THEMOVE - Cycling's New Hierarchy Is Forming | Il Lombardia Breakdown | THEMOVE

Episode Date: October 10, 2026

George Hincapie, Johan Bruyneel, and Spencer Martin break down Paul Seixas' dominant and historic win at Il Lombardia to become the youngest winner in the race's 121-year history, as well as discussing the tactics of his key rivals, like Remco Evenepoel's Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team, and whether they made a mistake by setting up Seixas' winning move. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team NordVPN: EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/THEMOVE Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee MOD: Visit https://MOD.com for a free consultation and get 10% off your first order PLUS free shipping with promo code THEMOVE. Odoo: Stop paying for missing pieces. Go to https://Odoo.com Blueprint: Science-backed, precision-dosed, no BS. For a limited time only, our listeners get 20% off + free shipping at https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com by using code THEMOVE at checkout. That's code THEMOVE at https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com for 20% off.  After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. PLEASE support our show and tell them our show sent you. Fitnexa: Whether you're recovering from a big training day, traveling, or just trying to get a better night's sleep, check out Fitnexa SomniPods 3. Go to https://go.fitnexa.com/sJsSbC and use code THEMOVE to get $10 off your order.

Yeah, when you, just off the top of my head, you know, if you look at the one-day races he has done, I mean, I'm going to pick out, he's probably done more than those four, but, you know, he starts off the season, he gets seconded Estrada Bianca behind Pogacar. You know, then the next one, Pogaccha is not there, Fleshwallon, he wins. Three days after, Pogacchah's there, second to Pogacar. And now the other monument that he's not, that Pogacch is not there, he wins. It's pretty impressive, man. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting other one-day races. But just to name those four, that's like, okay, you can basically, you know, hang your whole career on those results. Yeah, you can almost say that might be even better than Bogotcha at 20 years old.

Oh, it's not even a competition. Yeah, he's so much better than Pegasur was. And one-day racing at 20 years old. Yeah, and then Johan, in the middle of that, he gets fourth in the tour of France. Everybody, welcome back to the Move podcast. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johann Bernal and George Hincappy. We're breaking down I, Lombardia, which just wrapped up,

won by newly 20-year-old Paul Sixthaus on DeCathlon. In a solo win, different guy, same result. We have another solo win at Lombardia, carrying on the tradition of Tadipagotcha, riding away from everybody on the difficult climbs. With Enric Maas, Johann, from Movistar and second. This is like the fall of Enric Maas, Giulio Chocone, and third, Remco, up at full force,

and Brandon McNulty in fifth. I will run through in one minute or less. I'm going to run through the entire 240 kilometer race for you guys and then we'll discuss it. If you weren't up at two in the morning, mountain time this morning, the race started extremely fast. And what it meant is you didn't get a breakaway rolling clear that was just guys who got away in the flats.

We waited until we got to the first climb, which was extremely hard to like 11K at 6% for the break to form. I'm incredibly dangerous because UA's on the front. You have a lot of strong riders going to the move. They don't want to close everything down. So they're letting some dangerous groups form. Eventually they put a rider in themselves to shut down that situation. And then we get a break going.

But it's still a lot of strong riders. You have Ben O'Connor in there. You have Victor Campan Arts from Bezma. You don't want to get that thing too much of a gap. So they keep it around two to three minutes, hard pace with UAE Red Bull and DeCathlon sharing turns. really Dominovac was polling for seemingly the entire race, keeping the gap close to the breakaway. And then with 100K to go, things start to heat up.

We get closer to Como, the climbs around Como. With 65K to go, Red Bulls on the front, and it almost looks like they're running out of guys already. Fizma sees this, and it has Louis Barret launched Mateo Jorgensen. Jorgensen. He gets up the road followed by Quinn Simmons, Brandon McNulty, Christian Scoroni. I thought we were going to have a U.S.

Team USA time trial to the finish, but DeKathlon smartly comes to the front in the Peloton behind. Even though it's running out of riders, the situation looked, I thought it looked like they could take it to the line. DeCathlons shut it down quickly. They never really got more than 15 seconds. And then we get into our finale, which has three climbs back to back to back. The first and last climb are the same one. It's a loop, with the middle climb being extremely difficult.

