With 170 episodes under his belt, Chris Case has been with us since Fast Talk was little more than an idea and a handheld recorder in the broom closet at the VeloNews offices.
Chris has in many ways been the spirit of both this show and business, providing much needed humor and an ethical standard to everything we have produced. But, while we’ll miss him, Chris is moving on to his dream of helping to run a cycling touring company and we wish him all the best!
In this episode we are joined by Chris’s close friends and co-workers including Ben Delaney, Grant Holicky, Lennard Zinn, Robert Pickels, Dr. Andy Pruitt, and Dr. Stephen Seiler, as we look back on our time with Chris.
We talk about our favorite moments with him on the bike – a frighteningly large number of which ended in some epic manner and often involved blood.
We “finally” get Chris to tell his true feelings about Canada.
Chris gives his five most important parting lessons. And, we end with a battle royal in the snow that… let’s just say involved pedaling contraptions.
Because this was a special episode, we did film the entire thing.
Big Wheel Race: Chris Case vs. Rob Pickels
But if you’d just like to see the race, enjoy the video below.
Episode Transcript
SPEAKERS
Lennard Zinn, Ben Delaney, Rob Pickels, Grant Holicky, Dr. Andy Pruitt, Chris Case, Dr. Stephen Seiler, Trevor Connor
A Farewell to Chris
Trevor Connor 00:11
Hello and Welcome to Fast Talk. I’m your host Trevor Connor. It’s with a certain sadness to introduce today’s episode as we say goodbye to my co host and good friend Chris Case. With 170 episodes under his belt, Chris has been with us since fast talk was a little more than an idea and a handheld recorder in the broom closet at the VeloNews offices, I mean that literally I used to have to step over the brooms. Chris has in many ways been the spirit of both the show and business, providing much needed humor and an ethical standard to everything that we have produced but what we’ll miss them Chris is moving on to his dream of helping to run a touring company and we wish him all the best. So today joined by some of Chris’s closest friends and co workers including Ben Delaney, Grant Holicky, Lennard Zinn, Robert Pickels, Dr. Andy Pruitt and Dr. Steven Siler, we look back in our time with Chris. Today we’ll talk about our favorite moments with him on the bike, frightening large number of which ended in some epic matter and often involved blood. We’ll finally get Chris to tell his true feelings about Canada. Chris will give us his five most important parting lessons and we end with a battle royale in the snow that let’s just say involve pedaling contraptions. In that battle, we’re going to announce to you my new co host, because this is a special episode, we did film the entire thing. If you’d like to watch it, please check it out on our website at fasttalklabs.com. And with that, I’ll let Chris give his final introduction.
Chris Case 01:39
Welcome to another episode of Fast Talk your source for the science of endurance performance. I am Chris Case. Trevor Connor, sitting across from me. Who’s that guy? Who dat? Ben Delaney is here in the studio. We’ve got Grant patched in from his basement in Heatherwood. Grant welcome and Rob Pickels. The illustrious Mr. Pickels is here…
Rob Pickels 02:05
I thought you were gonna leave it at, and Rob Pickels, and just leave it there.
Chris Case 02:11
There we are, oh, let’s make you fast. That is that what you’re looking for?
Trevor Connor 02:17
That’s what I was looking for.
Chris Case 02:19
Very good.
Rob Pickels 02:20
It’s been like 150 episodes, I feel like you really had to think about that intro.
Chris Case 02:25
170 something. But who’s counting?
Trevor Connor 02:28
I like that it was our final episode, and you finally had it memorized.
Chris Case 02:32
The outro I still don’t have memorized, one of you two is going to have to do the outro.
Trevor’s Guide to Coaching
Trevor Connor 02:39
When I got my start as a coach, I ran into all the problems, new coaches experience getting certified, dealing with the insurance not knowing how to find athletes or even how to set up a business. Of course, I had those challenges on top of just figuring out how to be a coach and coaching athletes. We understand these challenges. This is something that we’ve really wanted to help other coaches with here at Fast Talk Labs. So now with the help of Joe Friel, we’re really pleased to announce the craft of coaching a new online learning series from Joe Friel, that will help you accelerate your practice to become a better, more successful and happier coach. Craft a coaching is available now at fasttalklabs.com.
How Chris became The Chris Case
Trevor Connor 03:21
Well, let’s talk about Chris. – Oh god. – We all know Chris, professionally, we’ve all written with Chris, we’ve all had a lot of good experiences with Chris so…
Chris Case 03:32
And some bad ones. – Are they all good experiences? – Some bad ones.
Trevor Connor 03:35
Well yeah, we can go there too. Who’d like to start it out?
Rob Pickels 03:38
Why did Everybody look at me?
Chris Case 03:41
Because I don’t think I’ve actually have ridden with you. – I know – So you tell us a story about us riding together.
Rob Pickels 03:46
Oh, well there was this one day Chris and it was it was real good. It was so good. You forgot about it.
Chris Case 03:52
No, let’s see what in the lab maybe I rode in front of you.
Rob Pickels 03:55
I watched you ride. I didn’t get to do any writing myself. I probably got sweat on by you. I probably got bled on by you.
Chris Case 04:02
Yeah you got some some of my blood on your fingers.
Rob Pickels 04:04
If you think about it. We’re closer than anyone else.
Ben Delaney 04:11
Bodily fluids have been shared and spilled.
Chris Case 04:15
No actually I saw blood coming out of bends but once
Ben Delaney 04:20
The side of my butt – let’s be clear – dear listeners the side… I’m sorry. I’m sorry, and welcome to the final episode of Fast Talk.
Grant Holicky 04:35
I want to know where we’re making people faster today.
Chris Case as a Person
Chris Case 04:43
This is storytime.
Rob Pickels 04:45
Yeah, they’re gonna be running away from here real fast.
Ben Delaney 04:49
Work on leg speed today. Today we’re gonna work on leg speed.
Chris Case 04:52
I went into the last episode thinking it was Chris’s last episode, but in fact, we ended the entire show.
Rob Pickels 05:01
Burn it down.
Chris Case 05:01
Burn it down.
Trevor Connor 05:03
I want to hear the story of sharing blood and bleeding out of the side of your butt.
Ben Delaney 05:08
Two separate stories or wherever we going.
