THEMOVE - Were they saving it for a Alpe d'Huez Showdown? | Tour De France Femmes 2024 Stage 7 | THEMOVE

Episode Date: August 17, 2024

THEMOVE team recognized that today may have been a bit of a G.C. truce. On this episode, we spend more time looking ahead to tomorrow and the podium battle for all three spots that will go down on Alpe d'Huez. Buycycle:  Unlock free seller protection when you sell a bike on buycycle with the code: THEFEMMES. https://buycycle.com/en-us?&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=brand&utm_content=wedufemmes&utm_country=us Roka: THEMOVE listeners get 20% off. Just go to https://www.ROKA.com and enter code THEMOVE at checkout. Wahoo: Wahoo’s cycling products are trusted by the pro peloton. We see Wahoo’s ELEMNT BOLT GPS bike computer on the handlebars of many Tour Teams. Now you can save 20% on select full-price products by using the coupon code THEMOVE2024 at checkout. AG1: If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs, yes that’s FIVE travel packs, with your first purchase. https://drinkAG1.com/THEMOVE

I think the one thing we is going to be very interesting tomorrow is watching puck. So she's one of the ones, right? Yes. So she's sitting up there in GC still, she's in the best young riders Jersey. And this will be once again,

her first stage race in her life. And I heard it was only her 10th road race ever basically. And so, I mean, she could be getting fatigued on stage eight and it's going to be the longest climb for her. But I think she's a good pick for a possible podium. And obviously, I think she'll keep the best young rider and hopefully she doesn't crack completely.

But I don't know. I think she's going to be an interesting one to watch. We don't know. What a way to start your stage race career. I've never done one of these, but I finished on my first time. I did when I was podium in the Tour de France. Well, good morning, everybody. Welcome back to the Move podcast, talking about the Tour de France Femme of Ex Zwift.

Two days to go or one day to go after today. But Mel, before we get into all the action, just tell us where we, what did we do today? Stage seven. Champagnol to Le Grand Bournon. Champagnol to Le Grand Bournon. I just, I mean, I cannot help every day. I just. She makes it sound great. Champagnol.

Speaking of pronunciations, we struggled, right? With the pronunciation of of uh of our winner today it's uh and it's not even up there on our notes justine gacara justine gacara belgium gets a win yeah and it was cool she's in the polka dot jersey um she announced before the stage that she is going to go on the break um and she did and then she held a teammate with a teammate and held off the field and ally was digging up as she does some some cool backstory on her uh like a lot of these women she's she's i wouldn't say new to the sport but has not been doing this since she was 10 years

old justine's incredible she just started racing racing about four years ago. She has a degree in physical education. She was a personal trainer and then this thing called the pandemic hit. And so she couldn't go to work and do personal training. So she started, she hopped on her bike and Zwift and she won her first bike race was technically as with trace and her numbers were so good that the organizers initially thought she had committed data fraud. And now look at this. She's winning the polka dot Jersey so far winning stages of the tour de France from a Vex lift and all started from COVID and hopping on a trainer and Zwift.

Yeah. It's awesome. By the way, how do you do that? I mean, I think the way to hack it, not to give anybody away any secrets here, but just put in a different weight. Is that what they would have accused? I'm curious, like what they have accused her of just saying. Weight doping.

Yeah. That's a thing. It is a thing. That is. Yeah. It is a thing. And I mean, she is Belgian, we were saying, and she is from Isigum, where I have lived. And it's in West Flanders.

And you know who else lives there? Yeah. I love it. Johan. Johan. Well, he's from there. He grew up there, didn't he? Yeah.

All right. Before we get into all the action, and most importantly, we're going to spend a lot of time talking about tomorrow. Stage eight, the last day, up Alpe d'Huez. Lots of thoughts, lots of stuff to share there. So, but before we do, Allie, the last day up Alpe d'Huez, um, lots of thoughts, lots of stuff shared there. So, uh, but before we do Allie, what do we got? Well, you know, we're all, we're all bike dorks here. We're listening to a podcast. So I always like to dive into what bikes the riders are using. So once again, congratulations to Justine.

