Bottom Bracket Biking is a new Iowa cycling podcast

Posted Mar 4, 2021
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A biking couple who hopes to inspire new bikers, connect with those who already love riding dirt and gravel, and promote Midwest mountain biking even though there are no mountains

Bottom Bracket Biking (B3) is a podcast by Jen and Anthony Herrera that talks about cycling in Iowa, bike trips, and events.

It was created in the Spring of 2020 as a way to reach out to casual riders and encourage them to get more involved in the bike community. Anthony was listening to bike podcasts where discussions centered around race events happening thousands of miles away, or how to achieve peak performance for hardcore riders. After seeing the influx of bikers due to the pandemic, he wanted to make something that those new riders could listen to without being overwhelmed by talk of finding their FTP, getting perfect nutrition, and spending days at bike races. Bottom Bracket Biking’s message was set up to be much simpler: get out, ride, and have fun.

Although Jen and Anthony love mountain biking, the podcast also covers gravel riding, and provides tips for people to ride in different weather - episode 16 discussed cold weather clothing and many people used this information to ride more on all surfaces in the cold Iowa winter. Episodes have covered what you need to know to start mountain biking; mountain bike trips to Bentonville, AR and Moab, UT; several Iowa gravel rides and races; snow biking and grooming; and more.

Find them on any podcast listener as Bottom Bracket Biking. The episodes are published every other week on Monday morning.

About Anthony

Anthony discovered mountain biking in 2012 and dove head-first into the sport. Quite literally, he woke up one day and decided he was going to mountain bike. Living in Knoxville, Iowa this proved rather challenging. Thankfully, his girlfriend Jen worked at the public library and they had just received a book on how to mountain bike - Brian Lopes’ “Master Mountain Bike Skills”. It took him a while to find the trails but once he did, he was driving an hour to Des Moines multiple times a week to bike. He rides gravel as well, but singletrack will always be his first choice.

Regardless of location, Anthony has two modes: stop and fast. When he’s not riding, he can be found programming for Corteva or building prototypes in his basement lair. One of his recent passions is getting trail condition reports to decide when trails are dry enough to ride. Knowing this information allows more people to ride while doing less potential damage. Anthony also spends hours out on the trails doing maintenance and upgrades, both of his own accord and as a board member for the Central Iowa Trail Association. He is the tech master behind the podcast - editing the podcast, setting up the recording equipment and making sure the audio is good enough to publish.

About Jen

Jen’s approach to biking has been slower all around. She took a while to really embrace mountain biking, and has been known to stop in the middle of a ride simply to enjoy the view. This is a fact that Anthony has learned to live with…. reluctantly. After following Anthony to mountain bike races for two years, she figured she might as well give it a try and won Cat 3 women's category that year.

Her focus for the last year has been on building new skills, which has been fun, rewarding, and only minorly bloody. She has gone from nervously doing bridges and drops to repeatedly doing jumps and skinnies. Jen is also an ambassador for Fearless Women of Dirt and serves as secretary for the Central Iowa Trail Association. She works in construction project management but maintains a deep love of the written word, spending free time both reading and writing fiction. Jen runs B3’s social media for most part - if you message us, it’s likely she would be the one you’ll hear back from.