THEMOVE - The Best Bike Race in a Decade? | World Road Race Championship | THEMOVE

Episode Date: September 28, 2026

Lance, Johan, and Spencer Martin (aka The Professor) break down Brandon McNulty's incredible win to take the first American world road title since Lance's title 33 years ago, diving into how McNulty used a moment of hesitation to launch a long-range solo move to foil the higher-profile favorites behind. They debate USA's newfound cycling superiority, what happened to the Belgian squad, and whether this win will kick off a new era for the US talent in the race, which put three riders inside the top ten. Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team Blueprint: Science-backed, precision-dosed, no BS. For a limited time only, our listeners get 20% off + free shipping at https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com by using code THEMOVE at checkout. That's code THEMOVE at https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com for 20% off.  After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. PLEASE support our show and tell them our show sent you. AG1: For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at https://DRINKAG1.com/THEMOVE MOD: Visit https://MOD.com for a free consultation and get 10% off your first order PLUS free shipping with promo code THEMOVE. Odoo: Stop paying for missing pieces. Go to https://Odoo.com Chubbies: For a limited time, Chubbies is giving our viewers $20 off your full price purchase with our code THEMOVE at https://chubbiesshorts.com and that INCLUDES the NFL by Chubbies collection. Support our show and tell them we sent you! Stand out from the crowd and Level up your gameday wardrobe with Chubbies. Fatty15: Fatty15 is on a mission to support Healthy Aging for All, including all ages and stages of life. You can get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription Starter Kit by going to https://fatty15.com/THEMOVE and using code THEMOVE at checkout.

The American team was the strongest team in the race. Yeah. Quinn Simmons present. Yeah. Following Matthew Vanderpool on every surge in acceleration and attack. I was like, oh, okay. Then, Johan, you are exactly right. Jorgensen was, I mean, if we're handing out grades for performances today,

Mateo Jorgensen A++. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the Move podcast. Oh, what a day. What a day. Talking about the 2026 UCI World Road Racing Championships in Montreal, Canada.

Of course, I'm joined by the greatest to ever live, Johann Bruniel, who's in Belgium. You know, there's a lot of these guys on the show. You always have to check in where they are. You just never know, right? Guys like Johann George, George,

you definitely never know. Oh, yeah, you don't know. Spencer, it's always a pretty good bet where Spencer is. Anyhow, Johan, great to see you. Great to see you too. Nice to talk about racing again. And about race.

It's been a minute. Anna walked in, she was like, you're watching a bike race? Because there's a lot on. It's a Sunday. It's a Sunday in America, right? I actually was watching three sports at one time. I had split screen.

I was watching the bills and the chargers. The other half of the screen, I had the President's Cup on, full transparency still have on. America's making a nice comeback. Great day for America. And then on my iPad, I had the world's on. So I was watching three sports.

Anyhow, also joined by the professor Spencer Martin, who is, you're in Montreal. Yeah, I was just at the race, the World Road Race Championships. Broba George this morning. Listen, Brandon McNulty, we have talked about Brandon McNulty so many times on this show.

And, you know, his, the record, show that we are are and always have been a huge fan of this young man. He has an incredible engine. He's, from what I can see sitting on a couch watching a bike race, he's been an incredible teammate to the greatest of all time, Taddy Pocachar. And boy, did he have a day? What?

I mean, I was like, what are we seeing? Let me just, I'm going to get out of the way here in a second, but I just want to say something real quick. and I'm just watching some of the highlights here on the screen. It's so incredible. Today was the most exciting bike race we've seen in five years. That's my opinion. I would agree.

I would agree. For sure. And look, you can only point to one thing, which we're going to talk about. We have to talk about. But this is what a professional bike race at this level looks like. And I'm not wishing for this. I'm not saying anything, but this is what it looks like without Tatea Pokachar. Now, that is, the exciting part was mostly good.

There are other parts that stuck out to me so strongly that I'll get into later. But net net, hell of a race. Folks, you were treated to a real, that is a real bike race today. Yeah. And I think, you know, Spencer and I did a preview on Friday, you know, and I said, you know, the world championships is such a special race because it's 270K, but on a circuit, which is different than a monument. It's a repetition of efforts.

And today, I think we saw the proof. You know, it was the, I call it the festival of exploded legs in the final. This is the world. You know, after 250 kilometers, you saw guys exploding left, right and center. And finally, I mean, listen, McNulty did amazing. I mean, once he went away, he was, he was in his own time trial mode. They came, what, did they come to, what, 10 seconds, 12 seconds at some point? It was 10 seconds on that last lap.

Yeah. Yeah. But you see also, you know, a young talent like McNulty, if I say young talent, this guy was world champion juniors. You know, he was the best junior in the world in his junior period. And he's, you know, it's always been very good. Amazing teammate that already some really good races and won some nice races. But, you know, at some point it comes out and you have that amazing result.

circumstances were a little bit in his favor. But man, he fought for that. I mean, how long was he in front? Like 35K or something? Yep. I think 33K or something. Yeah. Yeah.

That's pretty incredible. Yeah. I mean, he's kind of like, you were there. Yeah. And I don't know where you were or how your access was to, I'm sure you were in front of a TV to be able to see it. How was this playing out in real life? Well, it's a little like.