She races for AG insurance suit all, which happened to ride specialized bicycles. So when you look up at bicycle.com, you can see that they have over 600 specialized bicycles. She happened to be on a Tarmac SL8. And if you look at her yellow jersey rider, Cassia, she's on a Canyon Arrow. And there's 160 on Bicycle. So it's pretty cool. Bicycle is a great place to sell and buy bikes. Um, you're listing your bike takes less than three minutes. Um, and it can go to people like all over the world, like us and Europe, which is kind of cool. And when the bike sells,

you get the money and Lance, this is our favorite part. Really? You don't have to interact with people and selling your bike. Like they send you the box. I love that part. Yeah. They send you the box. You ship your bike, you get paid or you can shop for a new slash loved bike. Yeah. She should sell her bike. I bet she could do that. Yeah. Bicycle.com. So anyway, it's a very cool. And the good thing is it's, you can use the app and use the code, the FEMS for free seller protection. So using the code, the FEMS for free seller protection, list or buy a bike. And there you go. There we go.

Also today brought to you by Roka. Based down there in our hometown of Austin, Texas, T minus. Gosh, what is it? T minus maybe 40 hours till I'm back in Austin. I'm excited. I'm excited to go home. It's always nice to get back home, get the kids in school,

get them in their rhythm and structure. But back to Roka, they've reinvented the category. You see it. You see Demi wearing them and her entire team actually wearing them. They look so good, whether it's on the sporting side,

the casual side or the prescription side. By the way, the prescription glasses have the same technology as as all the glasses right so the the lenses are scratch resistant fog resistant um and they are the best optics on the market the other thing i love about my readers and i haven't mentioned this lately is the hinge all right for folks who lose their reading glasses i bet you they don't hinge like my readers. Look at this. This thing. Watch this. It just it's just nice.

It's clean that hand. So when you put them in your shirt and you bend over or whatever, they just don't fall out as easy. So the hinge is important. Yeah, I like the hinge. Yeah. Right. Especially when you absolutely need them.

The other cool thing about Roka is they work with the special forces, which I consider to be some of the best athletes in the world, certainly under the most pressure. You know, those guys and gals absolutely want the best products. Move listeners get 20% off. Just go to ROKA, R-O-K-A, that's ROKA.com. Use the code THEMOVE for 20% off, ROKA..com and get your hinge on. As far as today goes, we talked about, I mean, I think to me, well, I watched, I saw two things. I saw, and we could, I think we're safe to talk about this. There is a widespread speculation that Demi Vollering is leaving SDWorks and going to FDJ next year.

I saw a little bit of friendly work there, maybe getting ahead of ourselves on that. I don't know. I mean, they do have riders that are up there and can climb. But I... They were working pretty hard on the... I feel like... And we'll see just, this is an observation from today and a heads up for tomorrow. I mean that,

and that's kind of a strength or a nice thing to have for her that, Hey, if I do start to lose some teammates, I may have this other option. Well, and Francie Dejoux was working hard on the front yesterday in the final part, when they were bringing back, they were bringing it back. And I felt like, why wasn't Canyon working? Why was it FDJ? So, I mean, I still think Canyon should have been the ones having to work. But it would have explained more of why they thought they needed to be up there.

I don't know. I mean, you could look at like Juliette Labousse, though, being a French rider. And she's sitting up there in GC. So there are reasons that Grace Brown is going on the front. But now, if Damie does go to FDJ, I'm pretty excited that she would, since she is losing that rooster and a capecchi. But if you look like Grace Brown, the current Olympic champion, the time trial, that's not a bad engine to have in your tool house there. But didn't I hear on the coverage um that she's retiring that's what i thought oh shoot she is you're right she is retiring and i thought that was interesting i

mean your olympic gold medal you're on that team yeah you're gonna have a demi coming uh i started looking at this and thinking might we do another year or two because you could be part of a pretty cool ride plus she you want to ride around at least a year, I think with as the Olympic champion, if not more, that's what they said on the coverage. I was surprised to hear that. Yeah. She, um, she wrote a big, uh, piece on her social media that she misses her family and friends, husband, and you know, she's Australian and it's just moving to Europe and racing at that level and being so far away from her home. She wanted to retire and she's had a great career, but ending it with that Olympic medal was incredible. By the way, it's also kind of cool.

