Pete Stetina: the OG Gravel Pro on Racing while Parenting, Where Gravel is Headed & Exiting the World Tour to Enter a Van
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Pete Stetina grew up in a famous cycling family and became a highly accomplished pro road racer who raced the Giro D’Italia four times, the Tour de France twice and the Vuelta Espana twice. When he started dabbling in gravel racing, in 2019, he was still doing 80 race days a year in the World Tour while winning iconic events like the original recipe Belgian Waffle Ride.
That’s when he pulled the ripcord on what most cyclists would consider a dream career to pursue new frontiers on the dirt full time. Pete is a big character in the grand story of gravel racing and has animated the many conversations about the present and future of the sport while nabbing top results.
Image by Wil Matthews
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Pete has been interviewed and written about ad infinitum and there’s a lot more to his story than what you’ve heard so far and have seen on social media. I caught up with Pete a few days after the first ever Gravel National Championship, which he crashed out of early on. I’m excited to bring this conversation to you. It covers a lot of new ground and I hope it gives you a more dimensionalized look at Pete as a human being, parent and competitor.
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Andrew Vontz 0:02
So, are you in Santa Rosa right now? Or where are you?
Peter Stetina 0:05
I am in Santa Rosa right now. Correct.
Andrew Vontz 0:08
Okay, cool. I've written up there quite a bit. I love riding up there. It's it's a nice spot. I can see why you'd want to be there.
Peter Stetina 0:14
Yeah, it's, I would say the road cycling, I will put my hand down and say it's the best road cycling in the nation, the variety, the terrain changes the directions. Mountain biking is pretty good. And unfortunately, the gravel riding is actually not the best. MYRIN is a lot better. A lot more open space fire road, Santa Rosa is very stuck with private property due to all the wineries up here. So how dare they? Yep, exactly. But
Andrew Vontz 0:52
yeah, but you've got the I'm forgetting the name of it. But you have the giant park in the middle of the city. annadelle. Yeah, yeah, I'd love mountain biking there. That's a That's a fun spot. Are you getting in 120 grams of carbs per hour for this recording.
Peter Stetina 1:06
I wish then I just crashed. I crashed out of the Nationals race this weekend. And I had this like high carb bottle in my pocket. And it just splat and I was just caked in like this. Pretty much kicked in like honey, it was just like, thick layer of sugary crust all over me until I finally got a shower. So yeah, that stuff is gnarly if it doesn't actually get into your stomach.
Andrew Vontz 1:34
Yeah, if you were a doughnut, that would have been the optimal coding. But you're, you're a human trying to finish a gravel race. Yeah, I saw after the race you posted about your experience. And then you said you're going to be taken some interpret that you're going to be taking some time off from social media for a minute, or what was going on there?
Peter Stetina 1:53
Oh, yeah. Not not just I was frustrated at the situation naturally, it's it's one of those race situations where, you know, you put a lot of time and effort and money and to get out there and line up and it's over before you can get tired and your stomach is still full from the days before. And you know, it was just it was like a wasted every opportunity. But you know, whenever something like that goes down to it's, you know, there's all these questions and about? Yeah, I just, it just didn't want to deal with it. It was just like, You know what, this sucks. I just want to, you know, sip a beer and relax and get my head around the next one. And it wasn't like I had to like, burn off a bunch of steam. But it was like, This is what happened. That's the end of the story. Like, I'll check in when there's something else happening. So we need
Andrew Vontz 2:47
some Pete, when you say there are a lot of questions, gravel cycling is interesting, of course, because most of the coverage of the sport itself is coming directly from athletes like you, you know, I've had Brian CO on the show from Velo worthy who does some coverage, then there's the unrolled unlimited Instagram handle. And this isn't exclusively cycling podcast. So for anyone who doesn't listen, those are just a few of the YouTube or not YouTube, their Instagram handles that really have kind of become the main way to follow the sport. So with gravel nationals, for example, this weekend, you know, other than the athletes themselves, so you and the other big personalities in the sport, you're all putting out your own content. With the event this weekend, for example, I you know, I actually ping Brian Co. And then I was checking out on road Unlimited, because I was trying to figure out, Hey, where's like, the ATV? Was someone with an iPhone covering this? Yeah, there was actually nothing, nothing. And so what is that like, for you, and I want to go way deeper on this. But this is kind of a good starting point. So you're an athlete, you're a world class athlete, you came from the World Tour, you're a gravel pro, you were one of the first to kind of make the crossover. And you also now have to be a world class content creator, and you kind of have to mediate everything that you do so in a moment that, you know, you know, I get it, your persona is that you're someone who's there both to compete, and you're there to have a good time. And that's part of what's fun about gravel cycling, in particular, but you're man, you're a game competitor, like you came up. Like with that instinct. And I have to imagine when something like that goes down. It's probably not a good feeling. You mentioned you had some questions or you felt there might be questions then you've like, got to get out the iPhone and start talking.
Peter Stetina 4:42
Yeah, right. Yeah, um, gosh, there's a lot of different discussions just within that one, let's go. But, you know, the in terms of like the coverage, you know, that's an interesting one in that, you know, cycling is still not I, you know, one of the big sports in terms of America and American media consumption, right. And so a lot of the races, I think, except for the tour, and maybe even the Tour de France, they actually have to pay NBC or peacock to air it right with the belief that they'll have an ROI in the future by like, creating more fandom. And so like, you know, for a lot of these smaller races. That's just, they can't they don't have the funds to do that. And also, you're why in this business, would you pay someone else to take the rights of the audience. So like, if I'm a race, and I pay P Cocker NBC or whoever, to show my race, and then they own that audience, and they get all the goods from that. And so a lot of the races have actually just found that if they start doing those Instagram story updates from their page themselves, or in some sort of Instagram, live streaming YouTube Live, however they can do it. People are like logging into their channel directly, like they own their audience, which is a lot more valuable. So that's kind of the way it's been going. And so most races in general, that's how you can follow a race live is actually just by the races Instagram handle, and they usually put it out ahead of time. Gravel nationals is just a little bit different because it's just run by USA Cycling, which are the Feds that they're not just beat on that stuff. They just they put on the race. So yeah, that's that's kind of that part of it. Yeah.
