00:17:30] Yes. So you start with four and you only have to finish three writers. So for most countries the starter who does the most work at the beginning of the race does not finish.

[00:17:40]Our starter is a woman named Jen Valente, who Usually finishes the ride. She's pretty good. So is there a benefit

[00:17:47] Craig Dalton: [00:17:47] for her hanging on throughout the rest of the ride?

[00:17:49]Lily Williams: [00:17:49] Not necessarily, but she's good enough at it that she can still do more with the start. Those of us who are newer and not quite so strong.

[00:17:57]So it, the time is taken on the third rider across the line. So in theory, you're. Your three writers come across at the same time, you like fan up and all right across the line together. Sometimes it goes wrong. Somebody gets dropped or you crash or something. So you start four, but time has taken on three.

[00:18:14] Craig Dalton: [00:18:14] And so that starter that you alluded to with maybe slightly different physiology, is it just sheer power and Watts to get up to the speed? The team needs as quickly as possible.

[00:18:23]Lily Williams: [00:18:23] Jen is the best starter in the world. She has a really, she's probably got the longest track background of anyone on the team.

[00:18:28]She definitely does. And she is has a history in doing the sprint events too. So she's by far the quickest of all of us over the, just getting out of the gate and getting us up to speed. The us will typically start almost a second faster than. Some most of the other teams, which is not insignificant when races are won by tenths of seconds,

[00:18:50] Craig Dalton: [00:18:50] your stacks up the track and she starts, and then you've got, obviously everybody else is starting at the same time.

[00:18:56] And you've got to, you've got to tuck in. If Chloe is your cleanup batter, so to speak, is she expanding a little less energy at the start? Because she can fade into the fourth slot.

[00:19:07]Lily Williams: [00:19:07] No, because she normally, yeah, I'll start second, which is the second most challenging position because you're getting up to speed basically at the same pace as the starter, and then the starter pulls off and you have to do your turn immediately.

[00:19:20] Whereas say at worlds, I started in fourth position. I had three people's terms before I had to take my first turn, so I could settle into the ride and then do my turn. Whereas someone like Chloe, who is. Next level world-class she can do the star behind, P one and then also, take her pole right away without any recovery.

[00:19:41] Craig Dalton: [00:19:41] Okay. And then as far as when you peel off from the front, how many rotations would you typically get in an event?

[00:19:47]Lily Williams: [00:19:47] It usually it totally depends. We've tried a bunch of different structures, I think. If you look at any of our footage from past races, normally we do two to three on the front depending on where you start in line.

[00:19:59]So for me, it's always been two. I think I'll be able to contribute quite a bit more after an additional year of training, but traditionally the races I've done, I would take two turns on the front.

[00:20:10] Craig Dalton: [00:20:10] And is it you, I think you mentioned that is likely decided the morning of the event via your coach and you're just following a plan.

[00:20:18] Lily Williams: [00:20:18] Yeah. It's pretty much based. Yeah. It's based on a plan that's laid out. We have some input as well if we want. Which is really nice because I think of course we all know each other in our own bodies very well. And yeah, the structure as we call it, or the schedule is usually not. Sent out until pretty close to race time.

[00:20:35]Which is good. I think it minimizes the stress of thinking about it and it always is very logical. There's never anything crazy in it. Like they would never say Lilly are doing the eight laps in the middle of the race. So we all know what is going to happen? How many

[00:20:49] Craig Dalton: [00:20:49] laps total are we talking about?

[00:20:50]Lily Williams: [00:20:50] So a track is a track that we would race on is 250 meters. And we'll do 16 laps. From a standing start. So it's four kilometers total for the team

[00:21:01] Craig Dalton: [00:21:01] pursuit. Another team on the other side of the track starting at the same time, right?

[00:21:06] Lily Williams: [00:21:06] Or is that not the case? Yeah, so to, to confuse it even more, there were three rounds in the first round is called qualifying in.

[00:21:14] The second round is called first round. The third round is called finals, but qualifying is just for time. So the, at the Olympics there'll be eight teams. And you will all ride individually with no other team on the track to set a time. And then they seed you based on the time that you have written and qualifying.

[00:21:35] So there's a there's then three man, and I really don't even know, like I really should know this. But then there are then in first round, they race, I believe they race first and fourth from qualifying together against each other. And the winner of that ride goes onto the gold medal round and then they race second and third in the winner of that ride also goes on to the gold medal round.

[00:21:59] And then whoever gets S whoever gets seconds in the, yeah.

[00:22:07]Yeah. I really don't even know. I'll be honest with you. I know that. I know how you get to the gold medal round, but I don't really know how you get to the silver or to the bronze metal round, so I never have to learn it. But yeah. And then they'll slot the fourth, fastest time from quals in or a fourth fastest time from first round in to the final in that bronze medal ride, I think, or maybe from the non.