You know, when you're at a race, it's kind of this constant anxiety. You don't really feel like you know what's going on. It's just like stuff happening. But from like 100K to go, you know, I was like in a VIP area looking right over the start finish. I could see everybody come through. I saw, you know, there was this event. Evan a poll.

I don't quite understand what France was doing, Johan. So they come into town. They do a hundred-k-lop outside. Very early. France is already on the front. I'm thinking like, well, that's kind of weird. And then France is drilling it. It looks like they're setting up a pagachar attack.

And then France comes off the front. They run out of guys. And then Larry Warbust is on the front for the U.S. with 100K to go. I'm thinking that's kind of, it's a little strange. Like the U.S. is now leading this race. And then France, I think it was Alex Bodon from EF. I feel like he pushed the pace a little too much.

He kind of pulls Evanapole off the front. It kicks off the series of events that sees Vanderpull, then force a selection that Evanapult misses. But then this is like entering the endgame of the race, essentially, with 85K to go. And from that point on, Lance, I mean, you're seeing these guys come to the start, finish. And, you know, when they came through early in the race, like, wow, they're going so fast. They're coming through later.

It's like, these guys are tired. You could see how tired they were. They were, it was brutal. Like, I rode the course last night. My first thought was like, this is maybe harder than Johann and I made it out to be in our preview. Like, I don't think we did this course justice. And you could just see the fatigue. Like, even when a guy like, wow, Van Art looks physically, like exhausted.

You could see Evanapult looked exhausted. And then, you know, Quinn Simmons was up there with, it was Vanderpull, Quinn Simmons, Roglitz and Oscar Onley for a while. And then you have Mateo, he's marking moves. But if you were paying attention, he said, hmm, McNulty looks pretty comfortable in that chase group. And then it was a classic thing when, you know, in Healy bridges up. I was thinking, well, there's too many guys up there now. They're not going to work together.

Now Healy's attacking them. It comes back together, a little bit of a lull. Like, I'm sure you guys could feel it. And when McNulty went, he had a ton of motors in front of us. them like you could see all these motives coming to the start finish and my first thought was like well he's going to win because he's like he's timed this perfectly there's a little bit of hesitation behind and it sounds like it's a long way from the finish but when you're watching the race all day you're like well we're so far into it that there's nothing left to chase them so I thought

it was like a perfect perfectly time move and people were we're quite you would think like who is it chilly chilly relations because we're north of the border but people were quite excited in the attempt for McNulty. Well, you see when McNulty went, sorry, Lance, you know, at that point, there's already no more cohesion. You know, there's no teammates left. And that's basically what, and then on top of that, shout out, big shout out to Mateo Jorgensen for, he's the guy who made McNulty win, right?

He had an amazing day, he had amazing legs. He was key. And then it was all individuals. You know, we saw a big marking between Del Toro and Seixas initially. These two guys looked like they were the only guys who could correct the situation. But finally, we saw Sextas explode with cramps. Del Toro getting dropped and coming back. But at that point, it was clear that if McNulty could keep his same pace.

And I think you guys said that in the interview, he said he was doing Zone 2 on the last climb. We don't know exactly what that translates to. but it was a matter of keeping it. Yeah. It was a matter of keeping the consistent effort going. That was all he had to do. And yeah, I mean, that's that was, that was an amazing win, man. I mean, nobody would have thought that McNulty would have won this, right?

He was on, he was on some long lists, right? Is a real, real outsider. I mean, you also have to talk about Quinn Simmons. I mean, he was in, and I would, you know, even broaden it from there and just talk about the American team. If you look, if you watch the last 150 kilometers of the race, the American team, and of course,

I'm saying this just as an observer, not, not some flag-waving freak. The American team was the strongest team in the race. Yeah. It Quinn Simmons present. Yeah. Following Matthew Vanderpul on every surge in acceleration and attack.

I was like, oh. okay then Johan you are exactly right jorgensen was i mean if we're handing out grades for performances today uh matthello jorgensen a plus plus incredible and then obviously mignulty to have the heads up um tactical awareness to just this is what happens when i when i when you think about and it just you know for those at home you guys know this but for those at home you just you have to consider this is this is a world championship. This is not a trade team race. This is a national team race.

So it's different, right? National teams are oftentimes, they just cannot be ever as strong as a trade team, right? Case in point, Deltoro. I mean, the Mexican national team can never, in the history of the world, be as strong as his trade team. So it's different. But at the same time,

there's some blending there, right? There's always in the back of your mind going, and we actually saw this a couple of years, or maybe it was at the Olympics, I think, with McNulty and Pogacar, wondering if perhaps you have to have a tip of the cap, even as McNulty in that position at the time,

to Pocach, because he's on the same trade team. He's wearing a different jersey for the Olympics, but there's still that allegiance. So it's interesting to watch. But as teams go, USA, I thought they were the best team in the race, I thought. And those three guys, I mean, they were exceptional. Three in the top ten. I mean, yeah, you're right.