Rob Pickels 05:11
You know, I looked back…
Ben Delaney 05:12
So much blood to go around here. We’ll start with Rob…
Rob Pickels 05:14
As we were waiting for Chris and Ben to get here because you know, they’re late, – snow – whatever I was here. I went back in to look through pictures, right? Because it was 2015 According to Google Photos, and you had come in to CU Sports Medicine to do some testing when you were were ripping off your hour record. – Oh, yeah – It was a big day. I tested somebody huge that day. It was actually Jeremy Powers. We worked with him before we worked with you. So it was a real slow end to the day. It really, it started high, it ended low.
Ben Delaney 05:50
It’s good to have context you know?
Rob Pickels 05:52
Isn’t it… – the range – Everything is relative. Book ends. Yeah, I know, but you know it was it was incredible. It was great to be sentimental for a moment, I think it was cool to be part of that, you know, your hour record, and the build up for that. That was fun. That was my first intro to you and it started off on a high note, you know, with a lot of respect. After that it continued with respect with the haywire heart. I was really impressed with your your journalistic chops, you seem like you know, a hell of a lot about that subject but, like before, it started on a high note, and it’s just gone downhill ever since. – I was expecting that, yes. – Yeah, you know, as I came into the office and tried to learn from you, you didn’t have much to teach me. You know, I’m woefully ill-prepared to be sitting next to you. – Rob it’s been two weeks – and so thanks a lot. – It’s been two weeks. – Yeah, dude, it’s been two weeks – what’s going on? – a lot should have happened by now and Chris just hasn’t been there. You know, he just throwing you into the deep end. See how you survive. – I know. – I thought senioritis was, you know, something you left behind but here we are.
Chris Case 06:56
You never leave senioritis behind. It can happen at any moment.
Rob Pickels 07:02
So anyway, yeah, I mean, fingerpicking Vo2 Maxing maybe. That’s about all I got. You know.
Chris Case 07:09
Good. Grant when’s the last time we rode together? – Last time we rode together? – Well, it’s probably it was a race we probably raced together was the last time.
Grant Holicky 07:19
I’m sure we raced together more recently, we rode together. But I mean us racing together or not. Anytime we’ve been on a bike together. It’s not a pleasant memory for me. It’s a pleasant memory for you, but it’s like my pleasant memories of riding with Chris our downhill with a tailwind. Like somewhat down, like slightly downhill. It’s really steep. He can drop me if it goes up till he could drop me if it’s on a crossbite he drops me. So none of that’s very much fun and so I try to avoid the hell out of you when we cross bikes.
Rob Pickels 07:56
It so easy to
Ben Delaney 07:57
The problem with Chris is or a problem with Chris is… – he is a problem –
Trevor Connor 08:02
He’s not just a single problem?
Ben Delaney 08:05
Yeah, – let’s not say that – there’s one topic of time. I don’t want to say he can’t do a normal ride but he doesn’t like the idea of doing a ride. No, you know even my wife, who doesn’t ride bikes, no, like with a lot of my friends is like, Hey, you want to go ride? Yeah, sure what time with Chris, there’s got to be a theme and it needs to be monstrous. You know, it’s not like, Hey, you want to do it? Man, whatever. Like I commute. Like, I ride to work and I ride home, like just riding like, that’s not a thing. But if it’s like, Hey, would you like to ride to the top of the tallest mountain from here and starting at 2am? Then he’s like, Yeah, okay, you know we’re starting to get somewhere.
Chris Case 08:39
Well, that’s like progress. You know?
Grant Holicky 08:42
Well, let’s put it to you this way. A couple of years ago, when we’re in the middle of lockdown. We were we’re doing a fundraiser with the blue at the time blue stages team and we were going to ride all the hours of the Winter Solstice. And Chris says, oh, yeah, man, I’ll do that too and I briefly thought about let’s do it together. But the difference was, I rode not one minute longer than I needed to ride so was nine hours or nine hours in one minute or whatever and after having talked to chess, I’m pretty sure Chris You were out there in the middle of the night still, – with Ben Delaney – with Delaney and overachieving beyond all measure and…
Ben Delaney 09:24
No, not over achieving it was just you know, we had a plan was stuck to the plan. The plan wasn’t exactly or maybe the plan was perfect execution. You know? – Yeah. – But we had lights – it was a good example. – That is a great example of how Chris You know doesn’t do a ride he does a theme.
Chris Case 09:40
The longest ride on the shortest day. It’s a good title.
Ben Delaney 09:42
I don’t know if it can be because all about the Strava how much that’s I was gonna say how much blame can be attributed to Strava like he starts the ride with like what title with on Strava?
Rob Pickels 09:53
What do my fans want to see first?
Chris Case 09:57
No! You know, as a journalist, I’m a storyteller, so Ben you know that.
Ben Delaney 10:02
Yes and I’m a sucker for that too so. I sympathize with this malady.
Trevor Connor 10:07
Case in point my first two rides with Chris first one.
Chris Case 10:12
Our first ride together ever?
Trevor Connor 10:14
Our first ride together ever.
Rob Pickels 10:16
Hold on, now real quick before we get there is not a malady it’s a character flaw, right where it’s…
Ben Delaney 10:22
Potato Potato.
Trevor Connor 10:24
So first ride ever I get a call on a Friday night there’s this ride I forget what it was is ride in Boulder it’s 140 miles with like 17,000 feet of climbing, you do every insane climb. Remember that you have to ride teams you have to have a team before and you have to finish as a team. And you were riding with with Neil and I forget who are third.
Chris Case 10:46
This was a rough as a rough a gentle gentleman’s ride?
Trevor Connor 10:51
So you guys call me on the Friday like we’re need we need a fourth Do you want to join us? told me nothing about the ride? I’m like, sure I’ll join you. Now mind you. I had the Sunday before just finished a crit I took the week off my bike. So I have a straight block 1123 on my bike. I have no idea what I’m about to get into. I don’t change my cassette. I don’t do anything with my bike. I show up and then they describe the ride to us. I’m like, Oh my God. I think I average 45 RPM for this entire ride. But we get to lick skills.
Chris Case 11:23
You probably still have that straight block.
Rob Pickels 11:27
Were you want power cranks?
