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The cycling podcast powered

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Hello. I'm joining you this week from

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Sawyer in Mayorca, sometime

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home of Sometime podcast Maestro Rob

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Hatch, and I learned today tragically

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where one of two Mayorkans to win

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the Volta Catalunya Antonia Helabert

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lost his life in a car accident in nineteen

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fifty six, the Vodak afternoon currently

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happening just across the Med course.

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My name is Daniel Freeber, and I'm the host of this

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week's episode of the cycling podcast in which we're

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gonna tear off three strips of Four Catcher

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and mop up the last flex at the bottom of

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the proverbial Milan San Remo

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Pestoja. Helping me

0:54

to do that are two men who rode

0:56

like classicissima at the weekend or

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at least two slightly different versions

1:00

there. Thereof. One completing the two

1:02

hundred ninety four kilometers in just under

1:04

six and half hours, having placed

1:06

his AG2R Triton leader

1:09

Benoit, closing the floor at bottom of the pod

1:11

show like a master jeweler setting the fight,

1:13

Carat Diamond, in an heiress' engage

1:15

cement ring. The other handily bypassing

1:18

the first one hundred and ninety four kilometer

1:20

boring bit ordering an antipasto Primo's

1:22

cordon dolce at the feed zone

1:25

and spending longer than the five minutes, thirty

1:27

eight seconds, it took Mathieu van de Paul to

1:29

climb the pod show, posing for pictures

1:31

in the foam bar at the top to create what he

1:33

proudly informed me yesterday was our best performing

1:36

Instagram post of the year so far.

1:38

It is, respectively, the the Motown

1:40

Maestro lucky Larry Warbursts.

1:43

In our very own line of Bernie. You

1:45

can guess, your listeners can guess which one

1:47

was which in those

1:49

descriptions. Are you both?

1:51

How are you both recovering? From your respective

1:53

efforts. Did

1:54

you did you stop in the Phonebox, Larry?

1:56

That's the most important thing. For

2:00

really, I didn't see the Phonebox. No.

2:02

You didn't even see it. Shuck,

2:04

king. Shuck, lionel, it was

2:06

very No. You Tommy, it was a really Mhmm.

2:10

It was a very popular Instagram post

2:12

of you in the

2:12

Phonebox. But how are you recovering from

2:15

your efforts in time frame? Well, are

2:17

we canned? I'm fully recovered

2:19

apart from a slight well,

2:21

I mean, I'm in a house with

2:24

someone who's suffering from COVID. I'm

2:26

keeping my fingers crossed that I don't catch

2:28

COVID. I felt pretty rough yesterday, to be honest,

2:30

but that's just the way it is. This

2:32

winter seems to be just one illness

2:34

after another. I must admit, I do wonder how

2:37

pro riders, pro athletes of any kind

2:39

with young children manage because

2:42

your immune system just seems to take a hammering.

2:44

They go through nursery school

2:47

and catch every single bug going

2:49

if I was a pro

2:50

rider, I'd probably go and live in

2:52

Tenerife and keep away from the bugs and

2:54

germs. No. Of course, you don't have children. Do you have a

2:57

dog, Larry? I must make a guilty confession I

2:59

saw your dog on

3:01

the Saturday, apparently,

3:04

so I saw at the top of the mountain, your

3:06

dog and your girlfriend

3:08

were waiting for you to finish. They were both in

3:10

eighty two I kit, weren't they? And I didn't

3:13

stop to to introduce myself

3:15

to either the

3:17

dog or your boyfriend's end. Highly because

3:19

I I get because I'm I'm not a dog. I'm

3:21

not a dog person. I always feel

3:23

a bit uneasy around people who really love

3:26

dogs because they can kind of see

3:28

the sort of in my

3:30

case, the total in terrors towards Well,

3:32

this this terrors they're totally different. And

3:34

I always There's a kind of

3:36

deflation. I can see how deflated they

3:38

are when you don't share -- Yeah.

3:40

-- love for dogs. I mean,

3:42

he's a dog for not dog people.

3:44

Like, even if you don't like dogs,

3:46

you like Banco. He's just the chillest

3:49

coolest dog. Like Yeah.

3:51

I don't know. Anyway, Larry, you're

3:54

you would have liked

3:54

him. You could have met him.

3:56

With that that day where we were the Cola

3:58

Cuyall in the Mercantil alps?

4:00

Yeah. In the

4:01

Mercantil alps at the moment because Europe altitude,

4:03

aren't you in in EASL at two thousand?

4:06

I am.

4:06

Yeah. So not too too far away from

4:08

that. There's a little behind things.

4:10

Oh, no. It's actually it's pretty nice. It's beautiful

4:13

blue skies. It's it's really nice up here right now,

4:15

so that's good. And long I've ever

4:17

told my EASL to my Charlie Gourd, EASL to two

4:19

thousand story on the podcast. It's not very good story.

4:21

It's I I was when I graduated

4:23

from university in two thousand and

4:26

three. I was trekking across

4:28

the Alps, and I spent a couple of days at ease

4:30

ease on a two thousand. I saw a Charlie

4:31

gore. And I I was convinced

4:33

I saw Charlie Gourd anyway. And

4:36

I

4:36

don't know who Charlie Gourd is. He don't know who Charlie

4:38

Gourd is. Winter. 19

4:42

fifty he wasn't gone gone

4:43

gone. Oh, wow. The he was nicknamed

4:46

the angel of the mountains. He won the nineteen

4:48

fifty eight tour, De France, and

4:51

one of the kind of for anyone who got into

4:53

cycling in the fifties like my dad,

4:55

he was kind of the the poster boy for some

4:58

and kind of captured everything

5:00

that European cycling was,

5:02

I know it was kind of romantic compared

5:05

to the kind of the the metronomic track

5:07

record. Yeah. And this was quite a big deal

5:09

me seeing Charlie Girl, Larry, because

5:11

Charlie Girl became a mythical figure, not least

5:13

because there was this sort

5:16

of it was a bit of an urban legend about him

5:18

having completely disappeared and become

5:20

literally a

5:21

hermit, a recluse, and gone

5:23

to live in a cabin in

5:25

the forest of the Ardennes in Luxembourg

5:28

where it was from. Mhmm. So,

5:30

you know, me too. Are they gonna say in a cabin and

5:32

easily two thousand?

5:33

Well, which is probably a good place to be

5:35

here. You've seen any Before

5:38

we get on with these before we get on with these round up. The other thing

5:40

I remember, I always think of when I think of each of

5:42

the two thousands, the Ibex system. Fantastic.

5:44

There are a lot of IBXs up there, just the Bubba's

5:47

on the Kudlala lumber hub.

5:50

Yeah. There are actually cool. I was here in the summer

5:52

and did, like, a little backpacking tour

5:55

with my girlfriend, and we saw, like, some

5:57

crazy wildlife and Ibex

5:59

and it was really cool.

6:02

Lionel, should I crack on with the news round

6:04

up? Yeah. Do it. Got it. And we'll start with

6:06

sort of off the bike stuff

6:08

this week. A few weeks ago, we featured an interview

6:11

with the former Australian writer, Alan

6:13

Piper, who helped guide Haday Pogachi to Tour

6:15

de France, victory in twenty twenty

6:17

as a direct sportique with UAE. But

6:20

since we've drawn from that role due to health

6:22

issues, the reason we spoke to Alan

6:24

at time was that he and UAE

6:27

had similarly found an agreement for him to return

6:29

to the team in a consultancy role this year.

6:31

However, blended in the last couple

6:33

of days. That will not now happen.

6:35

The team released a statement quoting

6:38

Pipi. He said, Dave, he thanked Mara

6:40

Gannetti, the team manager in UAE for trying

6:42

to reincorporate him into the squad,

6:44

but my vision of the collaboration was

6:46

different from those of all my visions

6:49

of the collaboration were different from those. The team,

6:52

I wished the team all the best going

6:54

forward. It seems as though

6:56

it was pretty sort of amicable agreement that

6:58

they weren't gonna work together, but that's a bit

7:00

of a shame, isn't it? Chubb. So I think

7:03

not at least because what we know about

7:05

Allen Piper's health problems over the last

7:07

couple of years. And it seemed like

7:09

a a happy oh,

7:11

well, happy re

7:14

re sort of conciliation. Another

7:18

bit of news in brief is

7:20

something we may well revisit in their

7:22

Jiro Italia in a few weeks. The

7:24

two time Jiro champion, Pepe Serrano,

7:26

has reignited his four decade long

7:28

feud with Francesca Moszera by

7:31

blasting Mozaire from

7:32

Larry, do you know who Francesca Moszaire and Giuseppe

7:34

Serrano.

7:35

Yeah. Here mine are. Yeah. Like

7:37

he's a winemaker. Right? Yeah. Well, we'll

7:39

we'll get to that one way blasting

7:41

Mosai in an interview with the El Corre

7:43

da Gracera. Perhaps

7:45

no most notably Sadon, he said that

7:47

Moses had a monopoly on the blood transfusions

7:50

administered by professor Francisco

7:53

Concony in the eighties, which were legal

7:55

at the time, but since I don't know where gay way

7:58

to many of the problems which blighted cycling

8:00

later. In spite of their rivalry,

8:02

Sarani admitted that he still buys wine

8:05

from Moses Cantina and that it's excellent.

8:07

He added though that he never looks closely

8:09

at the bill. Although he doubts Moses

8:12

gives him a discount. This

8:14

has got this was like a this was like a

8:16

nice warm blanket, this story, because

8:18

there's less and less of this in cycling. Maseraserone

8:22

is one of the great old

8:24

Italian beefs, the great

8:27

feuds. I thought this would be a good this would be

8:29

a good queue to ask Larry about

8:31

any fuse, Larry? Are there any beast that we

8:33

don't know about that we really should know about?

8:35

This is your opportunity to lift

8:38

the

8:38

lid. Do

8:41

you

8:42

have any seats? Oh,

8:45

me, just you, Carthy.

8:47

Oh, yes. We know. I know. Done that already.

8:49

But No. I mean,

8:53

I'd have to think about it. Okay. Well,

8:55

maybe maybe there's probably a few that exist

8:58

But but yeah, usually it's Linguine

9:01

guy has a lot of feuds with a lot of guys,

9:03

you know. It's not like individuals

9:06

lot of

9:06

times, but

9:07

but did think let's do well. I do think it's

9:09

on that. It's on Interesting. You

9:10

know, the the the footage of the aftermath

9:12

of Milana San Remo and the the

9:14

three riders from the podium all squeezed onto

9:17

that too small sofa

9:19

and it was Van

9:22

Aart went up first to go onto the podium. They'd

9:24

all sat there in a kind of a walk with silence like

9:27

you know, strangers packed onto

9:29

a commuter train or something and trying not to

9:31

touch thighs together, no eye contact.

