THEMOVE - Season Highlights 2024 | THEMOVE

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

Lance, George, and Johan reflect back on the most memorable moments from the 2024 cycling season. Listen in to hear what they think about about Tadej Pogačar's  historically dominant cycling season, Jonas Vingegaard’s extraordinary comeback, Marc Cavendish's world record and much more. Zwift: This adjustability makes Zwift Ride perfect for anyone in the house to use and at $1,299.99 it’s a game-changer so head to https://Zwift.com now to check it out. ROKA: Listeners can enter code THEMOVE at checkout to receive a 20% discount on their first order at https://www.roka.com/themove  OneSkin: OneSkin is the world's first skin longevity company. By focusing on the cellular aspects of aging, OneSkin keeps your skin looking and acting younger for longer. Get started today with 15% off using code THEMOVE at https://oneskin.co Ketone-IQ: 30% off your first sub order + free 6 pack when you use the link: https://www.ketone.com/themove  AG1: Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase at https://www.drinkag1.com/themove Helix Sleep: Helix is offering up to 25% off all mattress orders for our listeners! Go to https://helixsleep.com/themove. This is their best offer yet and it won’t last long! With Helix, better sleep starts now.

I know in the beginning of the year, we mentioned perhaps being quite risky to do the Giro with crashes and, you know, peaking too early in the year. And it absolutely had zero effect on his overall performance. In fact, it made him even stronger for the Tour de France. And I also think it'll change the perception of doing two Grand Tours, one right before the Tour de France. a lot more of these top guys perhaps dip their toes in the Giro just to try to get that extra fitness of a Grand Tour behind them before they actually race their main goal of the year which is the Tour de France. Hey everybody welcome back to the Move podcast I'm Lance Armstrong joined by look at that George Hinkappy., it's good to see you again. Great to see you guys. I missed you guys.

It's been a minute since we caught up. It has been a long minute, but it's great to be back on the show. Many minutes. Where have you been? You were in Tucson. You were in I was in Bogota last weekend and then Tucson this weekend.

Two different events. We can't have to keep up with you through social media. Yeah. I did a podcast for Egan and Bernal who, you know, they're, they've spoke very highly of, of our podcast and Johan's podcast La Movida and they're doing their thing down there in Columbia. And it's, it's been, it was fun to be part of it. And yeah, it's actually out now. So it's kind of cool experience.

Cool. And also of course, joined by, uh, uh, our field list leader, Johan Brunel. Johan, what's up? Not much guys. I missed you. It's been a while. It has been a while, but you know, we're in the thick of the off season, uh, for cycling. So, you know, we're, um, hence the reason we're doing the highlight show. And we're going to talk about

the 2024 season, talk about some of the things that stood out the most to us. Uh, it will not be a surprise to anybody that Tadej Pogacar will probably take up a lot of the show, having the season that he had. Hence the background. If you're watching the show on YouTube, you see that background. Johan has got it down. Double Pogacar. But, you know, at a high level, we're talking about a rider who had what is arguably the greatest season in the history of cycling. Yeah, for sure.

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Let's just start talking about Tani Pogacar and how dominant he was. There were other exceptional performances. Let's not forget that. But he was so special this season. Yeah. He started straight away, you know, with Sraddha Bianche. I think we did a show on that.

I think he attacked with 80 kilometers to go or something. We said, wow, we've never seen something like this. And I think we were all in agreement that he had leveled up compared to last year and the year before. And he's shown that throughout the year.

I think, I mean, I would have to go through the whole list, but there's probably two races he has tried to win that he didn't win. He won every other race that he started in with the ambition to win. And so this is the Pogacar show. It's difficult to find other highlights than him. Of course, you know, the Giro and the Tour and the World Championships, the Triple Crowns take out, but he's been the big dominator. And you know, now if you see the comments in the off season, I just read a comment of

the trainer of Jonas Vingegaard and said, you know, we will have to try to work and, and, and tighten the gap to Pugacar, but we may be, uh, against somebody who's unbeatable, which that's a strong statement from the trainer of, of, of Jonas. But, uh, it was exceptional. I mean, I think in modern cycling, this is the cannibal of cycling. Just real quick before George, you chime in, but what were the two races that he didn't win that he wanted to win? Well, there was, um, there was the, the, the first race in Canada, the, the, the, there was two world world two races.