Trevor Connor 11:28
No, but we get to lick skillet. We’re 100 miles into this. Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. We raced on my knees are destroyed and Chris’s like, hey, Trevor, you want to race up Lake skillet? Nope. Lick skill is supposedly the steepest climb in the area. It says dirt like averages 18% Crazy type thing. It’s
Rob Pickels 11:50
the longest mile of your life.
Trevor Connor 11:51
Yeah so Chris is like, Trevor, you want to race? And I’m like, No, but I will. So I gun it at the start figure. And I’m going to struggle on the steep part, I get ahead of Chris, get about halfway up the climb…
Ben Delaney 12:04
The steep part? The whole thing is the steep part.
Trevor Connor 12:06
At the very bottom it’s like 11%.
Rob Pickels 12:09
It’s not until you turn that left hand, or whatever it really smacks you in the face.
Trevor Connor 12:12
Well, for the first 100 meters. I hold him off for a little bit. I hit the 20% I quite literally almost fall off my bike. And Chris just blows by me laughing. So there’s my first experience.
Chris Case 12:25
Wait. The finish of that story is the fact that I got to the top and I turned around and I came back down and I rode up again with you.
Trevor Connor 12:34
That’s the first time you’ve done that. I think I was walking at that point
Chris Case 12:37
You might have been.
Grant Holicky 12:39
Wait a second but I want to interrupt you for this is a really important piece of this whole story. I was asked to join that team before you were I was smart enough to say no. Because I know Chris Case, and Neil Henderson for that matter, but I know them and I decided I was – Neil Rogers actually but yes – no. Okay. Yeah, either way. I decided I was up.
Ben Delaney 13:02
And you also know how the internet works. So when someone asked like, Hey, do you want to do this thing you could, you know, use the google machine and be like oh…
Trevor Connor 13:11
Friday night. Neil Rogers is done, wasn’t at the time known for wanting to do epic rides. So I’m like, okay, yeah, I should have looked it up. You’re right. I made a big mistake.
Chris Case 13:22
You’ve got a story to tell.
Trevor Connor 13:24
So second ride.
Ben Delaney 13:25
Hate to defend Chris but we’ll just like it just as a brief aside, so the fact that he turned around and rode back down to ride up with you, when if most people do that they would be a jerk face and you would hate them forever. – Which is why Chris was doing that – and he’s like picking up dirt and like, rubbing it in your face. – Pretty much. – No, but he’s still like a cheerful guy is like a good companionship to partner with.
Chris Case 13:46
I would giggle when I was doing it, but…
Trevor Connor 13:48
He goes and climbs a cliff to take pictures of me just so I know how much he beat me by.
Rob Pickels 13:53
Yeah he flexes like that right, yeah…
Chris Case 13:56
Yeah, I flex these model arm these “s-marz” says I like supermodel arms.
Trevor Connor 14:01
Second ride ever with Chris was this golden ride. Same thing was like 20,000 feet of climbing I mean 130 miles – up to Mount Evans? – No, this was, it was another organized ride – Yeah. All the steepest climbs. – It was like Golden epic or whatever it was. – Yep. – Chris invites me to that great ride. We’re having fun. We’re riding together, Chris and I end up in the lead of this ride. We get separated…
Ben Delaney 14:26
Did you know where you were going this time Mr. specificity? – Sort of. – Okay.
Trevor Connor 14:30
They had people at Cornerstone let me know. – Okay. – So, Chris, and I get separated. I’m now worried about Chris because it isn’t the best support and we’re in the middle of nowhere. So I spent 40 minutes going back through the course over back some of these climbs, looking for Chris to make sure that he is okay and not lying on the side of the road.
Chris Case 14:53
He’s Canadian. You know, did he apologize?
Ben Delaney 14:56
Chris had the car keys…
Trevor Connor 14:58
Now this is one of the few times I actually dropped you on the climb, which is why we got separated, Chris decided, well To hell with this he went back to the car on the left. I’m biking all over looking for him couldn’t find him. I go and find the organizer like you need to go look for this guy and then finish the ride and then found out Oh, no, you’re you’re at home.
Ben Delaney 15:17
So a Chris Case DNF. That’s a rare thing.
Chris Case 15:20
It was more of a. I’ve had enough. So yeah, it was a DNF I suppose you could say. I rode enough. It was only was only 18,000 feet of climbing that day instead of 20.
Rob Pickels 15:30
The moraal of the story is that I shouldn’t ride with either of you and Grant Holicky and I should just go out and have fun. – Yes, there you go. Absolutely correct. – Yeah, let’s be on the same page on this one.
Ben Delaney 15:40
But in defense of the story, you do end up with good stories. Yeah there you go.
Chris Case 15:45
Thank you, Ben.
Ben Delaney 15:46
I know they’re type two fun stories, but stories nonetheless.
Rob Pickels 15:50
Well, you do need content for your fans. – And they get better with time. – You’re not gonna have a fan base after this or you are what are you okay with that?
Chris Case 15:59
That’s not up to me. It’s not up to me. It’s up. It’s up to the people out there.
Rob Pickels 16:03
It’s up to the people. It’s up to my fans to step up and ask for me.
Ben Delaney 16:06
Yeah I mean Chris has taken me to some strange and beautiful places, both physically, geographically, mentally, emotionally, emotionally. Yeah. So bleeding from my…
Chris Case 16:16
I dropped him off at the hospital.
Ben Delaney’s Big Fall
Trevor Connor 16:19
We got to hear this story.
Ben Delaney 16:20
So that we went to the Dolomites. It was like the super extended luxury dream vacation version of like, hey do you wanna do this crazy ride? But instead of being a one day thing was multiple days in Italy. Dolomites I’ve never done such a thing before since sounded awesome. used a bunch of miles from work trips to make that happen and brought over a group of friends to go Yeah, ride in dolomity paradise. – The Dolomites – Yeah. Which was freaking jaw dropping awesome. Like all the all the superlatives apply With with the queen staged Chris and his partner in crime. Igor Tavella owns a hotel their base Dolomites with his family whose family put on the biggest GranFondo ever and he’s so that’s how he grew up. Yeah, put together the Queen stage that involves absurd amounts of climbing. The thing was like, how much climbing can you pack into the shortest…
Chris Case 16:25
Yolamites 5000
Rob Pickels 17:17
You’re losing the shortest on this climbing just so you know.
