THEMOVE - Tour Down Under: Is Jay Vine a Future GC Star at UAE? | THEMOVE+

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

Spencer Martin and Johan Bruyneel break down the opening stages of the 2026 cycling season at the Tour Down Under, which has seen Jay Vine and his UAE team picking up where they left off in 2025, a pair of impressive stage wins from Ineos, and opened up a debate about whether Vine should continue in his support role at UAE or chase leadership opportunities elsewhere. They also dive into where US-based viewers can watch the 2026 cycling season, ways to get around the high prices of the multiple streaming services required, and take a few listener questions.  Become a WEDŪ Member Today to Unlock VIP Access & Benefits: https://access.wedu.team How & Where to Watch Pro Cycling in the US Market in 2026: https://beyondthepeloton.substack.com/p/how-and-where-to-watch-pro-cycling-882 Hims: For simple, online access to personalized and affordable care for Hair Loss, ED, Weight Loss, and more, visit https://Hims.com/THEMOVE. Caldera Labs: A small habit with big results. Go to https://CalderaLab.com/THEMOVE and use code THEMOVE for 20% off your first order.    

Kara here from the Kara Golden Show. If you're not using Ironclad for contracts, you could be leaving millions on the table. Ironclad's AI instantly surfaces what matters, renewal dates, pricing terms, and obligations. So you can act quickly before opportunities slip away. That's why they're trusted by great brands like OpenAI, L'Oreal, Salesforce, and so many others. Find the savings hiding in your contracts at ironclad app.com slash podcast. That's ironclad app.com slash podcast. And I think, Spencer, what we need to, you know, take away from this is that the guys who are usually at the service of Tadepoga-Pogachar have to take the opportunity when it gets presented to them. And the tour down under is one of those great opportunities. So I think Jay Vine prepared this race to perfection. Already won the Australian Championships time trial also, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, yeah. which, you know, which is usually hard for title. You know, there's a lot of good time trials, the time trials in Australia.

So I'm not surprised. I'm, you know, I think Jay Vine is probably the highest quality rider in this field, or at least of all the top GC contenders the best prepared. Everybody, welcome back to the Move Plus. I'm Spencer Martin. I'm here with Johan Brunel. We are going through the cycling. news of the week.

The main thing being the kickoff of the World Tour cycling season with the tour down under in Adelaide. We've had four stages technically a prologue plus stage one, two, three. We'll get into that. We'll talk about a few things like Jay Vine's power numbers. Is he a future leader on that team or are we just seeing the finished product of Jay Vine, as well as a few other things like where to watch cycling in the United States in 2026 and a few questions.

But Johan, as we get into the season, What have you been your first thoughts? Were you surprised that Ineos was the winner of the first world tour race of the 2026 season with Sam Watson on the prologue. And I don't think anyone's been surprised about Sam Wellsford winning a sprint. But I would say the takeaway so far is UA seems to be picking up where they left off. I mean, that was a clinic on stage two on corkscrew climb. They just destroyed everybody. Did you watch it?

What did you think about that? Yeah, I mean, I didn't watch it like. of course, I watched the replay. Well, I mean, Sam Watson winning the prologue, I think, you know, it's quite unpredictable. In this field, you know, it's the first race of the season. I mean, there's a consensus amongst all the teams that, I mean, it's such a far travel, so no time trial bikes. And Sam Watson's an explosive rider. So I thought that that was a great win.

Not a surprise, in my opinion. I mean, there's also not real prologue specialists. If these guys still exist, I don't know if they... It's kind of Sam Watson. Remember, two of Romandy, he shows up. Yeah. Yeah. He finds out like the night before he's doing the race, four-minute effort, and he wins that prologue too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, and then Anders Lund, winning the first stage, the sprint. That was... I mean, I'm not going to say a surprise to me. It was, I mean, it's somebody... I mean, it's one that flew completely under the radar. I mean, I had no idea. He was on deck at long.

I had no idea. But great win for, you know, and great win for that team. Great lead out also. He was, I mean, he beat, he beat Wellsford and Brennan, I think, right? Yeah, which super impressive second place there from Brennan. And now it really a pure sprinter. And this is like, this is for the biggest of the big sprinters size-wise. and he gets second there. That's impressive.

Yeah. And then, yeah, I mean, you know, the key stage, which is now finally going to be the decisive stage anyway. I mean, it was already decided with that kind of gap. You know, I mean, it, fine and Narweiss went away on a corkscrew climb and finished with almost a minute, 58 seconds, I think. So obviously, in two or down under, that's decisive. And, you know, with the level they've,

shown on stage two. And we can talk about it now. I mean, we just got news that tomorrow stage is altered, that there's no Willunga Hill. In the stage, what are they going to do it?

Two times or three times? I don't remember now. I think it was three times. Yeah. No, I seem to remember it was two times normally, but now it looked like they were going to do it three times. There are reports. I mean, it's extremely hot, up to 40 degrees in Adelaide.

And I've seen reports that there was a risk of fire. Quite windy also. So very hot, dry, windy. I don't know if the risk of fires are true or not. But we got the news that they're not, they took out Willinga Hill out of the course. So it's not going to be a decisive stage. So two or another is decided unless there's something, you know, an accident or mechanical that happens. But, but yeah, I mean, listen, these guys, these two UAE guys were above everybody else.

I did watch the climb. And it was impressive that first of all, they took control of the whole stage. They reeled in the breakaway. Then Adam Yates set a pace with Jay Vine on the wheel and everybody else. else was on the limit and the only guy when j vine opened the gas the only guy who could bridge up was not vice who is super explosive won the race last year but was on the limit uh until basically the last two kilometers couldn't take a single pull yeah and uh and i think you know i think that difference in level is kind of what we should expect i think uh j vine obviously high quality rider

One stages in ground tours, one, you know, the mountain, Jersey and the Vuelta. And it's a great climber. Plus, he's Australian. It's his home race. And I think Spencer, what we need to, you know, take away from this is that the guys who are usually at the service of Tadapogacar have to take the opportunity when they, it gets presented to them. And two or down under is one of those great opportunities. So I think Jay Vine prepared this race to perfection. Already won the Australian Championships time trial also, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, yeah. Which, you know, which is usually hard for title. You know, there's a lot of good time trials, the time trials in Australia. So I'm not surprised. I'm, you know, I think Jay Vine is probably the highest quality rider in this field. or at least of all the top GC contenders the best prepared. You could argue that Ben O'Connor is a high-quality rider. He is, you know, podiums and ground tours.

