THEMOVE - Pogacar Not Done Yet Predicting 2026s Biggest Races Themove

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Spencer Martin and Johan Bruyneel discuss Mathieu van der Poel's recent cyclocross dominance, as well as Wout van Aert's struggles, before getting into their predictions for the biggest races of 2026, a few listener questions, and giving the results of their 2025 Strava mileage challenge. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Huel: Huel makes healthy eating simple. They also just launched into Target stores nationwide! Try both products today with FIFTEEN PERCENT off your purchase for New Customers with our exclusive code THEMOVE at https://www.huel.com/THEMOVE. OneSkin: For a limited time, try OneSkin for 15% off using code THEMOVE at https://oneskin.co/THEMOVE. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. PLEASE support our show and tell them we sent you. Gusto: Try Gusto today at https://gusto.com/THEMOVE, and get three months free when you run your first payroll. Hims: Start your free online visit today at https://hims.com/themove for your personalized hair loss treatment options. Results vary. Based on studies of topical and oral minoxidil and finasteride. Prescription products require an online consultation with a healthcare provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. 

I could be brainwashed because I'm just coming out of the camp. I was just in the UAE camp bubble. So maybe I'm brainwashed. The sense I got is we have not, we have not seen the best Tatei Pagotcha. Like the writer we're going to see in 2026 is going to be better than the writer we saw in 2025. I'm going. Pagachar, Pagotcha, Pagotcha, Pagotcha, Pagotcha. I think he's going to sweep the monuments.

I think we're going to see something. You are. It's not impossible, though, which is wild. Yeah, it's true. It is possible. It is definitely possible. Everybody, welcome back to the Move Plus. I'm Spencer Martin.

I'm here with Johan Bernille. This is our last weekly episode of 2025. Sad, sad that it's ending, but I'm already excited for that 2026 cycling season, Johan. But in this episode, since we're a little light on the weekly news, I'm going to be going through 2026 predictions, getting Johan's predictions. I'm going to give predictions. This is for the winners of the monuments, grand tours, world championships. And then at the end of the year,

at this show next year, Johan, we're going to go through and grade our predictions. So that should give people something to look forward to throughout the year. Then we'll talk a little bit about the cyclocross going on, Oscar Onley to Ineos. And then, of course, the most important thing of the year are Strava mileage,

kilometer challenge, who is ahead, who is probably going to win that with only three days left in the year. But first, let's hear from our partners for today and then we'll get Johan's predictions for 2026. Everybody, this episode is brought to by Huell. Every December I tell myself, this is here I'm going to stay locked into my routine. And then suddenly I'm traveling.

I'm bouncing between family dinners and my nutrition plan completely falls apart. But this year, shockingly, Huel is the reason I'm solving this problem. That's Huell, H-U-E-L this morning, went on arrival with some friends, didn't have time for lunch when I came back before some family obligations. Didn't matter because I had Hewles ready to drink shake. It's a complete meal in a bottle. 35 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber, and 27 vitamins and minerals. No prep, no mess.

Just grab it and go. It keeps me full when the alternative is either not eating or grabbing whatever random snack is closest. Or if I'm traveling, the dreaded airport food hall. Stay away from that thing if you want to be healthy. He will also has a new chocolate peanut butter flavor, which is dangerously good and keeps me away from the chocolate peanut butter cups. You know, I love those.

And I've also been loving Hewles, new caned daily drink, daily greens drink as well, 42 vitamins and nutrients, four grams of fiber, only 25 calories, and no added sugar. In December, when my vegetable intake tends to fall off a cliff, this is key. I ran out.

I left town. Someone drank all of them in the house. They liked them so much. Came back. They were gone, but Hewell sent me some new ones, so I'm good to finish off the year. And Hewell is now available nationwide at Target. Just check out the health and wellness aisle.

Get Hewel today with this exclusive offer for new customers of 15% off with code the move at Hewel.com slash the move. That's H-U-E-L.com slash the move and use code the move at checkout for 15% off. Everybody, this episode is brought to you by OneSkin. If you're like me, your skin needs some extra care this time of year. Between colder weather and the holidays fast approaching, it can feel like non-stop stress to your system. That's why I've continued to rely on One Skin. It's been invaluable to have a daily routine that delivers both powerful skin care and longevity benefits on just a few simple steps.

At the core is their patented OS1 peptide. the first ingredient proven to target cells, the root cause of wrinkles, and loss of elasticity, and these results have now been validated in five different clinical studies. Known for their cult skin care favorites like OS1 body, OS1 face, and OS1 eye. One skin stands out for their science-first approach to skin aging, delivering hydration, barrier support, and powerful longevity benefits in every product. And I got to say, their dispensers are just fun to use. I'm using the OS1 face every morning and evening, and I look forward to it.

It's just, it's a little piece of design that makes your day better. And so for a limited time, try OneSkin for 15% off using code the move at OneSkin.com slash the move. That's O-N-E skin.com slash the move. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support the show by telling them we sent you again, Onskin.com slash the move. All right, Johan, before we start, you're back in the Costa Blanca. Is that correct to finish off the year? I am.

some mileage in. I just arrived. So apologies for the quality image and sound because I have to do this from my phone. The Wi-Fi where I'm at is not great. So apologies on beforehand. Yeah, we're back here for a week in Benisa, close to Calpe. So we'll see. We'll see if there's still, there's obviously not, the teams are not here anymore now.

You know, they're all gone home for the holiday. but there's still some individual riders and little groups of three, four professionals who stay over, stay here over the holiday. So, yeah, apparently it's going to be a lot better weather than when we were there, Spencer. It's got to be.

I'm traveling around the world bringing rain with me wherever I go. So you're also in a very exotic place, no? An undisclosed exotic place. Yeah, I'm in Maui for the New Year's. I used to live here. I'm visiting friends, family. This is not, this is not just some George Hinkapi super swish retreat that I'm on. I'm on family business here.

But it is a good, it's a good place to ride, probably not as good as the Costa Blanca. I do find myself missing the Costa Blanca, even though our audio is cursed from that area, for some reason, every bit of audio I did from there sounded terrible. And then now we are doing yours without a microphone today. But audio aside, I do find myself missing that. Hawaii's great. Maui's beautiful. Pretty good roads, pretty good riding, a lot of elevation, almost like Canary Islands type climbing you could do.

But there's something about, I mean, especially the price. Like now with the team's gone, you could go to Altea, that town. And like, I've been finding myself looking at hotels, looking at group rates, seeing if I can take some friends out there for a trip. It is incredible. Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll invite you. Don't worry.

You're coming to. You're coming to. But yeah, just the price you can get in the riding and how empty it is. That's what blew me away is the offseason feel, even though the weather is still quite nice, is magical. Yeah, it is. Well, you know, now for New Year's, you know, it's quite busy. You know, maybe not so many cyclists, but a lot of people here. I actually just went to a restaurant.

