Beyond the Slipstream

Victorious In The Pink S2E28

• Justin & Matt Harper • Season 2 • Episode 28

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This week we’re taking in all the action from the first week of the Giro d’Italia and some other racing from around the Men’s and Women’s pro pelotons. We’ll also have a news round-up, a Fantasy Update, and as always, we’ll finish with a ride in the Broom Wagon.

Crazy Video Of Florida Truck Driver Purposely Hitting Group Of Cyclists

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYMwxVwlSdx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


Fan Offers Beer To Peloton

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYRzhSsMQH6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


Fans Face Legal Action After Taunting The Peloton

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYWlEGwNmwV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


Ciccone Hits Fan For Fucking With Him

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYcj7B4BY-Y/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


Soderqvist Hits deck and Jeopardizes GC win

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYcWZHdBgT3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


Now Thats How You Feed On A Training Ride

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRKe20RDSMU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==



Hannah Walker Hits Fan With Soccer Ball https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYRuIYLh59A/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


Deer Jumps In Front Of Peloton In Tour Of Hongrie

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYVqIiHlySH/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


Fast Rear wheel Change by Tudor

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXGxYIziOGx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


Instant Karma for man who tries to hit cyclist

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYcrkT6ppm0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


Descent Speed In Romandie

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DX2Lkp8AdF9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


@SAFABRIAN Crazy Promo Video Amazing Footage

https://www.instagram.com/p/DYPecnrlj40/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


That Time When A Motorcycle Dragged A Guy On Skis At The Tdf

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYVFfActrgQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==


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Thanks for listening... Allez!

SPEAKER_02

It's your weekly breakaway for fun conversations on pro cycling. Come join us for another ride Beyond the Slipstream. I'm Matt Harper, and together with my brother Justin, we'll do deep-ish dives on professional bike races, teams, riders, and all sorts of cycling-related stories. So jump in the saddle and tighten up those shoes. The road awaits. Alo and welcome to Beyond the Slipstream. I'm Matt, and this is my brother Justin. And today on the show, the Giro d'Italia is in full swing. Having made it back to the real world after three crazy days in Bulgaria, the men were back on Italian soil and the racing was pretty great with storylines developing left, right, and center. Felix Gal, the other superstar climber from Decathlon, has, dare I say, finally gotten off to a successful start at a grand tour as his team's GC leader and is looking on better form than he ever has. Meanwhile, UAE team Emirates looked for once to be on the back foot in a major way after the Bulgarian stages laid waste to the roster. But even though they began the Italian part of the Giro, three riders down, the Almighty Juggernaut Squad has found creative ways to make lemonade out of lemons. Meanwhile, there's all kinds of drama in the Red Bull camp as a battle for leadership has unfolded and seems to be on the brink of falling in a direction we were not expecting. Meanwhile, Low Ran Adam Sandler, aka Afonso Ulalio, has come off the biggest week of his career, and there looks to be still more success ahead for the B tier Bahrain rider. And finally, meanwhile, there's been lots of other exciting racing around the Pro Pelotons, which has given your fantasy team a leg up and mine a whole heap in helping of frustration arg. So we'll dive into all of that on the show today, as well as doing an Orla fit check, copyright pending, uh, a news roundup, a fantasy league update, and a grueling ride to the blockhouse in the broomwagon. Alex Hello and welcome to the show. It's Matt here with Justin after a fantastic week of racing. I felt uh if for no other reason than just for stage five of the Giro d'Italia 2026 edition. Um holy crap. I told many, many uh uh captured a person at my bar this week about stage five. Uh, because wow, that was so good. Um yeah, I mean, you know, there were parts of it that sort of were annoying, uh, but still. Overall, some some some great racing and some really terrific storylines as referenced in the uh opening. Do you feel the same way?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, uh I I you know I I constantly say that the Jiro is my favorite of the Grand Tours, and I don't know, it just doesn't it doesn't disappoint, you know. Obviously, you have the the the largesse of the Tour de France typically looms over the Tour de France, that it's the biggest one that everybody knows. But this one, I don't know, man. There's just something about this race that captures my imagination. It it just gives you a little bit of everything all at once and and never what you exactly expect. It just gives it just it twists and turns and does it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's kind of it's kind of true both on the racing end and the vibes end with this race, you know what I mean? I mean, Tour de France is so just like quintessentially French, and you know, the entire country is out by the side of the road. And like the Giro just feels like exactly the same thing, but in Italy. Um, whereas the Vuelta seems like not quite as big of a priority. Um, also, uh, so yeah, and and and yeah, so the racing is always really interesting just because it's a little earlier in the season, bad weather could come into it. They still have a bunch of absolutely iconic, you know, historical climbs. Um and yeah, it's it's kind of just as good as the Tour de France in a lot of ways.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, like I said, it's it's it's definitely my favorite. Um, and and and again, like this week, you know, you the first the first week you had the all the the crazy stuff that happened into Bulgaria, and then it just kind of continues on through, but you're now we're getting a little mix of everything. We've got GC stuff, we've got you know, just pure sprint stuff, we've got you know stage stuff, we've got weather producing, you know, pink jersey holders that we would never expect and maybe never even heard of. And you know, it's it's gives you so much to kind of focus on, almost uh maybe in in a way too much to focus on because there's so many different things going on, but um very, very enjoyable week of racing as far as I'm concerned.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. You know, and in our pre-show meeting today, we decided to make um our the the G C battle our A story, and then the uh the the the craziness with UAE uh as as our B story, but you know, now that I'm looking at it, the the week opened up with the UAE story in a big way. So let's let's just go ahead and and flip that. Let's make an on-the-spot decision because you know I want to get into stages four and five, and that's where the you know, that's the big story.

SPEAKER_00

Well, we talked last week about you know the fact that UAE was decimated, you know, they they lost essentially their probably three strongest riders last week, and we were wondering, okay, we were speculating, okay, what does this mean for them for the rest of the tour? And well, we just figured out is that they're gonna go out and grab some stage wins and they're gonna work really well together as a team. And it just goes to show that their B guys are would be A guys on a lot of teams.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we said it all year last year. Not that I would necessarily even count uh Jonathan Narvaez as a B guy on that squad, he is far definitely an A guy, but he's a guy that'll go to a though he'll get sent to a race as a leader or as like one of the main dudes with a bunch of their B guys, you know. He he he is often featuring in in those environments for that team. And it's really just a testament to the fact that while we gripe about the fact that this team has got all the money and can buy their way to, you know, some of the best riders, certainly the best rider in the world right now, um and also many, many very, very top-end riders, they're still when it could when it comes to basics, to race basics, they are still all over it. I mean, you need look no further than the first stage of the week on stage four, where this team put in some absolute perfect team tactics. They had two, they got two guys going into the final in a reduced group. They knew they had the fastest man and Jonathan Narvaez. Jan Christian is a late, late stage breakaway, solo breakaway specialist. This guy loves nothing more than grabbing a little, you know, five percent climb four kilometers out from the finish of a race and you know, throwing in an attack and seeing if he can stay away to the finish. And so that's what he did. And that he just forced he just forced uh the the Moby, who was it, Movi, Moby Star and Trek to have to chase, um which just perfectly set up Narvaez. And when you see the margin that Narvaez won by, I mean, he he had an armchair ride to the finish and dusted everybody.