You really have Red Bull on the front. Giulio Pellizari setting an extremely high. hard pace for most of that, slowly whittling the group down and they get to the penultimate climb, the hardest one of the day. Paul Sixthau says, I'm feeling pretty good. Gets to the front, he ramps the pace up to about 550 watts for a couple of minutes. And eventually he rides clear with Chikone and Enric Maas and Julia Chikone, the only riders that can stand as wheel, Tom Pickock right behind them.

And he holds it. He actually extends his lead almost all the way to the finish line to become the youngest winner in the history of Ilombardi, I believe the fourth youngest monument winner of all time, the youngest since 1944. So it's been a while since that's happened with Inric Moss coming in behind alone, looking incredibly strong. And then Chaconne behind him and then Remko winning out of the chase group. Remko never really looked like he could follow, but just did his Remko thing of riding

his pace, wins out of that group with McNulty looking pretty good in the world champions jersey all day. I was pretty impressed with him. and then his teammate Isaac Daltoro really suffering on those final few climbs finishing in 28th. But Johann, what, Johan or George, whoever wants to jump in first, what was your big takeaway from this race? I, first of all, I cannot believe a 20-year-old just won a monument. That's crazy. Yeah.

George, you want to go first? Sure. Yeah, no, that was pretty amazing to watch. In fact, I was watching it with my son. And I'm like, what is he? He's just riding his tempo right now. attack, but he was so confident and probably felt so good that he was probably just sitting at this insane, absurd Watts that he knew he can hold to the top and nobody could follow him.

I mean, Jaconi's held on for as long as he possibly could, and Rick Moss was just behind there. But the pace he set up right there from essentially 1K into that climb was crazy fast and nobody can follow. It's just for a 19, 20-year-old kid to have that sort of confidence after 200-some-odd-a-collar kilometers in a monumental race. We haven't seen that in a long time. And we saw him get dropped from Pogachar and Lijj in a similar sort of race situation.

But for him to drop the rest of the best of the guys in the world today was incredibly impressive. And coming off of that huge disappointment from him at the world where he criticized himself very severely saying that he made a huge mistake, was cramping. And he was so disappointed in himself to come out and win this huge. monument is a major deal for him, a major way to end the season to go into the next season with even more confidence. I think he can certainly come away really happy with his season. Yeah, that's my takeaway also. I think we have to applaud success for his confidence to come back

also, you know, after his disappointment in the world championships, you know, decided, I think very important, decided to not do the European championships. I think that was a big, one. You know, so he focused really on Lombardy, went still on a mini training camp, if I'm not mistaken, after the World Championship. So that shows a lot of commitment. And then, you know, I mean, the, anyway, I think it's proper to, you know, these young guys, these young super talents, you know, the amount of pressure they put on themselves.

And then to be able to deliver with all that pressure going on, it's just amazing. you know, such a young guy win a monument like Lombardy. And let's not forget, this is probably one of the races. Pogaccha was not here, but still, if you look at the competition, I mean, all the best riders were here.

They were all here. And for him to ride away like this, really showing he was the strongest guy, yeah, that's definitely my takeaway. And also, you know, once again, hats off to Zekatlan as a team, you know, where they are now. We all know where they come from.

You know, George, you, you raced with them back in the AG2R days. It's not the same team anymore. This is now one of the super teams. And I think it's only going to get better. Spencer and I speak about it almost every week on the podcast about Seix Suss's future, you know. And we have seen all these, you know, hypothesis is like insinuations. He could go there. He could go there.

You know, first of all, he still has a contract in 2007. but I still think I'm very confident that the future of Paul's success is on decathlon and they are going to do everything they can to support him. Maybe this win was like a he's stamping his authority on UAE. He's like, I'm going to go to UAE and you guys are going to work for me. You know, Pagacha and Mnalti out there. Set and pace for me, but no, it's a good point. I mean, if you just break races down into best on best, especially one day races,

doesn't happen very often. And I know Pagacha has hurt. So, but if you think of the available riders, writers are healthy or right, Johan, this is like the best in the world. And you would not say he had the strongest team in the race. I think they did the perfect amount of work with the team they had, though. And he just kind of smacked everybody around out there. I'm like still kind of stunned that this happened to have someone of that age. It's only his third monument start of his career.

And he just comes out and stomps on everyone. It's kind of stunning. And also, if you look at this. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, George. If you look at his season, like the way he started in a dominant fashion, I mean, hit Lijs almost won that with exception to Pocartre being stronger than him, but had an amazing Tour de France disappointment at the world.

