THEMOVE - 2025 Up and Comers | THEMOVE

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

Lance, George, and Johan go through their list of the pro cycling's top rising stars in 2025, including two talented Americans and a few standouts who may ultimately become the new superstars of the sport, break down who they think will have the most impact in the coming season, and why certain teams are consistently acquiring these top talents while others consistently miss out. Zwift: Zwift just released Zwift Ride, an all-new smart bike that is changing the indoor game and making it easier and more affordable than ever before at only $1,299.99 to get started riding indoors. https://www.zwift.com/events/tag/wedu And join WEDU for our rides on Zwift. WEDU Wednesday is our casual, no drop ride and SUFFER Sunday for those wanting to push the limits. https://www.zwift.com/events/tag/wedu Maui Nui: Maui Nui offers the only 100% Wild-Harvested meat that's completely stress-free and responsibly sourced. It's perfect for anyone looking to elevate their meals with delicious, high-quality protein. Maui Nui Venison is offering THEMOVE listeners a limited collection of our favorite cuts and products. But...supply is limited by the nature of their work, so don't wait. Head to https://mauinuivenison.com/themove Buycycle: Head to https://buycycle.com/wedu for an exclusive offer for WEDU listeners! AG1:  AG1 is offering new subscribers a FREE $76 gift when you sign up. You’ll get a Welcome Kit, a bottle of D3K2 AND 5 free travel packs in your first box. So make sure to check out. https://www.DrinkAG1.com/themove OneSkin: OneSkin is the world's first skin longevity company, keeping your skin looking and acting younger for longer. Get started today with 15% off using code THEMOVE at https://oneskin.co

the importance of this uh these group of riders has really changed over really since we started doing this particular episode because the sport has just gotten younger and younger so these are names we'll talk about today and you might see them at the front of the peloton this season all right everybody welcome back to the move podcast. Talking about actually, this is, this is, uh, this is one of my favorite shows of the year. Uh, this is, this is the up and comer show, of course, joined by Johan Brunel, who, uh, the record will speak for itself. If you go back and you look at, I don't know how many years we've done this, but if you go back and look at the body of work over the years,

the writers that Johanna has identified in this show, I mean, the, the hit rate is astronomical. So of course he's joining us also, uh, Mr. George.

George, how are you? By the george where where where are you this is a backdrop i've never seen i'm in medellin colombia medellin yeah yeah how's it how's it down there it's in the news colombia's in the news we can't drink colombian coffee anymore and i know we're in unfortunate circumstances in the news, but hopefully as of last night, it seems like things that may have calmed down a bit, but we'll see. You know, I thought about you last night.

Cause I was, you did. I mean, you could have like, you could have just sent a little text message like, bro, thinking about you. I almost, I almost, I almost did. I knew I was going to see you today, but I was in Dallas for my daughter's volleyball tournament and, uh, flying back. And, uh, I downloaded this documentary on Netflix. Of course y'all y'all know this. I mean, I love documentaries. I watch a lot of documentaries. Uh, anyways, this one called the lost children. And you see this thing, you heard about this thing, these kids, these, these indigenous kids that were in this plane crash flying from the Amazon forest to somewhere and the plane crashed and the pilot died and the

mom died. Anyways, these four little kids lived in the jungle for like 40 days. And they had the special forces looking for them. They had the indigenous people looking for them. Anyways, it was, it was, it's based, it's not based. I mean, the footage is real. It's in Columbia. And dude, I never knew. I mean, when I think about like the rainforest, I got it like Brazil or whatever. Right. I didn't realize Columbia. You got to check this out, dude. These, these people are, these people are insane. Like insane. They're cool. Yeah. Yeah. And there was some crazy mountains here. You can get lost. No, I know. And I'm like, you're like, Oh, you should come down here and ride. I'm watching this documentary. No, man.

Hell no. Everybody I run into here is like, like when is when is the boss coming when is lance coming to columbia i go man i've invited him like a hundred times he i don't think he's coming well we're going to get into all the up-and-comers this is also a fascinating show the show has to me uh the importance of this uh these group of riders has really changed over really since we started doing this particular episode. Because the sport has just gotten younger and younger. So these are names we'll talk about today. And you might see them at the front of the Peloton this season. I think in the old days, Johan would shout them out and you'd have to give it, you know, five years.

