Transcribed and edited by Peter McCormick

schmalz Today I’m with Brad Huff from Jelly Belly Presented by Kenda, and we’re going to peel the onion of Brad Huff. We’re going to get into Brad Huff’s entire world and find out where he came from and what makes him tick. Are you from that part of Missouri where they call it “Missou-ruh”?

Brad Huff  Everyone says Missouruh, Misery. I go with whatever. 

schmalz I lived in Kansas City, Missou-ree, and you get the people from the outer areas of …

Brad Huff  Missouruh!

schmalz It’s confusing because there’s the team, Mizzou, and then there’s Missourah, and Missouree. I think you guys are just trying to be sneaky. They’re all having a good joke on the rest of us.

Brad Huff  You’ve got to be in many places at once. You’ve got to make it seem bigger than it really is.

schmalz How does a kid from Missou-ruh get into bike racing? Were there a lot of other bike racers where you were?

Brad Huff  No. There were two kids who rode mountain bikes. I was older, and I wanted to get into riding mountain bikes with my friends, so the three of us started riding mountain bikes together. I stuck with it, and lo and behold, I turned professional ten years later.

schmalz But you didn’t do professional mountain bike racing did you?

Brad Huff  No. I was just a just an expert mountain biker.

schmalz Were you an athlete in high school?

Brad Huff  Yeah, I was your high school jock. I played football, basketball, track. I tried out for baseball four years in a row. I was a stellar athlete. Not really.

schmalz Did you apply those athletic talents to cycling?

Brad Huff  Yes, in a professional Spandex career.

schmalz I think all your high school coaches are just crying right now.

Brad Huff  I remember in my senior year, playing a football game on Friday night and doing a mountain bike race on Sunday, and being back in football practice on Monday.

schmalz That had to be murder. Weren’t you tired?

Brad Huff  I didn’t know any better. I just ate half a bag of Oreos and three glasses of whole milk and kept on going. 

schmalz That’s what you can do when you’re younger. Did you have to travel, too? In Missou-ruh you probably had to travel four hours or so.

Brad Huff  Exactly. Pretty much every race, be it road or mountain, is about a three hour drive for me. Luckily my parents were very supportive.

schmalz I assume it was a luxury Winnebago you were driving.

Brad Huff  It was a Family Suburban we rode in. It was baby blue, two-wheel drive. Then we upgraded to four-wheel drive.

schmalz Do people where you live recognize that you’re a professional athlete? Do they know?

Brad Huff  Not really. Just in the cycling world. Some individuals know I’m a professional cyclist living in the area. It’s not really a popular sport here in Missouri, with the masses, let’s say. St. Louis and Kansas City have pretty big cycling communities. In Springfield, it’s kind of growing. I’m kind of a secret professional here.

schmalz Are you in your off-season now?

The Beckoning Hawaii of Asia

Brad Huff  No, no. Jelly Belly likes to extend it, so we’re going to China; I leave this Friday. We have a ten-day stage race, the Tour of Hainan (October 11-19), “the Hawaii of Asia,” on the southern coast of China.

schmalz Sort of an exotic locale.

Brad Huff  Let me tell you, whenever you hear “the Hawaii of Asia,” it’s got to be exotic and enjoyable. 

schmalz I’m going to make the joke that you’re going to get lei’d when you get there.

Brad Huff  You know what? They don’t give us any leis. I was very disappointed.

schmalz That’s very un-Hawaiian of them. This is going to be your last stage race of the season, I’d hope. This seems as if it’s almost the beginning of next season, it’s so late.

Brad Huff  Yeah. It enables you to take a really serious break because you are tired. My teammate Kiel Reijnen, this will be his fourth trip to Asia this year. 

schmalz That’s a lot of food-borne illnesses to pick up.

Brad Huff  It’s almost a guarantee that you’ll pick up something. We’ve gotten pretty meticulous about our eating and hygiene over there; we try to figure out how to minimize that.

schmalz Needless to say, Brad, stay away from the meat.

