THEMOVE - 2025 Tour de France Course Reveal | THEMOVE

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

Lance, Johan, and George discuss the course reveal for the 2025 Tour de France, and what we could expect to see during next year's Tour.  Zwift: This adjustability makes Zwift Ride perfect for anyone in the house to use and at $1,299.99 it’s a game-changer so head to https://Zwift.com now to check it out. And join WEDU for our rides on Zwift which start back this week. WEDU Wednesday is our casual, no drop ride and SUFFER Sunday for those wanting to push the limits.  ROKA: Listeners can enter code THEMOVE at checkout to receive a 20% discount on their first order at https://www.roka.com/themove Ketone-IQ: 30% off your first sub order + free 6 pack when you use the link: https://www.ketone.com/themove AG1: Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase at https://www.drinkag1.com/themove  OneSkin: OneSkin is the world's first skin longevity company. By focusing on the cellular aspects of aging, OneSkin keeps your skin looking and acting younger for longer. Get started today with 15% off using code THEMOVE at https://oneskin.co Polk County Emergency Relief: https://polkcountycommunityfoundation.ddock.gives/  

I've read some comments that, oh, ASO or the tour, the same thing, is trying to Pogacar-proof the route. We heard that every year. After a couple of tours, they were like, oh, they're going to look at this. They're designing it to work against Postal and against Armstrong. Listen, none of that shit matters. And we, I used to always joke that, look, if they showed up and said, we're going to do 22 days of criteriums in and around Paris.

Well, you just got to figure out a way to win that a poker trick. You're not anti-proof. You're not. No, he's going to figure it out. You would have to think, but that conversation and that discussion is pointless. There's just no, the best riders show up, they prepare for the route that they see, and it's the tour. And 99 times out of 100, the best man wins. Well, good morning, everybody. Welcome back to the Move podcast. We're talking about the 2025 Tour de France course reveal.

Now, for those that maybe don't know, the parent company of the tour is called ASO. They've owned the tour for ever seemingly. Um, but every October they reveal the route around, um, the next year's race. And there's, there's always a lot of mystery around it. And, and, and by the way, if you don't know, yes, I get, cause I get this question a lot. Does the course change every year? Yes. It absolutely changes every year. Very much so. And so, um, in October, which we just had, uh, they revealed a new route and it's, it's a, it absolutely changes every year. Very much so. And so in October, which we just had, they revealed a new route and it's, it's a, it's a, it's obviously a big deal for the writers, the directors, the team strategy, but it's also a big deal for the country, right? People getting

fans of cycling or, or little communities in and around France, just knowing that the tour to France is going to come through their town, which is a big damn deal. We're going to get into all that action. I am joined by Johan Brunel, right over there. And where, I don't know, where are you on Madrid? In Madrid, Madrid, sunny Madrid right now. Good, good. And, and believe it or not, ladies and gentlemen, we are joined by George Hincapie. It looks like he's, he's recovered from the hurricanes and he's down in his wine cellar. So all is well. Good to be back.

Good to be back. I missed you guys. And yeah, I'm excited to talk about the Tour de France. Lance, how many Tour de France presentations did you go to, you and Johan? I know you didn't go to the first one, but after that, how many did you go to? No, I think we went to one. Only one? No, no, no.

Lance, speak for yourself. I went to many. No No, I think we went to one. Only one? No, no, no. Lance, speak for yourself. I went to many. No, I think I only went to one. We together, we went to one, to the 2004, I think. The 100th anniversary. You know, it was one of those things, you just, you get done with the season, you kind of come home back to the States in August or September, and just to turn back around and go back to Paris. Having said that, uh, cause I went to one

right now. I don't know how many I did, but certainly those peak years, they always wanted us to come back and be there. Um, I would say that's a regret. I mean, it's crazy to not, to go, to not honor the event and go sit there. Um, but you know, as I sit here at 53 years old, I have a lot more thoughts about shit like that. Um, but I only went to one. Um, and speaking about that also, it didn't sound like too many of the favorites. It sounds like they've adopted our strategy of saying, Hey, it's the off season. I think I'm done thinking about cycling,

talking about cycling, looking at cycling. I'm going to sit out. You didn't have any of the GC favorites there necessarily. From what I could tell. So, but good question, George,

