0:15

Hello, my name is Abby Mickey and

0:17

you're listening to the Wheel Talk podcast. I

0:19

am joined by my

0:22

amazing friends Gracie Elvin. Hello,

0:25

hello. I'm going to rush off

0:27

of commentating the first two stages of the Giro

0:29

at ungodly hours. Yeah,

0:31

a few late nights of commentating until

0:33

the first rest day. So I'm

0:35

feeling okay so far, but we've got a

0:37

big week to go. And

0:41

Lauren Rowney. G'day, g'day. I

0:43

think the commentary is a good

0:45

thing Gracie. It's just kind of prepping

0:47

you for those night hours that are

0:50

coming up potentially. I know,

0:52

I did think that. So I'm,

0:54

I think I'm nearly at 35 weeks

0:56

pregnant now and I still

0:58

feel okay, but I'm

1:01

so hot in that commentary box. My

1:03

core temperature is so much higher. I'm

1:05

just like sweating bullets. I'm taking shorts

1:07

into the studio and it's like cold

1:09

here now in Australia. And

1:13

but yeah, not, not struggling too much

1:15

yet, but definitely getting a bit

1:17

of a sense of being up late at night. We

1:21

have a great race to talk

1:23

about today. Love Well to Femminina.

1:25

We did a couple mid week

1:28

episodes after stages one and two

1:30

and four and six,

1:33

but we're going to talk about stage,

1:35

start off with stages seven and eight, and then

1:37

we're going to do a little overall round

1:41

up of some of the talking points of the race.

1:44

So a lot to cover today,

1:46

but hopefully we can do the

1:48

race justice. Let's start with stage

1:50

seven crosswinds that

1:53

I didn't expect, but love to see made

1:55

the race a little bit more exciting. A

1:58

lot of attacks in the end. And it was

2:00

Mary-Ann Avos who won her second stage of the

2:02

race. The first person to repeat a

2:05

win at this race, which I

2:07

think highlights just how good this

2:09

race was overall. But we

2:11

will definitely get to that in a

2:13

little bit. What do

2:16

you guys think? What do you think about stage seven? I

2:18

forgot that she done like the recap. So it was

2:20

like waiting for

2:23

like the full breakdown of the

2:25

whole tour, the stage backstage, you

2:27

know? Because we're Monday morning

2:29

now and it's kind of like you forget about

2:31

all the things that happened earlier

2:33

last week. Look, I can do that. You can't

2:35

do that. Oh, good. That's good.

2:38

I mean, I can't do that. Stage one, we had

2:40

an opening TTT. Little Trek took

2:42

the win. Even though two of their riders

2:44

crashed in with 300 meters to go,

2:46

they were two milliseconds ahead of Visma

2:48

Lisa bike with SU work coming in third,

2:50

one second down and Canyon

2:53

Sram took fourth. Then

2:55

on stage two, we thought we were

2:57

going into a pretty standard bunch sprint

2:59

only for there to be crashes, a

3:01

ton of crashes going into

3:04

the final three kilometers due to

3:06

slightly wet roads. Alison Jackson took

3:08

a amazing victory

3:10

ahead of Blanca boss who moved

3:13

into the red leaders jersey on

3:15

stage three. We had

3:18

a reduced bunch sprint again. This

3:21

one was the bunchiest sprint of the

3:24

race. I would say the most, the

3:26

most bunch sprint. We did have a couple riders

3:28

go down in the final three kilometers, but overall

3:31

it was pretty much a bunch sprint won by

3:33

Mary on a boss ahead of Charlotte of cool

3:35

with Olivia Barrell taking third. And

3:37

then on stage four, we had

3:40

crosswinds and this was the

3:42

day that really started to shake up

3:44

the general classification. Alison Faulkner won the

3:46

stage with an amazing late

3:48

race solo move that could not be

3:50

matched by Eliza Laga-Borgini who was on

3:52

her wheel at the time. She

3:55

wrote in solo with Georgia Baker coming in

3:57

second, Marianne of us third and Blanca boss

3:59

came in for. so she held on to

4:01

the red jersey. But

4:03

a ton of riders lost time, most

4:06

notably for the stage I'm about

4:08

to talk about. Evita Muzik lost

4:10

two minutes after missing those crosswinds, but

4:12

Leona Lippert also lost a bunch of

4:14

time. I'm sure we will talk about

4:17

her and Movistar in the general wrap-up.

4:19

Then we had the first mountaintop stage

4:21

of the day, two

4:24

category two climbs over

4:27

the final one-third of the race.

4:29

The stage was won by Demi Volering solo

4:31

28 seconds ahead of Yara Castellan

4:34

and Eliza Longaborgini. It was

4:37

the first real test

4:39

of the general classification. Demi

4:41

Volering took the red jersey. For stage

4:43

six we had another mountaintop finish. This

4:45

one was like a long

4:47

flat lead-in to one

4:50

big climb. Very

4:54

weird tactics went on on this stage.

4:58

What ended up happening was the climb was

5:00

a headwind. Evita Muzik was able

5:02

to hold on to Demi Volering and sprint

5:04

around her to take the win. Such

5:07

a great win. I'm a huge fan

5:10

of Evita Muzik and so I was

5:12

really happy to see it. Stage seven

5:15

was another quote flat

5:17

day, but not really and

5:20

ended with a 500 meter 11 percent

5:22

mini mire d'ouille as my husband called

5:24

it. It was won by a

5:27

group that came

5:30

into the line together. After crosswind split the

5:32

peloton a little bit,

5:34

not as big a time gaps today as

5:36

we saw on stage four,

5:38

but still some time gaps in

5:41

there including for Leona

5:45

Lippert again was caught behind the back

5:47

of a bunch of crosswinds. So

5:49

really not a good race

5:51

for Movistar. Again we'll talk about it

5:53

in a second. Won by Mary Ann Voss with Kristen

5:55

Faulkner taking second after leading up the entire climb. Boy

5:58

did she have one heck of a race. And

6:00

then the final stage was two

6:03

category one climbs in a 90

6:06

kilometer long race. It was a short one.

6:09

And two pretty hard climbs. The first

6:11

one, arguably the harder of the

6:13

two, but the second one was when Demi Vollring

6:16

went solo for the final six kilometers

6:18

to take a commanding win of the

6:20

stage and the general classification. Evita Music

6:22

was able to come in second on

6:24

that stage, 29 seconds behind, with Rhianna

6:26

Marcus coming in third, 33 seconds

6:29

behind, which bumped her up in the general classification

6:31

to second. That was a great

6:33

rundown. Thank you for refreshing my memory.

6:37

I will say that was about 70% memory. That's

6:42

impressive. I couldn't do

6:44

that even at my best. I'm not

6:46

functioning that way. Imagine

6:49

if I could put that kind of memory

6:52

memorization towards learning language.

6:55

Yes, you'd be fluent inside

6:57

different languages within a year. Good

6:59

job. Good job. I

7:02

think that's also good for the listeners. You're

7:04

fluent in cycling and that is a

7:06

global language. There you go. I'm

7:10

blushing. It

7:13

brings people together. It is. It's

7:16

a bit of a niche language to be fluent in,

7:18

but that's OK. Well, I mean, here

7:20

in Europe, definitely. I mean, in America and

7:22

Australia, a little less, you know, people would

7:24

think you're speaking gibberish, but

7:27

that's OK. We love it. We're here for

7:29

it. I guess there's not like a

7:31

ton because we didn't do individual pods for

7:33

for seven and eight. So I wanted to

7:35

dive into those like a little bit more

7:37

in depth. Not

7:39

a ton. Just like a couple

7:42

of minutes spent on those two

7:44

episodes or two stages. And I

7:46

think for stage seven, one of

7:48

the key things for me was

7:50

the the crosswinds really driven by

7:52

Elizalanga Borghini when the crosswinds hit.

7:56

She was the one who really went to the

7:58

front and tried to split it. It

8:00

was only about 30 seconds gap to

8:03

the group behind but that front group was

8:05

just fascinating in the way that they were

8:07

racing The attacks were

8:09

relentless coming into the finish and there

8:11

was definitely Moments where I thought

8:13

that it was not going to come down to that

8:15

group riding to the line But

8:17

in the end it did and

8:19

the effort by Kristin Faulkner going

8:21

up that climb was incredible I

8:23

think like she she basically did

8:25

a lead out for Voss with

8:27

Voss on your wheel on

8:30

a finish like that you're you're not

8:33

going to be able to take it from her, but She

8:36

did hold off a Lise Lang Borgini. So Just

8:39

such an incredible effort from her and

8:41

backing up her win of stage four with

8:43

this effort going into Nationals Which

8:46

is a huge decider for the Olympic

8:48

the second Olympic spot for the US

8:51

I think she's gonna be feeling

8:53

pretty good right now and EF

8:56

as well with with this I

8:59

mean another podium for them is a

9:01

fantastic result Stage eight

9:03

if unless you guys have anything bad

9:05

not really just there was a few

9:07

people that missed those splits in the

9:09

crosswinds that you know, like it's We

9:13

don't really see crosswinds that much anymore for

9:15

one reason or another So

9:18

I love it when we do see them But it's

9:20

it's still an important skill to have

9:22

as a cyclist And I

9:24

just feel like there was a few people that

9:26

were caught out or caught sleeping or something And

9:30

you just kind of fought that if you

9:32

especially if you're a GC writer Yeah, that's

9:34

exactly what I was thinking and particularly when

9:37

we look at Avita music I think

9:39

if she yeah had made

9:42

those splits because it was basically the

9:44

same people every time right? I mean

9:46

even me fish of luck tiny little

9:48

writer like herself was making the splits

9:51

I think did she make the split though? Yeah

9:55

Crosswinds say yeah stage seven Avita

9:57

also managed to make the crosswinds

10:00

split but stage four was definitely

10:02

like the the

10:04

biggest miss for FDJ

10:06

Suez and the

10:09

decider when it came to

10:12

Evita's general classification result but

10:15

that was but stage seven she

10:18

was she was more on top

10:20

of it she was there but the in

10:22

stage seven it was lip it wasn't it

10:24

that missed it and yeah yeah I still

10:26

feel like it's

10:29

lip it she was it's still

10:31

coming into form like she

10:33

had a good race not what we've

10:35

seen before but it's still coming

10:38

maybe as well her confidence in the bunch

10:40

because I would have said in the past lip it

10:42

would be a rider that would be making those

10:44

splits not someone who struggles with

10:46

these situations she's a very

10:49

well-rounded rider someone

10:51

who really lost out this week I think

10:53

as well with mother Garcia when

10:55

she missed that split I think

10:57

that really probably impacted as well

10:59

just her mindset because it

11:01

was very much at that

11:03

point okay it's done the GC because

11:07

Jekyll Lula they had a

11:09

decent TCT but they weren't

11:12

right up there in the mix so

11:15

she already lost some seconds on day one and

11:17

then to lose that huge chunk of time as

11:19

a GC contender would

11:22

have been very devastating you could definitely see it

11:24

in just her her body language on the bike

11:26

I thought but actually in terms

11:28

of the team results I thought

11:31

Jekyll Lula itself had a good

11:33

race the

11:35

young Norwegian rider again was up there

11:37

in the mix in the

11:39

bell gaskin and I thought

11:41

Georgia Baker was I've got a

11:43

whole list of riders I think that we

11:45

should definitely talk about it mention in the

11:48

store but Georgia Baker had a fantastic tour

11:50

too I mean she was making those split

11:52

she was right up there to get second

11:54

on that stage to it was Falkner I

11:56

think one and

11:59

beat Voss was a very strong

12:01

performance by her, particularly considering there was

12:03

that really hard climb before the finish.