Brad Huff  We don’t do much of anything. Just a lot of rice and pasta that hopefully we cook our selves. On my first trip over there, there was a lot of fried food, Snickers and eggs.

schmalz I think it was Usain Bolt, before he set the [100 and 200-meter track] record in China, was eating Chicken McNuggets. “What do you think you’re doing?” He said, “I know what’s in Chicken McNuggets.”

Brad Huff  Exactly.

schmalz So if all fails, go to a McDonalds.

Brad Huff  If you can find one, which I doubt.

schmalz After mountain biking, did you go to track or road, or did you mix it?

Rapid Success on Track

Brad Huff  I went into road and worked my way up through the road ranks slowly, and then in 2004 I actually got on a track bike for the first time. That helped spearhead me to bigger and better things.

schmalz This wasn’t at the Springfield Velodrome?

Brad Huff  No, there’s no Springfield Velodrome. This was at the 7-Eleven Velodrome, my first time ever on the track. I was in 2004, I took it up really quickly without any fixed-gear experience and I think my fifth time on the track ever I won national championship with one of my amateur teammates, Matt Stevens, back then It was a really neat experience after just getting on a track bike that soon.

schmalz The track community is not separate but it has its own little cliques –

Brad Huff  (Laughing) Separate but equal.

schmalz Did it piss off a lot of guys, your getting on a track bike for the fourth or fifth time?

Brad Huff  Yeah. Some people weren’t very happy about a new guy coming in, because there’s a pecking order and everyone looks at each other. We were two unknowns, myself and Matt Stevens. We won the Madison, which is one of the most technical events. It was really great; something I remembered for a long time. In 2005 I continued racing the track and the road and really just made my jump in 2005.

schmalz Would you recommend doing track and road in the same season?

Brad Huff  I would. It really enables a road cyclist to see everything in slow motion on the road. It gives them a better "court" vision, I like to say. You can see what’s happening in a race a lot more quickly and react a lot faster.

schmalz Since you’re a sprinter, in any sort of track event you’re going to be doing God knows how many sprints, because they do so many different formats of races. You have more sprint experience because you’re doing more sprints in a day.

Brad Huff  Exactly. You get your top end there, immediately. One thing I really learned in my short track years was that you can lose a lot of road fitness by riding the track too much, and that’s something I didn’t realize was happening. I rode the track too much and lost a lot of road fitness. I’d be very quick, but I wouldn’t have the endurance to make it in a road race.

One thing I really learned in my short track years was that you can lose a lot of road fitness by riding the track too much, and that’s something I didn’t realize was happening.

schmalz You were the crit champion in 2006?

Brad Huff  I was the 2005 Elite Champion and the 2006 Pro Champion.

schmalz That’s quite a feather in your cap, Brad.

Brad Huff  I’m trying to keep it there (bashful Midwestern chuckle).

The Big Crash

schmalz If you Google “Brad Huff,” there are a couple of Youtube videos of you having a terrible crash in the Tour of Missouri. Do you remember anything you want to talk about?

Brad Huff  Oh no, I remember all of it. It was a downhill fast sprint and I was in great position. I was just too close to the barriers and I just knocked handlebars with Dominique Rollin or he knocked handlebars with me; we don’t remember. He went into the open road and I went into the barriers. It was pretty quick.

I remember all of it. It was a downhill fast sprint and I was in great position. I was just too close to the barriers and I just knocked handlebars with Dominique Rollin or he knocked handlebars with me; we don’t remember.

schmalz You see the videos, and you just shoot into the barriers. If you ever want to have fun on Youtube sometime, you just put in Brad’s name and you’ll get really entertaining video. (video here)

Brad Huff  Yeah. You get a realization of how fast crashes can happen in professional cycling.

schmalz It seems as if you just lost it and careened into the barriers. What were the injuries you sustained there?

Brad Huff  The only thing I really hurt was a little knuckle or a bone in my hand. When I made a fist it was kind of swollen and hurting a little bit. To be honest, I didn’t get that much hurt. I’m lucky I have farm kid genes to withstand a blow like that. 

schmalz You can get kicked by large livestock, hit by a shovel, and a bike race is no big deal after that. Now, since you’re a field sprinter, is that just part of the deal? Sometimes you’re just going to eat it?