I mean, luckily I know the owner and he made a little place for two people, for my son and I. It was full, full, full. I know, it's a Monday. It's a little village. The restaurant was full.

So there's a lot of people. Was it in Benicia? Benisa, Benisa. Benisa, yeah. Great town. Love that town. So, Johan,

let's, I don't think there's any cycling news, but there, I know Oscar only went to Ineos, but I want to save that for later in the episode. Any other cycling news you want to get out there before we get into this prediction challenge? Not really.

You know, there's not much. going on. I mean, obviously there's a lot of cyclercross, which is super interesting. I mean, interesting. It's always the same rider who wins, both men. Well, yesterday was pretty good when Vanderpull wasn't racing. I thought that was the best race of the year. It was a really good race. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, also Lucinda Brandt wins all the races. Any, you know, World Cups, super prestige. She wins. I think she, she didn't win two of the races that she has started.

So I think she has 13 or 14 wins now. this season, which I think credible. Yeah. I mean, just on that really quick. So Vanderpals raced six races, six wins. No one, no one can touch the guy. He's making the world's best cross riders look silly. Wild Van Arte has raced five times.

These are his results. Seventh, second, second, sixth, tenth. Obviously not as good. Beaten by Tibor de Grasso and another one, another one of the races, it was at the Zolder's super prestige that I thought was another fantastic race. I was shocked that he didn't win that against Del Grasso, but as we talked about in our last show, or maybe two shows ago, Del Grasso is a huge talent coming up, 22 years old. Great on the road, great on cross, in cross.

What do we make of this of them being so different in form and cyclocross? Is there anything to read into this or no? Well, I mean, first of all, Von Ard, I mean, if you look, for example, today, he had two flat tires. You know, at first he was with. I don't know if you saw the race today, but Vonnipul and Van Arnard were as then Van Artax had a flat, you know, got back to the, he was back in the group behind, and he had another flat. So, but anyways, it's clear that Van der Poul is miles ahead of Walt Van Art and above

everybody else. You know, it would, it would take an accident or an illness for him to not become for the eighth time world champion, which is unbelievable. I mean, let's think about that. It is unbelievable. Yeah. Eighths world champion. Right now he's seven, so he's tied with Eric DeVloming, Roger de Vlaming's brother.

You know, and so if he wins, I mean, all these races he's doing now is actually basically a warm-up towards the world championships, which is this big goal. And then apparently, I mean, I don't know if it's confirmed, but he hinted to, you know, if he wins the world, that that's it for cyclocross for him. You know, he's going to pull the plug on cyclocross, which is nothing else to win for him. You know, that's that, that's it. Should he do? He also wants to really, I mean, obviously he loves cyclocross. He started as a cyclocross rider. He before he was a road racer, he was a cyclo cross rider.

And so it was Walt Vonneght, by the way. But I think he also wants to try, you know, a complete preparation, a winter without cyclocross. and focusing exclusively on preparing for the classics. I think it makes sense, man. I think it makes sense. But in the meantime, the races that, I mean, I've seen all of them on TV, it's crazy. The first race he did was in Namur.

That was the only one, the only race where it was suspense until the end. Yeah. Di Boen was able to follow him quite a few times. And then finally he made a mistake and crashed Di Bonnese. But other than that, isn't, I mean, I can have compared to anything better than Vanderpull in cyclocross. It is like his bike is on rails. He has that much power that he just, you know, goes on rails through the sand, through the mud.

I mean, it's, it's unbelievable. The difference is astonishing. I mean, I'm not a cross expert by any. I am a cat one in cycler cross. I think that was an administrative error. I don't know how that happened. But he, my best guess is he's the best bike handler and also the strongest. So there's no weakness.

Like he never seems to have a weak point. I don't know what his running is like. But he's such a good bike handler. It's almost like he's never running. He's just watching him ride these technical sections. Here's a little thing. I mean, a little detail. I saw a little detail.

Yes. Was it? Wait. Yesterday he didn't race. No. In Gavre. So Gavre is, is usually, I mean, it's a big, it's the monument of cycle cross races.

Usually it's very hard, you know, a lot of mud. Now it was frozen. So they did some, some previews. Wanderpool and I mean, most of them decided, you know, okay, there's not going to be any running here,

but Wanderpul took it a notch up. You know, he was so certain that he was not going to run that he started with arrow overshoes. That is crazy. You know? Yeah. But basically, if you put arrow, overshoes, it's difficult to run because you don't have the, the, you're slipping around.

You have no grip. That's wild. I think that's the first man, a cycle across with arrow overshoes. That was something, yeah, that was a first. And I'm going to be going so fast in these straightaways, I need an arrow overshoe. Do you, I mean, this is something I was wondering as well. So they're doing, I mean, you see Van Ard in these cross races. He looks like he's suffering, but you'd imagine that's good because he's doing efforts this time of year.

Apparently, that's a thing now. We saw Pagachar. I estimated, by the way, his power on Kola Ratz is 566 watts for 12 minutes. It will be lower than that because he was drafting and that calculations without draft, but that's hard. It's a hard little effort he did. So apparently this is what everyone's doing now, hard efforts in December. Is this helping or hurting or not affecting their road season?

If Vanderpult doesn't do cross next year in preparation for road, is that better or worse? Is this actually helping them prepare? I mean, I think this helps, especially if you're, I mean, listen, these two riders are cycle cross specialists. Now, it seems to me like Van der Poole remained the big specialist and vote by doing it less and less is technically losing a bit of his skills. I mean, I don't think he will contradict that. You see him in the technical sections hurting more than the others. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it's still pretty impressive for me. I mean, you know, it's still, it's still quite, quite amazing. But, no, I mean, if you look, you know, three, four years ago, it was super, super tight, you know, between Van der Poole and Val Arte. We never knew who was going to win. One tennis, one, you know. But I think since von der Poole won that sprint in the world championships against Van Arte in, where was it? In Holland, it was in the Netherlands. I don't remember the place.

since then it's been you know it's been a different story he has won i think all of the confrontations against vote and and wote i think wote gives less and less priority also he keeps doing it because he likes it and you know he has a lot of fans i mean spencer it's it's pretty crazy if you go to a cycle cross especially in belgium and if even if there's van art and van der pundrault it is van art i mean All the people is Van Art, vote, vote, Walt,

it's crazy how popular he is. So I think he does it a bit for the fans also, but I think both of them are going to gradually. I mean, listen, they're also not at the beginning of their careers,

right? So I think it's logical. They started their cyclocross riders. They did a lot of cyclocross and it's gradually getting less and less. And I think both of them are going to gradually fade out of the cyclocross team.

