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The Sunscreen Brand That's Rewriting Performance Science

Second Nature June 12, 2026

About this episode

Tom Austen is the founder of Pelotan, the world's first sun performance brand, and co-founder of Chance, a trail running apparel brand he's building with pro athlete and serial entrepreneur Christian Meier. Both brands are based in Girona, Spain — a two-square-kilometer pocket of world-class endurance athletes, cafes, and startups that's become the Boulder of Europe.

In this conversation, Tom walks through how Pelotan went from a sunburn problem on training rides to winning two Tour de Frances with Team Sky in its first year, and how the brand is now pioneering something entirely new: treating the sun as a performance variable rather than just a health risk. He also gets into the Chance origin story, why cross-pollination across categories is the key to building something original, and what it's like to run two high-growth startups at the same time from a city of 100,000 people.

Show Notes:

Popfly for Athletes/Creators: https://popf.ly/secondnaturecreators

Popfly for Brands: https://popf.ly/secondnaturebrands

Tom Austen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomausten1/

Pelotan: https://pelotan.cc/

Chance Running: https://chancerunning.com/

Second Nature - Sea Otter Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLk1LGIthPc

Christian Meier: https://www.instagram.com/christianmmeier/

The Gartner Hype Cycle: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwerner/2024/07/18/the-trough-of-disillusionment-and-four-outliers-on-the-gartner-hype-cycle/

Pelotan Apres Aftersun: https://pelotan.cc/products/pelotan-apres-200ml

Pelotan App for Second Nature listeners: https://pelotan.cc/secondnature

Broken Arrow Skyrace: https://www.brokenarrowskyrace.com/