No, I mean, the sport is trending younger and younger. So these names are not going to be things you have to stash away down the road. I mean, these are, these are names you might very well see immediately, but just interrupt you real quick. Let's back. It's not, it's not a new thing for Johan. I mean, he's picked out young writers. Yeah. When he was a director as well always spotted new talent like tom bonin guys that not everybody knew about but johan and dirk at the time you know were able to pick them out really early on and he's continued on with that like you said he's he's picked out some super rock stars

now and i'm excited about this list that he's come out with today, him and Spencer. Yep. Before we get into it, today's show brought to you by Zwift. So Zwift has recently released the Zwift Ride, an all-new smart bike that is changing the indoor game and making it easier and more affordable than ever before to get started riding indoors. I've got to tell you, it's freezing in Austin and has been. I'm so pissed. So I am riding indoors. Now, you know, and as I just was touching on, I am not a fan of riding indoors, but when I got to, well, you got to the bike is ultra quiet,

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we're going to leave some people out that we didn't think about. There's too many. I just picked the obvious, the ones that really stuck out and that you say, okay, you know, they're making it to the pros and they have a solid foundation. You don't have to actually wait how they're going to do it in the pros. They're going to do really well. Um, so, um, I think we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,

eight, and then, uh, two then two guys that we talked about last year that I want to talk about again, because they're still young. They're still 19 and 20 years old. But yeah, I would like to start with an English guy, Joseph Blackmore. He was on Israel Premier Tech Academy, the development team, and then passed pro, I think, in the middle of the season. But he was super strong, won Lies Baston Liege, 123. He was fourth in the Flesch Brabant Song with the pros, and he won the Tour de l'Avenir

in a very, very dominant fashion. The guy, I've seen some races that he won won and the guy's the real deal. He is strong and he knows how to race. It's not one of those guys who just has the numbers, you know, he's very tactical, um, very impressive. Um, you know, he's one, one meter 81. So that's, what is that? Like six feet? Uh, but only 66 kilos. Uh, how tall are you, George? Six, three. No, no. And the other number, a metric number. Oh, cause I have no idea.

I think I'm one 75. I think I'm what? He, one 87. You're taller. You're taller. I think you're one 89, one 89. Yeah. Yeah. My son, I think is one 87.

Well, you know what, you know what? Let me tell you something, George, if you really want to know your height, you know, go, go and measure it because we, you know, you know what let me tell you something george if you really want to know your height you know go go and measure it because we you know we all shrink i i was always 183 the other day my my son went to do a bike fitting i said let me measure myself i 181 two centimeters come on that that no no way that's bullshit. That's posture. Actually. Yeah, you might be right. You might be right. Johan, and talk about like historically guys have won the Tour d'Avenir, have gone on to win the Tour de France and some of the biggest races in the world.

Some of them, some of them, some of them have, some of them haven't. I won the Tour d'Avenir. I never won the Tour de France, but Martin Bernal, Inder Rhein, Quintana, Greg LeMond, Eddie Merckx. Is there rule changes now where these guys, correct me if I'm wrong, if they're riding for a World Tour

team and they're under 23, they cannot no longer participate in the U23 World Championships? Is that correct? I don't know how it's going to be with these specific races, but I would guess that would also be the case. You know what I mean? I think it's fair. I think it's fair.

Once you make it to the pros, you know, you shouldn't do the Tour de l'Avenir anymore or these under 23 races. You know, if you want to play in the big league, then you stay in the big league. Now, the opposite is also true that most of the big teams, they have development teams and they can actually switch them over during the season, as long as it's not a world tour race. So, you know, you can use rate, you can, you can use riders. That's why you actually see certain, certain teams. They limit,

they go to 25, 26 riders in their world tour team, because they know that whenever it's a double or triple program, they can bring in some riders from their development team for the secondary races. So I think that's a good system. Um, anyway, Blackmore, I think he's, uh, he's, you know, on the top of my list. He's already, uh, you know, he's already proven in the professionals. Just, just so I'm clear. And, and, and the listener is clear that are, are you ranking these in, in like, okay. All right. So, cause it, it,

I mean, you could almost for maybe for future episodes of this particular show, I might ask you to, you know, give them stars, you know, this is a five star cause this puts more pressure on you. It's not, it's easy. Look, I think it's easy for you to pick a eight or nine of these guys. But in the future, I'm going to, I'm going to have to start, we're going to go five-star four-star three-star. Okay. Let's see how you play out. This guy's already, he's already 21.

