Ep. 122 - Cameron Jones - Unbound Gravel 2025 Champion
Choose the Hard Way
Cameron Jones won the 2025 edition of the 205-mile Unbound Gravel, the most competitive edition ever of the most prestigious gravel race on the planet. Three months earlier, he showed up in America, walked into a used car dealership in the Bay Area, walked off the lot with a used Honda Odyssey and a dream to make this his best season ever. But these aren’t the most interesting parts of his story. Cameron has done stints in the forestry industry and in his teens back in New Zealand was an elite mutli-sport athlete who knocked the arm warmers off the best athletes in New Zealand in...
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One Hour to Train - What do you do? w/ Spencer Martin of Beyond the Peloton / WEDU x Andrew Vontz of Choose the Hard Way
Choose the Hard Way
You've got an hour or less to train, what do you do? Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton newsletter & podcast + WEDU's Outcomes / The Move takes a break from the Tour de France to join Choose the Hard Way creator Andrew Vontz to talk about what they do when life and work are at max stress and you have little time to workout. Is Zone 2 really the right move if you have a few hours a week to train and you're a cyclist, runner or triathlete with a long training history and navigating highly stressful moments in work, family and life? Should you follow a rigid...
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Tom Perriello: Congressman, Special Envoy - United States of Sweat
Choose the Hard Way
Welcome back to United States of Sweat presented by Choose the Hard Way where politicians and policymakers join us to share stories about fitness, health and the sports they love playing. In 2008 Tom Perriello won the election to represent Virginia’s 5th Congressional district by fewer than 1,000 votes. He later ran for governor of Virginia and he also served as Special Envoy for Sudan and Special Envoy for the Democratic Republic of the Congo & Great Lakes among many other acts of service. Marathons, 10-day silent retreats, Spartan Races & what happens when you’re...
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United States of Sweat with Ambassador Jeff Flake - Desert Island Survival, Long-Distance Swimming & More
Choose the Hard Way
During a divided time in America, our love of sports and fitness cross party lines and can keep us healthy as individuals and bring us together as a nation. The United States of Sweat is a new series from Choose the Hard Way that features the world’s leading political leaders and policy makers sharing stories about what they do to stay healthy, fit and physically active. When we decided to launch the United States of Sweat, we knew the first guest we wanted to land was an endurance athlete of a different kind, Ambassador Jeff Flake. Ambassador Flake recently served as...
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From Start up to End up - From The Better Lab to One Real Voice & Beyond - Andrew Vontz x Shannon Jones
Choose the Hard Way
Subscribe to the Choose the Hard Way substack at for a look behind the scenes of this episode and human-generated insights about bikes, zen and life. Walking away from an executive role at a high-growth unicorn to go all-in & start up your own company sounds cool. What happens when a highly promising start up with an awesome product becomes an end up and your funding and life savings are gone? This episode is an inside look at Choose the Hard Way creator Andrew Vontz’s journey as co-founder of the venture-backed sleep tech startup The Better Lab, how that experience spawned...
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Pro Cyclist Chase Wark pt. 1 - Mega Mid South FKT
Choose the Hard Way
Pro gravel cyclist Chase Wark joins me today to talk about setting the fastest known time on the 300-mile Mega Mid South gravel loop after wildfires devastated the Stillwater, Oklahoma area and cancelled the Mid South gravel race. Find Chase @chasethebiker on Instagram. I wrote a story with my thoughts and reflections on the interview you’ll hear today on my substack. Find that at . That link is in the show notes & you can also find it in my bio @hardwaypod on Instagram. The #1 thing you can do to support this show is to subscribe to my substack and if you’d like me to...
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Harry Sweeny - Pro Cycling & High Performance Living
Choose the Hard Way
The #1 thing you can do to support this podcast is to subscribe to the Choose the Hard Way substack. Just go to substack and search for ‘Choose the Hard Way’ or go to and hit subscribe today. That’s where Andrew Vontz writes about bikes, zen and life + shares his reflections on conversations with guests on the Choose the Hard Way podcast and more. rides for the EF Education-Easy Post World Tour team in the biggest races in pro cycling and his YouTube channel tells the story of his life as a pro cyclist, semi-pro chef and adventurer. Harry also shares about his journey...