But I don't think this is the main objective of Ben O'Connor. And so, and especially, you know, those kind of climbs two, three, four kilometers. That's like Jay Vine written all over it. But yeah, I mean, it was it was an impressive display of dominance of team UAE. And I can only imagine the morale of the rivals and the rival teams, you know, like, hey, what? I mean, here we go again, you know. They pick it up where they left it last year and they just started the season. They already have four victories, Team UAE.

Yeah, we're about four days into the season. They have four victories. I mean, two of them is Idaq del Toro winning the Nationals time trial and wrote. Yeah, because that technically counted as 2026, even though it happened in 2025. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, so yeah, J-Vine winning, not that shocking. I would say, though, the thing that really blew me away was J-Vine attacks, and you could see it coming.

You know, Adam Yates is on the front. I was a little surprised there wasn't more of a battle for the wheels because Jonathan Narvius moves up. He knows what's coming. J. Vine attacks and that bridge from Narvias, that's bold. I mean, normally when you have a teammate away,

you're in a group, you probably, you know, that is risky because he could have pulled someone with him. And no one could even follow Narvias. And then Narvias gets up there and he, you're right, he was on the limit.

And that's a climb that suits him. He's a very good rider. And he was really, really struggling. That tells you how strong J. Vine. was, you know, we were throwing some numbers around before the show started. They have these, you know, people, very smart people on Twitter will put out numbers that they, they normalized them to, I believe, 70 kilos plus the weight of the bike. So it's a little bit higher. Like corks,

the whole corkscrew climb about 12 minutes was 7.3 watts per kilo, 7.8 for the six minute steep part. That just in layman's terms is about, I did my own calculation. That's like 530 watts for six minutes on this deep part, about 500 watts for the whole climb at 12 minutes. That's not easy to follow. But Johan, were you surprised by, so those two guys get away. That's a bad situation if you're a rival. And then there's this group behind. They're doing the tough guy.

Like, now I'm ready to bridge. Now I'm going to attack. They're all attacking each other. Of course, Adam Yates is sitting on the back. None of this is going to work. Should they have seen this coming or there's just nothing they could have done? There's nothing they could do, Spencer. I saw an interview of

what's the guy? It's another Australian. I don't know if he's Australian or New Zealand. What's the name? Harry Sweeney. Harry Sweeney, yeah. Very good right for him. He is the Australian? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

He gave an interview and he said he was up there. I mean, he was in that second group, right? He was up there on the climb and when he, they could only watch them take off. He said the moment Jay Vine accelerated, he was doing. 600 watts. What else do you want to do? He said he thought his power meter was broken. Sweeney would do it.

Numbers are so hot. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's a bigger guy. You know, obviously he's heavier than advice and J. Vine. but still, I mean, I don't know.

He's probably not more than 70 kilos. So, so yeah, I mean, you just sit there. You're on your limit and all you can do is, okay, watch them disappear in the distance. Listen, at the end of the day, I don't think we should be surprised. You know, it is the number one team in the world.

They do hire the best riders. They train like crazy all year round. I mean, we've seen them, Spencer. We've seen them. I mean, you've been at their training camp. Yeah. We've seen them train. It's full gas all the time.

And especially the guys who have their planning and their own ambitions in the beginning of this season are super well prepared. I think it's, logic has been respected. You know, we have, in my opinion, the strongest rider in this two or down underfield in Jay Vine. And last year's winner, Jonathan Narvaise, I mean, that shouldn't be anybody surprised that this happened. You know what's funny about the Tour Round Under in years past, let's say a decade ago. I would have said, what a mistake for Jay Vine to be the strongest early. Too early.

But you look at the last few years, as you said, Jonathan Narvias wins. He had a great year. Javier Romo. get second, great year. Oscar Onley, fourth. He had a great year. Year before, Stephen Williams wins. He has a great year.

Narvaeus, Del Toro, Anli, all those guys had a really good 2024. He's like, this is not, how do you explain that? Why did it used to be bad to be so strong at the Tourdonde Under? And now it feels like it's indicative of someone that's about to have a good year. I mean, listen, I mean, if we see the intensity, cycling has changed so much, you know, like the way they train in the offseason now, it's, it's just, I mean, you can't compare it with it. And you can't compare it, especially with cycling from the, you know, the 90s and the early 2000s,

but not even from 10 years ago. When I look at the guys, I mean, follow a few guys on Strav, the other day I saw Paul Sechas training camp there in on the Costa Blanca, 250 kilometers, eight hours. hours on the bike. You know, usually you would think, hey, are they crazy? Why are they doing this? You know, why is this necessary? Yeah.

But they are always at such a high level. And I think, you know, the way everything is monitored now, you can actually, the only thing that, in my opinion is, is a risk is that you train so much and that you're always on top and you get sick. That's the only thing, but a dip in the curve of the condition. We don't see that anymore. Pair that with the fact that, you know, they don't race that much. They do very little races.

Nowadays, an athlete is able to train at a higher intensity than a race would be normally, you know, a preparation race. Tour down under, for example, it's an easy race for these guys. It's short. It is fast, true, but it's easy compared to the workload they're doing in their training rides. Yeah. And like Paul Seychas, doing big rides, you might see that on Strava and think, oh, it's like winter base miles.

No, they're doing these. The intensity is really high. As high as almost as this race probably. They're probably training less hard at the Tourdardana under than they would at their training camp, at least volume-wise. Oh, for sure. There's no doubt about it. Yeah.

They might be doing extra rides after the stage to get a more time. In that heat, it's not, I don't think it's that recommended either. You know, you just see, I think you should see it as a few, you know, short, intensive training sessions. You know, the speeds are high at Doolan Under. It's 48, 49 kilometers per hour. Yeah. And yeah.

On the heat, one interesting thing about a couple interesting things. Well, I mean, it fundamentally changes the race because today was Walanga Hill, not going to happen tomorrow whatever whatever I never quite know what day it is during the two or another but the next stage stage four was going to be Walunga Hill I love Walunga Hill that's my favorite day of the year

I'm sad it's not happening but that was you know if Javine was going to be challenged that was it but I found a profile the revised profile and it's kind of it's kind of an uphill sprint finish I wonder if that because Narvius is six seconds back

but if Narvius wins the stage is it possible he ties or overtakes jvine if jvine doesn't get in the top three because the time bonuses i'm curious to see that but they moved that the startup an hour to 10 a m you don't see that that often i do think that's a good idea a lot of times when these for the heat i think it's great yeah you know i mean the stages are going to be what two and a half hours three hours max so you finish at one yeah yeah i mean it's going to be hot it's going to be hot at 1 o'clock, but, you know, it's better than having to race between 12 and 3. Yeah.