9:33

And then when Bernard went up to the podium,

9:35

suddenly Ghana and Vanderbilt were

9:38

warm and, you know, they moved apart a little bit

9:40

to become more comfortable on the sofa, but sort of started

9:42

to engage in conversation. And I think you know, this

9:45

rivalry between van der Poel and

9:47

Van Aart is very well

9:49

understood. You know, they've been going head to head

9:52

since they were children really haven't they I think

9:54

there was a a piece that Pete

9:56

Cawins, our colleague wrote this

9:58

week just talking about that rivalry. And,

10:01

yeah, one of them said basically,

10:03

the the the rivalry is such that they can't really

10:05

be friends and I kind of get that. You know, they're going up

10:07

against each other. They've got to try bury each other

10:09

on the road. They can certainly respect each other,

10:12

but I'm I'm sure they're not gonna be dinner party

10:14

guests until after they've retired

10:16

mate.

10:17

No. No. No. I mean, it's

10:19

fairly thin glue, though, that rivalry, I would

10:21

say, compared to Moser and

10:23

Sarani. As I said, hopefully, we'll revisit

10:25

this in the Giority Italian because

10:27

it is a great story that we probably haven't

10:30

done enough on over the years. Should

10:32

we talk about some racing have been there

10:34

were three French cup races, so they have

10:36

been in the last few days, the GP

10:38

dinner last Wednesday, the

10:40

classic bluer at Long Teek and the GP

10:42

Schollé paid the la la la at

10:44

weekend. Those three races

10:47

were won respectively by Juan

10:49

Sebastian Mullano of UAE, Axel

10:51

Zhang of of coffee

10:53

this and Lawrence Lawrence

10:56

Piffy. I was tempted to pronounce that

10:59

in French way, but he's

11:01

he's a New Zealander. In he

11:03

rides for Coupana. Pity

11:06

is, well, twenty years old, and he was also

11:08

second the previous day. Larry,

11:10

French cup, big deal for

11:12

French teams, not a

11:14

big deal at all for a

11:17

lot of fans that follow cycling.

11:20

Now how how important is the French cup for eighty

11:22

two ounce twin. Yeah.

11:24

I mean, I think it's pretty important, you know. Like,

11:27

they use to win it, like, almost every year and,

11:29

you know, it's always kind of a big deal if they could

11:31

win it. I know it's, like,

11:33

big for the sponsor in stuff just like there's

11:36

something in French teams or it's like it's

11:38

really important to be the best French

11:39

team. And so if you win the French cup, then you

11:41

know you're kinda like, the best French team.

11:44

Right? So he's he's huge for confidence.

11:46

Back ten, fifteen years ago, it was almost

11:48

their biggest object of the season.

11:52

Yeah.

11:52

I mean, I guess if you can't win big world tour

11:54

razors, how do you win the French cup? That's fine.

11:57

So Being his feud inside Let

11:59

me know. This is, like, worse versus

12:02

coffee dish. Is the feeling that

12:04

we should be talking about? Yeah. I mean,

12:06

it's not the same company as it used to be.

12:08

They've, you know, definitely grown a lot.

12:10

But,

12:12

you know, I don't know it is

12:14

funny because, like, before you're on a French team,

12:17

you just, like, one of these razors, you never even

12:19

heard of them before, you know. And then

12:22

then, like, on the team, they're, like, important

12:24

big races, you know. So it's like, to

12:26

get, like, on the the French

12:28

races and stuff, it's like, you know, it's tough.

12:31

So See, for our team, it's

12:33

quite important. And think it's just, you

12:34

know, anytime racing at home is always

12:37

important for the team. We

12:39

should also mention another day race that

12:41

happened last week and that was Nokura.

12:44

A lot of Capecki won women's race there,

12:47

Tim Medleya, was the best of the

12:49

men. Speaking of women's racing,

12:51

moving to the weekend last weekend, that is

12:53

the tour the Normandie

12:56

was won by Britton, I

12:58

believe, Sedrine Kalballe.

13:01

By one second, she won from

13:04

her Capachek ladies,

13:06

the host. Two significant

13:08

men's stage races are happening at the

13:11

moment. The settymana copy Aftali

13:13

in Central Italy and the aforementioned Volta

13:15

Catarunja, aka Spain's oldest

13:17

stage race, first ridden in nineteen eleven

13:21

in Copier Bartoli, Rémi Carvanya,

13:24

one stage one after thirty two

13:26

kilometers of solo break, but has lost the leaders

13:28

Jersey team mate, Mauro Schmidt today.

13:30

Schmidt was second on stage two behind your departure,

13:33

Larry Sean Quinn. In

13:36

catalonia, Stage one wasroglyphide.

13:38

I think you all know what that means or stage

13:40

two. So arogly side Primo's finishing

13:43

second. We could say about Studio

13:45

Chikona, ruggedified him. At

13:47

the time recording today, Stage

13:49

three has just concluded atop La

13:51

Molina, and guess what? Rog got

13:54

rep

13:54

oversized. Did you see that champs?

13:56

Were you watching? And

13:59

I turned it on when you told me that you were watching

14:02

the finals. Yeah.

14:03

Well, an appetite

14:04

for ice class five cares. Yeah. It's

14:06

a sort of full taste of it's been

14:08

built, hasn't it as a bit of a dress rehearsal for

14:10

the Jiro d'italia. And

14:13

they're certainly well, Ramco

14:16

and Rengella going to the JIRA.

14:18

They work will both be favorites, and they look

14:20

pretty closely matched to the moment, I would say.

14:22

Well, think today was maybe indicative of what

14:24

we've seen so far. Avan

14:27

Paul looks slightly stronger. Would

14:30

you agree?

14:31

Yeah. I mean, it's gonna be interesting. That isn't it

14:33

in a race where there'll be time bonuses and

14:35

plenty of opportunity issues on those sorts of

14:37

finishes, the pair of them going

14:41

head to head, Evina pool

14:43

obviously quicker today. And well,

14:46

just failed to take the leaders jersey. I think

14:48

Roblich just kept the leaders

14:49

jersey, but they're tied on time. So

14:52

well, it was a cock up, wasn't it by Aramco?

14:55

Because he said celebrated. He he lost

14:57

at least two seconds with his celebration.

15:00

He sat up and saluted the

15:02

crowd at least fifty meters for the

15:04

line, I would say. But there's

15:06

plenty of opportunities for more

15:09

showdowns between Rod and Remco

15:12

later on this week. The thing that was interesting for

15:14

me about today was to see Richard

15:16

Carappas in the early break.

15:18

Yeah. Carrap hasn't lost he'd lost time,

15:20

didn't he? On Stage

15:22

two, the mountain top finish. There

15:24

were couple of a couple of riders who

15:27

were well off the pace. AGAM, but now

15:29

got dropped fairly early on

15:31

stage two as well, but climbed pretty

15:33

creditably, nonetheless, finished

15:35

about two minutes down. He's coming back from

15:37

knee injury, of course. But

15:40

yeah, it's always I mean, it's a it's a

15:43

be gold. It's a

15:45

tough stage race. It's the Walter Catalunians.

15:48

For some riders, these are the first long

15:50

climbs that they've done all season. There

15:52

are also some big casualties in that first mountain

15:55

top fish. I mean, the brothers for

15:57

example, well, there there have been

15:59

other significant time losses by

16:01

pre race favorites. For example, Adam Yates

16:03

in the first place, but he was involved in

16:05

a really nasty crash, which I should also mention,

16:07

cost Daniel Cataldo

16:10

treks, segafredo, a broken

16:12

hell, but I think it was

16:14

well, it might have been multiple broken bones. So

16:16

we wish him all the best. Yeah. I mean, this is Carrapanja's

16:19

first stage race of the season as well. Remember?

16:21

I mean, he won the Ecuadorian Road

16:23

Race Championships. His first race in Europe

16:25

was Milano Turino last week.

16:28

And, yeah, first stage race of the season.

16:30

His eyes will be very

16:32

much on the summer to dominate the Tour de

16:34

France. So just an early hit out

16:36

for him, I guess, a stretch of the legs. But

16:38

it's it's good to see riders of that stature

16:41

in an early brake like that. I thought it it added

16:43

a bit more to to the

16:45

early hours of of my double

16:47

screening today with the the Bruker

16:49

DePana Classic on one screen and

16:52

can pilonia on the other. I mean, this is traditionally

16:54

the busiest week of the cycling season, isn't

16:56

it? It's where the the

16:58

kind of the twin lanes start to merge

17:01

together all eyes will be on

17:03

the cobbled classics from this point

17:05

on.

17:05

Was it about to say, Lionel, you are our de facto

17:07

cobbled classics, Corus bondings and tell

17:09

us briefly what happened in the

17:10

PAMA. I can. Yeah. Well, I mean, it

17:12

was a it was a really

17:15

good race. I think the the we'll

17:17

talk about this in the third part with Larry, but

17:19

I'm not a big fan of that circuit. I think

17:21

it's a dangerous course. It's

17:23

the only one of those flemish

17:25

classics, the major ones in the world tour.

17:28

I think that's not part of Flanders classics.

17:30

And the course has kind of evolved

17:32

from the days when this was a three

17:35

day stage race. Now it's a

17:37

one day race on a kind of glorified commiss

17:39

circuit. I mean, I've described it variously

17:41

in the past as a a bit like a sort

17:43

of bumper car circuit

17:46

at the fairground. Some of the

17:48

street furniture is ridiculous. That

17:51

left hand turn on the finishing circuit

17:53

on the cobbles across that narrow bridge

17:55

and then onto more cobbles, gives me the Heberjeevs

17:58

every time. Oddly because

18:00

the weather was bad and the wind was up and there were

18:02

crosswinds and it split into pieces. It actually

18:04

made it safer, I think, for the majority

18:06

of riders because it wasn't a hundred and

18:08

fifty right at all trying to get to

18:10

the front from quite a long way

18:12

out. It split up into small groups, and that also

18:15

made it a much better race. Well,

18:17

the shake down came sixteen kilometers

18:20

from the finish when Jasper Phillips and

18:22

who's one of the one of number were

18:24

very fast finishers in that group

18:26

of well originally, it was about thirty five riders,

18:28

and then it split down to sixteen or

18:30

eighteen riders. But Philipson sort of ghosted

18:32

off the front. He had own Lafkoi of

18:35

Yumbo Vismer on his wheel. And

18:37

the Sreedal Quick Step rider

18:39

who marked him with Eve Lamp Park Sudal

18:42

QuickStep had a number of riders. They were the best

18:44

represented in that group of eighteen, but

18:46

Fabio Jacobsen was not across in

18:49

that group suboptimal for Sudan

18:51

quick step because Lampard was never going to be Philipson

18:53

or Koi in a sprint. So we

18:55

had this curious sight of

18:58

the Sudan QuickStep riders chasing

19:00

a group with their own teammate in it.

19:03

Normally, the rule is you don't chase when you've

19:05

got a teammate in the break, but with Lampard

19:07

having a little chance

19:09

really of beating Philipson in the sprint.