Exactly. Was the strongest team. They foiled everybody at every turn. Impressive. Also, when McNulty was up the road, you have then helped Del Toro on the front. But I would bet Del Toro is not giving it as all to chase down. It's like a secret teammate, his own trade teammate. Also reflects well in Brennan McNulty that like in the first two races that his team leaders

out, what he finishes fourth at Montreal and then first today. So this guy, he doesn't really have a sprint. He can only win solo and he's a Domest Deacon. He's won 23 Pro wins. So that tells you he's pretty dang good at winning when he gets the chance. Johan, not our favorite. We did mention him in the preview. And actually looking at these results, it's a little obvious too.

because McNulty, he won this race in 2025 on the exact same circuit, the GP Montreal. He was very good here two weeks ago. And then Michael Matthews, he's Mr. Quebec. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you look Spencer at the top, the top rider. So, you know, initially we all thought, okay, it's too hard for the punchers. It's too hard for the all rounders.

It's, you know, it's going to be the El Toro, Sexas, and Remko. Those were the three names that were, they came out, right? Well, if you look at the results, McNulty, you could say he's a climber, but he's an all-rounder. Michael Matthews was not on anybody's prognostic. Mati van der Poole.

I picked Mati van der Poole, but a lot of people had doubts about Mati van der Poole because it was too hard. Quinn Simmons, Isaac Deltor, Matt Spatterson. That's what? Where did he come from? So, I mean, it was an interesting court.

I mean, I loved this race. It was great. Even if we knew that McNulty was going to win. But, you know, what happened behind, you know, the changing in the situation. Well, I don't know. I don't, we didn't know. I mean, at the point, they had him within nine or 10 seconds. I mean, I, I had the worst thoughts. They could have caught him, Johan. It was right there. But I guess in that moment, if you have a second, you have a minute, because they can't, no one can agree to close you down. Yeah. And then whoever does the job basically sacrifices his chances for, you know,

a potential win. Also, I want to, I want to mention a big disappointment today for Team Belgium, you know. They were announced as the strongest team, two leaders. Remko finishes 12th. They could never, never put their stamp on the race. Yeah, that was definitely a big disappointment. I think they were way too confident before the race. And then, yeah, I mean, initially it worked out okay.

Walt Von Art was in that move, so Remko could sit back, but. For some reason, in his interview, Evan Poole said that from the very beginning already, he felt that he didn't have a great day, which was a surprise to me. But shows you know, on the coverage here in the U.S., they, one of the guys, I think it was a niece who had pulled out of the race told the team staff that Remko was saying he was, he didn't feel well. it was having a bad day. Yeah.

And sure shit, as soon as he said that, he kind of, you know, then he goes across to another group. Next thing you know, he's attacking. I'm like, wait a minute. Are we getting, I was sort of like, this will be cool. If he's just, you know, pulling one of those old moves. Yeah. But at the end, yeah, just didn't, uh, didn't have it.

No, but you could clearly see that, you know, when even when, when father pool was in front with, with Roglich and, and, uh, Oscar only. and Healy, the two guys behind the two of the big favorites, say Sass and Del Toro were still very active. And they were trying to correct the situation. Remko just didn't have the legs at any point to follow any of those moves. So you could see that this was not going to be his day.

Let's take a quick break for our sponsors and supporters. And we are back. You know, the one thing I wanted to, as I'm just watching this unfold, And of course, there was, you know, I don't think this goes down as a race or a victory from Brenda McNulty that was a race without Taday Pokachar. But it was. That doesn't change the significance of his win. But what is significant, as I was watching, is it's almost like, and we're not talking about people that don't have experience. and don't, but it is as if this group, especially the favorites, and maybe I'm really just talking

about the favorites, they didn't know how to race a bike race without him in the race. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was, I mean, look, remember that first acceleration from Matthew Vanderpool? I thought, oh, no. Okay, this is going to be one of these days. This is just going to be Taday's fill in performances like that, acceleration is just domination. And it didn't happen. and and but but you go down the list of sort of let's just call them the big five six or seven favorites

I was like I think they were confused without having his presence which is the ultimate compliment it I was it was a head scratcher for me it's also I mean I don't know I mean I have my thoughts on that I mean Lance I think you would probably disagree with me but you know that for me this is also what makes the world championship is different, right? It's it's national teams. And I've been saying this for a long time and especially in today's modern cycling. I think it does not make sense anymore to write with a national team with, you know, riders who have to sacrifice themselves for a rival on another team who will go away with the biggest price of the year. And he will write as a rival, you know, on another team the whole season. Number one. And then on

top of that, the big difference also, which changes the races is, you know, no race communication. You know, this is what makes it special. And I don't know if you guys saw Spencer, but I don't know if you saw the system that in Belgium had installed. Looks, I mean, we're in the 21st century, man. So bottles, bottles with stickers on it, with messages say. Not a bad idea. Yeah, but come on. It's a bit, you know, it's a bit prehistoric, no? Yeah. It's like when you're doing the crits and the guy, have the guy with the chocolate.

board like what are we doing here i mean isn't it does have a charm but i think i think in modern cycling where you know the commercial interests are so big you can't compare this for example with if you say the world cup football or soccer you know so it's a team it's a country that wins it's a team here it's one guy who wins yeah so i'm i'm personally i'm struggling with you're talking about two things you're you're one one you know one path is talking about what i'm hearing is just make the world championship a trade team race yeah okay So we'll park that for a sec. And the other path is talking about a race that did not have race radios.