So the first world two race, which was basically his comeback after the gap from the tour, he didn't win that one. And then a stage one in the Giro, uh, stage one in the Giro, which, uh, was won by Jonathan Narvaez. And then there was another stage he tried to win and he lost against Jonas in the sprint where he forgot to eat in the tour. Um, I think those are the three, the three, uh, stages he tried to win. And he had the three races. He tried to win and didn't win. He

won everything, every single one of the other races. Yeah. And I was just going to say, I know in the beginning of the year, we mentioned perhaps being quite risky to do the Giro with crashes and you know, peaking too early in the year. And it absolutely had zero effect on his overall performance. And in fact, it made him even stronger for the Tour de France. And I also think it'll, it'll change the, de France. And I also think it'll, it'll change the, the perception of doing two grand tours, one right before the tour de France.

So I think we'll see a lot more of these top guys, perhaps their, their toes in the zero, just to try to get that extra fitness of a grand tour behind them before they actually race their main goal of the year, which is the tour de France. You know, it's interesting. Those comments by Vinger the Tour de France. You know, it's interesting, those comments

by Wengergaard's trainer. I was just trying to think back to, we never had anybody make those comments about us, right? Comments in the offseason, comments leading up to the Tour, they were always, well, this is the year that

he or that team is beatable, right? Or we see this, or we see that. And we're absolutely, we've, we figured it out, right? That that's, that's, uh, although I don't think it's, it's, I think it's kind of smart to play it that way. I agree. I agree. I mean, if you're Venga garden, the people around him, like just, just, just, uh, you know, try to under or over what am I trying to say here? Under promise over deliver. Um, but wow. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, Jonas is not a guy, you know, he's not known for, you know, strong statements. And I think he's

most comfortable in shadow, you know, working, uh, quietly, um, and then show up and be super strong. So maybe part of the strategy also. But if you think about it, where can you beat Pogacar? He's strong in time trialing. He beats Jonas this year in all the time trials.

Let's not forget Jonas. Of course, he had this horrible crash and was not in my opinion, not 100%, although his performances say that he strongest performance ever, which is for me, one of the, one of the biggest highlights of the year. I was going to say that makes it a highlight. I mean, that's definitely a highlight. I mean, coming back from a horror crash in April, um, perforated lung or collapsed lung and a bunch of fractures and, uh,

and coming back and being at that level, especially the first part of the tour, he was, you know, quite equal with, uh, with, with today. And, uh, and then seeing the numbers and plot of the bay doing his best performance ever, uh, in his cycling career. career uh that's definitely a highlight that's like wow that's insane um you know there's i want to see if you know the scoop on this i mean the one race or the really the one event he didn't win whether it's the road race or the time trial or both is the olympic games he didn't win he didn't win either of those but he didn't go

i wasn't done talking i mean he didn't win because he that was the the reason was he he sat out now i heard the other day i can't remember who told me but there was you know as the kids say somebody who spilled the tea you say that or your kids say that over there in Madrid? Oh yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah. I know it because I have small kids.

So yeah. Yeah. It's like gossip. Yeah. So my, I got the tea or there was some tea that he, that he was upset that they didn't, his wife didn't make the Olympic team. That's correct.

And, but I had not heard that until somebody told me this week that, that he was miffed that they didn't select her. I don't know if that was how that all went down, but that's the reason you can go to the Olympic games. I mean, that's, I mean, I don't know who's picking the Olympic team in Slovenia.

Yeah. But if I have a hunch that that's, what's going to happen, you know, Mrs. Pogacar is probably on the team all of a sudden. Yeah. Plus she was, you know, that's, that's not, I don't know. What happened? She's, she was a Slovenian champion by the way. Yeah. So they say it was not a course for her. I, I, I, I, I agree probably with that, but still it was,

you know, any championship is hard. And I don't think in Slovenia, there's, there's that big of a choice. And if you're Slovenian champion, you must be somewhat good. Right.