12:05

So I just had that for

12:07

that team down. It was good to see them

12:09

up there. And they seemed pretty happy at the

12:12

end of the stage where it raced with how

12:14

they raced in general. Just a

12:16

shame in terms of GC for Garcia, but

12:18

then I guess Ingevel Gaskin

12:20

still kind of up there as

12:22

a GC contender too. We actually

12:24

have an audio diary from the

12:26

last stage with George Baker. So

12:28

let's hear that now. Hello,

12:31

it's Georgia from JCoAlulla. We

12:33

just finished stage eight and

12:35

the final stage is as well. We're

12:39

all very tired, but yeah,

12:41

really happy with the week that we've

12:43

had on the team. So

12:46

yeah, for a quick rundown of our stage today, it

12:49

was a really hard stage. It was a

12:51

very short one and an early

12:53

start. So the last

12:55

week we've been starting our stages around

12:57

one o'clock to 2pm. And today we

12:59

started at 10.30 and being

13:02

the final stage and early

13:04

alarm was a bit of a rude awakening

13:06

for everyone. But

13:08

yeah, so we were on the road racing before

13:12

11 and yeah, the

13:14

stage had

13:16

in store for us two really big

13:18

climbs, which we climbed up to 1800

13:20

altitude meters. And for

13:22

us, we were hoping to get Ingevel

13:25

and Marvi up the road into an

13:27

earlier break was an ideal scenario for

13:29

us. And Ingevel has been

13:31

climbing really well and also Marvi,

13:34

our Spanish champion, these

13:36

climbs suit her really well as well. So we

13:39

were hoping to set them up and

13:41

go for a really good stage result. And

13:44

yeah, so we started the stage and there was

13:46

lots of attacks. It was really aggressive and that

13:48

was one of my roles was to be present

13:51

in those attacks or to help initiate

13:54

moves that would set up

13:56

Ingevel and Marvi to potentially

13:59

then Get a the right arm.

14:01

We ended up with see okay

14:03

our another as us teammates. She

14:05

ends up in a really really

14:07

good breakaway which and stayed away.

14:10

Some most of the stage and

14:12

yes as she climbed really well

14:14

on. And via we. Had

14:17

it. had a really good team right? In the end. And

14:20

invalid climbs Yes, she says suso taught in.

14:23

Just let it all out there. and it

14:25

was one of those days where the legs

14:27

did little. He he does have to. Dig

14:31

deep on some A. My role was

14:33

was done pretty early. I tried to

14:35

climb the first climb on and find

14:37

a really good group and and climate

14:39

solid. I just wanted to finish the

14:41

wealth or off and the solid wake

14:43

of with. The. Like a post

14:46

on a positive note on and yes so

14:48

yeah. we're really happy with the ways that

14:50

we had with the teams. I think it's

14:52

one of my highlights. The same just how

14:54

are they working together? On

14:57

and it's just slowly. employees. From

14:59

station stage and it's. Really positive

15:01

was to got a load of icing left

15:04

in the year so I think that this

15:06

is really good momentum fast as a team

15:08

and yet we had some good results on

15:10

finishing. Of a second in the

15:12

States. And yes, It's the through

15:15

the positives on and Iran got

15:17

good energy by. Yeah, we're definitely

15:19

very tired now Enron. Can't wait

15:21

for some pizza tonight. Oh, and

15:23

just relax and guy harm them

15:26

on one on. The. It's been

15:28

a busy eight days on that's Who

15:30

Are and the start of the same

15:32

time Strauss feels. So. Long

15:34

ago on that. Yeah, everyone

15:36

still in really good mood

15:39

and. That's.

15:42

Pretty much little bit of a run down

15:44

from my end and from the team so

15:46

I hope you enjoyed. Yeah see we'll see

15:48

if it's of what it's like behind the

15:50

scenes with the team. And.

15:55

That was did good segue

15:57

nice Cj. was

16:00

hardest stage of the race I think

16:02

with the amount of elevation gain crammed

16:04

into a relatively short stage at 89.5

16:08

kilometers long. Two category one

16:10

climbs. The first one was

16:12

quite long and teams

16:14

tried to get riders up the road. There

16:17

was Voss was in there for

16:19

Marcus. They had Elena Chikini in

16:21

there for Demi. There was Brody

16:24

Chapman was in there and it was

16:26

a combination of riders with

16:28

teammates in the general classification and also

16:31

riders hoping for a result on

16:33

the stage like Sarah Gigante and Caroline

16:35

Swinkles was up there. Swinkles was

16:37

the last one standing as they finished

16:39

that first categorized climb. So the

16:42

plan to have riders in the valley

16:44

between the climbs didn't quite work out

16:47

but Swinkles just

16:49

highlighting what a great week she had

16:52

and then a group of favorites came

16:54

over the top of that climb and

16:56

went into the final ascent together. It

16:59

was kind of a pace making on the

17:01

front by Grace Brown incredible

17:03

riding by Grace Brown to make

17:05

it over that first climb and

17:07

then to be pacing on that

17:09

second climb for Avita. They just

17:11

did so it's just so

17:14

clear how well that team gels

17:16

together in that you

17:19

in that moment in a nutshell. You're like

17:21

okay they are all in for Avita. She's

17:23

not in the general classification conversation but

17:26

it's another stage that she could take and

17:28

yeah they did just such an

17:30

incredible ride for her and then with

17:33

six kilometers ago Demi was like meh

17:36

I don't think I'll wait and she rode

17:38

away and pretty effortlessly

17:41

left everyone in the dust. I think

17:43

some of the notable climbs on some

17:45

of the notable performances on the day

17:47

was again Avita music finishing second but

17:49

we're on a Marcus taking

17:51

third was a really incredible result for

17:53

her and in front of some really

17:55

strong climbers like Juliet LeBou is sixth,

17:58

Riccardo bound find fifth we definitely Need

18:00

to talk about her point iraq. As

18:02

we know she's A. She's a really

18:04

really good climbers. She came in forests

18:06

and for Marcus to finish in front

18:08

of those climbers was very notable. She's

18:11

and trying so hard to. Shift

18:13

her. Pipe.

18:16

Of rider from T T Specialist

18:18

dumb as seek to being a

18:20

Gc writer for live Bismol Lisa

18:23

bike and finishing second, finishing third

18:25

on this stage and finishing second

18:27

overall is just a sign that

18:30

things. Are coming together for her. So

18:32

that was. A really strong

18:34

climber another writer who was again in

18:37

the mix. On stage and eight the

18:39

final climb was Tim Caddo of Yep

18:41

Education Canada L. and we have an

18:44

audio diary from Kim so let's hear

18:46

that really quick. My

18:49

first. rental fellas. I'm

18:52

super super happy with how to played

18:54

our i came away with is hop

18:56

in in the general classification and am

18:59

a tough thing on say after grow

19:01

in day out in a mountaintop thinness.

19:03

I've never been so tired and my

19:06

life over goes really. Really put on

19:08

a so this way please. Has an

19:10

amazing time as the same

19:12

person coming away with a

19:14

second again yesterday Inside Seven.

19:17

Fan off the just eating

19:19

sandwiches. Those eyes super impressive.

19:21

She managed somehow eat a

19:23

sandwich while riding across. Wins

19:26

all day which is. Something

19:28

that I think is fucking Princes

19:30

and we had another nice hotel

19:32

he said in a star hotel

19:34

actually last night. Was

19:37

a functional coffee machines this morning, which

19:39

was an ideal for an early stage.

19:41

But we got there and then we all.

19:43

Got an Americano and the and

19:45

then and we all make person

19:48

sandwiches against the sage eight so

19:50

I made her nice healthy sandwich.

19:54

Because she was craving bridge for the

19:56

last two days. and

19:58

yeah the team really pretty good meal day and

20:01

I've had a super super time at

20:04

the Veralta. I think my new

20:06

enemy might be the wind but

20:08

I'm learning to ride it a

20:10

bit better. So yeah, happy days.

20:13

The rider of the day is definitely boring

20:15

who took the stage into her own hands

20:18

and kind of just

20:20

made it clear that she is

20:22

still the best climber

20:24

that we have in the women's peloton at

20:27

this moment. So that was that

20:29

was stage eight. Also I would like

20:31

to point out that I don't know if you can

20:33

tell that I'm sick but

20:37

I apologize for my

20:40

nasally stuffy voice this

20:42

episode and also the

20:44

last two episodes. I can't

20:46

shake this. I'm cold.

20:49

I haven't heard things to be honest about. I

20:54

feel ridiculous talking. Anyways, stage

20:56

eight. Any thoughts from you

20:58

two before we talk about the whole

21:01

race? The general race? The whole thing?