I mean, if you think of someone like Matt's Pedersen, he's not doing the cross. He's preparing for the classics right now. And I mean, it remains to be seen if that becomes a problem. I think it potentially could be. He's very good. Yeah. And as you say, Vanderpil, what is left to do? What are we doing here, man?

He wins every race. He's going to win the world championships. That at a certain point, that's not exciting. And there's maybe there's golf simulators to be in in this time of year instead of in cold Belgian Belgian fields. Fields, I do agree with you on the fans. You can tell that through TV that that's important for WAL to be there. Yeah.

Maybe he never stops doing it. But yeah, it's not the beginning of their careers. They need to get serious about road. They're both at a point in their careers that their contracts with the team on the road are so big. Yeah. That whatever they make, you know, I mean, these, these start, this price, this start fees for the cycle cross races. It's, it's not making any difference in their, you know, on their bank account. you know, I mean, so, so yeah, I think it's a natural, natural process that, and then, yeah, I mean, then we're going to see cycle cross races that are really, you know, suspense until the end, you know, because when, when those two guys are not there, especially when Van Arte, when Van Arte, when Van Arte, we never know who's going to win.

You also get the feeling Van Arte is not putting his whole heart and not his heart, but this is, this is offseason for him. I don't know. Vanderpolleal seems to be. the same. It doesn't matter. But Van Art, you look at him and I just looking at him and knowing how good he is on, you know, when he's fit, you're like, oh, he's, this is offseason for him. He is, he is trying to get in shape and you can see it. Just shout out there to Tebow knees, 23, five wins so far this year. And then Tebow Delgroso, 22 beat Van Art. Those, if you're wondering, well, who's going to beat these guys in the classic someday? I think those two guys are two guys are, I mean, the real deal. Also on the road. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, they are, Del Grasso, I mean, because you hear about these writers and I'm going to ask a question about this later in the episode.

And you're like, I don't know, are they really ever going to be as good as people say? Del Grasso, you know, he almost feels like he's getting better every day. He looks better every time he races. Did you see that? I mean, that's, you know, there's been on social media. There's been, you know, layover comparisons between, uh, Walt sprinting against, um, sprinting against, van der Poul in the tour of Flanders side by side,

the jimbo the jimbo right versus the Dutch champion van der Poul and now Van Art versus people de la Grosso it's the same sprint

it's identical it's you know it's like I'm going to even say the style of sprinting of Delgrosso is almost identical to the one of van der Proult and two times

two times Van Arth I mean I'm not going to say it's a mistake, but he, you know, he gets, he just waits a fraction of a second too long. And both of both of the times, both Vanderpoul and Agrozzo get a tiny bit more speed at the beginning and he cannot, he cannot make it up. Yeah, I mean, Van Ard for some reason, I mean, great bunch spinner, obviously, one on the Champs-Lizé almost seems to biff it a lot in these one-on-one sprints.

I don't quite know what it is or maybe he needs to be sprinting off a higher speed. than Del Grasso and Vanderpull, who are two of the most explosive riders I've ever seen. While we're talking about Vanderpull, did you notice this? Tell me if you can see this picture. Is Vanderpull's seat too high? Like, look at, look how he's on his tippy toes on his crossback. Well, yeah, I mean, no, it's no, his seat is not too high.

But Vanderpul is a rider who is, I mean, he, in my opinion, he is a bit higher than the usual road rider. but I think that's not that's not I mean that's a special that's a special moment it also yeah you also could be rotating so when you see it I just held up an image of Andapulton cross race you never know how their hips are rotated yeah also a tiny bit of the saddle because there's a little bump or something yeah but I do agree that you know he's he's a bit higher than the usual professional cyclist but I'm pretty sure that I mean listen Spencer that guy I mean that that guy I mean that's a bit higher than the usual professional cyclist but I'm pretty sure that I mean that's that power he has, that must be like, in my opinion, his position is studied, you know, like to the millimeter. Well, I only bring this up because you and I know another like generationally great rider who also is pretty high on the saddle. And like, would these guys be even stronger if they just lower their saddle a little bit?

Who's the other guy? I know. I don't want to call anybody out. Have you ridden with anyone recently who's on their tippy toes on their road bike? Yeah, but that's what I mean, you're talking about Lance. His saddle, I think his saddle is higher now than when he was. Okay. So there's been saddle creep since retirement.

It's high. I already told him. I already told him that I thought his saddle was too high. But when he was a pro, he listened. Now he doesn't listen anymore. He doesn't. I'm like, hmm, are these, is this going around? Is this a problem with amazing riders or saddles are too high?

They can be even better. No, when he, when he, when he was, when he was a pro, with saddle was on the high end, but it was not as high as it is now. Okay. All right. That's good to know. Maybe I should. I was writing grade them this time next year, which I am excited about.

But just my friend Jonathan Kaplan was asking me like predictions for 2026. I was thinking like, man, I haven't really thought about it. But then I started to think about it. And it is kind of interesting. Obviously, we're going to be wrong. And the thing I noticed when you try to do this is you try to do this is you try. to like we asked a commentator, someone that commentates on TV and everything they said. I'm like, wow, that's so cool.

But they're basically painting a story with their predictions. And then this is a problem you tend to do just as a society as people. You like write the story. You want to hear versus what actually is going to happen. So I'm curious to see how this ends up being at the end. But we're going to go through Monuments, Grand Tours, World Championships, and Green Jersey at the tour. So for the first monument of 2026, Milano San Remo, who do you think is going to win this race?

Yeah. Well, I mean, when we make these predictions or we think what's going to happen, and I just assume that this is under normal circumstances. So we're going to get it wrong at some, you know, because. Yeah. It's like someone's not going to show up to one of the races because something happens to them. Injured. But, you know, Spencer, in my opinion, you know, if everything is normal and nothing,

crazy happens. Nobody is falling out or is injured or sick. I'm, you know, rather than going through the one by one, this, in my opinion, there's two riders who will win all five monuments. It's, it's, you know, it's, for me, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, much of under the poor who is going to win with Lansan Remo again normally. Um, unless, unless, they can drop him this time on the, it, let's say, if van der Poul is, um, it's say, 100% Pogacha is not dropping it on the podium.

He might be a bit off. He might be 98%. And then then it's Pogacchar, but I'm going to say Van der Poul wins Milan Saint-Remo. Pogacar wins Flanders. Vanderpul wins Roubae, which is a difficult one to predict

because, you know, there's the fact that canicals and stuff like that. Yeah, right. Lies Baston, Lijéj, Pogachar, Lombardy, Pogachar. I mean, these two riders are winning all five monuments, in my opinion. I think what you said is probably correct. Which is the same as 2025, right?