If this is the Valta, they'd be like, now, we're going to start at 2, hottest part of the day. He'll finish right before dinner. Everyone will have dinner at midnight. So this actually thought this was, it's like this is how the UCI extreme weather, weather protocol is supposed to work. They've made some sensible decisions here. Yeah. No, I think, I think, you know, if it's really 40 degrees, moving up the time is, is a great

decision. Then we have these reports of, you know, risk of wildfire. So it's, of course, it's a pity for the cycling fans. You know, everybody wants to see Wollonga Hill. It's, it's become, you know, a benchmark, the trademark, basically, of the of the tour down under, right? And then, you know, we always compare the times over the years, over the last 10, 15 years. Of course, they get faster and faster. But yeah, now, now. it's not going to be there. So it's not going to change anything in the GC. I think the dominance of those two guys have been shown.

So if it would have been Willunga Hill, it would have been more of the same. Volunga Hill can be more of a tactical finish, at least in the past. You know, if you go too early, you could pay for it. But, you know, the way this was set up, I mean, I think normally it would have been on Wilunga Hill. I mean, it could have been interesting for, you know, deciding who of the two wins the G.C. Because if it's up winning G.

I think the chances of Narvaise were really big to win in the sprint. Because, you know, he can't just, I mean, he could stay behind Jay Vine and not try to win the stage. But, you know, you want to win the stage. You want to try to win the stage also. But I do think, however, that there's a general consensus within UAE that J. Vine has to win this race, should win this race. It's, you know, I think it makes a lot of sense. Well, yeah, Narvaeus could have won that stage on stage two.

What a bit of a scumbag move to sit on and outsprenna, but he clearly gave it to him. They want him to win. It's important for, I imagine important for Australia to finally take, I think the last Australian to win this race was Jay Vine. in 2023. I'm not mistaken. But Jay Vine, great talent, just to give you a sense

of the domination we're seeing here. So first place is Vine. This is after not, not even after the Walanga Hill stage, which is usually the big time gap stage. Now I buy a second,

six seconds. Marr-Schmidt is third at 105 back. Here's the time gap between the winner in 10th place in the last few years. 10th place overall.

47 seconds last year, 50 seconds, 2024, 113, 23, 54 seconds, 2020, 40 seconds, 2019, 24 seconds in 2018, and it's 105 back to third place current.

That's how much better Jay Vine is than the rest of this field. With this information, Johan, you just said, he's time trial national champion of a very good time trialling country. Jay Vine's 30, is, like, is he going to get more chances in bigger stage races,

or is this kind of the finished product? Javai wins stages at Will at the Giro and the Vuelta, wins the Tour Down Under, maybe challenges at a Romandy sometimes, or is it time to maybe make a change for him? Didn't he win Romandy last year? I think he did not win Roman. Hold on one second.

I thought he got beat by Almeda. I could be making that up. In the time for all. The time for all. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think this is Jay Vine top.

You know, he seizes his opportunities when he gets them to be the leader. There are no guarantees. He's never finished on the podium of a grand tour, never finished in the top five, I would think, out of the top of my head. I'm going to guess that he had certain chances already. But the thing is, within U.S. there are always riders that are just a tiny bit better who have already been podium riders in Grand Tour. So I think this is great for Jay Vine. He can rival with the best in the one-week races, which is already not easy. And then in Grand Tours, normally on UAE, he will always have a leader that he has to be at the service of and then has the opportunities to win stages.

I mean, it's, I think it's a great situation for him. I agree. Yeah, I agree. I think he should stay. I think this is a great situation. He's going to say, don't worry. He's going to stay. He knows it's good there.

But to argue, I do think, I do think he does. And having spent time around the team, it's not an overly, it doesn't feel overly anal retentive. It is not relaxed, but there's a levity there perhaps that there wouldn't be another team. But so Jay Vine is this good, very good. He's up here. So someone like Ben O'Connor probably making a lot of money as a team leader for J. Coalula might not be as good as Jay Vine. Should a team get real? Like what would Jay Vine be worth in the open market as a GC leader?

And do you think he's making that at UAE? He's probably not making that at UAE. The question is also, you know, and I don't know the answer. I don't know Jay Vine personally. Is Jay Vine a personality who can deal with the pressure of the leadership? That's a good question. Right? I mean, if, I mean, logically, logic would say, well, okay, J-Co, Australian team, you know,

they have Ben O'Connor as their leader. Okay, fine. You know, he can do well sometimes. Sometimes he doesn't. would it not be great to go after a guy like Jay Vine to be the co-leader? You know, there is place for two GCC riders on a team like J-Co. That would be the logical move, right? I mean, if you have this great Australian rider,

you want to have him on your team if you're an Australian team. I'm going to guess that there has been attempts already to get Jay Vine from J. To get him to the team. whatever they pay to Ben O'Connor, I would say Jay Vine is worth that same value. And we're probably talking one and a half to two million euros a year. I think it's north of two. To north of two. That's a lot of money.

I mean, you must be right. I mean, Jay Vine must be happy because you're right. He must, this offer must have been made. And we have to assume he's turned it down because he's still there. here's my next question. Is it good for the sport that Jay Vine's on UAE? If he's on a team that's not UAE, he goes to the Gero, he goes to the VALTA, he's actually fighting for the G.C.

Does that make it more exciting racing? Well, I mean, the question is, can he fight for G.C? You know, yeah. The thing is, what other team can a rider like Jay Vine go to? Okay, he could, you could say, you know what? He could go back to Alpacin, Alpacin Premier Tech now. you know, they don't have a GC leader. He comes from there.

Great team, you know, is he going to deliver? With all the pressure of the team on his shoulders, is he going to deliver a top five? I would say, you know, the top five candidates for a ground tour, right? We're not going to talk about podium because he's not shown that yet. And then it's one of those riders, Spencer, he's a great writer, super, you know, super good rider. but he may be ambitious for a podium,

but most likely he's not going to be on it. And then the question is, are teams really interested in a rider like that to really invest heavily to try? It's not a project anymore. He's 30 years old. You know, if he would be younger, we can say, okay, we're still going to discover his potential

or the ceiling of his potential. I think with Jay Vine right now, I think that's Jay Vine, is at his top he's in a great team obviously feels great there i don't see any reason for him to to look or consider anything else we say with teams to be interested but teams were just tripping over themselves to pay millions of dollars and transfer millions of euros and transfer fees for der k so yeah i mean it's not that much younger i've if my information is correct uh i mean it's it's still it's still a consider

lot of money, but it's not like, it's not I use so money or which is 10 million or Oscar only, which is reportedly six million, the transfer sum. Derek G is reportedly 1.2 million. It's a lot better than the 30 million that Sylvan Adams was claiming. So, you know, it is an investment, of course. You know, if probably signs two or three years, you can spread it over those three years, makes it 400,000 a year with the budget. that these teams like Little Trek has, you can say, okay, you know, it is,

you can justify it, right? A writer like Jay Vine would cost a lot more to get him out of his contract. Yeah, because he's making a lot of money. And I just, with Jay Vine, the thing I cannot get past is, and maybe don't tell him, just sign him and be like, hey, we want you to win stages. You should try to win every stage.