Brad Huff  Yeah, but you don’t want to; no one wants to crash, from a sprinter to a climber. Some of us handle it better than others. I’ve really tried not to do it as much as I can, but being an aggressive sprinter you put yourself in situations that could cause you possibly go down in order to win the race. I, like many sprinters, have crashed.

schmalz Have you ever been in an experience in a sprint where, afterward, you’re like, “Wow. I can’t believe I did that I have to go apologize to that guy.”

Brad Huff  No, I’ve never done anything maliciously, but I’ve definitely been in race where I couldn’t have made it to the finish line in a sprint. I’ve definitely had guys coming up to me, yelling and screaming. I look at them and I’m like, “Are you serious, man? What is wrong with you?” And to be truthful, I feel like I can do things that other people can’t, and my teammates will attest to it. The other sprinters get kind of freaked out and get upset, but that’s bike racing.

schmalz Do you have more courage, more handling skills, or what is it?

Reaction to Cornering

Brad Huff  Oh, I feel I can handle myself very well in a sprint, in corners. Some riders don’t like it that much, but that hasn’t happened that often. It was mainly, early in my career, I remember in the Tour of Langkawai, literally flying into the last corner in one of the sprints, and I went underneath some Pro Tour rider. He didn’t know what was happening. He comes screaming and yelling at me after the race. Mike Creed came up to me and he’s like, “Brad I don’t think he knows what American crit cornering is like and you just showed him that.”

I went underneath some Pro Tour rider. He didn’t know what was happening. He comes screaming and yelling at me after the race. … Mike Creed came up to me and he’s like, “Brad I don’t think he knows what American crit cornering is like and you just showed him that.”

schmalz Pro Tour riders and US Crit riders have a completely different attitude towards corners.

Brad Huff  Completely different. We’re used to dealing with four-corner or figure-eight crits all day long. They don’t really turn as much.

schmalz It’s funny, because even the kermesse races don’t have the same courses as crits. They’re so much bigger. [The kermesse riders] don’t have to do as much cornering and they don’t have to be as aggressive.

Brad Huff  Yeah. They’re definitely on horsepower and we’re on skill and a little bit less horsepower.

schmalz Yeah, and then you can scare the crap out of them when they go to different countries.

Brad Huff  It’s definitely helped me, being a criterium rider from the U.S.A. and having my small track experience. It’s really increased my ability to handle some situations. 

schmalz And you scare all the Europeans. You put up a hand and say, “U-S-A, U-S-A,” right?

Brad Huff  Yeah, while I’m passing them. Right.

The Hand-Holding Competition

schmalz Creed tells a story—I don’t know if it’s true—that involves you. You two were in a race somewhere and sometimes you hold hands and whoever let’s go first, loses. Is that a game you play?

Brad Huff  We’ve done it maybe twice. One was very successful; we actually were in a breakaway off the front while we were holding hands.

schmalz Did everyone just let you ride away?

Brad Huff  We couldn’t sustain our pace because we were laughing too hard, so we had to pull over to the side of the road and catch our breath. (modest Midwestern chuckling)

schmalz So who ended up blinking first? Who let go?

Brad Huff  Creed. Creed failed. A lot of talk.

schmalz A lot of talk but when it comes to hand-holding…

Brad Huff  Um-hmm.

schmalz What race was that?

Brad Huff  Joe Martin (Stage Race, Fayetteville AK), 2008.

schmalz In the early parts of some races you’ve got to amuse yourselves somehow.

Brad Huff   This was in the middle of the race. There was a solo death breakaway off the front and he and I were messing around and we ended up being the second breakaway for a little bit. We sat up; it was just  too comical.

schmalz Second on the road: Brad Huff and Mike Creed …

Brad Huff  … holding hands, we can’t tell who’s second or third on the road, but they’re together…

schmalz A dead heat. You also do the most annoying thing in the world, right?