SPEAKER_00

You know, he was gonna say he was he was completely fresh because he didn't have to do any of the work. They were forced to chase, you know, and and where we have seen the the two two on ones, two on two, you know, two on twos type situations, they played it perfectly, where we've seen a lot of teams falter in this exact same situation, you know, all year long. You know what I mean? And they played it very, very well, and they came away with a stage victory that you know was just I mean, it was textbook. It was so good it was textbook.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and Narvaez talked about like the the the the mood in the team this week. I think later when later in the week when he was being interviewed after a race, spoiler alert. Um he was just talking about how good the the vibes are in the team right now. Um, and it's just like top to bottom, this team has just got it covered. They have superstars, they have a deep roster, they have team cohesion, they have fantastic tactics, they have great coaching. Uh there about the only thing this team is lacking is is an inspiring team kit. Yes, this is true. They've got everything else. Everything couldn't be more boring. It actually looks better this year, I've noticed. Like there's something going on on the back of the jersey with like an angled like black line, and then the socks are cool too. If you look at the socks, it's like they're like half black, half white, but on a diagonal, they're pretty cool. But still, but it's still a pretty boring kit.

SPEAKER_00

But you take all you know the you take all the pressure off from the week before because now the expectations are now extremely low. Like everybody just assumes, like, oh, okay, well, they're just completely out of it. Right. This this race is a loss for them, and they're like, no. No, and yeah, exactly. They're like, no, it's not a loss, and we're gonna take we're gonna take three stages, and we're not gonna look back.

SPEAKER_02

And yeah, and they've also realized they've been realistic, they know that they do not have a viable GC contender. Jan Christian was the closest. We talked about it last week. Uh, but even though he was effective and certainly basically set them up for a stage win on stage four, like this guy is not gonna, he's not gonna win the white jersey, and he's not even he probably won't even top ten the GC would be my guess.

SPEAKER_00

Not against the field that's out there. I mean, I just you know, it's and so and so they what my point is one day of really hard climbing. You know what I mean? We've seen some mountains, but we've only had one day of hard climbing, and the back end of this race has some extreme days where I just I don't see him being able to maintain with the with the guys that he's gonna contend with.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Well, my my point on all that was like uh that one of the other astute things that this team is able to do is look at this situation and be like, we're not putting one molecule of effort towards any kind of GC aspiration. We are henceforth trying to win as many stages as we can. They might win six. I don't know. I mean it's crazy. It's crazy. Um, one story that kind of from came from this stage that basically is buried by all of these other stories that we're gonna be getting into uh is um Giulio Ciccone pulling on the Maglia Rosa at the end of this stage for the first time in his career. A huge, huge moment. I was absolutely loving it.

SPEAKER_00

Ten years after his Jiro win.

SPEAKER_02

Is it that long? Yeah. Wow. Um yeah, he got third on this stage, which was like a sprint finish, reduced bunch, but still a sprint finish. Uh and that was the thing that gave him the bony seconds to get into the maglia rosa. Um, so good on him for you know, come hell or high water. He was getting he was he was poding podeing um this stage. Uh so that was cool. And you gotta feel for the guy then the the next day because like it all went to hell. I mean, a lot of it was the weather, but like it was just the the race the race situation just did not permit for any possibility of him keeping the jersey the next day, the poor guy. And then on top of that, he had to put on a raincoat on top of the thing for basically the entire day. So it was one day in pink. Uh he got he got a he got a podium. He he got to wear it on the podium when he when he w on the day that he got it. He got to start the day with it at the at the team, you know, presentation. He started the race with it, and 20 minutes later, he was never seen in the pink jersey again. Poor guy.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, that was one of the worst rain days that I can remember, you know, since I started watching cycling, you know, four or five years ago.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It I mean, it was torrential to say the least. Like it was it I felt so bad for every single rider that uh I mean it was all. Yeah, that was quite brutal.

SPEAKER_02

The only other thing I wanted to mention from that stage is how uh Jonathan Narvaez basically glistens. That's like one of the shiniest looking people I've ever seen in my life. Um, but he but he gives a good interview. All right, let's bounce to stage five, uh, where the where the UAE story continues. What an unbelievable finish to a race. It was so good.

SPEAKER_00

This is the wildest stage that I can remember, dude. Like you can't get over it. Because so the first part of the day, it's just it's the rain, it's you know, it's a mess. Nothing is like you don't see nothing gets going, and then you think that it's just gonna be this, you know, ho-hum, boring stage, probably ends in a in a in a messy bunch sprint, and what you end up getting is this back and forth of unbelievableness between Igor uh Arietta and um in Alalio.

SPEAKER_02

Uh right, and it's like and it was it was sort of like equal parts like like uh you know physical racing and equal parts luck, you know, like complete sheer bad luck and good luck. Yeah, it was just absolutely wild, and like the it was it was it would it also gave us an a a perfect finish where you could just be happy all around with that finish, you know what I mean? That was the one that was the scenario that that that we needed for that, um, you know, because they each got a prize, but we should set it up by saying like Igor Arieta of UAE like got clear of a 13-man break with like 50 kilometers to go. 60 and and uh yeah, the only person that could bridge up to him and hang was was uh Eulalio, right? Correct.

SPEAKER_00

So he picked he picks them up about 10k later. So now that so now they are out front solo or you know in tandem with 50k to go. And mind you, the the weird thing that's going on in the stage is the weather is so bad that the break that was hard to form in the beginning just starts getting massive amounts of time added. It just keeps going. The the amount of difference between the Peloton and the front of the race just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger throughout the stage to where you know eventually you they there's like they have like an over six minute advantage on the Peloton at one point. And so it's 50k out, you've you've got a lalio catching Arietta, and they pretty much stay together for the rest of the race and give us the last like 15k of that race is like some of the craziest best racing that you will see, you know, all year long, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and before we get to it, let's just mention you know, we we we just talked about how poor Julio Chicone just never stood a chance because basically, like there was some climbs in in the middle of this race, and he basically didn't have a team, he had one teammate um as part of the chasing group after these guys got clear, but then lost that teammate, and he basically had no choice but to push on the front by himself, knowing it was not gonna do him any good. Uh, but he's an Italian and he's got to show that pink jersey, which nobody could even see. You know, it's respect. And so he sat there on the front of that group of like 10 riders, they all just sucked his wheel all day. I kind of I felt for the dude. But, anyways, you're right. 15k's to go.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, it needs to be said that they they have a team that is half built for sprinting, so they don't have a lot of you know climbers to to drag him along and protect him and you know keep him in contention. I mean, it's just their team is just not built that way for this race.

SPEAKER_02

Yep, yeah. So we've got Igor Arieta and we've got Afonso Ulalio out in front, and we're waiting for these two guys to just ride on into the finish and sprint it out amongst them. But it's 13.6 kilometers to go on a gently left and a gentle left-hand bend, Arieta just kind of washes out, slides off to the side. You can you can tell right away that he's not hurt, you know, as as the camera bike is is looking at him. He just slid out. That's the one thing about these these rainy days. It's like much, it's much easier to fall, but like the road rash you're gonna get is so much less. You know what I mean? It's there the the these crashes seem to be uh a little bit more low-key.

SPEAKER_00

Um so So now you think now you think Olalio is just gonna run away with it. Right, he's got it, he's he's down by 36. So, you know, you you figure, yeah, okay, Olalio's just gonna all he's gonna do is is coast his way into the to the finish.

SPEAKER_02

Right, which he which he does for the next like six and a half kilometers, and then on another gently uh turning left-hand bend, same exact thing. Ulalio washes out and needs a bike change.

SPEAKER_00

And he needs a bike change.