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Yeah, today is Wednesday. Shoot. Also today brought to you by Roka. Rob and his crew, based here in our hometown of Austin, Texas, have completely reinvented this space. Performance glasses, chilling, casual, cool glasses, and also prescription glasses. By the way, the technology across all three of those categories is the same. The best lenses on the market, no slip ear pieces. The thing I love about my readers,

of course, they're right here. And I joke about it all the time, but it's not a joke. I have them in like, I have multiple pairs here. Look, I mean, these are the ones I brought from the house. These stay at my desk all the time. Like I have to have them everywhere. Um, simply incredible. The thing I love about my reading glasses is the hinge. I can keep them on my shirt. Don't lose them. Walk around, bend over. I noticed some of the lenses again, a little bit thicker. Also, you get a little bit more, well, you know, I, and I talked about it on our Ironman coverage a couple of days ago, George, uh, had you listened to that show clearly you did not um because people have tracked this you know how blind is lance getting uh i have i have uh leveled out at the 2.0s so they're not getting thicker oh okay yeah i'm and i and i partly don't want to go i just feel like this is

you know what we're getting off subject here all right let's talk about roca they are unbelievably lightweight and they do never slip y'all know i sweat my face off and everything else um simply incredible also work with the special forces which i totally love the move listeners get 20 off just go to roca r-o-k-a dot com that's roca.com enter the code the move or check out that gets you 20% off all right let's talk about the tour de france this is i i have to i have to confess something you know i i get i too get sick of talking about cycling and thinking about cycling and i didn't even know i didn't even know they reveal you guys. We got on the group. I got the group text yesterday and I was like, Oh, I miss that, which is kind of nice.

It's kind of nice. Cause then I was, I was really, then I was interested in curious. I was like, well, I gotta go check this out. But, uh, look, uh, we'll break down all the thoughts, but I, I liked the course overall, Johan. I mean,ohan i mean i know you you you get way more granular on these things but i like it can i just say one thing before we get into it and i'm just going to get this out of the way because we got this question a lot way back in the day i've read some comments that oh aso or the tour did the same thing, uh, as trying to, uh, uh, uh, Pogacar proof the route. We heard that every year after, after a couple of tours, they was, Oh, they're going to look at this.

They're, they're designing it to be able to work against postal and against Armstrong. Listen, none of that shit matters. And we, I used to always joke that look if they showed up and said we're going to do 22 days of criteriums in and around paris well you just got to figure out a way to win that a poker you're not anti-proof you're not no he's going to figure it out you would have to think but that conversation and that discussion is pointless. There's just no, the best riders show up, they prepare for the route that they see. And it's the tour.

And 99 times out of a hundred, the best man wins. Yeah. One time was, nevermind. It's, you know, it's, well, first of all, it's a 100% French tour. So no other countries. That's been a while. I think it's the first time in the last five or six years

that they don't go to another country. And I think what's different to other editions or the last few editions is that it's back to the traditional Tour de France. The first part is like riding into it. I would say flatattish stages, no mountain stages. And the first mountain stage is only in stage 12. That's really late.

So that's back to the old days. And I agree. There's always a big discussion of, okay, it's good for this guy. It's good for this. Doesn't matter. Strongest guy with the strongest teams win the Tour de France without bad

luck. And this is going to be the same thing again. Um, I think it's, it's, it's quite a mountainous. There's about the same amount of vertical meters as this year, again, 52, 53,000 meters, which is very similar to this year. Um, this year, the difference is that one of the time trials is a mountain time trial. Uh, that's, that's going to be interesting to see so you can say it's a time trial and it's a mountain stage at the same time but other than that i think i like it i like the way it's designed yeah well also it's a big change from the last the previous two year starts where we had the