Don't even tell him he's going for GC and I'll do fine. And he has a style. He just puts his head down. He just has this, puts his head down and goes. And he's sitting, must be sitting 500 watts for as long as he wants on these climbs. It's unbelievable. I was looking. I was watching him, Spencer.

You know, so he basically did all of the pulling. You know, you could see in the body language of Jonathan Ravise that he was hanging on for the deal. Yeah. Whether he wanted it or not, he could not take a pull. He could, I think Jonathan Ravis started pulling when the road went downwards a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, he liked the momentum of the road and arrow position took him forward. But man, I was surprised to see that James, I mean, luckily for the rivals, but man, he's not very arrow on the bike.

He sits up really high. I was, you know, I was thinking, man, if you go a little bit more arrow, you even go faster. Right off the front of the Tour de France. Yeah. Maybe Pogacre saying, hey, you should set up higher. But my five-year-old son was noticing the same thing. Oh, really? He's like, you know, I was like, guys so on arrow.

You're teaching him early. It's becoming, you know, he's, this, like, he is obsessed with Remco in his position. He's like on the trainer now every day, like trying to get his arrow as possible. Are you getting him on the trainer? Um, I, he, he comes on from school. He insists on riding his trainer for 45 minutes every day. Oh, wow. Well, he don't know.

He's what, five years old? Five years old. No one telling this, but I ride Zwift and he thinks, that he's riding on Swift. Okay. Yeah, but I have to try to match his cadence. I don't tell him that he's not the one writing. But yeah, it's unbelievable how good at time trialing and climbing he is and is not.

I don't know if I've ever seen this. A writer that good at the two foundations of GC writing that is not a serious GC candidate. Well, let's not forget, Spencer. I mean, you know, we haven't talked about this. I hope it doesn't repeat it. out, but Jay Vine has had a lot of crashes. That's true. You know, people say, people say, yeah, you know, he's, he's not able to ride in the

Peloton. And I think that story is, is not true. It's, it's, it's, there's no foundation to it. You know, Jay Vine has this reputation because he won the Zwift Academy that, and then he got the contract on Alpacin that he was a Zwift rider. He was not a Zwift rider. He was a cyclist in Australia. He did road races.

happened to win the Zwift Academy, you know, but he was not a pure Zwift rider. I think that's, we need to make sure that that's, that story is put straight. But, I mean, he did came relatively late to the, you know, European Peloton, I would say. And he, I think he struggles still with positioning and with, you know, maneuvering in the Peloton. You know, if at 30 years old you haven't learned it, he's probably never going to learn. it. But hey, you know, he's still a good enough rider and has enough power to win bike races. So, you know, pretty good. How old was Primus Roglich when he won his first grand tour? Would have been the 2019 Volta? Was that his first grand tour? Well, I mean, won the zero one

time in 2023 and he's only won the Volta and the zero, right? Yeah. Yeah. So he was 30 years old when he won his first. Yeah. Grand Tour. They kind of remind me of each other a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Because Roglitz was the same way. I couldn't believe how it was like, man, I've never seen someone this good at time trialing and climbing. He's not a GC rider. Primos had already been fourth in the tour, right? Before that. Yeah. He did one year of the tour where he was just hunting stages and he won that stage.

And then he got like 38th overall. Then he comes back. Well, I don't know. No, actually. He was 14. Yeah, fourth in 2018. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Fourth and 2018 when Garant Thomas wins. Interesting. And then 2019. Do you remember who got fourth at the 2019 tour de France? It's going to blow your mind. Julian La Filippe.

Now he got fifth. Oh. Emmanuel Bookman. Wow. Okay. Wow. No. No.

No. The forgotten force. Where did that guy disappear to? Exactly. Yeah, what planet did he go on? He's on COVID this, no? Now? I think so.

Yeah. I've heard sometimes in Rolfoedeg would give interviews. I'd be thinking, do you know that the mic is on right now? He said something. He was like, yeah, I know he's gone. Like, he's welcome to swing by if he needs a Red Bowl by the team bus. But, you know, he's on another team now. This is the least sad I've ever heard.

But now, I'm the same, because he can go. go to ask for Red Bull because he's not there anymore. Yeah. Yeah. I like all that. He's back at Canyon, women's team. Yeah, I saw that.

Yeah. That is crazy Jay Vine was on Alpison. That is, they just immediately snuffed out. This is not a good fit for us. We don't. Well, he did leave with a contract.

It's still in place. And do you think they just thought, But well, he's going to cost a lot of money and we, it doesn't really fit our one day goals. I don't know. I mean, they probably, I mean, you know, there are buyouts also that we don't hear of. Yeah, that's a good point. I'm thinking, I mean, knowing, knowing the brothers, Ruth, they will probably have done business there. And, you know, good for them.

It makes sense, you know. And reinvested it back into the stage hunting and one day empire they have. Let's take a quick break, Johan, and then we'll come back and talk about UAE's potential new rival, the Ennio Screnadiers, are they back as well as some questions? Everybody, this episode is brought to you by HIMS. You've got places to be sitting in a waiting room, waiting for hair loss treatment is not one of them. HIMS makes expert care accessible on your schedule so you can skip the line and focus on feeling like yourself again. HIMS offers convenient access to a range of prescription hair loss treatments with ingredients at work, including chews, oral medications, serums, and sprays. Hymns can help since doctor-trusted ingredients like fennosteride and monoxidil can stop further hair loss and regrow hair in as little as three to six months.

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This is just everyone pretend this is our post-tour down under show because I don't think we're going to need to come back on Monday and talk about three sprint stages that probably will be won by Sam Wellsford or Tobias Lund Anderson. I was surprised, as you say, Tobias Lindenerson, no idea that guy was on decathlon. That was a big win. Sam Wellsford wins last night,

gets back. This guy is as close to a Tour Down Under specialist as you can get. I believe every one of his World Tour wins has been at the Tour Down Under. He kind of reminds me of a U.S. crit rider. Guy is massive. It's impressive that he can get over any climbs. He is very strong. But he's on Ineos now.