It is exactly the same. Yeah. Vanderpull, Sanramo, Pagachar, Flanders, Vanderpull, Rubei, Pagacha, Pagotra, Lillegia, Lombardia. I could be brainwashed because I'm just come out of the camp. I was just in the UAE camp bubble. So maybe I'm brainwashed. The sense I got is we have not,

we have not seen the best Tatei Pagacier. Like the writer we're going to see in 2026 is going to be better than the writer we saw in 2025. I'm going. Pagachar, Pagotcha, Pagotcha, Pagotcha, Pagotcha, Pagotcha, Pagotcha. I think he's going to sweep the monuments. I think we're going to see something. You are.

It's not impossible, though. Which is wild. Yeah. It's true. It is possible. It is definitely possible. I don't think anybody has ever done all five, no, in the same year. No.

I mean, there's only a few writers that have won all five total. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It would be, I mean, it would be obviously unbelievable. Do you remember all the head who won, who won all five? I believe. Of the top of your head.

I mean, I mean, I want to say, Eddie Merrick. Eddie Merck. Roger DeVlemm. I'm, I think I'm pretty sure also Rick Van Loi. Yes, I think that's right. Let's see. Oh, here, it's like right here. There's one more.

Okay. Who's the other guy? You know who came really close is Shelbert? Well, he never won. He never won Mila-Arlimo. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, is there just a list of ever?

Okay, so. I think it's another Belgian. I think that actually it's four Belgians. Who's the other guy? So Eddie Merck's, Roger de Flammock. I'm just looking at the list. Rick Van Loi. And then is there, is there another one?

I don't know if there is. Maybe not. Someone's screaming at us right now if there is. I don't think there is. I'm looking at, it's a table of how many times each writer has a, one each one. And I don't think it's just those three.

I don't think there's anybody else. Wow. I mean, yeah. I had the impression there was another one, but maybe. Because Joebert missed one. Loussaint-Bobet missed one.

Rezon-Wopee, yeah. Germain Derek, Derek. Oh, Germain Drake. Oh, wow. I raised with a son. Really? Yeah. And then no one's even,

there's not. really anyone close after those guys. Wow. Yeah, well, so I think we're going to have somebody in the comments screaming at us for some reason. If we missed it, we apologized to the to the a jada we've called it costs somewhat. It's like, should we ask chat GPDs never write about this? No. No. Tadip. Oh, the answer. Well, while I look this up, here's a question. And the professional cyclists propose this. This is not just a random Reddit person. To win San Ramo, obviously, that's going to be very hard for Pagachar. Should he do nothing and just as we were just small at funky sprints, should he just go for the sprint?

I mean, if you run it enough times, like he maybe could beat Vanderpull if enough weird things happen. Well, if he does nothing, then I think there's also the possibility that a sprinter could make it over the poggio or could come back. Yeah, I think, I think Pagosha, that's a good point. the team his team needs to make it hard on the chepressa to you know wear out the sprinters and then basically have it a manu-a-mano against against van der poul yeah he could gamble you know i mean you could try to get away on the chepressa also but then i think that the problem will be that this you know between the chepressa and the podjo if van der pool is not there they're coming back

Yeah, yeah. I didn't really thought about that. If he doesn't do anything, does Phillips and just win? Just wax him in the sprint? Well, Mads Pedersen. I mean, you could also say, well, if Bogacha doesn't do anything, you know, his attack on the pojo will be that much stronger. Yeah.

I mean, we saw Vincenzo Nibli went that way. I tend to. I think what we saw, though, if you watch that cold a, called a Rate's video, is that them practicing a lead out for the Chepressa? I tend to think we're going to see them try to launch him there. I don't know if that works, though. I just, yeah, I don't. I mean, it's the most interesting race of the year by far for a reason because it's hard to.

Yeah. The most of them predict. Sure. So let's let's, let's, I'm also, I looked it up. There is only three riders that have won all five monuments. I'm predicting Pekon try to do that in this, in the single season. But I, I don't know why. I don't know why.

He just blew me away. He kind of has an aura. that not a lot of riders have. I think it's clear what he wants. You know, I mean, he doesn't do any single stage race until, uh,

Romandy. Right? So he wants those one day races, you know, he wants me to also, you know, Frander's room. The guy's a full time on,

he's a full time one day racer. And he clear, he's treating his grand tours like you're a side job. He didn't really seem to be giving them much thought at the training camp. It's just wild. Well, I mean, that's okay,

that's what he said, I mean, but he did just fly. He flew in from Roubae. Rubet, I couldn't believe that. Yeah. Can you imagine Lance going and doing Rubet recon in December in the middle of his, no. I mean, no. I mean, I think Walt Van Ard did it, right?

Walt Vonnacht did it also know in December. He also went on. Yeah. He was testing, testing the equipment like these special hubs with the self-inflating and deflating. tires um yeah which i think will be a big when they announced his

i mean you were there when they announced his program did he did he announce amstall is he going to do amstall again you know it's kind of funny when they do that they don't he didn't list like go through a list he just kind of said the classic he said like start with strata and then the classics okay he didn't mention or he said the monuments he didn't mention am though and it's not on the schedule. He might not be going because I mean

that Roubaix to liege bridge is so hard. That's the thing what I was last year this season. I mean, 2025, I think you know, he he was paying for the efforts of Flanders and Roubaix in I agree. It's a completely different race and maybe it's better for him to just you know, train properly

for Liesh, you know, rather than the racing Amstel. Yep. And I looked it up and poof, this could be another one I'm biffing. But he got second at Rubet's second at Amstel. And that might be the best combined results in those two races ever. It's very rare you see someone. Yeah, yeah. It's a different type of rider.

Yeah. You know, already I remember back in the days, you know, like even when when George was, was riding Flanders and Roubaix and then, you know, make it to Amstall. Make it to Amstall was already a challenge. And then in Amstall normally, these guys were normally not good. I mean,

they were okay, but not in it to win it in the final, you know? Yeah. Well, I think we meant to take an ad break and we did not. So let's take that ad break. Then we'll be back for the grant tours. Predictions.

Everybody, this episode is brought to by Hymns. You shouldn't have to rearrange your life to deal with hair loss. And Hymns makes expert. care accessible on your schedule so you can focus on feeling like yourself again. That's where Hymns really pulls ahead. They make it easy to take control with simple personalized care that actually fit your life. Hymns gives you convenient access to prescription hair loss treatments that work, including choose oral med, serums, and sprays, all backed by clinically proven ingredients

like finesteroide and monoxidil that can stop hair loss and even regrow hair in as little as three to six months. The best part, it's all 100% online. You connect with a licensed medical provider, get a treatment plan personalized for you, and it ships right to your door. No waiting rooms, no awkward pharmacy lines, no surprises, just expert care on your schedule. So for simple online personalized care for things like hair loss, ed, weight loss, and more, visit Hymns.com slash the move. That's Hems.com slash the move for a free online visit. Hems.com slash the move.