[00:22:34] Yeah, but I don't know.

[00:22:35] Craig Dalton: [00:22:35] So I'm curious, you mentioned something about being able to take clues from your coaches about the timing. Are they flashing you up, assign each lap about where you're at?

[00:22:45]Lily Williams: [00:22:45] He'll stand on the line that we started. So if he's in front of the line, it means we're going too slow and he's behind the line.

[00:22:51] It means that we're up. There'll be different things. It's a different part of the race. So like the first part of the race, he'll be standing on the line based on the time that we set for ourselves. And then later on, he'll be walking the line based on how far ahead or behind we are the opposite team.

[00:23:04] So yes, as I forgot to mention, quals is an individual just for time ride. And then first round and finals are with another team on the track. So you are thus pursuing each other.

[00:23:16] Craig Dalton: [00:23:16] So for that qualifying round, you presumably the coach has in his or her head, this is the time we need to hit in order to seed ourselves one or two or whatever you're going for

[00:23:27]Lily Williams: [00:23:27] in theory.

[00:23:28] But it always ends up just being full gas. If we were really up in. Calls is always full gas. Cause you want to set the fastest time because you want to automatically be seated in a first round ride. That'll get you into the gold medal final. Yeah. And then first round you definitely, all you have to do is beat the other team to move on, but at the same time you are still going pretty much full gas because it's hard to beat the other team, there's not as much strategy in it as you would think. And then of course finals is full gas too. So it's it's pretty much three. Three, all out rides. That seems

[00:23:58] Craig Dalton: [00:23:58] what I could imagine. It's just, you're going to be going hard and fast and it's hard to take it up to the next level. Even if someone's saying you have to, because you're behind.

[00:24:08] Lily Williams: [00:24:08] Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting because calls is first as one day. So you do that and then you know where you're at. And then first round and finals are on a together on another day. And when we won worlds in Berlin first round felt easy. Like we, four of us finished and we were all just this is interesting.

[00:24:25] And so we moved, went into the final feeling, pretty confident. Even though sometimes it feels easy, but you're really still going very hard and accumulating fatigue. But yeah, you kinda just have to take it one round at a time. Yeah. That's

[00:24:37] Craig Dalton: [00:24:37] interesting. Are there, which countries are you looking out for the most in terms of competition for the Tokyo Olympics?

[00:24:43]Lily Williams: [00:24:43] So great Britain has won great Britain, won London and Rio, and the U S got second in London and Rio. And then we won worlds and great Britain was second, which is what happened before Rico as well. So the U S women were world champions, and then I got to great Britain at the Olympics. So we know that great Britain always comes to the Olympics prepared like they do a full four year cycle with the really, the only goal of winning an Olympic gold.

[00:25:07] So they're certainly the ones who are on paper, the best to be. But Germany set a pretty fast time at worlds as well. So we know that they have at least one really fast time in them Oz Australia or the world champions in 2019. I'm sure they will be on good form. And knowing our coach, Gary, who came from Australia knowing how good of a coach he is, you have to assume that.

[00:25:28]Whoever is coaching those women now also knows how to make them best. And then New Zealand is very fast. They almost broke the world record in 2020, and rumor has it that they almost broke it again in training this year or at nationals or something. And then Frank, it's had a couple of really fast rides two years ago.

[00:25:47] So there is really, the eight teams that are there are really. All metal capable on Canada. Canada got bronze in in Rio and consistently podium at world cups. So there's a lot,

[00:26:02] Craig Dalton: [00:26:02] it sounds like you're going to be looking over your shoulder at basically everybody who's on the opposing end of the track.

[00:26:07]Lily Williams: [00:26:07] Pretty much. Yeah. I'm trying not to get overwhelmed by how stressful it is, but I also feel very confident in our group. I take a lot of solace in that. And I

[00:26:17] Craig Dalton: [00:26:17] believe I saw from our friends that felt that they've got a pretty sweet track bike for you guys to race.

[00:26:23]Lily Williams: [00:26:23] Yeah. So they built it for Rio.

[00:26:26]And it's left side drive. And sometimes I pull out my road bike, my normal felt road bike. And I'm like, why is the crank on this side? And then I remember that's what a normal bike is like. Yeah, so it. Pretty much the same as a regular track bike, but in theory, the left side drive decreases drag because it's traveling the shorter there's drag on a shorter distance, if that makes sense.

[00:26:45] So the inside of the track is shorter than farther up on the track. So if you have the cranks or if you have the crank set on the inside the drive train, then it's spending less time in the wind. And we have some other secret stuff that we're developing on the bikes right now, or just fitting the bikes out with.