SPEAKER_02

Right. I mean, he's got a car right behind him, so he gets the bike change very quickly, but same amount of time lost, and you you you blink your eyes and they're back together again. You're like, holy crap, race on again. This is fantastic. All right, all right, I'm back in it. So now we're rolling in, and uh we get to 2.2 kilometers to go. They're following right behind a motorcycle. Um, and at that moment, uh Ulalio was ahead and uh he just overbaked that corner. Yeah, Arietta is right on his wheel and he's not paying attention to the road in front of him. And it's like, yeah, he because of the wetness, he was kind of in the wrong position coming around that bend and realized, oh crap, I am not gonna make this turn and I'm not gonna risk trying to squeeze in on these wet roads. So he just goes straight and immediately realizes he realizes he's gone the wrong way because there's like a ribbon tied across the road is sort of say, like, don't come this way to the riders, which gets caught up in him. But he immediately turns himself around, gets back on the right road. The ribbon is still like attached to him for a second there before it snaps off. And now, but but now now we're talking about two kilometers left to go. We're like, nah, no way he gets back on here.

SPEAKER_00

It's gonna be a really hard catch. But but it is wet. But it is wet.

SPEAKER_02

It's wet, and we gotta we gotta kind of slightly uphill drag to the finish.

SPEAKER_00

And he has he has a nut he has a moment right after that where he must have he must have been, I think he was like standing and and putting all the power down, and he gets a wicked backslide on the back wheel. Yeah, his wheel kicks out for it. You're like, whoo!

SPEAKER_02

And you see him like like put his head down, like god damn it. Like he he is just he is mad. He is like, I have not come this far to have my tire slide out again. Like, can can you just fate? Can you just work with me here for a second? I'm trying my best down here, damn it. And with one kilometer to go, they go under the red kite. He's got he's 10 seconds down. I counted it off. He is 10 seconds behind Ulalio at the kite, and somehow, amazingly, catches him at a hundred meters. Yep, a hundred meters, sits on his wheel for about a tenth of a second, and then boom, blast past him and kind of wins kind of easily.

SPEAKER_00

Like well, you I have to you have to figure that he's got all of the adrenaline, he's got the the little mishap there, he's he's pushing really hard, and it's not a huge distance to push. I mean, it's been a long day, I'm sure, in the saddle, but like he comes into that last hundred meters with all the momentum in the world, and he's able to just completely overtake Olalio, you know, for the stage victory.

SPEAKER_02

But right, you know, and also working in his favor, I think, is the fact that Ulalio has had multiple double digit kilometers to sit there and run all of the scenarios through his head and what a one uh what a win win means, what a second place win means. Means he knows that he is six minutes ahead of the the GC guys. So he knows that when when he when he gets this jersey, uh this leader's jersey, he's gonna hold it for a while. And so in the end, even though a stage win is great and every guy loves a stage wind, the the the quality of the consolation prize is so high here that subconsciously he could just be like, I am not I'm not gonna try to sprint this guy. Like, I'm not doing it, like I'm done. I am done. Mission has already been accomplished here. So uh, but as I said, it's the best case scenario for us as fans because one guy gets a stage win and one guy gets a pink jersey that he's about to hang on to for many, many days. Yes, as we'll see.

SPEAKER_00

Um, it was an amazing stage, amazing stage that came out of nowhere because you just if you'd have seen the weather at the beginning of the stage, you'd have been like, There's no way that there's going to be this much animation, especially at the end of the race that way. It was it was amazing.

SPEAKER_02

So great, so great, especially on a rainy day like that. Well, um, Arietta is uh the son of a Grant Tour stage winner, and he is now a Grand Tour stage winner. He gave a very heartfelt, emotional uh interview afterwards, and then and then on comes on comes Afonso Ulale over his interview, and I'm like, is that Adam Sandler? It's like it's it's it's almost like did you see did you see the opening of this week's uh finale for Saturday Night Live?

SPEAKER_00

Uh yes. I watched the we watched the whole episode, it's very good.

SPEAKER_02

It's almost like the fake out we got there when Chad Smith walked off. So great. Um I knew it.

SPEAKER_00

I knew it immediately. I wonder I made my kid watch it to see if he'd pick up on it. And Connor like was like looking at him and was like, is that Will Farrell?

SPEAKER_02

Is it we what I I had it figured out by the time he got to the front of the stage. Because they stayed in the wide shot.

SPEAKER_00

The wide shot I couldn't tell, but as soon as he was a big thing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, they stayed in the well, they stayed in that wide shot when he got to the front of the stage before going into the closer shot. But I like, yeah, as he's walking down there, I'm like, oh, wait a second, but that's hilarious. They did that. Um, I do think they missed a massive, massive opportunity at the end of the show when when Paul, which you did you say for the Paul performance after the after the combos?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, a third musical segment.

SPEAKER_02

Right. And uh it's just like one I cannot remember what the name of that song is, but it's like one of his uh classic rockers. Why? Oh why was there not a cowbell sitting there next to Chad Smith's drum stand for Will Farrell to pick up and play Cowbell with Paul McCartney? Oh, that would have been the greatest thing ever. I just feel like the fact that they had Chad Smith playing the drums for him the whole night. Oh, yeah. Um, all right, let's get back on track. Uh Ulalio, this guy looks just like Adam Sandler, and I love him. He's like my new favorite guy. He he's he's just like happy go lucky and thrilled to be in the position uh that he's got with six minutes on the GC favorites. Uh a UAE gets back-to-back wins just when you thought their Jiro was completely destroyed. They're like, nah, we're doing just about as good as any team so far.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and they're they're not done yet. So stage six is completely boring, all right, until the the the very end when this little section of the race that everybody knew was coming, it was a hard corner on some like not Roubaix type cobbles, but like it was basically like a large hairpin.

SPEAKER_02

It wasn't a tight hairpin, but it was a hairpin. They went all the way back 180 degrees on themselves.

SPEAKER_00

And it is these like smooth cobbles that you know, once the water touched them, basically became a a non-stick pan. Yeah, and everybody knew that the potential for disaster was was in this turn, and it didn't disappoint because as soon as the front of the race gets there, all right, you know, the the lead riders end up going down.

SPEAKER_02

Right, it's Dylan it's Dylan Gronavegan and his leadout man, they're in perfect position in second, like first and second, Gronavegan is like right there. I mean, it is just like could not be more perfect. Um, and it's as if God snapped his finger when they come around that thing because both of them are just like blip. Like it wasn't like one went and the other one tried to avoid it. It was just like they're both like tink.

SPEAKER_00

All right. Now, coming out of this, your your uh what what do they call it? The uh what's the the points jersey called the maglia chicamino?

SPEAKER_01

The the chicken chiccolora chiclamino chiclamino chiclamino.

SPEAKER_00

So he so Paul Mannier, he gets caught up and it doesn't go down, okay, and then in two things simultaneously happening.

SPEAKER_02

But he has his foot, he has his foot out, so he's and he's like he's like behind some dudes, like he comes to a full stop.

SPEAKER_00

He has to literally take his bike over Dylan Gronavaggen. Like he literally rolls his bike right over Dylan Gronavaggen. So, but two things are simultaneously happening during this. So coming into the turn, uh David Davide Ball uh Ballerini, okay, is he has this amazing move to stay upright. He's on the inside line of this turn, okay? And he is able to balance himself, stay upright through this, which positions him in in puts him in a winning position, essentially. And he is going to go on and win that stage.

SPEAKER_02

But well, he's got he's got the wily Jasper Stoyven on his wheel, who did have to uh pull a foot out of the out of the pedal just to keep it upright to maintain his balance. So he had he had a slight leg up on Stoyuven at that moment because he was able to negotiate that thing without pulling his foot out, which you know he's a he's a he's a veteran, man.

SPEAKER_00

And and he showed it. Now, the here's where the really crazy. So you got these two guys, and they're headed for in what is seemingly going to be their sprint for the win. There's another couple of guys, but it's it's it's more or less those two. They've got the distance. Well, Paul Monier.