Ben Delaney 17:20
It’s fantastic. So 5000 meters of climbing in like 20 miles or something? – Pickaxes worth 80k. – And you know, everybody’s doing gravel. So it was it was a gravelish thing. But there’s, you know, marshes and mud bogs and rainstorms involved.
Chris Case 17:40
It’s indescribable.
Ben Delaney 17:42
Yeah, that was a fantastic experience. That was a big part. – Oh, okay. – That was what? it’s probably 10 or 12 hours on the bike? Sunrise to near sunset. – Definitely. – Delicious food was had, spectacular bunks were given, you know. Okay, there’ll be we’re gonna stop at a coffee stop at the top like, you know, only happens in Italy. Of course there’s of course there’s a coffee – a rifugio up there – Yeah, up there. Do your cyclocross through a bog and then there’s this gorgeous coffee shop at the top, – love it, – which was Yeah, closed when we went up that day. So that was an epic funk – dude that’s Italy for you – let’s get to the bleeding but shall we? – Yeah, please. – So I want to, I want to capture the stories, you know, even I’m on vacation, right? Which so I’m trying to film stuff and when I work, I’ll wear a GoPro either like a chest mount or on the bike or on you know, the front of the bike or the rear of the bike. Safety first so you can keep the hands and legs inside the ride at all time. But that wasn’t working. I was there on vacation, but I still wouldn’t. Okay, that impulse I need to capture this to share with like, you know, my fans, my two, my daughter and wife who don’t care, and have been doing horizontal stuff. I want some vertical stuff so it’ll show on a phone better. So I was riding in the Domites like a Darwin Award. – Idiot. – Idiot, yes. That’s one word you could use you know trying to film the thing with the GoPro held at an angle. Yeah, because it’s friggin spectacular, because why not? Yeah, yeah. came around the corner and realize like, Oh, we’re about to slalom down a very steep switchbacks here. I need brakes. So I went to grab the breaks with both hands, but I had a GoPro in the left hand which prevented – the stopping break – the front brake from engaging so what happened was the rear locked up and washed out and slid across the road and crack my pelvis on concrete divider.
Chris Case 19:35
An I-beam. – Yeah. – A very solid piece of Italian engineering.
Ben Delaney 19:40
And Kristen Weber, god bless her went and found the GoPro which had like tumbled down the mountain. – It was still recording. – There was good footage there. Yeah.
Chris Case 19:46
– Good. – What he doesn’t remember is the fact that at the beginning of this descent, I said, Ben, we’re on vacation. Take it easy on this one, and he did. He just happened to lodge a Small block between his break and his bars and that was it.
Ben Delaney 20:04
So ended up in a lovely Italian hospital with lovely nurses and eatings that are strucial there that was fantastic. And kind of ruined everyone else’s vacation for that day because instead of riding bikes like Oh, I gotta go deal with Delaney who’s broken himself.
Chris Case 20:19
Yeah another story.
Trevor Connor 20:20
I’m just till picturing and Kristen Webber looking at you on the ground with a broken pelvis and saying go save the GoPro.
Ben Delaney 20:28
That’s good thinking. It was my request.
Chris Case 20:29
There was there was an emergency medicine doctor on the trip with us. There were a lot of helpful, caring people that everybody saw your butt bleeding, – lots of people – and maybe some other things they didn’t want to see because your whole outfit was shredded.
Ben Delaney 20:43
But that was also an interesting introduction to me firsthand for needles in European drugs. You know, I associate needles with a few things doctors, junkies and dopers. I am none of these things, but was given a packet of needles to leave the hospital. – That’s right. – For blood thinners. So those they’re like, – Of yeah, that’s right – shooting myself with needles in the van with a bunch of cyclists, which I…
Chris Case 21:09
Yes, this was I mean, not to turn this into the Ben show, but this was the day before essentially, we had to travel home, lots of flying, lots of driving in vans, lots of tight spaces. – Lot’s of tegaderm – Ben, was either he was delirious from the drugs or he was hurting pretty bad and yeah, we were all taking care of him, making him walk up flights of stairs, with his crutches and all that.
Ben Delaney 21:34
So of refer back to Chris. Chris is fantastic at getting people into gorgeous, challenging situations and then when things go sideways, can still piece the group back together. And – that’s the hope, – and bring it home with a happy ending.
Rob Pickels 21:48
Did he turn around ride back up and take a picture while you were laying on the ground?
Chris Case 21:52
I have some pictures of Ben on the side of the road on my phone, – that’s what he would have done with me. – I definitely have some photos I after everybody was stable. I said, I got to, I don’t really want to remember this moment but I’m gonna take a photo. So I do actually have some photos of you, Ben, I’m sure you would love to see them.
Trevor Connor 22:09
Well done.
Rob Pickels 22:10
You can look on reddit.
Chris Case 22:12
Action white, bleeding against this this cobbled wall. Yeah, it was, that was a scary day.
Ben Delaney 22:19
A formative moment.
Chris Case from a Personal Standpoint
Trevor Connor 22:20
Well, let’s take a turn here, get a little more serious and talk about Chris. Chris has been a very important part of this show. He’s been a big part of this industry as part of Fast Talk Labs as part of VeloNews. And would just love to hear from everybody what you know, what is it about Chris that has made him such a such an important part in such a good part? And yes, I’m being nice.
Chris Case 22:48
But there’s Crik. All I hear is crickets.
Ben Delaney 22:50
I’m not prepared to answer this question…
Rob Pickels 22:53
How do I how do I make up a lie that’s believable?
Ben Delaney 22:56
I think having a good understanding of all the elements and how they balance out is part of it. So being able to push himself whether it’s like going for an hour record or to push others, either like yeah, emotionally or physically out there on a bike, or through knowledge, but also not being OCD about it. I know we’re supposed to keep this serious and not go to the heckling, but heckling sort of my default.
Chris Case 23:22
I’m more comfortable with you heckling and saying serious stuff too.
Trevor Connor 23:26
I threw the question you guys can answer however you’d like.