21:03

MVP of the tour probably one of

21:06

the front runners is Grace Brown

21:08

and you've mentioned her already. So

21:10

really nice to see her coming

21:13

off the back of her earlier age win in

21:16

you know keeping some really good form

21:19

but also being super useful to the

21:21

FDJ squad. So great to

21:23

see Avita Musik stepping up as

21:26

well. I think she's been capable of it

21:28

but just seemed to like really

21:30

pull it together for the week but just with

21:32

that team support made a big difference. It's

21:37

just nice to see riders not being

21:39

afraid to you know have

21:41

a crack and I think we're seeing that the

21:44

last couple of years a few

21:46

fresh faces just putting their

21:48

hand up and Avita Musik

21:50

is one of those riders that makes

21:52

the racing more interesting to watch

21:54

but also not in a way

21:56

that you're like what the hell are they doing you know what

21:58

I mean. I mean she's really consistently gotten better

22:01

and better and this result is

22:03

something that not only Evita but

22:05

also FTJ Suez is going to

22:07

they're gonna walk away from this

22:09

race just feeling like

22:11

a million bucks like they

22:13

are now going

22:15

into the Giro and the tour the

22:18

other two big races of the of

22:20

the year but also the other smaller

22:23

stage races we have coming up we still have

22:26

two small stage races with Valter

22:28

Burgos and it Zulia

22:30

in Spain coming up pretty

22:32

soon so going into these tours

22:34

coming up they they are

22:36

gonna have so much confidence and I think

22:39

that that's something that they

22:41

have now after this race that pretty

22:43

much no other team in the peloton

22:45

maybe other than Viz Melisa bike is

22:48

going to have because

22:50

we'll talk about SC works

22:52

and the the

22:56

cracks in the dynamic that we saw this week

22:58

at the race but little

23:00

Trek also Elizal and

23:02

Berghini pretty much saved their race by landing

23:04

on the podium overall but

23:07

losing guy Rialini was a huge

23:09

blow and the rest

23:11

of the team while incredibly

23:13

strong and we saw like Spready on the attack

23:15

on stage seven I am seeing her at the

23:18

road I was like is she gonna

23:20

take this first I got

23:22

too excited overly excited too

23:24

soon and she got caught but like Brody

23:27

was off the front for in the

23:29

break on stage stage eight and I

23:32

think that team is like incredibly strong

23:34

but they definitely had a

23:36

few big losses at this race with

23:38

with Ellen crashing with

23:40

Gaia crashing and then not having

23:42

a GC rider that

23:45

could match ballerings because

23:47

again Eliza phenomenal but

23:50

when it comes to these kind of

23:52

climbs it's not her thing and I

23:54

think she absolutely pulled out everything she

23:56

possibly could to land on the podium

23:58

and she She was amazing for

24:01

what she can do. But had

24:03

Gaia been in the race, Aliza would

24:05

have been the difference maker for Gaia

24:07

on those climbs that would have allowed

24:09

Gaia to really challenge ballering. So I

24:12

think that Little Trek is coming out

24:14

of this race with a podium

24:16

finish in the GC when

24:18

they were going in with

24:21

the possible winner. And so

24:23

they probably aren't feeling like

24:26

as good as FTJ, who was going in

24:28

with a rider that they knew could finish

24:30

really well. But that the rest

24:32

of the world probably marked as like a

24:36

top six finisher on a

24:38

stage, not a stage winner, queen

24:41

stage runner up and like one of

24:43

the talks of the race. So FTJ

24:45

is coming out of this race with

24:47

so much confidence. And I

24:50

think that that only bodes well going into

24:52

the rest of the season because watching that

24:54

team and knowing that team, they're

24:57

a team that thrives on

24:59

that positivity. The

25:01

wins that they get only like

25:03

spur them onto greater results. And we saw

25:06

that with Marta Cavalli in 2022. And

25:09

so with this result, with

25:11

two of their biggest riders, pretty much

25:13

out of commission with Cavalli. And she

25:16

started the race, but

25:18

she's still not the Cavalli of

25:20

2022 quite yet. And

25:24

obviously, Ciela Utrepludwig is still

25:26

out after

25:30

her crash earlier in the spring. So

25:33

without those two riders, they've

25:36

really stepped it up as a team and it's been

25:38

incredible to watch. And I think for them,

25:40

this just like highlights what

25:43

they can do together as a

25:45

unit. Which I'm sure Demi is

25:47

very excited about seeing though she's moving

25:49

across next year. I mean, to

25:51

see that, like, yeah, that's a

25:53

rumor. If

25:57

you see the way that that team is, like you

25:59

said, racing and jelly. together but then I can't

26:01

help but think for a young

26:03

writer like Avita who seems to be finding

26:05

her feet and her confidence, how

26:09

that will go for her next

26:11

year when clearly Demi wants to be

26:13

this grand tour writer which she

26:16

is. I mean the focus this

26:19

spring has obviously been building just towards

26:21

these tours and the Olympics I would

26:23

say and she's

26:26

done that perfectly because she was

26:28

unmatchable. She just looked so

26:31

strong and confident in

26:34

the way that she wrote. She didn't even attack,

26:36

she just did an anamique. What anamique used

26:38

to do was just keep cranking

26:41

up the pace and upping the power so

26:43

no one could kind

26:45

of hang on. Even

26:47

stage six that

26:50

she just like rode on the front

26:52

in a headwind and just

26:54

was shelling that group of writers. Just

26:57

one after another was falling off

27:00

the back and then to just

27:03

like ride away pretty much and Avita was

27:05

the only one who could hold her wheel

27:07

into a headwind. She just looked,

27:11

that was the only time she looked like

27:14

she'd made an effort the whole race. Both

27:16

of the stages she won she was pretty

27:18

much just like, I mean the final

27:21

stage was was unreal. She

27:23

just looked like she wasn't even

27:26

putting, there was one point where the camera

27:29

was really close to her face and she

27:31

just smiled and stuck out her tongue and

27:33

I was like girl you are something else.

27:36

This is so impressive and

27:38

it really did look like anamique of old

27:41

but with a lot more I don't

27:44

know panache I think. Like anamique

27:47

was such an incredible rider but Demi

27:49

looks like she was born with the

27:51

bike just part of her body.

27:54

Like she just looks, she looks

27:56

like Anna van der Breggen honestly.

27:58

Anna looked beautiful. the pool on the

28:00

bike. And we talk about this and I can appreciate that.

28:03

Even writers like Rihanna Marcus, quite often

28:05

you see these TT writers that just got

28:07

such incredible core strength and we know Demi

28:10

spends a lot of time on the yoga

28:12

mats and focusing on

28:14

these areas and you can really just

28:16

see that the distribution of power when

28:18

she puts it out. Her hips don't

28:20

move, nothing's really moving, it's all coming

28:22

from the core and

28:25

the glutes. And

28:27

that was something I was paying attention to yesterday.

28:30

And on the topic of FTJ Suez,

28:32

we have a final audio diary from

28:35

Alicia Vigilia from Inside FTJ

28:37

Suez. So let's hear from Alicia.

28:41

Hello everyone. Finally

28:44

the weather is over.

28:47

We had some quite really

28:50

hard days so we are really

28:53

happy that it's over and we are

28:55

super proud of the job

28:58

we did every day, especially

29:00

today. And when Evita

29:02

won the stage, that was so today she

29:04

was super strong and we were so

29:07

happy that the

29:09

whole team could do

29:11

his part in good

29:14

results. So we are

29:16

really really happy and super

29:19

motivated for

29:22

the upcoming races because we

29:24

know that our

29:26

leader is really really strong and

29:29

we can't wait to help her

29:31

on the next races. And

29:34

yeah I think we need

29:39

to be really proud

29:41

also about the reaction

29:43

of Evita because for sure it was not

29:45

easy to come back in

29:48

the GC fight after the second

29:50

stage with the national. And

29:53

yeah we

29:55

are definitely proud after

29:57

today about the results. how

30:02

much effort she put

30:04

in every race. So

30:07

it was super nice to see and super

30:09

nice to be part of that. And

30:12

then he asked for me, it was

30:14

quite hard. Also today, to be

30:16

in the breakaway and then to go to the

30:18

finish was really, really hard. But

30:21

I'm really happy that it's over.

30:24

And for the next day,

30:28

I will have some days off. And I

30:30

will travel to one part of

30:32

my father's family. So

30:36

I hope the weather will be good and I

30:38

hope I will enjoy some good food and good

30:40

weather. And yeah, for sure. I

30:45

will try to rest as much as possible

30:47

because then we will be already focused on

30:50

the next goals with the team.

30:52

And now we know

30:54

we can be

30:56

one of the strongest team in the bunch

30:58

and we want to continue on in

31:01

this line. So can't wait for

31:03

the next races, but now will be

31:05

for time to

31:08

really recover. Thanks. I

31:11

want to say one thing about Avita and then I

31:13

want Gracie to say something because she looks

31:15

like she wants to say something and we've been monopolizing

31:17

the conversation. But in terms

31:20

of Avita and next year,

31:22

if the rumors are true, if

31:24

Vollering is going to FDJ, then

31:26

I don't think that that is

31:28

going to take away from Avita because

31:31

I think as these

31:34

grand tours, they're not really grand tours, but

31:36

they're the closest thing we have to grand

31:38

tours. So we call

31:40

them grand tours or at least people have been calling

31:42

them grand tours more in recent years. But these

31:45

week long stage races that we have live well

31:47

to Giro and Tour. I

31:50

think that there is enough with those three for

31:52

both of them to have a shot at the

31:54

GC. And it never hurts to go

31:56

in with two riders that can factor in the

31:58

GC, but it also. Avita doesn't have

32:00

to be a GC rider. She

32:03

can just be an incredible climber who wins

32:05

stages. And if there's a stage race that

32:07

doesn't include a TTT or doesn't include a

32:09

TT, she's still decent at the time trial

32:11

to be fair. But for

32:14

a stage race that would clearly

32:16

suit Demi, they have Demi. And

32:19

if there's a stage race that

32:21

Avita looks like she would do really well like

32:23

this week, then they have Avita.

32:25

And I feel like it's not

32:28

going to take anything away from her to

32:30

have Demi in the team, especially

32:32

because she's still so young. And

32:35

she still has so much maturing to do

32:37

in her racing, like

32:40

when it comes to stage four in the crosswinds,

32:42

for example. So I think it's only going to

32:44

boost her to have Volering in the team. And

32:47

yeah, I don't see

32:49

it being negative at

32:52

all that she's riding into this

32:54

GC conversation. And Volering is going

32:56

to come in as the most

32:59

dominant Grand Tour rider of

33:02

this current time. Generation?

33:06

I guess so. Yeah,

33:08

I guess she's a different generation than Anamik.

33:11

I mean, the most dominant GC

33:13

rider posts Anamik,

33:16

basically, in the

33:19

six months since Anamik hasn't

33:21

been in the peloton. Yeah,

33:25

I feel like it's not at all a

33:27

bad thing if they have each other. Demi

33:30

was able to maybe put to bed

33:32

some of those questions around, can she

33:34

still do it without SD works, which

33:36

I think is a good segue to

33:38

talking about the team tactics over

33:40

the week. And Avi, you

33:42

wrote a really great piece on Escape

33:44

about that. Maybe you can just

33:47

kind of summarize and touch on a

33:49

few of those key points, because it's been

33:52

such a big topic of conversation for the whole

33:54

season. But a lot of little

33:56

incidents are starting to add up now. And

33:58

the game is over. watching Demi

34:00

cross the line on that final

34:03

stage and lift her bike in the air. You

34:05

know, joyful that she'd won the

34:07

race but also, I don't know, I just had

34:09

that little bit of that feeling of like, see,

34:12

I can do it. This is a message.