SPEAKER_02

There's not like another couple, there's like eight guys between Paul Monnier and the finish line.

SPEAKER_00

So Paul Monnier pulls his bike over Dylan Gronavagan and starts to go again. All right. And somehow, in you know, whatever, 900 meters, 800 meters, I don't even know how much it was, from a dead stop on wet cobbles. On a dead stop on wet cobbles, Palmagne gets himself into third on this stage. It was one of the most amazing comebac I've ever seen. Unbelievable. I mean, like, I look, I don't care what anybody says, this guy is the truth. Okay. This guy is is is the real deal.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, he's he's he's in the he's in the in the in the top the top three conversation for sure. Um, did you hear what he said in his post race interview on the stage?

SPEAKER_00

I don't know. I maybe we did, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02

He he was like, I just really wanted to he he was like, I know a lot of my fans out there have me on their fantasy team, and I just really wanted to get points for them. Just even if it was just the third place on a grand tour stage. I just no, I'm I'm I'm kidding, he didn't say that. Um but boy, he went all out to get you just a couple more points in the for your fantasy. Another little reducer. Yep.

SPEAKER_00

So by the way, we've we've already been talking for over thirty, you know, for 30 minutes now, and we still haven't even gotten to block house. Like that's how good this this race is.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. Uh Milan was super salty in his post-race interview. I'm sure you heard that. Uh, there's a there's another finish that they've used multiple times in the past, uh, which uh he is among many many people I've heard in the past week talking about uh why Snappy stage is was controversial. Absolutely. It's always it's if for one one way or another, the stage is always controversial. Umalio still in pink, still has six minutes. Uh let's move on to the blockhouse.

SPEAKER_00

Um did not disappoint. So this this really will take us into the B story now. Okay. So um unbelievable. So obviously, this this this day ends with this insane climb. You know, the the the whole race comes down essentially, for me at least, to the last, what is it, like 11 kilometers or something like that. And you know, the one the only thing that of note to me that happens before you get to block house, Milan took some the intermediate sprint, grabbed 12 bonus points, trying to keep himself in in the race there, you know, as far as that's concerned. Because poor Milan, I will say, has not had a lot of luck. He got a a third place or a second place, and that was it. Nope. That's been the his whole his whole Giro so far. So to me, uh like I said, it starts 1112k out. Visma is in full control of the Peloton, Red Bull sharing the duties, and you know, let's let's let's talk about Red Bull. All right, what like are people not gonna learn this dual shit doesn't work because they need to like they would be in a in a much better position right now, today, okay? A week in a week and a half or whatever you want to call into this race, if they if these teams would stop this GC by committee shit. All right, it didn't work last year in the Giro, and it's not working this year for them, and they could be better placed than they are right now.

SPEAKER_02

Um I'm on record as basically being in agreement with you that like going with a a multiple year strategy often comes to naught um for these teams. However, I would take issue with you that that in this particular race it has not served them well because I think Jai Hinley has kind of from the start of this race been like you guys can call me a co-leader all you want, but this is his race. I know he won this race. I know that I'm the leader. Yes, he won this race four years ago, and he podium this race, I believe, last year. So he's like, I know that I'm the leader. So you all can play this game, but I'm racing to win this race, end of story. And he's now sits in fourth, and uh Afonso Ulalio is going to disappear. So he's basically on the podium right now, and the only person he has to get past is the very iffy Felix Gall. Prior statement from the intro, notwithstanding. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00

Like Felix Gall is very good, but again, once once we get into the really high mountains, and they you know, I don't I just those types of clients Bachhouse suited him very well.

SPEAKER_02

All right, yeah, I'm just I'm just I'm just reacting to your comment about foot that in particular. Yes, agreed, it's not always a good strategy. I think, in a way, though, if you look at this, maybe it was the best strategy for them because they knew that that they would have a very clear leader by the end of week one, perhaps. No, I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

To me, it's Hinley. I mean, if I if I'm them, I'm putting all my chips in on Hinley because Pelazari just doesn't look great. Like he just doesn't look great. He's getting really hard spots, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And he's a full minute behind Hinley at this point. So um agreed. But uh nonetheless, great stage. Um, it you I would first of all you gotta shout out Pig and Zoli from Visma. Like, what a turn that young fella put in before giving giving it up to Sep to set Jonas up. Um basically Visma destroyed everybody on that climb. Um Arieto was like the first to drop, and then guys are just like going out the back, and it comes down to basically Jonas, Pelazzari, Hindley, Felix Gall, I think Storr is in there, and Ualio.

SPEAKER_00

Moss and Brunal were in there for a minute, but they got they got dropped.

SPEAKER_02

Um of those guys, Ulalio is the first to drop, and then 5.3K is to go. Jonas drops the hammer, it's go time.

SPEAKER_00

Uh and this is where we surprise for me was that it was Silicon Skull, is the one that's able to follow.

SPEAKER_02

Well, it's like what was it was it was Pelazzari hangs on at first, and we're like, Yep, all right, here we go. It's just like last week, like he was looking so good or two weeks ago in that in what whatever the race was that he won two weeks ago. Um, you know, he was just always right there doing what he needed to do, playing the role of the leader, just like crushing it. And so far in this race, he's kind of been right there with Jonas the whole time. But at the first moment where the the big question was asked of him, at first it's like, oh yeah, he's got it. Same old, same, same guy, same guy we've been watching. And then suddenly it's like, oh, oh no, no, no, not the same guy, not at all, not against Jonas Vingegaard. And then out of nowhere, Felix Gall is next to Pelazzari.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and he's like, Well, no, and he's looking fresh, he's about to catch Pelazari, all right, and then he drops Pelazari.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Four kilometers to go, he's like, boom, and like it it becomes very apparent that Felix Gall is about to get second on blockhouse behind Jonas Vingegaard. But the other crazy part is that he he gets pretty close to Jonas and doesn't relinquish that that that differential all the way to the finish line. He's he's on he's only 14 seconds behind. I'm like, Felix Gall came in 14 seconds behind Jonas Vingegaard on Blockhouse? Is this happening?

SPEAKER_00

But again, this is a climb that suits his his type of climbing. Absolutely. Unbelievably beautiful climb, too, by the way. Like the trees, like stunning. When it comes when you get to the top and it opens up and you can see the the the mountains, like, oh man.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, I did hear one person like trashing that in on on some show or another. They were like talking about how lame it is compared to the whatever the one is in the Tour de France that's kind of like it, but I hard disagree on my part. Let me just say, real quickly, um Jonas became the 114th rider in history to complete the Grand Tour stage win uh treble. Um what was up?

SPEAKER_00

Set the record for the for the blockhouse.

SPEAKER_02

Set the blockhouse record. Um, so he's in a he's in a rare group of 114 with this win. However, if he wins the overall GC, the pink jersey for 2026, he will become only the eighth person in history to win all three uh grand tours alongside Jacques Enquetil, uh, what's his name? Romando Gimondi. No, what's Gimondi's name? Uh Eddie Merricks, Bernard Eno, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali, and Chris Freem. Um let's crazy company. Let's uh let's put a pin in it there. We'll take a quick break, and when we get back, uh we've got a couple more Jiro stages to talk to, uh, talk about before we get into some of the other racing. Stay with us. Please check out our other show, Inglorious Brothers, a pop culture show with Cult Classics Swagger. Search and subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube, or click the link in the show notes. Uh, having just seen Jonas Vingegaard take his first ever Giro win and complete the trio. Uh it was on to a couple of repeat performances, I'd say, for Saturday and Sunday, uh, starting with Jonathan Narvaez making it two out of two.