But like the season he had from the beginning of the year until now, which is for a 19-year-old kid. We haven't really seen that ever. Yeah. When you, just off the top of my head, you know, if you look at the one-day races he has done, I mean, I'm going to pick out. He's probably done more than those four. But, you know, he starts off the season.

He could second the strata Bianca behind Pogacar. You know, then the next one, Pogacar is not there. Flesh while on, he wins. Three days after Pogacar's there, second to Pogacar. And now the other monument that he's not, that Pogacch is not there, he wins. I mean, it's pretty impressive, man. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting other one-day races. But just to name those four.

that's like, okay, you can basically, you know, hang your whole career on those results. Yeah, you can almost say that might be even better than Bogotra at 20 years old. Oh, it's not even a competition. Yeah, he's so much better than Bagachar was. And one day racing at 20 years old. Yeah, and then Johan, in the middle of that, he gets fourth in the tour of France. Yeah, first, uh, first grand tour of his career. Little detail.

Do you guys feel like that got sold as a little bit of a disappointment? Like, uh, I just feel like that was a. I think it worked out well for him because it was kind of muted, but I don't remember a lot of fanfare around his fourth place. No, that's true. I mean, I think it also because because of Paul Sexas himself, the expectations were super high.

I think he was, he was actually also disappointed to not be on the podium. And he was fighting for the podium, you know, with Del Toro. So he was close. But I think also the French, there was so much hype about Sexas. I mean, listen, they have to be happy with the fourth place. of the Tour de France of a then 19 year old, I think.

If you look at Seikasa's evolution this year and, you know, what may be next year, I think this is the guy, the only guy, I think, that for the moment we can have hope that he can come close to Porcachar, because he's still going to improve. I mean, he's better now than he was last year. he's going to get better i think so um yeah i mean it's it's it's crazy and win a monument like this lombard is probably the hardest monument course wise right of the five monuments of course if you're a climber it's probably the easiest one to win but but still to do it at this age and with so much confidence and so much believe in himself i think it's very unique yeah i mean yeah definitely

unique. We're almost seeing something that we've never seen before because if we, we almost rewrite Pagachar's history in our heads, we retcon it basically. But if you go back and look at it, he was like, he was not as dominant as you'd think in one day races. And what he's really, for the first four or five years of his career, he was a Lombardia liege. Those were the big monuments he would compete in and win. So let's say, you know, now we think of him as like, a cobbled guy, but that's fairly recent. So Paul Sik saw us, he's in his first full year as a professional, right? Johan, last year he raised the Tour de Lavigneur.

He did actually, yeah. Yeah, so this is his first year as a pro. I don't know, no, no, he was a pro already. I don't know what happened with that. Was it because it was with national? I don't know. I don't know. I don't think he raced any World Tour races last year.

Did he? Really? I didn't know that. Well, I think if he was on the, Oh, he was still on the Devo team last year? No, he did Lombardia, so he must have come on. And he did the Euro championships last year, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Drew. Well, I guess he did the Dauphini, too. I don't know how that worked. No, no, he was a pro. He was a pro. He was a pro. Yeah, he got like ath in Dauphine. He was good in the Euros.

I don't remember much else. He did the world championships, world championships and Kigali also. So let's just say in his first year of not racing the Tour de laveneer. He wins a monument. I mean, he's basically pacing two years ahead of Pagachar, and then he has like five years to learn how to ride the cobbles, assuming he did want to do that, you know? So we're looking at something we've never seen before. This is, he's pacing ahead of Tatea Pagachar who's pacing almost equal to Eddie Merck's. Like, this is serious stuff.

If you're a writer, if you're a pro writer, it's not looking good for your chances to win a monument anytime soon because you have Taday Pagotra winning. then he goes away and then Paul Sixxas comes in and says, actually, I'm going to scoop up the ones that he doesn't win. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, for sure. Do you guys want to take a quick break and then I have some questions for you about how this played out? Also, before we do that, Johan, you mentioned this briefly. So Paul Sixthauce didn't race after Worlds, went to training camp. You know who else?

The other rider who raised the least amount between Worlds and today was? Enric Maas. Enric Moss. So first and second on the day, something to flag there for future years. I wonder if there is something to that, especially with the travel heavy worlds, if it's better to rest versus race in between that. Yeah, maybe. Maybe.