34:14

I have a question just while we're on

34:16

that. What is it about lifting the bike?

34:19

I understand like in terms of sponsorship but

34:21

I had someone say to me, can people just

34:23

stop doing that? It's getting old. Well we actually

34:25

don't see it that much in road racing. I

34:28

feel like it's becoming a little bit more common

34:30

in road racing. It's more of a mountain bike

34:32

I think, isn't it? Yeah, I think we've only

34:34

seen it twice like in

34:36

recent memory. I mean, I

34:38

can't remember the last time it happened in a women's

34:41

race besides someone.

34:46

Oh, maybe it's flesh full-on. Did Cassie

34:48

lift her bike? Yeah,

34:51

maybe. No, she didn't have enough time. See,

34:53

the thing is, like in the women's, I

34:55

think she did after the line. Yeah, and

34:57

she did it at the gravel

34:59

world championships which is not road racing.

35:03

But it doesn't often happen in women's

35:06

cycling, I feel like even when like

35:08

Anna Meeke or Anna van der Breggen

35:10

would finish minutes

35:12

ahead, they still didn't do it. But it

35:14

does happen a lot more in men's. Anyway,

35:18

I don't want to spend too much time on

35:20

it, but it was a question someone asked me.

35:22

No, I don't like it either. I think it ruins

35:25

the finish line photo to be

35:27

honest. I'm not

35:30

a huge fan, but I also get where they're

35:32

coming from in terms of they

35:34

have like Demi won with

35:36

this huge time, because in all

35:39

28 seconds isn't huge, but enough

35:41

to win the race by over a minute. And

35:44

the emotion that would take over at

35:46

that moment, that I understand. I think

35:49

we see it in like mountain biking and

35:51

cross because they're

35:53

more individual athletes, so the individual sponsors matter

35:55

more to them. So in a way,

35:57

they're saying thank you. Also saying my bike

36:00

held up in this really difficult course

36:02

that usually is the biggest factor in

36:04

the offer. Yeah.

36:07

But I think one of the reasons why

36:09

Demi did it this time in particular was

36:11

for Specialized and another

36:14

rumour or I think it's confirmed

36:17

is that Specialized is going

36:19

with her or going to FTJ. So it's

36:22

kind of her way of saying

36:24

thanks to the sponsor and the

36:26

team. Thanks for being at the

36:28

jersey. Thanks for believing in me

36:30

unlike some people in my team,

36:32

as Noece mentioned. I did

36:34

want to, while we're on the topic of

36:36

SD works for a time, I think we're going

36:38

to be chatting here a little while. There

36:41

have been some questions in the Discord

36:43

about the absence of an event of

36:45

breaking and I think I brought this

36:47

up maybe months ago now but how

36:49

that is impacting the dynamic within the

36:51

team because we do talk about there

36:53

are key individuals in a team like

36:55

a Lizzie Diagnan who's an amazing captain and

36:58

seems to bring everyone on the

37:00

team together even when it's been a shitty

37:02

race. She's one of those people who can

37:04

lift the morale on key people calm and

37:06

such and I'm wondering

37:08

Anna hasn't really been at that

37:10

many of the bigger races this

37:13

season and I'm just curious

37:15

what your thoughts are on how

37:17

that's potentially impacting

37:19

the dynamic in

37:21

the environment and the vibe. I

37:23

mean the vibe is all off there right because we

37:25

know some of the big riders

37:27

are leaving. We know some riders aren't getting on.

37:31

There's some issues as well with potential

37:33

staff members so

37:36

yeah that

37:38

was just something in the back of my mind. She

37:41

was at the tracker and she got second I think

37:43

in the 100 race so

37:45

she's clearly still got four. I

37:48

did mark down talking about her at

37:51

the tracker because yeah speaking

37:53

of rumors I've heard of

37:56

a comeback for

37:58

Anna van de Breggen. gravel

38:00

well? Yeah and

38:02

she has been doing she's

38:04

been going to all the gravel events

38:07

with G who is she used to

38:09

be the Swanee for Trek

38:13

Segafredo back when they were Trek Segafredo but this year

38:15

she made the switch to

38:17

full-time professional gravel cyclist and

38:20

she was second in the Traka

38:22

360 and Van de

38:24

Breggen was there to support her but she

38:26

also went to the US to

38:28

support her in the Belgian Waffle

38:30

Ride so she's been helping G

38:32

instead of doing the

38:34

road stuff and we did comment on

38:36

that she wasn't at the major classics

38:39

this year she wasn't at Perry Roubaix

38:42

for example and what

38:44

that would because they they have Lars Boom

38:46

in the car like

38:49

in in addition to Danny Stamm who's been

38:52

running that team since the dawn of time

38:54

but I would I mean I wrote

38:56

in my piece

39:01

that to be fair I was

39:03

really really nervous about publishing this piece

39:06

that Gracie mentioned about SC

39:09

works because I don't want

39:11

to speculate and

39:14

I don't want to add fuel to the

39:16

fire although my editor did point out that

39:19

that yeah but

39:22

also the backlash I got from that piece no one would

39:24

ever say it about a men's a

39:26

men's piece of the same in the

39:29

same vein which is I think

39:31

true but

39:34

I felt watching the

39:36

the fifth stage the sixth stage

39:39

sorry I felt watching the sixth

39:41

stage that too many little things

39:43

had happened over the months of

39:45

the spring classics and the

39:47

Ardennes in particular and then this

39:49

race that I couldn't not talk about it it

39:51

was the only thing that we were talking about

39:53

on the discord I Was

39:55

watching the race just like what the hell

39:58

is going on and. And

40:00

with every do, I don't mind ib.

40:03

You weren't learn and but I think he

40:05

just knowing what people wanted to heal. I

40:07

also believe link in shuttle I didn't like it.

40:13

I felt yeah, no. I so really. I.

40:17

Don't know. Torn about. Publishing this

40:19

piece but I also felt like it was

40:22

sending the had to be said out loud

40:24

because it was just. Like. It

40:26

was too many things. Adding

40:28

together and had they not

40:30

all. If. It was

40:32

a one off like if

40:34

we watch stage six and

40:36

we hadn't had. The.

40:38

Ardennes. And we

40:41

hadn't had the comments made in

40:43

the press. About with

40:45

her movements. Of the

40:47

most recent being that. That. The

40:49

team and se worse is saying

40:51

she's going every day every day has

40:54

said oh well that would be cool

40:56

but we were French team and we

40:58

ride that we don't ride like a

41:01

we write a French bike like the

41:03

comments may have heard that Seven Dell

41:06

court. Where a life of

41:08

just like My suspicion

41:10

responses. Dummies

41:12

obviously said nothing. see she can't

41:15

really per contract with us he

41:17

works it's all been from management

41:19

of Se worse that have been

41:21

like fueling the fire and it

41:24

was them who said that they.

41:27

They are under the impression she's going

41:29

as he j. They're under the impression

41:31

that of Uk has signed with Specialize

41:33

and. I would like to

41:35

know that specializes signed with as he

41:37

works pro time through Twenty Twenty Eight.

41:39

So it's not like specialize sponsoring at

41:42

these is going to affect as he

41:44

works in any way I'm but with

41:46

all of those things combined I was

41:48

like how could I not right about

41:50

this? It's insane. I

41:52

don't know what of water. And he, ah,

41:55

so I'd. yeah i don't

41:57

know from personal sandpoint idaho i was

41:59

really nervous about publishing it, but I

42:01

also felt it had to be said. But

42:04

I mean, I don't know how

42:06

Vanderbergen not being at the races

42:09

wouldn't be part of the problem

42:11

because she as an ex-teammate, someone

42:13

who knows them all so well,

42:15

especially Demi. Demi's like her protege.

42:18

To not have her at the races must

42:20

be part of the problem. And yes, the

42:23

team functioned perfectly well before she was a

42:25

DS on the team, but she was a

42:27

rider. So clearly her

42:29

presence in the road team has some

42:31

kind of positive influence because look

42:33

how great they were. And last

42:36

year they were unbelievable, like the

42:38

most dominant team on the scene.

42:41

Every single press conference, every

42:44

single lead into any race, it

42:46

was always S.D. Works first

42:48

and foremost. And now it

42:50

is like

42:53

Lotta Kapecki first and foremost or Demi Volering

42:55

first and foremost. But it's

42:57

not S.D. Works anymore. And

42:59

it's been such a shift.

43:01

And I think that the

43:04

way that the team raced this week is

43:06

just adding to the

43:09

questions that we have about how

43:11

this team is functioning. Because like

43:13

first you had the TTT with Niamh

43:17

Fisher-Black sitting on. We

43:19

talked about that already. And that makes sense if

43:21

she's, you know, as a smaller rider, they just

43:23

don't want her to lose time. Totally

43:26

made sense. But then you had, you know,

43:29

on stage five, the

43:31

first mountain stage, there

43:33

was the valley in between

43:35

the two climbs. You had

43:38

Breidawald and Niamh Fisher-Black on the attack

43:40

in that valley, which made no sense.

43:42

Because then Niamh was on the attack

43:44

at one point with Kasia Niwodoma on

43:47

her wheel, which in hindsight

43:49

didn't really matter because Kasia went

43:51

home after that stage. But

43:54

in the moment, when you hadn't seen

43:56

Kasia get dropped on the final climb

43:58

yet, you're going like... What the hell

44:00

is she doing? Cash is like the number one

44:02

rider to beat Demi on the

44:04

climbs based on how she's been riding in

44:06

the Ardennes. And then going

44:09

into that climb, I mean,

44:11

just the way that they

44:13

rode around Demi didn't make any

44:16

sense. And I think it was highlighted on stage

44:18

six where Demi was really left

44:20

out to dry in the front of that

44:22

group riding into a headwind, which

44:24

I said to Matt when we did a

44:26

mini episode, could

44:29

it have been that Roycer and Fischer Black

44:31

didn't have the legs to come to the

44:33

front? Absolutely. But then they

44:35

should have used their energy already in

44:38

before. They should have been spent.