Ben Delaney 23:29
Like everyone here besides myself. Chris is an expert in training in the physiology of how it all works, right? But, you know, like, this weekend we rode, did you have a power meter or computer on your bike? – No. – I don’t think you know. So it’s not like every last detail always has to be captured and analyzed in order to enjoy the experience of cycling. So I think that’s something that I admire, because it’s easy for us to kind of go down the rabbit hole of like only data matters. Like you understand what the value of data and but that’s, that’s not the only thing.
Grant Holicky 24:00
Well, I think that’s even more impressive with Chris because if you’ve been to his house, it is immaculate. Then I managed to not scoff when Ben said he’s not OCD about it. Because, you know, I think there’s some elements of Mr. Case that are quite OCD and that might be why you guys were out in the ride in the middle of the dark because you wanted to finish the route. This is the route, I want to finish the route.
Ben Delaney 24:25
We didn’t have an option we had to get home.
Chris Case 24:27
That’s true.
Trevor Connor 24:30
Grant remember, you’re just looking at his house in contrast to yours.
Grant Holicky 24:34
Wow. Listen, my wife and Chris would get along really well in that regard. We have two children instead of one. I mean, in their voice, like Chris’s daughter sits in the corner and she colors and she does work.
Chris Case 24:51
She’s a wild animal, that kid but she’s not River.
Grant Holicky 24:54
She’s running through the yard threatening to hit each other with whatever they found in the yard and there’s Annika just.
Chris Case 25:01
the dirtiest moments of Annika’s life has been spent with River and Race because they rub dirt on her. They literally pick up handfuls of dirt and rub it on her. It’s their way of courting, apparently, they take after their father.
Grant Holicky 25:18
All of these things are very true this is there’s nothing incorrect about any of this but back to my original point, I do think when it comes to cycling, what’s great about Chris is there is that, as Ben said, that knowledge of you know, what it’s going to take to go fast and what it’s going to take to get better and all those things that go around it and when he’s choosing to race, that’s what he’s going to focus on. But when he’s choosing and enjoy the bike, he’s able to go enjoy the bike and and that’s, that’s a hard thing for a lot of people to do, you know, turn it on and turn it off like that.
Rob Pickels 25:50
Yeah, you know, for me, I think that there’s, there’s an authenticity, right, where, you know, in some regard, you’re you’re always involved in this very outward facing situation. But I think that you always did it from a very authentic place endeavors were endeavors that you wanted to do for your own reasons. And I think that you did them on your own terms, how you wanted to do them and didn’t necessarily feel pressure to act or behave or do things in a certain way. And, you know, I see that here. I’ve seen that through your work, you know, and that authenticity is really important. So yeah, I’ve always appreciated that.
Trevor Connor 26:25
Well, I’m going to give my serious side which is you have really been a rock and a big part of the spirit of this whole place. You brought an incredible professionalism. You always made sure our content was high quality, you always made sure we maintain integrity.
Chris Case 26:42
What am I going to do about this episode?
Trevor Connor 26:44
Yeah pretty much. I’m editing this one. No, say this one. Yeah, use fancy words for editing that I never understood. You kept everything, the highest professional level at the same time, you joked around you had a lot of fun and everybody always enjoyed working with you. So, – thank you guys, – we will we will lose a bit of the spirit of this place. And with that…
Lennard Zinn Discusses His Experience’s With Chris Case
Trevor Connor 27:10
Lennard Zinn wanted to be with us in the studio but couldn’t make the recording. He and I managed to get on a quick call and Lennard shared his feelings about Chris and their experience writing a book together.
Lennard Zinn 27:20
I’ve known Chris for quite a while it’s hard to keep track now I’m getting so old but it’s been a long time. And I worked with him for a long time at VeloNews, and then co wrote a book together with him called the Haywire Heart and that was a very fun project and love going and doing these interviews with him. Like I remember when we went to interview Dave Scott and Dave Scott as afib and he would tell us about, you know, his inability to not chase somebody down whether it was in the pool or on the bike or running or whatever and then after he done it any wonder God, you know, if I just keeled over dead from doing that, would it have been worth? And we stood out in the street outside his house afterward. Well, Did that scare the shit out of you? Yeah. That was pretty funny. But you know, we’ve had a lot of good times. Backcountry skiing on Monarch Pass, and then any each today was sitting in a hot tub down in Salida and kind of going on great bike rides. You know I used to do a long bike ride every year for my birthday, which is a couple of days away from the summer solstice and so he came up with a number of ideas for the Zinnfondo, and then the last one, which was a month before I developed my heart arrhythmia, which started this whole process ending and us writing a book it was just an awesome ride that he figured out just we’ve we went all over the place it was amazing really cool ride also connecting all these dirt roads all the way up to up on Mount Evans and then back you know all over oh my god road and bear Canyon near Idaho Springs and, and Missouri Gulch near Blackhawk, and it was really cool ride.
Trevor Connor 29:19
I gotta say asking asking Chris to help you design an epic ride that’s gonna get you in trouble. You’re gonna assume something truly epic.
Lennard Zinn 29:27
It was truly It was great and just like we want to you know, start at 5am or something and finish in the dark.
Trevor Connor 29:35
There you go. So, you know, we all consider Chris a pretty special guy. What do you think it is that, why do we all consider him a good friend? What makes him such a special guy in this industry?
Lennard Zinn 29:51
Well, he’s super bright, and he’s an incredible athlete, and he is really interested in other people and he asks good questions and he’s interested in the answers and he takes the time to keep up with his friends and to, you know, invite them to do things and, says yes, when you invite him to do things and he’s just an enjoyable guy to be with, you know is always coming up with great ideas, whether it be athletic ones or other ways of tackling some other problem like with writing the book, we certainly ran into all sorts of things like that and, and editing my stories for VeloNews or whatever and then he’s just really fun guy to go on a bike ride with and he doesn’t have much of an ego he’s willing to, you know, go your pace, if it’s not his pace and all that sort of thing.
Trevor Connor 30:47
I gotta say I’m envious because I don’t think Chris has ever been willing to go my pace. He always tries to drop me when I ride with him.
Lennard Zinn 30:55
Well, yeah, but I got an E bike now so he can’t drop me anymore.
Trevor Connor 31:00
That’s a good point.