Andrew Vontz 6:52
Okay. So so you have the incident what you got? You had two flats, you plugged it twice the plow? No,
Peter Stetina 6:58
no, no, no, I was just, it was a massive pile up just domino effect. Okay. Yeah. No, it's just, you know, it's yeah, people are wondering what's going on. And you kind of, as you said, like, you know, in this game right now, you, you know, have to kind of promote yourself, and also, you know, update on how your journey is going. And that's kind of the point of sport, I mean, sport at the end of the day is advertising and promotion, whether it's for yourself or a company that supports you, or whatever it is. That's the bottom line. Right. And, you know, for people that are interested in how I'm doing and how the Nationals is going, if they just see a DNF by my name, they're gonna be like, what, what, you know, and you know, it was kind of a notable moment of the race, you know, and there was no media around there. So, you know, when I finally got my phone, I just was like, This is what happened. This is why I'm not racing anymore. My bikes blown to smithereens. I'm okay. See you guys at the next one. You know, and, yeah, just an update.
Andrew Vontz 8:09
Yeah. Okay. Now I'm remembering what happened. I did prepare for this interview. And I didn't know what happened you in the race. I had a friend Dr. Scott Frey, who's a neuroscientist and behavioral psychologists, who I've had on the show previously, he was competing in one of the masters events, Scott's experience, he sent me a text from the second checkpoint, I think, around mile 58, that he had had, you know, some convoluted multiple goat had flags, he plugged his tire, blah, blah, blah, and put it in the tube, all the fun stuff that can happen in one of these events. But, you know, let's, let's maybe like jump back and rewind back to when this thing all started. And I know you've talked about this a bit before, but there are some Peters some answer unanswered questions in the Pete Stetten. A mythology and I want to go deep on it today. So I want to know, like, what was what was the actual moment when you made the commitment and flip the switch? And were like, not just, I'm leaving the world tour, but this is the specific thing that I'm doing. Do you know where you were and what was happening at that moment when you were like, made the commitment?
Peter Stetina 9:18
That would have been 29, the fall of 2019. But it wasn't just a quick flip switch or switch of a flip, flip of a switch. It was a slow eye opening and you know, methodical approach. To be honest, it wasn't this beautiful, fairy tale Cinderella story type of thing like I'm gonna follow my heart. You know, it was it was me thinking about it over the course of the season. And pushing for it while I was still on my world. or road cycling team at the time. And trying to advocate to continue in the world tour as long as I could do this gravel stuff on the side, because it made sense for me personally and for any sponsor, marketing wise, the proof in the data was there. I mean, that was a fact at that point. And I was continually getting shut down by team managers in Europe, because it was, it's a very traditional sport over there. And this, they, they basically saw me as asking to like, go play off road and not be focused on road cycling, it was just a difference of it was kind of the American mentality versus the traditional European road cycling mentality. And it kind of came to a point where it was okay, because of my desire to do this. And having done this for a season, the door was closed with my current team. It basically even though I had success and gravel, eight convinced them that I was in that there was not a serious professional anymore. So they were not interested in continuing with me. And my choice became to either find another European road team and double down and, you know, churn out a few more years in Europe on the road, or kind of go for this thing, myself, and I'd always kind of considered that I'd kind of toyed with the idea, you know, a year before. And I had, you know, a couple of friends in the industry where I just kind of out asked him, you know, I was like, I think I want to do this, like, Do you think there's you know, do you? Would you support me in that? Like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go for this. And it was a resounding and quick, yes. So that's kind of what pushed me over the edge. Because I mean, that's it was a jump into the unknown, like you said, like, no one had really done that yet. And when you spend your whole career, you know, being told, like the Tour de France and the World Tour, the major league, so to speak, like, this is the holy grail. And you're there and you've been there. It kind of goes against everything you've been told to step away from that, too, and in most people's minds, downgrade yourself. So it was really about have like it. Does that make sense? Is it a downgrade? Or is it a sidestep type of scenario?
Andrew Vontz 12:44
Yeah. And I certainly didn't think that you made this decision in a flip manner. I am still curious after you went through this, because it sounds like you're a very analytical guy. You're very driven. Right? Yeah. And it sounds like, also you do what a lot of smart people do when making decisions. And you talk to probably some people who you found to be highly credible, whose opinions you valued? To kind of calibrate Okay, based on this information, what's the best decision for me to make when you were in the world tour, and you know, I've been in and around pro cycling for a couple of decades, not not in the way that you have been, but as somebody who's covered it, and has gotten to know, some of the athletes, team managers and so forth, and is somebody on the outside. Being an athlete at that level, in many ways, and I don't mean this in a diminutive way, but it's almost kind of seems like it's, you're kind of like a zoo animal getting moved around from place to place getting fed. I know, athletes seem to have a bit more autonomy now. But what was your experience? Like? And how did that kind of how did that suit you or not as just as an actual human being not just as an athlete?
Peter Stetina 13:57
I mean, I think that's a very good evaluation on your part, to be honest, I mean, that's kind of the way that it's been made. To be a good bike racer, you don't have to be you don't have to have a crazy IQ. You have to know racing, and that's about it.
And it's Sorry, I lost my train of thought completely, but I lose
Andrew Vontz 14:24
mine all the time. What was what was life? Yeah. Not not just as a pro athlete, but as a human being who was in the right
Peter Stetina 14:31
texts. You know, I always like to stay busy. And and I would get bored in the hotel rooms because it was so much you know, train, rest, recover, repeat. And, you know, I would try to have these kinds of side projects just to keep myself busy in the hotel room because I hated the work. The part I hated the most of pro cycling was Like, just trying to literally find the ends of the internet on your shitty hotel bed in the middle of some hotel in some foreign country. And it drove me crazy. And you know, the teams are built like that, that it is just focus on pedaling fast and whatever that entails and don't do anything else. So the teams and the structures are set up where it's, there's so many handlers for whatever it is, whether it's, you know, food, or you know, bodily care, or PR questions, or whatever it is like. And, you know, it's really nice for the act of riding a bike, but it definitely does not make for a well rounded human. And I think part I always kind of understood, just inherently kind of that the marketing angle of it a bit more like, oh, you know, the bike company, or they're saying these things for this, because people will react to this way, I think I just have a natural knack for that. And so I'm just lucky in that way, I think that when I made this step to kind of go on my own, I'm able to understand kind of how to do it from a business side of it more.