first stages of 3 000 meters plus the climbing so what happens there is a lot of gc battles going on the first stage already and a lot safer because there's some guys that are just starting those first stages going i just need to make it to the finish line the difference this year is it's going to be a mass sprint super chaotic northern france we all know how small and technical the roads are i mean anytime you race near the belgian border there's going to be a lot of chaos it's going to be uh super stressful for these teams so there's going to be a big battle big huge battles for position safety um i think a lot of the teams are gonna have to really think hardly on who they bring to the tour to keep their

gc guys safe because of this first week of the tour de France. So in that sense, it's a lot different than the last two years. And I think very exciting as well. And they, but they have also sprinkled in some days where you, you'll be going, you said the first uphill finish. So the first big mountain finishes on, you know, 12 days in they've, I think they've done a nice job sprinkling in some of these days where you have to pay attention and you and this isn't a tour that you can quote unquote ride into i mean

these are days where if you get caught out or if you're not ready you're going to lose time they're very difficult um which i i love doing that um and you know to your point george over these early stages you know at that part of the world even though it is July, weather can still be an issue. The wind certainly can be an issue. Definitely the wind. Very windy. I mean, we've had the I remember the days we started up there. In fact, George, you know, the whole story of I remember that day where the no chain story came from that day with weather was terrible.

It's like, yeah, are we sure it's july you just never know i mean it's kind of into the earth up there yeah i mean uh this in in 2024 there was uh no north of france at all and uh next year stewart of france is going to be very heavily in the North and in the Latvia. I agree, George. It's going to have an influence on who the teams select for their teams to support their leaders. I think you need to have really strong guys.

Every, I mean, anyways, Wismar and UAE and Soudal, to name the teams of the three favorites of the, for the tour. They, they, they have their, you know, they have their homework done and they have their necessary guys to support their leaders. But yeah, but do you take a look at it? Like, would you take a look at it and be like, well, maybe we bring one or two less climbers because the first real mountain stage is until stage 12.

And we have to get through. We all know how chaotic the first week of the Tour de France is. So I think in a lot of ways, some of these teams are going to have to put a lot of emphasis on, you know, the classic guys to get these GC guys to the finish line safely. That's going to be a huge factor in this first week of the Tour. Yeah, because especially, I mean, a part of the difficulty of the stages, I think the stress factor is going to be important, you know, you can preserve your leader from the stress by putting an extra two really big guys next to him.

Uh, that's gonna, gonna be a big, uh, a big factor. Um, but I, I do think though that, um, you know, it's, it's always going to be the mountains that decide. Um, and I think that in this year's tour, we have a few, a few, uh, mountain stages that, that I like, um, is back after a long time. Yeah. Yeah. We like that. Yeah. Um, so by the way, similar to 2000, that was the first uphill finish, a bit of a replica there. Exactly. Yeah. And terrible weather, by the way. Terrible weather. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then, you know, the day after, uh, the uphill time trial in, uh, in and, uh, and then the after super Baniere. So, um, that's, I mean, that,

that client, I think it's 30 something years ago that this client was, uh, in the tour. Um, I think Greg Lamont took the yellow Jersey off, uh, Bernard, you know, I'm not mistaken if I'm not mistaken, it's two of eight, uh, 86.

Wow. And it's hard to come to where, where Lance crashed at the bottom or not? No. Which one was that one? It was already done. It was already done. Okay. Isn't that close by though at least? Yeah, they're close by. It's just a different turn on the way, but I thought

for some reason it was how to come. It's in the same valley. Yeah. I was talking about crash. I didn't crash. and then uh interesting thing also uh the von two is back that's it's been a while thank you i mean i just i just i we've talked about this i think the tour i think every every edition has to have one of these iconic, whether it's Alpe d'Huez or Ventoux or it just, it's been a minute. When is the last time the Tour de France did Mont Ventoux?

Well, it's not so long ago, Walt Von Aert won, but it was not finished. It's been four or five years. The Ventoux twice, but there was not a mountain top finish. So this is different. This is going to be a really, it's flat and then just one mountain. So talk about that. You know, and I think in 2009 we did a similar stage where it was flat. I mean, there's a, there's let's be, let's be real. There's no dead flats in that area.