Individual results may vary based on studies of topical and oral monocidil and finesteroide. Featured products include compounded drug products which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety effectiveness or quality. Prescription required C.E. Website for full details, restrictions, and important safety information. Everybody, this episode is brought to by Gusto. When I first started my Beyond the Bells on newsletter, I wanted to bring down professional cycling in depth, not calculate tax withholdings. And so as the business grew, I quickly realized I needed help so I could get back to focusing on the nitty-gritty of pro cycling and less on my quarter. taxes or whatever whatever you're supposed to do there. That's where Gusto has been a lifesaver. And what is Gusto, you might ask? It's an online payroll and benefit software built for small businesses. It's all in one, remote-friendly, and incredibly easy to use

so you can pay, hire, onboard, and support your team from anywhere. It has automatic payroll tax filing, which is key, simple direct deposits, health benefits, you name it. Gusto makes it simple and has options for nearly every budget. It has unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price, no hidden fees, no surprises. Try Gusto today at gusto.com slash the move. That's G-U-S-T-O.com slash the move and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months free of payroll at gusto.com slash the move. I got to say, I love gusto. If you have a small business, you got to get gusto. It was a game changer for me. I promise it will help you. Gusto.com slash the move. All right, Johan, so the three grand tours, the Gioritae,

Tour de France, Vota Spagna. Who do you think is going to win these? Obviously, we don't know, we don't really know for sure who's going to be at the Giro the Vuelta, but just best guess, who do you think wins these things? Well, I think the Gero, if it's true, the rumors that we hear that, Gionos Wingerard is contemplating going. I think if he's at the start, he wins. The Giro, the Italia.

other than I mean there's primos rogledge is he do is is is primos doing the gero I mean he has confirmed the voelta but I don't know if he's going to the gero though because it's pelizari and what else was it there was another guy maybe spalizari and primos I don't know it's not on his schedule actually uh huh hold on a second was it it's not rimka that was like a false flag operation that wasn't actually him. Let's look at the start list. Red Bull. Who is doing it for them?

Oh, okay. Yeah, Jai Henley in Pelazard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Henley, Henley, actually, I think he could have a good 2026. He finished 2025 strong. I think, I mean, I think, did you pick Yonis? Yeah, Yonis, yeah. If he does it, yeah.

I'm picking the same guy. I haven't seen any confirmation though that he, I mean, they were considering it. So they haven't decided yet. I think he's so good. He's so much better than the third best GC rider in the sport that it's almost worth picking him. Even if you don't know for sure, because if he does it, he'll probably win it. Yeah. So Gero, Jonas.

Who do you pick? Jonas. Okay. For the Giro. tour yeah I think so de Pogachar

is this you know he could he only loses if something happens to him like a crash or an illness I think if we're really trying to gamify

this one of us would pick someone that was not him and then we would say look we were so smart we knew he wasn't going to win but I think he probably wins yeah and of Vuelta

I put it at Western Marks, Spencer, because of the world, we don't know who's going. You know, we know Primos is going. So let's say if Jonas and Taddei are not doing the Vuelta, then I'm going to pick Primos, you know, would make him the only record holder. Now he's tied with Roberto Eras. They both won four times.

And he could win it five times. But still, I don't think we've seen in 2025 signs that Primos was in contention for a grand tour. You know, he was not, I mean, he crashed out of the, he crashed out of the Gero, I think. I mean, he crashed and then he abandoned, right? Yeah. And the tour, I mean, he was, he was okay, but he was never, never at the level that we were used from him. So listen, if this is a, you know, if this is a season where Primos focuses on winning his fifth Vuelta and then going for one week races, which he usually did in the past, then I wouldn't put it past Primos to win the Vuelta. I'm going to pick Fagachar, just because if he does it, he'll probably win it.

I'm a little worried. I was going through Primo's results yesterday on the plane. I'm a little worried he's done winning Grand Tours. You know, these grand tour winners, they turn a corner and then they can't win anymore. I'm worried we've arrived there. I would love to see one, Duvalta. Yates, and you win your second round two or seven years after your first one. Yeah, the only thing about that, I was anticipating you saying this, Yates kind of tricked us because he won that he was so good, so young.

Simon Yates is 33 years old. He's like not that old. Roglitch is, I believe, three or four. four years older than him. 36. So Simon Yates is only at the age Roglich was when he was winning loads of like, yeah.

Yeah, he's probably at his prime at 33. And so Simon Yates isn't as old as we perceive him to be. I'm going to be it. Yeah. I mean, I agree. I agree. I agree. Listen, if Bogotcha starts the Vuelta, he's winning.

Question is, will he, will he start, right? It's not so much about the quantity of races that Pugachar would be doing if he does the wealth of it. I think it's the pressure every single race. It's the pressure in the race, but it's also the whole circus around the figure of Pugachar every time he's at the start of a race that I think personally, you know, especially even after the tour, that he probably say, okay, you know what?

time to breathe a bit, you know? Yeah, you did get that sense. It's a lot. It's a lot. And these questions, I mean, we were saying this privately at lunch, just these questions. I can't imagine having to sit through that all the time. It's like not always the most sophisticated line of questioning. Sometimes I really feel bad for these guys.

I mean, at the two of the fronts, especially, you know, because it's every day, right? You mean, every day and you're sitting there. And I mean, I don't want to point out anybody, but there are some journalists who ask some really stupid questions that I think. And then I put myself in the place of that cyclist. What the hell do you want to answer to this? You know, it's like, and you can see really the, the boredness on the face of the rider when he answers. Doesn't even know what he answered. Just says something.

Just brabless. Yeah. There's an interview with Bradley Wiggins where you was saying, you have to treat the press like they're stupid and they don't know what they're talking about, which sounds harsh, but these guys, they just have to give programmed answers all the time. Yeah.

Yeah. And I mean, listen, there. And also, listen, Spencer, I mean, to the, you know, in defense of the, the journalist who are sitting in breast conferences, it is always the same thing, right? I mean, what else do you want to ask? Yeah, stage four in the tour. What's different than stage 14?

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so I'm penciling you in for Rogge for the Walthe. Yeah. So I think the next one I think could be the best competition of the year. Green Jersey Tour de France. Who are you picking for that?

Yeah, that's a pretty good pick. I'm going to go, this is probably my least scientific of my picks. Mads Pedersen. I don't really, I haven't studied the course enough to know where the points are given out. Matt's Patterson is an animal. And he can, yeah, he can win any points jersey in any grand tour. I mean, it wasn't at the, maybe this, it might not have been a good course for him this year to win the green jersey because there was a lot of, it would be a sprint 15k into the stage and that's probably too easy too easy to control.

But man, he could give, he could give something like Philipson a lot of problems. And Philipson's a great writer. That's a guy who's finished twice at second at Rubet twice. So that's how good. Matt's Pedersen, I think I didn't pick him to win any monuments. I wouldn't be shocked if he wins a monument this year. The guy is unbelievable. Yeah.