Yeah. Like just mic drop. Going out on top. Total mic drop. Peace out. But now I'm bummed I forgot that because I was hoping Damie, if she was going to FTA, DJ had the power of Grace Brown. She's going to go back down under with that gold medal.

Oh, yes, she will. Throw some cheap salt at Bobby, mate. of grace brown but she's gonna go back down under with that gold medal oh yes she will throw some shimsa the bobby might um the other thing that stood out clearly kasha niwadoma is not listening to the podcast i don't i i i look it it it maybe it doesn't matter it probably won't matter it's just not but then again it might right i don't know there's no reason i guess yeah that was my feeling there's no reason to attack you have a lead tomorrow is very difficult there's no reason to burn any energy any calories any uh kilojoules whatever you want to call it today like you yeah you saw her in the last kilometer couldn't follow demi yeah i mean seconds in the bonus seconds and they gave them they gave them same time although they were not

they were not same time that's the second time they've done that this tour yep and this is a true uphill mountain finish that's just a mental win for demi yeah i don't i don't yeah i mean i'm a huge fan y'all know that i just i think it's ill-advised she was even working like when she was setting tempo on the climb when it was still a big group which i i thought was just you know she didn't have any teammates and she didn't need to do it yeah and she was um when squibon attacked so she ended up second in the stage she attacked from the big group. And she attacked and who brought her back was Kasia. And there was still 12, 14 riders there.

So, I mean, I found that interesting. But, you know, perhaps she was just trying to also take time on her rivals going into the finish fast. Like we've seen that happen in the men's tour as well. It seems pretty clear, though, that she and Demi are, you know, a level above. So there was, in my opinion, like I couldn't understand why she was wasting any energy because it was sort of been on demi to have to to try and get time kacha didn't need to do anything that's that's a convenient thing to tell yourself that you're putting time into your rivals you have one rival yeah and you are not putting time into them and you're showing yourself, you're on the front and giving her a chance to make a run at you, which she did. Well, and she, you know, Demi got the bonus seconds and the field was right there. So she worked that whole section and didn't gain anything from it, essentially.

And I actually don't think these climbs were as hard as we thought, or it wasn't raced as hard as we thought. I'm going to break that when we start talking about about tomorrow, I'm going to, I have this all broken down. I'm looking down one K to go. And I see riders in there that I'm like, you guys weren't climbing that hard. These are 5% or yeah, I love a 5% climb. Don't get me wrong.

I mean, it basically went right into Demi's hand today, the way that it was played out. And, you know, I just don't understand why you would make it easy on Demi to that you know yeah i mean we talked about this yesterday if you combine the last two climbs from today yeah they're they're long it's almost 13k but these are five percenters yeah tomorrow's steep which speaking of the five percent and that's a climb that i mean i saw

lucinda brand was still there and amazing you know know, world champion cyclocross racer, but a very pure power type of a rider, not known to be a climbing specific rider. And so something like that, like that does suit like a rider like myself, a 5% time trial, all power, which I was shocked to see Faulkner get dropped today with the, how many people that were coming into that finish. Faulkner lost the pace pretty quickly on that last one. I'm gonna call it one climb. Cause. that finish faulkner lost the pace pretty quickly on that last one i'm gonna call it one climb because look she's had a long has to has to feel like a long few weeks like some point at some point the magic runs out and well with a lot of pressure and stress and a lot of things going on track hopefully some partying yeah doubtful now maybe yeah i mean a couple golds yeah i'll be down at the moulin rouge i'm not even sorry i got a cove but i can't come to the tour y'all but she's had a great few weeks she has and she did say this morning that she didn't know how

she'd do in the longer climbs because she'd only been working on five minute power basically um which i would also say she's also been working on like 40 minute power due to the other the other effort she's done but so it was just interesting um anything else stand out on today i want to talk about tomorrow's big tomorrow obviously this is it well i think that voss kind of sealed up the green jersey that's a big deal she rode rode great today. Where did that? Let me check these results here. Our friends over at Pro Cycling Stats. Look at this here.