[00:27:05]It's going to be exciting. Everyone shows up at the Olympics with at least so I've heard because I've never been with crazy new bikes and equipment and skin suits. And it's people don't realize that track cycling like the cutting edge of all of this arrow stuff that USU and the.

[00:27:20] Are you shun in the gravel world? But a lot of it's pretty, pretty cool. And arrow bars are, people are using arrow bars on the gravel now, too, so I can empathize.

[00:27:29] Craig Dalton: [00:27:29] Yeah. It's definitely one of those things I always look out for when the Olympics come around to see what kind of snazzy new tech or bike is going to be introduced.

[00:27:37] I know as you mentioned, the UK always seems to introduce new, fast looking bikes. And that felt like with the drive train on the other side is just But when you talk about marginal gains, like that little bit of moving it from one side or the other.

[00:27:49] Lily Williams: [00:27:49] Yeah. Yeah. We're talking like half of 1%.

[00:27:52] So in my opinion, I'm just like, okay, I'm going to work so hard that none of those one percents matter, so that nothing can go wrong and I don't have to think about anything else. But they make a big difference. They all add up and especially when you're trying to get an Olympic medal, you really have no room to let other teams.

[00:28:07]Take extra from you where you could be doing the same thing. Yeah. I

[00:28:11] Craig Dalton: [00:28:11] mean, we want all you athletes to feel fast in your clothing, your bikes, your helmets, everything, right?

[00:28:17]Lily Williams: [00:28:17] Yeah, absolutely. And there's a lot of thought that goes into it. I don't think people realize quite how much time and money and energy is spent on making sure we have the best of everything.

[00:28:28] Yeah.

[00:28:28]Craig Dalton: [00:28:28] It's going to be awesome. I'm excited. I'll put links to where people can watch the stream. I think I looked it up correctly. Is August 2nd sound right? For one of the start of the events. Yeah. And it sounds like it's going to be around 11:30 PM. Pacific time to watch.

[00:28:43]Lily Williams: [00:28:43] I hope so. I looked it up on NBC.

[00:28:46] I'm not sure it'll even be aired because most people are at once again are like, what is track cycling? But hopefully, especially if. We have multiple events that are metal capable. NBC has some incentive to yeah. Just show it. Exactly.

[00:28:58] Craig Dalton: [00:28:58] There's nothing worse than my, my, my past when I've stayed up at night to watch something on the Olympics and they're covering something totally different than the sport that I wanted to see.

[00:29:07] Lily Williams: [00:29:07] It's like a question or something and you're like, dang it. Yeah. But this is going to be awesome. Olympic trials yesterday. It's finally happening. It's

[00:29:15] Craig Dalton: [00:29:15] exciting. Definitely. Wow. I'm excited to be along for the ride with you. I know you've worked tremendously hard to get to this point and we've already said we don't want you working on bike index stuff while you're over there.

[00:29:28] Yeah.

[00:29:28]Lily Williams: [00:29:28] Yeah. We'll try. I'll try really hard. I'm going to have to shut down slack and some other things are also being really tempted. I get on and talk to you guys.

[00:29:36] Craig Dalton: [00:29:36] If it's relaxing, talk to us. If not we'll survive.

[00:29:40]Lily Williams: [00:29:40] Yeah. Sometimes it's so nice to have a tie to normalcy. I'll be perfectly honest when all you've done is be at the track all day.

[00:29:46] And you just want to talk to someone about something that isn't splits or which drink mix to put in your bottle or which gear to put on the bike or whatever. Yeah. So

[00:29:55]Craig Dalton: [00:29:55] In what may seem like a giant leap for the listener bike index is a nonprofit where a stolen bike, sorry, where a bicycle registry and stolen bike recovery platform.

[00:30:06] So at its basic level, You register your bike, it's free to use. You can do that as a, as an owner. You can do it a lot of times, right? At the shop level when you purchase your bike. But the really interesting things that Lily and I get to see are on the stolen bike recovery side. And I thought it might be fun just to share a couple of stories of some of our favorite recoveries that we've seen on bike index.

[00:30:29]Lily Williams: [00:30:29] Yeah. I'll steal our favorite one. We have recovered a bike that somebody reported stolen on bike index when they were an undergraduate. I think in Iowa, I think at Iowa state or a university or some, one of the universities in Iowa, and then. I think it was six or eight years later, they were back at the same school for their medic getting their medical degree.

[00:30:51] And they recovered the bike that they had reported stolen when they were there for undergrad. So that was a pretty fun. Yeah. Yeah. It's always

[00:30:59] Craig Dalton: [00:30:59] incredible. Basically once it's indicated as stolen on the platform, it's just going to sit there. And as a nonprofit, we've got a pretty wide community of volunteers that are looking out for it.