I think it was a combination probably, you know, he was obviously wanted to have some rest after the tour, a lot of stress. No, knew that he was going to prepare for for the worlds which was definitely a course for him the course in paris was not his favorite course although it's hard to imagine that if he would have been at the start that he wouldn't have been with the top guys with remco or with uh with those guys so um but yeah i mean i've heard also that the reason why he didn't go was because his, uh,

his wife was not selected and that he just said, okay, then I'm staying home too. Yeah. And let's not forget, I mean, how exhausted you are after tour de France. Yes. He was never, he never showed any weakness, but I mean, at some point you got to take a break and he's, he's already national hero from where he's from he's won everything you can possibly win so perhaps the olympics uh were not quite as important as the world championships and the tour de france and the giro for a guy like that that's already a

national hero i mean you got to pick and choose uh when you can take a break in a long season like that and i think like you said his season was the best that we've ever seen so it's hard to criticize anything he's done yep and speaking of the olympics and i think it also has to be one of our highlights was just the the performances of remco and not just the obviously the time trial but also the road race i mean just head and shoulders above everybody else and not dissimilar to the way um uh paddy races a lot i mean you mentioned strata bianchi the one thing that you left out that we were so surprised about early this season was he announced before the race where he was going to attack i mean that's just that's unheard of and i think he did a similar thing at the world championships. So, Hey, everybody, here's where I'm going to go.

I make it an appointment. Anybody wants to show up, I'll be there. That that's, that's crazy. I mean, Ren Remco was equally as confident before the Olympic games. He was, he was ready. So I think Johan, correct me if I'm wrong. And cycling has changed dramatically. Gone are the days where you start a race and you go,

maybe we're going to go easy the first 30, 40 kilometers, see what happens. I mean, tactically, you are now guaranteed for full gas starts and pretty much every race you do. And I think that's changing a lot of the tactics moving forward because ultimately all these races are becoming races of attrition. Strongest guy is most likely going to win where back in the day, there was a lot of tactics given to play, which team was going to chase down the early break,

which team carried the most. I think now the racing has gotten so hard that this is a huge advantage for guys like Tajay who are just that much stronger. Yeah, I mean, it's true. Everything has changed. If you look back, I think the last three years, all the monuments and ground tours have been won, I think, by six riders. There's nobody else except those six riders who won all the monuments and all the Grand Tours.

So it's true what you say, George. It's full gas from the start. There's no more the first two hours, the first 100 kilometers. Easy, let's see what happens. That's finished. And so it's normal that it's only the big, big engines who can win those races. And that's probably also why Pogacar was so dominant. I mean, he was head and shoulders above everybody else.

And I do think, however, that the Olympic Games, the Olympic games, um, if, I mean, if you, I don't know, I can't speak for nowadays riders, right. But if you look on the list of priorities of cyclists, I'm going to say that the world championships and the tour de France and the Giro, and potentially one of those big monuments like Flanders Roubaix is ahead on the list than the Olympic road race. Just real quickly, another reason that is for cycling

alone is that in the Olympics you're essentially racing against 30% of the good guys you're normally racing against because each country is represented so you have maybe 40-50 guys that are at world world tour level. The rest are guys that they never even really race against.

So it does make the, the proceeds a bit less in terms in the mind of cyclists, I think as like, like you pointed out as well. Yeah. And, and we, when people can debate on whether or not this is a good thing for cycling, I mean, it is what it is. I think we're the last people to jump on that

bandwagon. Our job was to perform and do the best for our team and our sponsors. The way it shakes out, a lot of times it's like, here we go again. I mean, but not like

Tony Pogacar cares about that. He's kind of. Yeah, no, no. I mean, it's pure dominance, but then again, I mean, you know, it's of course cycling is very diverse and there's always a lot of participants, but if you look at every other sport, it's the same thing. It's also the same guys who win all the time. Yeah. Look at tennis, look at track and field, you know, look, look, it's always the same guys. So, um, I think it's only normal. Um, but anyways, I mean,

Bogota obviously, you know, one that's the huge highlight, his season, I would say the triple crown. Uh, what else guys, what else do you have? Uh, George, what do you have that sticks out? We're going to get into a few others um there are so there are a few others uh and i also want to talk about the tour de france fam vex swift because i think we all thought that was just an incredible ending um but before we do today's show also brought to you by ketone iq now ketone iq delivers clean fuel that can cross the blood-brain barrier supplying your brain and body sustained energy, focus, and sharpness, putting you in flow, lasting for hours. I'm going to tell you a funny story.