I mean, there's a lot of two, three K climbs rolling up and down. Very windy as well. I know the last time that I wrote it 2009, I believe we arrived at the bottom of mountain two with like 30 guys because of the wind and the echelons and the unexpected stuff that can happen before the climb. People are thinking, oh, it's a flat stage leading up to the Ventoux. That's all that matters. Not necessarily, because if there's lots of winds, small roads, we've seen it before. There could be a lot of splits in the peloton before the Ventoux, which would make it very tough for a lot of these climbers. And extreme heat. And extreme heat,

correct. Yeah, it can be very hot. Yeah. One thing I've seen also, I mean, not that it matters, because I think that Pogacar is a different rider. But there are a few

parts that Pogacar has been in trouble in the past. For example, the Ventoux. but there are a few a few parts that Pogacar has been in trouble in the past for example the one Wingergaard was better there

then then Pogacar I think he actually dropped him and then he came back in the downhill and then

also the very difficult Col de la Luz where he had where Pogacar had la Loz, where he had, where Pogacar had this, he lost eight minutes. He had a complete crisis. That's not going to happen anymore, I think. And we're doing the other side of Col de la Loz,

or they're doing the other side, correct? As opposed to when Pogacar cracked, I believe. Yeah, which I did that side this summer. And it's, I mean, extremely hard. It's, uh, I think one of the longest climbs you can do in the Alps is 26 kilometers long, 6.5% average. Not only that, but before the climb, I think you had like a seven K climb just leading up to that area. Um, we've never done it. We've only climbed up to Courchevel, but those,

the climb that goes beyond Courchevel, I can tell you, it's very, very steep. There's some 14% sections wide open. I was super impressed with how hard that climb was. Yeah. So we have three stages in the Pyrenees, two in the Alps. That's it. The Central Massif this year is a bit not that important. Only two stages in the middle of France.

And what I've seen, guys, I don't know if you, I mean, but as a cyclist and as a team manager and as a staff member, when you see this map, I think I'm calling it the Tour de Transfer. If you look at the map, you

see all these stages and you see all these little tiny lines. Those are all transfers. Yeah. Um, there's a lot of those, a lot of those. They really are. I've just pulled the map up y'all and there there's, uh, yeah. I mean, there's at least 10. Yeah. No, a lot, which is a complete nightmare for for the riders certainly the riders but especially the staff just getting oh i don't know how many of these i'm maybe the last one that they take the tgb but most of these are drives like yeah that we have a lot of folks if you're looking at the map just it's it's the sort of the thin line between.

You'll see them on there. So obviously that's hard on the body, you know, and on the staff especially. But I think it's quite balanced. You know, I think there's a bit of everything. Personally, what would you guys have wanted to see different? If you can choose one thing or add one thing to this course, what would you guys have wanted to see different? Look, we, we, we talk about this all the time and I, and I especially, um, hammer on this. Uh, I, I, I don't understand why they don't do it.

But I love the team time trial. Oh man, he took mine. At some point, the team time trial has to come back. Right. Look, I mean, we're all sitting here, all manning each other. Like it's beautiful to watch. The favorites love it. I think it, you talk about team structure and who you bring to a tour i mean that you will completely change your lineup and roster based on a team time trial like it is

especially well if you're going back to our generation they were long and the time losses could potentially be real like you had to think about that and if you were a bad team or if your team was just not great at the team time trial, you were just knowing that you were going to lose time. Whereas we were looking at this like, oh, this is free time. Like this is just time. Somebody just said, okay, guys, you got two minutes. Like, cause it counts for at least in our day counted for individual classification. But I just, I think it's such a beautiful event. I think it's, it's, it really highlights technology. It truly highlights the strength of a team, the way they work together.