[00:31:10]If they see something that's. Listed on offer up or Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. That looks too good to be true. Oftentimes our volunteers will just check bike index and be able to reconnect with the owner and at least give them a heads up. Hey, I think we've seen your bike here, or I think it's being sold there and it gives you a fighting chance to recover your bike.

[00:31:29]Lily Williams: [00:31:29] Yeah, 100% or recovery rate is growing from around 10%, which is the highest reported recovery rate of any registration service. And yeah, not only volunteers, but law enforcement officers and members of the community of which we have hundreds of thousands are all looking out for stolen bikes and sending messages to people just out of the goodness of their hearts about.

[00:31:53] If they see your stolen bike somewhere, they can let you know where it might be, so you can recover it. So it's pretty successful.

[00:32:00] Craig Dalton: [00:32:00] And while we can't talk about the details in this context and listener, I do trust that you won't you won't share this too widely until we tell you it's available, but we have been tracking this absolutely massive theft ring ranging all the way from Northern California.

[00:32:16] Into Mexico and we've traced over $500,000 worth of bikes to one seller. We've got active police investigations in a number of different cities and counties in California that are all triangulating around this same effort. We've got a national publication. That's been following it along with our partner who focuses on stolen bike recovery.

[00:32:38] And it's going to be the biggest bicycle theft ring I think ever uncovered in the United States.

[00:32:44]Lily Williams: [00:32:44] Yeah. Pay attention. But like that really galvanizes people, I think when you rely on your bike as transportation or your way to get to work or your sole opportunity for recreation it's really a problem.

[00:32:55] And hopefully it, we are here to make it better. Yes.

[00:32:58] Craig Dalton: [00:32:58] So thank you for your continued efforts on that behalf, Lily.

[00:33:01]Lily Williams: [00:33:01] Of course,

[00:33:03] Craig Dalton: [00:33:03] but time to focus on the Olympics, we have high expectations for you. We can't wait. We're all standing at your back and I appreciate you sharing with our listeners. I'm sharing this because you started in the dirt.

[00:33:15] You're going to go into metals. I think you're going to come back to the dirt and we're going to see you at some of these big events in the future.

[00:33:21]Lily Williams: [00:33:21] I think you're probably right. I've paid close attention to a lot of them. And I'm just wondering, like when I'm going to bite the bullet and do Unbound or one of the other big races domestically or as I was telling Craig earlier pseudo dirt, Go over to Europe and hopefully rice, the first ever women's Perry Ruby in a few months here, if my team rally cycling gets the invite.

[00:33:43]So yeah, I did one gravel race in 2017. I did Barry Ruby up in Michigan. And it was for reasoning. It was like 40 degrees and raining, so it wasn't cold enough for it to be snow. And it was just wet and miserable the whole time. But I did win. So I think that I will come back at some point and I'll probably bring the arrow bar.

[00:34:04] Craig Dalton: [00:34:04] Oh, controversy right there.

[00:34:07]Lily Williams: [00:34:07] I feel like that's an old controversy now. There's always something new and arrow bars are just like part of the litany.

[00:34:14] Craig Dalton: [00:34:14] Yeah, exactly. Cool. Thanks for all the time today, Lily. I appreciate it.

[00:34:18]Lily Williams: [00:34:18] Yeah. Thanks Craig. It's good to talk to you as always.

[00:34:22]

[00:34:22] Craig Dalton: [00:34:22] Huge. Thanks to Lily for joining us on the show this week. I'm so proud of her for making the Olympic team and so excited for the women's track team in Tokyo. Her event is starting on August 2nd, Monday, August 2nd, the first rounds, and then the finals will be on August 3rd.

[00:34:42]Make sure. And send USA cycling and Lily, your support over social media. I'll put her handles. In the show notes. I know it can be funky finding cycling on the streaming and television networks. But do what you can. I think for the USA cycling program. We've got a great shot at gold in the women's pursuit. and i can't wait to follow the journey.

[00:35:03]

[00:35:03]Thanks again to this week's sponsor athletic greens. Remember visit athletic greens.com/the gravel ride to obtain that special offer. And thank you. Thank you for all the new members. Thank you for all my one-time supporters. When you visit, buy me a coffee.com/the gravel ride, that's your way to directly support what we're doing over here at the podcast. We couldn't be doing what we're doing without the support of members. Like you.

[00:35:32] And also the generous sponsors from the industry. And outside the industry.

[00:35:38]One final ask would be, if you have a friend or a group of friends that are getting into gravel cycling, please share the gravel ride podcast with them. I'm endeavoring to create a body of work. That'll take a new rider on a journey and take an experienced rider through some deep dives. We want to create content that just helps people stay stoked.

[00:35:57] On the sport of gravel cycling. Until we speak again. Here's to finding some dirt under your wheels