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how many times Lance calls me bougie. Now we're talking about playing golf with professional golfers on Michael Jordan's course. And he just drops that into an ad read. Wow. Who is Mr. Bougie now? Mr.

Bougie. We have a new, a new Mr. Bougie champion on the show right here. Lance Armstrong. I think he still has a while to go. So I want to go back to my personal highlight of the year. One of my personal favorites is Matteo Jorgensen. I mean, winning Dwayne's Doors,

Landeren, semi-classic right before the Tour of Flanders when all of the best classics riders are there. They're at their peak fitness. It's a very important race. Granted, it's not, you know, a World Cup race, but still for an American to win that solo, I loved watching that. And then he wins Paris-Nice. Granted, it's not a World Cup race, but still for an American to win that solo. I loved watching that.

And then he wins Paris-Nice. He won Paris-Nice before that. So Paris-Nice, Swaziland. I mean, this is one of the most complete riders that we've seen come out of the United States in a long time. And a personal highlight of mine to watch him, the season that he had you know the other interesting thing george is and of course we get a lot of uh questions from our listeners about the next the next great one for american cycling or or when who it is when it is etc i think the thing and yes he did do all those things but this he's mateo's had some years of some results I think the thing that stands out for me is that he is now a part of the conversation right no matter and it's seemingly

outside of perhaps the grand tours anything outside of that if he's in the race they lump his name in there as somebody that could win which it has been a long time since an American cyclist could say that. Yeah. And so he's, he's a legitimate contender for just about any race he enters. He's got a great attitude. He always races, doesn't care.

Let's not forget, you know, also second in Dauphiné barely beaten by Primoz Roglic, I think six, six or eight seconds. And I heard he was on a podcast with Geraint Thomas the other day and Geraint said that

he could finish, he sees him finishing on the podium of any Grand Tour in the future. I'm with him. Geraint Thomas, I think he knows what the current cycling is about and the future looks bright for him. Yeah.

Hey, we, you know, there were other, I mean, Taddy Pogacar did, these are harder to measure. These are more editorial where we say this is the greatest season a cyclist has ever had. What is not editorial or opinion is the result that Mark Cavendish had this year. I mean, to break the all-time record for Tour de France stage wins, that has to sit up there in our season highlights. So much was talked about.

So much build up to this. And really, I think a lot of people just not believing that he could do it. And it happened, right? It's been one of those things we can, you know, you live to, to look back on and you say, wow, I'll never, I'll never forget sitting there during the tour, down in the basement, watching the race and just our reaction. And it's fun to go relive it through pictures. And so we all might have to insert that into that because that was really

special to be part of that. I mean, look, we have a personal, all of us have a personal relationship with Mark Cavendish. All of us were cheering and rooting for Mark Cavendish. And we all said, I think, look, let's be honest. We all said at the tour preview show that we thought it would happen. We didn't want to be the person to say, nah, I don't think so. Let's be honest there was there was a part of us that was was cheering for our friend more than we were being realistic uh but it happened and i think that reaction that

we had in that emotion it was it was so special and for as long as we live we're never well i shouldn't say that because pogachar is pogach but it's going to be a long time before somebody breaks that record. Yeah. I think, you know, as, as our, the careers that we all had on the show, we understand, you know, all those moments of hard work, sacrifice, doubt, self-doubt that probably went into that year leading up to that moment where he won. Yeah. The fancy and when they got the record, but we all understand how hard it is mentally and physically to get to that moment where he won. Yeah, the fans see him win. They got the record, but we all understand how hard it is mentally

and physically to get to that level. At that age, you know, still winning against the best sprinters in the world is something we've never witnessed in the history of cycling. And, you know, it was just amazing to watch him throughout this year. He won a stage in Tour Colombia,

obviously not with the best sprinters in the world. And just a lot of doubt circulating amongst the Peloton, whether or not he'd be able to reach that level of the tour. And it was a super fun to witness him do that. And yeah, that's something that I know that we'll never forget. You know what I'll never forget is when he was with us in Mallorca, um, it's been a couple of years now. Um, and he was looking for a team.

