THEMOVE - Is Remco Unbeatable in the Worlds TT Championships? | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: September 19, 2026

Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin discuss the highlights from the last week of racing, including what we learned at the GP Montreal last weekend, wade into the controversy surrounding the World Championships selections for the US Men's team, and pick their winners for Sunday's Time Trial World Championships. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Tifosi Optics: Use promo code THEMOVE at https://tifosioptics.com/discount/THEMOVE Gusto: Try Gusto today at https://gusto.com/themove, and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at https://gusto.com/themove Momentous: If you want to try Momentous Signature Spec Creatine, head to https:// livemomentous.com and use code THEMOVE35 for up to 35% off your entire first order.  Lagoon: Use code MOVE for 15% off at https://LagoonSleep.com/THEMOVE

But it's, you know, it's not been done until now. Nobody has won the World Championships. Root. I'm proud and wrote, road race. Ramcoe did the double in the Olympics. So I think that's what he wants to add now, double rainbow jersey. I think he can do it. Everybody, welcome back to the Move Plus.

I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johann Bernille. We are checking in a couple days after our last Volta Spania podcast, Johan. It feels like a lifetime, but it's only been a few days. It was nice to have a little bit of time off, but we'll be going through a bit of racing that's happened. It's actually, I think since the Velt of Finish, we've had a lot of interesting races.

We have Giro de Abruzzo, the tour of Slovakia, one-day race in Belgium today, Skoda Tour of Luxembourg, which has been incredible. And we'll also talk about the upcoming time trial world championships on Sunday. And a little bit of news and transfer, but Johan, first up, most important, importantly, how are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. I arrived in Belgium yesterday, so it's been a busy day today. I think I told the listeners that we're spending a couple of weeks here with my

son, visit family, and then he does a few races here to finish up the season, road races. So it's been busy today, but I've been able to keep up with most of the action. So yeah, it's been an interesting few racing days after the Vuelta. Yeah, it has. I mean, just to go through it, I'll go through it chronologically. So this happened during the VALTA, and we didn't talk about it because there's stuff going on, but there was the Grand Prix Quebec City that was on the Friday before the last weekend of the Vuelta.

Rimcoe Evanapult won with a like a 20 plus kilometer attack, and it was not solo. He took a group with him, but he got, he won out sprinted Giulio Chaconne, who, I mean, we know how fast Chaconia is, and Chaconay couldn't even put up a fight. So that tells you Remcoe was in pretty good shape. And then Uno X's Anton Charming was third after being dropped from that group on the final climb. It's a tough course. It's a super interesting course. 200K long, 2,600 meters of climbing.

Tom Pickock was fourth out of a chase group with Quinn Simmons 5th and Michael Matthew 6th. Those guys just, I guess, a bit of hesitation when Evanapult went. Maybe for Simmons, he had a teammate up there. For everybody else, I would just say, word to the wise. If you see Remko Evinopol attacking the next couple weeks, just follow them. Don't let them right away. That's the move. That's the winning move.

Then on Sunday at Montreal, pretty interesting. I thought it was going to be more of the same. I thought Remko was going to rip these guys up. It's a hard race, though. It's almost twice the amount of climbing. It's longer. Let me make sure that's right. I have the stats up here.

It is, is it longer? Yeah, 214 kilometers. 4,300 meters of climbing. And the exact same circuit as the World Championships, I guess. Yes. They do it more times in World Championships, and they only do the circuit for the GP Montreal. So you would say it's probably a harder race.

And Paul Sik attacked out of an elite group and was going so fast. It looked like he was in fast forward. Isaac D'Olturo impressively bridged up to him and then won the sprint. So it was Del Toro first, six us, second, and then Brandon McNulty. Impressive in third place. Remko was, I'm going to make sure I have, I think he was fourth. Fifth, fifth. He was fifth.

Fourth was Quinn Simmons. Fifth was Evanapole. Sixth was Tom Piccock. Seventh, Julia, Chaconne, 8th, Ben Healy. He's back after a tough season. Ullali O'Neum 9th, Alfonso, our guy from the Giro, Linnert vanette felt 10th. And apparently, I guess he didn't make the Belgian world.

team because now he's back in Europe racing. Yeah, I think Van Hathelt, I don't know what happened. I think it's probably a proper decision, an own decision, Spencer. Van Heldt is, he's an ambitious guy. He's in good shape. You know, he's leading, he's leading into Slovakia now. And I guess, when I guess afterwards he's going to focus on the European championships. So I kind of understand that it's probably at his own request, which makes sense, you know,

he is a guy who wants to, you know, win races. But anyway, to talk about these two Canadian races, you know, it was during the Vuelta. So interesting, a few interesting things we saw. Bramcoe, even a pool, the first race in Quebec was incredibly strong. So he went, he had these guys with him. They could barely take a pull. And then was super strong at the end. So, you know, obviously he's in good shape.

and then Montreal comes along Remko I think he was strong but he himself said that he was not fully recovered he was criticizing some kind of trip that wasn't in the best conditions I don't exactly know

what he means but I think that you know he he was strong but you know once again we saw a few of these details, reactions of him. I don't know if you saw that incident he had there with Tom Queens.

I think it was, you know, it's been repeated over and over again. When he ran into Tom Queens and then got all that. Getting like super upset and, you know, like yelling and, you know, Aramco, okay, you know, it's obviously, listen, he's a pure competition animal, right? And so he gets, he's, you know, he's lightly tempered and he loses his, his temper sometimes. which, you know, I can understand, but man, it happens often, man. It happens often. And, you know, when things don't go, I mean, the thing is that at this point, Spencer,

and especially after you, you know, make a demonstration like he did on Friday in Quebec, everybody's going to be watching you. You know, you can't just always ride and then expect that other riders collaborate with you. You know, that's not going to happen anymore after the, after the, after the, you know, demonstrations of power he shows sometimes. So, yeah, that was not,

you know, that was not great. But I still think after seeing those two races that Ramcoe, even the pool, is in really good shape. He prepared for the world championships perfectly. I mean, we're going to do a preview

next Friday, I guess, about the world championships. But I'm going to still put Ramco as one of my top favorites to win the worlds on the road, the road race. Even, you know, even if in Montreal, he was a little less, but he was still strong. I don't know if you saw, I mean, he missed that breakaway.