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Christopher Blevins - the World Champion & Olympian on Mindfulness + the Transformative Power of Community & Bikes
Choose the Hard Way
Christopher Blevins is a mindfulness practitioner who builds community and a more inclusive and healthy world through bikes. He’s one of the best professional mountain bikers America has ever produced and one of the best in the world. He has won the Cape Epic and taken gold in the mountain bike world championships in the short track and cross-country mixed relay disciplines. He has also won UCI World Cups in the short track and cross country disciplines. Outside of bike racing, Christopher has a wide range of interests. He started his own production company, produces and performs music and...
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Rewind: Olympic Gold Medalist Kristen Faulkner - The Power of Positive Risk Taking, Why She Walked Away from Her Dream Job & the Path to Pro Cycling Success
Choose the Hard Way
Kristen Faulkner is an American pro cyclist who won the gold medal in the women’s cycling road race at the Paris Olympics in truly stunning fashion, surpassing two of the most dominant racers in the sport with a bold attack that left them looking at each other while she drilled it to victory. It’s one of my favorite bike races I’ve ever watched. If you want to know what it took for Kristen to get to her gold medal moment, this episode is for you. Remember in life and sport, everything changes. No risks, no champagne. This episode is a replay of my 2023 conversation with Kristen and...
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Cory Richards pt. 2 - the Legendary Alpinist & Nat Geo Photographer on his new book 'The Color of Everything' - Rising, Falling & Beginning Again
Choose the Hard Way
A student struggling with his practice once asked the zen master Shunryu Suzuki to boil down Buddhism into a single phrase. Suzuki thought for a moment, then he responded: everything changes. This is part two of my conversation with Cory Richards about his memoir, The Color of Everything. Cory is bipolar and at different moments in his life he has been famous, homeless, institutionalized and an addict. He has climbed Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, he won the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year award and he has traveled the planet adventuring and shooting for Nat Geo....
info_outlineMichael Marckx is the founder and CEO of the Belgian Waffle Ride, one of the biggest and most influential multi-surface, gravelish series in the world. He’s a prime mover behind what has become today’s booming gravel scene and wow, this guy has lived what would be 20 lives the average human.
We talk everything that went into the birth of the BWR including Michael’s time as CEO of a publicly traded company, his other career as a professional musician, his other other career as a professional triathlete during the golden age of the sport when Kenny Souza had unrivaled hair and Mark Allen and Dave Scott were battling it out for the Ironman and Michael’s childhood in an environment where running marathons when you were 12 was normal.
Most importantly, we talk about why you should pick something hard to do with friends and go do it. That’s what I did last fall when I did the BWR Kansas Wafer with the No Pressure No Diamonds crew and got a taste of the Belgian Waffle magic then swore I would never go back and am now going back.
Choose the Hard Way is the show about how hard things build stronger humans who have more fun.
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We are in year six of Choose the Hard Way and it’s going to be a big one with some amazing guests and the chance for us to spend some time together as a community at a few gatherings and live events.
To make it all happen I’m open to mission-aligned sponsors I’d be proud to share with my audience directly supporting the show this season. If you or someone you know have a company that wants to reach the high-achieving, high-influence, highly networked people who listen to this show and do amazing things, then send a DM to @hardwaypod or email us at [email protected].
I’m also ready to retire the Giant TCX cyclocross bike I’ve been using to race gravel since 2015 and I’m ready for a new ride. If you’re in the industry and work for a company that makes an amazing bike you’d like me to race and talk about this year, holler at me and let’s make it happen.
Finally, I’m going to have big news to share some time in the next few episodes about the business I started that I’ve quietly been working on for the past 18 months. We are getting ready to publicly release our product and I want to give you all the opportunity to be among the first to get to try it.
Go to choosethehardway.com to sign up for the newsletter and if there’s someone you think would make a great guest, DM @hardwaypod or send an email to [email protected].
To learn more about BWR go to @belgianwaffleride and you can find Michael gram’ing @ibemmx.