19:11

It made sense for, you know, a quick step

19:13

to try and close a gap. They couldn't.

19:16

The other rider in that front quartet was Frederic

19:18

Friesen of Lotto Destiny. He tried a couple

19:20

of moves to pull a fast

19:22

one at the finish but was unsuccessful.

19:25

And, well, Philipson finished

19:27

it off in the sprint, quite impressive by

19:30

the opposition to earning rider because he did

19:32

make that move happen. He didn't just sit in and

19:34

wait for the sprint. I mean, he was presumably

19:37

trying to reduce his competition

19:40

because in that group, Groningen, Ackerman,

19:43

Jacobsen, as I mentioned. But it was a really

19:45

good addition of that race and yeah,

19:49

I think because of the bad weather

19:51

made it much less of a kind of one of those

19:53

ones that you sort of watch through your fingers thinking

19:56

anything something bad could happen at any

19:58

moment. But a bit in common with a

20:00

couple of years ago when it was held in October

20:02

as result of the COVID interruption

20:05

that whether terrible that day, and it finished

20:07

with Eveland Park winning solo. And

20:11

that likewise was a really compelling race

20:13

to watch in bad weather. But when the weather's

20:15

nice and the wind doesn't blow, I just think

20:17

that it's like -- Yeah. -- it's like

20:19

putting the riders on some kind of bowling alley

20:21

and seeing which of the skittles stay upright.

20:34

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21:00

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21:03

Thank you very much to super APION is our

21:05

title sponsors. They've been supporting

21:07

us for the past couple of seasons, and they've been in

21:09

the news a lot in recent weeks because

21:12

of the situation that arose from the

21:14

women's strada Bianca recently when

21:16

Christian Faulkner was stripped of her

21:18

third place for wearing a continuous

21:21

glucose monitoring device under

21:23

her jersey of course, they're not allowed

21:26

in competition. First

21:28

of all, Christian Faulkner issued a statement

21:30

saying it was not my intent to violate

21:32

any rules or gain an unfair advantage.

21:34

I'm proud of how I race strategy and

21:36

I'm extremely disappointed in the UCI's

21:38

decision. I also hope that one day glucose

21:41

monitors are allowed in racing I believe

21:43

they are a valuable tool for athletes, especially

21:45

women, to take care of our physical

21:47

health. Though that is a conversation

21:49

for another time and super sapeans all I

21:51

issued a statement in which they

21:54

urged the UCI to work

21:56

together with SuperSapiens and

21:58

others to collaborate establishing

22:02

datasets and continued scientific

22:04

learnings with the goal of designing science

22:06

based best practices for optimizing

22:09

nutrition and recovery and mitigating

22:11

eating disorders. Strider

22:13

Bianca, of course, sessily boot trip,

22:15

Ludwig, was elevated to third place

22:18

And, well, Larry, I wondered

22:20

if you had a view on whether at

22:22

some point

22:24

these devices will be allowed in

22:26

races.

22:28

Yeah. I mean, I think it's it's hard to say, you know,

22:30

I I think one, it's it's a big shame for

22:32

Kristen Faulkner that she was disqualified.

22:34

You know, I think she did a great race. And,

22:37

you know, I don't think she meant any harm by

22:39

wearing her continuous glucose monitor.

22:42

But yeah, I don't know. I think it'll be interesting to

22:44

see how it goes forward in the

22:46

future because if they do change the

22:48

rule, I think that could change a lot of

22:50

things. You know, I think right now it's

22:52

continuous glucose monitors, but

22:55

I think it'll have more to do

22:57

with other things. I know, you know, I think one

22:59

thing they might be working on is like a continuous

23:01

lactate monitor, which would be really really interesting.

23:04

And so I think if they allowed

23:06

the continuous glucose monitors, they

23:09

might have to allow the lactate ones to when

23:11

those eventually do come out.

23:13

And I think that might be a bit more of a performance

23:16

advantage. So I don't know if we'll see

23:18

that being permitted. But

23:21

yeah, it's it's definitely an interesting case

23:23

and it's an interesting topic. But you

23:25

know, I think the UCI is probably gonna stick

23:28

to their guns on this one. And, unfortunately,

23:30

I I don't think we'll see any

23:33

progression there

23:35

with that rule.

23:38

Well, no. It was an opening shut case really

23:40

as far as Christian Faulkner was

23:42

concerned. Just very quickly lower view

23:44

at actually had a go with a continuous

23:46

glucose monitor?

23:47

Yeah. So I've tried the

23:50

super sapiens few times actually.

23:52

And it's interesting. It's it's

23:54

you know, there's like a lot of data that you get out

23:56

of it. But for me,

23:58

I found like, I don't I've never really

24:01

had I guess, good guidance

24:03

on sort of how to use it or or what

24:05

the results mean because it's really interesting

24:07

to see, you know, certain things like maybe

24:11

mean, some things are logical, but if you eat

24:13

like couple hair bow, you see a big spike, you

24:15

know. But the other things

24:17

that are really interesting is, like, when you're in training

24:19

is every hard effort you do, you get

24:21

a big spike. So it's

24:23

not just from what you eat, it's from what he

24:25

do on the bike and even, you know, I heard

24:27

a story of another rider I know. He

24:30

was wearing one and they were at team camp.

24:32

And right when it was time to have

24:34

his meeting with all directors. He had a huge spike

24:36

on his CGM monitor, which,

24:39

you know, is kinda funny as well. So, yeah,

24:41

it's it's interesting. You know, I I think

24:43

there are some uses for

24:45

it, but Was it was it dumbfounded?

24:47

It's a super shallow meeting with

24:49

we've been for meeting with Vina.

24:51

Now, actually, was a couple of years ago. It wasn't

24:53

when he was on the start of it. Yeah. Yeah.

24:56

So Well, stress,

24:58

anxiety does cause those readings

25:00

to spike. I mean, just before recording our

25:02

Duro episodes last year when I was wearing

25:05

the device, my my level would go up

25:07

as well. But, yeah,

25:10

full transparency see, we are sponsored by SuperSapiens.

25:12

If you wanna find out more about how the system

25:14

works, go to super sapiens dot

25:16

com. Now before we push

25:19

on, the latest episode

25:21

of the cycling podcast phenomena is being

25:23

produced as we speak and will be

25:25

out very shortly Auler

25:28

and Lizzie Banks joining Rose Manley,

25:30

of course, to recap the

25:33

recent racing and look ahead to

25:35

the cobbled classics. I've given

25:37

all a one name there as if she transcends

25:40

the need for a a

25:41

surname, that's all a shadowy course.

25:43

But the cycling podcast phenomenon will be out

25:45

very shortly. Well,

25:48

I know we did we've already done one podcast

25:50

this week, haven't we? do well,

25:52

we did an Arrivee after Milan

25:54

time frame, and I promised once

25:57

we had published Arrivee that we would

25:59

do a much deeper dive into Milan San

26:01

Remo. A deeper dive of sorts are

26:03

guided by someone who wrote Milan San

26:05

Remo the real Milan San Remo at the weekend,

26:08

dive so deep you'd need flippers and

26:10

a snorkel, so that's what we'll proceed to do now

26:12

with lucky Larry. Larry,

26:15

I said that I noticed

26:17

you you were very much center stage as the race

26:19

came into the pod show. You did an expert

26:21

job of placing your team captain Benoit, cause

26:23

of what. Let's start the beginning. I

26:26

want to I want you to tell us

26:29

about your day and maybe go

26:31

back even further. I mean, Milan's memory erased

26:33

the you wanted to

26:35

do that you feel your you

26:38

were suited for? I mean, what

26:40

was the the sort of the discussion

26:43

around you and Milan to Raimo this

26:44

year. Yeah. So, I mean, I

26:47

yeah. I mean, it's a really nice race. I like to

26:49

do it. And now, that it ended

26:51

up, we kinda like rearrange my schedule

26:54

little bit. Then it was

26:56

great because, like, before I was supposed to

26:58

do Bass Country. And I was like, if I

27:00

do Sun Remo and Bass Country.

27:02

I don't really have much time in between the giro.

27:04

So they took me out of Bass Country

27:06

for the moment, so that's a plus, and then I

27:08

was happy to do Sonoma, you know. But,

27:12

yeah, I went there to help Benoit. So

27:15

I sort of on the team, I've kind

27:17

of been sort of integrated

27:19

into Benoit's program. And for

27:21

him, like Milan and San Remo, was like a really big

27:24

objective. So he

27:26

and the team, like, wanted me there, which

27:28

is nice. And it's a really nice race to

27:30

do. It's cool. I love race immediately. And

27:32

then it's also it's close to home and, you know,

27:34

there's a lot of history behind the race. So,

27:36

yeah, I I enjoy doing the race. Unfortunately,

27:39

we didn't get the result that we came there for.

27:42

Yeah. I guess it just didn't really work out for

27:44

Benoit. In the end, you know, I guess you could

27:46

see on the Pojo, whether it was

27:48

down to tactics, or legs,

27:50

you know, it was maybe little bit of combination

27:52

of

27:53

both. But

27:55

but yeah. So I guess

27:58

Yeah. Sorry. I mean,

28:00

before before we talk about the the sort

28:02

of key part of the race for as far as Benoit

28:05

and as far as you were concerned, because I guess your job

28:07

just watching the race, I suppose. Your

28:11

job was concentrated mainly around Capressa

28:13

and Pajo, but just take us back to the sort

28:15

of sea in the atmosphere on the bus, you it's

28:18

a very early start for you

28:19

guys, isn't it? I mean, what what time

28:21

did you set the forty five wake up.

28:23

I don't forget that because it's, like, way

28:25

earlier than you're, like, oh god. Six forty five.

28:27

Are you serious? You know? Like, I mean, he's

28:29

at the end least of the season. No. Maybe it's

28:31

not. I mean For, like, maybe a one

28:33

day race. Yeah. But sometimes

28:35

in the grand tours, you end up having these crazy

28:37

long transfers. And every once in a while, like,

28:40

know in the Jira once we had, like,

28:42

maybe a five something AM wake up

28:45

to do some two hour transfer after

28:47

some three seven hour stages to

28:49

go for another long stage

28:51

that we ended up protesting for, you know.

28:53

But

28:54

that one was early. As as you do,

28:57

as you want to do. And now

28:59

sorry. Is

29:00

is it still the enormous

29:03

pose of posture? That's a this is actually

29:05

a six year old man. I I was wanted

29:08

to talk about was like,

29:11

so it used to be, you know, you would

29:13

eat like, I mean,

29:15

a horse. You know, you would just

29:17

wolf down bowl of

29:19

pasta. You know, I heard some story

29:22

about, like, when they were on BMC, Alessandro

29:25

Beland, like, they had some competition of how

29:27

many plates pasta they could eat the night before.

29:29

And think Balan ate something like seven

29:31

or ten plates of pasta. You know?