There was, what was, three or four you guys? It was three UAE guys, right? There was four. Yeah. I think it was Del Toro McNulty. And Adam Mutes. Adam Hades. But then maybe our bias as well.

No, I don't think so. Anyways, you know, Remko missed that. He missed that pull. then he bridged 40 seconds on his own. Yeah. To these guys. You know, these are the kind of flashes of superpower you see sometimes of this guy. And then sometimes I ask myself the question, you know, okay, he's super strong, but is, you know,

sometimes he does these kind of strange actions and say, you know, if you would really write martyr or, I don't mean, obviously it's easy to say from a distance, right, when you're not in the race. but man, sometimes he does these things. They say, wow, how strong is this guy? If only tactically, he was a bit more savvy. Sometimes he comes back from a completely lost position and then gets back. Okay, now he paid for this effort, but we've seen him come back and then win the sprint sometimes, right? Yeah, and sometimes he looks like he's on his own planet.

Like Paul Success was sprinting off the front. And maybe Remko was tired from this. bridge it just described, then he's just riding like in the saddle to power and it's like, well, the move is up with the road. Like that, you're not coming back. Like, you go with them or you don't see him again. Yeah. It's times like that where I just kind of wonder like, you know, maybe he's done.

Maybe he was shot. He had nothing to give. But it's just like, you can't really ride your own pace at that point. You need to be riding Paul Sixth's pace or they're just not going to come back to you. Spencer Sixthaus was impressive in Montreal. And Del Toro, I think, was equally even more impressive. I mean, the way he bridged up. The way he bridged up and then, you know, collaborated.

I've said it already many times. Del Toro is just the total package. You know, he's super strong. And this is a guy, he's very savvy. This guy knows how to win races. You know, when he's there, he rarely misses the first place. you know he surprised success in the sprint i mean he i think he's faster anyways but uh yeah it's going to be interesting to see del toro at the world championships

sex us is going to be i mean we saw the guys who obviously there's a bunch of other guys who will join now who were not in the two canadian races for the world championships but the guys who will be in the front at the world championships we already saw them you know know it's it's remco it's del toro it's sexas it's uh chicone it's pitcock um Mcnoyne Simmons probably quit Simmons is super super strong McNulty you know all these guys uh they have done their homework well already they're ready and well we'll talk about this later but 14th in that race Riley Sheehan so third american in that race and you're like hmm maybe that's someone we should take the world championships on that course

that's happening in two weeks from now. That would probably be a good idea. But yes, I think, I mean, the thing about Del Toro, too, before Sixthus's attack, you look at that group, not an obvious path to victory. You know, if you were thinking, well, Del Toro wants to win this, how's he going to win this? And it's good riders in here.

And there's fast riders, not the fastest rider left in this group. And then he just kind of made it look easy. Just the win, the wind seemed to come to him in a way that it's not always obvious how it's going to happen. but he puts the race in a position where he can win. Like it's always he's tilting the field to like play to his strengths. It's a really impressive like show of nuance almost. Yeah.

I also I also found, I mean, it was, I think it was remarkable to see how he was in control. You know, like when he bridged up, that was obviously a huge effort because success was going full. He bridged up. And then once he was with him, you know, the facial expression of the, the, the facial expression of the I mean, you could not see anything. He was completely in control of the effort. Like it looked super, super, super comfortable. So yeah, I mean, obviously he's one of the big favorites also for the world championships now.

That would be incredible. This is a big debate in our house. Who do you want to win? Del Toro or Remko and my son, who wants Remko to win? Because he's that big of a Belgium fan. It's like, come on. Del Toro, North American winner, that'd be a big deal. but just a bruceau just to get it out of the way.

Kevin Vachlan wins the overall. Four stage, stage race. Super interesting. I mean, he was away with Matthias Rondel from Tour Pro Cycling. And basically the winner of the sprint was going to win the overall. Quite interesting to watch. They sprinted out. Vaclon wins the sprint, wins the stage, wins the overall.

Shows us that he probably was not at his best at the tour. And now he's back to the Kevin Vauklon. we've known in the years past. A little bit of rough, I felt pretty bad for Dorian Godin because he should have had two stage wins. And his team, it seemed like they miscalculated the catch. Like they twice, yeah. Twice.

And if you go back and watch the early stages of those, early stages of those stages, Johan, it kind of answers the question. We always say, why are these breakways not getting very much time in grand tours? Because it's hard to pull back riders when they have three to four minutes. Like that's why you keep people on a really tightly, Yeah. Yeah. Because it's not as easy as, oh, you have this equation, you pull them back.

It's like, these single riders can rip it now. They're very hard to pull back when they have a lot of, a lot of time. And then two of Luxembourg, Matthew Venterpoil wins. I would say apologies to Luxembourg. I was not familiar with how cool you are as a country. A lot of castles. It seems like they have more castles than people. A lot of mountains, the stages look great.

the country. No, no, no, no, Spencer, no mountains, no mountains. I mean, every time I look at this race, they're going up some sort of climb. Yeah. It's crazy. Okay.

They're not mountains. They're hills. Hills, big hills. Yeah, it's, glaciated. It's, it's, it's,

it's, it's, it's, it's Liest Buston Leash to rain, maybe a little bit harder. I mean, those are some pretty hard climbs, though.

It's like not, yeah, yeah, there's not a mountain. It's not a mountain. It's not a mountain. I'm working for the Luxembourg marketing. Yeah, I don't know. I'm beautiful.