Sam Watson on Ineos. Enios has two World Tour wins. The only, I believe that's more World Tour wins than anyone else because there's only been four World Tour races so far this year. What do you make of this? Is Enios back or is this just playing the early season game better than they have in the years past? They're not back to, you know, where they were.

as the dominant team. But there's definitely been a shift. You can see that, you know, the way they have, I mean, they did whatever they could do to contract riders. I mean, the big, I believe the big signing of Oscar only will still have to see how that works out. But, I mean, they're definitely racing differently, right? They're always on the front foot, even at this, you notice it at this race.

Yeah. They're, they're, you know, aggressive. they're in breaks, they are, you know, they are proactive. I think what they lack for the moment, short term, is just, you know, the quality riders. You know, I mean, they do have good riders. Some of those young riders may actually also step up and make big progress and, you know, come to the forefront. But for the moment, I think it's safe to say that they're not going to rival with UAE.

I would not even with Visma I think little track I think those three teams are still and then you have Red Bull so you know they're in the top five but they're not in the top three in my opinion not yet or not they can get there again but it's going to take at least two more years you're actually a writer I would like to see on that team is J. Vine that just I don't just big engine. Let's see what he can do. I mean, Oscar Unle, that is a big addition, but part of me is thinking, what can that guy do? Like, that's a big year to back

up that young, but I mean, he was good throughout a lot of last year. Maybe, I think you're, I mean, it's really about building foundation. Because right now, I don't think anyone's under any illusion that they're going to be better than Pagachar and Vinegard when that race is they're at, that they're good at.

So it's really just thinking, like, who's going to be the best when they're not at their best and hope that it's not Isaac del Toro and it's just not a rerun of what's happening right now. By the way, speaking of Ineos, Spencer, I actually,

I mean, now seeing it in the bunch and on TV, I actually start starting to like their uniform. You know, it's not as bad as it looked at first. When they first presented it, they said, what is this?

But actually, when you see it now, I like it. It's, it's, I mean, it's a bit of a new identity, I would say.

But yeah, it's pretty cool. And it really goes to show you how hard it is to design these kits because there's multiple facets. There's how does it look in a picture? And then how's it going to look in the bunch when you're bent over, a different angle, you're moving really fast. I think it matches the bikes look really good combined with those jerseys. The off white shorts are still like, I don't. I don't know. There must be something behind that.

I don't know. Anyway, we'll give another opinion after the spring classics when they've, been riding in the rain, the mud. But speaking of uniform, Spencer, you know, and this is something I've been wondering, you know, at least as long as I've been a team director and manager and still, as of today, you know, 26 years later, 27 years later, I still can't get my head around the fact that these teams are not in communication with each other over dominant colors of their uniform. like if you look for example you have you have grupama you have decathlon now you have

Bahrain I mean it's all in the blues and it's so difficult to distinguish you know there should be something some kind of consultation I mean and especially okay I can understand if you're if you're bound to a certain color because the corporate colors of your sponsor, right? But for Bahrain, for example, that's not the case. I mean, they went from red to white to now blue. I mean, there's some Bianchi influence in there. But it's so, it looks also blur these three teams.

And I'm sure I'm still missing another one in the blues. I don't know. What do you think? No, I agree. You're totally right. I think that's probably one of the reasons. Enios has such a distinctive jersey. I will say I own apology to NSN.

That might be my favorite jersey. It's a great. I like it from the beginning. I liked it from the beginning. It's unique. It stands out. And I think it looks great in the Peloton. It looks really good.

I think they should, to add some spice to the promotion relegation rankings, take the UCI rankings at the end of the year. The first place team gets to draft a primary color. And no team can have the same primary color. And then so if you're finishing last, you're getting last picks on the primary colors. I think that would make a more interesting looking pelotonics.

I do think it's too much crossover. You mentioned Q36.5. Also, I mean, it's also blue. I mean, it's blue going towards. I mean, I would say maybe a little purple. I don't know. It's like a, but anyway, it's again blue. You know, so I don't know, man.

There should be some kind of. judging going on or some kind of filter that, uh, I mean, on the other hand, then there's maybe, maybe teams that say, hey, we know what we don't want to be prominent. Uh, we don't want to be a flashlight in the Peloton. Uh, we want to keep it classy. Uh, so, you know, in that case, everybody can do whatever they want, but, uh, you know, if you're, I mean, the grand tours have put out this rule that you can't have a uniform, which is close to the leaders jerseys. You know, you can't have yellow. You can't have red in the in the Vuelta.

You can't have pink in the in the Gero. And then I guess now also the other the other colors like the green and the white jersey, I think that's also becoming an norm now that you can't have anything which is similar to that. So, you know, why can't they do the same amongst the teams? We could be running out of colors though. green, white, polka dot. No, I mean, you know,

there's always ways around it, right? You mean, you can have, you can invert your colors, you know, like, I mean, I remember like when I was,

I mean, back in the days already, when I was writing for Onse and the, yeah, they would invert them. I remember that. Yeah, but in the tour,

for example, we were writing, we couldn't be writing yellow. We were riding pink. Yeah. But then there was also, uh, some teams that,

you know, back in the days already, there was, I think was it Gitan? I think Gitan. They did one year. They, you know, they had yellow jerseys and black. And then all of a sudden they had black and yellow.

Yeah. I think Cervillo test team did that too. They went white. They were black and white and black for the tour. Yeah. Because it's less hot, I guess. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

At least that was the thinking behind it. Unclear. if no one's ever gotten back to me with the, what is the science on that? Are black jersey is actually hot or do they take the sun away? No, black is hotter than white for sure. I mean, I've seen tests on helmets, for example. And it's massive the difference in temperature. It's a very, very big difference.

It does kind of feel like you could cook an egg on a black helmet at times. Speaking of teams with great jerseys, Astana, XDS Astana, had a great, as we know, great 2025, staved off relegation. this time last year I was saying these guys are doomed they're going to get they're going to get relegated the big question for me was well do they go into 2026 and they're they're on the back foot again no because they want a race there are other races going on I'm going to be honest I didn't know this race was happening you know how to tell me about it classica what's it called classic a camp de more de verdre yeah it's in the it's in the it's in the valencia area

So first European race actually, it's a 1.1 race, so not a World 2 race or not a, I would say, is it third, third level race? Yeah, because dot pro is second, dot one is third. Yeah. But anyway, you know, win off, guess who? Yeah. If you didn't get to watch the race and you had to guess who won this, you would guess Christian Scoroni. Scaroni, you know, picked up where he left it last year. He was amazing in the spring of last year.