Now, for those who are listening today, which I find this hard to believe, who have never watched a bike race and never listen to the show, every bike race has communication. The riders communicate with each other. The team car communicates with the riders and the riders can communicate with the team car. So there's a lot of communication. Now, there is this old traditional faction. of the sport that thinks that we should do away with race radio and we should do away with power meters

and we should blah blah all these things now why do they say we should take these all of these things away why they say because it'll make the racing more exciting well guess what guess what they're saying today see yeah i told you so now there's a lot of other factors that go into what make a race exciting or but you bet your ass they're sitting at home going see this is what happens right look at it wasn't this great um but yeah it was and it was yeah i look i'm i i think the race i think that race would have unfolded exactly the same way in terms of excitement with race radio i was just going to ask you you guys what so let's say there are race radios like what's a being communicated and b does it change the race that happened today no it wouldn't have changed a lot i mean the race first of all the

racing on circuits. So, you know, the whole aspect of safety and security out of the window. You don't need to be informed about the course because you know the course. And when it really mattered, we're talking about 20-30 riders. Exactly. They knew exactly what was going on. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. But it makes for different racing, you know, like for just one example.

When the situation is that we have Walt Vonart in the front and then you have Ramcoe sitting in the back. Walt Vonard gets dropped from those three riders from Van der Poole and Roglitch and Healy and only Remko doesn't know that necessarily until he sees it up the road right so anyway it would have mattered because both of them didn't have the legs to be a factor in the final right but those are things that you can say well this you can be informed there but anyways the race radios is one thing I think it changes the race

the trade teams is another thing it also will never happen that it will change because it's the federation it's never happening this is this is the way of survival for federation so it will never happen but well what this is because this is what this is what keeps them tied in some i mean this is basically the olympics in a non-olympic year exactly yeah for all intents purposes so this keeps them tied to the iOC yeah and and and and and the USOC and all the other national OCs or whatever they are. Plus, it's the main source of revenue of the UCI. Brandon McNulty better be glad that nobody was into you a long time ago.

Exactly. And this was a national team race because if this was a trade team race, he would have been working from the get-go for Del Toro. Yes, exactly. Yeah. And so, yeah, I don't, I mean, I think we're, you know. Lance Wait till you hear this. Slaves off their vest.

So I will say, I don't, like, I don't have a bone to pick with the UCI. And I thought Montreal was a great host of the race. Like the level of, this is going to sound crazy. I would say Tulsa Tough, which is a series of criteriums in Tulsa, felt is my opinion, felt more professionally put together than this race. like you know Tulsa Tough has big screens every 200 meters right you the race is everywhere there's food and beverage options I don't know it just feels a little like I just felt a little I just had Lance in my head the whole time like can you believe this like Scotty Sheffler would have a better setup than this this is well I mean look it's funny I was flying back this

morning from a golf trip um and we're flying back with my buddy And he's one of these sports betters. He's got all these apps, you know, all the usuals, right? Plus Calci, et cetera, et cetera. I say, look on there and see, you know, can we make some bets on the world championship of cycling? Not on there. Not on there. Not on Calci, at least, which is where he was looking.

So, but to your point, and you dispensure, you're the other one who's there, so we don't know. but I think that the event, which this is surprising to me here in which he said, I believe that today's event was produced by ASO. Is that in partnership by their subcontracted? Yes. I know Jan is there. And if you noticed, if you noticed in the finish line interview with Brandon McNulty,

the interviewer was the same guy from the tour. Oh, yes, MPK. So I, you know, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Is it not the same organizer as the Grand Prix Montreal, this arsenal? I wasn't saying for, I was just sort of speculating. Yeah. It was definitely the same guy interviewing the riders,

which maybe this dude just goes around and interviews people at bike racing. I don't know. but again we're not there you are Spencer I mean I the ultimate control to the experiment would be go to the GP Montreal and see if it feels different jankier than or better run than the world championships just the whole thing kind of you know I don't know

you honey see these people like dress so well with the lanyards and they're getting in the BMWs to follow the race and like well who's like are these just federation people that are making a bunch of money. Like Brandon McNulty, according to the documentation put out by USA Cycling, had to buy his own ticket to the race, had to pay $1,000 to, like,

covers food and stuff for the week. I mean, that is ridiculous. And then as Yo-Hon would say- All the while wearing their sponsors all over his kid, or that's that kid. That cannot be true. And if it is true, and if it is true for him,

fuck it. That was a good investment. Yeah, that's true. but it's typical for federations. You know, federations, that's their day. This is their day. You know, like we've seen other federations, New Zealand, for example, New Zealand, they have to sign a document.

They pay their own trip. Otherwise, they can't be selected, right? And I said this already on another podcast, Spencer. You know, I would want to see where these guys from these national federations are staying. They're staying in four and five stair hotels. They're flying business class from New Zealand to the United States or to Canada. But yet the riders have to pay. This is their moment.

So it's also their reason for existing. All right. Okay. Whatever. Yeah. That's maybe a different show. We should probably take another break and then talk about. Another quick break.

And then we have a few more things to touch on. Quick break. We'll be right back. And we are back. We would be remiss. And this is just so fun for Johan and I to talk about because, hey, we'd be remiss today. Brandon McNulty is not the only rainbow jersey. that came out of this week.

Obviously, there were quite a few rainbow jerseys handed out. Demi Vollering, domination. Apparently got in a little trouble. Massive, what did I read the headline? Massive fine. And serious point deduction when it comes to UCI points, whatever. Who cares? For illegal position of the hands on the handlebars, I guess.