Beautiful. It's hard racing there. It's, it's, uh, yeah, I think, you know, it's a bit, it's a bit difficult on the calendar, I think, you know, it's super packed already now. So, uh, you know, there's, there's good riders, but there's also like, they have to fill the pack really with some secondary teams, which, you know, sometimes makes for good racing. It can work in your favor, though, because Matthew Vanderpals preparing for worlds, kind of an unusual way to prepare for worlds.

But, you know, he wins stage one, but he's probably only at this race because it's now a stage race that falls right in this time, this kind of awkward time. So they have some riders just because of that. And then Moraine Van denverg won stage two. And then what's the name of the rider that won today? Pepin. Pepin Reinerink. Pepine Rainerink.

On Sidall Quickstub. So there's second win of. the day behind timerlier wins at the belgian one-day race whose name i'm not even going to attempt to say course camp the championship of flanders it's one of the oldest it's one of the oldest historic kermas races still on the calendar interesting uh but it's the flanders championships interesting you're right it is like kermas course huh yeah um really an impressive win from him i mean you get these races in Belgium. This is like the last two months where it's Merlir,

Gronebegan, Varench, Gold, Philipson, Arvid DeKline, just a lot of good sprinters at these races. Yeah. Yeah. Once again, Spencer Merlir is he's an artist. Merleer's an artist, you know, it's like he just keeps doing the same thing. And he just attacks before the sprint starts. And that's his, that's his sprint.

He just comes today again, you know, and all the sprints he's winning, it's not even close. it's never photo finish. It's like he's either two back legs ahead or in best case scenario, the second guy is just on his back wheel. Yeah. It's incredible how this guy has this ability to accelerate just before everybody else launches and he's gone.

It's crazy. And I guess that's why he won three stages of the Tour de France. You know, it's the year of the year of Merlier. I ask you this question every month. Is he the best sprinter in the world right now? I think honestly pound for pound if you think if you look at pure sprinting like the pure sprinter it's Merir I think it's the best he's the he's the pure song like real sprinter there's other guys like you know if you look at Milan if you look at Phillips and they're

obviously great sprinters but Merlier is the artist sprinter I think he's let's it's an art Yeah. The other is his pure, pure brute strength. And then Merleer is just, there's something else to it. You know, it's like Cavendish. Cavendish was not the strongest, but he was the artist of sprinting. Merle is the same. It's similar in some ways to Philipson, who you would not say.

Sorry. Philipson, Jasper Philipson, not really the strongest. But even Philipson, to me, my opinion, he never looks as good as Merlier at these types of races or smaller stage races. And then something about a three-week race causes Phillipsen to, like, grow as a sprinter. Yeah, no, there's no question that a guy like Philipson in the Tour de France, we could say, you know, in the last five, six, seven years, Phillips is probably the best Tour de France sprinter, I would say. But, but, you know, like, and then I think what Phillipson also probably struggles a bit with,

I would, I mean, that's just my opinion is that after the tour, you know, it's, it's not easy for a sprinter to re-motivate yourself for, you know, there's not that many big goals anymore. So you have to go through these one-day races. And if you would look at the physical condition and fitness of Phillips and now compared to the Tour de France, I would, I would dare to say it's probably not the same guy. he's not at the same level. But Merleer is just, you know, like whenever he's brought to the finish and he sees the finish line, it's like, it's like a, it's like a, you know, a leopard, you know, or a cheetah. You know, it's like, bam, he just comes out of a box and just goes. I like Merleur because he's so smooth, you know.

Yeah. He's like a cycler cross rider. He's not really. And also, also Spencer really, you know, like the nonchalance of his interviews afterwards. It's amazing. He's like, you know, it's like the guy, the guy just couldn't care less. You know, I don't want another bike race. You know, okay, good.

I felt okay. I saw an opening. I went. Done. Job done. More humble than the normal sprinter, you might say. Yeah. But should we take a quick break?

And then I have some world championship controversy. I want to, I need to talk to you about. I need to process this. We'll be right back. So, Johan, we were, I was hinting at it earlier. So Riley Shahan was 14th at. Grand Prix Montreal on the same circuit as the World Championships will be held in two weeks from the time of that. You might think, hmm, it would be a good rider to take.

In my opinion, if I was a selector, I would not put my team out until that race is over because I would want to see who race is well on that course. But Riley Sheehan did not make the U.S. national team for the Road World Championship. But then today we wake up. Who has been swapped into that team? Riley Sheehan has. Apparently Nielsen Palace is is ill. I think I didn't even know if USA cycling put a statement out. I just saw a quote from Mike Creed, the director of the U.S. team at Worlds that just said, I think Nielsen has, I think Nielsen is sick. Like, was that like a statement? Like what's what is the word on that? But then now Riley, Riley swapped in.

The only downside is Riley Sheehan was an incredible shape, was as I said, 14th at Montreal. But he is now in Europe. He flew back to Europe to race. So then now he's lost all that momentum and now has to fly back to Canada to race the world championships, which you could have stayed and prepared for. The selection of Nielsen Palace, I just would like it if they would have explained it a little bit better or like we're more transparent with the process because he was not great in August and not great in September.

Well, he's been, I think he's been injured or dealing with a virus. I don't remember. I don't know. He's been, he's obviously had physical problems. Yeah, he had knee surgery earlier in the year. Okay. And then he did win a stage at Tour of Austria, but that's, that's an early July at this point. Yeah.

And if I was going to ask you, what's the most important thing about a writer at World Championships? What would you say? It's the shape of the moment. Yeah, exactly. Yes. Yeah, you have to wait. With the World Championship, you have to wait until at least, you know, like 10 days before. And also, you know, it's not, it's never too bad to make a pre-selection to keep everybody on their toes and then make a final selection.