Andrew Vontz 16:20
And when you did make that decision, you committed to doing this new thing that you've now been doing for a minute, what did it feel like to step into that commitment? And be like, Yeah, I'm doing this, how did it feel?
Peter Stetina 16:32
Oh, gosh, it was really exciting at first. You know, when the news broke, it was gratifying. I mean, the it created, it resonated deeply. Worldwide, it was
it was pretty cool. You know, it was, and it was by design to make a splash because I knew it could also go the other way. So you know, I kind of sat on, I kept my cards close to my chest for a while. And I reached out to a journalist that I knew and trusted, that wouldn't skew my words that wouldn't take it and spin it a different way that I, that liked me, I liked him, we had a good report. And I said, I've got a story with you. But you got to promise to help me out on this one. Like, you know, I really care about the final product of this because the rest of my career is riding on this. And that was Andrew hood over at VeloNews at the time, and he does all the European correspondents. And he dropped that story. And it was it was pretty wild, there was a tidal wave it was I, he dropped it after I had gotten Canyon and Clif Bar and Shimano in my corner. So it was a story of not just oh, you know, I'm gonna go do some gravel racing, I'm gonna see what this is all about it was, I'm coming to do some gravel racing, I've got these three legitimate companies who already believe in me at my back, I'm going to be filling out the rest of the program and the racing schedule in the months to come. You know, and so it was a much more official jump with with intention behind it. And that resonated and all of a sudden, I started getting calls from over 50 companies on trying to align with me and that it was it was interesting, you know, it was it was a lot of attention very fast. And it became a trial by fire in marketing and agency and all the other business of it, which I you know, I had no experience with I had an agent my whole career,
Andrew Vontz 19:00
right? Yeah. And Pete, I can tell you've had a lot of media training, I can tell that you choose your words carefully. When you speak, I'm going to shake you around. To get some other words out of you. This is
Peter Stetina 19:11
almost gotten canceled enough times like this. I want to I want to keep my streak alive.
Andrew Vontz 19:16
Please. Not gotta I gotta ask though, once you had that whole apparatus, did supports a world tour level athlete, which, you know, that's similar to what you would see in any professional sport, where you've got handlers, you have experts for everything, then you're on your own, you're doing this thing. I have to imagine that companies supporting you are still providing a different form of some of that support. Suddenly, though, you know, it's not a team. It's not the Tour de France. You are the product and what you mediate becomes the product. So how you talk about yourself on social media, you know what videos you're making, that type of stuff becomes almost as important if not more important, than your actual athletic performance. Listen, I want to dig into that, like, what does that feel like when you make that shift? And did it feel the same? Or did it feel different than when you were an athlete in the world tour?
Peter Stetina 20:13
Yeah, um, I guess my product kind of just quickly became, like, bringing high performance sharing high performance and being open. And, and no more secrets, really, I mean, because these, these events are mass participation based and folks were trying to glean information they can to have their best shot at finishing unbound or whatever these crazy hard races are. And, you know, in the world tour, I had gotten fed up with the secrecy, the backstabbing tactics, the, you know, lie, cheat, beg, borrow, steal to get ahead. And that's, that's what road cycling Europe really is. It's by any means necessary. And I was just so sick of it, I was like, you know, we, I want to ride hard, I want to race my hardest, but like, not at the expense of just being a good person. And sharing what I've gleaned over my career in the world tour. So that was kind of my product. And, you know, I found companies that aligned in that vision with me, you know, it was
you know, I didn't want to just take a salary to peddle a product, there had to be
an organic relationship and a, an actual true angle, to tell instead of just false advertising, it just, and I think it was just, you know, your whole career in the world tour, you're just given you sign with a team. And it's like, these are our portfolio sponsors, you represent them, these are the best things you've ever had, you know, and then it changes every year, and you repeat that cycle. And so I think, you know, when I did leave the world tour, there was probably a little bit of disenchantment at the whole system. And it is it was me being like, I'm just going to be real for a minute. And I had the opportunity due to that move, making a splash to align with and, you know, partner with companies that that actually shared a real story. So that was kind of the direction I took it.
Andrew Vontz 22:44
What were you like, as a kid? Where were you?
Peter Stetina 22:48
I was just highly competitive. If you wanted to race me and peeling an orange I would have, we would have set a timer and peel an orange as fast as we could. Every sport possible. Yeah, it was pretty cutthroat. Pretty intense. Type A? Yeah.
Andrew Vontz 23:08
Where do you get that from?
Peter Stetina 23:10
No, that's my dad. He was the same. My dad was a pro in the 70s and early 80s. Yeah, the whole set nicklen this setting aside of, of my family is a very intense sporting family. For sure.
Andrew Vontz 23:25
Did you feel pressure when you were a kid?
Peter Stetina 23:28
No, no, I was never pressured. A lot of people think that I was pushed into this sport because my dad and my uncle were pros, but I found it on my own. And then once I decided to start bike racing, there was that the family history and connections to to rely on
Andrew Vontz 23:49
so Pete's let's say Pete's 13 years old. What are you listening to on your disk map?
Peter Stetina 23:57
Oh, gosh. 13 That's like what Middle School? Are we are you in middle school on your 13 She got in high school yet?
Andrew Vontz 24:09
You know, depends to be gifted.
Peter Stetina 24:11
Oh, man. Definitely not what it is now. Gosh, at that age, I remember Limp Biscuit. I remember that blue Dhaba D song being popular than the Eiffel 65 You remember that one? Sure. I'm blue. dabit
DMX everything. It didn't matter. It was. I guess alt rock is that 90s alt rock? Okay. You know 13
Andrew Vontz 24:44
nicely just thrown on some corn getting fired up before a race.
Peter Stetina 24:49
One falling away from me. Yeah, I can do that. A little angry now though. I don't go that way anymore. But
Andrew Vontz 24:56
yeah, and were you into anything besides cycling as You started to get competitive with it like were you playing music? were you drawing? Were you doing anything like that?
Peter Stetina 25:05
I was just doing every other sport. I was running competitively. I was playing soccer till I was 17. It was just energy, energy output all the time. Do you
Andrew Vontz 25:13
think Pete? It's 17? In whatever level you were at in soccer? Could you have taken down Remco? At 17? In soccer?
