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Joe Petrowski: Quitting Rocket Science to Be a Pro Cyclist in France

Release Date: 04/24/2024

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

More Episodes

Joe Petrowski landed a great job as an aerospace engineer right out of college. Then he got the bike racing bug. People told him to stick with his demonstrably awesome, impressive and very high paying gig. Instead, he quit to go live in at times dismal conditions to be a pro cyclist, first in the UK then in France. And if you’re not familiar with domestic pro cycling in France, teams there are known for their extremely old school, hardcore and at times totalitarian approaches.

Joe had some great times and also often wondered if he had made a huge mistake and what the hell he was doing. He never stepped up to the World Tour, the highest level of the sport.

And years later, he thinks going for it as a pro cyclist is one of the best and most important decisions he ever made.

Eventually he left pro cycling and went into computer science, high frequency trading and to what he does now, working on the decentralized web at polkadot.

People who stop doing the thing people who are not them tell them they should do to go do the thing they know they have to do intrigue me. That’s Joe.

Don’t forget, you’re the hero in your story, you are writing it every day, and when you hear the call to adventure, listen. It is after all, your story.

Choose the Hard Way is the podcast about how hard things build stronger humans who have more fun.

This episode is brought to you by The Better Lab. Sleep is the greatest performance enhancer on the planet and the science to improve sleep is straightforward. Putting it into action on your own can be challenging. That’s why I co-founded The Better Lab to help active people like you mindfully build conscious, science-backed practices to sleep better that stick. It’s just what works to help you get great sleep and you can get started today at www.thebetterlab.io.

I make this podcast available for free and all I ask is that you go to the show page for Choose the Hard Way on iTunes and Spotify and hit 5 stars. To be in touch, DM me @hardwaypod on Instagram or email [email protected]. Find Joe at https://petrow.ski/.

Thanks to our sponsor The Better Lab

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