29:34

Well, it was like this time we were

29:36

measuring our three hundred

29:38

and fifty grams of cooked pasta

29:41

that we got, you know, the night before. So

29:44

cycling's definitely changed a lot. You know,

29:46

we're really a lot more

29:48

calculated with all the nutrition stuff.

29:51

And so, yeah,

29:53

I guess, now that they've

29:55

realized is like just carbo loading

29:57

the night before isn't necessarily the

29:59

answer. You kinda like

30:01

taking a little more calories during the race.

30:03

Don't you? No. We we we probably

30:06

during the race. But

30:08

then also, like, what they found is that, like,

30:10

to start your glycogen stores, you know,

30:13

like, once you stock them up,

30:15

they're not really going down that much.

30:17

You know? So, like, the days before as

30:19

long as you're eating like a high carbohydrate diet

30:21

in the few days leading up to the race.

30:24

The day before isn't necessarily so

30:26

crazy important. Not like you need to eat twelve

30:28

plates of pasta the night before the race

30:30

because you had pasta, you know,

30:32

the couple days before sort of, you know, So

30:35

we just kind of, I guess, had a higher

30:37

carb intake the days before, but nothing

30:39

really crazy. You know, everything now is like

30:41

super measured. We had like you know, a

30:43

plan from the nutritionist. And, yeah, now

30:45

we have like food scales at the table and we're

30:47

weighing everything. So, yeah, I

30:49

think I ate something like three hundred and fifty

30:51

grams pasta the night before, you

30:53

know, and then, you know, had a sizable

30:56

breakfast. And

30:58

then, yeah, like, in the race, even

31:03

I didn't eat as much as I eaten some other

31:05

races because our nutritionist said

31:08

that with such

31:10

a long race. It's also not super intense

31:12

at the start that he

31:15

didn't want, like, to take the risk of if we

31:17

tried to fuel up to a hundred and twenty grams

31:19

an hour, which is what we would do in, like,

31:22

say, a really hard stage of Peronese or

31:24

something. Over

31:26

seven hours, maybe it would cause trouble

31:28

by the final to digest all that.

31:30

So we were eating between like sixty to eighty

31:33

grams an hour the first two hours

31:35

and then a little bit more the last

31:37

four hours. So

31:41

I mean, pretty calculated. And Yeah.

31:43

And that well, in those first couple of

31:45

hours of Minasirang with those there are two sort

31:47

of alternative views

31:50

of what those hours are liking the person. Sometimes

31:52

you hear, I remember having conversation with Mark

31:54

cavendish, and him saying

31:56

that it's a race where every millimeter cyclical

31:58

movement counts. At some point, it

32:00

will count seven hours later. So,

32:03

you know, those those first two hours are

32:05

important in terms of economy. And

32:08

yet, on the other hand, we hear things

32:10

like I mean, I said last week that Matay

32:12

Maheerich last year was going around

32:14

the Peloton port to his friend his

32:17

Slovenian friends, he was making jokes about, you

32:19

know, whether there were good hospitals in Milan, Rima,

32:21

because he knew the the risk that he was gonna

32:23

take later on. And And we,

32:25

you know, we might imagine that

32:27

it's a fairly sort of a

32:29

whimsical kind of cruise down across the

32:33

plains of Lombardy and Piedmont towards the

32:35

coast, and it's one of those

32:37

rare occasions when it is quite relaxed in the

32:39

Peloton. I mean, how did you approach and

32:41

what's the where does the truth lie, Larry?

32:43

Yeah. I mean, it's more the second.

32:46

Like, it's pretty chill. You know, we

32:48

don't go very hard until, like, you

32:50

get closer to the Turquino. So

32:53

pretty much the first hours, like the breakaway

32:55

goes quick. And then the only

32:57

thing was this year And it's happened like

32:59

some of the other

33:00

years. It's like there's a little bit of wind.

33:02

You know, it's like an annoying cross headwind

33:04

so that, like,

33:06

you're kinda, like, single or double file

33:08

in the Peloton. So it's just an

33:10

annoying pace that, like, you

33:12

can't just ride in the wind and talk to friends, you

33:14

know. It's not like the bunch is like one big bubble.

33:17

It's just kinda like almost single or double

33:19

file. So at that point, you just

33:21

kinda stay next to your team. And it's

33:23

a little bit boring. You know, you just kinda sit there

33:25

and don't really You just ride.

33:28

And it's not that hard, but, like, Yeah.

33:30

It's just like the annoying pace and

33:32

annoying amount of wind that, like, it's

33:34

not like you're just sitting around chatting with your

33:36

friends, which happens in some races.

33:38

Or if there was, like, a block headwind that would have happened.

33:41

But, yeah, with the wind and stuff,

33:43

it was just, like, in the end, you just kinda sit next

33:45

to your team and everyone sits

33:47

there just

33:49

kind of riding along

33:52

until the Turquino, and then the fight starts.

33:55

And, yeah, it's a fight for position

33:57

a bit, and everyone's throwing elbows a bit, and

33:59

you wanna be in good position for the descent. And

34:01

then everyone stops for a p at the bottom of said

34:04

anyway. So it's

34:07

kind of a funny rice. What

34:12

was the wind like when you got onto the coast?

34:15

We had like a raging

34:17

tailwind. So,

34:20

I mean, it wasn't like it was

34:22

super, super hard or anything, but we were

34:24

going. I was like, wow. I feel like we're going

34:26

really fast. And we were just on the flat going

34:28

through this town and I looked down. And we're going

34:30

sixty five k an hour. And I was like,

34:32

okay. Yeah. Like, this is this is I mean, it was

34:34

just super super fast.

34:37

So, yeah, it was a strong tailwind, I guess.

34:39

And Larry, it's two

34:41

hundred ninety four kilometers it was on

34:44

Saturday. It's obviously the by

34:46

far longest one day race of the season. Are

34:48

you intimidated by that distance

34:50

in the morning and are riders generally intimidated

34:52

by that distance, would you say?

34:58

I think like in the past, we've always

35:00

sort of been intimidated buy it. But if you

35:02

actually look at the amount of, like, work

35:04

you do in the race in terms of, like, kilojoules

35:06

and stuff, like, it's actually way

35:08

easier than any other classic. You know, it's

35:11

like average

35:13

watts or something. For example, they aren't super

35:15

high. It's just there's

35:17

two extremely hard efforts right at

35:19

the end And that's what makes

35:21

really the big difference there. So,

35:24

yeah, it's not like a liaison or

35:26

a flonders or something where it's just super hard

35:28

the whole day. It's just like there's really

35:31

two super hard efforts and then

35:33

a lot of fight for positioning.

35:36

And we we talked about your role for

35:38

Cosanify. Now I we didn't really talk about

35:40

Cosanify in our preview a couple of weeks

35:42

ago, but I remembered subsequently that

35:44

I'd read an interview with Benoit Cosnerois

35:47

in Vela magazine in which he talked about

35:49

what he saw as his biggest Forte as

35:51

bike rider, his biggest point of difference

35:53

distinction. And I think he he said

35:55

something like the two minute efforts

35:59

and then sustaining

36:01

that effort or sort of reaching a plateau

36:03

and remaining, you know, on that same high plateau.

36:05

And he sort of said that that was what he'd done in

36:07

the one month more real last year than me,

36:09

more true in Canada. And

36:12

when he said that or when I remembered

36:14

that statement. I thought, okay. This

36:17

is maybe a guy who although he hadn't had

36:19

good results in Sam Remo before, he's a guy

36:21

who could do well on the pod show. I mean, what was the

36:23

team plan broadly broadly

36:25

speaking.

36:27

Yes. I mean, the team plan was

36:30

sort of like I mean, it was

36:32

definitely watch out for Benoit, you

36:35

know, make sure they're in good position, but

36:37

then also Ollie, he's been second there

36:39

before. And he showed that he was going really

36:41

well the last stage pareanese. Olefern knows.

36:43

Yeah. Yeah. And then Andrea

36:45

Vendrama had also a bit of a free role

36:49

because, like, he's good at, like, a punchy sprint

36:51

kind of thing. So it was,

36:53

like, the rest of us were to help,

36:55

and we had two guys for

36:58

the earlier parts of the race, which were, like,

37:00

Yakuza Hanan and Lawrence Dawson, and then

37:02

it was Stan de Wolf and I for,

37:06

sort of, like, the

37:08

approach to the Chhopressa. And then if

37:10

we made it over the or the Chhopressa, you

37:12

know, before the Pojo. And then,

37:14

yeah, those guys obviously just to

37:17

their best in terms of

37:19

like a result. So, yeah,

37:21

that was kind of what happened. The

37:23

pace on the Chhopressa was like high, but

37:26

not as crazy as last year.

37:29

So we made it over with, I

37:31

think, five guys actually on the team.

37:33

And yeah. And so then

37:36

in the end, like, yeah,

37:38

we kind of you know, I was

37:41

gonna try to help the guys, but Benoit

37:43

was like, more comfortable just

37:46

to follow the leader. So he just stayed

37:48

on, like, a fan art wheel

37:50

and then, like yeah.

37:52

In the end, like, my job was kinda done, and then

37:54

we hit the bottom of the Peugeot, and then that

37:57

was it, you know. So and then, unfortunately

37:59

yeah. I mean, if you watch closely,

38:02

like, he got gapped by Chongqing, which

38:04

I don't know if that was on purpose or

38:06

he just also was suffering. And

38:09

then there was, like, a bit of a head of hesitation,

38:11

and then that was how those, like, five, six guys

38:13

went away. And the race was

38:15

done for at least our team

38:17

after

38:17

that? You you mentioned

38:20

the pace in the Chipressa. I mean, that was set by

38:22

UAE were was

38:24

there any talk we

38:26

we gained in last week's pod or two weeks

38:28

ago we talked about number of riders who

38:30

are based in Monaco riders who sort of practice

38:33

on the pod show and practice on enterprise. Particularly,

38:36

Pogachar, he seemed to have a pretty clear

38:38

plan when I spoke apparently, he talked about

38:40

the plan that he had, and he'd gone and sort

38:42

of enacted this plan in training. Was

38:45

there any talk on the grapevine down there

38:47

on the coat Zor Larry on the promenade,

38:50

you know, where you hang out and in

38:52

can and places like that Bulliosur mail

38:55

about what you and pull out your

38:57

were plotting. Was there any

38:59

any surprises for you in

39:02

what they did try to do?

39:04

No. I mean, I didn't really hear anything,

39:06

but I didn't really ask anyone,

39:08

you know. So But

39:11

in my head, when I kinda watched

39:13

like what happened last year, I

39:15

didn't think they were gonna go as full gas again

39:17

this year because it didn't work last year, you know. So

39:19

I was like, maybe this year they're gonna try a different

39:21

tactic and maybe their tactic would be to, like, stay

39:24

with more guys to the bottom of the Peugeot.