So he was half of the season with the, with the, with the pros already. So that's why I put him up there. Anyway, the second guy, that's actually a guy I'm really excited about. Pablo Torres. 19 years old. He was... I'm pretty excited about because I know him personally. He comes from

my son's club here in San Sebastián de los Reyes. He was the best junior two years ago. He won the Spanish Cup and then went on in his first year, under 23, with the development team of UAE. He was amazingly strong. He was second in the Giro, the Gen Z Giro, won a stage there and was incredibly strong at Tour de l'Avenir.

Look, my little young up-and up and comer just walked in from training. That's enough. Hey, we'll talk about him in one or two years, hopefully. Yeah. Does he not go to school? No rush. Online school. Love that. I love that. Yes. Anyway, Pablo Torres, um, you know, I, I, uh, if you look also, you know, like 174, 58 kilos, 57 kilos, even, um, very tiny, but incredible power. Um, this,

the performance that really sticks out to me is the last stage in the Tour de l'Avenir. I watched that stage live. And they finished on Colle de Finestre in Italy, which is a monster of a climb. I think it's like 20-something kilometers. Half of it is gravel. It's the climb where Froome won the Giro when he dropped Tom Dumoulin. Pablo Torres did an amazing performance there. He went away. He was, I have it here somewhere.

He did 6.6. No, wait a second. Let me just check. He did 606 watts per kilo over an hour. Oh, wow. Let me just check. He did 606 watts per kilo over an hour. And convert that to convert that to sea level. That would be close to 6.3 watts per kilo for one hour. He won that stage with four minutes on the second. And it's not the same, was not the same race, of course,

but when Froome won the Giro, he went up full gas because he dropped Dimula. Pablo Torres went four minutes faster than Chris Froome. Dear God. It is the performance in history of a teenager in cycling. You know, he's still 19. So he's still a teenager.

I saw him now in the Tour Down Under. He obviously not a race that doesn't really suit him very well, but he was already present attacking on whenever it was uphill and doing a great job for Jonathan Narvaez who won the race by the way, overall. So that's a good kid. Yeah. I asked cause you said he's in Christian's club. But really good kid. Yeah. I asked cause you, you said he's in Christian's club, but really good kid that he has a brother also, who's going to be the best junior now in Spain,

who also has the incredible numbers better than our teammates, ex-teammates son. How's he doing? Who's that? Naval's son. Yeah, but he's younger. He's younger. He's not on this list yet. He's 16. So he's a junior, but he, he's, he's, he's good. He's younger. He's not on this list yet. He's 16. So he's junior, but he, uh, he's,

he's, he's good. He's amazing. Yeah. He was already second in a world cup, uh, cyclocross, um,

and first year junior. Um, he, yeah, he's going to be really good. Um, if he can keep this level, of course,

um, no, Pablo Torres, just, you know, I, I spoke to him last year at the end of the season. He was at a,

at a race of the, of the race of his brother, I think. And I asked him about this performance on Colo di Finestre, you know, and I said, what gear were you riding? Because it's a very steep climb with gravel. You would guess, you know, probably 34, 34, right? And he said, oh, you know, I don't know, whatever's on my bike here. He had no clue what gear he was riding. So I think there's still a lot of progression.

Sounds like a five-star I'm going to start giving you these stars. Five-star. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What else we got? Yeah. Third guy is more of a cyclocross guy. Uh, Tibor Del Grosso, uh, not very well known to the big public because he has been focusing on, on cyclocross, but is amazing talent. Next Sunday, by the way, or I don't know if it's Saturday or Sunday,

he's going to be again world champion cyclocross. There's no competition for him. But I've been told that he has also amazing qualities on the road. He's on Alpecin on the World Tour team now, and he's going to ride a spring campaign. So, um, at 21 years old, I think we're going to see flashes of his, of his qualities already. Um, then the next guy, uh, I don't know if you know this guy, uh, George or Lance, Yarno Vidar, ever heard of him? Okay. Well, this is the coming kids. Wow.