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Trevor Connor 31:07
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Chris Case’s Parting Lessons
Trevor Connor 32:01
All right. Well, there is a little bit of seriousness. In this episode, we have asked Chris to prepare the five wisdoms that he would like to share with all of you our listeners as his parting lessons. – Wow – So Chris, have you prepared to give this any thought.
Ben Delaney 32:19
They better be good
Chris Case 32:20
I was, I was warned that this was coming. I did give it some thought. I feel like you’ve set the expectations high that this is going to be worthy of people’s listening time but I do have a list.
Trevor Connor 32:33
Oh, he just pulled it out of his shirt pocket.
Chris Case 32:35
I just pulled it out of my shirt pocket.
Ben Delaney 32:36
The envelope please…
Chris Case 32:37
But you know, I didn’t know who was going to be on the show today. I wonder if I could actually dedicate each of these five points to there’s five people. So let’s see if I can do that. The first one I think is actually the easiest in a way and that is this one’s dedicated to Grant we have done many segments before and we have talked about the element of enjoyment, of joy, that it takes to be, you call it well balanced, call it professional call it whatever you will, an athlete that gets the most out of themselves. I think they always have to keep that element of joy in there somewhere because that’s why you’re doing it. I remember back when Lennard Zinn was first diagnosed was with his heart arrhythmia and he was struggling, he wanted to ride his bike, he wanted to race his bikes still. And he was going through these very definitive stages of denial and anger and depression and all this stuff and at some point, we were sitting down he was having we were having a conversation and he was talking about just this really profound realization, and I say profound, not that he hadn’t really thought it before, but it just was like he was feeling it in his core. Finally, no one gives a **** about your 55 plus cyclocross results on the weekend. No one cares. Except, you, so if you can’t race your bike anymore, it’s not the end of the world. You can do other things that will bring you joy, if you can still ride your bike, but you have to do it differently, as he does with an E bike because of the heart arrhythmia. You can still have a lot of fun, you can still do it with joy. If intervals are your thing and pain equals joy in a bit of way, then yes, do that. You can train seriously and still have joy but you don’t always have to just say being a good bike racer is about pain and suffering and push through all that garbage just because without the joy there. Don’t do that. That’s point number one. And that is dedicated to Grant because he likes to say he’s a dog with his head out the window of the car with his tongue flailing around and I can picture that, I can picture that.
Rob Pickels 34:59
Well, yeah. where we’ve seen it, we’ve all seen it.
Grant Holicky 35:03
If you saw the driving this morning, you saw it. I just do it all the time.
Chris Case 35:07
All right, I’m going to dedicate this next one to Mr. Pickels as the physiologist, as someone who has tested me. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Don’t be afraid to fall down. Also, don’t be afraid to get back up. All of which is to say, don’t be afraid to try something new. Which I think with a the scientific mind that you have, with the people you’ve worked with, whether it’s juniors or others, I would like to believe that you see the benefit in changing things up experimenting, seeing what works don’t get stale, etc and I bring that to what I do. This is perhaps why the rides have become increasingly longer, increasingly crazier, increasingly stupider as people have known me, right, Ben.
Rob Pickels 35:54
Because he hasn’t learned anything over the years…
Chris Case 36:04
I just have to keep doing different things, doing different things. There’s going to be a fourth point that is somewhat related but first, I’ll get to point number three, which I’ll dedicate to Trevor because I know he believes in this wholeheartedly. That is, there are no shortcuts and by seeking out shortcuts, you’re actually cheating yourself out of more fun, which is point number one, so don’t do it. I know Trevor is stubborn. He is. Well, there’s different words for that character trait, but I’m gonna use the word stubborn.
Ben Delaney 36:41
Resolute.
Trevor Connor 36:43
I like that. I am resolute.
Chris Case 36:45
Shackaltonian. It’s that, if that’s actually a word. Head down. Let’s do it. There are no shortcuts. You cannot take that five hour zone up or zone two ride and turn it into an hour ride like people would like to believe you can’t do it.
Trevor Connor 37:01
Why would you not want to do that five hour ride?
Chris Case 37:04
Exactly, because that would be point number one. There’s joy in that. Number four. I’m gonna I guess I have to dedicate this one to myself. Wait, Ben, have I dedicated anything to you yet? – No. – Okay. I guess I’ll dedicate this to you. I don’t, this doesn’t relate to you at all.
Ben Delaney 37:23
Perfect. Yeah.
Chris Case 37:24
I I’m a big fan of… – It’s the relevant one. – I use the word relativity not as a in a in the physics definition here but everything’s relative, how you feel, what you’re capable of how hard you can push what pain actually is or how you define it. They’re all relative and this is why I say kind of goes back to number two, point number two, you can change these things. You can change how good or bad you feel, you can change what you think you’re capable of, you can change what quote unquote hard is you can change your definition of pain, if you’re challenging yourself in different ways. That doesn’t always mean riding harder or riding faster, riding 30,000 feet of climbing and one ride instead of 20,000 feet. It just means doing different things. For example, I raced cyclocross for a long time and then last year, I said, Why don’t I just ride around an island for 1300 straight miles that’s different. That helped me redefine what I’m capable of in very lovely enjoyable ways and sometimes some awful ways too, but now I know. Now I know and that’s my standard now who knows what comes next where I could reset that standard. Finally, this last one Trevor as my longtime co host you get to dedicated to you this is probably the most important thing obviously it’s number five. – Well his fans get nothing apparently. – No. Never forget that when in doubt, make fun of a Canadian. They like the attention.
Trevor Connor 39:00
I was waiting for this to come and Grant thank you for wearing that hat.
Rob Pickels 39:04
America’s hat.
Chris Case 39:06
America’s toque.
Trevor Connor 39:07
Toque, thank you. I can’t believe I called it a hat.
Grant Holicky 39:10
I knew that the Canadian was going to need some support today and so I wanted the toque to support you as far as you know.
Trevor Connor 39:20
You know, I tasked Chris with five wisdoms. I was very interested in hearing what they were but I absolutely knew one of them was gonna be make fun of Canadians.
Chris Case 39:31
It’s worked for me successfully for years.
Ben Delaney 39:34
Well five goes back to point one which is having joy in what you do.
Grant Holicky 39:38
It’s all about the joy my friends.