Brad Huff   Yeah, we’ve done the most annoying thing in the world, which entails getting as close as you can to a rider and punching at him and within say five inches of his face and continuing to punch. I think you’ve had that experience.

schmalz I did experience the most annoying thing in the world. I think you did that to Andy and I was tempted to hit him in the back of the head while you punched him in the face.

Brad Huff  (Scandalized laughter) There’s rules, ok? Even though we have serious shenigans, there’s rules, and that’s not allowed.

schmalz (Clearly carried away) Because if I were to tap him on the back of the head you’d probably punch him two or three times before you realized.

Brad Huff  Yeah. You could get seriously hurt. We don’t want that.

schmalz It was a wish of mine, actually. 

Brad Huff  We never want to inflict real pain on people except perhaps Mike Friedman.

schmalz He has it coming. I assume he’s back on the Jelly Belly Presented by Kenda team again this year?

Brad Huff  No, he has signed with another team. I don’t know if it’s been publicized yet. To be determined. I don’t know if it’s super-secret but it will come out in a little bit.

schmalz After you’re done with your “Hawaii of China” race, are you just going to do nothing for a couple of weeks?

Looming Fast Food Decadence 

Brad Huff  Yeah, I’ll have the low-key, typical sedentary American lifestyle for at least two to three weeks. Lot of chips, lot of pizza, lots of hamburgers. That’ll entail Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Taco Bell.

schmalz When you start training again, will you start in Missouri?

Brad Huff  Yeah. Probably roller riding, because the winters here are kind of cold, icy and snowy.

schmalz And how’s the riding with the drivers down there?

Brad Huff  It’s not as bad as some people would think, being in the Ozarkean, redneck area. I have great roads to ride on even though I don’t have mountains like Colorado or California. I have inlet country roads. I definitely have some of the best riding in America, aside from climbs. I can go north, south, east, or west and be out of town in ten, twenty minutes. I can do a century anywhere I want. It’s great riding, here in Missouri.

schmalz I’m originally from Iowa, and we’ve always thought of Missouri as kind of like Iowa’s fireworks, lovin’ taint, because it’s kind of down below.

Brad Huff  We definitely love fireworks and we are all over your border towns, attempting to sell them to you. Discount! Blow Out! Only Today!

schmalz I’ve always wondered about the guy who drives the fireworks truck to the fireworks places, because it’s basically a semi full of fireworks.

Brad Huff  I would drive with a punk and a gross of bottle rockets sitting in the passenger seat, and I’d slowly light them off as I drove down the road.

schmalz Shoot them at anyone in a Volare. You should know better than to buy a Plymouth. (Mutual giggles). 

You had to be pretty excited when the Tour of Missouri came through?

How the Tour of Missouri Spread Excitement

Brad Huff  It was a spectacular event. I was sad to see it go away. To see the growth of it each year for the three years we had it; boy, it was commendable—just for the tourism in Missouri. You could see how it grew and grew, and more people were out there, people who weren’t even involved in cycling. I’d say I was a cyclist and people would ask me if I was doing the Tour of Missouri. They would tell me about how it was going through their town, or about how they were volunteers. It was a unique event and a great way to showcase Missouri, with some great roads to race on. 

On the now-deceased Tour of Missouri: You could see how it grew and grew, and more people were out there, people who weren’t even involved in cycling. 

schmalz You were the wily pro with all the inside information.

Brad Huff  I seemed to have a fan in every city.

schmalz Depending on what somebody needed, you knew where to eat, where the brothels were. You were like the tour guide for the state.

Brad Huff  One of my old teammates, Taylor Tolleson, called me the Mayor of Missouri.

schmalz Here’s a pack of firecrackers for you, Taylor. Don’t knock yourself out.

Brad Huff  Just don’t go over the border with these or you’re in trouble.

schmalz It seemed that Missouri put it together really well and I was surprised by that state doing it. I would have expected Massachusetts or Oregon—in Portland everyone’s so snobby; it’s, oh we love bike racing. So, where’s your tour of the state? There is none.