He won the Giro under 23, very dominantly. You know, the way he won certain stages was just riding on the climbs, making tempo and everybody off the wheel, including this guy, Pablo Torres. Very young still. He has decided to, he's been, you know, asking for everywhere. You know to he's been you know asking for everywhere you know he's on lotto development

there was almost a deal with Bora Red Bull they have development team now but finally decided to stay for another

one other year in 123 one of the few who makes a decision like this because nowadays you know

once they're 18, 19 and they're they're good this because nowadays you know once they're 18 19 and they're they're good and ready they you know make the make the the step to the pros uh he's decided to stay because he wants to be world champion at least once and uh in in of course in rwanda he's gonna find the the ideal the ideal course for him he's uh66m, so very tiny and 54kg. So this is how exclusive this list is. Speaking of the world champion, you excluded him from the list. The guy won the...

I did. And he's also decided to do a couple of years as a development team. But I mean, this list is so exclusive that the world champion is not even on Johan and Spencer's list. Yeah, he's where he's on. He's on. He changed from a little track to Visma, Niklas Behrens. Really good guy for the classics. Johan, Pro Cycling Stats has Jarno Wydar signing with Lotto for 26-27. Yeah. Okay.

So he, okay. Yeah. He had a contract and there was some rumors that, I mean, he was in talks with, especially in the Tour de l'Avenir, he was in talks with Bora, with Red Bull Bora. They wanted to, I mean, and he had a contract as a under 23 rider. And so, but finally he decided to stay. I guess, I would guess

they have used the money they got for Van Gilds, who left, to invest in him and made him stay. Because, I mean, I think if Lotto is able to basically contract the best Belgian talents, that's obviously necessary for them.

Anyway, he's going to stay with, uh, under 23 and, uh, do a few races with the pros for sure, but focus on becoming world champion. Copy. Yeah. The next guy is one. Are you, I'm pretty sure you know him George, because he was junior and for sure Enzo has checked him out you know incredible talent Paul Seixas 61 kilos only and despite his weight he won the world championships time trial

in the juniors and straight away makes the step to the professionals five year deal with AG2 with Decathlon, correct? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Rumored to have 6.6 Watts per kilo for 30 minutes. Great years old. You know, these numbers are, are, are incredible. Now,

you know, I spoke to somebody today because I called around a bit for information on some of the guys. I spoke to a trainer of a top world tour team. And he says that the difference with these huge talents is that once they get to the pros, that it's the fatigue when they are not able to after, after 2,500 kilojoules of effort in a race, that's when, you know, you need the two, three years of endurance and experience. But most of those guys, you know, he, two three years of endurance and experience uh but most of those

guys um you know he told me he says if they don't burn out mentally most of those guys will get there but anyway paul seichas that's that's you know considered the biggest talent in france since a very long time interesting then the next guy i think we already talked about him last year uh he uh he had a season this year where he was injured and and sick uh was this jürgen uh nordhagen uh 20 years old now uh this is the guy who was top elite uh in the world uh nordic skiing and combined it as a junior with cycling and had amazing uh uh, amazing results. He showed flashes this year of his talent. Uh, but I've heard that in Visma, they really have a lot of confidence in him that he, uh, and then, you know, if you look at him also, he's a pure climber.

Um, I saw him training with finger guard and with one art and all these guys and, uh, uh, big talent, um, still only 20 years old, but also straight to the, to the protein, uh, this year. And that's, you know, the Nordic skiing is such a, uh, I mean, I think fans probably followed some of it, but it's such a crime. I mean, those, those athletes are just aerobic and anaerobic monsters so he's obviously it's not cycling at the technique and and obviously the battle within a peloton is always different but at least you know you're dealing with a real engine yeah this guy is reportedly has one of the biggest VO2 max. Yeah.