All these races, he was very dominant. And, you know, starts straight away winning again. So I think, I think it's a good sign for Astana that they're going to keep that level. You know, I'm hearing a lot of really good reports about their equipment, actually. You know, this XDS carbon manufacturer in their X-Lab bikes seem to be really, really good may have gotten a lot better yeah i've seen report somewhere of uh their climbing bike which uh is apparently like the lightest one on the market right now um i mean then you have the 6.8 rule for the uci so it doesn't mean doesn't really matter that much uh almost all the brands

it can nowadays if they use the the right components they can get to 6.8 kilos uh I think. But yeah, I mean, listen, Astana, chapeau for them. You know, they keep the level from last year. And this is definitely a great start for them. Yeah, really good start. And if you want to build a good,

sponsor a team, the bike's not going to be that good the first year. And then you're going to learn a lot. I actually underestimated how much these bike brands learn from the team until I went and checked out Colenago and UAE. And then as you notice at the Tourin' Un under, these head tubes are growing by the minute. Like head tubes are just getting longer and longer and thicker, I guess, deeper. Yeah.

Because it's all about, as you say, almost everyone can hit that 6.8 kilo weight limit with an aerobike. So I think you're just going to see more and more and more aerobikes. I went and weighed UAE's Colanago, just the one you would buy off the shelf. It wasn't that much over 6.8 kilos. So it's safe to say they're probably hitting that weight limit with their stock team bikes. they put titanium bolts and things in there that we probably wouldn't run if you're not the weight and size of a pro cyclist. I was at a place, Spencer, you know, a bit over a week ago in Marrakesh, visiting somebody

who was riding bikes at triathlete. And he showed me a bike. It was 5.4 kilos. It was, oh, man. I'm unbelievable. I mean, it was obviously with, you know, a lot of special components. Yeah. But it was a very well-known brand and he brought it down to 5.4 kilos, man.

That's that's insane. And very safe to ride actually because one of my friends rode the bike there and he said it was great. Someone at a bike brand, actually, I forget the brand, told me that if the weight limit wasn't there, there would be no aerobikes in the, in pro cycling because everyone would be riding 11-pound bikes. like you yeah because you they can just make these so light now um kind of do you think they should remove that or how do you feel it doesn't because it hasn't changed in a long time and bikes have gotten a lot lighter yeah i think you know the 6.8 listen it's i think there has to be some kind of limit because otherwise you know it i remember when there was no limit spencer when for example

when i was on on say i've written bikes that were lighter than six kilos in races uh You know, we had our director, Manolo Syz, who was, you know, very proactive and a pioneer in a lot of things and always wanted the best equipment. And we got, I got, it's for certain stages in the Vuelta, for example, a mountain stage, all of a sudden in the morning, you know, the mechanic had done some something special to our bikes and I said, what. And then I looked, you know, all special components. the question is if it's not regulated it's going to it's going to get unsafe there needs to be yeah that's true i do think the 6.8 kilo limit is there already for a while i mean i think it should go down to 6 kilos for sure um it would still remain safe um especially you know with the the way the material is made now um and it also

I, you know, if the weight limit of the bike actually makes not much sense if you don't, I mean, you have riders of 75 kilos and riders of 65 kilos or 58 kilos. And they have to ride the same weight bike. So I think there should be, I mean, there's a lot of other sports that it's actually the, like in Formula One, for example, I think it's the seat and the pilot, the driver actually, that has to, you know, I think it's, it has to be 80 kilos. The seat, which is obviously removable and the driver. So I think there should be something around that like rider and bike together. Yeah, because if you're Narukentana, you're extremely penalized because you're weighing, your body weight,

your bike is a massive percentage of your body relative to someone like Felipe O'Gana. Yeah. And you have the same weight bike, which doesn't make a lot of sense. Yeah. And I think I'm a little worried too. I mean, after you can see these teams that work really closely with bike brands and they can make these aerobikes that are so fast relative to someone like co-fitis who is probably

just riding a bike that they can get that someone's going to pay them to ride. and I'm a little worried the weight limit's going to increase. It's actually going to increase a disparity in equipment because really well-funded teams can just make super fast aerobikes that not everyone has access to. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, there is obviously the rule that, you know, every piece of equipment that pro cyclists are riding in races has to be available commercially. So I think that's the case. Even those special components, I see, for example, Pogacar, even if he has a special, he has special customized components on his bike, you know, the seatpost and stuff like that.

So, but yeah, I mean, obviously a team with more resources will be able to have a lighter bike. So I think that's why I say, you know, okay, I think 6.8 is fine, but times have changed already. You know, it's, it's been over 25 years now, this limit. Material has gotten stronger. Any bike brand could probably make a 6-kilobike if they really want to. Yeah, and you have some, you know, UAE can go to Colanago and say, build us this bike. Like they, they've even built bikes that are specifically designed for Pagachar's preferred riding style.

But if you, Marita's your sponsor, they're saying, no, we're trying to sell a bunch of bikes here. We're not, do we, who are you?

We didn't even know we sponsored a team. Well, some of these. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Marita is obviously a big, a big brand.

I think, is it Marita and Giant who are the two biggest ones? Yeah, I think they're the two biggest brands and the, the biggest manufacturers, I would say, because they manufacture for a lot of other brands.

And Marita owns. I can tell you, Spencer, if any bike brand has the resources to sponsor UAE and Pogacar, they're going to do whatever he needs. They're going to make a special bike for him whatever he needs. You know, then then you have the question, okay, how do they make it available for the public? That's also very, I mean, it depends how you see that, right? I mean, you can put it available to the public, but whatever. I mean, put a, if you make, if you make $100,000,

you make three others put in a shop and you, you ask $20,000, it is available to the public. Yeah, technically it's available. Nobody can buy it or nobody wants to buy it. Yeah. I mean, the big thing, too, are these 3D printed arrow bars on the time trial bikes that, that, that's where it starts to get weird, where they're making like five of them and they aren't really for sale. Also, correction on myself.

Sam Wellsford. won eight world tour races seven are at the tour down under one is at the Renui tour in 2023 okay so he has one world tour race it's not that but Johan question

questions for you question time jingle it's like a little jingle question time first question is where are you watching these races are you you're in Spain you watch it on HBO max and you get the down under is on HBO HBO max yeah

okay I'm hearing that there's a potential change again because Euro sport I mean HBO Max is basically Eurosport. And so I don't know what happened. There's been a redistribution of several

channels. So I'm just waiting to hear but for the moment it's HBO Max. HBO Max, sorry. And in some, it's really confusing in Europe because some countries it's HBO Max. But then in like the UK, they don't have each.