There's strategy in and around the way team time trials can be run. We may never see it again, frankly, they might, they might not ever bring it back, but you know what, let's start the campaign right here on the move. I like it. I agree. I like the route Johan and Lance. It's cool. That is all in France. I like that it starts in Northern France, super technical. I like that the first stage is 99.9% going to be a big sprint,

which will meet the, the, the, the guy who wins it. A sprinter will be in the yellow Jersey, which I haven't seen that in a few years. I do miss the team time trial. In fact, we had our, our, our, our cohort,

Victor Hugo, Pena down here in Greenville where we made history with Victor. We helped them get, be the first Colombian ever to be in the yellow Jersey. And he actually told a story, which is typical Johan, you know, Johan comes in the room the night before the team time trial,

2003. I remember actually had a really good day that day. It was the first time in our history. I think of time trials. Lance was actually telling him, asking me to slow down. I don't know if you remember that Lance, but Victor ended up getting the yellow jersey. But the night before Johan walks in his room and typical Johan just wants to feel out his riders, make sure the focus is, you know, you know, you can be the first Colombian ever

to be in the yellow jersey tomorrow you probably will be and here's victor telling the story just like a full inside panic attack johan staring him in the face going okay on okay we'll see we'll see but uh yeah i mean you you called it you knew it was coming and you know what a special uh week to participate that with uh victor and i know we all we all remember that quite fondly let's do a little bit of business before because i want to go back to the sprint stages because i have a question here because i saw some reports that that i just uh i need your intel on george uh today's show also brought to you by ketone iq look at that it's that time of the day get this thing open right look at this see this my ketone iq this is a daily occurrence george you had your ketones yet you know what i forgot i was gonna have one right before the show

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That's drinkag1.com slash the move. They also sent me, I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about this, but I got a package yesterday with some omegas. I don't know what's yeah. Kind of nice. Kind of nice. Last one today. Also brought to you by one skin.

Been a minute since I have seen you, George. It's nice to see that nothing has changed, right? You're still the same. Clearly you've been hammering the one skin. Definitely. All this stuff that as we get older, we worry about like dry skin, wrinkles, just sagginess, all this stuff.

Glad to see that it still hasn't affected you at 50, whatever years old that you are with all the stress. Think about that. You've had a lot of stress. You've had storms. You had the big ride. You had to manage people. You must have been hammering that one skin every night. See, there it is, folks. And in all honesty, like I don't think except for George, most of us are not that concerned with our aesthetics. It just is what it is. We've spent our lives suffering and grinding. But the cool thing about OneSkin is they've got this scientifically proven compound called OS1. And now it is proven to decrease lines and wrinkles, boost hydration, and help with the thinning skin that often comes with age. Now, don't just take my word for it. They've got over 4,000, check that, 4,000 five-star reviews

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out? He sort of teased out the possibility that he might do another tour. Did I, please tell me how I just read that. I read it also. And, uh, when I was, I was with him the last two weeks, he was here for my Fondo. We went to an event out in Vegas and then we went to Disney world as well. And there was no indication that he wanted to continue, uh, racing next year. He's got a lot going on. I mean, he's, he's all over the place and excited about his future. So not that I am aware of. He said, I believe the quote, what was the quote? Never say never.

You might, we might recruit you to call the bat line there. We also saw that Rigo was going to become a professional soccer player. So I think, you know, a lot of things are said and just taken either out of content or taken a lot more serious than they tend to be. Well, this was a quote from Mark Cavendish. The only reason I'm talking about this is because it was, it was his actual quote, which I had no indication from him that he would want to come back.

So his wife, she, if she read that, some bitches out in a, in a, in a pup tent in the backyard right now. He's on his way to Singapore actually for the criterium. So that's his last race, right? Ever.

Um, is he on a, is it Singapore or Japan this weekend? I'm, I'm confused, but he's going all over the place. Japan is finished already. As it already. I think it was Singapore. He's doing one in Japan also. It's organized by ASO, right?

Yeah. Yeah. He's doing one in Japan as well. So I don't know if that's this weekend or what. So he's got some events left, but he's been enjoying life. That's good. Yeah. Wow. that's good yeah wow anything else stand with the other um johan have you seen any i'm always curious as they because the route is it really is a surprise i and i'm thinking of all of those years like we didn't know there are there are sort of internet sleuths that kind of figure out where the route is going because they get ahead of it they figure