SPEAKER_00

So I I have a very funny note on this stage. It says, early break with Ghana and Sevilla. Break finally got away, then changed hands 23 times.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. I honestly I did not watch much of this stage.

SPEAKER_00

Um it was it was it was more or less that. Uh Ghana and Sevilla went out early to try to grab some of the mountain points, and that was really it, man. And it came down to uh Narvaeas uh and and the two uh Norwegian riders, um Leknissund and uh Tehada. Or Tejada, however you say that.

SPEAKER_02

Wait, I thought I thought he was in there with Mikhail Bjerg.

SPEAKER_00

No, Todd Tejada got third on that stage. Double check me, but I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_02

No, no, no, but but Mikel Bjerg, his teammate, was in that breakaway with Lechnison and him at the end.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. Yes, there was two, there was two riders, yes. UAE.

SPEAKER_02

And once again, and once again, the two-on-one worked. UAE hits him with a two-on-one. Perfect tactics. Just I mean, it's it's just like they if they have an opportunity, they're gonna seize it, they're gonna execute it the right way, and they're gonna get it done. Like nine times out of ten with this team. Um, they just they knew that all Narvaez just needed to get ahead, just needed, you know, 15 seconds on Lechnison when they started the flat part at the very end of the race. As long as they he could do that, he knew he'd win. Um, and uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Uh it was the first time two Norwegian riders finished on the podium of the Giro ever.

SPEAKER_02

It was also the the stage win that tied Jonathan Narbaez with Richard Karapaz for most Giro stage wins by an Ecuadorian for each. Uh and speaking of of Central Americans and South Americans, uh Egon Bernal was looking a lot better that day, and Ulalio stayed in pink, uh, which set us up for the for the big climby day on Sunday, though. This was like a series of smaller climbs. This wasn't like a blockhouse situation.

SPEAKER_00

No, and it's not like what we're gonna see towards the end of the race either.

SPEAKER_02

I I watched the whole thing, but uh I was not actively taking notes because I had a bunch of other stuff going on at the time. So why don't you recap the stage for us?

SPEAKER_00

I mean, really the only things of note, Chicone ended up taking the the Red Bull sprint, um grabbing some some of the those what I guess you get bonus seconds for that, right?

SPEAKER_02

Not not to mention the two thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, which are good for their team. Um Gaul attack, you know, Gaul attacked first. So essentially it just it busts down to Gall and the front leaders, and you know Gall went first, Gall did the attacking, and Jonas just stuck with him all the way up to about 900 meters. Yeah, that's right, that's right. And then he just turned on the arm just very and it's funny because I I was thinking to myself, like, you know, Jonas needs to attack like Pog would in this situation, which is wait for the very hardest part and then just bury it and then you know, ride off, you know, ride off into the sunset, which is essentially what he did. I was surprised that he left it as late as he did. I think that if he had pulled it a little bit sooner, he would have had more, he would have gotten more time on Gall, like at the finish.

SPEAKER_02

But well, uh, you know, some of the headlines are like, hmm, does Jonas actually have it or doesn't he? Why, why did why isn't he winning bigger? But I'm kind of like, uh, here I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you exactly why he's not winning bigger. All right, you ready? He doesn't need to. He doesn't need to, and he's gone to the Tour de France, and and he already has in his mind, like, I'm not I'm not going to the Tour de France for second. Like, I am on amazing form. I'm going to just there's nobody here that can touch me. So I'm gonna make sure I win this thing. I mean, that's there's no question about that, but I'm not going, you know, I I'm gonna expend exactly as much energy as I need to, like you said. Uh and what a feeling that must be when you're like clearly the best rider in the thing. And it it just gives you so much more like bargaining power, like you can just sit on a the wheel of a Felix Gall and make him work, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and how much throughout the week did we hear about like, oh, Jonas wants to give up the King of the Mountains jersey and you know, he wants to be in his in his in his, you know, super skin suit, you know, for the time trial and right, right.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Well, that that that was the better story from this stage, to be perfectly honest with you, is that whole that whole line of questioning about like, you know, is is he gonna do it? Well, how can he not? How can he make sure that he doesn't have the blue jersey and like like like a two-part a two-part situation would have need to have arisen for him to get out of the blue jersey? Uh but everyone was agreed everyone was agreed that it was like, but if it comes down to like getting a stage win or not getting a stage win, you'll I'll grab the stage win. All day long. Of course.

SPEAKER_00

And he'll wear the and he'll wear the blue skin suit, and you know, he may still want the he's an amazing time trialist. He may, you know, it's but it's easy to be.

SPEAKER_02

When you're talking about the narrow the narrowness and the margin.

SPEAKER_00

Right, he just needs to beat the people around him and and call it a day.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Same situation as when he's when he's going up these climbs against Felix Gall. He just needs to beat Felix Gall. He's gonna beat every time for the rest of this race that hit him and Felix Gall are going up a mountain together at the end of a stage, he's gonna get to decide how many seconds he wants to take off of. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00

Like well, and I mean once I mean, and and who knows once we get into the third week of this race and you know it gets really, really hard. I mean, he's you know, he's gonna put all these guys to shame.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, his Yeah, he's already cut Ulalio's lead in half in like two days, and like he is so not he is so not worried about this thing.

SPEAKER_00

No, not at all. Because again, when it because when it's the hardest is what suits him the most. So when we haven't seen it at its hardest yet, we saw something very similar, but those really, really hard, you know, long climbs are not gonna suit Ga. You know what I mean? Where you're the 30 minutes going up a wall like we're gonna have towards the end of this, uh towards the end of this race. So and there's like three days where it's gonna be completely brutal.

SPEAKER_02

Well, we've got the uh very long TT coming up tomorrow. Uh, here's how I'm going to watch this race. I'm gonna fast forward to when Jonas Vingegaard starts, uh, and then I'm gonna watch his entire TT all what is it, 44 kilometers or something, and something super long. Um, and in watching his entire TT, I'm gonna get to see most of the next like 15 people in line. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00

Probably watch Ghana and then once Ghana goes through, jump to Jonas, is my guess. I mean I'll probably have it on in the background, so I'll probably watch more than I'm I'm letting on. But if I watch it in replay, it will be that way.

SPEAKER_02

Alright, well, let's do a hard pivot to the tour of Hungary, uh, where we saw uh a surprise, not a surprise lead change, but uh we s we saw that the the taking of the overall uh yellow jersey uh on stage four um by Jakob Soderkvist of Little Trek.

SPEAKER_00

Which like I don't think a lot of people were expecting. Um you know, the the early part you have Merlier and then UAE picks up another win with Kosnafroy, right? And you know, then Merlier again on Friday, and then Soderquist ends up taking the lead and the stage on stage four kind of unexpectedly, and almost all right, almost chokes it up. Did you see what happened to him on the final stage when he was in the L?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, he cr. Oh, uh I I I know he cr he crashed. Oh, yeah, he crashed on the crossway.

SPEAKER_00

He like he like dips off the road and like the bike like came out from under him, and he like literally hits the deck and has to chase to keep back on.

SPEAKER_02

Amazing he didn't take out the guy behind him. I don't know how the guy behind him didn't didn't go. He was like he was like four fourth in line of like a group of five.

SPEAKER_00

Four or five of them, like, and they were so close together.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. It might have been a little foreshortening on that front angle because that's the that's the really good angle that you get when you see it happen. But um, but uh yeah, Tim Merlier walks away with three wins, none of which do anything for me in terms of fantasy points.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, but they bowed well for you for the Tour de France. They certainly do. They certainly have to do that. That guy just I mean he looks like he can beat anybody.