You know, when you decide, okay, they should have waited for Montreal, I think. That's what I would have done. Yeah, I don't, yeah. But, yeah, I mean, I don't fully understand why you wouldn't do that. But I guess, I guess the selection procedures in different federations are sometimes very, very different. different to you know I think I think you told me a few a few weeks ago that a USA cycling it's actually a board that decides I looked into this a little bit more and so there's a board with a few people on it two of them are like former pros that

you'd know if you're American and then it but it sounds like everything gets kicked up to the performance director which is Jim Miller and then he's kind of making the final decision you can automatically qualify look this up. So if you finish top three at the world's year before, I think you automatically qualify. If you're fifth and a- Also, that makes no sense, Spencer. That makes zero sense. It makes no sense. Whatsoever. Yes, I agree. Does that make zero sense? Top five in a European world tour one-day race on a, but this is on a course similar in length. Okay, similar. What does that mean? Top five GC in a European World Tour stage race. This is between January 5th and August 16th.

So the only rider to automatically qualify from that is, is Mateo Jorgensen because he was fourth at the dophine. Get this. This is going to blow your mind, though. So if you click one of those spots, they pay for you to fly there. If you don't, you're a level two rider. You have to pay for your own travel and get this. You have to write they may check for $1,000 to go to World Championships. You have to write USA cycling a check.

that is crazy. Yeah, that is crazy. That is unheard of. Wow. Yeah. Nuts. And this is, I looked up,

it's on their own, like official selection document. So not like making this up, but does that mean, right? No, you cannot make this up, you cannot make this up.

Does that mean Riley has to then cut them a check and book his own last minute ticket to Montreal? What is going on over there? But I guess eventually they got to the right, they got to the right place. And we should say, I think we said that the other week, so you have writers like, you might look at Sean Quinn or I think Artem Schmidt

automatically qualified because he won the time trial. So he goes to the time trial worlds. He won the national one. Or Larry Warbuss and say like, well, because I looked it up. So on the original team, there was three wins in 2026. Riley had two wins himself. So Riley almost had as many wins as the entire team put together.

But to push back on my own. an argument I just brought up. I mean, some of these guys, like you look at Sean Quinn or Larry Warbuss, you just look, I assume you're just looking for someone that's going to be helpful in the pack, right? Yeah. That's going to bring people stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's not just as simple as like, well, here's our eight best riders. It's you do want a team that works well together. And I understand. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

By the way, you know, another piece of controversy, uh, I mean, of another selection. I don't know if you read the news. So the Belgians. So, you know, Tim Wellens had personally requested not to raise the world championships, even if he just won the Tour of Great Britain. And he was very open and transparent about it. He said, I'm not going to ride for Belgium behind my leader of the rest of the year. You know, I just can't do it.

You know, so I think that's, I think that's a pretty, very honest and brave decision. That's all, it also, I think, I mean, I'm, especially the way cycling is evolving now, modern cycling with these strong trade teams. How long are we going to keep doing the world championships with national teams, man? Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's, it's, okay, it's nice, but, you know, you defend your country, but, you know, it's an individual, it's one individual who takes away. the biggest price of the year who's on an arrival team.

So you have to work that specific day for a guy who is not on your team, who's your rival. You have to work against your leaders from your trade team, who, by the way, with the salaries they're making, I'm going to guess. I don't know. I don't know what, but, you know, Tim Wellens, if I have to guess, it's probably between 1.5 and 2 million euros a year, I would guess. you know so that's a big contract and year after year after year that's your livelihood plus plus whatever he gets spiffed out for the tour you know yeah so that's that's your job that's

your job that's your life and then you ask the demand of that guy for the most wanted jersey of the year i would say the the rainbow jersey that you ride an an national team against your leader, against your team who pays you. It's professional cycling, man. It's not, okay, if it's a team sport, for example, football, soccer, you know, it's, yeah, okay, that's good. You play for Spain, you play for, and you win as a team, right? But here, this is different.

So I think this needs to change. It needs to be trade teams in the future. It's not going to happen because the UCI owns the world championships. That's their power. that's the power they hold over the national federation. So it's a whole business question also, right? That's where the money comes from for all the federations. But it just makes no sense.

And then what I want to get to, Spencer, is here in Belgium, it's been quite discussed. Philip Gilbert went on record in a TV show, basically destroying Tim Wellens saying, you know, that this is not possible. You know, how can you betray your country like this? How can you not honor your selection? It's one day, it's, you know. And Wellens was surprised.

And Welland was kind of pissed off. He said, you know, I'm going to contact you, and ask him why he was using these words. It's my decision. You know, it makes sense. I mean, I completely understand the decision of Tim Wellens. you know, Gilbert said,

yeah, you know, I did 11 or 12 world championships or whatever. I don't know how many. And, you know, I've always defended the honor by the colors of my country. You know,

there's one thing that he forgets. Chilbert was almost always the leader. Everybody was working for him. You know, it's like, yeah, hey, it's a bit different,

you know. It's easy to say, I want to go to the world. It's because I know that everybody's going to be working for me. that's a very good point that's a very good point yeah yeah he's been he's been quite he's been quite criticized here by some you know commentators and experts and analysts for those worlds i did i think it was a bit a bit out of place um i think you have to respect the decision of tim well and it makes sense you know at least listen at least he's honest and he said it's i prefer not to go you know

what if you go and then you know if you have to do the job and you have to ride behind okay poggacha finally is not there now but anyways that decision was made before what about del Toro though yeah yeah yeah he would have been directly racing against del Toro and you're like exactly it makes no sense and if you think we're out of our minds it's just teams are putting a lot of money into this into having guys like tim wellins and then you i mean who let's let's say remco Lebanon pole wins the world championships. Who's paying him? It's his team, is it not?

Yeah. Well, usually what happens, Spencer, is also, you know, especially on teams, on bigger federations with a strong leader. For example, I'm sure that Remko, for example, and Von Art, you know, they're both leaders. There's a meeting before the world championships. And they decide, okay, these are the leaders, these are the helpers, this is our strategy. And then these leaders come in and they actually promise a bonus if they win, do all teammates. They pay. They pay considerable amount of money if they would win the world

championships because they obviously also have a bonus from their team. Right. So there is some kind of financial compensation. But the thing is that, I mean, I remember that from my days, when I was racing racing the world championships for Belgium, there was these kind of discussions. And then, you know, for example, I remember when Miseu won in Lugano, you know, he paid everybody a nice bonus. But it was different then. You know, the salaries are not so high. Now the salaries are so high that these bonuses are insignificant, you know?