Brad Huff  You don’t have it and you won’t have it unless you really step up to the plate.

schmalz Where’s the Tour of Colorado? I don’t know. Missouri really did the Show Me thing. Are they thinking about putting it on again?

Brad Huff  They would love to. I think there’re too many political issues going on with it, turmoil between some of the politicians. It’s kind of sad to see it come to that. That shouldn’t be the reason they don’t have it. The tourism and economic impact was huge.

schmalz You had your chance to sprint against Cavendish, didn’t you?

Brad Huff  Not really. He came last year. I was in the race, but I had separated ribs from a crash at Downers Grove (IL) in the rain, and so I wasn’t able really to participate in the race. I was kind of holding on for dear life most of the time.

schmalz So you really didn’t have a chance to gauge how slow or fast or wily he is?

Brad Huff  Right. I would make it to five or ten k to go and then I just couldn’t go any more. I’d kind of get dropped, coasted. Separated ribs kind of inhibit one’s ability, really, to hold on the handlebars.

schmalz Or breathe. Now, do you train with a power meter or just go out and do it by feeling?

Brad Huff  I do all of the above. I enjoy riding with a power meter. You can live and die by one. It’s a great opportunity to train with one. You still have to do the hard work.

schmalz Are you a numbers cruncher with that sort of thing? Do you use a coach who give you specific programs?

Brad Huff  No. No. I kind of know the numbers I’m capable of hitting. I just go out and accumulate a certain number, a volume of time, a certain wattage. It comes down to that. Otherwise I use a heart-rate monitor and go out of the city for a couple of hours, come home, and feel like I did something.

schmalz Once the racing season starts, you just race, put your feet up and –

Brad Huff  Yeah. Race and recover. This year we didn’t race as much as we normally do. In 2009 I think every guy on the team had about 90 days of racing. This year we have about 40 or 50. It’s different when you don’t have that volume of racing. You have to rely on your old instincts from training. You don have to remember it again.

schmalz Are there local training races in Springfield?

Brad Huff  There isn’t. We have one training race and one crit a year, so if I’m going to do any training races I’m going to have to travel to them—usually Kansas City, St. Louis, Tulsa. 

schmalz Usually like a three-hour drive in any direction.

Brad Huff  Exactly. Three hours, no matter what you ride.

schmalz Have you been to the velodrome in St. Louis?

Brad Huff  I have. I’ve ridden it once.

schmalz That is a ghettodrome there, my friend.

Brad Huff  It is, it is a ghettodrome. They’re doing their best with what they have. They have state championships and training races.

schmalz I’ve been to the state championships there in the nineties. Holy cow!

Brad Huff  I think the smoothest line is on the stairs. Otherwise you’re going to get bopped on turn three.

schmalz You can get air on that track.

Brad Huff  Yeah, you can get air, not just by jumping off of turn four, that’s by staying on the pursuiter’s line.

schmalz That is one of the tracks where you could get yourself shot, definitely.

Brad Huff  That too. A lot of people are asked for money by the area kids.

schmalz If you do your power meter, what are your sprint numbers? The max you’ve ever done. Granted, that at the end of a race you’re going to be tired.

Brad Huff  At the end of the race it’s totally different, of course. They won’t hit their max numbers. They’ll barely crack a thousand in a sprint. But just going out and doing tiny little sprints in a training ride, my best ever is 1805 or 1807. I took a photo of it with my phone and I sent it to a couple of friends. Of course Friedman texted me, "Oh, look at me, I did 1805." I was like, OK, Mike, it’s mine.

schmalz And then you recalibrated your power meter.

Brad Huff  Right. And then I did 680.

schmalz And then you went into a deep funk. Well, cycling’s like that. For you, it’s a profession, where you’re tied up into the results of what your body can do. If it’s not going well, it’s kind of a bummer.

Brad Huff  It definitely kind of wears on you. People don’t realize how much riders, training and racing, depend on their mental state. Someone could have crap form but be feeling great about themselves and racing and come out on top. When you slow up and you’re not riding well, it can really bring you down. That’s where you, hopefully, rely on your teammates to bring you back up. 