SPEAKER_02

It's just like uh where let me find it. One of these one of the wins, I said right. He th this man, like all he needs is all he needs is the last 50 meters of a sprint, and you need to put him like anywhere in the top 15 and he'll win.

SPEAKER_00

Like yeah, the only time he doesn't win is when he gets boxed out. That's it. The only way you should beat him is which is very rarely, which is if he's not like out front to where he can open up full, but if he opens up full, I don't know that anybody could.

SPEAKER_02

The turn of speed is ridiculous, it's just absolutely ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00

It happens so fast, he's so fast.

SPEAKER_02

And it's like we never get to see it go longer than about like 80 meters because that's all he needs, you know? Like it's wild. Yeah, it's wild. He's he is pretty ridiculous. Um, did you see Kel O'Brien of Jaco slide out in the rain on the fourth stage and just like disappear under the guardrail? No, I guess I didn't. It was wild. Absolutely wild. Um Tour Hungary. Uh, how about itzulia women, which was going on this week? Is that is that a is that a points race for you?

SPEAKER_00

It is a points race. See, here we go.

SPEAKER_02

Everything is a world tour race, yes. Everything is turned upside down. I have zero riders in the Jiro. You have three that could be banging away at points.

SPEAKER_00

Uh oh, hold on. And well, we'll get to it, but Joao Almeida is like apparently back because he's he's going to Joao is back. He's going to the uh he's going to the um the whatever they're calling the criterion to Dauphinet now.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Joao to the Dauphinet. Okay. Um, yeah, so your girl Misha Bradevald in there taking stages and jerseys.

SPEAKER_00

Jersey's uh jerseys uh yeah, this is the case.

SPEAKER_02

Out there going for those bony points to to make sure she wins both the uh lead and the points.

SPEAKER_00

I mean it was essentially the Vladichek in Bradebald show.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, for sure. And like speaking of Tim Merlier's turn of speed, there is there are few things more fearsome in the women's pro Peloton than Misha Bradewald out of the saddle with that look in her eyes, like drilling ahead for the finish line. Like she is quick too. She she closed a massive gap on stage three to come to to slide into second place, I think. I mean, she's she's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00

So you get to the end of the stage, it's a it's a tough climb, but not like crazy tough. Excuse me, doesn't does not suit her well. But and she's yo-yoing off the the the front group, and you know, she's losing contact, and you know, she was on with the with these two riders from Little Trek, and then and she's in the jersey, but only by like 15 16 seconds over cast the line. Yes. And so at one point, she's with these two little Little Trek riders, and she doesn't even realize that she's gapped them at this on on her way back. Like she's pushing so hard. She thinks she's in this, she thinks she's leading these two girls out, right? But she's not. They're dropped, she's still going.

SPEAKER_02

They're back there shitting their shitting their bib shorts. Like, nah, you you can go ahead and do this. Um we're not no.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, not this hard. And seemingly she look, I mean, she was at one point, she was like 30 seconds down, like she looked like she was out of it, like she's gonna lose the GC 100%. She somehow claws her way back within like the last kilometer, maybe. I mean, it was really, really getting close to the end. And she finally gets on. She's not in really contention because I'm sure she's gassed by this point. Vladichek ends up taking the stage, but she does just enough to keep herself in the lead for the GC and ends up taking the GC win. And like unbelievable, dude. Like, and and finally, my like I was my I was I was my heart was breaking. I knew I'd get the points, but I was like, I was like, shit, man, I'm gonna miss out on 25 points here. She's gonna lose this GC. And not only does she end up, she ends up getting the GC, I end up getting the extra points from for to her taking the GC. I take the points jersey. So there's 50 right there that I need in a bad way.

SPEAKER_02

It's a perfect segue, it's a perfect segue. Let's go straight away, let's go straight away into our uh fantasy uh to our fantasy roundup. Um also oh, and real quick, Dominica Wladicek gets her first and second wins of her career at a at a she's good, dude. Pretty pretty good race, yeah. She was she she she she had kind of a big come coming out party last last season, end of last season. And uh, yeah, great thing. She's like uh she's like a Paula Blassi in waiting. You know what I mean? I can see I can see Blotachat coming through and getting a big result and something. Um yeah, so jump into your um jump into your uh fantastic.

SPEAKER_00

So I finally have a week where I score some points, dude.

SPEAKER_02

So you score some big points, I would think, right?

SPEAKER_00

Five so here's what I here's what I ended up coming away with five stage wins, two stage seconds, one stage third, and two leaders jerseys for 90 for 90 points. I had a goose egg. And you had a flat zero, sir. Wow, 90 to nothing. Yeah, so that that brings the month total. You still have 43 points on the month. All right, but put me up to 96 for the month.

SPEAKER_02

Still 250 above you in the total.

SPEAKER_00

And then you got 777s, you got triple sevens still, and I'm uh finally up over the the 500 market, 512.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so this this Jiro is gonna really really neutralize my gap. Well, it's all good.

SPEAKER_00

Dude, because the tour is just like who knows what's gonna happen in the next two really big men's races because it could be all over the place.

SPEAKER_02

That is for sure. Um, well, it's uh it's making things exciting, and I'm enjoying looking into it. Uh before we get to a news roundup, a couple more things on the Jiro. Sure. First of all, the Orla fit check. Um we are getting pretty regular uh Eurosport coverage, although sometimes it just comes in with with the commentary, like at the commentary point, sometimes they don't give us the uh So I figured this out.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so here's the deal with that. All right, if enlighten us if you catch it live, you will get the breakaway in the morning. If the breakaway is over and you start from the beginning, it starts you at the beginning of the coverage. Ah don't know why.

SPEAKER_02

Bizarre.

SPEAKER_00

Don't know why. And I don't know. Are you getting it in the replay?

SPEAKER_02

No, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00

So some reason you gotta catch it live. I've been I it's been appointment.

SPEAKER_02

But on the weekends they give it to you on the on the replay. Okay, I don't know. Sometimes you get it you get the opening stuff and sometimes you don't.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and if you are watching live, that and this goes for anybody, if you're watching this race live, that multi-camera view on Max is awesome. It gives you four get four different cameras, and unlike last year, it gives you information on the left and it gives you stage information on the bottom. So there's you're getting rider information, so you'll know who's in breakaways, you know, like they give you like who's still active in teams, so they gotta like a scrolling bit of information on the left, and then they give you like how far they are in the stage and the profile of the stage at the bottom. Really, really yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I gotta I gotta chisel out some time to to really give myself that experience with like both of my screens and get my notes going on the laptop, um, so I can just like watch do it. I just you know stuff going on, but um of course, of course. So so that said, um Orla, okay, so this week, uh to me, the the overall theme of this week for Orla's outfits is like kind of samey, it's kind of same, same.

SPEAKER_00

I like uh except for except for sat or for Sunday and for Monday, I feel like her her outfits were other than a slight color difference, were all exactly the same.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, well, she was all red on on Thursday, which we also needed something else we need to talk about. But um, of the bunch, my favorite by far was the Tuesday fit, the first one where she's like in the in the blue like gaucho shorts with like the kind of sleeveless white top. Um she looks like you know, she just looks like European chic. You know, she looks like she could be an Italian woman, uh, you know, who just came out of her office to watch the Jiro go by.

SPEAKER_00

Uh my favorite was my favorite was Sunday. I loved that yellow, like, you know, I don't even know what the power suit.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's like a very pale yellow kind of power suit that with the uh with the uh double double breasted cut up top. Yeah, it's pretty good. That one's very good.