Yeah, and if you're UAE and then you're paying this guy, I agree. I think it's probably one and a half to two million euros a year. And then he chases down Del Toro and then Del Toro and then Del Toro doesn't win. It's like, well, that's not what we're paying for exactly. Yeah. You know? Yeah. But here's the other side of that.

So Australia, they have eight spots. They're not sending names. riders on the men's side. They're not even sending, I don't even think they're sending. They have a woman that finished top 10 last year. They're not sending her because I would assume it's because of the money. And you're like, well, if these federations don't have the money to send riders, shouldn't we just hand that over to the trade teams?

Spencer, it's also, you know, the federations. It's also, look, I mean, you'll see. I mean, I would love to have somebody do something like an investigation, like, you know, analysis, these, these federations, you know. They're obviously, listen, they don't have infinite resources. That's true. And especially for Australia, you go to Canada, it's a big trip. It's a big, it's a big expense.

But let me tell you something. I can guarantee you that the presidents and all the top staff of these federations, even including Australia, they're going to be one week to two weeks in a super nice hotel in Montreal. Let me tell you. It's four, five-star hotel. else. You know, there's money for that. Well,

there's money for that. There's just no money to send the riders. They'll be there. They'll be there. They'll be there. They'll be there. The event that there's the reason you're there. Yeah.

That's their highlight of the season. You know, go to the world championships, the officials of the, of the international federations. When I'm president of USA Cycling, I'll ask Gabriel to delete this episode, but some of these, some of these execs get some nice salaries too, you know? Yeah. And then they're saying there's no money to send riders. In fact, you got to cut me a check if you want to race worlds. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. It's ridiculous.

Yeah, I don't fully understand the world situation. A couple things, though, we're going to talk about World's Time Trial Championships before we do that. So, Vulta's over. Inric Moss. Spencer, one, sponsor, sorry, one race we forgot, and I really want to mention this, because it's super impressive. Grand Prix Wallony. Oh, yes. It's a hard race. You know, it's always finished on the Citadel in Namur, won by Obinsparfell.

Yes. That was so impressive. I was so impressed. You know, there was Gregor and Paul La Perra. He made like Decat, so Gregor French champion, FDG, a groupama, and then Paul La Perra, ex-French champion on Decathlon. And this young Obinsparfel, Man, that's a talent. It's a big talent.

He's not a pro yet. He's still on the Devo team of Decathlon. Yeah, a 20 years old. The way he won that race is impressive. So Obain Sparfel is a name we need to remember. I think I'm pronouncing it correctly. But it's a guy we're going to talk about. It's a super talent.

I think he was also, I don't know if his juniors, Junior's World Champion or second in the World Championships. cycle cross a few years ago. Big talent. Can go uphill. It has a good sprint. Knows how to race. That was an impressive victory.

It was super impressive. Against like Gregorre, you know, Gregorah and Milan Fraton. These are really good riders. So just a bit, in Rick Moss, Grand Tour champion, how's that feel a week later?

Has that sunk in for you? I mean, Spain has been, Spain has been really, really excited about it. There's nobody else who deserved it more than Enric Maas. Once Pogacca was out, he was in control. He grew through the race. And then especially, Spencer, if you look back at his Paul Morris in the Vuelta. You know, the guy has been on the podium five or six times, you know.

Yeah. No, top five, top five, five or six times. I think he's been four times on the podium before this. Was he not three times second and one time third? He was three times. I feel like I'm losing my mind. He was definitely four times on the podium before this. Definitely three times second.

Yeah. And one time third. That's correct. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, this is the highlight. I mean, this is his career. This is it. You know, he's won a grand tour.

And on top of that, his own grand tour. He's 31 years old. it's the sum of his career. And he deserved it. He was the strongest writer. You know, it's a bit of, it's a pity for him because the front page of all of the, almost all the newspapers and the sports newspapers,

I think there's only one sports newspaper in Spain where he had the front page shared with the Formula One in Madrid. Because it finished on Sunday, right? Yeah. So that was a bit of a shame. But listen, I mean, for him and for Mobistar, man, they're back. They're back to winning a round tour, you know, apparently in search of a replacement for Mobistar.

If, you know, they got the message from Movistar that, you know, even if they have a contract until 2009, Movistar has manifested that they want out. I'd like to see if that's going to change now or not. I think there's going to be change, Spencer, in that situation. Because Movistar is obviously a huge multinational. It's also politically linked. I think there's new elections coming up. There's most likely going to be a change in the government in Spain.

And I think that might have an impact also on the leadership of Movistar. So I think it's going to change. The company or the team? The company. Yeah. Interesting. All right. So I think that Movistar will honor their contract until 2029.

Okay. Interesting. Well, I walked you into a trap with that question because I agree. I've been going to my school run. Dropping kids up, picking them up all week. Just something rattling around my head. I'm like, it was kind of obvious the whole time. Enric Moss, his first ever, Welta is a leader, finished his second.

You know, like that's not many riders do that. Like he's been, as Lance would say, around the hoop the whole time. Yeah. And then he wins. So on that note, Felix Gall, the guy who finished third at this Welta, second at the zero earlier this year, is going to Little Trek. He's taken as his best mate, Gregor Mulberger, who was great, his great all year this year.