39:26

So in my head, even though it's not like what

39:28

the team thought or whatever, my

39:30

personal opinion was that didn't think they were

39:32

gonna go full of the Chhopressa because

39:35

I think they wanted to have more guys to

39:37

try to, like, you know, stomp the

39:39

bottom of the pojoe. For

39:41

Pogo Char. But in the end, I think

39:44

they did try to make it

39:45

hard. I just think they didn't have the guys to make

39:47

it hard on Shhopressa. At

39:49

least that was like what what it looked like

39:51

to me, you know.

39:53

So, Larry, just looking at well,

39:56

I think I said in your intro where you

39:58

came in

39:59

Benoit. I mean, what was the what

40:01

was the general feeling while I just look at what did he what

40:03

did

40:03

he feel? He was funny, position. He

40:05

was twenty second. So I guess,

40:08

was there some degree of disappointment about

40:10

that? Because he he

40:12

did seem to be on decent

40:14

form on the

40:15

day. What was the sort of mood like

40:17

when you got to the bus? Yeah.

40:21

I would say the general sentiment was

40:23

that of disappointment. But,

40:26

like, you know, why it didn't

40:28

work out? It's hard to say, you know, like, whether

40:30

it was this leg whether it was the plan of the

40:32

team. You know, I know one

40:34

thing he wasn't pumped about was that we

40:36

had to do Milano Turino, and

40:38

he'd already been on the road from Liguaglia,

40:42

and then, like, Torino straight

40:45

to Milano Torino, which

40:48

we didn't even have really a sprint for that much.

40:50

So, like, you know, we were just kinda there for a

40:52

really long time on the road where it's like,

40:54

you know, I think that's one thing that's a big

40:56

thing that sometimes we

40:58

neglect in cycling is like mental freshness

41:01

is super important too. And that was actually

41:03

something I wanted to say about the start of Sun

41:05

Remo is like, I don't think the physical

41:07

efforts at the beginning of the race really matter that

41:09

much, but staying mentally fresh to be

41:11

able to fight for the finish makes huge difference.

41:14

I think whatever you can do to just stay chill at

41:16

the start of that race, keeps you mentally

41:18

fresh for the end when you really need to be in the fight.

41:20

And guess, like, if we look at the match grossing.

41:23

That was kind of like his sentiment was

41:25

that, like, you know, he

41:27

he wasn't mentally fresh when he got to the race

41:29

because he'd been away for so long and, like, you know,

41:32

kind of for, like, a, I don't wanna say,

41:34

worthless race, but for him, maybe he

41:36

didn't see it as very valuable race in between.

41:39

There were two schools of thought on that. They weren't

41:41

there about how you stay fresh. I mean,

41:44

some people would say that the best way to stay

41:46

fresh is to stay focused and

41:50

to prevent your mind from wondering.

41:52

So so maybe if you go into the first

41:55

well, the first half of Milan time, Raymond, with

41:57

clear objectives, if I didn't know where you're gonna

41:59

be in the Peloton, how you're gonna approach

42:01

it, etcetera, etcetera. And as

42:04

against believing

42:07

that the best way to stay fresh is

42:09

to let your mind wander

42:11

as much as it can in a peloton in in

42:13

a big one day race and not

42:15

to really stress yourself out.

42:17

I I don't know. I mean, I think we've

42:19

all had experiences of both sides of

42:21

that coin. I always think that

42:24

mountain biking is a great example of this. How

42:26

you can you have to be completely focused if

42:28

you're riding on a single track or or whatever.

42:31

But that can be quite sort

42:33

of refreshing and reinvigorating

42:35

in itself because you as I

42:37

say, your mind doesn't have a chance to wander. I don't

42:39

know. What do you think? Yeah. I mean, the thing is

42:41

a mountain bike race like an hour and a half, you know. So

42:43

it's a bit different than -- Yeah. -- on Santa

42:46

Rosa, which is seven hours. You know, I I think

42:48

one thing that we really neglect a lot

42:50

is just that, like,

42:53

the fatigue trying to focus for

42:55

hours and hours on end adds

42:58

to, you know, your physical performance at

43:01

the end of the race. You know, I think, like, one

43:03

thing that, like, we just neglect

43:05

quite a lot in racing is that, like,

43:08

The physical aspect

43:12

is really impacted by the mental

43:14

aspect. And if you

43:16

don't have both together, I guess.

43:18

If you don't take both into account, I don't think

43:21

there's any way you're gonna perform. So I

43:23

think that's a it's an important thing

43:26

to

43:26

remember. Lino, how did you manage to

43:28

stay fresh for your hundred kilometer

43:30

ride on? Wow. We posted a Friday.

43:32

The hundred kilometer ride. Well, how

43:35

did I manage stay fresh. I just enjoyed it.

43:37

I mean, we had a much

43:39

less of a tailwind compared to

43:41

the pro riders in the race. I mean,

43:43

that made it a lot harder for us But

43:48

on that point, though, about Cognacois, I mean,

43:50

he would have been away for three and a bit

43:52

weak, wouldn't he? From Leguaglia through

43:54

Toriano Adriatico, Milano, Torino.

43:56

And III completely get where you're coming

43:58

from there, Larry. That kind of know, it's

44:00

it's gonna probably be gonna be the last bastion

44:03

of old school thinking that I

44:05

mean, from an athletic, from a sporting

44:08

and a tactical perspective, is there anything

44:10

to be gained from Cosanifwa doing Milano

44:12

Turino a few days before Milan

44:14

San Remo? No. There really

44:16

isn't. But there's that sense of

44:18

it's a race. We've got to field a team.

44:21

The logistics of changing the

44:23

team. Would they send him home for a week in

44:25

between? You know, there's still that kind of,

44:27

I guess, that old school sort of mentality

44:30

of if the ride is in the hotel, everyone's

44:32

got their eyes on. There's, you know,

44:34

I'm not not saying specifically about Cognify,

44:36

but sort of – and there's still that

44:39

sense from management that

44:41

if the riders are around their

44:44

they they know what's going on and

44:47

the sense of togetherness, I suppose. But

44:49

for the individual, maybe just a little break

44:51

before the big

44:52

objective. If it is that much of an objective,

44:54

might have done in the world of good. Who knows?

44:56

For sure. Yeah. And the other thing is we didn't do a recon,

44:58

which Everyone knows the roads,

45:01

but sometimes it can kinda get you into

45:03

the mindset before

45:05

the race. So I think that was

45:07

one thing they thought maybe it would be better to do

45:09

in the future is, like, instead of doing a race

45:11

in the middle of the week, just doing a recon instead,

45:13

and then you're a little bit more relaxed.

45:16

I mean, what a what a you could have just given

45:18

me a ring, Larry. I know. The right hand turn

45:21

at the right hand turn at the bottom of the compressor

45:23

is really really quite

45:25

tight. So just trying to get at the front of next

45:27

time. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. Perfect.

45:30

Shoot. Shoot. I'll do the door. Steak

45:32

and podcast team car is a back of the pack,

45:34

please. That's set PK, the voice

45:36

of radio tour, to remind me to tell you that

45:38

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47:16

Well, out, Larry. First Monument

47:18

of the season under your belt. You

47:21

are at EASL of two thousand. We talked about that at

47:23

the start of this show. Just tell me I was

47:25

kinda curious. What is the sort of thinking

47:27

now of you going to altitude?

47:29

I mean, it's a bit of it. You've just kind of faced the first

47:31

block. Come you? Is

47:34

it a well, did you have have you had few doses

47:36

of sort of coming down? Is it

47:38

is it a question of sort of letting

47:40

go of a bit of the form and the condition

47:43

to then build up again for the

47:45

Ardennes and the

47:46

Jira. Just explain sort of conceptually

47:48

what is the thinking behind spending time altitude

47:51

now. Yes. So, well, I mean, spinning

47:53

something out to do now is for the Jiro.

47:56

But, you know, it also helped me for the art den. So it's just

47:58

really for, like, the next block of racing. And

48:00

so, I've already done, like, twenty two

48:02

or twenty three days of racing this year, which is,

48:04

like, quite a lot. And

48:07

so I needed to take, like, a little bit of a break.

48:09

So I took I was at home for, like,

48:11

two days. That's not pretty long after

48:14

the lost time rainbow. And then

48:16

I was like, okay. You know, anyway,

48:18

like the first days of altitude, you

48:21

wanna sort of ease into it. So

48:24

I was planned to take, you know, like, yeah, just

48:27

guess a few days off the bike, so I came up here and

48:29

I've just been like skiing and hanging out

48:31

in the mountains to sort of just I

48:33

guess, like, yeah, get a mental

48:35

refresh, like we were just talking about

48:38

before I sort

48:38

of, like,

48:39

flea, he's a lion. Isn't it? Yeah. That's

48:41

nice. How's the I bet? Says. I'll be honest. It's

48:43

like today was really beautiful. I mean, blue

48:45

skies.

48:46

Really? And then, honestly, it was nice skiing.

48:48

It's a bleak climb. It's my a nice

48:50

climate tweezer to two thousand. I think the climate's

48:52

really nice. I just think the village kinda

48:54

sucks. I mean, the village is like ugly

48:56

and from like the seventies or eighties

48:59

or just the worst time in terms

49:01

of architecture and everything. I

49:04

think there might be at least there's at least one bowling

49:06

alley. I remember that. But

49:07

it doesn't exist anymore. Repossessing looking

49:10

resort hour because that's a and a disc attack,

49:12

I'm sure. But now climb perhaps

49:15

you like it because it's kind of an American

49:16

Stockholm. It's a big road. Isn't it a big wide

49:19

road? Yeah. But it's like in the trees, and

49:21

then I don't know there's always changing. There's

49:23

pretty steep. It's pretty hard. It's I I think it's

49:25

actually really nice climb. But but

49:27

yeah. Okay. So

49:29

you're up there to get ready for the Jira

49:31

and you come down in

49:33

A couple of weeks. Yeah. So I'll try to do

49:35

three weeks here. So, yeah, the goal

49:38

is just essentially to get in as good

49:40

as form as I possibly can. And

49:42

I know that if I do a big bucket

49:44

altitude, that's the

49:46

best way for me to get into the best form

49:48

I can be. And think, you know, that'll

49:50

help me to be really good in the Ardennes

49:52

and then really help me get

49:54

ready for the Jiro. So that's sort

49:57

of like my next big objective.

50:00

So, yeah, I think it's the best way

50:02

to get ready, and I think it's really now it's

50:04

almost like a necessity to

50:07

do if you wanna do well in a grand tour.

50:09

So if you look at any of the guys who've

50:12

been successful in the grand tours over the last

50:14

years, and I don't mean just like GC

50:16

or something. I mean, like, the the guys

50:18

winning stages, everything is, you know,

50:21

everyone's going to altitude. So

50:23

I think it's just that last few

50:25

percent that

50:27

if you wanna do well, it's something you need to

50:29

do.