Okay. All right. Really? Yeah. Yeah. After the race, yes, yes. But when it comes to Johann and I's lives, there's just, there was some amazing touch points

outside of the fact that we had an American winner today the first time in 33 years. Yours truly was that guy 33 years ago in Oslo, Norway. Boy, I don't know if that feels like yesterday or it feels like a long time ago. But that's a long time for a country to go without winning in a world championships. Ashland Barry,

the son of D.D. Demet and Michael Berry won the Junior World Championships. Sorry, the U-20. U-23 World Championships. This kid, I don't follow a whole lot of U-23 cycling, but I hear George talk about him. I hear other, this kid has apparently got an engine. And then also our old teammate Benjamin Noval, who rode with us on Postal for many, many years. such a lovely guy his son also named micherman one not just the road race but also the time trial

double world champion they also talk about this kid like spain's like okay big mig number two um so hey yohan that's good exposed expostal sons or world champion that's good yeah yeah it is it's it's amazing amazing yeah ashlin is i just turned 19 day of the race very young. 77 kilos is what he's listed at. And that's a hard course. So it tells you this guy. By the way,

I mean, you get parents like D.D. to Matt and Michael Barry. By the way, I mean, D.D. had 10 times the engine that his dad had. Let's be honest.

Okay. Let's be honest. And she was also, she was a junior world champion. She was a junior world champion. Correct. Yeah. Speed skater.

Big engine. So this kid won the lottery. congratulations. But you still got to go out and bust your ass and make it happen. Awesome. Awesome to see. Should we also shout out Michael Matthews? I mean, who had him finishing second?

Probably wins, definitely wins if that comes back together, 36 years old. Like that's a, he's out there. Like, what do we talk about during the tour? It's just like, oh, these guys are all going to retire at 30. And also also, Duke is a different thing, different thing. After a season and an accident in the beginning of the season, which almost not just ended his career, but maybe his life. It was life trend. Last year, he had this long, what was it?

Long embolia or something. Then in the beginning of the season, he had a crash. He broke both of his arms, his elbows. He was messed up. Came back and now finally, I mean, what a one-day racer, man, this guy. And multiple winner in Canada and Quebec and Montreal, I think. Yeah, three Quebec, one Montreal. Yeah, so it was very good this year in those races.

Hey, by the way, and I was just sitting here because Wild Van Art has been, he didn't have a great day. It happens. But it was, I just keep refreshing his Strava page to see when it updates. And, you know, five minutes ago, the only thing that had on here was this Strava rides from preview in the course. The actual race just refreshed and is up. 170 miles 13,000 feet of climbing folks.

So when you're at home thinking about your bike ride today or yesterday or next weekend or next month, whatever, put that in your pipe and smoke it. 170 miles 13,000 feet. That explains, I mean, look, you saw, I mean, these guys at the end just putting into reverse. I mean, it was, but that's, that is a long, that's a long, tough day. yeah yeah it is we probably spent too much time in the preview saying it's not the hard course you go on oops no i mean we were just saying it's more open than last year's race which was i mean it was like 20,000 in the end it was it was it well you could see vonderpool had a chance at some point michael matthews was close uh yeah matt's peterson comes back i mean you you you

wrote the course this morning you said spencer so what what did you think uh was it so you said it was harder than you expected? Well, yeah, reflections on the course would be way harder than I expected. I think, you know, when you look at the climb, there's like one way to look at the climb. I was like 2K. It was like 2.2K, 6%. What it doesn't tell you is the last 1.5K is like 8 to 9%. So very hard. Fastest sense. I was also surprised. There's also two more kickers on the course that were tough. Also surprised you'd think, wow, we're hosts in the world champs. Throw some new tarmac down, right? No. So like the sense were rough. Like it is stressful. Like it was just me and a group, you know, not seven hours in our legs. And I found it quite stressful on

dissents because the road was so rough. You can imagine took a toll on these guys. But I thought it was tough. What's interesting about it though is hard, hard course, no other way to describe it. But it's almost a different sort of hardness that makes it easier for the bigger, stronger guys. you know, like McNulty all-rounder, Michael Matthews, sprinter-ish, Vanderpull classics rider. Like the climbs are so short, it's like blunt force trauma on your legs that hurt the climbers. Like if you look at Paul Sixth, he could barely ride his bike on the last lap. Like, Deltoro looked a little depleted.

I kind of wonder if it's just, because you're probably so far above threshold, so much of the course that I wonder if it's better for a bigger classics rider. That's my only guess on what's happening. This is also a little bit of, I think, what I was saying. I mean, I think this is just a totally different bike race for all of these guys, especially the favorites without Taday Pogart on the race. Like they have gotten so used to, you know, whether it's knowing what is most likely going to happen or his team setting that up so that that might happen.

I just think it was it was just a complete mind puzzle. I do. It looked. I'm not complaining because I thought it was incredible. I'm also not wishing that Tade wasn't there. I mean, look, if he was there, I think we all know what would happen. But it just, boy, it was awfully different. It also shows you how good today's Palaton is.