I mean, I, Enrique Moss was, I mean, it's not a surprise because obviously he's a great rider. He has been already second in this race two or three years ago. He came together to the finish with Bogacha, I think. Maybe three years ago, I think. Yeah, I was sprinted by Pagachar. Yeah. And then again, also, you know, Chikone, man, Chikona is, you know, what a fall he has. He's, you know, he's always on the podium, always there, one of the strongest guys in the final.

But, you know, there's always one rider or two who are a bit stronger than him. But I think this is a writer who has evolved into really one of the, one of the great names that always is in those, in the final of those big one-day races. Yeah, and I think for some of these riders like Chikoni. And obviously, Remko, like, in my opinion, the euros is just as important as Lombardier to them because they get to wear the jersey the whole year. Obviously, not the world championship jersey, but still European champion is quite an exclusive club. So I think for them, it was worth going all in for that race and then try to hang on for everything they can for Lombardia. Agree.

Yeah, yeah. We talked about that Spencer yesterday, right? We had a little talk about the European championships. And I personally, I mean, I think it has a bad place. the calendar. It's not very popular, but there's only one person who walks away super happy. It's the guy who wins because it's a nice jersey. It's a really nice jersey and it's nice to wear it the whole year. So yeah, I think Remko will be disappointed, but he has the jersey now, the only one he didn't have yet. So that's pretty good. Three of times in the top 10, too, of this race.

Pretty good. Do you know who has had his sneaky good year is Felipe Zana, ninth play. place today. And he's also top 10 at liege. Kind of interesting. Like, they said Felipe's on. I'm like, were they talking about Filippo Ghana?

Like, well, he's not in this race. Like, Zana, I forgot about that guy. He's doing, actually had a pretty good,

pretty good day today. I mean, I think we all, we actually, I mean, he's, he's a really good writer. He's not often in the picture.

I mean, I was still seeing him at, at Jekul for some reason. He's on Sudal. He's on Sudal. Oh, yeah. I think I only noticed that at the Valta when he was in the break for Soudal. Also, Mika Landa, 17th, pretty good result for Miko Lando.

And what I thought was a terrible year for him. He's been, I mean, he's been third in this race already, Zana, Landa. Yeah. And, you know, okay, not a good year, but, you know, he does have that incredible stage win in the Vuelta. So I think, I think he's pretty happy with the end of his season. Yeah, I think he's coming away happy with the season. And after that well, stage win, obviously, all he had to do is just kind of keep that form for a few weeks, three weeks after the well done. Today is super, it was super.

The course is really well suited to him. So I think that that wasn't really much of a surprise that he finished in the top 20. What was also impressed me today was in his last season, his last race, is payobilbao. I was just going to finish your career on at that level. It's like, and you decide, okay, this is it. you know, I don't want to do it anymore. Beio Bilbao can still race. You know, he's still one of the top riders.

Yeah, he's still young. How old is he? Well, he's not that young, but 36, so. Oh, 36, okay. You get, you're probably getting an age where you don't want to do that anymore. Yeah, it's his own decision. He has made that decision at the beginning of the season. And apparently some people have tried to convince him to keep going on another year.

But he said no, but still, I mean, if in your last year, you finished seven in Lombardy, man that's that's pretty good that's like you're leaving i'm leaving on my own terms and he should be applauded for that because there's a lot of riders like he's at the top right like the only writers ahead of him today were tom pickock brand of mcnulty evanapole chikone ma six us so he's like at the tippy top a lot of guys would be not not in that shape and hang on for a few years collecting a paycheck right yeah so that's pretty cool that he's just stepping away at the top but let's take a quick break and we'll be right back with some questions all right we are back. So a few questions

for you guys about how this race played out. I get UAE working early, especially with the breakaway situation was unsettled, you would say. Ben O'Connor, you can't give that guy a ton of time up there. You know what's going to happen. Also, Michael Leonard on EF. Holy smokes. He was flying

today. Young Canadian on that team was incredible. So I understand they have to work. But we see at the end of the race, both Remkoevin a poll, both Isaac Deltoro, the leaders of those teams, just like not on great days, don't have it. Unclear to me, Johann, if Del Toro had a knee problem,

which the team definitely would have known about before, but I guess they do all that work and you figure, even if Del Toro doesn't have it, Brandon McNulty's there. Brandon McNulty can win the race, so it's worth doing the work. Red Bull was extremely active, like for the final, let's say, four hours of the race. They were like pulling for a lot of that, especially with Giulio Pellizari, who looked incredible, pulled for 30K over the hardest section of the course.