50:31

Many guys up there at the moment. I know you piggybacking

50:33

her Sweeny's Wi Fi. Yes. Yeah.

50:35

We have to say thank you for

50:38

allowing me to use his Wi Fi

50:40

hotspots in my service

50:42

is not good and the WiFi is not working.

50:45

So he's at that anyone else? So

50:48

right now, there's no one I know my

50:50

teammate, Joffrey Bouchard, was here last

50:52

week, and then I

50:54

know that I'll be

50:57

once Harry leaves, I'll be staying with Joe

50:59

and Will BARDA after

51:02

they come back from Catalina and then Matteo

51:04

Jorgensen will come up a little bit

51:06

after

51:06

that. So, yeah, I think there'll be a lot of guys

51:09

rotating in and out of here. And

51:13

Larry, where I said it was first monument the

51:15

season done invested. I saw you at Paine East,

51:17

of course. You were you were running a thick of

51:19

the action there as well. You were in the break a couple

51:22

of days. Just generally, I

51:24

mean, we we did a sort of an

51:28

episode where we look forward to the

51:30

season as a whole, and you kinda laid out

51:32

your goals in here, but you must be relatively

51:34

pleased with the way things have

51:36

started. No? You're healthy?

51:38

Yeah. Looked on people. I think my

51:40

form is pretty good. You know,

51:42

I would have liked to get a result. You know,

51:44

it's like, it's just all well and good to go on the breakaway,

51:47

but, like, the objective of going the breakaways to,

51:49

like, win a race or something, you know.

51:51

So wouldn't say I have any results

51:53

to speak of yet, so that's a bit too bad. But,

51:55

yeah, it's it's I've been there and thereabouts.

51:57

And, you know, I think it'll set me up well

51:59

for the races to come.

52:02

But yeah, I I would say I'm, like, generally happy

52:05

with how it's gone. But yeah, I guess just

52:08

I would like to, yeah, get a

52:10

result one of these days. That's a that'll

52:12

be, yeah,

52:15

the next step. In

52:17

in the podcast in a couple of podcasts, we did with

52:19

your friend, Joe Dombrowski. At the end of

52:21

last year, in the start of this year, we talked a lot about

52:23

their role of luck and particularly for riders

52:25

like you and Joe who perhaps,

52:27

you know, you talk about getting result. You are kind

52:29

of your opportunity, you're gonna be looking

52:32

for results from brakes most of the time.

52:34

And I remember the second of those brakes at

52:36

Perinees to the Cola Cuyol.

52:38

Seeing that you got into the brake then just looking

52:40

at the names in the group and

52:43

immediately realizing that you were probably

52:45

doomed because David

52:47

Dela Cruz was in the break. Kobe Gosens

52:49

was in a break. I think Muhlberg was in the break.

52:51

They were all guys who were pretty dangerous on GC,

52:53

and that just brought home to me how fickle

52:58

those those occasions

53:01

are where, you know, someone like you will find yourselves

53:03

in a break and through absolutely no

53:05

fault of your own nothing that you control

53:07

whatsoever. We all hinged. That

53:09

will that's what your success or failure will hinge

53:11

on. Yeah. I mean, you know, I think like getting

53:14

a result out of breakaway has to be sort

53:16

of like a perfect storm. You

53:18

know? It's like everything has to

53:20

work out. Well, you know,

53:22

who's in it? You know, what,

53:24

like, the GC situation is, who

53:26

has the Jersey, things like that, you know.

53:28

And so, I mean, I think I even told you

53:30

started that day that, like, yeah, I wanna go on the breakaway,

53:32

but I'm almost sure the breakaway won't win today. It's

53:34

also, like, that was this really, really hard

53:37

time. So with

53:39

the way Pogo Char was going, you'd need, like,

53:42

at least four minutes on him probably at the bottom

53:44

to try to win. So yeah.

53:47

I mean, it's good to get out there.

53:50

But yeah, I think it's

53:53

hard but

53:55

you never know. It's like the first day I was in the breakaway.

53:57

There was a moment I actually thought we had a chance.

53:59

And when I went in that breakaway, I didn't

54:01

actually think we would have

54:02

any, you know, sliver

54:05

of a chance. So some

54:07

days it just works out and you don't know

54:09

why and other days you think it's definitely

54:11

gonna work out and it doesn't So The

54:15

way the racing is going at the moment, it doesn't

54:17

really favor riders going in breakaways.

54:19

Does it because Pogacia, VingoGo, roglatch,

54:23

Evina pool, they're setting their stall

54:25

out that they're gonna contest for every

54:27

possible win. I mean, we're already seeing it in catalonia

54:29

that the the spoils are being shared

54:32

by a smaller and smaller pool of ride

54:34

as it seems.

54:35

Yeah. But better better be in the break

54:37

and try to hope under their wheel, you know?

54:40

Yeah. I mean and

54:42

I'm big I'm a big time

54:45

bonus propagandist, evangelist. I

54:47

love time bonuses, but it does kind

54:49

of doom breakaways. I mean, particularly with the

54:51

advent of these six second time bonuses, is

54:53

a primate. For example, I mean, they suddenly became

54:56

a very overt terror prize even

54:58

for the

54:59

even for the GC guy. Guys. Yeah.

55:02

That was a -- Yeah. -- that was

55:04

an interesting addition for sure.

55:08

And Larry, just to so we talked about your

55:10

start of the season. Just looking

55:12

at the team so far, you've had a couple of wins,

55:15

noncompetels, one he won,

55:17

like, And

55:20

O'Halia, Pai Pankaj, won

55:22

a stage of the tour. There's at my team,

55:24

Edgewar, A couple

55:26

of other guys going well. Bouchard is climbing

55:29

pretty well. O'Connor, he and Ben O'Connor

55:31

sort of hovering around the top ten in catalonia.

55:34

And you've got the classics coming up. Of

55:36

course, you've got a big way. You've got

55:39

the Belgian contingent

55:41

for the classes. You've got Van Avelart and Nast and the

55:43

awesome brothers in the Wolf. I mean, what's the

55:45

what's the feeling generally in the team?

55:48

And tell us a bit about how you how

55:51

how you kind of sense what the

55:53

prevailing wind in the team is,

55:56

you know, do you do you feel

55:58

in the WhatsApp group that the

56:00

team kinda needs a result and

56:03

management isn't happy or he's

56:04

happy. I mean, how does that? Yeah.

56:06

I mean, I would say, like, a

56:10

result would be very helpful full. You

56:13

know, I I would say the prevailing sentiment

56:16

or the wind the wind is

56:18

stagnant at the moment. And

56:20

-- Alright. -- you know, the prevailing you know, it's

56:22

not it's not a headwind. It's not a toewind. It's

56:24

just kind of like you

56:26

know, we're kinda like in the middle, but I think,

56:28

you know, it can go one way or the other.

56:30

Like, you get one big win and all of a sudden,

56:32

like, everything's great. Where

56:35

if you pass, like, all the classics

56:37

and you don't win, then

56:40

we're in trouble. You know? So it's just kinda

56:42

like I think we're in sort of this purgatory

56:44

right now and it could go totally one way or

56:46

the other. But, you know, I

56:48

definitely think, like I

56:50

mean, I hope it'll go well. I think, like,

56:53

Ollie was in some of the best form.

56:55

He's been in in a long time in Pericles. Yeah.

56:58

I think he would have gotten at least a decent result

57:00

in San Ramo, but he broke his chain on

57:03

the descent of Pojo when he was

57:05

in the group. So

57:07

that was too bad. I think

57:10

I think he could get a result

57:12

in one of the classics, whether it's a podium

57:14

or what, I think that'd be pretty good.

57:16

For us, I think also Stan is knocking

57:18

on the door, you know. I think in

57:20

maybe one of the smaller races, he could

57:22

do something pretty big. And

57:25

I think he'll be around maybe the top ten and some

57:27

of the bigger ones if he has a good day. So

57:29

that'll be good. And I'm still pretty confident

57:31

that Benoit will be able to do a big result in

57:34

one of the Ardennes. And if he does that,

57:36

then, like, all of a sudden, like,

57:38

were golden. You know? So it's

57:40

just really it's

57:43

really crazy at,

57:45

I guess, like, how fine the line

57:47

is between success

57:51

and failure in the sport. You know? It's, like, all

57:53

of a sudden, like, you get one big win

57:55

and you just had an amazing season, you know.

57:57

So so I wouldn't say we've

57:59

we're going well or going poorly.

58:02

We're just kind of like riding that line right

58:04

now and hopefully we'll get big

58:06

win to push us in the right direction. And

58:10

I mean, looking at the list of winners

58:12

so far this season, I think UAE team member

58:15

at Sudal QuickStep a Numbo vision, we've got

58:17

forty six wins between them. That's

58:19

forty six win between three teams. Wow.

58:22

I guess what you're saying there is, you know,

58:24

quality, one quality win is

58:26

probably worth half a dozen

58:28

or so smaller wins. So it's

58:31

a balance, I guess, between you land

58:33

a big one and

58:35

the fact that the team has only got two wins so

58:37

far. Would would be significantly

58:39

kind of relegated

58:42

in the minds of the team management. But

58:44

yes, like I say, that trend of just

58:47

pretty much the three teams dominating does

58:49

make it hard for everybody else. Absolutely.

58:54

Before we move on, I mentioned

58:56

in Saturdays episode of Arrivet,

58:59

Simon Gil's fantastic photo of

59:01

Matthew van der Poel descending the

59:03

pod show. For me, it really was

59:05

shot of the day, a great photo and

59:08

summed up the race perfectly. Didn't it? And a few

59:10

people got in touch with Simon asking whether he

59:12

would make it available as a print and he

59:14

has done that. And you can buy

59:16

it framed or unframed in a variety of

59:19

sizes at simon Gill photography dot

59:21

co dot u k. I'll also put a link

59:23

to that in our substack, the

59:25

eleven oh one Capacino, which will go out

59:28

a little bit later on this week. And

59:30

while I am promoting various

59:32

things, The liner of Flanders

59:34

is particularly relevant this week with

59:37

the Grand Prix E3, Ghent Wethergum,

59:39

and Dora Storfind during coming up a few years

59:41

ago, Simon and I went to Flanders, and we made

59:43

the friends of the podcast series, the lion

59:45

of the Flanders, and it's available to listen

59:48

to or listen again to if you've already

59:50

heard

59:50

it. If you want to become a friend of

59:52

the podcast, sign up at the cycling

59:54

podcast dot com. The

59:56

cycling podcast is support voted

59:58

by science in sport. Science

1:00:01

in

1:00:02

sport. Fueled by

1:00:04

science. Thank you

1:00:06

very much to Science and Sport, our longest

1:00:08

term supporters, of course. Science

1:00:10

and Sport fueled our ride last week

1:00:12

when we took on the fine ninety-eight

1:00:15

point six kilometers of the Milan San Remo

1:00:17

course between Sputorno and San Remo

1:00:20

taking in the final five climbs,

1:00:23

the three Capi, the Chhopressa, and the Poggio.