People don’t realize how much riders, training and racing, depend on their mental state.

Brad Huff  Oh yeah, you’re more likely to put yourself in that situation; confidence is that you’re really able to pull through it. I’ve had plenty of times when I’ve felt terrible and my teammates have talked me through it, and not winning or not being in the top ten or top five.

BMX Memories

schmalz Were you a cycling fan growing up, Brad?

Brad Huff  No. I did the American bicycle racing, which is BMX.

schmalz So you had a whole different set of cycling idols growing up.

Brad Huff  Right: watching the quarter-pipe. I’d be an expert for three years but I didn’t know anything about cycling besides that. I just got into it when I was in high school.

schmalz If you were a good BMXer I’d guess you’d be a good switchover to the track or to sprinting, wouldn’t you?

Brad Huff  Yes and no. You’ve got to have a good snap and a pop, but a person still needs to have a good endurance capability too. Doing a one or two-minute BMX race is not the same as a sixty-minute crit or a five-hour road race.

schmalz And there’s also the shaving thing where you get your ass kicked by all your friends.

Brad Huff  Right. They "don’t take kindly to your folk around here."

schmalz It would be very awkward to show up to the race all shaved.

Brad Huff  "You don’t wear spandex around here unless you’ve got cut-off blue jeans and flip-flops."

schmalz Yeah, they don’t have clipless in BMX…

Brad Huff  There is now but when I did it there definitely was not. 

schmalz They have clipless in BMX now? Oh come on. That’s pathetic.

Brad Huff  Hey, if you’re going to jump that gate, you got to have torque.

schmalz So you’re at the gate and just holding yourself up with your clipless in?

Brad Huff  Yeah, they’re high-tech.

schmalz You’re destroying the memories I have of the BMX world.

Brad Huff  They can put out some amazing numbers for wattage.

schmalz Just to get into the air you have to have some speed going on there.

Brad Huff  You’ve got to have some speed and some pretty amazing skill to do it at that speed and land it and apply some power in between the whoop-do-whoops and the berm-zillas.

schmalz That’s something a Pro Tour rider is not going to attempt.

Brad Huff  No. There’s probably one or two who could possibly do it.

schmalz I think Oscar Freire strikes me as someone who could be a decent crit rider. 

Brad Huff  Oscar and Robbie McEwen would probably be great. Cavendish would be a great crit rider too, being a world champion on the track.

schmalz But definitely not the Schleck brothers.

Brad Huff   No! I think they’d break their collarbone just looking at it.

schmalz Well, they rode over some dirt and Frank ended up breaking his collarbone. They’d have no hope over any berms.

Brad Huff  Their bone density isn’t up to crit levels.

schmalz They don’t have the farm gene, as you called it. Brad, it’s been a pleasure.

Brad Huff  I hope you gained something productive out of this rambling.

schmalz I think we’ve found out that you enjoy holding hands with Mike Creed. I think we’ve found out that you have an abiding love of fireworks.

Brad Huff   I’ve done some bottle rocket wars in my day, but it’s been a while and I’ve got a punk scar on my chest. 

schmalz Let’s put it as a cautionary tale for the kids out there. Don’t do as Brad Brad Huff has done.

Brad Huff  Always wear your protective eyewear. Wear your helmet. Wash your hands. Have the proper paperwork.

schmalz And don’t eat the meat in China. Just have a suitcase full of food when you go to China.

Brad Huff   We actually do that. Three-fourths of our luggage is food.

schmalz You have a Pop-Tart carry-on?

Brad Huff  Pop-Tarts are coveted. "Oh my God, you have Pop-Tarts?! I’ll give you twenty bucks for one!"

schmalz Once you get overseas, you develop a prison type currency and Pop-Tarts are cigarettes. And you’re king of the cell block.

Brad Huff  Laughs. Last time we were overseas, my Aussie teammate didn’t have any and he said, "Oh, you have tarts! I didn’t bring any!" I gave him some of mine, and he was watching my back from then on.

schmalz Good luck with the upcoming season and stay away from the meat.