Yeah, he was, he was every single monument he was up there. And I mean, at least the ones that are suited for him, not Leij and not Lombardy, but all the classics, all the couple classics he was there. I mean, that's, we haven't talked much about it. But man, his victory and Wendellegam and how he won that. That was something. Yeah, it was. He also, I mean, I don't want to read too much into this comment, but he won. Do you remember Uman?

It's like human with an eye. They're the underwear sponsor of the Giro. And I think the winner of the point jersey got like a bunch of, it's supposed to be unbreakable underwear, which I don't know why you would need. But he said he's like, I'm going to try to fart a hole in these before the start of next year's Giro. You're like, man,

that guy's motivated. He's not scared of the challenge. But so, so world championships, time trial and road race. I don't, I'm going to be honest. I don't think I've looked at the time trial route,

but I do have someone that I think could win it. Yeah, Remko. Remko wins the world championships. For the moment, I don't think there's anybody who can beat him. Even if it's a hard course, he's still, he's still, you know, there's something about him and that individual effort. I mean, look, I mean, we've seen, you know, Bogcha was not at the top when he did the time trial in the world championship

because he was jet lag, came from Canada. But, I mean, that was a hard course. and Remko just smoked everybody there. So, yeah, World Championship is Remko and today again. I said the only thing that can disturb these predictions, Spencer, if something happens to these guys, you know, like, or they're out with an injury or an eldest or something. Yeah, I think Remko, I mean, because we saw, you know,

because Bagatra wasn't at his best at the world championships, but even I think it was stage seven at the 2020. tour in Jevary Chonpartan, they had a time trial that was pretty even. You know, it was a little bit of climbing, a little bit of flat, a little bit of descending. And Pagacha was obviously in shape because he won that tour

and he still got beat by Remko. So Remko, I mean, that's as as close to perfect at time trials as you can get. I don't think you can get much better than he can. I think we can say Remko's the best time trialist. We would say ever. I think he's, I think we did this on the show.

And if he wins one more world title, he's getting to a point where it's hard to deny that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, was it, was it, was it Tony Martin who won four times or five times the world championships? Tony Martin had, he had more, yeah, than I remember. Man, I might have this in my notes somewhere. Oh, man. I can't, yeah, he did some up.

crazy amount. It was like four, four world titles, I want to say. And did he have multiple Olympic titles? No. Is 20, 2008 was Cancelara? Cancelara won in 2008 and 2012. In 2016. No, no, no, no. Sorry. Sorry. 2012. No, no. Sorry. 2012. He was second. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What are we talking about? Yes, one. So, yeah. Two thousand. One in 2012. Yeah. 2008. 2016. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. And so I think, who do you think wins the road race? I agree with you. I think Remko's winning time travel. Poratria. And on emphasis, it's in Montreal. I mean, he's winning all the time. The World Cup race there.

So the World Tour race. So I think Boca wins it. I mean, 60 kilometers longer. Do they, are they doing the World Tour race two weeks before the? Yes, they do. And it's similar circuit, right? It's on that course, I think. I think there might be a slight...

I mean, they're probably going to change it a bit, but... Yeah. I think what's the climb there? There's this one climb that definitely doing that climb. That's interesting. I mean, I'm going for the world title, but if you really had a lot of time on your hands, go for both of those and stay in between.

I mean, it's... Spencer, I'm going to... you know, it's, it's hard, but it's not as hard, for example, as Kigadi. That's true. I mean, Kigal, that might be one of the hardest we ever see. Yeah. Yeah. So it is more open than it has been in the last years.

Well, I mean, but if you say that polacha is going to be better than 2025, then whatever. Yeah. I will just say I was from the outside we hear like, oh, he's bored. He's going to retire. And you don't get that sense at all when he's in the room. You know, this is a man on a mission. Yeah. Yeah.

So Oscar Onley, I like those predictions. I'm excited to check in on them next year. Oscar Onley officially joined Ineos. I believe you said that. You predicted that. The rumored or reported transfer fee from Picnic Post, NL, 6 million euros. That's a nice little, this explains why Picnic, why this happens somewhat without issue and Picnic signed the deal, because that's a lot of money for a team like that. Oscar Onley is, what, 23 years old?

Finished fourth, the Tour de France British writer kind of makes sense for him to go to. He's 23. Or two, turn 23 in October. So I'll be 23 all next year. Oh, wow. And yeah. I mean, he also, you forget, he was third at Tour of Switzerland, like a hard tour to Switzerland with very good competition. It was Almeda, Kevin Vaklon, Oscar Conley, two of those guys going to Ineos next year.

That's a lot of money, though. I mean, because then we saw, to compare this, we saw what, 10 million, 10 million euro buyout for Juan Yuso. Remko probably close to around that. Derek G. Yeah. Yeah. seven first to run that spencer i i i think i mean this these amounts are out of control man um i mean the thing is now now the the the trend is set right so where this where is this going to stop

i was i thought already seven million for remco is it's a big gamble you know it's a huge gamble because you know basically you're you're buying someone that has to basically lead the team and carry the weight of the whole team. And it, obviously, we're talking about three teams who have, I'm not going to say unlimited, but very deep pockets.

Red Bull has a big budget, a huge budget. Ineos has a big budget. And Little Freck now also have a huge budget with Little now being the majority. the owner of the team. So I still think it's a big gamble, man. Like, I mean, 10 million for Ayuso.

And when you reverse engineer that and say, what would you be happy with? We're talking about three riders who, okay, Remko, I think Remko sticks out because he has a Palmeiras. He's won a grand tour. He's been third in the Tour de France, won monuments. potentially the best time trials of all time. Multiple world champion and in several, you know,

on the road and in the time for our Olympic goals. You know, there is not, there are not many riders that have the same Palmaris. I think it's only Pugachar who's done better. If you look at the victories, you know, the pure victories, I mean, there's nobody else. Maybe you would say to Tour de France's trump's that for Jonas?

Um, for you. I mean, two tours and one Vuelta. Well, yeah, I mean, double Olympic gold, uh, how many, how many will tell time trials it has now? Yes. I think he has four, four, no, one on the road and three in the time trial. Yeah. And an Olympic, yeah, double Olympic gold.

Double Olympic gold trial. A Vuelta. You know, plus he's, he's younger also. A lot of, and a lot of monument success that you. Jonas hasn't had. Question is, Spencer, you know, let's assume Jonas Winkigard all of a sudden is on the market for a transfer. How much would they pay for?

Well, the weird thing about these figures is you just said, IAuso 10 million, Remco, 7 million. I was like, well, what? Why is Juan Aeuso worth 3 million? I think the length of his contract played into that. Remco was an expiring deal. They would have lost them. But does that make any sense?