Then they get to the toughest climb of the day, and we see Paul Sixthust to seven watts per kilo up that, in between two other climbs. And you think, was Remko ever going to hang on here? And why did they put all their eggs in the Remco basket instead of hedging a little bit with having Pelazari in the back pocket and seeing if he can try to do something?

You know, kind of like Vizma. They were like Vizma, they didn't have an all-out. favorite, but they were thrown a lot of stuff at the wall, seeing what stuck. Didn't work, but they did their best. Should Red Bull have done more of that as opposed to this just like straightforward, blunt force tactic that I felt like helped Paul Sixthos more than their own leader? I think it's risky, but you know, with these riders, I mean, I think, I think for UAE to answer

your question, Spencer, I think if Del Toto was the leader, there was these talks about the knee problem earlier in the week, but I think we could, you know, we saw that attack of Phil Toro in one of those races. I don't remember which race it was. His knee didn't hurt much, I think. So he was the, and I was like, he was the leader, I think. Yeah, he looks fine. He was the leader, I think. And then, and then Red Bull, yeah, I mean, could you say it's

overconfidence, too much confidence? It's, it's a risky, it's a risky decision. And especially, you know, a race, what was it? It's 240K, right, Lombardy? 240. You know, you get to the 200 kilometer mark and then all of a sudden you say, oh, wow, my legs are not that good anymore, but, you know, the team has done all the work already. I mean, you could, Remko has this way of riding. Like if teammates do the work, he's usually.

right behind behind and you know sometimes on that climb you could see remco was like fifth six seven position which is not the way remco is usually riding normally he's like right there right there and everybody kind of knows okay they're leading they're leading him out he's going to he's going to attack and then he accelerates he didn't have that today so i would say it's probably overconfidence or maybe underestimating arrivals could also be one of those you know things that i think i think in a race Lumberty, you have to say, okay, the other guys are also really in good shape. They have good teams and let's not do too much or let us do all of the work and see if somebody else can share the work.

They didn't think about that today, apparently. Yeah, I agree, I think it's underestimating Sejas, how strong he was. Yeah. They haven't raised with them in a few weeks since Whirls. They probably didn't quite expect that. and they were coming off the European championships win so they had full confidence. I mean, I agree they could have probably used Pelazari differently because he wrote an incredible pace for like 30 kilometers.

Broke the record up that climb, I think, by like a second. So clearly he was on really, really good shape and perhaps they could have played with him more. But, you know, like a guy like Remko, I think he needs a whole team behind him. He crafts and Euros came back and still won. I mean, they definitely had a lot of confidence in. But when you get to a race like Lombardia won a monument, you know, that that extra 20K that you're, you know, that 20, 30K that goes from 200 to 240, that's a huge difference when you hit a climb. And sometimes you just don't know how your legs are going to react, especially at the end of the year.

So maybe a bit of underestimating success, like you said, Johan, but also, you know, it's that distance. It's a whole other level of suffering that you got to go past. And, I mean, it's just a long year. These guys have been going all year long. So I think it's pretty understandable that they had a bad day. Also mentally, like once you underestimate a guy like, say, Soss, and you can't follow his pace. Like, it's almost you can't suffer to follow third, fourth, fifth wheel.

Like, you almost just say, you know what I'm going to ride my pace and see what I can do. Like we saw Remko do. Well, that's not a win. That's one of the things, George, that I see a big difference in Remco this year in several races already. Like every time he has kind of failed when he was one of the favorites. It's Liesbaston Liesch, for example, was an example. The world's now again, he does get his own pace. And when he comes back, he is incredible to finish.

You know, like he got forward today. He obviously he worked a lot on his sprint and his explosiveness. Liesbaston Liesch is a good example. He was, I think he was probably not even in the 10th strongest riders. Once he got dropped on Laredud, then he was, he was, he was also not in good position on La Roche Foucault, and then he keeps fighting, which is a big difference compared to the past. In the past, Ramco would say, okay, you know what, I don't have it.