out where where blocks of hotel rooms have been secured and so they can cobble it together um but the route is a surprise the announcement's a surprise and so there's always these comments after have you seen where where have sort of these big you know uh, Tadej, Jonas, Remco, Primoz, have they commented or given any feedback on what they think of the route? No, not really. The only thing that surprised me, but this was before the Tour de France announcement already, is that, you know, we're talking about the podium of this year, right? So Bogacar, Wingergaard and Remco. And I would say normally, Primoz is part of the four. We said that before, before the, he has kind of hinted that he may not do the Tour de France next year. He said, you know, I'll, I'll try to race everywhere

where Pogacar doesn't start, which, you know, I mean, I mean, I don't think it's, I think it's a really smart move. I mean, if, if I don't think it's, I think it's a really smart move. I mean, if, if, if your team is happy winning bike races that are not in France or not the tour of France, and you just witnessed the season that Tadej Pogacar had, and you're getting towards into your career, he has to be getting towards, I mean, his age doesn't lie. And you're saying, look, this is, if they're cool, if I win a Giro or a Welta or whatever else, well, you would, you just avoid the guy.

Cause what we saw this year was well, we've said it arguably the greatest season of all time. Yeah. We hope that we don't witness any of those horrific crashes that we had in 2024. We hope that all these guys show up to the Tour de France with perfect preparation and, you know, not dealing with these extreme injuries that we saw last year. Hope for a lot less of that. And then, you know, the question is, you know,

what we've seen this year in the Tour de France, the question is, what if Vingegaard has the ideal season? Was that going to be different to his level? How is that difference between both of them are going to be smaller? Then another thing I've seen is that, I mean, usually Vingegaard doesn't say much, not about the route, not about his program. I have seen that Pogacar is

going to focus on classics in the beginning of the season and then do the Dauphiné Tour de France Dauphiné Tour de France so hold on when you say classics are we talking about another Tour of Flanders or is there even a hint at Paris-Roubaix

no we're talking about Milan-Saint-Rémy Tour de Flanders no Paris-Roubaix, but Flanders. Yeah. Yeah. Good for him. I mean, good for cycling. No, it is. It is. I mean, you're Walt Benhart and Matthew Vanderpool and Pedersen and like, oh shit, this kid's going to come to tour Flanders and roll up on us and just show us

how the game is played. Like, yeah, that's good for cycling. But most importantly, so no Giro for him. And he has hinted that he may consider the Vuelta. I mean, I think that probably in his mind, that's a ground tour he wants to take off as soon as possible to be able to say, okay, I've won all three. I think he's capable of doing it. The question is, how is it possible to combine Tour de France and Vuelta

and then the World Championships in Rwanda, which are the hardest of the last 25 years, I think. But anyway, that's stuff to discuss later, I guess. Yeah. But, uh, you know, we're sitting here and I, if you look at the podium of this year, I personally, I don't know what you guys think. I personally can't think of anybody else who can approach the podium. No, it's going to be a minute.

I think we will say that we will be sitting here one year from now saying the very same thing now i'm not that pogachar came out of nowhere but he but he he rose quicker than than some would have imagined you could see that but somebody's got to rise fast and far to catch up to these three. Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, I mean,

the, the, the, the guy who's closest is Primoz, but I don't think he's really, I mean, he, I think he can do third. Second would probably be a stretch.

You know, if you look at this year's Tour de France, you know, do you guys remember who was fourth in the Tour de France? Don't ask these questions. That's not fair. Yeah. I can't remember.

Who was it? Joao Almeida. Joao Almeida. That's right. That was on the tip of my tongue, by the way. 19 minutes down. So Joao Almeida working for Colaccia, 19 minutes down was fourth. So there's a huge gap between the first three and the rest.

No, I think the thing that, that was sticks with me from last year's tours is I think people overall thought, well, of course, Zingegaard, of course he can't win.

Or of course he's just, he was too far to come back from the injuries that he sustained in this awful crash in the spring. All that's true. The thing that I just shake my head at was he was performing at a higher level, even with the crash and with the injuries and the setback and the recovery. He still performed at the highest level of his career and got beat down. So then, I mean, I don't know. You're going to do plenty of shows on this Johan for outcomes like the, the, the odds here are, I mean, that's, that's, uh, we know what those are. I mean, there's just no.