Chris Case 39:40
As the Glaswegians know, those are people from Glasgow. They love to pick on their best friends. So we’ve picked on Canadians on this show for ever. I hope…
Trevor Connor 39:53
So it still doesn’t explain what your’e pick on me.
Chris Case 39:56
I hope I don’t have a nation against me. If I do I’m sworry. It’s funny. Trevor and I have spoken about the people we are on the show. They are obviously reflections of who we actually are. Trevor is Canadian. He’s also holds an American passport. I don’t know if we’ve said that on the show before, right?
Trevor Connor 40:21
No, I’m dual citizen but I grew up in Canada.
Chris Case 40:23
Yeah, I hope. I sincerely hope that I haven’t come across as the a-hole American counterpoint to you’re very nice Canadian, I’m sure at times. – well absolutely. – That’s not me.
Trevor Connor 40:38
As Canadian’s we are used to this.
Rob Pickels 40:42
But do you like it?
Chris Case 40:43
He loves the attention. He loves it. They’re completely ignored otherwise, as a nation so, it’s actually – Wow. – Ridicule is the only thing going for them.
Grant Holicky 40:54
Oh, that’s fantastic. I mean, I think it’s a little harsh.
Trevor Connor 40:58
Look at the great comedians of the last 40 years and how many of them are Canadian, we have to learn a sense of humor.
Chris Case 41:06
The same year singers like Celine Dion and Shania Twain.
Trevor Connor 41:10
You know what I just discovered last night because I’ve watched the newest Matrix movie by new Keanou Reeves but the woman who plays Trinity she is also Canadian. So the Matrix the two people who rock the most Canadians.
Chris Case 41:23
Oh boy.
Trevor Connor 41:24
Can I just point that out.
Grant Holicky 41:25
So wait, wait. So we have a couple of actors, the dude that was in Point Break is Canadian. – Yes – What else did we decide is Canada’s gift to the world?
Chris Case 41:36
Shanaya Twain.
Trevor Connor 41:37
No let’s not go there… Rush.
Rob Pickels 41:39
Rush for sure. Poutine?
Grant Holicky 41:43
Yeah and Labatts.
Rob Pickels 41:46
Oh my god. Trevor is so into this Canadian thing he actually wrote making fun of him into my job description I have a signed contract where I have to pick up the making fun or torch, where exactly, he needs this in his life.
Trevor Connor 41:59
Can I point out that the contract hasn’t been signed and it might change.
Chris Case 42:05
The American side of Trevor.
Chris Case 42:07
Trevor it’s been two weeks, I mean would you expect this to happen by now?
Trevor Connor 42:17
I gave you the I9, I actually literally have to verify your citizenship when you sign the contract. Like he has to physically show me that he is a US citizen.
Rob Pickels 42:26
What passport am I going to show you?
Trevor Connor 42:28
Good question. What other passports do you have?
Chris Case 42:30
New Hampshire has its own pass port right? – It should – Be free or die baby.
Rob Pickels 42:36
Live free or die. D*****.
Ben Delaney 42:37
So the five points of wisdom were fun joy,
Chris Case 42:41
Relativity was one of them. Experiment. No shortcuts. And Canadians are ding dongs.
Ben Delaney 42:50
Five Points to live by folks.
Trevor Connor 42:51
If our Canadian listeners didn’t have an issue with you, they do now.
Chris Case 42:56
Like I said, I’m sworry.
Rob Pickels 42:57
They’re ding dongs that you love though. Right? Because…
Chris Case 43:01
Absolutely Hostess Ding Dongs were one of my favorite treats as a kid.
Rob Pickels 43:05
I mean, as you I think you were saying this yesterday, right? You pick the hardest on the people. You love the most.
Ben Delaney 43:11
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Trevor Connor 43:13
Again. So what is it? How do you explain me?
Chris Case 43:19
Trevor you have been an anomaly your entire life.
Trevor Connor 43:22
This is fair.
Dr. Andy Pruitt’s Goodbye to Chris
Trevor Connor 43:26
Dr. Andy Pruitt has been a mentor to both Chris and myself, as we were recording our segment with Dr. Pruitt for episode 200. Andy he shared some of his parting wisdom’s to Chris, and the business. Do you have any parting words that are hopefully profanity laced for Chris?
Dr. Andy Pruitt 43:43
You sons a *****.
Chris Case 43:46
That’s what I was expecting.
Dr. Andy Pruitt 43:48
Well, you know, man, I’ll never forget, when I first you know, took on a staff and it was growing and I lost my first student. I was, I was heartbroken. I mean, I was, my god, you know, they don’t believe in me, I whatever. I was heartbroken and I remember talking to my dad about it, and he said, Son, get used to it. People move on. People need to improve themselves. People need to feel like they’re going in their right direction, whatever that is for them and you will take that opportunity to mourn their loss, which will take that opportunity to fill it with a skill set that you’re going to find or an already know that’s lacking in the company. So I’m devastated that he’s leaving because he’s a friend. I love his voice on the radio. I love. I just, I’m gonna be sad not to work with him, but I think he’s got to do what he’s got to do and I’ve learned to appreciate that and accept it.
Chris Case 44:50
Thank you. – You’re welcome. – Thank you. There were no swears in there though.
Dr. Andy Pruitt 44:55
No, – no, – none. I just I really think that I’ll never forget my dad and get used to it. Because that people are going to come and go. I can think of some real significant losses of colleagues over the years and you think you’re just not going to get over it. And you do, you do and then you look at them and they’ve gone on to do great things. So I think it’s you got to look at it as a win win and opportunities on all sides. That’s the way I just Yeah, so you got to do it. You know.
Trevor Connor 45:28
Well it is a significant loss. It is a loss. Hopefully this is moving on to greater things for you.
Dr. Andy Pruitt 45:34
But see this way you can come back every now and then, and do some kind of special appearance.
Trevor Connor 45:41
There we go.
Chris Case 45:42
It’s true. Very true.
Trevor Connor 45:43
Walk into the basement throw Swedish Fish at us.
Chris Case 45:46
It would have slapstick humor to it. If I feel like the tone of fast talk is dropping a little bit off. There you go I’ll come in in with some zingers.
Trevor Connor 45:58
There we go. Perfect.