They always have everything. I mean, she's 170 points and Neodoma's 86 points. All right. So this is the green jersey. Done. Yep. Done. Right. Still have to finish the race.

But she knows how to stay on her bike. Lorena Wiebesen, third. She's got to be leaving the tour going. What happened? Thank you. It took the words out of my mouth. Like, hang on. Like, wait a second.

What just happened? She's tough. She'll be back. I'm sure she was getting a lot of grief for that stage where they lost Demi, too. That's what it sounds like at least in the press she was you know they were all feeling really bad about how she felt about it i mean she should have gone back but she yeah seventh was not worse that but like go in thinking you're gonna have all these great results and you come out of it

just being everyone's just hating on you totally they are what you expect dang yeah she's dutch right i mean that's what you wouldn't want to be the that's a bad position to be in when the when the whole country and all the press in holland or i thought demi was super gracious though to her yeah you know really tried to smooth things over. Yeah. Huh. Well, we're going to get into. She's so nice. She is nice. I follow her on Instagram and I'm like, really? I know.

Are you really that nice? She is really that nice. There's always people like that. You're like, are you really that nice? And then about half the time you're like, no, you're just a total asshole. And then the other half, you're like, really get to know them them and surprise like, oh my God, you are actually that nice. Yeah. I was, um, uh, DMing with her, uh, partner Yon this morning and, you know, he's talking about how much she does work on emotion and she really performs through emotion

and this positive mentality. And she talks about a lot on mantras, but she practiced breathing and she just goes by feel. She goes by feel and training so often from running or playing like with her dogs or camping in Switzerland. You know, so much is just about enjoying life and and really fueled by emotions. And so I could tell, though, that, you know, she was a little angry about yesterday. So I'm still curious on tomorrow. So, well, it's all it all comes down to tomorrow which we are about to talk about but before we do uh today's show also brought to you by ag1 uh as i always say it is about taking control of your

health uh heads up if you didn't listen a couple days ago and it's been a few days ago now we had dr jeremy townsend on uh who's with ag1 he really talked about the product, the best uses, the history, the ingredients, the effects. I thought it was really enlightening. So if you ever have questions about AG1, you could just go back a couple of shows ago and look up his interviews towards the end of the show. But AG1 is a foundational nutritional supplement that delivers daily nutrients and gut health support and is backed by multiple research studies, which Dr. Townsend talks about. And so you can totally trust what you're putting in your body. The results of those online studies will be online very soon. And he actually teased one out that I think was days away. So maybe by now it's come out.

That'll be over on their website. If there's one product that i trust to support my whole body health it's ag1 and that's why i've partnered with them for so long it's easy and satisfying to start your journey with ag1 try ag1 and get a free one-year supply of vitamin d3k2 and five free ag1 travel packs with your first purchase head on over to drinkag1.com slash the move that's drinkag1.com slash the move i have like a question though because i've been sitting over here in um in somebody else's for a week for a week and i didn't know if you were trying to like tell me something but i got this ag1 plumber did george have a problem or what was going on with it? So here's the, if you, for those who didn't listen to the, uh,

the men's tour, you're right. That has not moved. And that, that there is a packet for those just listening. There's a packet of, uh, there's an AG one travel pack,

uh, rubber banded to the plunger, which by the way, appears to have never been used. Thankfully. Thank goodness. Yeah. Different than my headphones.

George during the, during the tour, George stayed with us. And so, uh, and like, is the case. No, for headphones. But George, during the, during the tour, George stayed with us. And so, and like is the case any time. Oh God. No, for real. Anytime you have, you know, five, six, seven people staying.