44:41

Yeah, because if you're not gonna

44:43

win the race, if you're not gonna have a

44:45

notable result, then you need to use your effort

44:47

to benefit the team. And that didn't happen. And

44:50

I said specifically in my piece that

44:52

I wrote that I don't for a

44:54

second blame the riders themselves. Like,

44:58

not at all. I don't think

45:00

that Neve is sitting there on the back of that group

45:02

thinking, I'm just gonna ride

45:04

for myself, screw the team. Absolutely not.

45:07

It's not how the mindset

45:10

works for these riders sometimes.

45:13

Some riders are like that. I'm not

45:15

naive enough to think that I've been

45:17

on teams. I've had teammates I know

45:19

how some of them can be. But

45:22

Neve Fischer Black is not one of those

45:24

riders and neither is Reuser, because we've seen

45:26

both of them sacrifice their results for Demi

45:29

in the past. But in this race,

45:31

they didn't. They rode as if Demi

45:33

was not in the team. And I think

45:36

that that was just unavoidable

45:38

on stage six. And

45:40

you did have them doing a lot of work

45:43

going into the climb, but it

45:46

also wasn't entirely for Demi. It was

45:48

also for Neve and for Marlon Reuser.

45:50

And then when it came to the

45:52

climb, they couldn't keep up with Demi. And

45:55

it was just very, it's

45:58

just like... A

46:00

little bit mind-boggling. I think,

46:02

yeah, on a personal note, it

46:04

would have been nice to see, I

46:08

think, Niamh didn't really have the

46:10

tool that she wanted because clearly

46:12

they had given her some sort of protected

46:14

role too, to try and have

46:17

a crack at the GC herself, but she just

46:19

didn't... I still think her

46:21

time and her potential is coming, but

46:23

it just wasn't this tour because I would fully

46:25

expect her to be more so in

46:27

the mix, in

46:30

those hilly stages. So I think

46:32

for them, yeah, I

46:35

mean, clearly Demi, from

46:37

that first climb, the first Real

46:39

Mountain Stage, it was obvious no

46:41

one was going to beat her this week. And

46:44

I said to my partner, I was like, Demi

46:46

is just, yeah, she's the one for the

46:48

tour. She could take all three of them if she lines up

46:50

at the boom. So

46:53

that was a bit hard to

46:55

watch in terms of how Niamh

46:57

went, and I'm sure she had greater

46:59

ambitions for this week. I

47:02

mean, she had bad luck on Sage crashing

47:05

in between the climbs, and so she was...

47:07

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah,

47:10

actually, that could have impacted the whole week.

47:12

I think Gracie probably mentioned

47:15

that as well, that when you crash in

47:18

a stage race, or it was you, Abby,

47:20

I can't remember now, my mind is blank. But yeah,

47:22

if you do crash, yeah,

47:24

you're sore. It

47:27

stays with you. But

47:29

I mean, she, I felt

47:32

like she wasted energy on

47:34

the fifth stage, but it

47:36

wasn't... She

47:38

was clearly doing the team plan because she wasn't

47:40

the only one attacking. And

47:43

for me, what it looked like, and

47:49

someone accused me of assuming

47:54

there were middle school politics going on, and

47:57

having been on a cycling team... I

48:00

can tell you that it is exactly like middle

48:02

school sometimes. But

48:07

I felt like watching this race at

48:09

times. At times they were a team

48:12

and they were riding

48:15

in support of someone and

48:17

that someone may have been Demi, it may not

48:20

have been. But at times it also looked like

48:22

there was a team plan and then there was

48:24

Demi. And like

48:26

on the final stage for example but

48:28

also on the fifth stage, the

48:30

sixth stage sorry, it was like Demi

48:33

was just riding her own race. And

48:36

it felt to me like they were like,

48:38

oh you think you can, you're gonna leave the team,

48:40

you think you can win a grand tour without us?

48:43

Well let's try. Like that's

48:46

how it felt. Yeah

48:49

it definitely looked that way. Yeah. Yeah.

48:55

I hate the negativity and like I

48:58

mean so much of the time I feel

49:01

like we tiptoe

49:03

around talking about the negative

49:06

side because

49:09

we're women. So like we have to

49:11

you know talk about the highlights and talk about all

49:14

the good stuff. But like this

49:16

whole situation was it's

49:18

just too much to ignore and

49:21

also like I mean yeah

49:23

you'd never, it was

49:27

men cycling, we'd never hesitate. I

49:30

think as well it's harder to ignore from

49:32

probably your perspective because you have a

49:34

little bit more inside knowledge

49:37

of what's happening within the peloton

49:39

too. So when you have all

49:41

the facts in front of you, it's

49:43

a bit easier to draw conclusions. Does that

49:46

make sense? I think people

49:48

listening could assume that I know a lot

49:50

more than I'm saying. And if

49:53

I am, if

49:58

I'm bringing something up, because I

50:00

know something. It's journalism.

50:04

You're just doing your job. I think just judging

50:06

from the Discord chat and some of the comments

50:08

on Escape and other platforms,

50:10

it's pretty obvious that

50:12

there's something

50:14

going on. There's plenty of fans that are picking up

50:17

on bad tactics, weird

50:19

dynamics and overall

50:22

bad vibes. So I don't

50:24

think it's something that was

50:26

stirred up. It's just quite

50:30

obvious. Look how FDJ finished

50:32

the stage, all

50:34

hugging. The first thing they

50:36

did was all come to each other. Then

50:39

you see Demi just off to

50:41

the side with her swan year. Her

50:44

post-race interview having won two

50:47

stages and taking her

50:50

second big grand tour jersey of

50:52

her career after winning the tour

50:55

last year. Also

50:58

everything that happened at the Vuelta last

51:00

year where she lost down on the

51:02

race because of a poorly timed nature

51:06

break. That

51:08

whole situation coming back

51:10

this year to win

51:12

two stages and win the overall without

51:15

anyone being in the conversation. The

51:19

second she won the fifth stage, the

51:22

race was over. No one was going to take

51:24

the jersey from her. For all of that

51:27

storyline, to

51:31

see her post-race interview where

51:33

she was incredibly subdued

51:36

and not the Demi that we've

51:38

seen cry on the podium because she's so

51:41

happy, she wasn't that.

51:43

I feel like it was when

51:48

you have a rider like Demi who, like

51:50

we've said, she wears her heart on

51:53

her sleeve and to watch her post-race

51:55

interview, like she didn't seem happy. They're

51:57

lost, huh? She's leaving. them

52:01

to feel that but I feel yeah I don't

52:03

know if you yeah if you want to talk

52:05

more about it is now we've

52:07

been talking about them for a long time and there's

52:09

a lot more that we need to a lot of

52:11

other riders that we need to talk about but

52:15

I feel like one of the

52:17

big questions coming out of this is

52:20

is what do SD works

52:22

to do next year because they're losing Demi

52:24

I fully believe

52:26

that Nifisha Black can can get

52:28

there like can get to

52:30

the point where she's in the

52:33

conversation along with Guy Riolini for example

52:36

but they've put their weight

52:38

behind Capekki and they've been

52:40

clear about that they literally said

52:42

it out loud so what

52:45

are they gonna do next year can

52:48

Capekki challenge Bullering on

52:50

in a week-long stage race like this

52:53

because that would be

52:55

that would take some serious

52:58

yeah no I just I

53:01

don't see it I don't see Capekki challenging

53:04

Bullering in in the grand

53:06

tours so does the

53:08

does the team then ride for

53:10

classics victories and one-day races and

53:13

go for stages because Nif can win climbing

53:15

stages if they put her in the right

53:18

position if they save her until the climb

53:20

she can she can totally

53:22

at least you know get them podiums

53:24

and in climbing stages we best can

53:26

win sprint stages are they just going

53:28

to be a stage racing or a

53:31

stage winning team instead of trying to go

53:33

for overall I I still think that they're

53:36

very much one at all but

53:38

who knows maybe they're gonna find someone

53:41

who they think can match Demi

53:43

right now I think demi still is very much like

53:49

like we were saying she's the Anna van der Breggen

53:51

she's the Anna Miek van der Luden the

53:54

the tour rider that everyone

53:56

is going to pick as their favorite to win kind

53:58

of like a tie in

54:01

the Mennons. I feel

54:04

like that's sort of the space she's in right

54:06

now in her career. So yeah. Can

54:08

we say that name again? Tade

54:11

Poggica? I was just calling it

54:13

Tage. Tade. Tade.

54:16

That's a good

54:20

name. Now I'm going to get that stuck in

54:22

my head of a comms tonight. Thanks, Laura. Tade,

54:25

Tade, Tade. Whenever

54:29

I'm saying his name,

54:31

I'm like, Fakacha, Fakacha,

54:34

Fakacha. That's how I wrote it.

54:36

Fakacha, Fakacha, Fakacha. One

54:39

day you're just going to be a little bit too tired

54:41

and you're going to call him Fakacha and all

54:44

the people who listen to this podcast

54:46

will understand. The

54:48

good thing is that the hour that

54:50

Gracie's recording, people are half

54:53

asleep trying to concentrate on what's happening.

54:55

So it's the ones who will watch the replay

54:57

and the next day that be like, she should

54:59

say Fakacha. What do

55:02

you mean to

55:04

leave? No

55:06

pineapple on a Fakacha. No. Oh

55:11

man. Poor Eliza. I feel like

55:13

we've talked. Do you have anything

55:15

to add Gracie about the SU works? No, I think

55:17

we're going to keep talking about them for the rest

55:19

of the season. I think that's definitely enough for now.

55:23

That's true. That's very true. Okay.

55:25

So we've talked about FDJ. We've talked about

55:27

Little Trek. We've talked about SU

55:29

works. We need to talk a little

55:31

bit about Viz Melisa bike because they're

55:34

coming out of this race with second

55:36

on GC with Rihanna Marcus, which is great.

55:39

Such a good result from her and

55:41

her ride on the final day was really

55:44

impressive. Coming

55:47

from a rider who is like taller than

55:49

me and

55:51

specializes in time trials. It

55:53

was really, really impressive, but they also

55:55

won two stages with Voss and

55:59

took the points classification with Voss

56:01

as well. So just bossing it.

56:04

A good race for them. Yeah. Despite

56:07

losing Anna Henderson in stage

56:10

two, she's got another broken collarbone on

56:13

top of her broken collarbone from a

56:15

set model and Siana. So that is

56:17

a massive, massive bummer. I

56:20

think this was her first race back and

56:22

she broke her collarbone again on stage

56:25

two. So just really,

56:27

really sucks. A

56:29

team I do want to mention and just

56:31

shine a bit of a spotlight on because

56:33

you know, it's a

56:35

smaller team that most people wouldn't even

56:38

know this team, but it's that Dutch

56:40

team that was always in the mix,

56:42

always up there. The Volklwessels women's pro

56:44

circling team really putting themselves out there.