Great pickup. You might think, kind of odd, right? Going to Little Trek, they already have a lot of GC reader. leaders. They got Juso. They got Derek G. They got Schalmoza. Schalmoza. But tell me how many of those riders have finished on the podium of a grand tour in the last four years, Johan? None. None. None. So Phyllis Gull... That was five seasons ago, though. Oh, wow. Wow. Already. Wow. So, Phyllis Gahl is immediately the best... He's done that twice this year. Something none of those guys

have ever done. So you'd say he's probably the best GC rider on that team just going by that. Yeah, I mean, listen, Phoenix, God was impressive this year and starting to be really consistent. You know, let's not forget he was up there. Was he fifth in the tour last year or six? He was fifth. I think he was fifth. I think he was fifth. You know, so it's starting to look like it's a trend, you know, so. And he's still relatively young, still improving. So I think it's a great signing. It's also, it also fits into this new attraction of, you know, at least German-speaking riders on Little Trek. It's, you know, it's not an American team anymore. It's a German team now. It's little in charge of the team. Yeah. You know, they moved all the operations to Germany

until last year, their service course was still in Belgium, which was an old, an older version of the the Trek factory team, Trek Segaro. But now it's all. changed. German-speaking writers, a lot of German staff. So there's a big change going on there. I have two thoughts about this. One of them is already answered a bit. It's, you know, it's soft skill

Moser. Probably not being too happy about the recruitment because he did finish, did he finish fifth in the tour this year? I think so. Well, he did. Wait. did he he finished sixth and then i used so was sixth yeah who was fifth lenny martinez oh lenny martine is a great ride that no he didn't know he did a good tour

he did a good tour you know and he said uh you know well for the moment i'm still i'm still one of the top riders in the tour of the team yeah i don't think he's too happy i've seen rumors that he would know if he would be able to leave he would leave to another team do you think Honah Yusufel about the recruitment of Felix Gall? You know, that's the big star signing that they did in the offseason. You know, big huge buyout, big contract, you know, the new project. Okay. Didn't work out.

I mean, he didn't have the tour he expected. He was still up there. I mean, I think he did a pretty good tour until he kind of faded away a little bit at the end, but so he was still seventh. And then he was second, I guess, at the doffini, right? It was second at the dauphinine? Third at the dauphiné because there was... Third.

Del Toro and then Luke Tuckwell was second. Oh, Luke Tuckwell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so obviously showed the potential, but it didn't materialize into, you know, the big bet that Little Thrac actually did on buying out Juan Yuso.

So, you know, if that's any, obviously, this is the calendar's big. There's place for everybody. But, you know, these guys are, especially a guy like Ayuso, he's a leader. He's, you know, he has the temperament and the character and the ambition of winner. I don't think he's that happy with the signing of Felix Gall. And especially also, you know, it's the German influence, the German,

the German, Felix is Austrian, but, you know, I know Ayuzzo is Spanish and speaks really good English, but I doubt he speaks German. Yeah, but you know what makes up for that, it would be in really good on the bike. then I don't think the management cares of what language you speak, right? No, no, no, but it's obvious, Spencer, it's, it's turning very German. I know that there's people within that team, especially staff members that, you know, they're freaking out, you know, they're seeing there, they're in a certain position and there's

people from outside or German people coming in and getting that position above them, which maybe it's okay because it's run as a corporation more than as a team. I don't know if that's the right thing to do. Where do you think those people are coming from? Like just anonymous German that we're thinking about. Are they coming from a sports hall? They have some cycling background. But there's people on that team who has been there for like 10, 15 years.

And I know certain people who have done a really good job, a really good job in, in helping build that team, maintaining that team, bringing to where it is. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, by the way, this guy's coming in and he's your boss now. It happens in a normal business also, right? But the atmosphere is not great, Spencer. There's a big trend, the big change going on. Ultimately, they're going to figure it out because they're throwing a lot of money at it. also heard that the budget is they're way over budget already, like way over budget.

You know, for the moment, apparently the CEO of Little Track loves the team, loves the sport, and is buying into the recruitment strategy. But let me tell you, it's not sustainable. It's not sustainable because they're going to need a lot of money. If they're already way over budget now, and I think they also have three, four, four, riders on plus like you know like with contracts but they can't be on the team because you know they were on the team they hired other riders so now they have to basically pay for those riders and place them somewhere else for free now i mean it's not easy i've done that in the past when i did a

merge you know between two teams it's it's a mess it's a mess that i would not recommend it but anyways this is not a merger it's you know new injection of capital and then buying buying buying on the They've done, I mean, listen, they've been very active on the market, but I don't know if it's the right thing. If it's going so fast, if the right thing to do, I'm going to leave it at that. Yeah. And you know, you can be really into it. You can have an owner that's really into it, buying, buy and buying, but then if it doesn't pan out, it can get pretty uncomfortable, pretty fast. You know, people, wealthy people who have a lot of money to spend for,

something that they like and it's it's a little hobby it's a little toy right the cycling team they also get tired very easily when it doesn't work out this is why uh football slash soccer has been so this used to happen all the time people would come in spend all this money money money money and like i'm bored of this and then leave and then the club collapses because they can't actually pay for everything so that's why i would warn against that i was thinking about this too take madd's peterson out just pretend he doesn't exist. Is this season a disaster for them? I mean, where are they in the rankings now? Third or fourth? I think they're pretty good. They've actually netted out quite good. I mean, because think about a lot of Jonathan Milan's failures are him finishing like second

and third in races. So he's still getting a lot of points. Yeah. They're fifth in points. But that's two down from last year, you know? Yeah. Okay. Well, you know, it can be, I mean, It's not mathematical, you know, but I would say, obviously, listen, Matt Patterson is their savior. He's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, especially the way he wrote in the tour. Um, that's crazy. Um, but, um, yeah, I would say probably not up to the, the, the investment that has been made, uh, in the financial,

the financial efforts that have been made. Yeah. It's a huge operation. It's a huge organization. They have a successful women's team. They have a successful Devo team. So it's a good structure. But I think results wise, it's a bit on the weak side, especially if you take

Matt Peterson out of the equation. I agree. But that's why I've been seeing a lot of, you know, a lot of my colleagues in the media, a lot of our colleagues. is like it or not. You're a cycling journalist now, Johan. They're befuddled by this. It's like, what is Little Trek doing?