Well, there's always the situation also guys that, you know, you kind of have to prepare to be as good as you can because you know, it's three weeks and you never know what's going to happen. There's always the situation also guys that, you know, you kind of have to prepare to be as good as you can because, you know, it's three weeks and you never know what's going to happen. There's, you know, the first week is dangerous. You know, if you, if you say, okay, well, I can't win. And then on, in week one, there's a massive crash and Pogacar crashes out. Right. You need to be ready, you know, to fill that gap. Yeah. And let's, I mean, let's not forget that nobody wants to see that. I know.

But if that's how we're setting it up so that, well, it could be exciting if somebody gets hurt through a crash. Well, that sucks too. Like you want a heavyweight fight with healthy fighters. You don't want, you don't

want to see that happen to these guys crashing. But also let's not forget the sport just continues to evolve. These guys, every year, are breaking their PRs, are seeing better numbers than they ever have. So it's a question of, okay, did Pogacar improve that much that maybe he's plateaued? Probably not, but perhaps

Vindigo's got room for improvement. He saw his best numbers this year, so he's still improving, obviously. Remco, we talked about him last year. You guys were saying probably an outsider for the podium. I was kind of, you know, on his bandwagon saying that he would get a podium, but he's in that spot now. He's in the podium position spot,

so he's just going to have a lot more confidence coming into next season and obviously going to keep improving as well. And when he's good, there's not very different people in the world that can beat them. So we'll see how much of these guys continue to improve. And we'll, and the other thing, I mean, we'll do a whole, we'll do a special show on, on transfers and really what how 2025 shaping up that, that also changes things. And I haven't, I haven't followed that.

You're on, you follow it better than anybody. So, but we'll, we'll talk about that in the trades and transfer show soon to be happy. One last thing, guys, I'm going to make a prediction. We're going to see a record broken,

an old record, especially because it's, you know, it's, it's just the phone too. At that stage, the phone two record is going to be broken yeah i think who has that record 2000 i think i don't know if it's three or

four probably uh even mayo i i was i was thinking you would say even maya was uphill time trial was it i think it was 2004 i don't know but i but I'm with you that we're certainly going to say, if we saw what they did to the times this year, by the way, if you take a bike from what they would ride in 2025, just the bike in 2025 to 2004, you would think, of course, they're going to break that. But you know, the Vaughn 2 is also weird. I mean, you can have the conditions up top can be very very windy

they're so prohibitive and so restricting like it but yes on paper you would think somebody beats it by five minutes not only the bike but obviously you probably meant that but tires they choose their tires daily on different occasions they know exactly rolling resistance for certain pavements they they're they're clothing they're saving watts everywhere they can nowadays as opposed to where back in our day it was not like that at all it's funny i get i said earlier in the show i had somebody was i referenced a question that i get a lot i was in and around does the route change every year or is it always the same um but, but I, uh, one other question I get a ton of is what's the hardest climb in France. And of course, everybody has a different answer

to this. Uh, my answer is very consistent. I think Mont Ventoux is the hardest climb in France. Therefore in the tour de France, uh, that's just my answer. And, and the reason I give is because, well well it's obviously steep it's long but there are no switchbacks this is all of the climbs that we've talked about the most famous one there is of course alpe d'huez with 21 switchbacks you can manage a climb if you know you've got switchbacks where the gradient goes from nine or 10% to three or 4% in the switchback. It just gives you a little bit of relief for those that have ever done Bantu from the proper

side, you will know. I mean, there is no relief. It is 10% the entire time. There's no switchbacks. And so therefore I think that makes it the hardest climb in all of France. Yeah. And it's, it's a special clients. I always compare it as two clients in one, you know, you have the first 10 kilometers, which are steep in the forest. And then you get to and you think, okay, this is now evens out a little bit. And then you have the wind

and it's all open and it's,'s it's not 10 at the end the last 7k but it feels like 10 it feels like yeah you hit a wall you know so it's a very special climb unique climb and mentally it that last call it the last third of the climb seems like it goes on forever because you can see the station at the top i mean the mountain is for those who haven't seen bontu i mean it's totally bald at the top you can see the station i think it's a weather station and you just kind of keep doing these turns you're like oh it must be just right around the next turn and it just it just goes and goes it goes mentally it's a total mind fuck when you're when you're in that section where it's open and then if you did throw in the wind it's just it's a beast yeah agree all right well