Trevor Connor 46:01
Well, we have a final thing that we need to do before we hit our sign off, which is announce our newest hosts. We have somebody who will be filling in for Chris and Chris, would you like to make an announcement though there is a there’s an asterix on this. But Chris, would you like to introduce our new host?
Chris Case 46:21
This guy?
Rob Pickels 46:22
Me?
Chris Case 46:23
You’ve already been introduced? Haven’t you?
Trevor Connor 46:24
Rob it’s been two weeks.
Rob Pickels 46:26
It’s me. I’m still filling in. How do you, that doesn’t make me feel good about myself…
Chris Case 46:30
That was poor phrasing, that was poor phrasing.
Trevor Connor 46:32
Did I say filling in?
Chris Case 46:33
You did. Temporarily
Trevor Connor 46:37
I apologize, let me correct. Struggling to try to get within the ballpark of what Chris did here, will be.
Rob Pickels 46:44
I’d say it’d be big shoes to fill but those are like what, nine, nine and a halfs or so?
Chris Case 46:49
Euro size 45. If you will.
Grant Holicky 46:51
Woah, those are bigger than mine.
Chris Case 46:55
Bowling balls don’t usually have feet.
Grant Holicky 46:59
You’re fortunate. No, it’s very true.
A Clash Between Chris and Rob
Trevor Connor 47:02
But there’s an asterix on this we have something to do. – Oh, okay – this roll has to be earned. – I’m afraid Oh my god. – So it’s not quite yours yet. You have to beat Chris in battle. – Are you paying me regardless? –
Trevor Connor 47:05
What kind of battle are we talking about here
Rob Pickels 47:23
in the octagon?
Trevor Connor 47:24
And to be revealed…
Chris Case 47:26
Cage match.
Chris Case 47:30
Couldn’t just have like a thumb war? What size thumbs you got? I got huge hands. My hands are really…
Trevor Connor 47:37
Those are enormous.
Chris Case 47:40
You know what they say a man with big hands…
Ben Delaney 47:43
big gloves.
Dr. Steven Seiler Talks about his Relationship with Chris Case
Trevor Connor 47:45
Earlier Chris’s 10 year we did an episode with a scientist out Norway named Dr. Steven Siler, and soon after that a friendship was born. Recently we were recording with Dr. Seiler and told him about Chris’s departure. It was off mic but Dr. Seiler had some very nice parting words. So hope he forgives us but it seems appropriate to let Dr. Seiler finish out our goodbye to Chris.
Chris Case 48:07
Steven. Just so you know. There’s going to be three nerds. I’m nerd light. As you know, I played I played nerd light on the show. Rob is a physiologist. He has a master’s right. Not a PhD, but he he’s a he’s been in physiology all you know, a long time. So I don’t know how that’s gonna work out. I might have to make a special appearance and be like, Hey, guys… He’s up.
Dr. Stephen Seiler 48:37
Chris, don’t don’t try to fool you but you are a nerd too.
Chris Case 48:41
I’m a dork than a nerd.
Dr. Stephen Seiler 48:45
You’re a different kind of nerd but you are. You have a lot of the qualities that the nerd world would look for.
Chris Case 48:54
They appreciate my nerdum. Yes.
Dr. Stephen Seiler 48:57
Yeah so you wouldn’t be able to walk in to any nerd get together and blend in. You know.
Chris Case 49:03
I didn’t. Well, okay, thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment.
Dr. Stephen Seiler 49:08
So don’t sell yourself short, man. You’re plenty nerdy.
Chris Case 49:12
Okay, thank you. – Anyway – coming from you that means a lot. Thank you.
Dr. Stephen Seiler 49:17
But I wish you great success. You know, I understand that things evolve and needs change and people have to. Yeah, so good luck.
Chris Case 49:28
It’s been a real pleasure working with you over the years and you know, I’m not gonna never see you again, I’m sure and maybe someday you get to the United States and we’ll meet so or maybe I’ll get to Norway.
Dr. Stephen Seiler 49:43
I may want to take a cycling trip.
Chris Case 49:45
Yeah, well, that’s true, too. Yep.
Dr. Stephen Seiler 49:49
Now I’ve got I’ve got a contact in the business.
Chris Case 49:51
Absolutely. Yeah, they do fantastic trips.
Dr. Stephen Seiler 49:54
Best of luck but of course, I hope that Fast Talk Laboratories as an organization doesn’t suffer too much from your departures.
Chris Case 50:04
Right, no now I think with Rob they’ll be in good hands yeah.
Trevor Connor 50:07
Well, we’re excited about Rob but I’ll be straight up and I’ll say this in front of Chris. It’s it’s gonna hurt the company. We’re very sad to see him go. Chris has been a big part of the soul of this company and we’ll miss them, but we will soldier on.
Trevor Connor 50:24
Sadly, our battle didn’t quite make sense in an audio only recording. Fortunately, we filmed the whole thing and you can check it out on our website fasttalklabs.com. Let’s just say peddle contraptions were involved, there was a snowstorm blood may have been spilt and we still don’t know who won. Definitely check this one out if you want to see Chris’s racing prowess firsthand.
Goodbye for Now Chris Case
Chris Case 50:48
That was another episode of Fast Talk, subscribe to Fast Talk wherever you prefer to find your favorite podcasts. Be sure to leave us a rating and a review, the thoughts and opinions expressed on Fast Talk are those of individuals.
Trevor Connor 51:02
Your’e laughing Chris come on keep it serious.
Chris Case 51:03
As always we love your ************* feedback.
Chris Case 51:06
Join the conversation at fourms.fasttalklabs.com to discuss each and every episode – finally we see the real Chris on this show – become a ************* member of Fast Talk Laboratories at ************* fasttalklab.com/join and become a part of the ************* education and coaching community for Trevor Connor, Ben Delaney, ************* Grant Holicky, ************* Robert Pickels, I’m Chris Case thanks for listening.
Rob Pickels 51:33
And don’t ever expect to hear Chris again…
Chris Case 51:37
He literally dropped the mic.
Rob Pickels 51:42
Can we do that? Is that okay?
Trevor Connor 51:44
We can bleep him.
Chris Case 51:44
I don’t ************* care… and I’m out.