1:00:25

My beatdowns were full of beta

1:00:27

fuel and around half an hour before

1:00:30

we reach the compressor, I chomped my

1:00:32

way through a beater fuel tube

1:00:34

just to give myself that extra burst of energy

1:00:36

when I needed it. Now to my

1:00:38

the arrival of the Classics campaign,

1:00:41

Scienceball, have started a strava

1:00:43

challenge, the classic one hundred, and

1:00:45

the challenge is to ride one hundred kilometers

1:00:48

before March the thirty first.

1:00:50

So you've still got plenty of time. The challenge ends

1:00:53

a week on Sunday, and everyone

1:00:55

who completes the challenge will get twenty

1:00:57

percent off science and sport products at science

1:00:59

and sport dot com. And one lucky winner

1:01:01

will be in the velodrome to see

1:01:03

the finish of Paris Roubaix. So if you

1:01:05

wanna be in with a chance of that

1:01:08

prize, you need to sign

1:01:10

up to this driver challenge, the classic

1:01:12

one hundred, and you

1:01:14

can also join the science and sport global

1:01:16

cycle club on driver Now

1:01:19

much to my annoyance, I realized that my

1:01:22

ninety eight point six kilometer ride,

1:01:24

although it got me ninety eight point

1:01:26

six percent towards the target, it

1:01:28

fell outside the qualifying period,

1:01:30

which is from March the eighteenth to March

1:01:32

thirty one. We actually rode that

1:01:35

just before before the challenge

1:01:37

began. So I've still got a little bit of work to

1:01:39

do, so I need to get a couple of fifty kilometer

1:01:41

rides in or maybe I'll push the

1:01:43

boat out and do hundred kilometer ride at point

1:01:45

in the next couple of weeks, but I fully intend

1:01:47

to complete the challenge. Check it out

1:01:50

on Strava. And if you want to

1:01:52

see the full range of science sport products,

1:01:54

go to science and sport dot com. Our

1:01:56

friends at map who are our

1:01:58

clothing partner and who designed and made

1:02:00

the brilliant cycling podcast jersey

1:02:03

have been asking people to share

1:02:05

their goals for twenty twenty three.

1:02:08

The progress of progression campaign

1:02:10

is designed to inspire people

1:02:13

to ride somewhere different or ride somewhere

1:02:15

new. And we've also been asking our

1:02:17

listeners to share their goals for the coming

1:02:19

year. Now this week, we received

1:02:22

a really moving email from friend of the podcast

1:02:24

Sam Hall. Now Samsung,

1:02:27

Seth, died from cancer last year,

1:02:29

two months before his fourth birthday. First

1:02:32

of all, our heart felt condolences to

1:02:34

you and your family, Sam, for your loss.

1:02:36

Now Sam is gonna ride from Helsinki to

1:02:38

Epsom, setting off on May the

1:02:40

twenty eighth and taking twenty days to

1:02:42

ride up and round the corner into Sweden

1:02:44

and then down through Denmark, Germany

1:02:47

and across Belgium and Northern France

1:02:49

before the final leg, which he'll do

1:02:51

with friends and family from Tumbert wells to

1:02:53

Epsom on June the seventeenth. Why

1:02:56

is he riding from Finland to Surrey? Well,

1:02:58

Seth's mother is from Finland and Seth

1:03:00

was born in Surrey. So it seems like the

1:03:02

perfect stage race to ride in

1:03:04

loving memory of his son, but there's

1:03:06

also serious point

1:03:09

to the ride too because the cycle for

1:03:11

sep will also hopefully

1:03:13

raise fifty thousand pounds for the momentum

1:03:15

children's charity. Sam

1:03:18

Rights, believe it or not. Seth's

1:03:20

name took inspiration from the cycling podcast.

1:03:22

We were struggling for names, knowing it was a

1:03:24

boy. When I heard an interview

1:03:26

with Seth Kus on the pod circa

1:03:28

summer twenty eighteen. The better half

1:03:30

liked it and the rest is history, he says.

1:03:33

Well, I think that a fantastic ride

1:03:36

to Aspire to and,

1:03:38

well, very meaningful. And I'm sure

1:03:40

the memory of your son will be with you all

1:03:42

the way, Sam. wish you much luck, not just

1:03:44

with the ride, but also with raising money

1:03:47

for the Momentum Children charity. If

1:03:49

anyone out there wants to donate to that

1:03:51

charity, go to Supercept dot

1:03:53

much loved dot com.

1:03:57

Well, Lionel, earlier in the pod,

1:03:59

I called you a de facto combo

1:04:01

classics correspondent delegate

1:04:06

reporter. We've

1:04:09

already we've we've

1:04:12

we've started the classics campaign,

1:04:14

the cobble classes campaign, aren't we really with the

1:04:16

partner today? I mean, well, you could say we

1:04:18

started a few weeks ago with omnillo, but this

1:04:21

is where it really gets

1:04:23

serious this weekend, isn't it? What we got what

1:04:25

we got coming over the next few days, Lionel?

1:04:28

Well, as I said, we've got the Grand Prix

1:04:30

e three on Friday. We've

1:04:32

got the Ghentwebergan on

1:04:34

Sunday. Then Dorado of Lander and

1:04:37

on Wednesday and then

1:04:39

the big one, the Tour of Flanders on

1:04:41

Sunday. That's the big week of flemish

1:04:43

classics. And then, of course, hot on the heels

1:04:45

of the Tour of Flanders is Paris, and

1:04:47

that really does bring the curtain down

1:04:49

on the cobble classics. But, yeah, this is the big fortnight,

1:04:52

isn't

1:04:52

it? And what we

1:04:54

all look looking forward to what are gonna

1:04:56

be the big themes, the big talking points

1:04:59

of this classic season? I mean, today, I

1:05:01

thought we found out a little bit more

1:05:03

about what we can expect from Sudal QuickStep.

1:05:05

Obviously, at this time of year,

1:05:08

they're they're the main

1:05:10

team in the spotlight as far as a lot of people

1:05:13

are concerned. There's always

1:05:15

some kind of drama

1:05:17

or this there's an anxiety, I

1:05:19

think, in the team because

1:05:22

the expectation is that they are gonna be

1:05:24

the number one team and they're gonna bring home

1:05:26

at least one or two of the big classics. This

1:05:28

year, I think the general feeling, also

1:05:31

based on performances so far, is that they

1:05:33

might be missing AAA

1:05:36

leader sort of a

1:05:38

calismanic figure. Particularly

1:05:40

maybe a a fast finisher in particular,

1:05:43

and we saw today Lampart

1:05:45

was really well, he brought a water

1:05:47

pistol to a gunfight in the against

1:05:49

the likes of COI and Philip

1:05:51

person. And I don't know, Chaps, what you

1:05:53

think my sense is we might

1:05:56

see that scenario

1:05:58

playing out in a few of these cobble classics

1:06:00

the next couple of weeks. What

1:06:02

do you think? Just going into this, like,

1:06:05

novel classic season, I just think it's

1:06:07

really hard to look past Vanderbilt

1:06:09

and Van Arden. I you know, I just think,

1:06:11

like, no matter how good of a team, my quick step

1:06:14

has is gonna be really hard to beat those

1:06:15

guys. Yeah. I think that's right, Larry. I mean,

1:06:17

the resumption of the battle between

1:06:20

Vanar and van der Poel is gonna

1:06:22

be the story of the

1:06:24

next couple of weeks because they

1:06:26

could between them win all of these races

1:06:29

and then it's gonna be about

1:06:31

who gets in there and disrupts that

1:06:34

head to head battle. I mean, Tedrey Pugachar is

1:06:36

going to ride some of the cobble classics. Sudau

1:06:38

Quick Step have got Julian and Alepholib and

1:06:40

Casper Ascoline as they're kind of

1:06:42

most likely riders, but they've not had

1:06:44

the ideal spring so far, although

1:06:47

Alephonique was. Well,

1:06:49

he was as we said in Arieve, Daniel, he

1:06:51

was out of position couple of times in Milan to

1:06:53

Lima, but got himself back into contention and

1:06:55

got a decent result. And

1:06:58

then it's, you know, it's

1:07:00

it's the usual suspects, isn't it?

1:07:02

I mean, The

1:07:04

thing is that the the Grand Prix

1:07:07

e three Saxo Classic, because it's now

1:07:09

called is the one that's

1:07:11

kind of the de facto pre

1:07:14

tour of Flanders' warm up, isn't it? It's the

1:07:16

one they take more seriously these days and

1:07:18

then, again, we'll we'll probably

1:07:21

learn an awful lot more on Friday about

1:07:23

how things are gonna shape up. We'll maybe

1:07:25

see one or two other names sort

1:07:28

of put themselves into contention. But I

1:07:30

think, as you say, it's the vanar van

1:07:32

der Poel battle that's

1:07:34

gonna have everybody watching certainly

1:07:37

e three, flanders and rebay

1:07:39

where they'll go head to head. Yeah.

1:07:41

I mean, that said, we know the subtectonic

1:07:44

plates of this

1:07:47

this aspect of professional cycling, the

1:07:49

the classics landscape, they can they can shift

1:07:51

pretty quickly. I mean, this is such a short space

1:07:53

a time. You're from I mean, every year, feel like I forget

1:07:56

how close together races like

1:07:58

Ginkgo and Paris are, mean,

1:08:00

in in hindsight, in retrospect, bet.

1:08:02

It seems as though this period lasts forever,

1:08:05

but actually when you're in the thick of it, it comes

1:08:07

and goes very quickly. And we can get

1:08:09

to the end of the classic season completely

1:08:12

new names can have emerged

1:08:15

as the guy. You know,

1:08:17

we were talking a few weeks ago about Arnold I

1:08:19

was talking about him potentially winning Milan

1:08:21

San Remo. I mean, in three weeks time, we

1:08:23

could be talking about him as the

1:08:27

buddying van der Poel or the budding

1:08:29

rival to van der Poel or

1:08:31

Vanar. And, you know, there are other riders

1:08:33

who really curious to see

1:08:36

over the next few weeks. You know, Matay

1:08:38

Maurek is a guy who up until last

1:08:40

year, I would not have had down as a classic

1:08:42

specialist as a cobble cobble classic

1:08:44

specialist, but he was very much in the

1:08:47

thick of it last year. Could

1:08:50

have won Paris Roubaix if they had gone slightly

1:08:52

differently and he's gonna be back there and, you

1:08:54

know, Bahrain or team that seemed to have

1:08:56

numbers at the front of every important

1:08:58

race, whether it's a stage race or a male maintenance

1:09:01

on mountainous terrain or in the

1:09:04

classics, you know, Fred Wright. He's

1:09:06

still chasing his Ferrari thinks Fred

1:09:08

Wright's my favorite writer. That's not

1:09:10

necessarily the case. Larry,

1:09:12

because I'm in conducting part of King

1:09:14

John. Just because I spoke to a Fred Wright lot

1:09:16

of World Ross Bania last year. But

1:09:19

Larry, undeniably, Fred Wright is a guy

1:09:21

who he's gonna be a factoring the classics.

