Owning my moonshot

I decided to apply for the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix. Here is what I put on my application:

Oct 23, 2024

Hello and happy hump day.

October is a ripe time for hope amongst cyclists everywhere, especially from those of the competitive variety. The previous year is firmly in the books and planning for the next round of racing is in full swing. This year, October has hit me with more excitement than ever, and that is not an exaggeration. If you don’t know, I live in Arizona now and the weather is turning to its good side, so the miles are ticking up as I get excited about finding what I am calling “fossilized gains” – or, better known as the fitness that I had years ago that life has since obscured in the past three seasons of false starts and imperfect form.

Conversely, in the words of Michael Scott, you could say I am ready to get hurt again.

With that gusto putting a whole bunch of wind in my sails, I have decided to chuck my name in the hat of the Life Time Grand Prix selection process. Now, I should say that I think I have a near-zero percent chance of getting into the series. Nevertheless, I am putting my name into the selection process so I can make a run at the wild card places that are available after the Sea Otter and Unbound events, the first two stops of the Grand Prix.

As it turns out, the Life Time Grand Prix application has a few interesting prompts that spurred me on to write a fair few words on the applicant's view of cycling, cycling in the United States, and creative ways to approach the project of being an elite cyclist. So I decided I would just run it here as well as a way of bringing you all into the process and perhaps owning my goals in a tangible way.

The following are the prompts and my answers from the Life Time Grand Prix application.

Life Time: Why do you want to be a part of the Life Time Grand Prix?

Logan: I believe I have so much to give the Life Time Grand Prix as an athlete who is well suited to combining athletic performance and journalistic storytelling, which would help elevate what I see as the most exciting racing series in the United States.

What is the proudest RESULT of your career based on performance and why?

In 2018 I finished 7th in the USAC junior road national championships. While seventh at a junior race seems on paper to be a fading result without a ton of significance to who I am now, I still take a lot from that race to this day, for better or for worse.

I am a believer that it is impossible to race over your potential, and that day was one where I lived up to my talent despite a complicated race situation. A break of six was up the road and I decided to attack after they had a gap. Over the final two laps of the race I nearly managed to catch the leaders and was able to hold off the charging peloton. While it was only 7th, I knew that I had the strength for more and I was incredibly proud as I reviewed to let the negative aspect of the racing restrict my attacking spirit.

What is the proudest performance of your career based on integrity and perseverance and why?

In Unbound 2021, I had three flats in the first 25 miles. Lots of riders had flats around the same time, but mine were tough to manage. In the end, I had around 20 minutes of stopped time before the first aid station where I crossed the timing mat in 100th place. Nevertheless, I was feeling good that day and most of all resilient. Unbound that year was a chance, and I knew I had to make an impression with that chance. So I got to proverbially stomping on the pedals and checking off folks in front of me.

In the end, I made it to 19th place. As a 21-year-old, I was floored by my ability to put together an effort that was just a few minutes of stopped time away from the top ten at the biggest gravel race in the world. It was the ride where I persevered in the face of bad luck and had the fortitude to remain steadfast even if the effort seemed futile. At the time, I thought that would be the launch of a great career and resilience was my big takeaway. Ultimately, the next three years have not been what I wanted. Far from it, actually, as life has gotten in the way around every turn. But, the resilience is still there and I am just chomping at the bit to go back and dip back into that resilient well once again.

Read more: Unbound 2021 – Redux

What does growth in US Cycling Fandom mean to you?

Frankly, the growth of US Cycling Fandom has been one of my central professional pursuits ever since I graduated from college in May of 2023. Firstly with my work at GCN, my job was to find and elevate stories from this side of the Atlantic to tap into what makes fans here tick. It was fascinating to engage with the North American audience in that in-depth way, both by writing different stories and by analyzing how those stories resonated with audiences. But that was just the beginning.