I mean, I have a lot of kids and so, you know, for that many people, one plunger is typically not enough. All right. This is life lessons from the move. And so one day yeah you know something happened got a little claw stuck something and i went looking and sure enough george had stolen the plunger oh and so we bought him that plunger plunger and but i feel bad ali i feel bad for you because not only have you sat next to george's plung for a week? You also are using his ear things,

which he's listening every day. He's at this point getting really mad at me. So George, uh, we love George. Next year, this show will be brought to you by Q-tip. And,

uh, plungers, some, who may Rubbermaid, like who makes plungers? I don't know. That's a good question should we look this up i bet you if we look on urban dictionary what no we've done enough urban

dictionary this morning no more time in the pre-show looking up on the urban dictionary if y'all get bored and you're a gravel racer no you've ever been to Tucson and you go to urban dictionary.com and look up the dirty lemon. Cause Allie was talking, she was talking about the dirty lemon this morning. She's blushing again. I don't know what the fuck is going on her and Blaze. The dirty lemon. He's actually here today. You know, he's out there.

I understand. But I don't want to hear about it. Now we got to put that thing away away i can't look at the plunger well i kind of feel like we should have done a boomstick plunger like maybe who had the best success after their athletic all right moving on have to talk about tomorrow just it's absolutely and i i think you know to me and i want y'all's thoughts like this is this is just a completely different day. If you look at the profile, let me pull it up here. First of all, sorry, that's today. Let's go to tomorrow. Let's get this right. Four thousand meters of climbing. That is.

So for those who think in feet, that's over 13,000 feet of vertical climbing on 149 kilometer stage. So call it 90 miles. I added it up. You have 44 kilometers of actually riding uphill, which I always liked. So out of 159, 44 of them, you're going uphill in some sort of way. What we saw today, which as we saw, Demi did not get back any time. These were 5% climbs. If you look at primarily the two climbs that we'll talk about for tomorrow, Col de Glendon and Alpe d'Huez.

Alpe d'Huez speaks for itself, I think. Just let's first talk about the Col de Glendon. 20 kilometers. 20. That's a long climb. 19.8, but yeah. At 7.2%, which is already a big difference from 5%. Alpe d'Huez, 14 kilometers at 8%.

These are totally different. And I think you have to look at where the steep parts of these climbs are too. So Col de Glendon, it's very steep at the top which is going to be great for the the climber anyone who could have hung on through the bottom sections are going to start having a real struggle if they're not gone by that point at the top but then you have a quick descent and then we all know that you know alpe d'huez starts out with very steep at the bottom so you know for anyone who can get away and keep a gap who's a good uh the best climbers are going to be able to stay away better have you raced up the cold to go on yeah i mean don't i don't remember it but i i remember the best climbers are going to be able to stay away better.

Have you raised up the cold? Yeah. I mean, I don't remember it, but I remember, I recall the name. I also recall we got distracted talking about plungers and Q-tips and urban dictionaries. Well, I know. But speaking of looking at these climbs tomorrow, we. We got to talk about. Yeah.

We have to talk about Wahoo because they that you will see a lot of Wahoos and you'll see a lot of these ladies really relying on their Wahoos. Think about the people that were prepping for the Olympics and such and didn't have a chance to check out these climbs. Using the Wahoo Summit feature would be a great way to know that you have that 20% finish at the end there. That looks tough. Wahoo bike computers are proven in the Peloton, used by eight World Tour teams, and has a summit feature, which we were just talking about, provides with colored gradients, detailed

climb data, and even helps you detect climbs nearby. So I'm a big fan of my Wahoo bike computer. I use the Roam. A lot of the women are using the Bolt. It's a little smaller. The Roam has better mapping capabilities. And, you know, I'm in a larger screen. So for me and my lack of focus.

Oh, believe me, I get it. I can't see anything. Ability to get lost. I love the Roam. And then, you know, we always use our Speedplay pedals. I've been with Speedplay since 2009, not only for aerodynamics, but also really important for different knee issues. And I've dislocated a lot of bones and broke a lot of bones in tennis and cycling. So Speedplay has been pivotal.