Peter Stetina 25:22
I don't know. I think Rambo was kind of a soccer star, wasn't he? Yeah, he
Andrew Vontz 25:25
was. Yeah. No, I
Peter Stetina 25:27
was not. I was. I was a very good runner. So they would just put me in the midfield and have me chase balls. But they didn't want me to kick the actual ball. So yeah, yeah. Okay. So that hand eye coordination was I was good at exercising not games. Let's put it that way. Yeah, the opposite of Kenny powers.
Andrew Vontz 25:46
Got it? So you know, I'm curious, in particular about this kind of creative domain because now, yes, there's the are your values aligned with the brand's you work with and that type of thing. But also, like, you're in front of the camera, you're doing all kinds of creative work constantly. It's got to be at least half of your job. So how do you think that part of your job?
Peter Stetina 26:09
I enjoy it now. I think it's fun.
Andrew Vontz 26:12
How did it started out? You say you enjoy it. Now? How did that start out for you?
Peter Stetina 26:18
Well, I and I never didn't enjoy it. I guess it just it was just a learning curve. And, you know, it's once I kind of went down this way, you know, it was always something you kind of put up with from a sponsor on a road team, and, you know, hey, we're doing a video or there's a film team following this or that, like, you kind of got used to a camera around you. But, you know, it really was, you know, once I started this, this private to your project is the term I use for it is it you know, I got, you know, with some new Medpartners, like, they put a lot of marketing effort behind me to this was the new flashy thing, and it was just trying to be a sponge and absorb it and understanding, you know, I got I learned a lot from some very good marketing professionals, especially, you know, I would actually say, professionally, maybe the, it was a very good thing, the pandemic happened to my career, because, you know, my first gravel year was 2020, I left the world tour at the end of 2019. And I basically came in as like, I'm gonna race gravel, like at a high level, and then all of a sudden, race has stopped happening. So I felt a burden to provide some sort of ROI for those that went out on this branch and supported me. And how was I going to do that? And so I had to get creative really fast. And luckily, a lot of partners in the bike industry was also like, how the hell are we going to, you know, you know, make things flashy? How are we going to market? How are we going to use Pete that, you know, we, you know, lined up with like, and so, so I got to learn kind of marketing in the business of cycling a lot more during 2020 had it? What if it was a real year? Or, you know what I mean?
Andrew Vontz 28:23
Totally. Is that when is that when you did the White Room fk T? Or what
Peter Stetina 28:27
was Yeah, yeah, I quickly fell in love with fk T's, which was not really a such a discussion point yet in cycling, it was kind of, you know, someone would talk about it occasionally. But I really kind of made that a big focus.
Andrew Vontz 28:42
Yeah, and when you did, man, I remember watching that video because you tried it once and like barely missed, right?
Peter Stetina 28:47
Yeah. Yeah, that one hurt.
Andrew Vontz 28:50
How close were you to getting the fkT the first time you tried it?
Peter Stetina 28:54
Yeah, I went out there. And I think I missed it by like 616 seconds or something in a five and a half hour effort. And you don't know You know, it's it's all you know, just GPS based. And you just, you just crossed an arbitrary point in the desert and then you it's not until you get service that you upload it and whatever the GPS says. And it was like that was my big like, sporting effort of 2020 without races happening. So I just kind of stood on it for an hour or two and just decided to do it again. I wasn't gonna I couldn't go home yet, you know, unfinished business.
Andrew Vontz 29:41
I remember when I watched that video because I know a thing or two about GPS technology. And I remember thinking that the the margin of missing that fk T very well could have been GPS drift and if you're listening yeah familiar with GPS drift. What happens is sometimes what's supposed to be a specific point in time and space is not picked out up by the GPS and I'm going to call out someone I know. Dorsey. I don't know if you know Ed Dorsey, he's he's famous.
Peter Stetina 30:14
I have the clam tam clams.
Andrew Vontz 30:20
Of course, you know, you know. Yeah, yeah. So So Edie is famous though the world over from Bristol to the Bay Area, and has the Kom, which is the fastest time up the arc Wello gate segment entering the Presidio from the Richmond side. And Edward probably dispute this, but it's I'm 100% sure it was GPS drift that enabled him to go it's like five seconds or something that you can fact check me on this. But that's what I thought when I watched the video was yeah, it's very this very well could have been GPS drift that took Pete down, but you handled it very well. You got back out there. Right.
Peter Stetina 31:01
Oh, man. Yeah, I did. That was. That's the thing, though, is, you know, it's if you are if you get lucky and win a race that you probably didn't have a good shot at. It's not like there's an asterix next to your name saying like, hey, the other favorites crashed out. You know, it's just the bottom line is the result is the result. So, you know, at Dorsey is the rightful kom owner of our grello Hills sprint. Gotta give it to Tina, there.
Andrew Vontz 31:33
All right. I'm gonna check in with that after this and do some aftercare. Alright, so Pete, since you've started the project, some other things have changed, too. So you had twins, correct?
Peter Stetina 31:44
We do we have 13 month old twins.
Andrew Vontz 31:48
How did that change the project?
Peter Stetina 31:51
Oh, I just Yeah, I mean, parenting, you can probably relate all this son. You know, your your body is second priority. And, you know, and that's, I think that's a hard thing when your job as a professional athlete is your body and having newborns is really bad for your health. But it's something that we've always wanted. And it was not an easy road for us to get there either. So we're having a damn good time. It's been a challenging road. So far, some medical hiccups, but we're, we're still we're still in it. So. But yeah, it's, it's forcing me to prioritize quality over quantity even more. And professionally. Learning how to say no, you know, there's kind of that that tactic, especially 2020 2021 was just yes to everything, just get myself out there, get what I'm doing out there, you know, not in like a self righteous way, but really trying to carry a gravel torch, so to speak, like, you know, for my own, you know, hopeful success in the future of the discipline, just like really push it and promote it. And now, it's doing great. And at the same time, I can't take on as much so I need to focus on on the things that are the best bang for my buck races and projects.
Andrew Vontz 33:35
At home. What kind of pro athlete Dad, are you? Are you the Hey, I'm going over to the guestroom, and I'm going to be sleeping 10 hours, just go ahead and take care of it, or are you participating and doing this?