Felix Goli's not a winner. Well, first of all, where do we start this conversation? Indrik Maras just won the Volta. So don't be so sure about that. And secondly, it's like, well, there's a lot of teams. I feel like in cycling people really underappreciate the type. Like to show up at the zero and get second and then to show up at the vault and get third, how many teams would have liked to do that?

Like a lot. Yeah. Like almost every team. So, yeah. If you're getting Phyllis Gull, if he's a rider who can get third at the tour to fronts and finish on the podium of another grand tour in the same year, that's super valuable. There's so few riders that can do that. Like, and you can't. I don't think they can just stay where they are and say like, yeah, we're happy with.

We're happy with that. And then also especially Spencer, it seems, I mean, it's just a feeling. It feels to me that Felix Gall hasn't reached his limit yet. You know, I agree. There's still little steps of improvement possible. So he's obviously not going to be at the level of Bogachar or Jonas or success. I don't think so. The Toro is better than him.

But, you know, he's up there. You know, like he's in that next group and, you know, there are grand tours and one-week stage races that all these guys won't participate in Felix Gal can win. You know, you don't need to necessarily always focus on a grand tour or the tour of France. Yeah. There's a lot of other races that are difficult to win. Felix can win those. Weird stuff happens at the tour. Like, is Ennecmas showed us?

You don't have to be better than those guys to win grand tours. Also, Philis Scal super sloppy. You know, like losing 18 seconds on stage two. Like, there's a lot to clean up there. Like, you look at him. He's a very high upside rider. I also like plot, plot riders. So you go through, they're finishing like six, seventh, fifth, fourth.

Like they always are up there. They're not. What I don't like are the up and down, up and down. There's one thing. He needs to really improve, though. It's his time drawing. He needs to improve because otherwise he's screwed. He's always going to be there like third, fourth.

You know, he's not going to win. It's crushing him. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, I like the signing and I think Little Trek probably needs it. And I think people underestimate where Philiscaul is relative to someone like Juan Yuso. Like right now, Juan Yuso should be saying, and I got to be as good as Field Skull.

It's not the other way around. Field Skoll is better than anyone they have at the moment. But you want to take a quick break and talk about the World Time Trial. Everybody this episode is brought to you by Lagoon Sleep Pillows. As the sports top riders fly over to North America for the world road race championships this coming week, they'll be looking for any and every edge. But the thing that's going to be more impactful for them than the fastest bike and the slickest wheels is sleep. And what's going to help them get sleep,

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are back to preview, quick preview for the World Time Trial Championships. I actually looked up the course. I've looked it up on Vela Viewer. It is long. It is a 39 kilometer long time trial. That's for for these guys, it's like one of the longest they'll do all year, maybe the longest. 216 meters of elevation gain kind of technical because it's in the city.

Not over, it's not Monaco technical, but they are, they're making turns. It's not a Zerotaglia stage 13 along the coast time trial. Finishes slightly uphill. It's like the last 2K. are 2.5%. So a little bit of climbing. The favorites are, and this is with that these are with the betting odds. Remko Evanapole.

This is crazy on Unabet. Minas 455. Felipe O'Gana plus 350. Stefan Kuhn plus 2,500. Matias Vodzscheck plus 2,800. Tobias Foss plus 3,300. Brandon McNulty plus 5,000. Ethan Hater plus 6,600.

It goes on and on and on. There's also the other major stars doing this are Paul's. Sik Soss and Isaac Deltoro. Who do you think is going to win this time trial? Graham Gravenpool, Spencer. I mean, it's the best time trialist in the world. You know, now that you say that about, you know, the technicality and also like only 200. How much 250 meters is that?

216. So. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Okay. So, so that's obviously, you could say, okay, maybe there's a little hope for people Ghana.

Maybe. Yeah. he's the only one who can threaten Remko I still think Remko already three times a world champion he's Olympic champion time trial he's European champion champion champion

I think he's going to add a fourth title to his Paul Maris just because he is the best time trial is he's the most arrow he's in great shape he's super focused listen the guy is a monster you know I mean whether you like him or not the guy's once he

he's on his bike, he's a pit bull. And then, you know, they call him the arrow bullet for a reason. So, yeah, I think Ramco's winning. Ramco's winning, no doubt. He made this a goal. Actually, his goal is to win the double. He asked the question publicly. And the press said, did somebody already win in the history of cycling?

The double time trial, road. The answer is no. It's not that much history because I think the first world championships time trial was somewhere in the 90s, like 93, 94, I don't remember exactly. Maybe even 95 could be the first one, which was in the rain. I don't know if there was a time trial. Maybe there was. 94. Anyways, it's not an old event, right?

It doesn't have 50, 60, 70 years of history. But it's, you know, it's not been done until now. Nobody has won the world championships, wrote time trial and wrote race. Ramco did the double in the Olympics. So I think that's what he wants to add now, double rainbow jersey. I think he can do it. A couple questions for you.

Do you know the last time he lost a world time? trial championship. It's probably to Ghana in Belgium. No, it was 2022 to Foss. Oh, Foss. Wow. Yeah, that's when you, yeah. That was a surprise. This is a long time ago. That is a lot of consecutive time trial world championships. He is the world's best time trials. I'm just going to list the time trials. He's lost recently. Stage 13 of the 2025 Tour de France. That was up Peregruard.

I believe. Yeah. That doesn't count. That doesn't count as a time trial, Spencer. That's a mountain stage. So, yeah, let's just cross these off as we go.

And we'll get to what we consider the first time trial. So 2024, stage 21, Tour de Francie's third. That was kind of a mountainous one too. Yeah. That was in Nice, no?

It was Monaco to Nice up, Koldez, up and down, Koldez. And then the last one, you could really call a fair fight, 24 Bass Country, stage one. Primas Roglich wins J. Vine second.

Scalmo's a third, Evanaple fourth. 10K long normal time trial. I seem to remember something like he missed a turn or did he something happen there? It looks a little suspicious. Like why is he 11 seconds back in the time trial? Maybe he did because was it uphill and he went the wrong way at the finish? Something happened. A slight crash or he went.