It shows you how, you know, like if you look, the top 10, within 14 seconds. you know and there's different types of riders that's mcnulty and del toro then there's pitcock there's jirguyen ben healy queen simmons michael mattho i mean all kinds of different riders within 14 seconds on a race with 4 000 plus 4 000 meters of climbing that's pretty incredible how good these guys are yeah yeah and pitcock he was right there he was the one he was the engine closing that and then just he was just in a tough spot his lancet it was a puzzle it's like hey you're 10 seconds behind mcgnautti but you have Chikone on your wheel. What are you going to do? On a spare bike too for Pitcock. Yeah. Yeah.

So we talked about that last tour. I mean, that is, I remember when they didn't capture whatever happened at the end, the commentators were sort of thinking he might have taken a little tumble because he had a little road rash on the knee. But when he was coming back, oh, Tom Pitcock must have gone back to the cars or whatnot. And then they realized that he had made a bike change. okay um by the way at the point in time when he was just coming back is exactly the point in time that the race started the real race so for him to come back hanging there on a spare bike potentially crashed you know amazing i mean he's the he's a bike racer how did this play like if bagocha was here how do you think this race plays out well i i think he goes in the move

with thunderpool and just rides away from those four riders. And then that group with him and with thunder pool gets caught back and it's game over. Well, it's like what Lance is saying too. Like, but then that gives the race structure, right? If Bagotra's up the road, these guys all, it's a little bubble they're in and they know how to race that way. But then it's like you took the top off like the roof got blown off the barn and there's just like, hey going everywhere. It's just like, well, there's no form to this. There's no bowl to the suit. There's no like bowl to the soup.

The soup's just on the table. That is kind of what it felt like watching. And then I'm going to pretend to be George Hinkapi for a second. Does this now mean that these. Put your glasses on. Put your clear glasses, your hat on. Maybe a four-day stubble. And does this now mean these Americans should be given a bigger leadership role?

Like what's McNulty's role now? Because I was thinking during the race, like, is he going to be setting pace for people in the world Champions jersey. Well, for starters, they have to select him first. I mean, how many tours have we gone into the start line? We're talking about tours of France. Have we gone into and looked at UAE's start list and said, where is Brennan McNulty? How's he not on this team?

Such a head scratcher. Now, of course, he wins. He's going to have the rainbow. He has the rainbow jersey on his back right now. Who was the first person there? Just kissing ass. Maro Gianetti. Amico, yeah, I told you.

You watched, they caught it on the mic. I told you last night. Give me a fucking break. I mean, honestly, give me a break. You do got to hand it to the guy. He wins the world championships without the gotcha. It's crazy. You're right.

I'll hand it to him, all right. The other, the other, look, Spencer, to your point. look out. Uh-oh. Okay. All right. Bobby. Sorry about that.

Bobby, come here. Come on the show. Come here. See that little green light on your mic, John. That's a little weird thing. If you touch it goes red.

People love Bobby. Oh, hey, Bobby. Bobby, watch the world championships. He does boost the numbers quite a bit. What's up, Bobby? Hey, Bobby. Stay here for the rest of the show. Stay here with Uncle Lance.

Okay. Okay. Good. Spencer, you know, I have been saying this for years. It's because it's been happening. And now, look, we just talked about Ashland Berry. What team is he on? Right?

Is he going to Georgia's team? Is he going to another American team? Is he going to, there's a bunch of American options now. No, he's on a Dutch team. Yeah. But I was talking about this years ago when we sort of had this incoming stable of guys like, Jorgensen, Rick Catello, even Quinn Simmons at the time,

et cetera, et cetera, like, okay, now feels like the time. And then you have these, you know, people like Trek who want to be American teams.

And they're rudderless. It's like, what are you doing? Who is, this is throwing good money after bad. Not that they're bad, but they're not great. But Trek lost the team.

Trek, they lost the team to the Germans. They did. And they should have. Okay, but, and I always think back to what Brailsford and teams. Say what you want. Think what you want. Doesn't matter.

I don't care. You're wrong. When they spun out of British psyching and said, we are going to build a team and we are going to win the Tour of France. And we're going to do it mostly with British riders. Let me tell you something. People fell out of their chairs laughing. Well, guess what? they did it right and it it's hard to do but it's not impossible yeah the first thing you got to do is

have the writers don't just let them get you know sprinkled across the world on all these other teams the talent is there like pool them up pull up some american support and sponsors shit i don't even care if it's track great whatever i don't care um and build a super team but you know and maybe maybe that's Georgia's plan is. And I'm sure that it is his plan. But you're starting to see. And think about this. A guy like Brandon McNulty, what a great Capitaine de la Root would you have for a guy like

Ashland Berry here, follow me around. I'll show you how this is done. By the way, I just spent a decade with the greatest of all time. Yeah. I'll tell you what that was like every night. Seriously. Let me tell you about the time. And we won the Tour de France five times.

Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, it's, uh, hmm. And today's proof of concept for that because they were, as Johan said, they were the, Lance said that they were the strongest team. And they, like Magnolte would have been burned on the front way early if this was a trade team race. So we're just seeing like, oh, how often could he do this? He is kind of a, I mean, what type of writer is he, Johan?

he's kind of a tough rider to nail down. Like he's not going to be there in the classics. He's super talented. You know, as I said, he was the best junior in the world. It's been a long time coming. You know, the question is, what will this do now with Brandon McNulty and his mentality and his confidence? You know, I think he's a super talent probably lacks a bit of confidence.