We were all sort of like, well, what about this team? And no, they're not interested. Well, what about that team? Surely that now you talk to them. They're not. I mean, it was just a sound of defeat. And there was these people like this. This is such a great story.

How is somebody not getting on this bandwagon? And were going down the list now talk to him i think i'm going to go to this small french team and i'm just thinking what this isn't and then he did and then that team folded and then he ends up at astana but all of that takes such uh grit to forget winning bike races. Obviously that takes grit, but to hang in there and just take the punches of those called where people say, nah, we're good. We're full. We don't need a sprinter. We don't care about history, a record being broken. Best of luck. That's another unfortunate thing we've witnessed in the sport of cycling,

the change in how important points are. It's not about just winning one witnessed in the sport of cycling, the change in how important points are. It's not about just winning one stage in the Tour de France. Breaking the record is how many points are you bringing to the table and how much is that worth for these teams, especially the teams in the lower levels of the Pro Tour. They're in survival mode to get riders that are consistently getting the top tens and scoring those points and bringing them in the upper echelons of the pro tour. Unfortunately, that's, that's what the reason why he probably did not get 10 contract offers because

it's all about the points these days, even though he was on the brink of create or of creating history for cycling. It's all about the points these days. Hey, another, another, another highlight guys. I mean, it's easy to, you know, to forget it's, it's been a while ago, another highlight, guys. I mean, it's easy to forget. It's been a while ago, but for me, Mathieu Van Der Poel winning Flanders and Roubaix, not just winning it, being the world champion in the rainbow jersey

and winning it both times with absolute dominance was definitely a highlight, which I have rarely seen. Winning the double already is difficult, but to win it like that, given his big rival, Walt Von Aert, was not there because of his terrible crash, but still everybody else was there. And the way he won those two races for me was really a huge highlight of this season. Yeah, agreed. I mean, up to Koppenberg and it was an old

school vintage Koppenberg, wet, muddy, probably 50% of the peloton walked up it or ran up it. Everybody but three riders. Okay, so 99% of the peloton. And he, I think he went over the top like, I think Jürgensen was the last

guy there kind of right behind him. But once he got over that, he was already 30 seconds out of the field and then they never saw him again. So yeah, the dominance in that race was quite impressive to watch and very similar in Roubaix for that matter as well. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And then lastly, Cassian Iwadoma. And I, and I think there's, it's really a, there's two parts to this highlight for me, is her actually beating Demi Vollering at the Tour de France FEM of X Zwift. But taking a step back, the way the course was set up and structured

and the way the stages were set up and having Alpe d'Huez being the final day, all of the strategy and the timekeeping that went into, you know, if you remember the stage, she was dropped. It was easy for her to, Neodoma was dropped. It would have been easy for her to say, well, I guess that's it. She, she kept her composure. She got refueled. She got, got it back together and then made another move or limited her losses on Elk the West. Nobody saw that coming, but it was just such a, it was amazing. It was, I had a blast watching that stage, which actually just added up to the entire

race. stage which actually just added up to the entire race um so intense as a fan and and i had no idea actually what was gonna happen but um a real highlight for me and and tough also tough to see for demi who who i'm a huge fan of and and just you know you can you can go back and assess what happened that day tactically. Did she go too early? Did she spend too much? Probably, but... I also go into the team dynamics, you know, in hindsight, you know,

you could say, well, did they know already she was leaving another team? Let's not forget there was a crash early in the tour. Nobody waited for her, for her team. And so, you know, that we, we would never know what happened there, but, but anyway, you know, she, she gave, she gave it her all. And she, I think she came short like four or six seconds. I don't remember now. It's a matter of seconds. And by the way, Johan on that crash, it wasn't, it wasn't, if I were advising her, I mean,

when she got up and took inventory of everything's okay, let's get moving again. She just took too long. She took too long. I agree. A hundred percent. We were watching this going, what? And we talked about it with the ladies on the tour de france family vicks with show like what are you like as long as you stand up and everything's moving and you roll your bike around and it