Light and stiff. Yep. Light and stiff. There you go. You can clip in on both sides. So many people struggle with clipless pedals, especially early on, because they're probably on some other brand where you can only clip in on one side. For beginning cyclists, they get so nervous and you if you've

ever been in a car and you see a newbie coming to the red line it's not gonna be good no how many times you've seen somebody tip over how many times has that been me wahoo cycling products are trusted by the pro peloton as we can see and we see the wahoo's element bolt gps by computer on the handlebars of so many teams. Now you can save 20% on select full price products by using the coupon code, TheMove2024. So go to WahooFitness.com slash TheMove and enter TheMove2024 to save 20%. Clip in on both sides. Don't get lost.

And use that summit feature. That's right. And I'm assuming Demi's previewed Alpe d'Huez dozens of times by now. I'm assuming Neodoma has as well. It sounded like she had previewed all the courses. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be very interesting to see what happens,

especially after how we saw Neodoma ride today. I mean, she was trying to do everything. And I'm wondering if that's going to take a little out of her for these portions that are really difficult tomorrow. I mean, look at the gland. Look at the gland. I mean, look at this. This is it is. Wow.

And this is where averages can be deceiving. Right. What I see, I see more red and black than I see anything. So when you see the green, if you're listening, just bear with us. When you see those green sections, that's really screwing with the average. Look at those two, 2.6%, down at the bottom, 2.5%, even the blue section, 5.8%. But then you start to get into the other stuff. Look at the last two kilometers, 10.8 11.5 it's a very

difficult climb which may or may not affect the race at that point but it's going to take a lot of zing out of the legs for for folks and then it's basically straight down and then you run over to altuez well and i think a lot of people the style of racing we saw today was probably because of the expectation of tomorrow. Because obviously that third spot is important to try and get on the podium. And I think most people realized if they could conserve energy today, they might do better tomorrow and are just deciding that it wasn't worth trying to break it up today. That's a big question mark. I think we could all say we know who's either first or second or vice versa.

Yeah, but third is wide open. Third is a race. Yeah. But obviously, it'll be fun to watch. I have a question for both of y'all. I mean, how did Demi look today? Like, y'all know her a lot better than I do. Just looking at her, what did you notice?

I noticed that at first i was a little concerned i felt like she was doing her her breathing exercises which she kind of has a very trademark like kind of puffs out the cheeks a little bit and i think it's a part of her rhythm and her breathing work she does in her meditation and yoga practices so i was nervous that she was doing that to calm herself down because she didn't feel well or you know was trying to see how she felt because you know that was a really hard crash, and this was the first time she's really been tested in these, in a climb since the crash. And then coming into the finish, she kind of did her, she did one little move, which was just that seated, you know, no mistake, namaste, whatever you call it,

but she has a little seated acceleration. I think she was just testing herself. So I'm going to say that she looks okay, but I don't think she looked as confident as we've seen her in the past. And I think she's in some pain. Yeah. I kind of took the same thing away from it. I didn't think she looked as sharp as normal, but, um, but I didn't think she looked bad and it was still the two of them above everyone else. Right. Well, tomorrow's the day. I mean i mean there's no and it's a lot of time a minute what is it a minute 16 yeah uh that's uh that well that's a lot it's a lot of time and that means you have to she can't wait i mean she can wait to lap the wes but you just can't wait uh where does it say there yeah minute 15 minute 15. Minute 15. I mean, you cannot wait to the end.

You have to, you just got to go. And Alpe d'Huez is hard enough where you, I've been there. I've done that, right? You can go from the bottom if you feel good enough. And it's so steep. It's going to get a huge separation there no matter what. But if she really goes. Is your name on Alpe d'Huez?

You know, it's, and I was curious, but my name is Alba on Alpe d'Huez. We have our good friend, Jimmy Riccatello, sent me this picture. He was over there riding recently. And for those who don't know, if you went Alpe d'Huez, which I did twice, they put your name. There's 21 switchbacks. And so every switchback has one of these placards. And they've done it enough times that they now have to put more than one name on there. But I shared this particular placard with my old director sportive, Henny Kuyper, who won in 1977.