This is going to be a big change for him. And I hope and I think that he will get. a deserved respect within the team. I mean, you can't, listen, you can't put the world champion, champion on the front after 100K. You know, he needs to be, okay, whenever he's racing with Bogachar, it's different. But I think he's going to be doing a lot of races without Bogachar,

to have his own chance. I think he deserves it. Yeah, super professional guy too, you know. Like, you don't see it all the time because he works so much for other people. but like, oh, you have to be ready for this race. And he's like a machine. He just gets ready, like a little computer. By the way, calibrate his form perfectly.

Such a nice style on the bike, man. So smooth. I mean, that pedaling style, that position, it's unbelievable. It's so nice to watch. Very, very nice. Yeah. Yeah. And then Roth are getting a little bit of vindication at the end of a tough week right there on the bum of Brandon

McNulty. So do you guys know the last time the World Championship? was undefended. The defending champion was not here. We got shot because he's hurt. Do you remember the last time this happened? I don't know. You know, Spencer, I've,

I've thought about a lot of stuff in my life and there's obviously a lot of stuff I have never thought about. That would be one of them. So I don't know, but go ahead. I'm curious now. More recent than you think, Johan, 2020, Mads Pedersen. And this actually reminds me a lot.

of the Mads Pedersen win. Because remember Mads Pedersen won in 2019? And we're like, huh, interesting. Didn't totally expect that. And then he kind of grew into the jersey, but he did not defend his title. And he said the chorus was too hard in Imala. But then now and today, I'm like,

was it too hard? Because you seem to be fine on that extremely hard course, Matt's Peders. What a turnaround, Matt Spatterson. So he had to quit the world completely empty dead. He quit on purpose to be able to make it to the start of the, the world. and what a comeback in the final of that.

I mean, we never saw him, but he was there at the end. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't see that coming. Like, I thought the guy was fried after the Volta. And then you guys have any other thoughts? It's kind of, it's always overwhelming. You watch these races, and then it's like a really confusing one-day race, and then you jump on to talk about it.

I'm sure we're forgetting a lot of stuff. Any other big picture things you guys are thinking about heading away from this race? Well, you asked, I just want to go back to what you asked a second ago, of what kind of a rider is Brandon McNulty. I'm sitting here trying to look, I mean, in the time trial, what he got, he got fourth, right? He got fourth, right?

He got fourth, right? Yeah, he got fourth in the world championships time trial. That's impressive. Now, you're one step off the podium. I don't think he's thinking about that. But it is hard to get forward. It's hard to get top 10 in the world championships time trial. That means you have HP, horsepower.

So he's got that. But what we saw today was he's also an opportunist. Like he saw, in cycling, especially a race like this, that I do think people were having these mind puzzles. He said, wait, I'm just going to send it and see what happens. And then he got a gap and then he used his horsepower to stay away. He's an incredible rider. And he had the nose to say, hmm, feels like that. I don't know what he was thinking.

But there's a lull here. I'm going to go and see. Maybe somebody comes with me. Maybe I get a gap. Maybe I set something up for somebody else. I don't know. But he had the power to go and stay away. I mean, that's, he was a deserved winner.

Yeah, for sure. He deserved to win this. I mean, there's a lot of times in bike racing where people win and they won and boy, they're smart. The pound for pound, they weren't the best person in the bike race. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think anybody could. make a case for anybody else to say that they deserved it more than him today.

I agree. I agree. Commentators kept saying that like in every race all week, the strongest riders won. Like, therefore, we can assume the winner today is the strongest writer. And not who we would have guessed, but I think we have our answer about who the strongest rider in the race was. He's a sneaky good stage racer, too, because he doesn't get a chance to lead very often. He has won quite a few stage races.

It's like crow race, not a big race. Kind of a hard race to win, though. He's won it twice. Tour of Luxembourg won that. I believe Lance won that at one point. Tour of Poland. That's a world tour stage race. I believe.

Yeah, sort of one week and under. Yeah. But that's kind of all he's gotten an opportunity at. And did they say also 28 years old? I remember remembering that correctly? I believe he's 28. He is 28, yes. He's got years.

I mean, we're talking about Michael Matthews, 36 years old. We talk about, by the way, too, I mean, let's talk about Paul Seishaw's for just a second. We saw, unfortunately, for him at the end, having an incredibly hard time. I just told y'all 170 miles, 13,000 feet of climbing. He's 19 years old. When I was 19 years old, if they'd have said the race was 170 and 13,000 feet of climb, and I said, y'all have fun. I'm not doing that.

I mean, that is hard. It's too hard for a 19-year-old. So, no, plus also plus the way he raised. He took up responsibility. He was, he acted like one of the favorites. And he was. And he was. At the end.

Yeah. You, yeah. You saw to, I think, I fall into this trap where I'm like, Pagachar, just be Pagachar. What's so hard about this sport? Train hard every day, right off the front and win. You saw today, okay, not everybody can do that. Paul Seix-Az is one of the best writers in the world. Isaac D'Otoe, amazing talent.