Yeah. We'll get into a few more names here in just a sec before we do today's show also brought to you by, excuse me, AG one. You know what today is? Today is Monday, uh, which means I took my AG one this morning because I take it every day. It's become such a habit. Uh, I've, I've told many, many stories about how, and by the way, too,

one of my 2025 resolutions is to dial in my diet and nutrition. Now, 2024, I dialed in other parts of my lifestyle. 2025, I'm going to dial in diet and nutrition. Just heads up up George. Um, but won't, but will not change was obviously a part of the, the program at 2024, which will continue to be is AG1. It's I've, I've found it to be a nice little hack for, for a kid who just didn't do a good job growing up of eating his fruits and vegetables. It is, uh, it is the one. And for me really, and I've said this a lot, it, it, it's about taking control of your health.

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and being AG1 for so long. AG1 is offering new subscribers a free $76 gift when you sign up. You will get a welcome kit, a bottle of d3k2 and five free ag1 travel packs in your first box make sure to check out drinkag1.com slash the move to get this offer that's drinkag1.com slash the move so let me get this straight you're looking you're gonna look me straight in the eye and tell me you're not gonna to have a Cinnabon from paradise break paradise bakery every morning in July this year. Are those days over? Oh, you're breaking up. I think that maybe the Colombian connection is going off a little bit,

but you're sorry, George, you're breaking. No, no, no. I couldn't hear you. I heard you. I heard you listen. 80, 20. All right. All right. I know I'm, I'm for real. I'm going to, I'm going to try to dial it in last one of the day brought to you by one skin. When we talk about one skin, we're talking about O S one. That is the game changer here. Other things to talk about, like dry skin, deeper wrinkles, other things like that. These are just a few visible signs of aging. Something today's sponsor OneSkin knows all about. Now, I'm not overly concerned with aesthetics like George is, but I do want to keep my skin healthy as I get older.

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Come on. 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 the code THEMOVE at oneskin.co. That's 15% off over at oneskin.co. Use the code THEMOVE. Albert Witgen phillipson a lot of people say albert phillipson it's witgen phillipson um the biggest talent reportedly um straight from juniors to um the pros multiple world champion in various disciplines road uh mountain bike, multiple Danish champion, European champion, also cyclocross.

He won the juniors championships in 2023, the world championships. He was away solo this year, wasn't he? Or about to win? He was going to win again and he crashed. Bigger kid, 80 kilos, Johan? No, no, no. No? bigger kid, 80, 80 kilos, Johan. No, no, no, no. Uh, he's, uh, he's one 82 and, uh, he's, uh, 73 kilos. I checked with him in the, in the first training camp, he was 73 kilos. So, uh, for

nowadays cycling on the heavier side, I would say 73 kilos, but, uh, you know, if you look, um, you know, he did two down under straight away in the game, you know, the first, uh, but, uh, you know, if you look, um, you know, he did two down under straight away in the game, you know, the first, uh, big, uh, first difficult stage, he was up there. He was fourth, uh, I think fifth overall in, in, in the GC. So, uh, you know, it is of course two down under it's shorter stages with short explosive climbs, But this guy has reportedly, I saw some numbers on him, like 10 minutes, close to seven watts per kilo. So, you know, obviously big, big, big hopes on him.

Now, do you guys take an estimate of what these guys make when they turn pro like an 18 year old phillipson i'm curious i have no idea no let me i want to guess um i mean look they're they're they're uh it's a bidding war i would imagine i mean there's two four or five teams trying to get them. So 500. It's between 750 and 1 million per year. Wow. What? A kid that goes away. A kid goes from the juniors to the, by the way, I love this, right? This isn't that's happening all over in sports.

Even if you look here in the U.s right with with nil i mean you have 18 19 20 year old kids making more than that because of you know depending on the school they're how good they are 10 million goes to miami yep so wow that's more than that wow you know if you look if you look uh 2023, 2023, right? So last year he crashed, he had, he had a good season as a world champion, but he crashed in the, in the championships. Uh, but when he won, I remember this, this image when he won in Glasgow was in Glasgow, right? The two years ago. Yeah. Um,

he won the race. Um, and straight after the finish, there's Alex carrera who comes he says hey albert you remember me right next next thing you know he signed with alex carrera yeah and then that's that's another example the another kid who you do not have on this list is the kid who actually won the world's uh in the junior world italian kid this year but chose not to go straight into the world tour chose to do another year or two on a you know development team uh so it's interesting the the different paths that these young kids are are choosing yeah well the question is the question is you know uh i mean i the last few days i did speak

with a few people who are dealing with young talents and, uh, in preparation of this. And the question is how much progression they still have, right? Uh, one particular person who has a top team, uh, of young riders said, told me, um, he usually checks their, their training peaks and juniors who, uh, train more than 15 hours per week. He's not very, very interested. You know, if, if it's a super talent, he will sign them or try to sign them. But most of those guys, 15 hours a week, that's nothing. That's nothing. That's like, okay, you know, what are we doing? Right.