SPEAKER_00

Love that color. And then so weather red.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so Wednesday, Wednesday she's got like a jumpsuit kind of a thing. It looks like Friday she's got a jumpsuit, Saturday she's got a jumpsuit, blue, blue, and red. And then her all blue outfit on Wednesday almost looks like a jumpsuit because it's just like a it's like jeans with like a jeans-looking top.

SPEAKER_00

It's like Canadian tuxedo.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's just like same, same, same, same, same. So I don't know. I I overall so far, I think last year was much better. Um, but we'll see what she has, what she brings out. I don't know. So not this is not not doing a lot for me.

SPEAKER_00

Well, how about the how about the live spots from Sigma Sports on on uh on on Thursday?

SPEAKER_02

Do you have the backstory on that?

SPEAKER_00

What do you mean?

SPEAKER_02

Well what was up with what was that? Why were they sitting in a in a sporting goods store? What was going on there?

SPEAKER_00

So uh I'm assuming it has something to do with Matt, because Matt Stevens is is like hooked up with Sigma Sports. That's who does Sigma Sports sponsors his his cafe rides. So my guess is there's some sort of connection there. And that was very unusual. I think they wanted to do like a live, you know, studio audience type thing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Like a live remote.

SPEAKER_00

Live remote, whatever you want to call it.

SPEAKER_02

That's what they did. So also speaking of Matt Stevens, funny how I mean, not funny for him that he like had that stress fracture or whatever in his foot, now he's seated for the show. But they they took the piss out of him, but in a nice way. Um they did. They did. So we'll jump into a news roundup. Do you have some news items for us?

SPEAKER_00

Uh not really. I I have just just my broomwagon. So what do you got?

SPEAKER_02

Um, let me scroll down to mine. I just a couple for you. First off, um I know how to I know how to answer your question for your first one. Uh well, what what's the answer? The question is, why aren't we foregrounding Trobro Leon? The the the the very cool uh race that's that takes place this time of year on the very, very far western tip of France on a little peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean.

SPEAKER_00

Because it wasn't on TIS and I couldn't watch it.

SPEAKER_02

It's it well, the replay is on TIS.

SPEAKER_00

So it just got there because it wasn't there for like a week.

SPEAKER_02

I I too looked for it. I guess you're right. That is the answer to the question.

SPEAKER_00

Nonetheless, I would have I would have covered it, I couldn't watch it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. Well, hopefully that's not the case next year, and we can watch it, and we got to make sure that we make time for this race because it's so good, it's got a little bit of everything. Uh, gravel, there's cobbles, there's dirt tracks, farm roads.

SPEAKER_00

Like you name I remember we talked about it last year, but there was no coverage for it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's dirty, it's muddy. Um, this year, Visa Visma Lisa Bike, another another promising young star of Visma, Filippo Fiorelli, uh takes the win uh over Alexei Renard and Louis Aski. Um, it's a great race, it's super exciting, like so fun to watch. And I did not have the time to devote to the replay that I would have liked this morning, but whilst doing some other prep, I I put it on, I I found it on Tiz, I put it on, I muted it, and then I made it two times speed and I let it play in the background. Is it in English? No, it's not in English. That's why you can that's probably why you can mute it. Um, but it's it's uh it's good stuff. It's really good stuff. I absolutely love it. Um the UCI is launching consultation with men's and women's propelotons, the teams and the rider organizations, um, to discuss the future of the organizational model for men's and women's professional road cycling. So basically, they've they've sort of sent a letter to all of the teams and to the the the um professional organizations for the men, it's the CPA uh and the riders union, and for the women it's called the Cyclist Alliance. Um and they're basically this is good.

SPEAKER_00

So this is gonna be about like pay and budgets and shit like that, right?

SPEAKER_02

Well, they want to know it's like the UCI is saying, all right, what's your plan? Like, how are you gonna keep this thing viable? Please respond. Um the women, uh, the cyclist alliance have responded. Um uh despite outward signs of progress, the sport remains built on fragile foundations. Um that was uh a quote that when they made their response, when the cyclist alliance made their response, they quoted um a statement that Eliza Longo Borghini had put out, which said that quote, despite outward signs of progress, this the sport remains on a fragile foundation. Um she says she fears the world tour could implode at some point. Um they said that you they need radical strange changes to the funding structure, they need revenue sharing, redist redistributing the the women's world tour race days, such as rescheduling uh the Velt the Vuelta to follow the men's race in September. You know how the Velta like so for whatever reason just comes first. Um they talked about uh the poor coverage that the races get that you and I rant about all the time, um, and that uh the UCI should mandate more. I was saying it should be like a two-hour minimum, not a one hour, like they have. Um, of course, safety came up and they said there should be a rider-centered approach to GPS tracking. I'm not exactly sure what that means. Um, they also called for the elimination of sharp turns inside the final 500 meters of races, just talking about this in the Jiro, uh, and a reform of the yellow card system. Um which basically is non-existent. And then this might be burying the lead if we're talking about the financial viability of the thing. The letter included suggestions for improvements around the instability in the lower levels of the sport, which I it identified as a major concern, pointing out the loss of races and higher budgets causing teams to fold, both of which are eroding development pathways for riders. Uh, they said, quote, at a time when women's cycling has experienced increased visibility and momentum, the cyclist alliance emphasizes that long-term success depends on strengthening the sport's underlying structure. Um Yeah, so just to continue with something that we've been concerned with.

SPEAKER_00

Um well, it it's nice to know that they're looking at it, that they're taking a rider-centric approach to it and and asking teams, you know, how they how they see it. You know what I mean? Because hopefully some good dialogue will happen and they can come up with some shit.

SPEAKER_02

And some dialogue is always better than no dialogue. Um I would count it as a positive. Couple of last things um for the um on the on the subject of the Giro d'Italia, um, one of which is the video, which was very disturbing of these young dudes that were like taunting the Peloton as they rolled by. Insane. Absolutely insane. The first shot I looked at the one that you put in the notes, but the first one I saw was like a helicopter shot where the it was either a helicopter or a drone, and it was up above and it was like hovering, and like you were watching them over and over and over again. I mean, these dudes like pulled this little m move. I mean, they should be able to do it. They should have been arrested. Yeah, he was like jumping out into the road and like making it look like he was he was gonna jump in front of these riders or whatever to kind of startle them. And he literally did it like six times. Just like over.

SPEAKER_00

Worst type of like bro culture bullshit that I've ever seen at a race. Like it needs to that needs to go like it's bad enough that when they go up these climbs, that the you know, and and and again, it's kind of the best part of it that people are like entirely too close and do not give enough respect. But this goes hand in hand that a few days later, did you see what happened to Giulio Cicconi?

SPEAKER_02

No, I think you mentioned this. No, what happened to him?

SPEAKER_00

So he literally he hit somebody. He hit a spectator because the guy was like in his shit. Right, right, right. He literally, like, like he chris roomed him. Yeah, Chris roomed him, exactly. And he just and the guy deserved it. Like, dude, give them some fucking space. Like, you're gonna fuck it up for everybody. It's bad. Like, people just need to understand, like, you know, you're it, you know, you're essentially getting an on the field pass for free. Okay, have a little fucking respect.

SPEAKER_02

Alcohol, you know, like it's people are idiots. Let's move on. Um, yeah, really, really disturbing. I just wanted to call a little bit of attention to that. Uh, yeah, it's you're totally right. It's just like it's unbelievable. And no matter what, it's just gonna keep happening. It really is like as sad as it is to say I have no hope that like we're not gonna be seeing stuff like that for legal action forever and ever. But there should be. I mean, well, I think they got busted. Like, they're they're they know who they are. There will be some kind of a consequence.