This is from my win in 2004 and on one of the other switchbacks from the win in 2001. But Mar, you said that they're going to start adding. Well, I did hear that, that they're going to start adding the women to it. And I think it's awesome. Yeah. It's amazing to have a woman's name on there. It would be incredible. If we're going to go do it and race up out the West, I think they should absolutely do that. I think so too. And I think Demi is going to get some extra energy from the Dutch, you know, corner, you's awesome i think it's going to be a an epic crowd out there we've seen great crowds the whole time and they've got it as we

know because we've been up early watching the stages you know these stages have been finishing um at 8 a.m our time which is gosh what is that it's like 4 p.m over there this one so it's a sunday evening they've got to push back all the way till 7 p.m that has to be an out the west like let's get it going kind of thing right let's we we cannot finish before happy hour i'm just hoping that people aren't riding down in the dark you know well we're not we're just worried about the women in the race we're not worried about we're not worried about the people at happy race. We're not going to worry about, we're not worried about the people, but it could be rocking,

right. You know, it will be rocking. You got to figure, um, you know, it from, from five 36 PM on the,

the entire field will be on out to us and, uh, sun going down, happy hour, Dutch corner. It's going to be awesome. Yeah. I think the one thing we is gonna be very

interesting tomorrow is watching puck so well she's one of the ones right yes so she's sitting up there in gc still she's in the best young riders jersey and this will be once again her first stage race in her life and i heard it was only her 10th road race ever basically and um so i mean she could be getting fatigued on stage eight and it's going to be the longest climb for her, but I think she's a good pick for a possible podium. And obviously I think she'll keep the best young rider and hopefully she just doesn't crack completely, but I don't know. I think she's going to be an interesting one to watch. We don't know. What a way to start your stage race career. I've never done one of these, but I finished on it.

My first time I did one, I was podium in the Tour de France. That's a good start. Right? Yeah. I think the another one we're going to watch kind of climb a bit. And it's surprising she held on as well as she did through the flatter stages as the Gaia. As Gaia on track. She should move up on these steep climbs.

She was better today. She was better today. We've seen her a lot because she had the know how the mechanical was behind the car got penalized lost time two days ago but she was there today yeah she was looking better yeah often and i think this holds true for both men's and women's pelotons you often i mean i'll never uh the one the one person i always think of and i'm i'm aging myself here, is we had a great climber in America named Michael Carter. Michael Carter might have been 110 pounds. I mean, this boy could climb.

But it's bike racing. It's different, right? You've got to get through the first week. Even if it's a mountain stage, you've got to get to the bottom of the climb. You have to fight for position. She strikes me as somebody like that. That's the, the, the NASCAR element of cycling, right? The rubbing and racing and all that is harder for her. Yeah.

I mean, there, you can waste, you can end up wasting so much energy that you can't show your actual, how good you are because you just have, you're already, your tank is half empty by the time you get to the important part and the stress and the stress. Yeah. So we'll see what happens with her tomorrow, but I do think she wastes, I mean, she obviously wastes a ton of energy on the flat stages, but maybe yesterday and today she's recovering a little bit and then now I'm going to be able to do something. So we got a bunch of storylines. Yeah. Right. Who wins the tour de France? Who ends up on the podium? It's going to be awesome. I can't believe it happened this way. On AltaWes.

Okay. At sunset. At happy hour. At happy hour. By the way, how are those happy hours? It's been a minute for this old boy. We have no idea. That's not true.

I have no idea. I have no idea. That's not true. I have no idea. I have no idea. We have some fun comments. We love comments. Oh, there's a real shocker from this first one here. At R-League 685. Wow. I just became a PFP fan.

Now? I mean, come on. Finally. Come on, R-League 685. Well, you know, that's good. There's the move, but yeah, she got a lot of fans. So R-League 685, just joined the club. She's got a big fan club.