It's not an HBO Max. It's on TV. T&T Sports or Discovery Plus is the streaming service, all owned by the same company, Warner Brothers Discovery. And that could get more complicated because Warner Brothers Discovery is trying to be purchased by, I believe, Netflix. But Netflix is not buying the sports vertical. That would be spun off into, like, Eurosport would be spun off into a separate, they call it like shitco, I think is the technical name for it. because it's just low-growth brands that are going to trade, terrestrial TV brands that will trade at like a lower multiple

than hopefully the Netflix assets were. But that I think would pull a lot of the sports off of HBO Max, which then it's not clear where it leaves us. We might be like the UK where we're all paying $50 a month to watch cycling. Wouldn't be great. In the U.S., it's, I published a piece this week called Where to Watch Cycling in the United States. Not as easy as you're not just firing up HBO Max. Like the Tour Down Under, what we're talking about, that's on Peacock. And in general in the U.S., ASO races,

plus a few oddballs like Tourd Out Under are on Peacock. ASO is the promoter of the Tour de France. So the rule of thumb is French race peacock. Think Perrinisse, Doffinay, which isn't the Dauphana anymore, Tour de France, Valta Spagna, which is not in France, but that race is owned by ASO. That's all on Peacock. Peacock's a very good service. About $110 a year for it. You get a lot of stuff on there. If you like other sports and reality TV shows, you're going to be in heaven. Flowbikes has the Flanders Classics races.

So Omlu Pet Newsblad, Tour of Flanders being the biggest one. Genn Wevelgum, Amsel Gold, which is now in Flanders Classic, two of Romandy, and then a few oddballs, like Romandy, Swiss. And the big one is Flowbikes also has World Championships. well, there's a workaround because they have the whole calendar in Canada. There's a workaround I'll come to in a second. This is where it gets complicated. The other races, the RCS races like Strata Bianchi, Giord Italia, Milana San Ramo.

In the past, we're on HBO Max. Right now, HBO Max has nothing on its cycling calendar for 2026 outside of Challenge Majorca and a few cross races. Unclear to me, what is going to happen with those? They're probably safe to assume they will renew those rights and the Giro. Strata Bianca, but we're like seven weeks away from Strata Bianchi, and we don't know where we're supposed to watch it in the U.S. That's not great.

Probably will be back on HBO Max. So you can get those three services. You're going to pay around, I tallied it up here. It's around $450 a year for those services. Here's a workaround, though. You get flow bikes. What I usually do is I have flow bikes. It's $150 a year.

It's a little expensive, but it's got a lot on there. And you use a VPN just to say you're watching from K. Canada. So no matter where you are in the world, you're just watching that flow bikes feed of every race. It's basically the workaround because if you want to get like an HBO Max account like Johan has, you have to have a bank account or credit card from a country that has the full right. So you'd have to get a French bank account, a Spanish bank account would be quite complex. There probably is a way to do that and spoof it online. But really that flow bikes workaround is the cheapest one, I think. But yeah, Peacock, Flowbikes, HBO Max. We'll put a link to the, I have a big chart with all this in there. We'll put a link in there. But complicated and then we'll let you know when we hear about where is stradamiaki and Milan San Remo and the Jura, Italia, airing in the U.S. So that's, it's complex, but we'll get through it.

We'll get through it together. But first real question, Johan, this is from Jonathan. And this is simple, but I think it's actually helpful for us to talk through it. What's the last name of Jonathan? Jonathan Milan. I don't want to give people's last names away if they didn't. What's the first matter? Um.

Okay. As long as it's not a V. I'm answering. I'm a part-time announcer on HBO Max and a full-time team manager. Why is it advantageous to have a writer from your team in the lead group when your G.C. contender is in the Peloton? Like they have an example. Why is Bob Roll saying it's helpful for Beesman have,

Walt Vinard in the breakaway when Jonas is back in the Peloton. It's always, listen, first of all, it's always good to be represented in a breakaway, at least if it's a substantial breakaway, not in a TV break. A TV break means, you know, it's three, four guys up the road, just for TV time knowing that they're going to get caught. If it's, you know, a bigger group,

it's always interesting to have a guy up there. Why? For many reasons, but, you know, usually it happens. that the break is far enough ahead. And when the big war starts in the Peloton amongst the favorites, they get ahead of the Peloton, the favorites altogether, but they still have the breakaway up front.

So you have a teammate up front, which normally cannot follow the rhythm when the war between the big guns is happening in the Peloton. So that's the first reason. I mean, one of the big reasons also is if you're represented in the break, you have no responsibility to bring the break back. That's the second reason. And then the third reason is whatever happens,

you can always call that guy back. Whereas if something happens, if hell breaks loose and your teammates are dropped from the main group, which happens almost all the time, you have a guy up front who has a head start, basically, and when it really matters or the leader is in trouble, you can call him back and have a start. support rider where otherwise you wouldn't have that guy. And usually the guys who go in breaks

are the guys that would normally get dropped when the big battle is going on. The super famous example of this is if you're wondering this question and you want to see, if you want to see it represented, it's while Benard's stage 20 of the Giorda Tadai last year. Yeah. He would not have made it over the Finestra, gets in the breakaway, gets over. It's over is there to pull Simon Yates. And it's like what Johan is saying. He's powerful. He's important to have.

He wouldn't have made it over it with Simon Yates, but because he's in the breakaway. He does. You also can descend into almost madness. There's even more layers to this where you could think, well, let's say there's a GC rival in the breakaway, but you have a teammate in the breakaway and that guy is not going to work. So then it starts to, sure, in a perfect world, everyone would say,

just ignore them and what's work. But it's not really how it works. A rider's sitting on a breakaway can cause a breakaway to fall apart. It mentally crushes people because they say, well, why would I pull if this guy's sitting on and he's just going to win this? I'm not going to pull him to a stage win. He's going to drop us if we pull him. So you can also almost break a breakaway's will by having a rider up there that's not working if you need to. I think about Sep Kuse.

He wins the Volta because he's in that break. Ladu Sadal is chasing. Maybe if Laudu Sadal has a guy. in that break, it makes it more complicated. Probably wouldn't have helped in that scenario. Yeah, plus if you have a guy in the breakaway, Spencer, let's say there's, and there's a rival GC contender in the break. Another advantage is, obviously, your teammate is not going to work

and is going to actually instigate other riders, also not to work. And all the weight of the breakaway gets on the favorite rival GC contender, who then has to do a lot of work, wears himself out, and we'll pay for it at the end of the stage. Yeah, there's actually the, when you start to think about it, there's very few downsides to being in the breakaway, just in general. So it's always, always good to be in the breakaway,

unless you're a GC leader, then you shouldn't be up there because you're going to probably get dropped later in the race. So question number two. I actually was wondering about this too. You guys have discussed strategy. This is from Brett Bittner. assume not related to Pavel Bittner.