56:47

And I thought they had a really great

56:49

race as a team. They're super aggressive, that

56:51

team just like really, yeah, they're, they

56:53

get up in the mix. They've got a

56:55

few decent riders as well. I mean, at

56:58

one point, Valerie Demay, the

57:00

Belgian rider, she's about 30

57:03

now. She, she was actually

57:05

at one point, one of

57:07

the top riders in Belgium. So I didn't

57:10

realise she was on that team. She

57:13

was on what was the team

57:15

that she was on the team with Lotta when

57:17

it was Liv. God,

57:20

what was it called back

57:22

then when Alison Jackson was also on

57:24

the team? Yeah, that's a Giorgia Bronzini,

57:27

DS for a period there. That's it. Yeah,

57:29

Liv Racing. Yeah, Liv Racing. That's

57:32

just Liv Racing. So yeah. Yeah. So

57:35

I mean, they were Park Hotel,

57:38

Volkenburg. And now they've changed to

57:40

Volklwessels. But I didn't realise that

57:42

that was like sort of the

57:44

new, the new branding of

57:46

the team, because back in the

57:49

day, Park Hotel had some really

57:51

top riders that, well, I mean,

57:53

Demi Volkering is first and foremost

57:55

one that comes to mind. Paulina

57:57

Rojakas was there as well, I

57:59

think. At one point,

58:01

is it possible? Fourteen to twenty

58:03

seventeen she was there. Yeah,

58:06

she actually was a writer that

58:09

in this tour I thought for her, I

58:12

still think, but she was more present.

58:14

This is the, I think the first time this

58:17

season I've really noticed Roy Akers

58:19

in the mix. Of course this is a

58:21

tour, it's very different to writing in

58:23

the classic. She had that really great performance,

58:25

like string of performances when she

58:28

was on Canyon, and

58:30

we were quite hard on her for not

58:32

being able to descend. But she was one

58:34

of those writers that missed out

58:37

on the crosswind stage as well. Which

58:40

is unsurprising not to be.

58:43

She made it in the second time, she was only eight seconds down that

58:46

day. So

58:48

yeah, the first

58:50

crosswind stage, stage four, she was out

58:53

of that split. And

58:55

then I think she

58:58

also lost a good bit of time

59:00

in the team time trial. 48

59:03

seconds she lost in the team time trial.

59:05

Because yeah, she had some really good, on

59:07

the climbing stages she was pretty strong. She

59:11

was fourth on the

59:13

final stage, but she also did

59:15

a lot of attacks

59:17

on the sixth

59:21

stage. She was on the attack. I

59:26

think, sorry. I

59:29

was just going to say, talking about Phoenix to

59:32

Koenig, Yara Castellan had a

59:34

fantastic tour too. Losing time,

59:36

again, in the TTT and

59:38

I guess crosswind sections. But

59:41

in terms of climbing capability, we know

59:43

she's a fantastic climber. She

59:45

had some great results. So that was another one

59:48

I had on the list of

59:51

a great sort of week. And then

59:53

I thought the duo of Alison Jackson

59:55

and Faulkner worked really well the past

59:57

week. Alison

1:00:00

Jackson really had a great tour. She

1:00:04

made all those splits. She was really up there in the

1:00:06

race. She was working for Faulkner when

1:00:09

she had to, and it was just very

1:00:11

noticeable to me that she was really present

1:00:13

in this race, which was just so awesome

1:00:15

to see. Another duo

1:00:18

that we need to talk about briefly,

1:00:20

because we're running out of time now, is

1:00:23

Antonia Niedemeyer and Riccardo Barenfind,

1:00:25

who both pretty much picked

1:00:28

up the team after the

1:00:31

initial disappointments that they

1:00:33

had with both Neve

1:00:36

Bradbury not being able to start, and

1:00:39

then Kasia Leving

1:00:41

after the fifth stage. They

1:00:45

had Barenfind with a

1:00:47

string of really good

1:00:49

performances on the climbing stages. She

1:00:52

was sixth on stage

1:00:54

five and stage six, and then

1:00:56

she finished fifth on the final

1:00:58

stage. In the end, she finished

1:01:01

sixth in the general classification. Antonia

1:01:04

Niedemeyer also had a couple

1:01:06

of good results, including eighth on the

1:01:08

final stage. For a team that had a bit

1:01:11

of disappointment in this race, it

1:01:13

was great to see the two of them really

1:01:16

celebrating those performances at the

1:01:18

end of the race. There's a really great video

1:01:21

of the two of them hugging each other. They're

1:01:24

both German. They both came up through

1:01:26

the generation team and have come into

1:01:28

this world tour team. Then

1:01:31

last year, they both won a stage

1:01:33

of a grand tour with Antonia Niedemeyer

1:01:35

taking that Giro stage and Barenfind

1:01:37

winning the tour stage a

1:01:39

couple weeks later. It

1:01:42

just kind of highlights the talent

1:01:44

that Canyon Stram has on that team.

1:01:48

What they can do when things go right

1:01:50

for them. Speaking

1:01:53

of Canyon Stram, I actually have an

1:01:55

audio diary from Mike Bandedon, so let's

1:01:57

hear from inside the team. Today

1:02:00

is the last day of the

1:02:02

2012 at the stage A. And

1:02:05

before we all knew that it

1:02:07

will be a hard day, with

1:02:10

two long climbs in it, but we were

1:02:12

prepared for it. We

1:02:15

had our two young

1:02:17

super fighters climbers there

1:02:20

and for sure also for the GC. So

1:02:23

we were really motivated

1:02:25

for it with our small team.

1:02:30

But we felt together

1:02:32

and in the end, we

1:02:37

got finished fifth in

1:02:39

the stage and sixth in GC. So

1:02:42

we had a lot of challenges this

1:02:45

week with the team, with sickness, with,

1:02:48

well, a few things, but

1:02:51

I'm really proud and happy

1:02:53

of everyone, the

1:02:56

riders, the staff, everyone worked so hard.

1:02:59

The spirit was really

1:03:01

good. We had a motivated

1:03:03

team, everyone. And

1:03:07

we just finished the Frelta with a sixth

1:03:09

place in the GC. And

1:03:12

we can be really proud of that after

1:03:14

this eight days. And

1:03:19

something most

1:03:22

fun, actually,

1:03:24

I don't know today, but

1:03:26

also a life of a

1:03:30

rider, finished eight

1:03:32

stages, then we

1:03:34

shower, we eat and we fly back home.

1:03:37

So I'm just arrived on

1:03:39

the airport and I'm stumped and I

1:03:41

will drive another hour

1:03:43

to home and I will be in my better

1:03:45

round one. So we say

1:03:47

now goodbye for this week and

1:03:50

good night. Ciao. I

1:03:52

think overall it was a good tour and

1:03:55

exciting racing from

1:03:57

my point of view, the courses were a little bit boring.

1:04:00

but I think the writers made up for that

1:04:03

and the wind and potentially

1:04:05

the second half of the two of the courses were a

1:04:07

bit better. So overall good

1:04:09

to see the Spanish women's

1:04:13

grand tour growing from

1:04:15

what it has been over the years and

1:04:18

to see a bit more investment

1:04:20

from you know Spanish organizers as

1:04:22

well in women's cycling. So from

1:04:25

what I've heard and read you know they've

1:04:28

definitely upped their game in coverage,

1:04:31

engagement, race

1:04:34

organization kind of stuff. So I

1:04:37

think overall worthy

1:04:40

of world tour status. Now

1:04:42

the question what can we expect from

1:04:44

the duo? The next grand tour that

1:04:46

comes up, what are the dates for

1:04:49

that actually? That must be end

1:04:51

of June? It is the beginning of July.

1:04:54

You have to do correction

1:04:57

corner here but is Demi one of the

1:04:59

writers who's going for all three grand tours?

1:05:02

She hasn't said if she's going for

1:05:04

all three grand tours but

1:05:06

I would assume she is gonna try

1:05:08

for the tour tour especially

1:05:12

with Capekki not going

1:05:14

to that one. She's

1:05:18

already said she won't do the tour but

1:05:20

the Giro is one that Demi's not

1:05:23

targeted yet. So

1:05:26

we don't know yet. I think that that

1:05:28

is something that we will hopefully find out

1:05:30

soon. Before we even get to the

1:05:33

Giro we still have Edzulia which is

1:05:35

on Friday, Friday to

1:05:38

Sunday and yeah I know it's

1:05:40

just like way too soon. We have

1:05:42

Weltha Arbergos one

1:05:44

week later and Ride London a week

1:05:47

after that. So many tours. Right

1:05:52

the tour of Britain is a

1:05:54

week two weeks after that or

1:05:56

a little less than two weeks after that. Tour

1:05:59

de Swiss is the One week after

1:06:01

that, less than a week after that

1:06:03

and then yet the job Italia is

1:06:05

the which new name this year due

1:06:07

to Gjerde Italia is actually like for

1:06:09

the first time ever. It's just the

1:06:11

dirt Italian women. As

1:06:14

this is the first year that

1:06:16

it's taken over by Rcs who

1:06:18

run the men's but that will

1:06:20

be July seventh to the fourteenth.

1:06:22

So. It's a it's

1:06:24

a shorter race this year. Than.

1:06:26

Before. And sages.

1:06:29

But. Yeah. That. July.

1:06:31

Seven, Two, the Fourteen does. Or next. Grand.

1:06:34

Tour of sorts and I can

1:06:36

just say this by the time

1:06:38

we hit the Olympics, Kills will

1:06:41

be leading. The The

1:06:43

Draft Seriously. Honestly,

1:06:46

it's done. I

1:06:50

mean, I think that you are correct,

1:06:52

man. The Draft isn't quite a rollercoaster

1:06:54

of emotions. He does. It is

1:06:56

not over yet. Neither is

1:06:58

not or thats all I know.

1:07:00

They didn't have said. The

1:07:03

turf Scandinavia is our is gone

1:07:05

because. I was hoping so of mine. Are

1:07:08

riders little without being a

1:07:10

point? there? Actually

1:07:12

is now off the off the

1:07:14

couch of was a great opportunity.

1:07:17

Of: I'm young. For.

1:07:19

Right is. It really sucks

1:07:21

because like if you look at the calendar

1:07:23

like we have literally a stage race every

1:07:26

week. Until July basically,

1:07:28

or entailed like mid

1:07:30

June. And then

1:07:32

there's just nothing. Like there's

1:07:35

months in. Between races like

1:07:37

we have, you know, A.