So be it, you know, I'm just writing my own pace. He does ride his own pace, but he comes back and he sprints to a great, great results still. Today, I mean, he was not the fourth strongest rider in Lombardy, but he gets fourth. And we've seen this many times now. He tends to do better. like if you think of best on best one day races the last one he won was probably olympics road race even though pagatra wasn't there is does he just let's say this isn't let's say six s moss and chakone aren't here or maybe chikone's here i guess he could he could in theory

have won this race right like like he did last week and like do we just not notice that as much in lower level one day races where he it's like whoa he's just crushing everybody but then you get four or five extra guys that can just out climb them. And then he starts to look like he's yo-yoing like we saw at Worlds in this race. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I go back to being the long season, last race of the year. These guys have been the top of the level the whole year. It's understandable.

I mean, the guy like Deltoro, who last year basically wrote away from everybody on all the Italian races and super dominant. Like, you can see the effects of the long season on a hard tour to France, a hard, really hard world championship. He was arguably the strongest guy at the world's. And it's just hard to keep that form going for so long. Yeah. Tough travel too, you know? Like you go to North America, you race and you come back and then you're racing right away and then you're going into this race. That's probably not a recipe for like feeling your best. People let's just, I in the pre-show said, well, if Remko

wasn't on his best day, why didn't he tell his team to ride differently? And Johan, you had a good point that you well you don't know you don't feel good until you're 200k into the race and then by then it's too late right yeah i mean um yeah i mean listen we don't know how these guys feel right it's it's it's it's often you feel okay you feel you know you feel good when you're going 90 because if your teammates are pulling you're going 90 the leader's going 90 percent right so then you still feel good but if you have to go 95 percent of your max then all of a sudden, okay, okay, I don't have it, shit. You know, but you don't know until you have to go.

Yeah, and you don't know how your arrival is feeling either. Yeah, yeah. You just assume they're feeling worse than you. The best guys, you know, they know they're hurting, but the best guys know that if they're hurting, everybody else has got to be hurting, at least as much as them or more. And then just sort of just to like come up with ways to defend their tactics. So I watching it thought,

I cannot believe Pelazari is doing this because this is working perfectly for Paul Success, who now has, they've just broken, Georgia, I'd love this on Reddit. One of the comments were like, well, it can't be that hard. Look at all those riders there. I'm like, they just set the record up the climb. I'm pretty sure it's a hard pace. And then they get to the next climb and it works out perfectly for Paul Sixth. But if you're Remko, could you not say, well, I'm a better climber than him?

Who got second at the Tour of France? Not Paul Success. I did. I'm the better climber. I do you think was there any of that going through their mind of like well that helps us because Tate Pagotcha is the best climber and we're the second best climber so we should make the race as hard as possible yeah but Spencer we've talked about this already you know already we talked about in the Canadian races right this is not the same Remco as in the tour I know he looks totally different

remember I put up that picture that comparison between Remko in the tour and then Remko showing up in Quebec, I'm going to say three, four kilos heavier probably. More, uh, I don't know if that's with a purpose. Probably it is. Uh, but so, yeah, I mean, I think success is on the same weight as a tour. Remko's definitely on the same weight as a tour. That's for sure. Well, if you were the director of Red Bull, would you have been thinking about that?

Well, I think it's, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. weight gain is is on purpose for sure it was to prepare for the one day races but and be be more explosive if you've gained a bunch of weight and you're racing against paul six us and then you're going into a 10% average climb for 10 minutes yeah yeah but i think i think spencer okay post success is a climbers type right remcoe i think the weight of ramcoe in the tour is probably something on the other you know like some people are struggling with too much weight I think Remko cannot maintain this being so skinny for such a long time. He had to work really, really hard, you know, between the classics and the Tour de France.

He did specific work, diet, whatever, to be so light. And it worked really well. But physiognomically, I think he can't maintain that lightweight for too long. I agree with you there. I think he's like a throwback. He just has to really slim down specifically and then he can't keep that. But knowing that he's heavier, if you're the director of Red Bull, would you say maybe we don't blow this up going into the first of three extremely tough climbs going against skinnier guys? That's what I'm most surprised by.

What do you think, George? What do you think, George? Yeah, again, I go back to having confidence in their leader. You know, he won the Euros. He's been their go-to guy the whole year. He's had an incredible season. They just kind of had to show him that's a place. I mean, mentally for a guy like Remko, he needs that in order to perform at his best.