After my stint at GCN ended, I got even more up close and personal with the growth of US Cycling fandom through my work with the American Criterium Cup as I was able to go to every made criterium in the United States and try to produce content that would engage the potential audience of American bike racing. Through that period of work, I found a huge sense of optimism around American cycling, especially in the unique events that stay close to their humble upbringings. The Life Time Grand Prix certainly has that mix and I would love to be a part of it.

How do you feel like you can contribute to the growth of cycling?

As a journalist and a cyclist, I believe I have a huge capacity to contribute to the growth of cycling here in the United States and abroad. I have tried to help elevate gravel racing by writing many stories on the sport, but what have been the most exciting projects have been where I have been able to harness my passion for cycling into relatable stories that engage the cycling audience with the parts of cycling I enjoy. Building stories around my cycling, in all facets of the process of racing here in North America, would be a great way of furthering this project and this goal of growing the sport in my own way.

Which event in the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix excites you the most, and why?

Sea Otter Gravel is a super appealing target since the idea of a punchy sea-level gravel race in April is catnip for a racer from Phoenix, Arizona. After years of feeling as if I have not lived up to my potential, I am super excited to have the ability to focus much more on training and preparation for 2025 this winter with good weather and a more stable job situation.

With that in mind, I am planning on treating March and April like the middle of peak to improve my results early in the calendar and hopefully build momentum at a higher level of performance compared to previous seasons. I believe wholeheartedly that a big change in my standing in the competitive landscape can begin with a good result at Sea Otter.

Are there any other reasons you feel you should be selected as a participant of the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix?

The Life Time Grand Prix has been overwhelmingly successful in its first three seasons, but what is missing is some aspects of unique personal storytelling from participants, especially around things like technical choices and training. For the top riders, this is intentional and needed as the best riders are trying to maximize their setups to get an advantage over their competitors. But it does leave fans in the dark about some of the things that I, as an athlete and a journalist, find incredibly compelling.

As an LTGP athlete, I would hide none of those aspects. Instead, I would make that the central part of the story and hopefully publish many of those stories in some of the biggest outlets in the cycling world as a freelance journalist who has worked with most of the top outlets already. What’s more, I would try to do the season with minimal sponsors. Without having a full slate of sponsors, I would have the platform and license to use the LTGP schedule and events as a testing ground to create meaningful stories and reviews around products and concepts in the tech world as well.

Throughout the next season, regardless of my status as a Life Time athlete or just a fan, I am going to be taking time to write about the process in a detailed way, either here or in other cycling outlets. It is a fantastic way to tell stories and delve into the intricacies of this new off-road emphasis in North American cycling and I am excited to bring you all with me. Thanks for reading, and I am excited to take you along this dusty road.

If you’re keen to follow along, click the subscribe button below! I do appreciate the support.

For your eyes and ears

It is officially slow news season. But what is not slow is the Rodeo Adventure Labs podcast which is cooking. Recently, I delved into all the ins and outs of what standard shifts like the new move to UDH via the SRAM XPLR group mean to small bike brands with a few of the key characters at the Lab.
Sepp Kuss fandom never dies, even after a less-than-perfect season. The new dad got the Rouleur treatment in a feature I enjoyed recently, check it out here.
Criterium racing is something I have thought of a lot this year. Arguably, I have thought about it too much. As a result of that thinking, I ended up on a podcast about crits and if we have reached the peak of them yet. It was a pretty interesting conversation that you can find here.

A side of something else

You ever consume some media and think, “wow, how did that guy make something this wacky and silly and good and professional?” Well, I have most recently had that feeling (with a run-on sentence with too many ‘ands’ being the most accurate way to describe my internal feelings about it, don’t doubt me I promise you I am being genuine) about the podcast series called 60 songs that explain the 90’s: the 2000’s.

Rob Harvillia really came up with a concept that was too good for its name that he has had to not only add the number of songs from the nineties beyond 60 (there were ultimately well over a hundred) and also add potentially three more decades of year ranges to the series. Yeah, it’s that good I promise you. He is just so weird but in a cool not corny way. Just check out how he talked about the song Mr. Brightside by the Killers and you will know exactly what I mean.