Why is Oscar Anli 6 million euros and Remco's 7 million euros? Like what's going on here? Some of it seems a little funny. I would have thought, I would have, I mean, for Oscar only, I mean, he's a great writer. But, you know, he's fourth. He's been fourth in the tour. If they would have asked me, you know, how much do you think they're going to pay for him? I would say two and a half, three maximum as a transfer.

But six million. Plus, you know, it's, I don't know, he's going to sign a three-year deal, four-year deal. I don't know. it's going to also going to be a lot of money it's going to be three million minimum yeah i i'm trying to think though if i managed if i was managing eneos the team the cycling team and i i had a mandate to sign the best british grand tour like the the british rider that was most likely to win the tour of france and money's not an issue you can kind of see how the the figures can get that high because there's no second option for you it's oscar only or buck

at this point. Yeah. Yeah, the question is, though, is he going to win the tour? He's young. He's young. He's young. He's 20. Very good.

So we have to look, we have to look, you know, five, six years ahead. And, you know, there's obviously going to be some of those guys. I mean, Bogachar and Jonas are not going to be here for another six years, I think. You know, they could physically, but I think mentally that they're not able to do it for another six years. I don't think so. Well, and you get weird,

you get weird tours. I think of Vincenzo Niebuly, 2014. Who saw that come? You know, just stuff opens up and you can win. Yeah.

And, you know, yeah, yeah, I think the thing that you have to ask yourself is if Oscar only does. Yeah. You have,

yeah, Florian Libowitz who beat Oscar only. Yeah. Who's young also. Who's also young. Yeah. Who, they're not paying six million transfer

fee for. They just signed for free. And then the money they paid them. You know, like that, that shows you why development is so important. If he can spot these riders before they get to that level, it's a huge advantage. I do, I just can't get over this question of if Oscar only doesn't win the tour, how do you feel about that as the team? Are you disappointed? Are you happy with it? Like, what, what could on it, one of you so do in his career that would make them feel good about that $10 million dollar fee, 10 million euro fee. But he needs to win a grand tour. Yeah.

For sure. I mean, maybe multiple. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's, it's that that's tough to live up to that expectation. My, my, my question is, Spencer, I would like to know your opinion on this. So we're talking here about Juan Yuso was young. Remko is still relatively young.

I mean, he's not the youngest, but he's still young. He's 25th, no? I'm cool, I think. He's 26. 26? He was still in the white jersey this year. Well, isn't that 26 and under? It's some ridiculous age.

I don't know. I don't know. Oh, no, no, you're right. He's 25. That's why he was in the white jersey. Okay. So are you still eligible for the white jersey next year? So what's, are you so 23?

Yeah. He's actually been pro longer than you think. Yeah. Or he was 19 and he was third in the Vuelka. So you have 23. Well, you saw 25 for Remko, Oscar only 23. You know, these guys, you would say, well, you know, my question is, how much margin of progress is there still with these guys? How much can they improve?

Yeah. We do seem to look. Sometimes I'm seeing riders and more and more. and even in the younger categories, they get to a point. You say, wow, this is amazing. And all of a sudden, they stagnate. And that's it. What the question is, how much can Ayuso and Remko and Oscar only still get better?

How much? Johan, you've walked into our first question. This is something I think about all the time. Because we assume we see these young riders and we assume a curve of progression that sometimes isn't there. and I think it's becoming less and less common. I mean, think of Uda Brooks. It was, oh, what is this guy going to be? It's like, he might, you might have been,

that might have been the best Oudabrooks we saw at the 20. It was at the 20-23 Volta. It's not, if you are so dialed in at a young age, that might be it. Here's a question. This is from me. I've been wondering about. So blind resume of writers, 19-year-old from France, won zero professional races,

versus a 22-year-old from Mexico, winner of in, he's a podium, podium finisher on a grand tour, winner of, I believe, 19 professional races the last year alone. Who is the better writer now?

And then who will be the better writer at the end of their careers? This is Paul Sechaise and Isaac del Toro. If you go to, if you go to Reddit, it's just, it's assumed that Paul Sechoss is going to be the best writer of all time.

You know, that's the young person, young cycling fans' opinion. Del Toro, the guy's trash. He's never going to do anything. It's like, well, they're only three years apart. Johan, how many riders ever win 19 races in a year? That's like almost never happens. I'm thinking Del Toro over Bolshechass all the time. I completely, this is what I spent Thanksgiving doing,

arguing with teenagers on Reddit about this. Well, you're motivated. But I just, it's like we're looking at a guy that's already at one of his production level for Del Toro is unbelievable. Say Shas maybe was the, he's maybe the best 18 year old we've ever seen. But he still has levels to go before he's even winning races, let alone. He needs to try to first. Let's start with that. Went a race.

Yeah. One thing we know is Del Toro knows how to win races, man. He knows how to win races. He's a racer. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, Cessas is young and he will win races for sure. You know, it's a matter of time.

But it's funny. Now I'm thinking back at this stage in Tour of the Alps, Spencer, where Cetius was gave it away, right? He gave it away to his teammate. Was it Nicola Prudon? Yeah, who then went on to like have a career year. He never won a race and then he went on to win race after race after race and Bosailles just finally didn't win a race. Yes.

Yeah. Which is quite bold to be giving away a professional race when you've never won a professional race. It's. That's being confident, man. I kind of can't believe that. But I think this speaks to. I do think pro cycling at the moment, at least, overestimates, it overvalues potential and undervalues current production.

Simon Yates, your best friend, represents us better than anybody. I mean, he was not the highly thought of. Like you said, that's the biggest transfer of the offseason. I think a lot of people thought, that's a nice domestic. He ends up winning a grand tour, you know, but that's not a sexy acquisition for our, little human brains. So he's like, oh, he's 32 years old. Like, what, I don't lie?

What fun is that? Paul Sechoss. He's 18. Like, he could accomplish anything. And I even think inside the sport, it gets overvalued. You know, it's like, oh, why not use so? What could he do? It's like, well, he's not that much younger than Remcoevenapal, who's already at a level that's

better than most, almost every writer. Think about Inric Moss. If I told you Paul Sehoss had Enric Moss's career, you'd probably say that's a huge disappointment, correct? What percentage of GC riders ever have a better career than Enric Moss? It must be in the single digits, right? Not many. Not many.

Yeah. I mean, I just think people, it's almost a disease of the mind, especially the modern mind, that can't comprehend, it can't correctly peg what success and what's a likely outcome for a prospect. We assume everyone's going to be the next baghacha, Rwin, that's actually very unlikely. It very, does almost never happen. Yeah, for sure. And here's another question for you.