Both those guys were on their. knees by the end of that race because they tried to race like pagachar that's actually pretty hard to do apparently we learned that we figured out and look the look the the way these guys race the entire season this is a this is a long season right we're almost in october this is this is i mean if that's the end of the season that race we saw today well i'm like i mean that is a that's a long season and that's a really hard way to finish a long season with a lot on the line And then training camp, like a month and a half. Johan, when you're going back to whining about, or not whining,

complaining about all these things. Ranting, ranting. Then add to the list that the world championship should be in August like they used to be between the tour of France. Well, next year. Well, next year it's in August. Okay, good. See? They list.

That was fast. They listened quickly. It's just, by the way, also, Spencer, I'm just looking here at the top. the top 13. Nobody from the Vuelta in the top 13. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. So we saw Anli, Rogelich both looked good, and then they didn't look good.

Yeah. I guess Petter, are we counting Pedersen or no? He dropped out. Patterson dropped out. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, so what did you think, yeah, so what we learned at the VALTA is the tour fries you.

What we learned at the World Championships is the VALTA fries you. It's hard to perform after these stage race. Yeah. And especially on a different continent, you know, that's an extra stress factor added to it. You know, you need to be traveling there on beforehand and, you know, adapt to the time zone. Yep. Yeah. So.

They had time, but it's still there. It's still. Yeah. It's hard. Well, how does that work with? So let's say I'm Michael Matthews. I'm not here with my regular squad that takes care of me. It's like national team swan yours.

Is that how that works? No, it's, it's straight teams. swaniers who are hired by the federations. That's right. Okay. There's always, there's always a few, like two or three of the trade team. So normally the leader of the selection will have their mechanic and their swanur from their trade team. They're being hired by the National Federation. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, what did you think of Roglitz's right? Kind of interesting since he's not. He's contractless. I thought second in the Volta and then up there in the move today. Yeah. Maybe sign up for next year. Yeah.

He's not done. He's not done. We know he's not done. So not Primos anymore that we used to know, but he's going to be interesting for a team. I hear that these rumors of Lotto are more and more true. Seems like such a weird fit. What was the? Primos going to Lotto.

That's a strange fit. It's a strange fit. It is. It is really. Yeah. I'm sure those zeros will fit into his banking. You know what? At his age.

He's had a hell of a career. He seems like a fucking cool guy. So just back up the truck, guys. Back it up. All right. Well, hey, I loved it. I thought it was. Exciting race.

I mean, even, you caught that early in the show. Did you see the pain in Johan's face where he even said something like, well, bad day for Belgium? Yeah. It was, it was. It looked painful watching. You say it. It looked good at one point.

And then, yeah, it was. Yeah, but it was hard. I mean, yeah. No, I mean, they were the strong selection, the big favorites. And they couldn't, they couldn't do it. So I didn't, they didn't race that smart either, I think. But I think, listen, it's easy, easy to criticize, you know, for smart tactics, first of all, your leader has to have a good day and good legs.

And that didn't happen today. So, yeah. Well, congratulations to Brandon McNulty. Exactly. Yeah. Just like I said a second ago, just much to, I mean, he was the best man in the race. And that's what you want to see when and when you watch bike racing. And we were treated.

We were treated to an exciting race. Like that race we saw today, that that's a sport. Like that's like, hell yes. I'd sit down and watch that. I don't watch a lot of bike racing, but I was. glued to this bike race. But I'm looking forward to him rocking the rainbow jersey.

And hey, you know, good for USA cycling. We'll see where they take it from here. Just Tadda, just gave him all his kit. Here you go. UAE world champion. Let me tell you. I probably won't feel that well. Tate Pagacca is going to be extremely,

extremely happy for Brandon MacLton because he loves that guy. He loves him. I mean, he's his, well, that's not start a whole other, a whole other chapter of this show. show because if you loved him that much, he'd be on the Twitter friends team every year. I need, we need to figure out. There's a story behind that that we don't know.

There is a story. I'm convinced, yeah, because that's... I told you last night. That's funny. That's funny. Okay. Man, nothing gets by you. Y'all, what did you think of the time slot?

Did you like the time slot? One time TV for you. Well, I have to do it for European viewers. Yeah. I mean, if they would have had a normal race that finishes at 5 or 6 p.m. USA time, it would be too late. Yeah. Just like they did with the World Cup here.

I thought it was kind of perfect. It's like nice time for us, prime time for Europe. I agree. Maybe, yeah. I agree. I guess I got to watch it. We got to do this podcast and I get to take a nap before dinner. Like, you got your Broncos coming up.

At the Broncos at 720. Let's go ponies. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.

Okay. Hey, great to see you all. What's the way? Yo-on, what's that dog's name again? Penny. Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby.

Bobby, Bobby. Bobby, Bobby. Bobby, Jolick. Here is Bobby. Bob Jay. Let me tell you, man. Bobby came to the race today with me.

My son had a race in the juniors. He is the star of the race. At every race I go, he's, he is. He is unbelievable. Okay. On that note, I'm not, I'm not making this up. I had dinner last night. Waiter comes over, says it's been taken care of.

So it's paid for it. Fans of Bobby saw me dining from the move, like knew me from the move plus paid for the dinner. Said Bobby's their favorite part of the show. So thanks. Lance, Lance, you've not been on the move plus, but Bobby is a very regular feature on the move plus. Our audience loves him. And look, he got Spencer a free dinner. Yeah.

Shout out to the fans. Saved weed of some money. Yeah. Yeah. We've got some money. This is cool. All right, everybody. Thanks for tuning in.

And we'll see you soon.