cool thank thank you for uh reminding me on that that uh asl released the route. That was awesome. Any other things we will, as I said, we're going to have the trades and transfer stuff. I believe we're going to do an up and comer show, which is, is I think Johan's favorite show of the year. Cause this is. Season highlights also. Season highlights up and comers. Have you got some up and comers? Just, just, you don't, don't name any of them because people got to wait for that.

But if you got some people in mind. Yeah, I do. Yeah. We know. Yeah. Good. Good. All right. Well, anything else? Till next time. That's it. What are you going to do, George? You're going to go out and do, so you're going to go do a big ride

today? No, I might go do an hour and a half with my son, but nothing big. Doesn't he have school? He's online school now. That's when you know you're good.

That's when you know that they know that you're good like that yeah you're like wait you know this uh geometry shit like this kid's not ever going to use this he's never going to use well he's still in school he's not i mean maybe we should do like a you know a geography class so he just knows where the fuck he's going to go all over the world. Yeah. Yeah. He's off to,

we should do a little, maybe a little, a little economics class. Cause he's going to make some paper. He's off to the Olympic training center where we first met land. So I will never forget it. Yeah. Why is he going there?

And by the way, it's, it's, it's almost November. What's yeah. It's just a track. It's a track camp, sort of like a, they just want to see how good these guys can ride on the track. So I'm actually currently building up his track, a track bike for him,

which I know nothing about. Um, so it's been interesting and I need to get it done before next week. So that's kind of been my project. Excuse me. You're building this track. I'm not, I'm not. I don't want to ride on any track.. I don't want to ride on any track. I definitely don't want to ride on any track with the track bike that you built up. Yeah, me neither. 100% no.

I tell you, I saw a picture of him from the Fondo with his, I don't know, kids getting good looking. I mean, boy, not only are you going to just go crush people on the bike, but if that fails, I can do some not only are you going to just go crush people on the bike, but I, well, if that fails,

wow. Putting you to shame, bro. I know. I hear you. We missed you at the fund. Everybody was asking about you. So, well, it's, it's nice that you say that I've just, I've become more and more of a curmudgeon and kind of a hermit i just can't and and by the look then this is none of this will never change this my daughter's birthdays or her birthdays what am i trying to say here it's her birthday weekend yeah um and that's kind of unless she changes her birthday which i don't think she will um it's always a problem also was formula one here in austin so stuff to do but i'm glad everybody got through safe and sound did i i do have one more

question um did you change the route due to the storm did i i felt like we did we did loops we did john was here before and he was they were explaining it to me and i said that doesn't sound like the normal route of the fondo they said no said, no, it's, it's 20 mile loops. And I said, that had to be because of storm damage, which is crazy. We couldn't go up into the mountains. We actually did a big fundraiser, raised almost $750,000 already for the communities that we typically ride through because they were just destroyed. I mean, complete roads gone, houses destroyed.

But we did a 30 K loop from the hotel, which is awesome. I actually really enjoyed it. It's a lot more social. You can stop like every lab and wait for your friends or your friends can wait for you. You can say hi to the family. I actually really enjoyed it. And I'm not sure I'll be able to go back to the original course just because of how much fun I thought that people had during doing it. Hmm. And silver lining. All right. Well, by the way, and we should put that up or you're still raising, I mean, I'm assuming. Yeah, we are.

So you've raised, what'd you say? 650,000? 750. And our goal is the million. So we still, we have an open link. It's a 501c. So it goes directly to the foundation. Well, what's the link? Well, I get awesome awesome i can shoot it up and we'll put throw up it on the show i'll send it to gabriel yeah let's whoever's doing however all this stuff works whoever edits it and we'll put the link maybe on this on the thing and

then we should do it on our socials too so people see it yeah that'd be great thank you okay all right everybody thanks for tuning in i'll see you soon. Thank you.