Peter Stetina 33:49
No, you know, I, I never wanted to be the dad that, you know, came home from training ride and played with the kids for 30 minutes, and then went and focused on this other stuff, keeping your eyes out. So I want to be an invested parent, it's, it breaks me my stretching bodily care time is from nine to 10. If I have any energy left, once they're asleep, and the dishes are done, and all that, my wife, I will say she, you know, carries carries the big burden still and is juggling her own career. So it's a it's a team effort. But no, I want to be a major part in their life. And you know, and we're learning. It is definitely not perfect. You know, I was doing the sea otter classic this year. This is a, you know, one of the bigger mountain bike races in the US. And it's this whole festival around it and camping at the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. You know, hundreds of 1000s of people there and it's one of the more important mountain bike races now. And so we were like, oh, let's make it you know, the baby's first camping trip, you know, And the thing is, I have this big fancy Sprinter van that I sleep in, and I traveled all my races in and you can't put a crib in there, you know, they still need walls and, you know, the fancy mattresses and stuff. And so it was like, okay, you know, let's buy one of those stupid Rei eight by eight tents that you can stand up inside, you know, like, family camping tent. And so we pitch that. And, you know, we have the cribs in there, both cribs and an air mattress for my wife and I. And, you know, we're just looking at this nice fancy van with heat on these cold nights, but we're in the tent together. First two nights go, okay. The third night, and the night before the most important race. I hate we'd have to get up early. So you know, I'm like, Okay, I'm going to sleep in the van. So my 4am alarm for race meal isn't going to wake the family up, I'll actually get one decent night, my wife will be in the tent with the kids. And it just got so cold. And there wasn't my body heat in the tent as well. And I remember hearing them just crying my son crying at like 2am in the morning. And I was like, you know, I opened the van door. I'm like, what's going on. And you know, my wife trying not to bug me is like, rocking this baby not sleeping in a tent in the middle of the night. And so I just said, Get the hell in here, you know. And so we somehow rigged my son's crib on the van for curiously but stable enough that he's okay. And then we have, you know, basically a full mattress in those bands, maybe a twin. We put my daughter in the middle and my wife and I each had one section, the width of our shoulders to lay just like a mummy. So if our daughter would roll into one of us, we would notice so she wouldn't suffocate herself. And she also wouldn't fall off the bed. And so that was my, my pre race sleep. And the race didn't go very well at all. Really, I learned that one the hard way. And then everyone got sick afterwards as well. So starting to learn that maybe the family doesn't come to the most important races, we can do the adventure stuff together. But yeah,
Andrew Vontz 37:24
perfect. Would you woke up, like fully woke up that morning to actually do the race? Did you look at your sleep score and, you know, your various phases,
Peter Stetina 37:33
I tried playing with that thing. I'm not a fan of it, because it's just a number that mindfuck you like the reality is the reality. And it doesn't matter if there's a number telling you it's good or bad, you still gotta get on with the day. I played with it all during January for a dry January thing to try you know this, see how I really love craft beer. It's one of my favorite passions, besides biking. And they're not the best combination for each other. But, you know, I so I went dry January, and I had the sleep tracker, and I tried, you know, watching it all. And my biggest takeaways with the whole sleep score thing was parenting is way worse for your health than alcohol or any substance. It's, it is really bad for your performance. And second of all, even if you have a crappy number, you can still perform really well. You just got to toughen up really. I mean, I had some of my best workouts in numbers. And I would be you know, mindfuck being like, Oh, I had a yellow or a red night like maybe I shouldn't push and then I would just be like, I just got to get it done. And it was like, Oh, it was fine. So
Andrew Vontz 38:55
yeah, it's not a great feeling the week of a race or the morning of a race if you if you have one of those devices and you look at the recovery score that happened to me. I
Peter Stetina 39:03
did psych yourself out. Yeah, yeah, I
Andrew Vontz 39:06
did recipe to gravel racing. Oh, yeah. A lot earlier in the year.
Peter Stetina 39:10
I would love to make it there. One year hydration. Great lady.
Andrew Vontz 39:14
It's a it's a great race. Candidly, I felt super guilty about not being around to help my family that weekend. My wife was super cool and was like, Hey, you should totally go do this thing. I just kind of I didn't feel good about it. I didn't sleep well, the day before my. Yeah, my my recovery score was like 18%. And then I got a bad night's sleep. I accidentally looked at it and even mean to look at it. It was yeah, like red and I was like, oh, yeah, once it's once it's in your head, man.
Peter Stetina 39:43
Yeah. And then you're suffering a few hours later and you're like, I shouldn't be suffering because you know, I wouldn't be suffering if it was green or Yeah, it's on. It's all the things right. It's all these this glut of information we have at our fingertips like the step tracker now like you If you get your 10,000 steps, it doesn't mean you get to go. You know, binge eat ice cream or something like that's normal living like it's what you should be doing in the first place. And so it's just, I don't know, it's,
Andrew Vontz 40:16
yeah, it would be awesome. If it did mean, you could go binge eat ice cream. I actually love doing that. I think that's one of the best parts of life. But I feel you.
Peter Stetina 40:24
That's why I exercise really hard half the time is so I can eat.
Andrew Vontz 40:28
Yeah. So you mentioned so you've gotten much more selective about races. So when you think about what you're going to go spend time out on the road doing now? What are you looking for in those experiences? Other than there are certain races? And I'm sure you have to Yeah, the lifetime Grand Prix stuff. Right?
Peter Stetina 40:44
You know, it's yeah, this is something I've really struggled on over the last few years is because gravel is extremely professional now, like the sport has exploded to the point where, oh, there's a major part of it is just highperformance pro racing, the whole stories communal aspect thing is it's not mandatory, I guess, which is fine. Like, that's, that's great that you don't have to also be a content creator to make a living in this space. But the racing has come become so performance oriented, that, and the industry has kind of, for the most part, almost reverted back to just pedal your bike as hard as you can, will take care of the rest. And, for me, that's why I left the world tour to I was, you know, disillusioned with that. And not to say that that's wrong for anyone who really just does want to compete, and that's what they find their value in. But I realized, for me, I was just getting pulled back into my old pro habits. And if I did that, I should have just stayed on the road in Europe. And so for me, I need to continue to remember why I came here and I and that's the balance, right? And that's understanding why gravel boomed in the first place, that magic roll recipe of a hard day of actual race still have the communal extracurricular festivities around it all. And so for me, I build my calendar very consciously of a mix. Because not every race has that now, some races such as the Grand Prix is our performance only, you just you have to be selfish and think about yourself, like a world tour rider, because the other guys that I'm trying to beat are doing that. But if I can find some of the other races, where wear that very mocked term, that spirit of gravel is alive and well, then I can fill my cup, so to speak there. And then when I show up to a race where it's just about the result, I can kind of flip that mental switch and be like, alright, it's just business time. And that's, that's how I am able to manage it internally. So for me, it is a blend,
Andrew Vontz 43:30
right? So for, I mean, you described yourself as a kid as somebody, you're sitting at a lunch table, somebody's got a ton orange, you're gonna you're gonna have a race to see the orange the fastest. So, and then darker This is now the experience is very important to you. And I gotta imagine that kid who wants to peel oranges faster than anybody else is still inside of you. And in particularly in this current season, when Keegan Swenson who I've also had on the pod. Yeah, he's winning everything. Like number one, how does that feel? And what's going on with the level? We're, I mean, man, he went Leadville by once like 15 minutes.