He loved the part. You know what? R-League 685. I don't know if that's a guy or a girl. Train hard, eat well, go to bed early. That's what R-League loved about it uh tom b 91381 where do we come up with these things uh so he says i've been or yeah tom this is tom says i've been watching the tour de france since early days uh back in the day it's just a few minutes on tv on wide world of sports all the interviews were strictly in french and all the writers had to

learn the language it was the primary language of cycling, uh, flash forward and on the TV and virtually every interview gets done also in English. Is that a sign of the times or what do y'all think? A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, everything's in English now, so it is a sign of the times that's changed in the last 20 years. Yeah. I mean, I think it's, I'm, I'm often surprised at how many of the writers speak English. Yeah. I mean, a lot of times I'll switch to their own, you know, for other broadcasts to switch to Dutch or Italian. I don't know. I, when I was on Astana, um, you know, Italian was the language. So I had to learn Italian because race race direction wasn't done in English. Well, I think they were the last ones pretty much.

They held on to wanting to have it in their language. But, you know, with all the Dutch and the German and all those countries, all of them speak such good English. They don't want to hear you speak German or try to speak Dutch. You're right. I mean, those kids a lot of times grow up watching English shows that are subtitled in their in their native language um but when you get down into the french and the spanish and italians they don't right so that those are you're starting to see them speak speak english it's it's formula one-esque right you can you could never imagine a world now where you where you race in formula one and don't speak

english right whether you're giving interviews or interacting with the engineers or the fans, it's all in English. We're sort of moving that way. Starblazers 01 says Ashley Muma is the female Johan Brunel. She was very smart and savvy. I got that vibe.

I got that vibe. I think we're going to have to bring her back. I got that vibe. They loved her professional input. It got that vibe. I think we're going to have to bring her back. Yeah. Yeah, she's awesome. I got that vibe. They loved her professional input. It was spot on. That's all for the comments. We also, and I didn't know this yesterday. Actually, shit.

Does the Vuelta start today? Oh my gosh, yes, it does. It does start today because the guys did a Vuelta preview. It literally my gosh. Yes, it does start today. Cause the guys did a Vuelta preview. It literally just started today, Saturday. Yeah. It just started. Like you're so into the women's.

You didn't even think about it. I'm so into the women's. You know what else? I'm ready to stop talking about cycling to be candid. Um, but yeah, started today. Can Sep Kuz defend his title?

Uh, fun little, let's just have a little fun. Who's going to win this thing? Sepp Kuss, Primas, Rogelis, Adam Yates? I would not bet against Adam Yates or Jaumeita. Bet against or bet for? I wouldn't bet against.

Adam Yates is a stone cold killer. Mika Landa. Carlos Rodriguez? Does he break through there? I think the big question mark is, does Rogelis recover from his crash? Canguelike not crash for once would be nice yeah i'm a big roguelike fan don't get me wrong but i feel like in his team meetings he's like and then i crash right and they're like no but then you win he's like no but then i first i crashed yeah well he started that's why he got to

cycling because he crashed in ski jumping i'm such a fan though and i am too and to see sep up there um it'll be interesting to see what visa lisa visma lisa bike does with sep like do they support him or do they look at other options but yeah sep's a incredible kid from uh not a kid anymore at all he's like married with children probably but he's from durango he came up from the nike program that we were talking about yeah how old is he um mid-20s mid-20s yeah they're all young uh well folks it comes down to tomorrow and we we teed it up perfectly for y'all uh it's it's in the perfect environment the perfect stadium perfect setting um we are going to find out yeah i mean this is and we all get to sleep

in a little bit yeah or we do we work out sooner i'm fine to work out yeah all right you get up early tomorrow's my last day in aspen so i'm thinking about you know getting on the stage and going for a long solo mountain bike ride i love that nice yeah sounds good riding around i've got a ride set up with my favorite person. Yourself. Me. Yeah. Perfect. Everybody.

By the way, that's not a dickhead comment. Everybody is supposed to think that way. Make sure you listen. Like and subscribe. Wherever you get your podcast, Apple, Spotify,

iHeart. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you tomorrow and see what happens. All right. Let's get it. No. Three, two it on. No. Three, two, one. Bye.