I hope so. You've discussed strategies for creating riders racing schedules for the year. I would also love for you to explore how the director's sportives create their schedule. Are they expected to be on the road for almost the entire season? What factors determine which races Johan went to? Was there ever an issue with directors not wanting to be on the road so much? Also, me and my buddies were wondering what your take is, I've not proof the second paragraph. Let's hope it's okay.

what your take is on cyclists who were infamous for their ability to suffer and really dig deep. Maybe not always the top cyclists, but the ones who could really go into the pain cave. But I often wonder this about what's that? What's the question? That second part, what is the question exactly? Which cyclist do you know that we're able to go deepest into the pain cave? Okay. Yeah, I have a really good example.

Let me start with that one. I actually had lunch today with an ex-college of mine, ex-2-2-the-France winner from Spain. And we discussed this guy. He was my teammate, Alex Zule. I don't know if you remember that guy. Oh, yeah, yeah, I do. I mean, he won the Vuelta twice. He was twice second in the tour.

You know, I got together with him at Onse. I mean, it was early 90s, so a very long time ago. But I have never seen anybody who could suffer more than that guy. That guy could, you know, first of all, he was incredibly strong, big champion, world champion time trial also. And yeah, I mean, this guy could just ride until he literally, after the finish, literally fell off his bike. I mean, I've seen many, many finishes of mountain stages or time trials, time trials,

which he either won or had to defend the leader's jersey. And this one years knew already they had to be at the line because they had to basically catch him. He just fell off his bike. He went so deep, he fell off the bike. And it was not a show where it was real, like the ability to just go beyond where you just go blind. You don't see anymore. You know, you can't breathe anymore. Just, you know, like really like gasping for air.

Yeah, I've never seen anybody who could go deeper than that guy. This is a crazy Palmaris, by the way. I didn't really see one this much. He was really good. Wow. Two Veltas, Perrinisse, Tour Swiss, two stages of France, Catalonia overall, World Championship Time Trials, three stages of the zero, two times second at the tour.

Oh, he was second in 99. Yeah. Okay. I often wonder, is this, Is this mental or is this a physical gift some people have where they can almost maximize their engine versus some people they almost, they never seem tired. You're like very talented, but they never seem tired. Like they almost can't push into the reserves. I wonder about this all the time.

No, I think it's something unique. I mean, like if you can really go so deep that you, I mean, it's not given to many people, you know, to go through the pain and then basically go beyond that. pain where your body says stop and being able to stay at that pain level for a very long time. I think that's probably what makes the difference between the great, the good and the great. What is Alex Zula doing now? I know he's riding his bike a lot because we follow each other on Strava and he rides a lot and he still rides very fast. He hasn't slowed down much. Yeah, I would imagine.

Did you know his last team was Phonak? The long career, man. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then so the, yeah, how do they decide? Oh, the directors. How much are they on the road?

It seems pretty crushing. I mean, it's changed a lot also now, Spencer. I remember, you know, when like basically when I started with Postal, we had two directors and two directors for the whole season. reason. Oh, my God. Yeah. What? Yeah. Two directors. Who were the direct? Me and Johnny Welts. Oh, my, I didn't know that. And two of you. And to the Tour de France, I went on my own. I went on my own. I swear to God, I went on my own. And the team manager, the general manager was Mark Gorski, who was not usually a director. And so he drove the second car. in that first tour de France. And then the days that Mark had to take care of VIPs,

like sponsors were coming, he just didn't drive the car. We had a mechanic driving the second car. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's different, different days, right? Different days, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, obviously, you know, nowadays, there's a lot of directors. So there's, I mean, the calendars are not that big for the directors. And I think they do like 60, 70 races probably a year. Unless you have, I mean, yeah, I mean, already riders write 60, 70 days a year. So usually it also goes. I mean, every director has their own specialty and their group of riders, right? And so you have lead directors and then you have assistant directors. So it usually goes together with the program of the rider.

If you look, for example, Pogacar's program, it would always. be Andre Hopman, who is the lead director in the car and then an assistant director. So it's, I mean, the way the teams are structured now and the availability on staff, it's not that big of a deal. They all have their races and it's not overloaded. It's not overloaded. I do think that what really is demanding on certain directors is the training. They do all of time.

Yeah. And that's also, that's like, you know, that's another grand tour, right? It's another grand tour. You're always in the same place, but you are away from home, right? Yeah, if you do three Altstreet camps. Yeah. That's three more grand tours, basically. Yeah.

Yeah. It's a really good point. These camps are, I think people, a lot of people I know, they're like, what's the big just go to Altstree camp? It's like, well, that's a lot of money, first of all, for the team. And then, yeah, it's a lot of strain on the personnel and on the riders. You're going to spend three weeks away from your family. Logistically, it's, you know, usually these camps are not easy accessible.

You know, it's, it's far travel. You have to bring vehicles. It's, it's hard on the staff. But in terms of race program, the way the sport is organized nowadays, it's, it's fine. It's not that big of a deal. And it's all decided before the season. season already. Okay, you take care of the classics. You take care of the of, of this group of of riders. Okay, you go with Pogacchar, you go with disc rider. It's, it's all predetermined.

Do a lot of directors live in the same area like Gerona, Nice or they just kind of spread out around Europe generally? More spread out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Got to be European based, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, as a professional cyclist, you have to be European based. There's no one. Didn't always used to be that way though, right? Yeah. Like we, yeah. When they did, I mean, they all, obviously all the Americans on my teams, they all had a base in Europe. Yeah.

For the season. They, you know, they either had a house or rented a house. But you have to be, yeah, you have to be in Europe. 90% of the calendar is in Europe. I, I don't know how much. I definitely know a few American cyclists who try to speak. spend as little time as possible in Europe. I know if you have those too.

Not helpful to their careers. I mean, I was talking to an American who is so dialed in and he said he only comes back to the U.S. once a year because he thinks it's such a drain on like resources and training and takes them off his game so much. So I would say, yeah, there's a little time as you could spend in the U.S. probably. Is that, is that Matteo Jorgensen? It's not Mateo, but he probably is roughly around that. I mean, he's in Nice almost all the time.

Well, you have anything else, Johan? I think I've exhausted everything I can from this week. We've covered most of whatever's going on in pro cycling right now. Yeah, and we'll be back not on Monday. We'll be back on Friday to talk about the tour down under will finish. Jay Vine's going to win. Navaros will get second. Mario Schmidt's probably going to get third.

And we will be talking about other races that happen after that as well. Okay, Spencer. Thank you. All right. Thank you. I don't know.