1:07:40

Month and between the did your on the tour which.

1:07:42

Makes sense because of the Olympics. That

1:07:45

will have to happen in between those.

1:07:47

Two, but then you just have

1:07:49

like. Gp. To Play

1:07:51

or classic Lawrence Agglomeration

1:07:53

for the cheaply deployed

1:07:56

just. Rules. So much nicer of the tongue.

1:07:58

ah which is a one day obviously and

1:08:01

then like the next race is

1:08:04

there there's the Tour de Romadie which is

1:08:06

in September but pretty

1:08:08

much August is like there's

1:08:10

the tour in August and the Giro in

1:08:12

July and that's it it's

1:08:15

just like really sparse afterwards

1:08:19

it just feels like they could spread

1:08:23

these things out a little

1:08:25

bit better although that being said I

1:08:28

love the timing of the

1:08:30

Vuelta even though it's so close

1:08:32

to the classics it does feel like

1:08:34

riders came in like a bit tired

1:08:38

and there were riders that

1:08:40

targeted the Ardennes and

1:08:43

then came to this race there were

1:08:45

maybe a little fresher but still that's

1:08:47

still just a long time to be

1:08:49

peaking because those same riders also you

1:08:51

know wanted to be on form for

1:08:53

Flanders so it's a really long time

1:08:55

to be racing

1:08:57

your bike and not much

1:08:59

rest in between so in that sense

1:09:01

it's not a great time

1:09:03

in the calendar but in that

1:09:06

it happens before the Giro is is

1:09:09

really cool because it gets so much more

1:09:11

attention I felt it got

1:09:13

more attention being like not

1:09:17

overlapping any of the grand tours for the

1:09:19

men maybe there was a

1:09:21

bit of attention given to the

1:09:23

pre Giro conversation which I don't know

1:09:25

why anyone needs to

1:09:28

debate who's gonna win the

1:09:30

Giro when it's just so obvious but there

1:09:34

but I there was that of

1:09:36

course but in terms of like

1:09:39

I don't know focus on the

1:09:41

racing at least earlier in the week before the

1:09:44

Giro started as soon as the Giro started

1:09:46

the race was

1:09:48

overshadowed so there's

1:09:50

not like an easy answer for this because

1:09:52

whenever there's a men's grand tour and a

1:09:55

women's race going on at the same time

1:09:57

it's always just gonna be second in

1:10:00

the current state of things, but

1:10:03

at least for the beginning of the Vuelta, you know,

1:10:05

there was no competition.

1:10:10

And a little bit. Yeah,

1:10:12

well, let's wrap it up. Let's

1:10:15

wrap this up. What are you obsessed with? Oh

1:10:18

man, I'm obsessed with so many things.

1:10:21

And I'm going to start out with a

1:10:23

really sad one. Unfortunately,

1:10:26

over the weekend, Bernard Hill

1:10:28

passed away. He

1:10:31

is the actor who plays King

1:10:33

Theoden in The Lord of the

1:10:35

Rings. And,

1:10:39

yeah, just a devastating

1:10:41

blow to fans

1:10:43

of Lord of the Rings. He's obviously been in a

1:10:45

lot of other fantastic

1:10:47

films before, but

1:10:49

probably for me, who has

1:10:52

watched those movies more

1:10:54

times than I could probably count and

1:10:56

knows every single line by heart. Just

1:11:00

a really sad, really sad day. So

1:11:02

I'll be watching The Twin Towers tonight to,

1:11:06

I don't know, remember. Remember,

1:11:08

yeah, exactly. So start off with a

1:11:10

sad one. But in terms

1:11:13

of movies, also, I am obsessed

1:11:15

with this movie that just

1:11:17

came out on Amazon Prime

1:11:19

called The Idea of You. It

1:11:23

is just a fantastic rom-com,

1:11:25

although I think it is not so

1:11:27

much a com as it is a

1:11:29

rom. And it stars

1:11:31

Anne Hathaway, who I love. Huge

1:11:34

Anne Hathaway fan. She

1:11:37

can do anything, and she's amazing at it. But

1:11:39

in this one, she plays a

1:11:41

40-year-old mom who meets a 24-year-old

1:11:44

lead singer of a boy band,

1:11:47

and they fall in love. And

1:11:49

it's amazing. And there

1:11:52

was a chunk of it that

1:11:54

was like social commentary on how

1:11:56

the world reacts to women's

1:11:58

lives. in their

1:12:00

40s being happy, which

1:12:03

I think brought the mood, what obviously had

1:12:05

to be in the movie but definitely brought

1:12:08

the mood down a bit. But

1:12:11

otherwise the whole love story was just a

1:12:13

joy to watch and I loved it and

1:12:15

I finished it and

1:12:18

I was like yes, 10 out of 10, we'll watch

1:12:20

again. And

1:12:22

it's loosely based

1:12:24

on like basically like

1:12:26

fanfic about Harry Styles, which

1:12:29

is very weird but

1:12:31

I loved

1:12:33

the cast and

1:12:35

the movie was really good. So

1:12:38

that's on Amazon Prime if anyone wants to cry

1:12:42

a little bit but also smile.

1:12:44

I smiled the whole movie. I just couldn't stop

1:12:46

smiling. It's so good. I

1:12:50

don't know if I'm going to watch that, Abby, but I'll

1:12:52

keep it in mind if I want to have a cry. I'm

1:12:56

still, but do you like Anne Hathaway? Because

1:12:58

she's like, I feel like she just carried

1:13:00

the movie. Sometimes

1:13:03

she's... No, like

1:13:05

I appreciate her acting. Don't know if

1:13:07

I love, if I'm like the biggest

1:13:09

fan of her in general but she's

1:13:11

been some good stuff. What? Crazy.

1:13:14

I know. And I'm not like a

1:13:16

big rom-com fan either. I hate to say. I

1:13:18

don't hate to say it. Oh no. I'm

1:13:21

a bit of a... Yeah, I

1:13:24

really like the darker stuff. I

1:13:26

love a rom-com. I

1:13:29

would watch a rom-com every single day for the rest

1:13:31

of my life and just be totally happy about it.

1:13:35

Yeah, fair enough. I can see that for

1:13:37

you. So you know, I'm

1:13:39

just at the point in my life where I

1:13:41

can't get through any movies or anything.

1:13:45

I feel you. I'm not watching any

1:13:47

TV at all. And

1:13:49

like, even if my partner puts

1:13:51

something on, I'm not

1:13:54

interested because there are just too many other things going on

1:13:56

in my head that I can't sit and watch anything.

1:13:58

The only thing I can do is... can do

1:14:00

and concentrate on full attention is books,

1:14:03

which I would argue is better. But

1:14:05

I'm just like, yeah,

1:14:08

and your book recommendations coming

1:14:11

from the two of you have been great. Abby,

1:14:13

I am currently reading The Women and you're right,

1:14:15

it's awful. Last night, it's great, but it's awful.

1:14:18

I was sitting there going, I don't think I

1:14:20

can continue reading, but I have to finish this.

1:14:22

And it's just, I know, it's such a

1:14:24

great book. And I love this author, but I

1:14:27

also, God, I hate her. Oh,

1:14:29

she's so sad. Like,

1:14:32

why are she so sad? I keep

1:14:35

downloading her books. I'm

1:14:37

like, it can't get the whole book. I was

1:14:39

like, it can't get worse. It can't get worse.

1:14:41

At some point, there's

1:14:43

something happy is going to happen. And

1:14:46

and then something happens. That's happy.

1:14:49

And then it's worse. And I'm like, Oh my

1:14:51

God, how did you manage this? And that's why

1:14:55

you need to balance it

1:14:57

out. Yeah, yeah. I need to.

1:15:00

Or like, yeah, maybe that's what I need

1:15:02

to do, like swap to a different book that

1:15:04

is in those moments where

1:15:06

I don't think I can handle it. Okay.

1:15:11

I don't have Amazon, but okay. Hey, it's

1:15:13

a it's a book. It was a book

1:15:15

first. So you could read.

1:15:18

I will do that instead. Because like

1:15:20

I said, attention span is really lacking.

1:15:22

But yeah, that's something I've been vibing.

1:15:24

Definitely is that book. But also another

1:15:27

book, which is nothing new by

1:15:29

an Australian author, low tox life by

1:15:31

Alex Stewart. I've

1:15:34

always been really interested in removing

1:15:37

toxins from the home and everything like

1:15:39

that. Like, it's one of those things

1:15:42

that like

1:15:44

reading the book, you know, this stuff,

1:15:46

but sometimes you almost have to read

1:15:48

it. And the way this

1:15:51

author writes, I just really appreciate it as

1:15:53

well, the style, but you have to just read

1:15:55

it and see it and

1:15:58

make you think again. And I think having small children

1:16:00

as well is

1:16:03

making me rethink again some of the stuff that I

1:16:05

do in that home. I say I do a decent

1:16:07

job but you can always do more. So that's

1:16:11

a book that I'm reading at the moment. Like I do

1:16:13

some things good but then

1:16:15

other things I could

1:16:17

definitely improve. But what I find

1:16:19

hard is not that my

1:16:22

partner really cares if I decided that

1:16:24

the whole house was going to be vegan he just kind

1:16:26

of rolls with it. But

1:16:31

definitely you have to be on the same page

1:16:33

with these things because I remember bringing it up

1:16:35

in conversation with him and just saying how you

1:16:38

know all like she presents all

1:16:40

these facts about fertility and illness

1:16:42

and all this sort of

1:16:44

stuff that has increased over the past I'd

1:16:47

say 60 or 70 years where

1:16:50

they've been doing studies and

1:16:52

then I was like presenting these facts to my

1:16:54

partner and stuff and then I had this moment

1:16:56

that I said to him and maybe it was

1:16:58

a bit dramatic I'm like we're killing our children

1:17:00

with all this stuff that we're exposing them to

1:17:03

which is maybe not the best thing to say

1:17:05

which is a little bit insensitive but that's how

1:17:08

I felt in the moment with just

1:17:12

everything that we're putting in our bodies and

1:17:14

touching and smelling and yeah not

1:17:17

to get too deep but

1:17:20

it's a good book definitely

1:17:22

going through and trying to make some changes yourself.

1:17:25

I wouldn't mind reading that too I think

1:17:28

yeah certainly a lot that we can improve

1:17:30

on in our day-to-day lives but also just

1:17:32

to be mindful not to get

1:17:34

too hung up on it either a bit like

1:17:36

some of that orthorexia clean

1:17:38

eating stuff sometimes you can get a

1:17:41

bit too obsessed and it can really

1:17:43

affect your life negatively even though you're

1:17:45

trying to do something positive so yeah

1:17:48

I like trying to find

1:17:50

that balance point with health stuff.