I don't know. He missed a turn or something. Anyways. I am remembering us. So let's cross that one off. Let's keep going. Chrono denations, 2023, Josh Tarling wins. He's second.

It was 45K long. Okay. Big win for Tarley and Rentraspe. Jeez. Yeah. But I don't remember any issues there. Let's just say that. That's a long time to go without a time trial loss.

Yeah. Yeah. I think I think Graham goal was going to be. Unless unless something happens in mechanical or something or I don't know. Depends on whatever the weather changes and it's an urban, it's technical

and the urban starts to rain. That could be you know something but but no, I don't think so. I think he wins. Wait, no, no. He's not, it can't be minus what. Hold on a second. Can he really be minus 25? He might be like

minus 450. Wait, is that what I said? Minus 455, yeah. I don't know if I would bet on that. On Unibati's minus 500. 500. It's just time trailing is too weird. It's because what you just described could easily happen. I would almost say Ghana is a better bet at plus 350.

And here's another question for you. Remcoevenapal looked great at Quebec. Looked a little, you know, he looked good at Montreal, just not the same. Is there any like payback? Does he have to pay anything back? Because that was a really unusual preparation for the tour for him. You know, he goes away. He doesn't race.

He loses a ton. of weight. Are we sure he's going to be as dominant at time trialing? Spencer, look, we'll put up, okay, it's good you bring this up. I still have this picture. We're going to ask Gabriel to put this picture up. I made a little comparison, the Remco between the Remco of the tour and the Remco who showed up in Quebec. It's a different guy, different guy. It's crazy. It's, he's, you know, all, Gabe. maybe it's an optical. But, you know, Remko in the tour was the, it was a climber.

He was. He was extremely lean, extremely light, like a scary skinny. Yeah. Okay. You'll see when Gabriel puts up this picture. Yeah. He got the power back. He got the muscles.

He got, you know, he's, he's very, very powerful. He's still lean, but he's more massive now than, which is, you know, obviously for a time trial. and for a one-day race, probably a better, you know, better situation than being super light for a grand tour. But it's remarkable. The difference you'll see here, it's, it's freaky. How much of a body transformation you can go through in two months. I'm a little too young for this, but how many tour, because now is it Twitter fronts, G.C. guy, you know, it's like, It's undeniable.

How many tour GC guys are like crushing it at the World Championships time trials? Like how was Indurane doing at World Championship time trials? Well, he won it once. He won it once in 95. That was when he, I mean, there were also, I mean, it was at the beginning of the the World Championships time trials. But it started in, I think, probably even, I don't know if it was 95, even the first. I don't remember 94.

Here, I'll look it up. The first one ever is. 95. 1994, Chris Bordman. Okay, 94. So, okay. So 95 Indirae wins. And then 96 doesn't win the tour, but is Olympic champion time trial in Atlanta.

Okay. Okay. So, you know, pretty good time trial is the rain, you know? Yes. And so then let's just go through it. Jalbert Olana, Ulrich in 99, but he didn't race the tour. Ulrich in 2001, he did race the tour. And then it's like Michael Rogers, Michael Rogers, Michael Rogers,

Cancelara, Birrash. And Zula was also world champion, I think, is somewhere in between. 96 Zula was world champion. And then it goes the way of the specialist. You know, it's like, Cancelar, Tony Martin, Bradley Wiggins, who did win the tour later. Or no, he won the tour in 2012. Yeah, he won the world champions after that, yeah. when he was like in his ruby phase and then and then yeah doom Milan he was a gc guy

rowan dennis gana gana faus evanapult evanapole evanapole the only thing i'm thinking about is maybe i'm out of my mind i just i wonder if this is a filippo gana upset because eventually remco has to lose he can't just win every year in perpetuity he will lose at some point and got like pretty good at the tour of britain i don't this this is like as good of a course as going to get probably, you know, tilted toward him versus Evanapole. Yeah, I mean, it's good for Ghana. It depends. It depends.

I mean, Ghana is one of those writers who knows how to prepare specifically for a time trial. Yeah, I think it's, it's obvious that if, I mean, I don't even know if he's going to do the road race world championships for the Italian team, but, you know, this is Ghana. He might have to. Do you have to? I don't know. I don't know. No, you don't have to.

Your team would have to eat a spot, right? I don't know about that. I don't know about it. It's unknowable. Nobody can know the answer to this. No, no, no. In Spain, for example, I think Castillo is not on the road team, and he does the time trial, only the time trial.

And Spain is sending a full team. You're right. He's not on the road team. You know, maybe it's just a money-saving technique for a lot of countries. Maybe you send one person they do. You know, Ghana is focusing on the time trial. And if he's on the road team, that's possible. But then he's going to be domestic for the first 180K.

You know, it's too hard for Ghana. Now I'm confused why the U.S. women are sending Taylor Nib, who's not a cyclist, because she won the World Championship or National Championships time trial, but then, yeah, why is she doing the road race as well? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Is she the one that just won the 70.3 triathlon? Yeah, Nice. She's a beast. Speaking of...

Speaking of... An orthodox time proposition. Have you seen that? Yeah. Take a look. It's crazy. I've never seen something like it. I don't understand how you can ride a bike like that. But anyway, it works.

for her. These triathletes are doing stuff. They're kind of pushing the limits of, yeah, like what you would think makes any sense. But they're going fast. So it seems to work. But anything else, Johan, before we take off? I think it's time for Spencer. I mean, obviously, you know, you know, you know, I got delayed today. You know, it's, I got a lot of stuff going on on today unforeseen. So it's almost 1 a.m. for me now. So I think, I think, uh, I think I earned to end this podcast. Let's put you on to bed.

Let's get Yoan to bed. All right, Johan, well, rest up and then we'll be back next Friday to preview the road race and then we'll have a show. It will be a late one again for you

right after the road race next Sunday. But have a good evening. Okay. Thank you. We'll speak soon.