So we'll have to see how, how, how long these careers are. It's obviously a trend like they're, they're at a super high level, very, very early on. They're super skilled already. They have a lot of experience in, in, in racing tactics already. So we'll see. I think, I think even a lot of the top guys that are established world tour pros that are getting top fives and grand tours that are 23, 24, 25 years old.

They don't really see racing past 30 years old. Back in our day, 30 was like when you reached your peak and now they're like 30, I'm probably going to be out. Can I just, just talking about these numbers. And I do think, I think this is a, uh, is a cool part of this conversation to talk about. Cause it, it legitimizes cycling. It legitimizes scouting process. It certainly legitimizes the talent we're talking about, but I, I'm just, when you're talking about going from the juniors to whatever, whatever that next step is for me, it was going from the juniors to, uh,

basically amateur, which, you know, I raced on Eddie B's team, Subaru Montgomery. You just said these kids are somewhere between 750 and a million. My first contract was Subaru Montgomery, $18,000 a year. I think I went up to 24,000 the next year. And fast forward, you made more money than any existing pros are making currently as well. So you tipped the scales on both sides, I believe. I don't know about that. Not from the team side.

In your heyday with endorsements, I'd say you probably. With endorsements, but that's, you know. Yeah, no, the team side. In your heyday with endorsements, I'd say you probably... With endorsements, but that's... That's, you know... Yeah, now the contracts have... Yeah, the team contracts have gone way up. Yeah. Yeah. Last in the list, guys.

All the guys we've talked about until now are more or less like, you know, climbers, time trialists. This guy,

Matthew Brennan, also English guy on... He on, he was on, uh, Visma development went to the pro team. Um, he's more of a sprinter, but also a complete rider, but you know, his first race, um, two down under straight away second in the, in the, in the bunch sprint sprint. Uh, so I've seen him win a few races and in the, in the under 23 and, uh, very, very complete rider. Um, you know, one of the two big English talents on here that, uh, with him and him, Brennan and, uh, and Blackmore and none of them is on your nails,

which is also an interesting observation. What do you guys think about that? I think everybody's sitting back and watching what kind of has to be considered as the demise of Ineos, right? This was a team who was so cutting edge and certainly so dominant. It just seems like the shine is off. so cutting edge and certainly so dominant. It's, it's, uh, it just seems like the shine is off and, and obviously the other teams mimic them and, um, copied them and for many years looked up to them and adopted a lot of this. And I mean, I hate to say it, I've always loved what they've done,

but it something's off. I mean, I've, I think I said it last summer during the tour. Um, I mean, you people have a lot of opinions and he's certainly polarizing, but Dave Brailsford, you know, it might've known what he was doing. And it's just, to me, it's never been the same since, um, since he left. There's a difference. There's a big difference with Brailsford and without Brailsford. I think that's the key person.

But, you know, it's kind of sad to see that a team that was on that level, that now even with those young guys, they're not on their priority list. You know, it's a team that these guys go to if their choice is

not available. They want to go to if their choice is not available. They want to go to UAE and to Red Bull or to Visma. Those are the three teams that everybody wants to go to. Ineos comes fourth, fifth, or sixth. Same thing with Movistar, for example. A guy like Pablo Torres, who's an amazing talent. Movistar, no chance. No chance.

They don't want to go there. They're considered old school. And they probably are. I was going to say, they are. That's. No chance. They don't want to go there. They're considered old school. And they probably are. I was going to say that they are. That's because they are. Yeah. And I believe we have two more. Two Americans we wanted to shout out. We've sort of been tracking

these two, actually. Yeah. Who are they? The first one is arden smith who just signed with ineos did some races with uh with them speaking of ineos yeah speaking of ineos he did this kid's a beast right he's a beast he did the world cups in uh in quebec in montreal he was in the break very you know very aggressive racing he, the amount of training this kid does is like insanity. He comes, I mean, I've heard of him doing like our local climb 10 times up Paris mountain and then come into the local Tuesday night race, riding away from everybody.