1:17:53

This is a bit of a dark joke but

1:17:56

like yeah so I'm going through

1:17:58

this book and trying not to eat talks alive. our

1:18:01

household and stuff but then I realized what my

1:18:03

son has to take daily is

1:18:05

probably worse

1:18:07

than all the toxins that are

1:18:10

on the surfaces of things. So it's like, hmm,

1:18:12

it's counterproductive but yeah.

1:18:15

It's uh... Probably better

1:18:17

for him though that like, cause he has

1:18:20

to take out stuff. Yeah and so then

1:18:22

when he's at home that he can be

1:18:25

in a like cleaner environment. I'm sure

1:18:27

that that's, which is absolutely benefit

1:18:29

to that. So I'll let you know how

1:18:31

it goes over the month. We're moving

1:18:33

in June so it's like a chance to

1:18:35

have a fresh start actually when you move

1:18:38

I think. Finally.

1:18:40

Yeah, finally. Three years longer

1:18:42

comes to an end. Gracie,

1:18:44

how about you? You got any obsessions?

1:18:46

Um, not specific obsessions. I

1:18:48

have to be obsessed this week

1:18:51

with the duo so I've

1:18:54

been enjoying using Discord as

1:18:56

a source of opinion,

1:18:59

comment, insight. Much

1:19:03

like we've discussed before on this podcast

1:19:05

sometimes the fans know a

1:19:07

lot more than the experts so I love

1:19:09

that I can have that as a resource

1:19:11

now for my homework every day

1:19:14

to just stay on top of some of the

1:19:16

storylines that I get to talk about

1:19:19

at night time here in Australia. So

1:19:21

yeah, it's been a good opening weekend so

1:19:24

far. We've got a sprint stage coming

1:19:26

up which will be probably done by

1:19:28

the time everyone gets to listen to this

1:19:30

podcast but there's so many good sprinters in

1:19:32

the duo. It's a bit of a one

1:19:34

horse GC race so I think the sprint

1:19:36

storylines are going to be good. Man,

1:19:40

Kaidan Groves better get me

1:19:42

some freaking points. I'm currently

1:19:44

looking at your points. He

1:19:46

has me at negative points in

1:19:48

the men's. It's

1:19:51

close between you and Lindsay, huh?

1:19:53

But this has not been updated for

1:19:55

one week so I'm curious to

1:19:57

see how it goes. I've got it in front of me right now.

1:20:00

now just looking at it.

1:20:02

Yeah he's actually looking alright

1:20:04

he was going for some intermediate the

1:20:06

last few days so you know

1:20:09

positive signs but we'll see tonight. If he

1:20:11

can get zero to zero points like he's

1:20:13

got negative 21 points now.

1:20:16

Didn't even

1:20:19

know that existed. Because

1:20:22

he got a 25 point deduction for

1:20:25

something. Well I'm

1:20:28

looking Kaylee's got two on zero

1:20:31

so but I guess Nielsen Powell should

1:20:33

be coming a bit later in this season. The

1:20:36

women's like also hasn't been updated but

1:20:39

yeah Tils is looking for a massive jump.

1:20:42

Yeah with Rihanna Marcus and Valering

1:20:44

in hers. One two. Poised two.

1:20:49

She's coming for us Abby. Yeah

1:20:51

she's coming for me that's for sure and

1:20:53

then but at least I

1:20:55

had Riccardo Brown find she got some points.

1:20:59

I still have three in the top ten I

1:21:01

think. It's

1:21:04

not like if you have the top two spots

1:21:06

that's like 750 points

1:21:08

right there. You still have one

1:21:11

with zero points. Yeah I know she raced

1:21:13

this week as well but I'm

1:21:15

sorry Mike I think I'm gonna have to trade you

1:21:17

in buddy. I'm

1:21:20

excited for the trade we're coming up on the trade.

1:21:22

I know exactly who I want. Alright

1:21:24

let's wrap up this episode thanks everyone

1:21:26

for listening. We're gonna end the episode

1:21:28

with an audio diary from Brody Chapman.

1:21:31

Post Vuelta who's gonna give us a

1:21:33

good recap of her experience and especially

1:21:36

the last day being in the breakaway.

1:21:38

So thanks to our audio diarists

1:21:40

for their input all week and yeah thank

1:21:42

you so much to you too for chatting

1:21:44

with me today and thanks for our

1:21:46

listeners for being awesome. Yeah

1:21:48

thanks to Discord people we love you.

1:21:51

Yeah so the

1:21:53

week was yeah it was a hard

1:21:55

week the Vuelta offered up something different

1:21:57

every day. It's kind of cool when

1:21:59

you're racing in Spain you have

1:22:01

this mixture of crosswinds and

1:22:04

mountains so it definitely yeah

1:22:07

it suits all rounders in a sense but yeah

1:22:09

you got to be able to climb to contest

1:22:11

the GC. So

1:22:14

yeah Alisa Longa Borgini after a

1:22:16

really really full-on spring was

1:22:18

in second place all week and what was

1:22:22

it two days ago it was like

1:22:24

an uphill sprint where she came third

1:22:27

after we split it in

1:22:29

the crosswinds which was quite fun type

1:22:31

two fun so like it was

1:22:33

super hard and there was a bunch of attacks

1:22:35

in the end as well so me and Spratty

1:22:37

were trying to cover those and

1:22:41

yeah we were like obviously positioned really

1:22:43

well and supported by Lizzie and Eleanor

1:22:45

in the end they're

1:22:48

always in the right place at the right time in

1:22:50

the bunch like they can just move

1:22:52

through the bunch so smoothly so it's super nice

1:22:55

being teammates with them as well yesterday

1:22:57

was the kind of finale

1:22:59

Queen stage two big mountains

1:23:02

to get over luckily

1:23:04

I was able to get in the breakaway

1:23:06

after there was yeah a flurry of attacks

1:23:08

as well and all of us were taking

1:23:10

turns at covering them and

1:23:13

then the one I got in stuck and

1:23:16

yeah just had to I was

1:23:18

pretty motivated for the break to get

1:23:20

a gap so I was rolling through quite

1:23:23

a lot early on because I just wanted it to stretch

1:23:26

out a bit which would then help

1:23:28

me get over the first climb in front of the

1:23:30

climbers and then hopefully support

1:23:32

Elisa going into the

1:23:34

final climb so I actually

1:23:37

dug pretty deep Mariah

1:23:39

Benito was setting a really hard pace

1:23:41

on the climb with Sarah Gigante on

1:23:43

her wheel who's obviously a pretty

1:23:45

prolific climber so I was a bit scared she

1:23:48

was going to attack yeah

1:23:51

in the end she did a

1:23:53

kind of attack like a quite a hard pace and

1:23:55

I was able to stay there and then I I

1:23:58

just dug really deep near the end because the climbers

1:24:00

group with the GC riders was closing in

1:24:03

and I was like shit

1:24:06

I better better get over this climb I

1:24:10

did actually detach like honestly 500 meters

1:24:12

from the top which was demoralizing but

1:24:15

then I was able to get back on a few corners

1:24:17

later on the descent so

1:24:20

yeah felt like an

1:24:24

imposter in a group of

1:24:26

the best climbers in the world but

1:24:29

yeah I'd cheated and started ahead

1:24:31

of time so once

1:24:33

we got to the bottom of the final climb Grace

1:24:35

Brown was just setting the pace again super hard which

1:24:37

was um a punish for

1:24:39

the struggles at the back like me

1:24:42

but yeah I was just there in case there

1:24:45

was any you know

1:24:47

major attacks to follow but it was pretty

1:24:49

clear that with the pace Grace was setting

1:24:51

the only real big attacks from then on

1:24:53

that from then on were gonna be from

1:24:55

the GC riders and yeah it was Demi

1:24:58

once I look back afterwards but

1:25:01

yeah overall it was like a really a good day

1:25:03

of like racing yeah we had a lot of people

1:25:05

trying to take their chance and getting up the road

1:25:08

and you know that kind of racing is really fun

1:25:10

I think if it's the

1:25:12

last day like you might as well just give it everything

1:25:14

you got left and

1:25:17

Elisa got third overall so Rihanna

1:25:19

Marcus actually passed her by I

1:25:22

think she ended up second by 11 seconds so

1:25:25

we're really really proud of Elisa she's a really

1:25:28

really nice person to work for

1:25:31

she's a good leader she's extremely

1:25:33

professional she's funny and yeah

1:25:35

we know that she gave 110% every

1:25:37

single day this

1:25:40

week despite

1:25:42

yeah losing some of our strongest

1:25:44

riders as well to crashes we

1:25:48

lost Gaira Eleni and also Ellen

1:25:50

Van Dyke which

1:25:52

was shitty and I hope that they're healing

1:25:55

up well but yeah

1:25:57

overall like everybody it's

1:25:59

crazy cycling Like all

1:26:01

these people are around you to

1:26:03

like make sure that you can ride your

1:26:05

bike as best you can. Like literally have

1:26:07

guys like changing our mattresses for us. We

1:26:09

have, uh, we had a chef, Yon, who

1:26:11

was making me, well, all of us, but

1:26:13

he made like a vegan, vegan tiramisu, which

1:26:16

was incredible for the last night. And

1:26:18

it was like, I can't believe this is like, you

1:26:21

know, our job, but it certainly

1:26:23

makes a huge difference. We had somebody, I

1:26:25

have a pelvic health specialist looking after us.

1:26:28

We had a off the path. We had

1:26:31

all our assistance. Um,

1:26:35

like it's, it's, it's crazy. It's crazy. The

1:26:37

team around a team of cyclists, but I

1:26:39

can honestly say it makes such a huge

1:26:41

difference when all you need to do is

1:26:43

focus on riding your bike and

1:26:45

eating heaps of carbs and staying

1:26:47

sane. So, um, yeah,

1:26:50

it's just very impressive overall. Uh,

1:26:53

and yeah, Chapeau Demi-Volering. She's proved

1:26:56

that she's the best in the world at

1:26:58

these kinds of races. And yeah, it's cool

1:27:00

to see just how, how

1:27:02

good the level of women's cycling is.

1:27:04

Like it is wild and all these

1:27:06

other really good riders in that group

1:27:09

as well. So, uh,

1:27:11

the day after I'm actually in Pamplona,

1:27:13

I just went for a lovely.