feels like it's moving you have to go now if something breaks well then you can fix that while you're going or change it while you're going but get up and go that was the race the race standing there. I could see that with 100K to go, still a couple hours left in the race, but this was less than 10K to go. There was nobody going to wait. Like you said, Johan, even her teammates didn't wait, which

we don't know what was happening there, but for Tour de France defending champion not have any teammates there waiting for you or not every teammate waiting for you I think her teammate ended up winning the stage but still yeah just it was odd

and also I mean we all know how hard that valley is in between what was the second last time the Madeline or the Glendone I mean I just wrote it last year you don't want to be on your own in that Valley under any circumstances. And then Neal Madoma was in the back. She got help from other teams.

I mean, it's just, it was sort of a perfect storm in terms of the help that she got was able to perhaps save a little bit of energy and go all in where, um, Volorin had to go full gas in that Valley alone. And that is a brutal Valley to be doing most of the work on. I know. Cause I've done it many times for this guy over here. Yeah.

You're on or no, um, it's good. It's shaping up. It's going to be interesting, right? Demi leaves. Um, um, we have new, you know, uh, you know, uh, Fred Reeks coming in like women's cycling is gonna, there's, it's going to be interesting. Yeah. Yeah.

What else, what else stands out? Johan, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're a sensei. I think, I think we've covered most of it. I mean, I just would, I mean, it's not a big, uh, doesn't really come to the attention, but I just want to mention the season, overall season of Ben O'Connor. Yeah. You know, I have a list here of his performances. So he started the season very early.

He won the Tour of Murcia. Then he got second in the Tour of UAE, fifth in Tireno, second in Tour of the Alps, fourth in the overall of the Giro, second in the Vuelta. He became world champion mixed relay, whatever that means, and second in the world championships

on the road. That's quite the season for a guy that we all have this image of him being a whiner in the Netflix series. I think he got portrayed really in a wrong

way there. But what a season he had. Now with him changing to Jacob, it's going to be interesting to see if he can keep that up and be the leader of that team. He and be the leader of that team. He will be the leader of the team, but

amazingly solid season for Ben O'Connor. Yeah, agreed. I mean, second in the world to second in the world. Like you said, Johan, just from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. So incredibly impressive to watch and it'll be great to see how he reacts being now the true defined leader of a team. How he'll ride in the Grand Tours. be great to see how he reacts being now the true defined leader of a

team how he how he'll ride in the grand tours you know when did he sign the jaco deal what what what part of the scene i think was before the volta already um but still i mean that gets you you know through two-thirds of the season that that just goes to show you get a guy who you know you've had some good results you're on a team you're the leader of the season that, that just goes to show you get a guy who, you know, you've had some good results. You're on a team, you're the leader of the team. And they say, we're going to move on. Yeah. All the best say, okay, well, I'm not moving on. I'm going to, I'm going to double down. You know, this is, this is my job and, and, and it's a new motivation. So I will give him that. I love to see that in a writer.

I think he delivered there at that. Now they got one 82 hour, you know, he got fourth in the tour, fourth in the Giro, second in the Vuelta, second in the worlds. I think he,

you know, he fulfilled his contract in my opinion. To George's earlier point, because you were talking about how important it is for points. I mean, everything you just listed off, he must be top five in the world right now. I don't know where he is, but he must be pretty high up. Yeah. Yeah.

I would think with those. Yeah. All right. Well, Johan, I know it's not Thanksgiving in Spain, but have a happy Thanksgiving over there. Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving. You and all my American friends. Have some Turkey and some stuffing and some, you know,

whatever. When is it? When is that? Thursday. It's always on a Thursday. Okay. All right. Cool.

It's you know why? Because Thanksgiving starts with a T and Thursday starts with a T. It's just been that way for a long time. Yeah. Right. And that's why you guys eat Turkey with a T and Thursday starts with a T. It's just been that way for a long time. Yeah, right. And that's why you guys eat turkey with a T. That also starts with a T. And George

will be drinking tequila with a T. Perhaps, yes. Sounds good. Okay, guys. Thanks for tuning in. Thank you, guys. All right, boys. Thanks for tuning in. Thank you guys. Great to see you.