Peter Stetina 44:12
I think more that would be five I don't know. Yeah, it was nuts. Yeah, yeah. Keegan is he is on one this year. He is a level above it's impressive to see and it's also it to me it's even more astounding in that just the consistency you know, like I had a season like that in 2021 or it just I feel like I just couldn't do wrong and it always ends like that's just sport and evolution you know, like dynasties crumble and and he's still doing it. So just the fact that he's never getting sick. He's never having a mechanical or a flat tire. Like that's what's really impressive. And it is, you know, driving me a bit crazy like I feel like I shouldn't I want to go toe to toe with him. But I'm kind of on the other end of the spectrum where I'm dealing with, you know, my kids getting sick and a bike mishap or whatever it is, right? So I just got to, you know, trust the process that it's cyclical, you know, the cycle of life and sport, he'll come around, but all the respect to him, he's putting it together, and he's having a good time doing it. Yeah,
Andrew Vontz 45:25
do you? I mean, do you see yourself? Do you want to go back in the direction of I like, I'm gonna have a clean sweep in 2024? Is that we're headed? Like, are you gonna run the table in 24? Man, I'm giving you the chance to call your shot.
Peter Stetina 45:40
I'm, I'm very competitive still. But again, it's, it's within reason, just because the way my life is, I there's certain things that can't give, namely family. Right. And, and I, the, the best learned lesson I've learned is a happy racers a fast racer, you know, and I learned that early if I was sitting in Europe alone, and my wife was back home, and I was just trying to do everything right for the race, and you just, you're not happy in the end, and the legs follow the head. So I got to do it my way. And that's how I've had the most success in my life to date. You know, I still want to race as hard as I can. I realize I'm in my late 30s. Now, so gravel is an endurance sport, I can keep going a while. But I also know that, you know, it's, it's just different. You know, I'm got a family. And I'm competing against these guys who just want to only race and gravel has an avenue where you can do that right now. So I can't call anyone out and say that they're wrong. Like if Keegan just wants to race, that's great for him. I mean, when I was 27, I was sitting in a hotel on some mountain in Switzerland, trying to make the tour team and eating carrots to make weight, right, like I played that game, so I can't fault anyone for it. But I'm still very competitive. And I love racing. So I mean, I'm also not going to just roll over, like I'm not coasting it in and just trying to be an influencer either. which I hate. I'm an athlete first and foremost. Yeah. I think I think I got a couple of wins in may still just wait.
Andrew Vontz 47:27
Yeah, I think you do, too. Pete, we have to go back to this what you just shared about nibbling on carrots in a hotel? Like, what? What other ludicrous things did you do when you were in the world tour? You know, to make weight or whatever, like, was there a lot of pressure just from a watts per kg? Oh, yeah.
Peter Stetina 47:45
Yeah, that's just I mean, and the science has changed so much, right? I feel like if I knew, I know now, what I or if I knew, then what I know now. Yeah, I I'm really good at just tongue twister myself in this interview, I'm usually not this bad. I'm sorry. But um, you know, if I knew then what I know. Now. I feel like I would be a much better writer. You know, it's but that's that's experience. And that's life. You know, hindsight is always 2020. So, I would definitely do things differently. But yeah, you know, there's, there's so many little tricks and tips and optimization. And it's, it really is a monastic lifestyle. And I think it grates on you eventually. I think a lot of people burn out more from the lifestyle than the racing. You know, there's that there's a lot of prominent Americans who hung it up early due to that, I think. So yeah,
Andrew Vontz 48:45
it seems like you can get a pretty distorted view of reality and identity from being in that kind of context. And, you know, just looking at Remco I'm gonna pull at the Vuelta right now. And you just going and living on a volcano six months out of the year, and just coming down from the mountain, just to show up at these races where the pressure on that that guy has to, I mean, it's a men's particularly you only do
Peter Stetina 49:10
that so long, you know, it's I mean, you know, that's the attitude of, you know, cycling is life. And I think that's honorable in some people's minds. It's a valiant effort, but I think other people see it as like you just lost the plot like there's no balance and you know, I'm used to be the former and now I'm the ladder kind of in that regard, but that's also what it takes to perform at that level. So yeah, but then in You see, when it crumbles, you know, it's like, Well, I hope he has support systems in place. So you know, depression and all that doesn't follow you like the pressure and the self pressure and the dedication is so extreme at that level. That's probably the hardest part.
Andrew Vontz 50:03
Yeah, and I think particularly as an American fan of the sport, and I do think that this goes for gravel as well as the World Tour, all people who follow the sport are saying Are these tiny slivers of who these people are as human beings? And then they feel very comfortable making these broad, sweeping judgments about what they might actually be like. I don't know. I don't know what Rob COEs actually like as a human being. I've never spent time around him. I've seen him. race bikes on TV. I've heard him on a couple of podcasts. The same goes for you. I don't know how to really know you. Like I've seen your social media. I followed your racing career. And yeah, you know, so. And I think one aspect of that, particularly with you being out in the van part of the time, people have a lot of perception about hey, like, what is this van life like we're in? I mean, gosh, we're well into the second decade of the van life thing. In what ways is van life not what people might think it is like?