And it just came down to a few percentage points difference between him and Saksas on the final climb, which is really, really hard to predict. And again, and the form of the day is also something you can't predict. I mean, let's not forget. Correct. Last week, Remco was better than Chicone on the climb. Two kilometers, 10% was better than Chicone. because he came back, he couldn't drop him, but Chicona was on the limit.

So Chikona was up there. You know, he was for a long time, he was in second position. So it's also the form of the day, which is really difficult to plan and calculate, I think. You know what's crazy, though? Let's say Paul Success has a bad day. Do you know who wins this race? Enric Moss. He would have won this and the Valta.

How crazy would that be to live in that world? Wow. Yeah. but let's take another quick break and I have some questions for you guys about what we what we do with this information going forward. Okay, we are back. And George, we'll talk about little Perry Tours talk at the end. Now that you brought it up, that Perry Tours is tomorrow, I am like maybe we should have postponed this podcast because the race was more, more interesting start list than I thought. So let's talk about that a little bit at the end.

But so we're leaving Lombardia kind of the end of the season, kind of not, is for a lot of guys. a 20 year old just won. So Renco Evanopold finished second here two years in a row to a Tadipagachar does not win. You know, he gets fourth. That's got to be somewhat deflating, thinking like I was second best. And then the guy who's not here isn't here and I don't win. If you're like in this Tom Pitcock, Evanapole, we'll even throw Chaconne in there, but he's a little bit different. Like in that era and you're not Taday Pagachar, are you freaking out a little bit about Paul Sikas?

Like, is he going to eat the sport from the opposite end that Pagachar is? Like, as Pagacchara ages out, is he just going to come through and destroy this thing? I think he's definitely the coming man. As I said earlier on, he is probably going to improve. And this guy, you know, the mentality and his motivation and his mindset is he wants to win the best races in the world. It's scary. It's scary. I mean, I think once Pogacar is fading off, and it's going to happen at some point, right?

Sexas is coming. Del Toro is there. You know, sometimes he's on par, sometimes even better than Sexas. You know, we've seen them fight it out in Montreal. It's going to be interesting. And who knows, Spencer, maybe another 18 or 19-year-old is coming soon. to be the next Paul Seixas and be up there. You know, who knows?

But I think Seixas is definitely going to be the next dominator. Teenagers finishing in the top five of the Tour de France. That's pretty unusual. I don't know if we're going to see that for a little while. Yeah, and you'd think, I mean, Ramco's even said this is the best season he's ever had. It was hard to him, hard to imagine him getting much better than that. But like six hours, like he still has room to improve, which is pretty scary. And then what he did today on that final climb or the second and last climb, the numbers he did after 220 kilometers for, you know, a 20 year old kid, that's, that's really incredible.

I'm happy you said kid, Spencer, because, you know, some people say, oh, you know, don't call him a kid, man. If you see him after the finish and he's, you see his baby face, this is, this is a school kid. I mean, it's still a guy. It looks so young, so incredibly young, you know. And then on the other hand, when you hear his interviews and you hear him speak, man, the maturity this guy has already and the determination and knowing what he wants is something very special. My son had friends over in there making signs like, no grownups allowed in the basement. And my son was like, Paul Sikas could still come down, though, because he's into.

But the thing that freaks me out about Paul Sik Soss is his interviews. George, you mentioned the disappointment at Montreal. And he was like very critical of himself. But it's like, man, that course isn't even that good for you. Right. You know, that's a four to five minute climb like at an extremely high power. It gets not crazy to me that he had cramps at a, at a 270 kilometer long race on that as a teenager. And he was very critical of himself.

And then today, you know, you mentioned this about Jacob Ormazel last month, month and a half ago, Johann. You know, Paul Sik Soss was not like Remko, Evanapult was euphoric. after winning euros last week. Paul's like the office was pretty, it was like another day in the office for him in his post-race interview. You know, that's, that freaks me out a little bit.

It's like, what's going on there? Like, is this guy just going to start winning everything? He seemed pretty excited to me. He said he couldn't, still couldn't believe it. But I just think it's a mark of a true champion of bounce back from his huge

disappointment at World to just ride the best guys, minus Pocet off of his wheel and in a monument. I keep going back to it. But what a way to end the season for him. And I think we'll see it even better at Paul Sakes-S-n-n-next-S-n-nex-year. And then another question for you guys. Tom Pick-Cock, anything he could have done differently today. He seems to always struggle when the biggest guys are present.