SPEAKER_00

There needs to be follow-through.

SPEAKER_02

No, I think there will be, anyways. Um, last thing, we um it would have been nice had we thought of it to do a little bit of prep with just some numbers. Uh, but one thing we for totally forgot to talk about is scrappy little Astana at the Jiro just just coming through. I mean, they're sitting in, I believe, fourth place with Scaroni. Is is Scaroni not in fourth place uh as it stands? Fifth place.

SPEAKER_00

I'm pretty sure something very close to that.

SPEAKER_02

But yeah, he's at fifth place.

SPEAKER_00

They still have more wins than all but three teams.

SPEAKER_02

Incredible. I just they just go from strength to strength. This team, it's like each win along the way was a natural progression. It's like, it's like first step, we got Mark Cavendish and come hell or high water. We're getting him that goddamn record. They do it, they put the whole team towards that one goal. Come what may, they get it. They're like, all right, box checked, next goal, we got to get this UCI point situation under control. That's the mission. They spend an entire year just gobbling up points in every podunk third rate race that they could go to to get them. And not only that, but they they they combine that with a strategy of like, we don't care about first, second, or third. What we care about is fourth through ninth, and we're gonna get as many of those as we can. Uh, and then now it's like this year, they figured out that, and they're still doing that, but now they're like, but we're gonna go after some big prizes too.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, and they capitalize, dude. They took advantage of that situation, that horrible situation on stage uh what six, and capitalized on it. Good for them. That's that's super smart racing, super great coaching. I can't you can't say enough.

SPEAKER_02

You gotta hand it to them. Um that will uh take us to the broom wagon. What, sir Pray tell do you have for us this week?

SPEAKER_00

So this week we're gonna do a little educational seg segment called the best young rider's jersey so that we now understand how this works. Okay. Oh, good. So follow-up. I like I like your follow-up. Last week we did not understand how both 23-year-olds Paula Blasi and Mary and Brunel Brunel um how Blasey did not take the young riders' jersey. Now I now I can explain to you how it is. So the jersey, so in the in in the La Vuelta Feminina, the Tour de France Femme Vac Swift, the jersey for the best young rider of the general classification at the end of each stage is determined. All right, the jersey is for the riders that are born after the first of January 2004. That is for this year. All right. So Paula Blasi, born 219, 2003, all right, and Bunel, 10.7, 2004. That's how her birthday falls before. Uh who Bunel got the young rider's jersey.

SPEAKER_02

So Bunel is younger be and Blasi was just slightly older.

SPEAKER_00

It's yes, but it's based on where your birthday falls, right? Yeah, past the cutoff.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. All right. So in the 2023.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, for the women. And for the Jiro, the best young rider.

SPEAKER_02

So so does that mean you can be you can be 22 and 200 and or 22 and 364 days? Okay. No, you said it was the no, you said it was January 1st. The cutoff is based on the calendar. Correct. So it's how old you are on January 1st. Correct. You're either 22 or you're 23. Correct. And if you're 23 on January 1st, you're you're out. Correct. Got it.

SPEAKER_00

Alright. So the Jiro is determined by the riders that are born on the 1st of January 2002.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Uh-huh. So, and that'll be for me.

SPEAKER_02

24?

SPEAKER_00

25. And then for the men, the Tour de France and the Well, the riders must be under 26 years old on January 1st of the year of the race. All right.

SPEAKER_02

26?

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Is the white jersey cutoff?

SPEAKER_00

25 in 365 days is the cutoff. So 264. Yeah, 364. So for the 2026 tour, for instance, this applies to riders that were born on or on or after January 1st, 2001.

SPEAKER_02

Interesting. All right, cool. Thank you for clearing that up.

SPEAKER_00

Now you know and knowing is half the battle.

SPEAKER_02

That is correct. Um, I'm taking a little bit of liberty because I've been very time crunched lately. Um, so I'm going to talk non-cycling, but somewhat sporting and certainly tying into stuff that we have talked about many times on our other podcast, shameless plug for Inglorious Brothers. Please download and subscribe to our other podcast, Inglorious Brothers. Uh, I am talking about the Dark Wizard on HBO Max and making a big, fat, huge recommendation. You haven't watched it, have you?

SPEAKER_00

I have not. I definitely am interested in it.

SPEAKER_02

On our other podcast, we did a massive deep dive into like the world of climbing movies and mountaineering movies. We tied this in with the Netflix, uh, the recent Netflix live broadcast of like most famous and greatest climber of all time, Alex Honnold's ascent of the Taipei 101 Tower, uh, which was a very enjoyable episode. I think we both like just deeply loved getting into that whole world. Okay, well, the dark wizard is right there in that whole world, and like we totally missed this. I I don't know how it happened.

SPEAKER_00

Did it not come out maybe just recently, at least for no, no, it did just recently come out.

SPEAKER_02

But the how we how we miss this story is beyond me. I guess it's because nobody's made a movie about it yet or whatever. Maybe that's how we learn all of our stuff because this this story is as good as any of the climbing stories. It's it's as good as it's as good as the Alpinist. It is just it is it is so unbelievably fascinating about this guy. It's about about this dude. Um I can't even think of his name off the top of my head. Dean Potter is his name. Um he there, it's just I I can't recommend it enough. I don't want to spoil it.

SPEAKER_00

I'll I'll say Is it enough that we could turn it into a segment? Do you think? Can we do a full show on it?

SPEAKER_02

I would be delighted to do a spoiler-filled show. Let's do one. I haven't even finished it. It's a four-part limited series. Uh I watched the first two the first two episodes on my flight back from Chicago. I had my my business trip uh earlier in the week. Um, and I just downloaded those onto my phone so I could watch them on the flight. And my God, I was so, so wrapped up in it. It was so freaking good. Um, it's like a pretty standard documentary style for these kinds of documentaries, and you know, we're we're experts on them at this point. Um, very straightforward in that, but but but but like they are executing it absolutely perfectly. All of the production is perfect, uh, and then it's all in service of just a fascinating story. And the one other the one other thing, a little nugget I'll put in there, as with every one of these movies, Alex Hanold is in the movie because he's just omnipresent in climbing. But the great thing about Alex Hannold in this movie is you see him in a whole new light. He is not the Alex Hanold that we have grown used to. I'm all right, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in some of the stages.

SPEAKER_00

I'm in, don't spoil it, don't spoil it. I'm in.

SPEAKER_02

And oh and I'll and I do I will say one one one one other thing here. This won't spoil anything. There are some you remember how I how I've I've made the the comment about how like in the year of 2019 or whenever 2016 when when Free Solo came out that I watched a lot of horror movies that year, but Free Solo was the scariest movie I watched all year. There are some heart stopping stuff in in this film that will just have you as scary as you've ever been in your life. So ready. One of them just goes on for so long, anyways. It's so good. Yeah, we'll put that on a fast track for a future episode of our other podcast, Inglorious Brothers. Uh, so be on the lookout for that one. Um, that's gonna be all for this week. Please join us next week for full coverage of week two at the Giro d'Italia, the men's Dunkirk races, however they have those uh named and uh assembled this year, uh, and the women's Vuelta Abergos and the Antwerp Port Epic one-day race. Uh until then, for my brother Justin, I'm Matt Harper. Thanks for listening. We hope you'll join us again soon for another ride Beyond the Slipstream. Ale! Beyond the Slipstream is a part of the Harporama family of podcasts. Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Please like and subscribe, smash that button, leave a five star review, and most importantly, tell all your friends about us. Thanks for listening. Talk to you next time.

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Justin Harper

Host
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Matt Harper

Host