Peter Stetina 51:08
Yeah, it's it's definitely painted on Instagram, and the internet is this like romantic nomadic life. I could never first of all, it's not a full time thing for me, like, you know, we have a house in Northern California, the van is a work vehicle, but it is a work vehicle that I spend an obscene amount of time and, you know, it's a way to travel with all the gear that you need for all these races and all the replacement gear and everything. And often to these very rural places, and driving across rural places on the way to get there, that opens up an avenue for adventure. So I think for me, the the best part is having having being able to explore along the way really, it's, it's, I've been able to see the world on a different angle. And by that, I mean I've kind of been able to the van allows you to customize travel to your lifestyle, you know, so for me, I can do my training ride hanging out with my family until dinner time. And then once the kids are down for bed, if I have an eight hour drive ahead of me, I can drive in the dead hours from you know, post dinner until I'm ready to crash, sleep somewhere on some rural highway, do a spin in some place that I probably would never think of writing, explore some dirt road, wake up, bang out a few hours with my coffee if I like and then get to my destination instead of being beholden to plane and train times or whatever it is, you know, it's flying just sucks. You're on someone else's time schedule, you have to get to the airport early and check in this amount early. And you just kind of lose a whole day with the van you can kind of do the travel during the in betweens, which is what I really like, you know, the, the unglamorous things there's just like all the other issues of namely just poop and I mean, you always got to find a toilet. You didn't real? Yeah, the the the in Van toilet systems are still not even the fanciest RVs. Like it's just not is not good. Like, you know, so? Yeah, invest in a good poop scoop. I would say that. What else? I know, I really do enjoy it though. But just for you know, a couple of weeks at a time.
Andrew Vontz 53:43
Yeah. sage advice, sage advice. So is you think about, you know, what's ahead and what you haven't done yet that you want to achieve in this part of your career. And then maybe you want to go where do you want to go next? Like what's on your mind? What are the next couple of years is going to look like for Pete?
Peter Stetina 54:02
Well, I can't give everything away because you know, it's competitive environment still, and everyone's trying to find their niche. So if I give it all away, someone's gonna get to it before me, man. I have thought about the future. I still love racing. I want to do it for a little bit more. You know, professionally, there's definitely some races that I have yet to knock off, you know, and unbound is one of them. You know, that's the biggest gravel race in the world. And I've been second and third and seventh fair and something so, you know, I feel like there's a few things missing. And there's a couple other races like that, but those are they're internally driven, which is nice. You know, I understand that. My career isn't really going to change if I went and unbound at this point, you know, I've kind of established myself in this gravel space. I have nice long term deals with some partners and, you know, I future ideas within that. And, you know, it's, that's not going to I don't have like a gravel race, it's a make or break for me anymore. And I don't say that in that, like, I'm relaxed and taking my foot off the gas. It's just I'm trying, as you said, Be logical and think about it and realize the situation there isn't that industry pressure anymore, but there's the internal desire, that's maybe it's just getting something more for myself and out of myself. You know, as as the future and the sport changes, and I get older, I do think it's just going to continue to get faster, I'm going to start to get older and older. So you know, maybe I start to pivot to another angle within this. And I don't know where that is. Maybe that's more long endurance. Maybe it is more content, although I still like the balance of both of those. Maybe more fk T's
Andrew Vontz 56:11
could be a painter DJ, that seems to be a popular direction. Right.
Peter Stetina 56:16
Is it popular? Who's a DJ?
Andrew Vontz 56:20
TJ Eisenhardt. Taylor, Finney?
Peter Stetina 56:22
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They're they're really good at that, though. I don't. Yeah, I would.
Andrew Vontz 56:28
Your competitive guy, he could be good at those things.
Peter Stetina 56:32
I think like being competitive and a painter are like, the antithesis of each other. Is there I think competitions is their speed painting.
Speaker 3 56:43
I think that a lot of competitive painter. Definitely.
Andrew Vontz 56:49
So Pete, you do you have to live this kind of super public life, it's part of your job. What do you think people misunderstand about who you are?
Peter Stetina 57:00
Um, I don't know. I don't know what people misunderstand. I try to be very real and open. But obviously, you don't share everything. Instagram is a filter. And everyone needs to always remember that you share what you want. And I realized that I think humility is an important part of humanity. So sometimes I will share personal things. But also at the same time, it's kind of funny that in the world, we live in the same that no bikes, no likes is very true as well. Put a picture of your bike on a VISTA and you're gonna get a lot more than talking about your twins man. Which is sad. It makes me sad with you know, pop culture, but at the same time, that's the reality. You know, Instagram isn't a pastime. For me, it's a business, it's part of my job. And in that regard, it starts to lose some. Some of its ular sometimes, but, but I but I can enjoy it too, sometimes. But yeah, you know, I don't know, what people think, you know, I think we live in this world where it's just, you know, 22nd clips, you know, you're scrolling fast, and you just, you want to get like the quick note and then move on. So, you know, I think the people who really do care about me who are truly interested will, you know, read through and see things that I put out and have a picture of me. And then there's also a lot of people who, you know, read a story about the feed zone situation last year, you know, there was this race, and there was a feed zone thing, and some guys raced differently than was the norm. And I lost my cool at them, you know, and I said something online, which you've never should do, that's never a good idea in the first place. But you know, sometimes it happens, and we're actually all friends. You know, like, it's not an issue in pros anymore, but due to that one internet blow up, I still get regular messages about you know, the old crusty Pro, like, pissed at the young guys like, Oh, what is someone gonna do? Like, if Pete can't have his snacks? You know, it's like, people see that one little blurb and then they they have their opinion. And that's that, which is frustrating, but I wish people would actually like read what I put out there sometimes.
Andrew Vontz 59:38
So it's the case that amongst you all the group of kind of elite competitors at the pro level and gravel at Lifetime Grand Prix BW or these other events, is there so there's still some camaraderie you all are friendly?
Peter Stetina 59:53
Yeah. Yeah, you're not friends with everyone. But we all get along. I mean, there's a there's a big mutual respect there. I mean, I don't I can't say have any enemies. So, yeah, I mean, Keegan and I were good we text regularly patients the same. Curious to see what they're up to and vice versa but you know, there's also competition there. You're also kind of seeing like, Oh, what are they up to? That's also really cool what they're up to. So yeah, and then some of the guys I'm actually very, very close with like Keo reinen and Alex house and Boswell. So.
Andrew Vontz 1:00:27
Right? It's what do you think about Wout and in VDP, racing gravel Worlds this year.