Not even really struggle. It's just, is there something he could do differently to break through these guys? I don't think so. Listen, Saks-S-W-W-T-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-N there. There were three guys at some point, right? And then he just had, I mean, the last kilometer and a half of that, you know, four kilometer climb, he just didn't have it anymore. I don't think he could have done anything different.

He just, you know, he was there when he had to be there and then just found out he didn't have the legs. No mistakes have been made. It's also not a race where you could say, well, you know, I'm going to try to anticipate and be in front because the pace was so high in the favorite group. I don't think Pitcock could have done anything different. Just getting an early break like Quinn Simmons last year. Yeah, you're right.

You can't really anticipate. There's not a lot to do. George, how sad were you when Quinn Simmons got a flat? And here's the big question of the day. Would Quinn Simmons have gone with Paul Sixth? Had he been there? Yeah, that was a bummer to see him on the side of the road. Obviously, no chance to come back.

The field was going full gas at that point. I think there was only 30 guys left in the Peloton. But he put a good move in there with Jorgensen. and Mcnulty with about what, 65K to go. I think that was this sort of anticipation move. They were trying to get ahead of the race, and it was a very strong breakaway. It was a great move,

but they didn't let them get more than 15 seconds and chase it down, which I would imagine you can see guys like Eurgentsen already suffering from that effort. I don't think he would have been able to go with SACTS, but definitely bad luck, really bad moment to get a flat tire. Yeah, the issue of this,

Como, Bergamote Como version is a good gap. You just saw it like disintegrates on those climbs. You know, you just have these three climbs in a row. It'd be very hard for a breakaway to stay away. I don't know if I've told the story before on the podcast, but I told Tom Boone and I said, yeah, Paul Seix Us teenager, podium at a monument. This was after Leage. And Tom Boon told me, he said, yeah, I also podiumed on a monument as a teenager. And I was. telling Bradley and Johann this and they're like, I don't think that's true. He was not 19. No, he was not 19. It's like a fabricated memory. But I should have asked.

Was he 19? No, he was not. Yeah, because he was. Well, I don't know. I mean, didn't he go straight junior to pro? No, no, no, no. He was under 23. Like his first year is a stage year. He was 19 going on 20. So then he wouldn't have raised. Rubet until, you know, he was born in 1980 and then his first...

Wasn't he with us as a stature? As a stagier, yes, but he didn't race Roubae. That was the year after. Yeah. Like 2001 would have been the first year he raised it, right? It was his first year pro. I mean, I don't know. I don't know which year he took a pro.

It wasn't two. So teenager at heart, young at heart. But 22. Yeah, but Tom tends to have some problem sometimes with details. I had some discussions with him already about that. He forgets some details sometimes. But he, he, he like did a good job of insepting me because I just walk around thinking like, Paul Sikas, first T. Niederson's Tom Bunnan, to podium at a monument.

Not true, but man, what a season from this guy? Like, what a season. Oh, and then last question. Does Tadipicajar win this if he's here? Yeah. Yeah, hard to imagine him not winning worlds. Lombardia. Where do you think he would have attacked today?

Same place as sex. Yeah, same place. Yeah. So, I mean, this is also the fourth biggest, you know, like, oh, it was a KG race, fourth biggest margin of victory in the last 30 years. So still an impressive performance. And then, George, you guys are at Perry Tours tomorrow, Modern Adventures Pro Cycling. Yeah.

What's your goal? Or is a hard one. Some gravel. I get Ben Oliver's feeling. good so hopefully you can crack the top 10 there nice we'll be rooting for you and uh different race than it used to be used to be like a sprint i remember the classic one is it was boonin versus jaubair sprinting it out and then jealbert won that sprint which is crazy um but it's kind of more of like a ghent wevelgum type classic now almost yeah there's some dirt sections and

pretty hard climb near the end like a i think it's like almost not a six 700 meter climb after some pretty technical sections so it's going to be hard for sure well we wish you the best to luck i think it's on peacock might be an ASO race so people want to check it out check it's definitely an aso race yeah yeah so and then johan we'll be back on friday for our weekly show yeah okay thanks guys great thanks guys bye touch out