So on the transfers, we're seeing these crazy transfer fees. You know, $6 million for Oscar-onle, $10 million for Wano Uso, $7 million for Remco, which could be worth it based on what we just said. Derek G is going to get, he's going to get a, or NSN's going to get a big old bag for Derek G. There's a lot of money. So both for the team selling and buying. And then you have guys like Cam Jones, who I know personally, I've interviewed

them before. but he's from New Zealand. Who was that? Spencer? He's a gravel racer. He won unbound gravel. Unbound, yeah, gravel, I think is a race. It's like the big gravel race.

And he won the Lifetime Grand Prix, the overall, which is impressive because he had to do well at Leadville. And this guy, he's big. He's 83 kilos. And he got, I think, 10th at Leadville, which is, it's an all-outstoo climbing race. He did a little Christmas Day ride, I believe, 500 kilometers, 13 hours, average power,

302 watts, average heart rate 135. So he's probably in about high zone one for that 300 watt effort for 13 hours. That puts his FTP or like high 400s. Should teams be going after it's like, wow, that's a big engine. Maybe we see what we can do with it. Throw them a couple hundred thousand euros. If it works out, it's great. Maybe you sell them for a ton. If not. Yeah. It's worth the gamble. the question of how old is he? He is. He might be the disease. Yeah, these ages are like diseases.

People don't want to touch him. I think he's 24. 25. Okay. Just turned 25. Yeah. If I mean, yeah. I think the question is, you know, throw him in the pro peloton in Europe.

Is he able to ride in a bunch? Yeah. He is a, he is an ex-World Cup mountain biker. So it's not, he does not. have no skills clearly well that's not the spencer being a mountain biker is no guarantee to be able to ride in a bunch you know there was a guy i mean he ultimately he learned how to ride in a bunch but he was never he never good at it uh cadale evans he was a model he did pretty well though he had some decent results yeah but he was he was terrible in a bunch yeah yeah i do i know that you're

saying that I'm kind of remembering a lot of issues in the bunch it is a unique skill here's of a pro you know then after ultimately he learned he learned it but yeah I listen whatever happened to mean that's not possible anymore in today cycling I think you know you see these guys coming late to the game even Primos you know obviously Primos has issues you know you have this other guy, what's his dad's name? I mean, it's not such a big name, but also came late to the game. This guy Bart Lemon on Visma. Yeah.

You know, they're strong riders, but, you know, and then they're strong in certain races like, you know, point two races and where the bunch is not so strong. And but when you're really in the big races, man, you have to be skilled, man. And whether you have you been a mountain bike or a gravel racer, it's completely irrelevant once you are in a, in a big, in the top of the top races.

That is true. It is a unique skill. It is a different sport. So you have to learn that, not ideal. But I kind of, I'm wondering if these figures are getting, if you're a team like JCO, I mean, do you have any other option? What are you going to do? Like, can't pay $6 million for Oscar only.

Spencer, you're right. I mean, there should be a team who sees these performances and says, hey, you know what? Listen, you say 200. even if they give him 100,000, he's going to take it, you know? Yeah, all expenses paid 100K, which is not the same in gravel. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, there should be a team looking at this and then give it the go, you know. There's nothing to lose.

I agree. I'm actually shocked that guys, part of its timing, too, because he wins unbound in June. You know, a lot of negotiations for 2026 are probably underway. There's not a lot of roster spots. Even at that available. There's always that all spot left, you know, with teams that, you know, they run out of a budget. They have a little bit, a little bit left.

But, you know, then the good riders don't want to come for that amount of money. It's, yeah, I would give it a go. I would too. I'm surprised. Actually, my prediction is that this will become a trend. Let's start, let's start a campaign. Let's be the agent, the pro bono agent of this guy. And just try to find him a team.

If you want to sign Cam Jones, email, info, we do that team and we'll take a cut. Let's have them on the podcast. Let's have them on the podcast. We should have them on the, maybe in January we'll try to get them on here. Very nice guy. And that's important too in pro cycling. Got to be a nice person because people are around you all the time. Before we go, Johan, our Strava mileage challenge.

This is probably final results are close to final. The most important topic of the podcast, but yeah. I hope people stuck around. So this is a disputed. This might have to go to Kass. because Johan on his Strava, on his public Strava, has 12,439 kilometers for the year. I have 12,395 kilometers. So I'm 38 kilometers behind with three days remaining.

That's doable in theory. But Johan's private Strava, unlike his, the feed that he sees, is 12,593 kilometers to my 12,395. That's a difference of 198 kilometers. I don't think I can outride you by 66 kilometers for the next three days if you're also riding 100 kilometers a day. Probably isn't going to happen. I have only two days left. You have three days left, Spencer.

I do have, yeah, because I'm close to the international date line. So I do have an extra day. With that, I do not think I can close the 198 kilometer gap. But that's exactly what someone would say if they had a, plan to do nothing but ride for the next three days. So people will just have to stay glued to our Strava accounts to know. Let's see what the Strava says on the 31st. I think independently, Spencer, I think we've both done well, you know, we've both ridden

a lot and, you know, and have fun on the bike. So we even got the ride together for a little bit. I know. Two weeks ago. So that was fun. It is actually, we were talking privately. It's weird that we both tend to ride right over 12,000 kilometers a year without really thinking about it. That's just where we bet in.

But then we might have talked about this on the podcast. You wonder, like we're creating neural pathways. Like that's what we're used to riding. That's what we do. If you ride with a power meter all the time, I kind of wonder that's holding people back, especially young riders that ride with power meters all the time. You get used to a certain wattage and then you don't push yourself out of a comfort zone. You just think, well, that's what I ride.

I ride 300 watts all the way around, you know, I just ride that for six hours. But could you push yourself more? I don't ride 300 watts all the time. If you're Cam Jones, that's what you're doing. High zone 2, 302 or high zone 1, 300 watts. Zone 2 might be 350. But yeah, that's not what we're doing. But I wonder if that is holding people back because we're clearly falling into this rhythm where we ride 12,000 kilometers a year.

that's obviously a lot. That's more than a lot of people. And it's easy. It is shockingly easy, Johan. If we didn't have this challenge and we stopped riding our bike for a month, we might never get back on. It's very easy not to ride a bike and to get out of the habit. Yeah. Yeah.

But, you know, I mean, once you get into the rhythm and the routine, Spencer, you know, after, I mean, you know, after two or three days, no riding, you just want to go out on the bike if the weather is okay. Yeah. And you live in a place that's not. terrible for riding. That's probably what's what wears most people down. They don't live in ride friendly places and you get out of the habit. But anything else, Johan, before the year ends. It's just past midnight and I mean, I have to go to bed, man, because I have to write. I have to, or otherwise you're coming for me. You got to get out there. It's weird that it's, wow, we're like living in different days.

This is complicates the challenge. Makes it more interesting. But thanks for a great year of a year of great podcasting from you and we'll speak in first i don't know maybe second friday i haven't looked at the calendar we'll speak to the second we will have a show this second week of january coming out okay good all right thank you thanks joan and happy new year to everybody yes happy new year