Peter Stetina 1:00:35
Good for them. I mean, those guys are that they're those generational athletes that can just do everything and they have off road experience. So that'll be really, really interesting. You know, I won't be there as more of a political stance. I mean, there's just I am very anti UCI still from my experience on the road with that so you know, I it'll be a great show. And and I I'll be watching it out of interest. But yeah, I mean, I hope it's that they want to go in their teams just aren't telling them to go.
Andrew Vontz 1:01:16
Yeah, I have no idea. I'm not I don't have any inside track on either. Those guys, I get the feeling Matthew Vanderpool because he didn't win the mountain bike world championship, probably, you know, in his sick quest for power probably wants to get maybe the gravel world champion, then I'm sure it will go for the cyclocross world championship again,
Peter Stetina 1:01:38
you know, what I just hope is that it's an actual gravel race this time, you know, last year it was a glorified road race, they basically just created a Estrada Bianchi, which is a road race with dirt sectors. And it was just a, it was almost like a marketing gimmick to have like, some really famous road racers there and put them off road a little bit. And so I'm like, you know, I've been championing and pushing this discipline, and it is its own discipline now. And now the UCI has tried to come in and just be like, Oh, cool. Okay, we're gonna do it this way. And we're going to be the authority on that. And it's like, no, so I just, I hope that it looks and feels like what the other gravel races are, what the discipline actually is. And last year, wasn't that so. And, you know, they're still they haven't even announced the course they've had organizer changes. They don't even know how long it's going to be, what town specifically it's going to be in or any of that yet, and we're less than a month out. So I'm still pessimistic on the whole organization of the whole thing. Because it would be a very different story if, and I would love it if Wow, or Matthew came to Unbound, but that's a whole different game of this is what gravel racing is right now. Like you have to protect your bike gear with tire plugs, aid stations, fixing your bike outside of the aid stations yourself and all this other stuff rationing food, instead of having a team car buffet behind you, or a short circuit circuit where there's bottle hand ups every half an hour, you know it's it's it's it's I want a gravel Nash World Championship to be a gravel race, not a road race off road, if that makes sense.
Andrew Vontz 1:03:32
Yeah, it completely makes sense. I've talked to I've talked about this a bit on this podcast and on beyond the peloton, which is a pro cycling Analysis podcast, I co host with Spencer Martin. And I mean, to me kind of the trajectory of gravel. It really feels like it's directly paralleling what I saw happen. I got into mountain biking in the late 80s and then you know, followed the whole boom with norba getting big then there was UCI World Championship net over and Greg Herbold winning and I think what we saw at that time is America pretty much invented the sport we had really cool back country courses that were point to point gigantic loops that euros came over they started dominating the sport for whatever reason. And then it went back to Europe for the Grundig UCI World Cups those races became you know, I think the the race that was in Madrid It was basically in a city park and it was like, I don't know if like a three mile loop and then that's the direction that went over time and now we have where cross country mountain biking
Peter Stetina 1:04:37
and it's glorified short track now really? Yeah, not the norba big mountain course is that is the core of mountain biking, right this big mountain loop with fun climb and a wild descent. It's yeah, it it is unrecognizable. And I think I think that's what the UCI is doing with gravel, you know they're gonna put it in to their box in their template that makes sense for them. A lot of the courses in Europe, in their gravel races that they are sanctioning over in Europe, they are circuit based already. I think a little bit of that is just cultural because there's less big, massive open spaces in Europe. So you got to work with what you got, so to speak. But I do think there are, you're correct in drawing a lot of those parallels. And I think a lot of people because mountain biking was that change was generally recent. I mean, that change was happening when I was a junior racer, I remember racing norba big mountain circuits. I think a lot of people at least stateside are protecting it and and the races that are really flourishing still are done in the way that it's boomed in the first place.
Andrew Vontz 1:05:57
I also think that's part of what's you know, whether people love it or hate it part of what I really like about the lifetime Grand Prix. And also what's happening with the BW R series. It's just creating a center of gravity that's drawing so many new participants into the sport. And then at the professional level, I think it's creating something really intriguing. And as we're kind of talking about at the beginning of this conversation, while the entertainment product, which at this point is primarily just little clips from an iPhone on Instagram stories, you know, it's not on GCN. But I tell you what, I really look forward to watching that series of Instagram stories during the race or at the end of the day. It's awesome. Love that these races are happening here. And that it's cultivating this really interesting, kind of hybrid pro cyclist athlete, right. It's cool. I love it.
Peter Stetina 1:06:49
Yeah, it's really interesting, you know, especially with the Grand Prix, just being an off road series. It's not gravel or mountain bike or anything. It's just off road racing. You got to kind of do everything. And it's it's cool that there's good riders from international stages coming here. You know, they're coming to us because this is the place it's going down. You know, that's really fun right now.
Andrew Vontz 1:07:13
Yeah, absolutely. Well, Pete, thanks so much for taking time to do this. today. I wanted to jump back to you know, you mentioned something about how your Instagram audience bikes get likes. I've got to connect you with my friend Blake. Kazmaier. He's been on the show a few times. We we did the unbound 100 I guess we did it twice. We got second and third both times we did it this is for back before like Sargon
Peter Stetina 1:07:39
it doesn't matter. As I said there's no Asterix saying you got second and third down, man.
Andrew Vontz 1:07:45
It was cool. I wish I had one of course. I also I'm quite competitive myself. But nonetheless, Blake has exploded as a dad influencer. So he actually his dad life. I mean, this guy. I tell you, we got to get him back on here. Maybe we'll maybe we'll do something. Maybe we'll do an episode with a couple of people with some dads. You can get
Peter Stetina 1:08:08
me some tips.
Andrew Vontz 1:08:10
Oh, yeah. I mean, he went in, like 18 months. He went from maybe 1000 Instagram followers. I think he's like 160,000 now and he's getting 20,000 likes on his little short stories he's doing about Dad life. And he's doing awesome. So if you want to, if you want to learn more about that dad influencer game, I can connect you to Blake today. He's a great guy. Yeah, thanks. Yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for being here, Pete and good luck with the kids and getting a good night's sleep and keeping that van running because we all know the oil change is quite expensive and a sprinter van.
Peter Stetina 1:08:46
Oh, god. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Appreciate it. Thanks for the chat. I enjoyed it.