1:09:23

He's a very strong boy. He was

1:09:25

excellent in Toroflonders, last year. And and

1:09:27

who knows? He's this elusive

1:09:29

first win that he's been chasing could come

1:09:32

in a big race in the next couple of

1:09:33

weeks. Do you not agree?

1:09:36

Very possible. It's

1:09:37

very possible. There he is a good Very

1:09:40

anything else. That you anything else we

1:09:42

should be watching maybe in your team? I mean, you've

1:09:44

got the golden holders of

1:09:45

Belgium. I can say that. You probably can't say

1:09:47

that. Go

1:09:49

on. The rolling stones. No. I mean,

1:09:52

I I think it's gonna be tough. Yeah.

1:09:54

Tough for Greg because he got the

1:09:57

flu. Like

1:09:59

the weakest on Ramos. So, you

1:10:01

know, that's the only thing I think is gonna be a bit

1:10:03

tough for our team. So but maybe we'll

1:10:06

see some of the other guys. We actually, one guy

1:10:08

that I think will be really good is

1:10:10

we have this kid who's like

1:10:12

nineteen years old. His

1:10:16

name is Pierre. Can I

1:10:19

get his last name? Well,

1:10:22

I forgot his last name. His friend's

1:10:24

birthday Pierre, but his

1:10:26

name's Paul -- Yeah. -- that's Terabrio. Okay.

1:10:30

Go to our go to our Pierre Gautra.

1:10:33

And he's already he's gotten a few top

1:10:35

tenths. He stodged air at the end of last year.

1:10:37

He's, like, you know, a second year under

1:10:39

twenty three. And the kid

1:10:41

is a machine. He

1:10:44

maybe doesn't have the endurance yet, but this

1:10:46

kid's gonna win a big classic some

1:10:49

time in the next few years. So I

1:10:51

think he'll do one or two decent results

1:10:54

in some of the races this

1:10:55

year, but he'll be someone to look seven,

1:10:58

really, really good.

1:10:58

Seventh in the La Salle and

1:11:00

ninth in Charlotte. Yeah.

1:11:03

Second, it's a really reasonable

1:11:04

result. Right? Already. Yeah. Yeah. Is that a

1:11:06

good start to the season. From

1:11:09

Colmar in the village in

1:11:11

Alsace, a new name to me as well.

1:11:13

Larry, only just turn twenty. Yeah.

1:11:18

Yeah. He's he's legit.

1:11:21

He he's just, like, super motivated and

1:11:23

super excited to be

1:11:24

everywhere. And so, yeah,

1:11:26

I think Larry, before we record the I

1:11:28

think he'll be offline. I was rubbing my hands

1:11:30

at the ID the the notion that at some

1:11:32

point in your long and distinguished career, you'd been

1:11:35

sent you'd been dispatched to the classics,

1:11:37

the cobalt classics in punishment for something.

1:11:40

But didn't appear to have been

1:11:42

the case. You don't seem

1:11:44

to have done any. Surely tomorrow.

1:11:46

Yeah. There are three days of West Flanders

1:11:48

or something along

1:11:49

lines. I mean, that should be a rite of passage for everyone.

1:11:53

No. I did have to do nokura one

1:11:55

year, and then I was supposed to do hands on,

1:11:57

but it's been No. It's had a jean tone cancel.

1:12:03

Well, it also snowed there,

1:12:05

so didn't enjoy very much, but I did see

1:12:07

a guy run into a snowbank and crash.

1:12:09

So that was a a first

1:12:11

for me. And the only time I've seen that in

1:12:13

a bike race -- It was -- Yeah. --

1:12:15

hatred of the first, like, the most enjoyable race

1:12:17

I've

1:12:18

done, but Yeah.

1:12:21

Yeah.

1:12:21

But you know what? I I actually I was talking

1:12:23

to some of the guys on

1:12:25

the team, and I was like, I actually would like to

1:12:28

do you know, like

1:12:30

fonders once, maybe do, like, e three,

1:12:32

something like that. I think I

1:12:34

really like doing, like, the daily cobbled races.

1:12:36

I think actually, like, when there's a really

1:12:39

cobbled stage in a race, I enjoy

1:12:41

it, you know. And I

1:12:43

think it's something I'm not that bad at. So it's something

1:12:45

I wouldn't mind dipping

1:12:47

my toes

1:12:47

in. Would it be a long time to say

1:12:50

that those races have become a

1:12:52

lot should

1:12:55

we say less than unpleasant or

1:12:58

palatable for a right Well,

1:13:01

no. I'm No. I mean, surely,

1:13:03

for for some facilities, I'm about to

1:13:05

rain and those road services in

1:13:07

particular. The equipment

1:13:09

you have now, the much wider tires, low

1:13:12

air pressures, does it I would I would

1:13:14

suggest that it's probably less

1:13:17

of a of an absolutely sort

1:13:19

of teeth chart during

1:13:24

appalling experience, nonsense. When

1:13:27

did it when it when it was when it

1:13:29

was upon a

1:13:30

time. No. I I think I think

1:13:32

the only difference I

1:13:34

think the only difference is climbers

1:13:36

are realizing that they can also do well on those

1:13:38

races and that's why we're seeing all these guys go to

1:13:40

the races because, like, it used to be,

1:13:42

like, oh, you have to be a big guy to do the cobbles.

1:13:44

And now people are realizing, like,

1:13:46

no, if you're strong, like, it doesn't really matter what

1:13:48

trainers, like, you can do well and then No. You

1:13:50

did do the under twenty three Paris Roubaix

1:13:52

in two thousand and ten. Do you remember anything

1:13:54

about that? Yeah. I

1:13:56

didn't finish the III remember well,

1:13:58

the funny thing is I wasn't supposed to do it in the

1:14:00

night before someone got sick. And we

1:14:02

were sitting in the I was sitting in the kitchen

1:14:04

of, like, another twenty three national team

1:14:06

house and they're like, well,

1:14:10

we don't have anyone like, do you wanna do it?

1:14:12

I was like, well, not really, but I guess,

1:14:14

I mean, I'll go. You know? Like,

1:14:16

I might as well give it a

1:14:17

try. And, yeah, I

1:14:19

didn't enjoy it very much. So don't really

1:14:21

want to know the real estate. Finnish one at

1:14:23

Jens de Busch although second Tim de

1:14:25

Klark seventh and Eve

1:14:27

lampard forty fourth. So,

1:14:30

you know, pretty decent

1:14:32

entry. Decent riders in that. And

1:14:34

you're on a sort of training block now at altitude,

1:14:37

but how much time will you set

1:14:39

aside in order to watch these races over

1:14:41

the next couple of

1:14:42

weeks. Will you, you know, try and have

1:14:44

an easy day on the big race day so you

1:14:46

can be in front of the TV? I

1:14:50

mean, I'll never, like, change my training plan

1:14:52

for it, but I'll definitely try to be in front of

1:14:54

the TV whenever I can, you know. I really enjoy

1:14:56

watching those races. So And I mean,

1:14:59

usually, they finish a a good hour

1:15:01

or

1:15:01

so. Usually, you're done with training by then even

1:15:03

if you have a long day. Watch out. So I think

1:15:05

that's just about includes our

1:15:07

entertainment today in the podcast.

1:15:10

Lots of entertainment come in the classic season,

1:15:12

of course. A couple of weeks to outline off.

1:15:14

We got we haven't got an Arieve this week. Have we?

1:15:17

No. We haven't got an Arieve this week. That will

1:15:19

return with the tour of Florence and Peru Bay.

1:15:22

There'll be men's and women's episodes

1:15:25

for those classics and I think also for the age

1:15:27

best on the age. The end of the

1:15:29

spring classics campaign. Just one last

1:15:32

thing. I suppose it's a is it gonna be

1:15:34

the last hurrah for a few riders in

1:15:36

the cobble classics this year. Can we well,

1:15:38

Alexander Christoph or Peter Sergan or

1:15:42

Ibex Diva, will they pull off one past

1:15:44

glorious day before the

1:15:46

twilight of their career. Perhaps Greg van

1:15:48

avermaet hasn't won a race since twenty nineteen.

1:15:51

Maybe this is a spring. To be

1:15:53

back on the top step of the podium.

1:15:56

My tip for the for the spring

1:15:58

is I think Philippe Bargana is gonna

1:16:00

win Paris Bay this

1:16:02

year. That's my that's my

1:16:04

neck on the top. His big goal is his big goal for

1:16:06

the season. He hit that and the World time charter

1:16:08

ships are his big goals. For

1:16:10

the season. The lunchtime moment was a bit of a an

1:16:12

afterthought. Hammy only decided to

1:16:14

do it after things went pretty well for

1:16:16

him to turn

1:16:17

it, I believe.

1:16:18

So yeah. I do not on scene in Napalm.

1:16:20

Alright. Coming back to my my very good point about

1:16:22

equipment, I think I ride like Ghana,

1:16:24

who is a bit of well,

1:16:27

he's he's a bit agricultural over

1:16:30

cobalt or he might be. I would suggest

1:16:32

that him on, I don't know, some

1:16:36

nineteen millimeter rims or whatever they used to

1:16:38

ride back in the day and would have

1:16:40

struggled more than the wheel on thirty

1:16:42

millimeter rims

1:16:44

and thirty millimeter tires. This

1:16:47

this is this is a proof that

1:16:49

your running career has

1:16:51

completely, you know, completely

1:16:54

I'm not understood.

1:16:57

The fact packet. Classic of Undertrick.

1:16:59

Yeah. Anyway, congrats

1:17:02

on that. Very polite of Larry, not to

1:17:04

not to tell you what a fool you

1:17:05

are. Yeah. Yeah. On

1:17:09

that in deckerous note, I think we will

1:17:11

say goodbye to Larry. Larry, wish you a

1:17:13

very happy time at altitude. Send us some

1:17:15

eye bags pictures if you come across

1:17:18

any. And then we Okay. Well,

1:17:20

we don't speak Yeah. We will speak to you. Larry, we're

1:17:22

gonna try and get you on during before

1:17:24

or just after the Arden classics because

1:17:27

I'm sure you will have

1:17:30

some insight you'll be able to give us from

1:17:32

those races, and we'll definitely definitely

1:17:35

be seeing you and hearing from you

1:17:37

lot at the Jira

1:17:38

So Larry, good evening, and thank

1:17:40

you. Perfect. Thanks,

1:17:43

guys. Thank you. See you later.

1:17:58

The cycling podcast was created in

1:18:00

two thousand thirteen by Richard Moore

1:18:03

Daniel Free and Lionel Byrne.