Um, a really nice kid as well, but he trains like insanely hard. I think I heard somehow like his, his coach gives him one day, like free a week where he tries to like restrain his training. And on those free days, he'll go ride like seven and a half hours. And he just loves to ride his bike. And, um, he's a beast. He's a good kid. Uh, he trains with my son once in a while. And, uh, yeah, I'm excited to see how far he can, he can make it on, on any of us. Also, uh, Colby Simmons, familiar last name right brother of quinn simmons

i've been talking maybe maybe i feel like we've been talking about him for a couple of years because if now that i think about this um when quinn has had some results or been present in the tour there's always been the family shots right it interviewed the mom or and i remember seeing if you go back and for those who watched the tour, three, four or five years ago, you'll remember, um, Colby Simmons. He was like the little kid in the photos. Uh, but, but, you know, following in his brother's footsteps. Yeah. His brother and his dad, his mom, they all ride.

They're a super fit family. I mean, it's, uh, it's kind of a cool story that, uh, you know, Quinn is on little, little track now riding really well and Kobe's following in his footsteps, perhaps maybe even, you know, surpass his footsteps, but definitely somebody we should keep an eye on here in the next year or so. Interesting. He went from Visma Lisa bike to education first though. That's. Oh yeah.

Yeah. I think that yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that they're really, they're trying to bump up their development program. All of these top teams that have long-term commitments with their sponsors are now looking to riders. I mean, look at Ashlyn Berry, just signed five years with Bisma Lisa bike. He's 17 years old. The teams with the long-term commitments are not only trying to like find current talents. They're, they're planning three, four, five years ahead now and they have to go out to these young kids.

So I think EF is on the same boat. They got a long-term commission from their commitment from their sponsor. They got to start going after these young talents. Obviously they probably would love to have an American talent. So it makes sense. And they lost Ashlyn Berry as well. So that was a big, big loss for them. Hopefully, I mean, they're probably trying to replace him with Kobe.

Yeah. Two other guys I just want to mention, guys. We talked about them last year in the up-and-comers, but they're still 20 years old. So first one is Paul Manier, French guy on Sudak quick step. Um, in his first year, he, uh, he won five races already in his first year. And I want to mention him because I think that he's going to be somebody that we're going to see a lot this year. He's, he's a type, um, a la Philippe, um, maybe faster than Alaphilippe

so I mean he's just a bit I mean climbing wise he's a little bit off but he can win uphill sprints also so that's one guy I want to mention and then secondly a guy we also mentioned last year also still 20 years old is Antonio Morgado we talked about

him last year as a talent on UAE did his his first year. This year was fifth in the Tour of Flanders as a teenager still. And now the way I see he starts the season, I watched these two races here in Spain, Saturday and Sunday, the first race he won. I mean, no discussion, amazing performance in the last five K. And then yesterday, um, he was second, uh, in a race won by, um, Mark. Um, so super, super strong guy. Um, if you, if you look at the picture, because I think, I think Gabriel's putting up the pictures, he doesn't look 20 years old, uh, but, uh, he looks a lot older, but super strong

guy. So those two guys, that, that was George, George, George rolled up the OTC as a junior. This son of a bitch was 16 years old. And I mean, he, he looked like, I don't know, man. He had a beard like a 30 year old. We all, we, I mean, not a one of us had hair on our balls and, and this role, this, this guy rolls up. I mean, just hairy. And I'm like, Oh shit. Like what are we going to do?

Look at this grown man. And look, look at him right now. He looks like that. That's by the way, if you're watching the show and you can see that is exactly how George looked at the Olympic training center in 1989. Right there. Look at that. Well, I take that as a compliment that I don't look that old right now. So thank you.

Anyways. All right. Well, this is fun. It's like I said, this is my one of my favorite shows of the year because that Johan just nails it. Spencer to Spencer had a lot of input here. So Spencer, thanks for that. We'll keep the list in our, in our, in our notes and check, check in once in a while during the season to make a reference to this show.

Great. I love it. All right, everybody. Thanks for tuning in. © transcript Emily Beynon